Godzilla Warriors 8: Zenith

Chapter 8: Welcoming Gift

Godzilla's sword slashed against smoke Ghidorah's ice blades over and over and over again. Unlike the others who struggled against their smoke doppelgängers, Godzilla was having fun fighting his. It fought almost exactly like Ghidorah, but with a few differences that made Godzilla know that he was fighting a fake. For one, there was less force behind the attacks. Ghidorah put everything he had behind every single strike. Every inch of force was propelled into his swords. But smoke Ghidorah was nowhere near as strong. He was also much less agile, and of course, less durable. He lacked Ghidorah's armour, which made it easy for Godzilla to slice his sword through him, leaving gaps on the smoke that made up its body.
"Told you this would be easy." Godzilla mocked.
Smoke Ghidorah didn't attack in retaliation. Instead, it listed its hand and propelled five smoke tendrils out from its fingers. They shot towards Godzilla and aimed at his throat, but he managed to slice them before they could reach him. One of them slipped past his sword, however, and made its way to his neck, wrapping around it and strangling him. Godzilla tried to grab the tendrils, but they transformed into vapour as his hand passed through them, and continued as solid objects. As a last ditch effort, Godzilla sent an atomic blast at smoke Ghidorah while it was focussed on choking him out. The blast hit him head on, evaporating the figure instantly. The tendrils disappeared and Godzilla fell to the ground on his knees. He placed a hand on his neck and coughed as he regained his breath.
"That was actually pretty close..." He said. "Whatever. It's over. I beat Red's game."
Soon after, a hole blasted open in the wall and Solomon stepped through, followed closely behind by Mothra and Anguirus.
"Nice to see a real face again." Godzilla chuckled. "I see you both managed too."
"Indeed they did." Solomon nodded. "But Red's game is far from over. Our next destination is the river. From there, we'll be able to sail straight to Red's lair."
"Sounds great, but how're we gonna get out of these caves?" Godzilla asked.
"No problem. We can leave the way I came in." Solomon explained. The three Kaiju followed Solomon out of the tunnels and eventually into the forest again. While it was nice to be out, Godzilla still felt trapped. The others shared his feelings. They noticed the snow was starting to melt, even though it had only been a few minutes since they fell into the caves.
"Like I said, the weather is unpredictable." Solomon said. "The river is to the north. Let's go."

