Atomic Rex: Challenge of Gurral

by Matthew Dennion

  The moment that Chris saw the monster change his method of attack, he screamed. “Dammit, the sails!” He then pulled right hard on his controls hoping to keep the mech from running directly into Hagan’s sails and being cut in half.

  As Chris was altering the mech’s trajectory, Kate repositioned the sword into a defensive pose. The coordinated actions of the husband and wife caused Hagan’s back blades to skim across Steel Samurai 2.0’s sword. The act of the two weapons scraping against each other sent a beautiful array of sparks cascading off the mech’s sword, but prevented what could have been catastrophic damage to the last mech on Earth.

  As the mech moved past the monster, Chris checked its rearview cameras. “Good news. We’ve avoided being ripped open like a can of tuna and we seem to have pissed off Hagan enough to make him follow us.”

  Kate released the controls in her hand and nodded. “Okay. Now, head south and slowly take us toward the surface. If we can get into the air and use the crossbow to keep Hagan’s attention, it would be a lot safer for us. That last exchange was a little too close for comfort.”

  Chris nodded in agreement and then altered the mech’s course to comply with his wife’s directions.

  Hagan saw the metal creature that had attacked him moving away from him and heading toward the territory the kaiju was planning to claim as his own. The armored demon growled in anger at the thought of the metallic beast that had struck him entering his new territory. Whatever this strange creature was, it was heading toward land. Hagan was determined to chase the creature to the shore where he could better operate and then lay waste to this potential threat.

  For roughly half an hour, Chris kept Steel Samurai 2.0 ahead of Hagan in the water while still slowly progressing toward the surface. When the mech broke the surface and floated up and into the clear blue skies above him, Chris had the robot hover and turn around for a brief minute to see if Hagan was still chasing him or not. As Chis was turning the mech around, Kate had the mech place its sword back into its leg and then arm itself with the giant crossbow that was magnetically attached to its back. Kate then had the mech aim the weapon at the frothing water below them. When Kate saw a swell of water cascading below her, she knew it signaled the spot from which Hagan would rise from the depths.

  When the tri-horned demon’s head broke the surface, it looked up at Steel Samurai 2.0 and roared. Hagan then swam in the direction of the robot and attempted to jump out of the water to reach it.

  Chris flew the mech a little higher to avoid the monster’s reach, causing Hagan to fall back into the ocean empty handed. A few seconds after splashing down, Hagan resurfaced and once more started swimming toward Steel Samurai 2.0.

  Seeing the monster coming toward the mech, Chris began to fly the robot toward southern Mexico. After a few seconds of Hagan continuing to follow them, he turned toward Kate. “I think we can relax with the crossbow for a little bit. It looks like Hagan is going to follow us without additional incentive.”

  Kate nodded and kept her eyes on the radar screen. “That’s good, since we only have a half dozen arrows left and I didn’t think we were going to be able to recover one if we fired at him in the ocean.”

  Chris noticed how intensely his wife was looking at the radar. “I don’t think you have to watch the radar so closely. Hagan is clearly following us and he’s not giving up anytime soon.”

  Kate shook her head. “It’s not Hagan I’m looking at. There’s another hit on land; something big that’s moving toward the beach.”

  Chapter 12

  Lacandon Jungle, Mexico

  Gurral was lying on his side, enjoying his dust induced nap next to the river when he suddenly felt something slam into the back of his neck. The arena champion heard the distinctive scraping sound of teeth trying to pierce his Impervium-encased neck-plating. Before he had time to react, he saw two long black arms ending in hairy claws reach over him from behind and dig into the leathery hide of his stomach. The gladiator roared in shock and pain as long bleeding wounds were torn into the freshly-healed skin.

  The claws had torn all the way up to his side when the Smasher rolled over onto his back, pinning whatever sneaky fur-face was attacking him. The crushing pressure of Gurral’s body weight caused the unseen predator to release its grip and afforded Gurral the chance to stand.

  Once Gurral was standing, he turned around to see a long, slender, hairy, four-legged creature with sharp teeth and claws standing in front of him. The beast’s shoulders came up to roughly half Gurral’s height, and as it met the Smasher’s glare, it made a hissing sound.

