Part III: Manda
My name is Wes Atkins and I'm a Mega Zoologist with a passion to learn about the mightiest creatures on the planet...Kaiju! Now I have the opportunity to see these magnificent animals along with many of you across the globe. I seek to change how Kaiju are perceived so that we can better understand them and hopefully create a better world where we can all coexist peacefully. So join me today as we adventure into the Wild World of Kaiju.
The camera shot opens on Wes sitting in a camping chair and looking through a pair of binoculars. The camera then gets closer to him, which Wes then notices and promptly puts down the binoculars.
"Well welcome back folks!" he energetically says to the camera. "Sorry if I didn't notice you there. I'm a bit preoccupied looking out for the Kaiju we will be researching today. Now unlike the last couple of creatures we explored, we don't have to go out and find it because we're already here."
Wes uses his right arm to guide the camera to a view of a lake in the middle of a surrounding tropical jungle. The water was still which allowed the fluorescent blue color shine through the contrasting greens of the foliage that surrounded the body of water.
The camera then focuses back on Wes who then continues with what he has to say. "This is Lake Guji and it is the home of the serpent-like creature known as Manda. Now there are actually two species of Manda here on Monster Island. One is called the High Sea Manda and the other is the Shallow Sea Manda which is the one we'll be taking a look at today. But don't worry, we'll be seeing the other one in the near future." He says while giving a wink to the camera.
"The main differences between the two are how they hunt as well as how they look. The High Sea Manda is an active predator and will travel around to look for prey, while the Shallow Sea Manda is an ambush predator and prefers waiting for prey to come to it. Since they hunt differently, they have developed different features that visually distinguish one from the other. The Shallow Sea Manda has two long feeler-like appendages, near its nose, which kind of resembles a moustache. However these feelers, known as Barbels, aren't made of hair but instead skin which is covered with a bunch of tiny taste buds, like your tongue. It uses these Barbels to better detect its prey by using them to feel the water for vibrations and even tasting for chemicals in the water to pinpoint exactly where to strike. Once the prey is close enough, the creature will then use its tail to wrap around the prey and drag it beneath the water to drown it and then safely eat it. Truly amazing but very frightening at the same time."
"Since it isn't a very active creature, we mainly have to wait around until something comes to the lake. But this is a nice change of pace from hiking through the jungle, don't you think Shawn?" The camera then nods up and down in response, giving Wes a brief chuckle.
"Now Lake Guji actually lies at the edge of many Kaiju territories so this area is also used as a watering hole for them. It may sound dangerous to have other Kaiju near Manda's territory, but most of them are actually double the height and weight of our aquatic friend who is only about 50 meters long and 10 meter tall. Which is why we're at this specific spot that overlooks the only stretch of beach where smaller animals can reach the lake. So if any of the smaller animals want a drink, they'll come through here and hopefully that will lead to seeing Manda as well." Wes then finishes his sentence by holding up the binoculars, to his eyes, to continue monitoring for Manda.
Several minutes pass until a deep loud roar is heard from somewhere in the jungle. The area is then filled with the sounds of trees snapping and leaves rustling.
The camera focuses on the source of the noise showing something carving its way through the thick jungle vegetation. Glimpses of the mysterious creature can be seen through small gaps in the jungle but it still remains mostly obscured by the jungle. The creature continues its path and reaches a bigger opening in the jungle revealing the jet black color of its body .
Finally the mysterious creature makes it way into a clearing as it emerges from the jungle in full view. The creature looked to be very insect-like in appearance walking with four large front appendages, ending in sharp hooks, and a contrasting pair of hind legs that somewhat resembled a hoofed animal. Tucked in near its stomach were two smaller limbs that looked like the four frontal ones. The beast's head shared the same insect-like appearance as its appendages with a red stripe on both sides of its face, where its eyes should be, along with a beak-like mouth filled with sharp teeth. The animal then bellows a deep roar as it begins to make its way to the lake.
"I cannot believe that we are seeing an actual Muto right now" Wes says as he tries to suppress his excitement. "
The camera maintains a shot on the creature as it continues to slowly lumber toward the beach.
