With his back and skull now covered in a nigh impenetrable carapace, unbreakable spikes on his extremities, a grotesquely muscled body, and the ability to push himself to the limit for hours on end, Gurral caught the attention of the Arena Lords.
The Arena Lords ran the planet Gurral had been born and bred to serve. They oversaw gladiator style battles between giant monsters, both for their own amusement and for profit. The battles that took place, both in the fighting rings of the arena and in remote sites, kept the Arena Lords happy, wealthy, and powerful. They drafted Gurral into the arena battles with the promise of the Impervium dust he desired for each victory he was able to secure.
Gurral agreed to the Arena Lords’ conditions. The monster reasoned that pounding on flesh would be easier than pounding on rock. As long as he was able to get his dust, Gurral didn’t care what he smashed.
Gurral destroyed all manner of creatures in the arena on his mission to feed his addiction. The massive brawler’s strength and Impervium-enhanced bones made him a veritable juggernaut. He crushed giant apes, spiders, and even dragons. His string of impressive victories had led to him gaining the moniker Gurral the Smasher.
He didn’t know what manner of beast was waiting on the other side of the door, but whatever it was, Gurral already hated it. Whatever he was going to fight was currently standing between him and his long denied Impervium dust. Gurral was in pain and he was going to take out that pain on the creature he was facing.
Gurral’s body shook again as he clenched his fists and waited for the shiver to pass. He stared at the door to the arena. The gladiator bellowed, “Just open the door and let’s get this thing started already!”
A loud buzz echoed through the hallway as the door slid open. Gurral felt the ground shake as the crowd roared at his appearance. The arena champion smiled at their applause. As much as he was addicted to Impervium dust, he was almost as addicted to the cheers of the arena crowd. Gurral walked out onto the ring floor, threw his hands out wide, and roared. The act caused the already frenzied crowd to scream even louder in approval of their favorite combatant.
The gladiator then looked across the arena at the doors his opponent would be coming through. As the giant stared at the door, the crowd fell silent.
The massive steel doors slowly slid open and a fearsome howl emanated from the dark hall beyond the doors. The howl echoed through the now quiet arena, and as the last vestige of the battle cry died out, a second deeper howl followed it.
Gurral’s piercing red eyes looked into the darkness to see a giant fur-covered, wolf-like head lurch out from inside its waiting hall. As the wolf head stretched out into the light, a second wolf-like set of eyes peered out from the darkness. The two-headed canine creature snarled at Gurral as it began to step through the door.
As the multi-headed beast stepped part way out into the ring, lights shone down allowing part of its body to come into view. Gurral was surprised to see the creature’s front legs covered in scales. From the creature’s heads, the gladiator had assumed the monster would be completely covered in fur. As the second half of the beast’s body made its way out of the cave, Gurral understood why the creature’s forelimbs had their reptilian attributes. From behind the two wolf heads snarling at him, Gurral saw several other shapes darting back and forth. The beast snarled one more time and then fully leapt into the ring to reveal six long serpentine necks attached to its body, all ending in snakelike mouths with long curved fangs.
The alien’s body had the overall shape of a wolf with the exception that it was covered in scales. The serpentine heads sprouting from the creature’s back were all facing Gurral as they rolled over each other and hissed. Gurral made a quick mental note of the long claws extending from the monster’s paws. He then shifted his gaze to his opponent’s faces to see the two fur-covered wolf-heads with their eyes fixed on him as saliva dripped from their nearly starving mouths.
Gurral shook his head as he thought to himself, I don’t know which screwed up planet they found you on, but you are one ugly son-of-a-bitch. The Smasher shrugged as he continued his inner monologue. Well, I gotta call you something. You look like a mix of a bunch of things so I’m just gonna call you Mutt.
Gurral roared once more, causing the crowd to cheer in approval as he charged toward the mysterious beast he had labeled as Mutt. As the intelligent monster was sprinting toward the slobbering beast, Mutt sprang into the air. The chimeric creature came crashing down on top of Gurral, forcing him to the ground.
