Hime had to admit to herself then and there, she was scared, terrified. No, she was almost on the verge of soiling herself and passing out. She had gone up against many opponents before in Sakurashin and elsewhere, but they had been human or Yokai, enemies who she was used to dealing with. But this … thing? There was no way she could have ever foreseen going up against something like this. Her brain kept screaming at her to run, her heart was beating as if it were a marathon and her blood was running cold. She was expecting her skin to fall off and run away itself and leave the rest of her behind. How could someone not be scared by this? That roar is enough to terrify anyone.

As the noise of the roar died down, Manda snarled and lunged forward at Godzilla, clamping down on his larger opponent's chest. Godzilla roared, almost losing his footing. His tail tore the top half of a damaged but still standing building. He grabbed Manda by the back of the neck and began pulling hard to try and get him to release his grip. Manda responded by swinging his huge body around and struck his enormous enemy in the side. Godzilla let out a cry of pain and fell sideways, landing with a THUD that shook the ground and crushed a few nearby apartment buildings. Manda, now free from the grip, retreated away from Godzilla, snarling in a taunting way. You stupid, overgrown oaf! You can't defeat me!

"Watch out!"

Akina, Ao and Kotoha had to dive out of the road, hugging the walls of the buildings as much as they could as Manda ploughed towards them, his body scraping the sides of the buildings around him as he went and squashing a few cars to a flatness reminiscent of a pancake. Luckily, he took no notice of them. All that he was set on was putting some distance between him and Godzilla.

As the end of his body moved past them, Kotoha happened to glance up and saw Gin holding onto a knobbly part of the creature's armour, an annoyed look on his face as he looked back in the direction of Godzilla.

Looks like he's not too happy Manda's not making a stand she thought to herself as they turned up another street, ploughing through another set of buildings, and disappeared from sight, the noise of his destructive movement echoing through the air.

Gingerly, as if fearing he would turn around and come back for them, they emerged from their hiding spots, taking in the damage to the street and the sounds of screams, crashes and roars from nearby.

"Geez, this thing is unstoppable!" Akina said, trying to get rid of some of the shock from the last few minutes. "You girls okay?" he asked them.

"Fine," Kotoha replied and Ao nodded, a scared expression on her face. "I just hope Hime and Kyosuke have made it," Kotoha added, not hiding the nervousness in her voice.

Akina nodded in agreement, looking back up the road to see a huge cloud of dust and smoke hanging in the air, obscuring most of his vision. Though, he could just about see the huge form of the new arrival that Manda had just fought. Although it was down, the sight was enough to make him very nervous.

"We should check, just in case." He told them, though he really did not want to given how close they were to Godzilla.

They ran down the street towards the place where they had last seen Hime and Kyosuke, praying that both were okay. Kotoha and Ao began looking through the shop windows whilst Akina kept an eye on the creature a hundred feet away from them, fearing that at any moment it would get up. He asked Ao if it was still alive and she confirmed it so, which only made him more nervous.

After about two minutes of searching, they heard coughing come from a nearby broken window that led into another shop. Hime's form stood up, brushing dust off herself. When she saw them, a look of relief spread across her face.

"Guys!" she exclaimed, climbing through the window onto the war-torn street. "You're alive! Are you okay?"

"We're fine," Kotoha replied. "Just had a lucky escape with Manda." As if to emphasise the monster's name, a roar came from behind them that drew their glances to the direction they had last seen said monster going.

"Where's Kyosuke?" Ao asked, glancing around to see that the last member of their team was not here.

"I'm here,"

Looking up the street, they saw Kyosuke running towards them, his trousers and top torn slightly and his face had a cut across the cheek. Dust covered his hair and shoulders.

"Sorry to join you guys late." He said, adding a little humour in, but he was glad everyone was okay. "When they started fighting, I dived out of the way and threw myself into the entrance of an apartment building on the other side of the street-" (he nodded his head in that direction) "-Only just missed getting squashed."

"Well look, now that we're all here, we need to focus on getting Gin," Hime spoke up. "Kyosuke, did you see where he went?"