  Prior to being exposed to radiation given off by Atomic Rex and other kaiju, the monster that was in front of Gurral had been a tayra. It was a member of the weasel family that hunted small mammals, insects, and birds in the jungle. Since being exposed to radiation and growing to the size of a building, the creature’s high metabolism forced it to hunt for more substantial prey. Seeing the huge form of Gurral sleeping alongside the river bed and smelling blood, the mutant tayra thought it had stumbled across an easy meal.

  Gurral looked down at the snarling predator and snorted in amusement. This thing had literally bitten off more than it could chew. “You’ve got guts, Fur-Face, but a skinny pipe-cleaner like you’s got no chance.” He then turned to the cameras that were hovering around him. “But the crowd’s been waiting for a show, so if you wanna take a shot, then go for it!”

  Back on Arena World, the crowd cheered and the Arena Lords wrung their hands together at the thought of more money coming their way. One exceptionally thin Arena Lord saw the Newcomer looking at images through one of the portals to the other worlds. The portal through which the Newcomer was peering showed what looked like teenage human children running around performing feats of immense strength. The Newcomer then waved his hand and changed the view to show the hybrid beast he had referred to as Chimera moving through a forest with what looked like a family of humans. The Arena Lord noticed that as the Newcomer looked at Chimera, a sneer of disgust crept across his face.

  The emaciated gray figure called out to the Newcomer. “Our champion is about to engage another of the monsters on that planet you sent him to! Come and enjoy the sport of it all. We can decide on other competitors from all the worlds you’ve found later. The children looked a bit fragile for what we’re after anyways, and you said that this “Chimera” wasn’t a good pick, correct?”

  The Newcomer turned away from his distraction and shook his head. “Of course, but one must always monitor the discarded in hopes that they’ve improved. Was it not the same with Gurral?” The Newcomer then drifted over to the projected images, joining the other Arena Lords in watching Gurral as he was charged by the ferret-like giant tayra dubbed ‘Fur-Face.’

  The mutated mammal leaped at Gurral’s throat with teeth bared, but Gurral lifted an arm to block, and the fuzzy fighter had to settle for sinking its fangs and claws into the Smasher’s forearm. Gurral grimaced in pain as it shook its head back and forth, creating a saw-like effect that bore deeper into the meat of the brawler’s arm.

  Beginning to take the fight seriously, the Smasher reached down with his free hand, grabbed the mutant by the back of the head, and tugged. “Get off, you skinny freak!”

  Gurral pulled back hard, trying to force the tayra to release its grip, but the act only caused the hairy harasser to bite down deeper while hissing. Gurral’s blood red eyes flared. “I was gonna milk this a bit, but now you’re getting smashed!” The arena champion then crouched low and using the forearm that Fur-Face was biting, he drove the back of his weaselly opponent’s head into the ground, ignoring the deep rents left by the ever-deepening bite. Seeing that it was being pinned, the tayra released its grip and squirmed from under the ever-increasing pressure Gurral was applying.

  Fur-Face crouched, darted forward as if it were going for another neck-bite, but when Gurral blocked, it instead quickly dashed through Gurral’s legs and sank its teeth into his Achilles tendon. Gurral let lo
ose a roar of rage and pain, and his vision reddened. With speed driven by pain and frustration, he reached down while sitting back, instantly pinning the beast’s body under his bulk and gripping the tayra by the neck.

  The furred attacker released the back of Gurral’s ankle, instinctively trying to free itself by ravaging what it could reach of Gurral’s wrist, drawing a heavy flow of blood. Gurral thought to himself, “This little match is starting to cost more than I wanted it to.” The Smasher bellowed, “Okay, Fur-Face, time to feel the hurt.” His grip on the back of the scrawny beast’s neck began to tighten more and more, increasing the pressure until it threatened to crack the tayra’s spine. Under this extreme pressure, the furry aggressor began to flail its entire body about in an attempt to escape. Gurral then slammed his spiked forearm down into the pinned foe, piercing deep into its body and cracking a few ribs.