As soon as his back hit the ground, Gurral reached up with each of his hands and grabbed the two wolf-like heads. The Smasher was squeezing Mutt’s throats in an attempt to strangle the hideous demon. The gargantuan gladiator had nearly crushed the feral monster’s windpipes when the serpentine heads on Mutt’s back all reached down and sank their fangs into Gurral’s arms, legs, and torso.
The snake bites themselves did not cause much damage to Gurral’s bulky frame, but after only a few seconds of the fangs being embedded in his flesh, the Smasher felt a searing pain course through his body. As the arena champion’s vision began to blur, he realized the pain was coming from the venom the snake heads were pumping into his system.
He felt his arms growing weaker and he looked up through blurring vision to see the two wolf mouths moving closer to his face. Gurral realized that if he was to survive, he would need to free himself from under Mutt’s body and break free from the jaws of its snakes.
Gurral tried to focus as best he could, knowing full well that even the slightest mistake on his part would mean the end of his life. The snake venom coursing through his veins was incredibly painful but it was nothing compared to the pain of being deprived of Impervium dust.
The Smasher pushed past the pain wracking his body. He then released the grip his right hand had on one of the wolf-like heads and in a flash threw a blow with his spiked fist that connected with both canine heads. As Gurral’s clenched fist slammed into one wolf face and then the other, the spikes protruding from his knuckles tore off long strips of flesh from Mutt’s lower jaws. The brutal blow forced the wolf heads to pull back. In the instant that Mutt’s wolf heads were rearing back, Gurral reached up and grabbed two of the snake-like heads at their base where they were attached to Mutt’s body.
With one powerful yank, Gurral tore the two serpentine appendages off his opponent's back. The two wolf heads yelped in pain while the remaining snake heads released their hold on Gurral’s body and began thrashing about wildly.
With his foe stunned, Gurral was able to push Mutt off himself. He tried to stand but found that the venom which had been injected into him made his legs too unsteady to sustain his massive weight. The champion of the arena took two steps before he fell to the ground face first. Gurral saw Mutt coming toward him and the Smasher immediately rolled to present his armored back to his attacker.
Enraged by the pain he was in, Mutt leapt at Gurral and attacked his back with both wolf heads and all of his remaining snake heads. Mutt gnawed and snapped at the burly gladiator’s back but neither his canine teeth nor his snake fangs could penetrate the Smasher’s nigh invulnerable Impervium carapace.
The protection of his carapace gave Gurral a brief respite from direct attack but his body was still in intense pain, both from the poisonous substance running through it and the lack of the substance it craved.
The arena champion clenched his right hand into a fist then quickly spun around and struck Mutt’s left wolf head with a crushing blow to its jaw. A mix of saliva, blood, and teeth flew out of the left wolf head as the beast’s shattered lower jaw swung loosely from its mouth.
Gurral was standing up to deliver another blow when Mutt’s right wolf head bit into the gladiator’s thigh. Blood spurted out of Gurral’s leg as the pain from the bite caused the armored colossus to rear back. As Gurral turned his head back toward Mutt, he saw the four-remaining snake-like appendages streaking toward him. Before he could react, the Smasher had two snake heads biting into ea
ch of his arms while the left wolf head was still trying to close its shattered lower jaw around his thigh.
As the snake heads dug their fangs into his arms, the gladiator once more felt the serpents’ painful venom coursing through his veins. In addition to the pain, the poison caused him to feel light-headed and nauseous. Gurral could feel his legs beginning to shake beneath him again and he knew that if he fell to the ground once more, he would be finished. The Smasher fixed his burning red eyes on his opponent and roared in anger. He pulled his right leg from the broken jaw of the left wolf head and placed it on Mutt’s collar bone. He then grabbed two snake heads in each hand, wrapped them around his arms twice, and pulled back on them as hard as he could while pushing away with his foot.
