After riding for roughly an hour, Emily saw Sean’s cart atop a ridge overlooking the field where they made the food drop for the giant ram. Emily was relieved when she rode up to Sean’s cart to find him sitting at the font of it.
Emily leaned over to Sean. “What are you still doing out here? Why didn’t you come home?”
Sean pointed to the field. “Take a look.”
Emily turned her gaze to the middle of the field to see the gargantuan form of Ramrod circling the food that Sean had left for him. She shook her head. “Usually, he eats the supplies as soon as we drop them off. Why is he circling them now?”
Sean shrugged. “That’s what I was wondering. I figured you’d want to know that he was doing this and I figured the best way to do that was to stick around and see what happened.”
Emily grabbed Sean’s hand and squeezed it. “You did good, babe. Is there anything unusual about the food or did you notice anything different in the area?”
The rugged farmer shook his head. “The food is pretty much the same as it always is and there’s nothing different as far as I can tell.”
Emily continued to watch Ramrod. When the giant mammal stopped circling his food, he looked toward the forest that surrounded the field. The colossal mammal then snorted loudly and began digging his hoof into the ground.
The young woman tapped her lover on the shoulder and pointed to the spot where Ramrod was looking. “I’ve seen this behavior from Ramrod when I was studying him before. There’s something out there he doesn’t like and he’s challenging it.”
Sean put his hand over his eyes and stared at the area of the forest. “Really, I don’t see anything that would spook the big guy.” No sooner had Sean finished his thought, then the ground at the edge of the forest exploded upward to reveal a giant rat. The hideous creature was roughly one third the size of Ramrod. Despite the difference in height between the two monsters, the loathsome rodent hissed a challenge at the mutant sheep.
Ramrod responded to the rat by furiously digging his hoof into the dirt, shaking his head, and bleating at the invading creature. The giant rat then moved forward, and as he did, two more rats crawled out of the hole. With the other two rats by his side, the lead rat made a move toward Ramrod’s food supply.
As soon as the lead rat went toward the food, so did Ramrod. The horned mammal charged forward with his head low to the ground. A moment before he made contact with the rat, the giant rodent dodged to the side, causing Ramrod’s horns to crash into the ground, sending a mountain of dirt flying through the air.
With Ramrod’s head down, the three rats jumped onto the big horned sheep’s back and began tearing into it. The rats’ long incisor teeth penetrated deep into Ramrod’s hide, causing blood to gush out the wounds created by them and into the attacking monsters’ mouths.
Emily gasped in horror. Ever since the day she had devised a plan to keep Ramrod from rampaging through the settlement, she had felt an attachment to the monster. Then when she devised the plan to feed the monster in hopes that he would keep away other kaiju, she grew even more attached to the beast. Now she was not only watching the creature she had become attached to being mauled by rats, she was also watching her plan of using Ramrod as a deterrent to other monsters being destroyed as well.
Emily’s heart lifted when she saw Ramrod rear up onto his back legs and shake the vicious rodents off his back. As soon as one of the rats hit the ground, Ramrod spun around and faced the vile creature. The giant ram took one step backwards and then he sprang forward, driving his curved horns into the rat’s side. The blow sent the rodent flying through the air and crashing into the trees that lined the field.
It only took one glance at the rat’s mangled body to see that it had been killed. As the giant ram was killing their pack member, the other two rats attacked Ramrod’s legs. One rat sank its teeth into Ramrod’s left hind leg while the other ravaged his right front leg.
Ramrod bucked and kicked the rat attacking his left leg. The kick sent the horrid creature tumbling across the field and in the direction of the cliff Emily and Sean were watching the battle from. With the rat attacking his back legs dispatched, Ramrod reared up and brought his front legs crashing down onto the rat in front of him, crushing the creature to death with his massive weight.
On the cliff overlooking the field, Sean and Emily cheered for their adopted kaiju as it slew the second invader. Sean was still cheering when Emily looked down to see that the rat Ramrod had kicked in their direction was looking up the cliff at them. The disgusting creature hissed and then started scaling the cliff.