"We did." Kotoha piped up. "He was on the back of Manda, and he looked pissed. I guess he wanted that snake to go after Godzilla."

"Well didn't you try and stop them?" Hime asked, a tone of anger in her voice.

"We couldn't! Even if we tried, they'd kill us!" Kotoha argued back, her voice also filling with anger at Hime's indifference.

"Uh guys?" Ao's panicked voice suddenly spoke up.

Before any of them could react, the ground shook a little, the centre of the noise coming from down the street. That could only mean one thing!

A huge shape rose from the ground, a long tail sticking out from behind it. Instinctively, the group backed away, their entire attention focused on the monster before them. It was obvious to all of them, and anyone who was observing what was happening, that Godzilla was a lot tougher than he looked, and he was bound to be pissed off!

With a growl that sent chills down their spines, Godzilla pushed himself up, shaking the dust off his immense body. He looked up, his size towering over much of the surrounding city. His eyes scanned the skyline for a split second, searching for his target, the fire within them burning like a furnace. They fell on a trail of smoke and distant explosions a few hundred metres away (at least from Godzilla's perspective), just as another explosion erupted from a group of buildings. A large shape moved among them, brushing aside a tall apartment structure that collapsed into a cloud of dust and smoke.

There he is! He won't get away!

If there was one thing that Godzilla despised, it was letting a potential rival and enemy get away when he should have been tearing them apart! This was his territory, after all. To let a creature such as this wander around however he pleased was akin to mother lion allowing her cub to be mauled by its wildebeest prey. No! Not whilst he was around.

The drive to remove this rival clouded his vision. All that he could think of was getting to Manda and tearing him limb from limb. He charged forward, ploughing through another group of buildings in the process as he pursued his foe. The tail swung overhead, making the group duck in fear that it was going to fall and crush them. It passed overhead and then seemed to disappear from view behind the row of buildings. The group, who were probably no more than a few tens of metres from him, watched his massive figure move away, his completely forgetting, or even unaware of their existence.

For a moment they were entirely speechless, as if the appearance of this monster had obstructed their ability to communicate. Then, Hime spoke up, but her voice was only audible to those immediately around her.

"We need to go after them, now!" she said. "We have to stop them!"

None of them argued back or protested, or if they did the latter it was silent. Yet they were all afraid. They were about to advance against possibly the biggest threat, in both size and meaning. If anyone was not scared when going up against odds like these; they were either mad, or very stupid.

Or both Akina mentally told himself, knowing that such things were possible.

"C'mon, let's go!" Hime said, leading the group back down the road, the noise of distant explosions and screams filling the air; two military jets passing overhead.

Gin held onto the tail for dear life, his face contorted into a look of annoyance, even downright anger. Why was he doing this? The stupid creature! He was supposed to be a dangerous Yokai god, and yet he was running scared from an opponent. So much for the mighty Manda!

Why is it I have to do everything?! He thought to himself.

Still, at least Manda had managed to scare away most of the local human population. Luckily, for them at least, everyone had been out on this evening and so most had been able to easily flee when they saw him coming. A few had been unlucky, especially in the buildings that Manda had torn through or knocked over, but those were only a few losses. Acceptable losses, Gin had heard humans use several times before; those that were tragic, no doubt, but worth the sacrifice for the greater good.

A sudden jolt almost threw him to the ground far below. Manda had come to a halt in a huge intersection with buildings towering just above his head. Behind him, a trail of smoke and fire was all that could be seen with many crushed cars, trees, lampposts and the unfortunate body of a person lying up and down the street. Gin gritted his teeth, his patience with this creature already wearing thin. His eyes began to turn a blood red colour as if to accentuate his anger.

"I hope Akiro can real him in!" Gin muttered to himself.

A loud roar ripped through the air, startling him for a moment and making Manda in its direction. Gin did the same and saw a huge towering mass coming towards them. The smoke from a burning building briefly hid him from the two. Then it emerged. Godzilla had come in for round two.

Manda growled and turned himself around, ready to face his enemy again. Godzilla responded in turn; teeth bared, a look of fury on his face and hands clenched into fists as he advanced. Manda decided to meet him head on and surged forward, creating a hole in the row of buildings before him and scattering debris and dust everywhere.