The serpentine heads pulled taut as Gurral stretched them to their limits. There was a sickening pop as Gurral gave one final yank that tore the reptilian protrusions off his opponent’s body. A fountain of blood sprayed into the air as the intact wolf head released its grip on Gurral’s legs and backed away from him.
Seeing that he had severely injured his opponent, Gurral pressed his advantage. The gladiator sprang forward and began raining down blows onto the wolf-creature. With each punch, the spikes on Gurral’s knuckles tore out chunks of flesh and scales from his foe. Large pieces of his opponent’s tissue clung to Gurral’s fists as he continued to pound Mutt to death.
When Gurral had first pinned the creature to the ground, it snarled as the Smasher was striking it. After the first three blows, the snarl changed to a whimper. By the time Gurral’s seventh blow had landed, Mutt was silent. Gurral punched his opponent another twenty times after it had died as both a punishment to the monster and as a warning to any future combatants. The arena was his, and as long as the arena was his, so was the Impervium dust, and that was not something he was going to let go of.
When Gurral was finally finished making an example of the wolf-snake, he stood up, covered in both his opponent's blood and his own. He looked around the arena to see those in the crowd staring at him in utter silence.
Gurral smiled and thought to himself, “I might as well give them what they want.” The Smasher then lifted his gore covered fists into the air and roared. The crowd screamed in approval as Gurral turned and headed back down the hall he had come out of. He would eat, be given the Impervium dust he desired, then rest and heal in preparation for his next fight
Chapter 2
Arena World
Two days after Gurral’s latest victory on a planet in between worlds, three bluish-gray skinned creatures with multiple arms sat in anti-gravity chairs. These beings were known simply as the Arena Lords. While they floated through the air, the enigmatic Arena Lords watched as numerous kaiju gladiators battled to the death for their amusement. The images surrounding them showed a massive winged serpent engaged with a huge porcupine, a giant centipede fighting with a saurian creature with a malformed arm, and numerous other gigantic horrors all tearing each other to shreds.
One Arena Lord looked at the other of his kind floating nearest to him. “Watching these past matches, passes the time but it does little to excite me.” He rolled his pointed head, “There is none of the thrill of the uncertainty of a live battle nor the added enticement of wagers between us as to who the winner will be.”
The second Arena Lord nodded, “Indeed, and the reason for this boredom is the dominance of one particular gladiator.” The second Arena Lord pressed a button on his chair, causing the images surrounding him to show Gurral’s battle with Mutt. “That latest beast was our best chance at having a credible challenge to Gurral, and even it was crushed by our champion. He is practically unbeatable. If he continues to rack up victories in the fashion that he has, the crowd as well as us will soon become bored with him.” The alien sighed, “Alas our best talent scouts continue to scour the galaxy in vain as they search for a creature which can offer Gurral a challenge. There doesn’t seem to be a beast within the entire universe that can challenge our champion. I fear we may soon have to retire Gurral lest he lose his appeal.”
A third unknown Arena Lord caused his chair to drift out of the shadows and to the middle of the room. As he stared at the others in the room, a sly smile came across his face. “Indeed, perhaps there is nothing in the universe that can challenge Gurral, which means we may have to look outside of it.”
The first Arena Lord directed his chair over to the Newcomer. “What are you talking about? Even if other realities exist, we have no way of accessing them.”
The Newcomer shrugged, “We may not have the ability to access them, but someone in the multiverse does.” He waved his hand to change the images being shown on the walls. Dozens of monsters and robots all unknown to the Arena Lords were suddenly battling to the death all around them.
They saw a blue robot clashing with some manner of saurian creature with large fins on the sides of its head.
Another image showed a massive kaiju that had the head and tail of a sperm whale, the body of a gorilla, and a lion’s mane fighting a colossal Viking holding a massive hammer with lightning shooting out of it.