  The extreme pain caused by the forearm strike drove Fur-Face to even more frantic twisting and thrashing. Despite the grip on its neck and Gurral pinning it with a full mount, the mutated tayra struggled free. Unfortunately for Fur-Face, pulling free required it to rip itself out from under the forearm spikes, and after a few leaps back away, it collapsed to the ground, bleeding out.

  Gurral shook his head while walking up to the downed beast. “You put up one heck of a fight, I gotta admit!” As Gurral was paying a compliment to his defeated foe, the weaselly mutant rolled and spun to face away from him while arching its back and lifting its tail. Gurral leaned forward with a look of surprise. “What in the hell are you…” Gurral’s mouth was wide open in the middle of speaking when Fur-Face activated the scent gland in its anus. A spray of toxic particles shot into the air, burning Gurral’s eyes, nose and mouth. The Smasher staggered back as he rubbed his eyes and did his best to spit out the particles that had landed in his mouth.

  Gurral’s already red eyes took on an even darker hue as they burned from the chemical attack. He fixed his threatening glare in the direction of the injured tayra. “Of all the dirty tricks…” Gurral growled as his fists clenched tightly shut.

  Gurral pushed through the toxic cloud given off by the tarya, no longer considering the harm it might cause him. The crippled beast was snarling and snapping his jaws as the Smasher approached, intent on destruction. Gurral delivered an earth-shattering kick to the beast’s side that sent it flying through the jungle, shattering trees until it rolled to a limp stop. The towering arena gladiator roared while launching himself upwards into the sky with a powerful jump, crossing the distance between himself and the target of his fury. With a sound like a bomb going off, he landed in a two-handed smash upon the torso of Fur-Face, leaving a crater in the ground and sending bits of his foe’s blood flying in all directions.

  Gurral lifted the barely moving monster in front of him and bellowed, “You’re done!” The immense berserker growled loudly from deep in his core, then in a display of his indescribable strength, he pulled his front and hind legs in opposite directions and tore Fur-Face in half. Gurral afterward stood staring blankly into the distance, seething in anger, covered in blood, intestines and fur.

  Back on Arena World, the crowd and the Arena Lords cheered at the show of visceral power and anger displayed by their champion! One of the Arena Lords turned to the Newcomer. “This has been amazing so far! The battle with the plant creature and now this four-legged foul-smelling beast! The fight between Gurral and Atomic Rex should be the perfect finisher to this special broadcast, and I can’t wait for our boy to bring that powerful competitor here!”

  The Newcomer looked to the Arena Lord with a sly smile. “Nor can I.”

  Back on Earth, the Smasher stood with eyes closed, fists clenched, breathing hard. He slowly lengthened his breaths and began to release all the rage that had built up within him. Once back in complete control, he did his best to assess the situation. He looked down at the bisected form of Fur-Face at his feet. “I’ve been ripped up fighting all kinds of uglies, but that’s my first time getting butt-sprayed. I need to get this taste out of my mouth before dinner.”

  Gurral splashed some water from the river onto his face and body, cleaning and cooling himself. As steam rose from his scalp, he reached down and tossed one half of Fur-Face into the center of the river. He watched as the tayra’s blood seeped out and flowed downstream. Gurral nodded and thought to himself, “That’ll let ol’ Rexy know there’s a new king in town.” He then picked up the other half of Fur-Face and thought, “I’ll take this half to the ocean and toss it in there in case Rexy is off swimming.”

  With the upper half of his last opponent’s body in his hand, Gurral began walking toward the Pacific Ocean. While the rinse from the river had gotten most of the blood and intestines off, the musk smell was as strong as ever, and the sweltering hot sun beating down on him seemed to intensify it. The massive brawler stopped several times to drink on the way. He needed to stay hydrated and if he was lucky it would eventually rinse the foul taste from his mouth.

