As the Gurral nodded in response to Chris’ words the Arena Lord started to become nervous. “You’d let Arena World be destroyed? You would let your home world be torn asunder? You would let us Arena Lords as well as the crowd be slain by Atomic Rex and the woman manipulating him?”
This time it was Kate who grabbed the external speaker. “Would he let the people who kept him as a slave and fed an addiction to force him to fight to the death for their amusement die? From what Gurral has told us, you are cruel and ruthless creatures. I was worried that sending Atomic Rex to you was a fate too cruel for even him, but if he is proving to be more than you can handle, I would suggest that you and your crowd are reaping what you have sown.”
Gurral nodded. “You know she has a point. You raised me to be a slave and work in the mines. You only moved me to the arena when I became strong. Why in the hell should I help you?”
The Arena Lord began to consider Allison's words about how he and those of his kind were really Gurral’s prisoners. He went to the one thing that he was still able to hold over the monster. “The offer of a home with friends that you can fight to protect may sound alluring but you are forgetting something, aren’t you?”
The Arena Lord pointed to the nearly empty sack of dust strapped to Gurral’s chest. “Your dust. How will you function without your dust? It's been what, only a couple of hours since you last ingested it? You feel fine now but how will you feel in a few more hours? How will you feel when that small bag you have runs out?”
Gurral looked down at the bag. The mighty Smasher was silent as he stared at the tiny bag of particles that had become the driving force in his life. He placed his fingers on the bag and began to twirl it around. As he was doing so, he saw the dimensional device also strapped to his chest. Gurral grabbed the device and smiled. “If ol’ Rexy destroys you and the rest of the Arena Lords, I can just use this device to hop back and forth. I can go and grab dust as often as I want.”
The Smasher looked over Steel Samurai 2.0. “I gotta say having a friend is something new for me. I kinda like what Chris is saying. Fighting for a cause, fighting for a friend I can talk to is something I never had before.” Gurral gestured to the newly added scars to his body. “Look, those little guys patched me up after my fight with Rexy. Not because they needed me to be ready to fight again tomorrow. They did it for no other reason than to help me out.” He shrugged. “So yeah, maybe I’ll stay here and help them out. Maybe that way I can really enjoy my retirement with people who I like instead of by myself in some cave.”
The Arena Lord began to shake as he realized he was losing the argument. He recalled Allison’s words about how when you needed someone to do what you said you either had to offer them something they wanted or take away something they coveted. The Arena Lord quickly recalled what the Newcomer had told him of Atomic Rex and what he learned of the monster from the drones that had recently filmed him. Taking this knowledge and considering that what he said next would either save everything he had, or cost him all that he acquired over his life and possibly even his life itself, the Arena Lord made one last ploy to lure Gurral back to Arena World.
The Arena Lord took a step closer to Gurral and he stared him in the eyes with as much conviction as he could muster. “Atomic Rex is brutally dedicated to defending his territory. What do you think he will consider his new territory on Arena World after he has slain everyone else there? Do you think he will simply allow you to teleport in and take your Impervium? Even if you were successful the first time, Atomic Rex would know you were there and he would wait for you to come back.”
The Arena Lord could see that his words were beginning to weigh on Gurral’s mind. He fought back a smile as he continued to press his advantage. “Atomic Rex was able to sense you from halfway across this planet and because you were in his territory, he came to destroy you. Once he knows that you want access to the Impervium, to what he will consider his territory, do you really think that he will simply let you come and go?”
He took a step closer to Gurral, going close enough to the giant monster that he could reach out and touch the beast. “Is that what you want? To have to battle Atomic Rex for access to the dust, each and every time you go there? Atomic Rex is the most powerful foe you have ever faced; is retirement going to be based around fighting that beast every time you want your dust? Or would battling Atomic Rex now before he considers the arena his territory, in a ring where you would have the advantage, be a much more logical approach?”
Gurral’s eyes flared with anger. “If that overgrown lizard thinks he is going to take the dust from me, he’s dead wrong!” Gurral stood and gestured to the Arena Lord. “Come on, open the portal; let’s go!”
Chris called out to his friend. “Gurral, you don’t have to go with him. You don’t need the dust! The dust is what he uses to control you, but you don’t need him and you don’t need the dust.”