Gin, who grabbed onto a knobbly part of Manda's back, took out both staffs from his pockets and extended them out to their full length. The jade green crystals glowed brightly and he looked up at the behemoth coming towards them.

Now I just need to rush forward and Godzilla will soon realise their full power he thought to himself.

When the two monsters were close to each other, Manda launched the first attack. He jumped forward, aiming to clamp his jaws down on Godzilla's shoulder. His larger opponent, however, anticipated the move and turned with speed that belied his enormous size. His tail swung round and struck his water snake-like enemy hard in the side, throwing him onto another road of buildings, crushing them into dust. Gin was thrown off Manda and landed on the ground with a painful thud. He groaned in pain but had to roll out of the way as Manda's tail slammed into the tarmac, cracking it and bursting the water lines underneath.

As Manda pushed himself up, Godzilla's shadow fell over him. A huge, thick foot slammed down onto his body, pinning him to the ground. Manda roared and struggled violently, shaking his body, throwing his tail at Godzilla in an attempt to knock him over. He even tried biting him but Godzilla's foot just near his neck prevented this from being effective. It was hopeless. Godzilla was too big and heavy. It looked as if it were all over for Man

A chorus of loud whooshes filled the air and something exploded on the side of Godzilla's neck, quickly being followed up with another to his head. A third object flew past him and burst into flames on the ground, just missing Manda's head. Godzilla roared and staggered sideways off Manda and down the road, glancing up to see a trio of jets pass overhead. He let out a series of growls, no doubt invectives at the pilots.

Seeing his chance, Manda lunged forward and clamped his jaws down on Godzilla's neck, using his forward feet to push into his larger opponent with all his might. It took Godzilla by surprise and the ground leapt as if an earthquake were striking the area as he crashed onto another row of buildings. Gin, who had jumped onto a nearby roof when Manda was forced down moments earlier, smiled.

Now's my chance

"Look!" Ao exclaimed.

The group came to a halt a few hundred feet down the road from the behemoths and watched as Manda stood over Godzilla, his eyes burning with hatred as he glared down at his larger enemy. The desire to kill was evident even to the most simple-minded of mouth opened and let out a growl of what could be interpreted as amusement at how so big an enemy was easily defeated. Now he was going to rip him to shreds and he would be victorious. A tough, but short fight! Soon to be forgotten by the water snake-like monster. Too e-

With a swipe of his hand, Godzilla managed to throw Manda off with a suitable strike to the face that sent him crashing to the ground. The group watched as the bigger, two legged creature tried to pick itself back up, eliciting a few noises that could be interpreted as groans as he did so.

"Do you think he's okay?" Hime muttered.

"I guess so," Kyosuke replied, briefly looking at her with a questioning expression. "Why?"

Before she could reply, Akina shouted out "Look!" and pointed down the street at Godzilla. The others looked and saw …

"That's gotta be Gin!" Hime exclaimed angrily.

A figure was leaping towards Godzilla with something glowing green in its possession. Hime, Akina and Kyosuke recognised the green glow almost immediately. It was the one of the Dragon Spear that had been stolen from the temple last night. The anger that filled her was quickly replaced with confusion and wonder when she began to realise that Gin (seeing as no one else they knew of possessed the spear) was going towards Godzilla.

What's he doing? She asked herself.

Then, like the beginning of a new dawn, a bright flash of green light illuminated the sky and forced the group to look away. It lasted only for a second before fading but when they turned back they saw Manda racing down the street towards them.

"Scatter!" Kotoha shouted in fear.

The others did not need telling twice. They were quick to dive out of the way, only just missing the enormous water snake-like creature as it barrelled towards them … and past them, completely ignoring their presence. After about five seconds, Manda was gone, having turned and disappeared behind the buildings and the wall of smoke that hung in the air.

Gingerly, the group emerged one-by-one, looking in the direction Manda had gone. Then Hime turned her head the other way and said one sentence aloud.

"Where's Godzilla?"