  After walking for hours, Gurral once again felt hunger swelling in his stomach. He glanced toward the half of the dead mutant tayra he was carrying. “There’s no way I’m eating your stinky ass.” The Smasher shrugged and thought, “I’ll eat when I get to the ocean. The river fish were big, so I’ve gotta guess the fish in the ocean are gonna be huge.” Gurral smiled as he looked down at the small sack attached to his harness. “Plus, saltwater fish are the best kind of fish to eat with dust.”

  After leaving the jungle, the arena champion walked for another hour before he finally reached the beach. As he approached the shore, he could smell the fresh salt air and feel the cool breeze coming off the water. The monster took a moment to enjoy the pleasant smell and feel the wind blow over him before walking onto the beach.

  A few more steps, and Gurral finally reached the ocean, and the first thing he did was throw what was left of Fur-Face’s body into the water. The corpse only had to float for a few minutes before it attracted several large sharks that began to feast on the remains.

  Gurral looked at the still seeping wounds in his arm and stomach, and he grinned. “Catching dinner is going to be easier than I thought.” He then waded out into the water until it was up to his neck. He closed his eyes as he could almost feel the musk from Fur-Face washing off of him. After taking a deep breath, he ducked his head under the water and saw trails of his blood along with some splattered remains of the mammalian monster that had been stuck to his body being swept out to sea by the tide. As the makeshift chum floated away from his body, several of the sharks that had been feeding on the corpse of the dead tayra swam over to investigate.

  Gurral remained still until two of the larger sharks were within arms’ reach. Then with a speed that belied his massive size, Gurral’s arms shot out and he grabbed a shark in each mitt. The two predators tried to break free of his grip but one squeeze from the Smasher’s powerful hands ceased their struggles forever.

  He plodded back to shore and looked at the two dead sharks in his hands. “These are gonna taste really good with some dust.” He then turned around to sit down and look at the ocean while he ate. Gurral was about to open his dust bag when he saw something large and gray flying over the water toward him. He stood up and took a few steps towards the shore to get a better look at whatever it was that was soaring closer.

  Gurral used his hand to shield his eyes from the sun and was able to make out the form of a giant robot coming toward him in the air and something big following behind the robot under the water.

  He took a bite out of one of the sharks. After he swallowed the mouthful of fish, he shrugged and looked toward one of the cameras hovering around him. “Then again, maybe the dust will have to wait. It looks like I have another fight coming up.”

  Back on Arena World, the crowd cheered as the Arena Lords clasped their hands in anticipation of another new challenge for their champion. As everyone else was swelling with excitement, the Newcomer remained calm and reached out for the controls to the cameras that
were hovering around Gurral. The Newcomer’s brow furrowed as he said to himself, “Let’s get a closer look at the vaunted Steel Samurai 2.0.” At the Newcomer’s command, the cameras that had been following Gurral took off over the ocean toward the legendary mech.

  Chapter 13

  The Settlement

  Emily had finished meeting with the plumbers and electricians to discuss the maintenance and updates needed for the settlement. The meetings went well, and everyone knew what tasks they had to complete. The thing that surprised Emily the most was how interested in her wedding people were. Everyone, men and women, kept saying that they could not wait for the wedding and the opportunity to celebrate. Emily was glad that people were excited but she had difficulty empathizing with them. Of course, she was happy to marry Sean but it was just a quick ceremony and then a dinner that her mom had really set up. She pushed the thought about people’s excitement for her wedding aside and went home to see Sean himself.

  Emily took care of numerous things she needed to do around the house but, after several hours when Sean had still not come home, she began to worry. Emily knew that Sean had gone out to feed Ramrod, but she was not overly concerned that the giant mutant ram had hurt her fiancé. For almost a year now, both she and Sean, and even on occasion Kyle, had made a food drop for the monster and the kaiju had made no move to hurt them.

  There was of course always the chance that something else had attacked her fiancé. Emily knew her parents had been doing regular sweeps in Steel Samurai 2.0 but it was possible that some mutant or kaiju had slipped past them.

  The young woman threw her hands into the air. “I can’t just sit around here worrying about him.” She then walked out of her house, mounted one of the numerous horses on the farm, and headed out to the site where they dropped food for Ramrod.