Gurral’s face was still filled with anger as he turned and looked in the direction of the mech his friend was sitting in. The Smasher shook his head. “No one’s going to take my dust away from me!”
Chris tried to sound as calming and caring as he could. “I’m not saying I want to take the dust away from you. I’m saying I want to help you take yourself away from the dust. Away from the hold it has on you. Away from the Arena Lords and the battles they make you fight for no other reason than the entertainment of others!”
Chris could see Gurral’s face starting to soften. Kate reached over and grabbed her husband’s hand and when she did so it gave him the strength to carry on with his plea. “You’re the strongest living being I have ever seen! I’ve seen literally dozens of monsters capable of destroying mountains if they wanted to fall before Atomic Rex, but you were able to hold your own against him. With Kate and me helping you, you were able to force him off the planet.”
Chris grabbed the controls of Steel Samurai. He then had the mech walk toward Gurral with its hand extended. “Together we were able to beat Atomic Rex. Together we did the impossible. If we were able to do that together, we can also break the dust’s hold over you. This is what friends do, Gurral. They help each other. You freed us by removing the greatest threat to our existence from our planet. You have given us a better life. Now, give us the chance to do the same for you. Give us the chance to help you overcome your addiction. Give us the chance to free you and offer you a better life. That is what friends do for each other. They help each other. Let us be your friends.”
Gurral looked at the mech’s extended hand. The Smasher had never had anyone speak to him as Chris just did. He never had anyone talk to him as an equal and not as something they could use for their own benefit. The Smasher started to lift his hand when his fingers began to shake. Gurral looked down at his hand to see that it was shaking all the way down to his elbow.
The arena champion knew that the shaking was the result of him considering giving up the dust. The shaking was his body rejecting his thoughts that he could live without the fix the dust provided him. Gurral dropped his hand as any sign of hope in his face was replaced by shame. Shame at the thought that his addiction to the dust outweighed his desire for friendship. For the first time in his life, Gurral the Smasher, the mightiest creature in existence, realized how weak he truly was.
He shook his head as he looked at the mech containing his newfound friends. “I can’t. I need the dust. It’s all I know. It’s the only thing that has ever made me feel good. I can’t give it up. I need to go and fight for it.”
Gurral’s eyes brightened a little. “Come with me! Together we can kill Atomic Rex, then I can have access to my dust and still live back here!”
Inside of Steel Samurai 2.0, Kate could see the disappointment on Chris’ face. She knew that eventually Gurral would be drawn back to the dust he was addicted to. She squeezed her husband’s hand to show him that she loved him.
She then turned off the exterior speaker. “Let him go, Chris. I’ve seen addicts before. No matter what you of
fer him, nothing will convince him to break away from his addiction until he decides to do it himself. And he can’t be the protector we are looking for as long as he’s hooked on that stuff. What will happen when a mutant is approaching and he’s too high to fight it off?”
She moved closer to her husband. “We can’t help him either. If he was trying to save his family or something, that would be one thing, but he’s trying to fight Atomic Rex to get access to a drug and to save people who have monsters kill each other for sport. It’s not something worth risking our lives for. It’s not something risking more damage to Steel Samurai 2.0. It’s not something worth dying for and missing Emily’s wedding for. It’s not worth missing our future grandchildren for.”
She turned Chris’ head so that he was looking in her eyes again. “Chris, tell me you are not still addicted to killing Atomic Rex. Tell me that having that monster off the planet is enough for you. Tell me you can choose your family over your desire to kill that monster.”
Chris kissed his wife. “Of course, I can. The love I have for you and the kids is greater than any other feeling or desire I have.” He sighed. “And you’re right, as much as I want to help Gurral, he’s fighting for the wrong reasons. A real friend would never ask me to fight for something I didn’t believe was worthwhile.”
Chris nodded and turned on the exterior speakers. “Gurral, I can’t risk my life and my family’s safety to save the Impervium mines of the Arena Lords. My daughter is getting married in three days. I won’t risk missing that for this or any other world. I won’t try to make you do anything you don’t want to do, but know this, friends don’t give up on each other. We have a settlement several thousand kilometers north from here. If you just follow the coast, you’ll eventually find us. If you are able to kill Atomic Rex, if you decide you want to leave behind the dust, you can find us there.”
Chris then piloted Steel Samurai 2.0 into the sky. The mech flew a quick circle over Gurral and the Arena Lord before it rocketed in a northern direction.