"I was expecting to see other Kaiju during this outing but I couldn't have imagined that we would be seeing one of the most unique specimens on Monster Island. Ladies and gentlemen this is a Muto which stands for Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism. This name was given to it by the U.S. Navy when it was discovered in 2014 and ever since then, the name kind of stuck with this creature. This one here is a Female Muto and you can tell by the four large legs it has in the front. While the Male Mutos only have two of those appendages and instead have a pair of large wings which they use to fly. The males are also much smaller than the females but this one here is a juvenile. She's only about 35 meters tall but she will continue to grow in the next couple of years until she becomes triple the size she is now. Once she's fully grown she will be able to create Electromagnetic Pulses, or EMPs for short, that absolutely destroy anything electrical. Usually that would include our camera and mics but since she is still young, her EMP abilities are not nearly as strong as they will be in the future, which means that our equipment is safe for now.
The camera follows the Muto as it finally reaches the shore of Lake Guji. The creature spreads its four legs and lowers its head into the water below, taking in gallons of water as it drinks. As the large creature quenches its thirst, Wes continues to talk alongside the camera while out of frame.
"Now what makes the Mutos a truly unique species is that they possess all sorts of traits from different animals. They appear mostly insect-like but they also have the same traits as reptiles and even mammals. Why, or how, they became this way is still very much a mystery but further studying these creatures could unlock new discoveries in evolution. The possibilities are endless and I will look forward to the day that these secrets are discovered."
Suddenly a long tendril whips out of the water and wraps around the neck of the Muto. The creature is startled by this and lets out a loud roar as it tries to pull its body away from the water. The tendril still maintains its grip on the Muto and pulls it closer into the Lake. The Muto desperately struggles as it is slowly pulled closer into the depths of the water, letting out loud animalistic cries while doing so.
"It seems that while I was admiring the Muto, I briefly forgot that we were out here for another creature." Wes says while sounding a bit embarassed. "It appears that our main star would like the spotlight back."
"Wes that's awful, this poor thing is going to die and you're cracking a joke?" a voice from behind the camera says.
"Do not worry Shawn. Just have a bit of faith and let nature run its course." Wes reassuringly says.
After Wes finishes his statement, a loud splash of water engulfs the struggling creature. The loud cries of the Muto stop and the area becomes quiet.
"Wes look!" the voice from behind the camera exclaims.
The camera zooms in to reveal the Muto standing firmly planted with half its body submerged in the lake. She then uses her pair of smaller limbs to hold onto the tendril still around her neck. Suddenly the Muto begins walking backwards, using her appendages in pairs with one pair staying firmly planted in the ground and the other pair working with her hind legs to slowly pull its body out of the water. As the Muto takes a couple steps backwards she then uses the pair of appendages that she previously used to aid in walking back and firmly plants them into the ground. Its previously immobile appendages then begin to walk backwards as well, working with its hind legs like before to repeat the process.
"Truly magnificent" Wes says beside the camera
The Muto eventually pulls herself back onto the shoreline, still holding onto the tendril which was now more exposed by being pulled out of the water. The tendril makes one more attempt to pull the Muto back in water but the creature holds its ground. The Muto instead uses her smaller limbs to grip the tendril and pulls on it with one mighty tug, plucking the whole creature out of the water and throwing it onto the sandy beach. The snake-like monster quickly recovered and lifted its head a few meters off the ground to face its opponent, giving the Muto a very audible hissing sound.
"Take a gander at this one here!" Wes exclaims "Manda is rarely seen outside of the Lake so consider you folks, at home, really lucky."
Manda was entirely an olive green color with rough scales covering its whole body. The tip of its tail was flat, like a paddle, and the edges of it were covered in several thin follicles that resembled hair. It had 2 pairs of incredibly small legs that were positioned on the upper and lower parts of its serpent-like body. Its head resembled a chinese dragon with 2 pairs of spikes protruding from the sides of it, the moustache-like Barbels stuck out from underneath its flat nose, and its mouth was filled with several sharp teeth along with two large fangs that stuck out from the upper front part of its mouth.
