Chapter 10: The House's Victory
"What do you mean we're losing monsters?"
"Every monster we sent against him dies," the intern, a lanky newbie whose name Gorn didn't quite remember.
"Megalon and Gigan were our only survivors, and even then the latter still needed extensive repairs to even come close to his former fighting condition."
"We can't keep this up for any longer."
"Why not just use more of Magita's brood?" The ape retorted, referring to the massive alien insect that provided their captive kaiju with 'prey'. The intern soon went on about 'breeding cycles' and 'viable eggs' - her voice growing stronger. Gorn instinctively reached into his pockets for his cigars, but the ape realised he had run out.
"Get to the point kid." He said, his patience presumably where his cigars were.
"We need to something about the dragon, commander-"
"Then send in Titan."
"But sir, the analysts calculate that even Titan only has a 45 percent-"
"I don't care what the analysts say,"
"Send him in, and take the proper precautions."
"You wouldn't want to be the one who cost me my favorite monster wouldn't you?"
The intern muttered a brief 'no Commander' before leaving the command room. The Simeon general turned back to the match on the screen, one between Gigan, who had been 'repaired' recently by the technicians, and a 'kaiju' called Dogora. Despite Gigan not being at his full strength, the burn damage in his joints visible - the titanic amoeba did not offer much resistance, the crowd booing as they watched the one sided fight.
As the two monsters were whisked away, the ape pushed a button on his arm chair- pulling up a very different monitor. It showed footage from a containment cell, flooded in seawater and nearly pitch black with the exception of several clumps of man-made undersea vents- glowing orange with heat. Alien fish flitted to and fro, acting as decorations to help their real champion acclimate to the arena.
"Wake up," Gorn said into the intercom-
"You've got a dragon to kill."
A yellow eye opened in the darkness, as the beast within readied itself for battle at its master's command.
—
As usual, his brothers were going on with their little back and forth- while San was lost in the clouds. In the arena, this was a totally normal routine for Ghidorah- but this time, there was something amiss.
"Why is there so much water here?"
"Hell if I know."
"Probably your leftover drool from last night," Ichi snorted at the right head's suggestion, the atmosphere markedly lighter than before. San did appreciate that the other two were finally making an effort to get along, and it did take his mind away from the previous night's events.
"Silence Ni."
"Don't try to deny the truth."
A miniscule creature brushed past their knees, a tickle that was enough to shake San out of his stupor.
If the back and forth between Ni and Ichi wasn't enough of an indicator, the arena was flooded. The water level was slowly rising as the familiar sounds of the arena came back to him- their voices loud and erratic as ever.
"Metal?"
San glanced over at what appeared to be a rod poking out of the water's surface, and went all the way through the arena's floor. It's shape was rather odd- it looked like a cylinder attached to a very pointy cone- the cone end of the shape pointing towards the bottom of the water. All three heads began to investigate the rusted spires, each one brown and roughly the same size.
"Don't touch it Ni."
Ichi, despite his words prior, then proceeded to grab one in his jaws, and swing it around in the air. The spire was light and sharp, the sharpened swings sparking with residual static from the dragon's jaws.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome our defending champion-"
The crowd began to chant as the announcer's voice boomed across the arena, Ni shirking at how loud the man had become in this particular fight. Ichi dropped the spear to the side, and San heard him mutter at the other two to 'be ready'. In the distance, Ghidorah saw a shimmer of blue light- another kaiju was arriving.
"Back out of retirement to take our 'King' Ghidorah to their watery grave,"
"Please welcome the one and only Abyssal Giant-"
The kaiju had fully warped in now, but from here all Ghidorah saw it as was a red silhouette- vaguely bipedal like Gigan and Megalon. All three heads readied their gravity bolts, as the camera drones began to flit behind them- pointing themselves at the now charging kaiju.
"TI-TAN-O-SAURUS!"
A roar, louder than that of the crowd, echoed across the arena. The red speck was quickly growing closer to them, water spouts shooting up from its heavy footfalls. Ghidorah could now see the sail running down its back, and the sharp rows of teeth that lined its narrow jaws as the beast drew near- slow methodical footsteps a contrast to all the other kaiju they had fought before.