Emily grabbed Sean’s shoulder. “We need to go! Now!”
The less observant Sean had yet to comprehend what was happening. “Why?”
Emily screamed. “The last rat is coming up the cliff for us! Leave the cart, we’re getting on my horse!” Emily leapt onto her horse and the burly Sean quickly climbed on behind her. With her future husband’s arms wrapped around her waist, Emily screamed, “Yah!” and kicked the horse in the ribs. The farm animal took off running and the young woman immediately steered in an eastern direction.
As the horse took off, the last rat came over the side of the cliff. The horse that was still attached to the cart tried to turn and run. Sadly, for the farm animal, the cart it was attached to caused the horse to move far too slowly. The giant rat tore the horse off the cart with a single bite and swallowed it whole. The gargantuan vermin then began running after the fleeing couple.
Ramrod was standing next to his food supply, and when he saw the final rat take off in the direction of Emily and Sean, the mighty ram started running toward the cliff.
Emily and Sean were riding through the woods as quickly as they could without slamming into a tree. Sean’s heart skipped a beat when he heard the sound of trees being knocked down behind him. He turned around to see the last rat moving through the forest and gaining on them. He sighed and put his mouth next to Emily’s ear. “Listen, Emily. We’re too heavy for the horse to outrun that monster with both of us on him.” He took a deep breath. “I love you, baby. The time I’ve had with you has made me the happiest man alive.”
Before Emily could respond, Sean let go of her and threw himself to the ground. The young farmer tumbled over several times before he came to a stop and saw the giant rat knocking down trees as it made its way toward him. Sean stood up and was prepared to meet his fate when Emily pulled the horse to a stop beside him. She jumped off the animal and then slapped it on the back causing it to run away.
She then wrapped her arms around Sean. “You can’t do that to me! I love you too much to have you give up yourself for me! I couldn’t live with the pain if you were to die! If we’re going to die, we’re going to do it together!”
Sean hugged Emily as tight as he could. “My only regret is that I didn’t get to marry you. Being your husband would have been the greatest accomplishment of my life.”
Emily kissed Sean as the rat continued to bear down on them. The colossal rodent was only a few steps from them when something suddenly blocked out the sun. Emily and Sean looked up to see Ramrod coming down from one of his majestic leaps. The horned monster landed in front of Emily and Sean and then with one butt from his horns, he crushed nearly every bone in the giant rat’s body. With the rat dead, Ramrod turned around and looked at Emily and Sean for a brief moment. The colossal ram then turned and headed back to the food they had left for him.
Sean and Emily stood in silent disbelief for a moment before Sean screamed with joy. “He saved us! I can’t believe that overgrown sheep saved us!”
Emily nodded. “He saved us because he knows that it’s us who’ve been feeding him. He protected us because we’ve been building a relationship with him.” She turned to Sean. “This proves it! This proves that we can build a relationship with Ramrod and he will protect us in return. This proves that there’s hope that we can find a way to coexist with the kaiju and maybe even have a mutually beneficial relationship with them!�
�� She smiled. “I can’t wait to tell mom and dad about this!”
Sean nodded. “While that could take a while, we got a lot of ground to cover, no horses and the sun’s going down.”
Emily nodded. ‘We’re going to be walking home in the dark no matter what.” She wrapped her arms around Sean. “I can’t let my bold hero who was going to give his life to save mine go unrewarded for his bravery.” She then began pulling Sean to the ground.
Chapter 14
Pacific Ocean off the coast of Nicaragua
Atomic Rex moved through the water with a single thought on his mind: to find and destroy the kaiju that had entered his territory. The nuclear theropod could sense not only that he was close to the other two monsters but that they were close to each other as well. In addition to this, the kaiju on land had made a kill and tossed it into the ocean. Atomic Rex interpreted this act as a direct challenge to him and the other approaching monster. A monster hunting on his territory was intrusion enough but leaving a kill in the water was a sign of dominance.
