Mark stared at Ethan in disbelief.
He had watched the entire thing happen with his own eyes.
A bolt of lightning powerful enough to light up the Antarctic sky had struck Ethan's hand, and he had stopped it as casually as catching a falling snowflake. No injury. Nothing.
Mark slowly looked at Serizawa. "...What the hell is he?"
For the first time since Ethan had appeared, he found himself believing Chen's conclusion. Maybe this man really wasn't human.
The radio burst to life through heavy static.
"Alpha Team to command... retreating! The whole outpost is collapsing!"
Another explosion shook the ground. "We've lost structural integrity! Everyone fall back!"
The transmission cut in and out as screaming and collapsing steel echoed over the channel. The ice itself began to crack.
Deep fractures spread through the ice as thunderous vibrations rolled across Antarctica.
Then came a roar unlike anything anyone present had ever heard.
The ice exploded upward.
A colossal golden neck burst through the glacier. Then another. Then a third.
The frozen mountain shattered apart as the enormous creature forced itself free from thousands of years of imprisonment.
Three heads rose high above the broken ice, each moving independently, scanning the landscape. Gigantic wings unfolded and scattered snow in every direction.
Golden lightning danced across the membranes, spreading into the storm clouds overhead until the entire sky flickered with electricity.
The Titan threw back all three heads.
SKRREEEEEOOOONNNN — RAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Even the air trembled beneath its voice.
Serizawa looked up in silence. "...Monster Zero."
Cracks spread rapidly across the ice shelf beneath their feet. Large sections of the glacier broke apart and disappeared into the freezing ocean.
Ethan glanced at the collapsing ground before looking back at the others. "Time to leave unless you want to be buried alive."
The next instant, he was gone.
Mark looked around instinctively. A shout from one of the soldiers made everyone look up.
"He's up there!"
Ethan was floating directly above Monster Zero, suspended over all three massive heads.
He looked down at the Titan. "Hey. Why don't you fight? I've never killed a three-headed dragon before. Might as well earn myself the title of Dragon Slayer."
All three heads slowly lifted toward him. The center head watched without moving. The left head drew in a deep breath, releasing a hot stream through its nostrils.
Neither of them moved for a brief moment.
Then the right head struck. Its jaws snapped forward, aiming to swallow Ethan whole.
He shifted to the side just before they closed, turned his body, and drove a kick into the side of its jaw.
Boom.
The enormous head knocked sideways, its long neck twisting from the force before Ghidorah pulled it back with an angry roar.
All three heads moved at once. The left lunged first. The center followed a fraction of a second later.
The right circled from the side, trying to cut off escape. Three attacks from different directions, almost no room to dodge.
Ethan calmly weaved between them. One set of jaws snapped shut behind him. Another missed by less than a meter.
The third crashed into one of the other heads as Ghidorah's own attacks got in each other's way.
Ethan sighed. "Being bigger isn't always an advantage. You're fast, but you keep getting in each other's way."
Ghidorah answered with an enraged roar. SKREEEEEOOOONNNN!!
The three heads spread apart, preparing to strike again.
Ethan looked up at the storm clouds gathering overhead. "Oh, and one more thing." He raised a single finger toward the sky. "I can control lightning too."
Dark clouds churned above Antarctica. A crimson glow spread through them. Unlike Ghidorah's golden electrical discharge, this lightning was deep red.
The clouds rumbled.
KRAAAAAK!!
A massive crimson bolt tore through the sky and struck Ghidorah squarely on the center of its body. Red lightning spread across all three necks as the Titan recoiled with an angry roar.
---
Several kilometers away, Jonah Alan's helicopters were already pulling away from Outpost 32.
Inside one of them, Jonah looked back through the side door at the collapsing glacier. Flashes of red and gold lightning continued illuminating the sky through the snowstorm.
One of his men frowned. "What's going on back there?"
Emma Russell looked through the window. "There shouldn't be another Titan here."
Another flash lit up the clouds. For a brief moment she saw Ghidorah's enormous silhouette. Then she saw something else — a tiny figure suspended in the air directly in front of the three heads.
Emma narrowed her eyes. "...What is that?"
The helicopter banked and the snow swallowed the scene again.
Jonah noticed her expression. "What did you see?"
Emma slowly lowered the binoculars. "I don't know." She looked back toward the storm. "There shouldn't be anything capable of fighting Monster Zero."
Another burst of crimson lightning flashed through the clouds. Even from several kilometers away, they could see Ghidorah's massive wings moving against the storm.
Jonah remained silent. Whatever was happening behind them wasn't part of his plan.
The evacuation helicopters had barely cleared the collapsing ice shelf when an operator looked down at the tactical display.
"Dr. Serizawa... we've got another contact."
Rick Stanton turned toward the monitor immediately. A second later his eyes widened. "It's Godzilla."
Everyone looked toward the display. The massive blue signature was moving rapidly beneath the Antarctic ice.
A deafening roar echoed across the frozen landscape.
The ice exploded outward as Godzilla burst through the surface, sending snow and shattered ice hundreds of meters into the air. He stopped only a short distance from Monster Zero.
***
A/N: And on Patreon, The Boys arc started.
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