Titanosaurus was not going to be an easy foe to fight.
Bolts of lightning scorched through the air, honed on the goliath opposing their master. Titanosaurus strafed past all them- but each one glanced the red beast's scales and gave them a coating of burnt flesh. With a sudden burst of speed, the saurian closed the distance between them- and slammed into the dragon at full force. Ghidorah brought all three heads down, each crackling with electricity, only for Titanousaurs to flit to a safe distance in the nick of time. With their foe retreating, Ghidorah spread their wings and soared into the sky- bringing down another volley of bolts onto the battlefield. Titanosaurus didn't even roar out in pain at the assault, several burns now adorning the saurian's skin. With a sweep of his tail, the red titan kicked up a wall of water- obscuring the dragon's vision as they shook off the droplets.
"Where did that little sh-"
The water behind them erupted as Titanosaurus lunged out of the waves, clutching one of the spires. Ghidorah quickly pivoted around, and their wings managed to intercept the saurian and send him plummeting back down. As Titanosaurus recuperated, the dragon readied their bolts- and with a thunderous bang all three heads fired off their deadly weapons.
Only for the electricity abruptly change direction, into the metal embedded into their flesh. Ghidorah let out a discordant trill as their greatest weapon was turned against them, the burning pain tearing at their insides. San grabbed the searing hot spire lodged into their wing, and ripped it out even as his gums burned.
Before they even got to recover, something tugged at one of their tails. With one muscular arm, their foe evened the playing field- bringing Ghidorah into the waves as if they weighed nothing. Titanosaurus was soon biting down- the pain from his rather weak bite augmented by the fact that he was also shoving another spire into their body with one of his arms. The Abyssal giant didn't even flinch at Ghidorah's retaliation, which was all three heads digging into the saurian's shoulder blades. But he could not ignore being abruptly pulled from their body- and thrown quite a distance away.
With a trill, Ghidorah's massive wings unfurled as they attempted to take to the skies once more, but the Abyssal Giant had already accounted for that. His own flesh streaming with blood, Titanosaurus swiftly grabbed one of Ghidorah's wings just before they got out of reach. The crack that followed was louder than any storm Ghidorah had ever conjured, Titanosaurus's sheer strength dislocating the entire limb from their shoulder. One wing fell limply to the side as all three heads looked on in shock, and the two quickly fell to the ground. Titanosaurus was faster to recover, and with a heave and a quick grab, the saurian held the entire weight of the dragon overhead for the crowd to see.
Metal bent and broke as they were thrown across the ground, the shrapnel embedded into their body. All six pairs of their scarlet eyes crackling with bloody murder, sharp fangs bared and eager to dig into the saurian's flesh. Had any other kaiju seen this, they would have been trembling in fear. But Titanosaurus didn't react, eyes frozen in a permanent death stare as he watched his opponent rise.
"You'll pay for that." Ni growled, uncaring of the fact that the creature couldn't understand him. Titanosaurus merely grabbed another metal spire, reading another weapon to use against the dragon.
"NI DON'T!"
Before Ichi could stop him, it was too late. The current once again flowed into the metal, causing another wave of pain to flare out as Ni missed his attempts at burning their agile foe. With a quick flick, several of the fragments were tossed aside- Ichi's jaws now looking similar to the left head's. As the dragon continued to remove the shrapnel, their regrown flesh pushing debris out of hard to reach corners, Titanosaurus only watched- taunting them silently from a distance.
Furious thunder built up at their jaws as all three heads summoned every vestige of electricity in their veins, blood glowing a incandescent yellow. Clouds billowed from their feet as Ghidorah readied their last resort, a trio of lightning bolts so powerful that it would incinerate this interloper of the face of the Earth.
Their trill shook the arena, inciting a cheer from the spectators.
With a rancorous boom, a trio of lightning bolts screeched across the arena- superheating the air as it passed. Titanosaurus didn't even move, and only watched as they grew closer and closer.
As if he was waiting for something.
A sudden explosion shook the entire arena as a plume of dust and water burst from where the kaiju was standing, the electricity sparking into every direction. The three heads of Ghidorah closed their jaws- certainly nothing could have survived that. And as the debris began to get sucked out of the arena by the ventilation, all eyes went towards where Titanosaurus once was.