This thought angered the kaiju. The saurian horror desired to destroy each of these challengers to his throne himself. If one of the other beasts he sensed destroyed the other, it would only strengthen the winning monster’s resolve that it would be the dominant kaiju in the area.
As the rage built in Atomic Rex, he swam to the surface of the water. When his head breached the surface, the monsters unleashed a roar that he knew the two challengers to his supremacy would detect. Even if one of the invaders destroyed the other, the winner would know that Atomic Rex was coming and that he would not tolerate another kaiju living in his territory.
Beach of Southern Mexico
Steel Samurai 2.0 was flying toward the shore where its pilots could see the imposing form of Gurral sitting on the beach. Chris and Kate were silent as they both stared at the massive creature. Chris looked over at his wife and he could see that for the first time in decades she was shaking.
Chris reached over and grabbed Kate’s hand. “I don’t know what that thing is but it’s not him. Do you hear me, Kate? Whatever that thing is, it’s not Ogre. It’s way bigger than Ogre, it’s a different color, and Ogre never had those spikes and horns that monster has.”
Kate took a deep breath and nodded. “I know. It’s just the visual similarities between that monster and Ogre caught me off guard.” She leaned forward in her chair. “The thing that terrified me the most was how human he looked compared to most of the kaiju we see.” She closed her eyes as her body shook. “It was Ogre’s humanoid appearance that let you know how intelligent he really was.” She pointed to Gurral. “Aside from its relatively humanoid shape, look at how that monster is just sitting there. It’s like he’s waiting for us. When most kaiju see our mech, let alone another monster following us, they would swim out and attack. They would eliminate the threat to their territory. That thing is just waiting there for us to come to him. Whatever he is, he is far more intelligent than most of the monsters we deal with.”
Chris nodded in response to his wife, then his eyes went wide as he saw the Arena Lords’ cameras flying toward him. “Kate, we’ve got incoming!”
Kate looked out her window. “They’re mechanical. What in the hell are they? We haven’t seen anything nonorganic in the air since before the kaiju first attacked.”
Chris nodded. “I’m arming the remaining long-range weapons.” He was silent for a second. “They don’t seem to be taking an attack formation. They seem to be approaching us to gather intel almost like they are trying to scan us or something.”
He looked over at Kate. “You’re more level headed than me. Do we shoot them out of the sky or wait and see what they do?”
Kate grimaced. “I hate to let them get in so close but we don't know what these things are, we have a kaiju following us, and what looks like a giant form of Ogre with spikes all over him ahead of us. If you don’t think those flying machines are in attack formation, I say we wait and see what they do before wasting our limited ammo on them. In the meantime, let’s take Hagan right up to that big brute sitting on the beach. That might take care of at least one of our problems. After one of the monsters falls, we can figure out what these machines are and where they came from.”
When the cameras reached Steel Samurai 2.0, they began to circle the mech, sending images of the robot back to the crowd on Arena World. Kate looked at Gurral sitting on the beach, watching them. “By the way that creature is watching these things circle us, I almost wonder if he’s not connected to them, or maybe even controlling them somehow.”
Steel Samurai 2.0 was quickly closing in on Gurral as Chris shook his head. “You think that monster has some kind of intelligence other than just a motivation to kill and destroy?”
The mech had nearly reached Gurral as Kate looked into the Smasher’s eyes. “I’ve looked into the eyes of a monster with more than instinctual motivations before. I see that same intelligence in this creature.” She looked over at her husband. “Chris, we can’t let that thing leave this beach alive. If it’s anything like Ogre and if it found the settlement…” Her voice dropped to almost a whisper. “If he found Emily.”
Chris flew Steel Samurai 2.0 over Gurral’s head and he looked down on the monster with anger in his eyes. “I don’t need any additional motivation to take out a kaiju but if you even think that behemoth has the slightest chance of doing to Emily what Ogre did to you, then I swear this monster dies today.”