The Muto responded by giving Manda a loud roar of its own and stomped on the ground using its four frontal legs. Both creatures were currently locked in a battle of intimidation with neither one willing to back down. The Muto absotutely towered over the serpent but Manda was twice as long as the female.
Without warning, the Muto charged towards the creature using all of her appendages to quickly close the distance between the two. As the Muto got close, Manda used its tail to deliver a quick smack to the left side of the female's head causing her to stop in her tracks. Before the Muto could regain her footing, Manda landed two more tail whips in rapid succession to both sides of the creature's head. Manda was about to land another strike until the Muto caught its tail by using its powerful jaws. With the tail in her mouth she whipped her whole upper body to the side, flinging Manda into the air and slamming its body onto the beach.
"Did you all just see that?!" Wes says as he is practically screaming into the mic with overwhelming happiness.
The Muto approached Manda's motionless body, cautiously inspecting it to see if it was actually dead. Manda then quickly struck at one of the Muto's legs, biting into it with its fangs. The female wailed out in pain and stomped on Manda's neck with its other appendages. The attack forced Manda to release its hold on the Muto's leg and was then followed up by a kick, using the same legs she used to stomp, that sent Manda flying across the beach yet again.
Manda landed near the Lake's shore and after quickly recovering, started to make its way to the water. However the female Muto began to pursue Manda again, quickly gaining on the much slower creature. The serpent then turned around to face the Muto and began to do something odd. It started to look like it was choking as it began to create horrible retching sounds. As the Muto got close to it, Manda then began shooting a stream of steaming hot water from its mouth. Manda's attack staggered the female as it began to try and shake off the scalding hot water. While the Muto was distracted, Manda made its way back into the water and disappeared beneath the surface. Shortly after, the female Muto looked around the beach for her assailant. After finding no sign of Manda, she bellowed out a roar and returned to the jungle from where she came.
The camera then focuses back on Wes with the biggest smile on his face.
"I am simply at a loss for words folks. I was told by researchers that I should always expect the unexpected while on Monster Island and what we just saw couldn't be any more true than that. That was truly awesome in every sense of the word."Wes holds both of his hands on his head, still in disbelief at what he just witnessed.
"If it may seem cruel to find enjoyment out of these creatures fighting, please do not worry. None of the Kaiju here are ever likely to kill another. Most people think that Kaiju always fight to the death and that couldn't be further from the truth. Kaiju actually have a strong sense of self preservation and will always stop fighting to avoid serious injury or death. Only a very few Kaiju are extremely aggressive and luckily, none of them are here on Monster Island. Almost all the disputes here are resolved with no real danger to Kaiju involved. If things do get truly heated then our friendly neighborhood Defense Forces will intervene, but that rarely ever happens. So if something like this occurs again on this show, just remember that it is all in good fun.
"Now before we end this eventful day, allow me to close out on a little more insight into our aquatic friend Manda. Specifically I wanted to talk about its ability to shoot scalding hot water at its opponents, which is another thing that I didn't expect to see today. You may think that since he is a dragon, that he uses fire to heat up the water in its body. But it's actually due to a mix of special chemicals that Manda creates in its body; allow me to explain. In the back of Manda's head are two glands that naturally produce chemicals, very similar to a snake and it's venom glands. But Manda's glands each produce two different chemicals known as hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone. When these two chemicals are combined, it creates an immense amount of energy which causes heat. Manda also possesses a special organ that contains water, like a big water balloon, and can shoot out the water by using its muscles to squeeze the organ inside. But before it does this, both the chemicals are separately transported to a small chamber in the back of its throat which mixes the chemicals with the water as it shoots out from Manda's mouth. Manda's throat is specially designed to handle this immense heat so it doesn't hurt the creature in the slightest. It also doesn't cause any lasting harm to other Kaiju. As you saw with the Muto, it is only meant to briefly stun the opponent while creating an opportunity for Manda to get away."
"With that said, it's time for us to pack up all our gear and call it a day, shall we? I want to thank all you lovely people at home for joining me again on yet another adventure. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again next time, when we return to the Wild World of Kaiju."