Other images showed a dragon, a horned bear, and some manner of dinosaur-man fighting a huge black robot. Two giant cybernetic birds engaged in combat with a gargantuan sasquatch. An armored and horned reptilian beast was fighting an oddly shaped rock creature. A giant lion made of fire was battling a dark and formless shape, and a strange creature with bulbous orange sacks all over it was fighting a golden dragon with a crescent horn on top of its head.
One image showed what looked like a person in a dinosaur suit using a leg drop on a two headed turkey vulture which, at a quick glance, seemed as if it had wires attached to its neck.
The Newcomer smiled, “As I told you, there are several extremely powerful beings creating temporal rifts, pulling creatures from across the multiverse, and using them as weapons of war. While this certainly is not a war we should engage in, we can take advantage of the rifts that seem to be opening.”
The first Arena Lord questioned the Newcomer, “How do you know so much about these rifts?”
The Newcomer shrugged, “Unlike others, I do not spend the entirety of my time watching battles, but rather pay attention to the universe around us. Suffice to say this discovery was made with a significant amount of time and effort on my part. I shall fill you in on the details behind the methods I used at a later time. For now, I feel our focus should be on finding a monster who can battle Gurral before we lose the crowd’s interest.”
The first Arena Lord nodded and pointed to the sperm-whale- gorilla-lion kaiju, “That monster would be a fine opponent to battle Gurral! His bulk nearly matches that of the Smasher and he is much quicker than he looks. The two of them would put on a fight that would be talked about for ages!”
The Newcomer shook his head and pointed to a small creature standing near the monster’s feet. “That creature is known as Chimera. He is a protector of his world and more importantly he is directed by the small and intelligent creature next to him. To get Chimera to fight, we would need to bring the human here as well. I can only imagine he would not take well to the manner in which we run the arena. We are more likely to have Chimera become the leader of a revolt against us than have him become a challenge for Gurral.”
The second Arena Lord gestured toward the two cybernetic birds battling the colossal sasquatch. “What of these flying creatures? See the speeds at which they attack and how coordinated their assaults are? Gurral can match any creature’s strength but speed and intelligence are something he has not yet faced.”
Once more the Newcomer dismissed the idea. “Those creatures are known as ROC 2 and ROC 4. They are controlled by military personnel via a remote connection. Were we to take the ROCS, they would simply stand inert without their controllers.”
The first Arena Lord pointed to the monster with the bulbous orange sacks.
Before he could ask about the kaiju, the Newcomer held up his hand. “No, before you ask anyth
ing else let me show you the monster, I suggest we target.” The Newcomer waved his hand again to change the image to show a theropod-like monster with long powerful arms and an alligator-like carapace on his back.
The Newcomer smiled. “This is Atomic Rex. He is the answer to our problem of a monster to challenge Gurral.” He waved his hand to show Atomic Rex crushing two giant mechs on a beach. “When the monster was born, he quickly conquered a large section of a continent and claimed it for his own.” The images changed to show Atomic Rex destroying other monsters, including an ogre-like creature, a two finned quadruped dinosaur, and an acid spewing turtle. In the background of each battle, another mech could be seen hovering in the air. The Newcomer continued his story, “After battling more creatures on his home world, it seems that various forces outside of Atomic Rex’s dimension took notice of him.” The images changed again to show Atomic Rex fighting Chimera, a flaming bird, and what looked like some manner of giant warrior.
The Newcomer pointed to the giant warrior, “This being is known as Kronos. He refers to himself as a titan, sort of like a god in his own dimension. He created the temporal rifts we are viewing the other creatures through and then he brought Atomic Rex to his world to battle against Chimera and other gods for domination of a planet known as Earth.” The Newcomer drifted closer to the image as he continued to speak, “The titan Kronos has the power to move creatures from one dimension to another at will and yet despite his power, Atomic Rex was able to slay him.” The image changed to show a blue dome of energy cascading off the nuclear theropod and decimating Kronos.
Atomic Rex: Challenge of Gurral Page 2