Chris looked back to the ocean to see Hagan climbing out of the surf and onto the beach. The tri-horned monster shook the water off its body as it stared at Gurral. Hagan wanted this landmass as his territory. He could sense that this land had an abundance of food. He had traveled across the ocean to claim this area as his own and he knew in order to do that he would have to slay any monster that could challenge his dominance. The armored beast could sense that the creature standing before him was a direct threat to his claim over this territory. Hagan’s heart pounded with anger as adrenaline raced through his body. The Japanese monster opened his mouth and roared a challenge at Gurral.
Gurral stood with his hands clenched into fists as the Arena Lord’s cameras began circling the two monsters.
Steel Samurai 2.0 was hovering above the gladiator as Chris pointed at the flying devices. “Look! They’re circling the kaiju. It’s almost like they are cameras recording or transmitting what they see to someone.”
Kate’s mind was racing as she considered the implications of what this meant. “So, either something else with technology at least as advanced as we possessed pre-kaiju has found us or there is another group of humans somewhere nearby with the ability to produce technology like that?”
Chris shrugged. “I guess so.” He gestured toward Gurral. “I mean, unless the monster made the technology.”
Kate forced herself to take a closer look at Gurral and she was shocked when she noticed the strap around the creature holding what appeared to be more technological devices on it. She pointed to the devices attached to Gurral. “Chris, look, he has something strapped around him. Do you have any ideas what those things are?”
Chris was staring at the various electronics attached to Gurral when the goliath called out to Hagan, “Come on, Horn-Head! I need to find ol’ Rexy and you’re the next piece of bait I’m going to use to draw him out.”
Gurral then charged at Hagan as both Chris and Kate sat in stunned silence at having heard the monster speak.
Hagan was standing in ankle deep water as Gurral ran up to him and struck him in the face with a blow that would have turned the side of a mountain into rubble. To Gurral’s surprise, his Impervium spiked fist did little more than to cause the Hagan to take a half step back.
Gurral was about to follow up with another blow when Hagan suddenly sprang forward and drove all three of his horns into Gurral’s chest. The blow sent the Smasher crashing down into the surf with three bloody wounds on his chest. Gurral was trying to sit up when Hagan leapt on top of him. G
urral grunted in pain as Hagan’s crushing weight pushed him down into the soft sand beneath the water.
The arena champion’s eyes went wide when he saw Hagan’s open jaws coming toward his throat. Hagan moved so quickly that the Smasher barely had enough time to throw his left arm up to stop the hairy monster from delivering a mortal wound. Gurral grunted in pain as Hagan bit deep into his arm. Gurral growled and then glared into Hagan’s eyes. “Ok Horn-Head, you’re tougher than I thought, but you’re still going down.”
Gurral then began using his right fist to deliver blow after blow into Hagan’s lower ribs. While the gladiator could feel the indestructible spikes on his hand piercing Hagan’s armor, he knew they were not getting deep enough into the monster to do any real damage.
Gurral chuckled and said, “That’s some sturdy hide, but it won’t protect you forever.” Gurral ignored the intense pain from the damage being done to his arm and continued to strike Hagan’s ribs with stronger and stronger punches. With each strike to his ribs, Gurral could feel Hagan’s death grip on his arm loosening, and with the fifth consecutive blow, he sent the monster tumbling off him and into the surf.
The Smasher had to roll onto his side to pull his back out of the wet sand it had sunk into. Once he was free of the sand, he moved to a crouching position. Gurral then turned to see that Hagan had already regained his feet and was approaching for another attack. The arena champion shifted his stance, and before Hagan could ram him again, Gurral hurled himself forward head first at Hagan’s waist with all the intense power his legs could produce. The Smasher flew across the short distance between himself and his opponent and slammed into the Japanese kaiju. The impact from the arena champion colliding with the hairy monstrosity was so intense that it created a shockwave that rattled the hovering cameras recording the fight. Gurral had expected the attack to send Hagan tumbling down but his ultimate ram attack only caused the sturdy horned beast to slide backwards several paces. The powerful creature simply refused to fall.
Atomic Rex: Challenge of Gurral Page 11