Rodan couldn't help but be amazed. He had seen many things in his lifetime, but never a completely different dimension. He could tell Radon was feeling different. She was clearly uncomfortable as the two walked down the stone path they were on.
"So... do you see anything you recognize?" Rodan asked.
"Yes. Every rock, every smell, every speck of dust is bringing back memories I'd rather forget." Radon shivered. Rodan rubbed the back of his head. He had clearly said the wrong thing.
"Uh... any idea where Godzilla and the others could have gone?" He asked, changing the subject.
"Well, if they ended up like me, they probably were taken to Red's lair." Radon explained. "That's where he keeps his... torture chambers. He won't hurt them too bad for a while, so we have some time."
Rodan nodded. Even if that wasn't where they ended up, he guessed they would run into each other eventually. Suddenly, the stone beneath them began to crack. A hand burst from the ground and grabbed Rodan's ankle. But it wasn't any hand, it was a skeletal hand. The rest of the arm erupted from the ground soon after, followed by a whole body emerging slowly. Rodan kicked the skeleton in the skull, and it let go of his ankle. But more skeletons began rising from the cracked ground, surrounding the two Kaiju. Back to back, Rodan eyed Radon, who simply smirked and nodded in response. With that settled the two launched away from each other and attacked the skeletons. Despite appearing terrifying, they were easily dealt with. One solid hit made them fall and break into pieces of bone. When he was done with most of the skeletons on his side, Rodan eyed Radon's progress. It had been a long time since he had seen her fight. She had a certain grace to her, like Mothra, but she was much more aggressive, like Godzilla or Rodan himself. Radon used to say she picked up fighting styles from people she fought. And this made sense as Rodan watched her. Finally, the skeletons were dealt with, and broken into pieces all over the ground around them. Radon wiped her brow and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was... fun." She chuckled. "I forgot how much fun I used to have fighting bad guys."
"Then I'm sure you're gonna have lots of fun when you beat up Red." Rodan said. Radon fell silent and turned to Rodan, a look of confusion and disbelief on her face.
"You're kidding, right?" She said. "We can't fight Red. He's more powerful than all of us combined."
Rodan was about to respond, until he noticed the bones around them moving. The bones rolled along the ground and piled on top of each other, forming back into the skeletons they were before. The two quickly realized that this was an unwinnable fight, and flew into the air.
"Hey, why don't we just fly to Red's lair?" Rodan suggested.
"I thought about that too, but look down." Radon said. Rodan did as he was told, and saw only darkness below him. There were dark clouds covering the whole area. With the black sky above him, it was extremely disorienting.
"Fair enough." Rodan said. The two eventually landed, and the ground came back into view. It was covered in snow, which confused Rodan a bit. But after his dead best friend came back to life, his other friend got sucked into an alternate dimension, and he fought a bunch of reforming skeletons, nothing surprised him too much any more.
"Anyway, what do you mean we can't fight Red?" Rodan asked. Instead of an answer, Radon gasped and grabbed Rodan, pulling him behind a rock.
"What the hell are you-" Radon slapped a hand over Rodan's mouth.
"He's here." She mouthed. Rodan could see the fear in her eyes. The two slowly looked over the rock, and saw Red himself walking down the snowy path. He seemed deep in thought, and didn't notice the two Kaiju observing him. A small insect-like creature buzzed near his face. It seemed to be telling him something, as he responded to it as if he was listening.
"Yes... I see..." he muttered as the creature buzzed in his ear. "... So they escaped the first challenge. They're probably heading to the river now. I'll have to cut them off."
Radon's eyes widened. She could tell Red was talking about Godzilla and the others. She also realized they weren't at Red's lair, at least not yet.
"I know where the river is. We can get to them before Red does." Radon whispered. There was no answer. "Rodan?" She asked. Looking down, she saw that Rodan was gone. She looked up, only to see that Rodan had emerged from behind the rock and was sneaking up to Red.
"Rodan! What are you doing!?" Radon whispered.
"I'm putting an end to this." Rodan said. Radon was about to tell him what an idiotic act he was about to commit, but it was too late. Rodan rushed over to Red, swords drawn. Red didn't even notice him as he approached. Or at least, if he did, he didn't show it. Just as Rodan was about to attack, Red reached out and grabbed him, placing a hand over his face, stopping him in his tracks and making him drop his swords. Red slowly turned his head towards him, staring him down with his dark threatening eyes.
"Who are you?" He asked, raising Rodan into the air. Rodan started kicking him and grabbing at his arm, and Red responded by squeezing his hand over Rodan's head. Rodan was in immense pain, but he refused to show it.
"You're foolish to try to attack me, whoever you are." Red hissed. Then he grinned. "Oh, that's right. You must be one of the Kaiju I brought here. Rodan."
The pain was too much for Rodan to bear now, and he let out a muffled scream into Red's hand. Red grinned wickedly and slammed Rodan into the ground. Despite still being in immense pain, Rodan still got up and attempted to attack Red. He raised a fist, and again Red caught it. With a simple flick of his wrist, Red snapped Rodan's arm like a twig. Rodan released another scream of pain, and another as Red twisted Rodan's now broken arm until it broke again at the shoulder.
"Consider this your welcoming gift, Kaiju." Red mocked. "You'll receive far more pain than this soon enough."
In response, Rodan looked up at Red with defiance. Despite the immense pain he was in, he still forced a smirk.
"What, you... call this painful?" He panted. "I've... had worse."
Red sneered at Rodan's mocking tone before he grinned wickedly, and swung Rodan into the air by his mangled arm, slamming him to the ground behind him. His arm broke again, this time with the bone breaking through the skin.
"The human body has a lot of bones." Red chuckled. "I can break them all until you submit."
"I'm... not... human..." Rodan growled.
"Oh, don't get smart. You know what I mean." Red snapped as he walked around Rodan's pained body. He pressed a foot onto Rodan's arm, releasing another pained scream. Meanwhile, Radon was in tears. Her best friend was getting tortured, and she was sitting idly by, watching it unfold. She couldn't bring herself to move. Seeing Red again was too much for her. Her breath picked up as she placed her hands on either side of her head. But when Red almost pulled Rodan's arm off his body, she knew she had to do something.
"Screw fear. Screw it!" She exclaimed to herself. Without thinking any longer, she rushed out towards them. She ran straight towards Red and shoved him with all her might. Being distracted, Red was thrown off balance, but quickly regained his footing. He growled viciously at Radon, showing his teeth, which had transformed, showing his many rows of fangs.
"Who dares to lay their hands on me!?" He shouted. But they were already gone. He looked up to see Radon holding Rodan in her arms, flying far into the sky before disappearing into the black nothingness above them. Red recognized Radon immediately. He grinned as she flew away.
"So she's back." He said. "Excellent. Everything is going perfectly."
He contemplated flying after them. It would be no trouble for him to knock them out of the sky and send them to the ground below. But he knew he would find them again. Right now, he needed to head to the river.