The red titan let out a triumphant roar as he walked out of the fog unharmed.
—
Up in the observation deck, Gorn let out a chuckle. As he had planned, the dragon's attack was being redirected into a particular set of metal spires- these ones connected to each other via a system of cables.
His eyes briefly darted to another monitor, showing a darkened room. Something inside was writhing in pain as more of the dragon's electricity flowed into it, the sparks of light illuminating the creature's blackened body. Gorn made a mental note to dispose of it later, and maybe salvage some of the creature's hide for sale, before returning into the fight.
—
Another brutal punch landed on the right head, knocking out a few of Ni's teeth. With a trill of uncharacteristic rage, San dug his teeth into the saurain's eye- but even that didn't seem to stop the juggernaut. Another punch to the gut brought Ghidorah onto all fours, and with a sweep of his powerful tail, Titanosaurus sent his foe soaring backwards. But the dragon's tenacity could not be understated, and even with all those wounds Ghidorah rose back up.
Lightning built up at Ichi's jaws, but anyone could see that it was clearly a bluff. Titanosaurus pressed on, and with another surprisingly fast dash- launched his final attack. The dragon was quickly pressed onto the ground in a chokehold, a bulky red claw pressing down on their wounds. Ichi tried to fire a bolt, but the sparks fizzled and faded in his jaws.
They had run out of electricity after so much fighting, and that only made the dragon even more desperate to turn the tides.
With a trill, Ghidorah swung their whole body- batting the red titan to the side with their wing. Their wings nearly bucked under them as they rose- chock full of shrapnel dislodged from the ground. Even without their thunder, they would slay this beast. Ghidorah threw themselves at the red titan recklessly- claws scraping at the fallen beast's hide. Talons scraped across Titanousaur's scaly hide, as Ghidorah's heads continued to bite and tear at the saurian's hide.
But in their fury, the dragon had just thrown away their greatest advantage.
Titanosaurus was adapted to the pressure of the bottom of an alien sea, millions of years of evolution blessing him and his kind with a strength to rival Ghidorah. His master knew this, and so it was only in close quarter combat could the true strength of the kaiju shine.
And while Ghidorah may have had the power of thunder and enough energy to power a star, it didn't matter if the red Titan broke their jaws in half.
One quick uppercut sent Ni and Ichi reeling, and San could only watch as Titanosaurus pulled one arm back. With a sickening crunch, his entire hand pierced the dragon' chest bones and shrapnel grasped in its curved claws. The dragon was swiftly thrown off, flying into the sky before dropping onto the blade-laden floor like a brick. The saurian regained his bearings in a near instant, numb to the wounds all over his body, and laid one foot on the dragon's torn back as Krystalak had done so long ago. The three heads tried to push him off, biting his softer sails and his toes, but the fight was already won.
Titanosaurus held his spear for all the spectators to see, caked in the blood of their 'king'. He let out a haunting cry, resonating across the water and the walls like a siren's song. With the finality of an executioner, the titan brought his weapon down on the dragon's chest for one last time.
"All hail our returning champion, Ti-tano-saurus!"
The announcer's words became hazy as Ghidorah began to lose consciousness, blood loss and exhaustion taking their toll. The lights blurred as they let out a weakened chirp of pain, inciting Titanosaurs to press down on their broken ribs even further.
Then, the pain was too much- and Ghidorah lost consciousness.
—
"I've still got it."
Gorn chuckled to himself as he stretched his wrists, removing the gauntlets he had been using to control his champion. As Titanosaurus was teleported back into his domain for healing, the ape watched as the arriving Mechagodzilla unit carried the comatose dragon off the arena. The seawater was quickly being drained, as swarms of drones cleaned up the remnants of the titanic battle before.
"Get Titanosaurus into the ring again," Gorn ordered his subordinates on the other end of the line, "Against whatever kaiju we have left."
Just after hearing the 'affirmative' from the other end, a second sharper voice, presumably the Mechagodzilla operator, chimed from the speakers.
"What do we do with the dragon?"
"Chuck em into the incinerator."