The Arena Lord looked up at Gurral. “You’ve made the right decision.”
Gurral shook his head, and said, “Shut up.” He then grabbed the device to open the portal to the Arena.
The Arena Lord looked at the strap across Gurral’s chest and fixed his eyes on the taser weapon that Allison had referred to as part of Zeus’ Thunderbolt. The Arena Lord nodded. “Very well. Your opponent, the crowd, and your dust all await.”
Gurral nodded and activated the portal device using the coordinates Allison had programmed into it. The rift opened up to show Atomic Rex standing in the middle of a half decimated arena. When Atomic Rex saw the portal form with Gurral on the other side of it, the nuclear theropod leaned forward and roared at the true form of the illusion Allison had been taunting him with.
As the monster’s roar ended, Gurral slammed his right fist into his left palm. “It’s smashing time!” He then charged into the portal with the Arena Lord at his feet.
Chapter 22
Arena World
Gurral entered the arena that he had ruled for so long to hear a raucous applause from the crowd. The applause was different from the cheers he had heard before. Typically, the applause he received was due to the crowd rooting for him either out of an affection for him or because they bet on him to win. When the crowd cheered for him in that situation, their cheers were filled with excitement.
The applause Gurral got today carried with it a sense of hope and relief. They had seen what Atomic Rex had done to the wall of the ring, had witnessed his awesome power, and this caused them to experience a sensation none had ever felt on Arena World before. All of them were scared, and many were utterly terrified, knowing how close they were to being devoured by the primeval predator in the ring below. The only thing that kept them from pure panic was the knowledge that their champion was coming to take this monster down.
As Gurral flexed his shoulders and looked around, the Arena Lord who had come through the portal with him sprinted away and into a massive hole to Gurral’s right that had clearly been caused by the reptilian horror standing at the opposite side of the ring. He saw the destruction the radioactive leviathan had wrought through that hole deep into the heart of the facility. He could also see the scared but hopeful faces in the crowd, and understood their expectation of him. In this battle, it was not only the gladiators’ lives that were in danger, it was everyone in the facility. The crowd began to cheer more loudly, and chant his name, sending a surge of adrenaline through his body.
With the knowledge that these people were depending on him to save their very lives, Gurral finally understood what Chris had said about fighting for a cause. On any other given day there were people in the crowd who would be rooting against Gurral because they had bet against him. With the odds of him winning each battle he was in, there was a substantial profit to be made if he lost. This resulted in a somewhat split crowd, all in fact rooting for their money.
Now the groundswell from the crowd was one hundred percent behind Gurral, with not a single seated or quiet body in the entirety of the stands. The Smasher had never really fought for anyone else’s life other than his own. Even though he knew the members of the crowd were despicable beings who on any other day would pay to see him die, today they were cheering for him to save their lives, and that feeling, the feeling that he could save lives by winning this fight, gave Gurral an inner strength he had never known was available to him.
Gurral quickly looked to the top of the arena where the Arena Lords typically watched the battles from. He could see several Arena Lords and a blond-haired human-looking woman staring down at them. He guessed that the blonde was the nymph who had manipulated him and the Arena Lords into this situation in the first place. He made a mental note to have a word with her once he finished with Atomic Rex.
The arena champion was drawn away from the adulation of the crowd and his inner thoughts, when Atomic Rex roared again and charged him. Gurral clenched his fists and muttered, “This is my home turf. Time to show you why I’m the champ here.”
When the two monsters had almost reached one another, Gurral shifted his mass to the side so that he did not collide directly with Atomic Rex. As Atomic Rex hurtled past, Gurral wrapped his burly arm around the nuclear theropod’s neck and trapped the monster in a headlock. The Smasher then began repeatedly driving his spiked fist into the saurian creature’s jaw. With each blow, Gurral rocked his adversary and tore chunks of scales out.
Gurral growled at the earth born kaiju as he delivered blow after blow. “It’s over, Rexy. Nobody beats me in my arena. Nobody!”
In response to Gurral’s taunts, Atomic Rex stopped trying to break free from the hold he was trapped in. Gurral looked down to see a light blue glow starting to emanate from the saurian beast’s body.
Knowing what was coming next, Gurral shifted his weight, and using his unparalleled strength, he hurled Atomic Rex away. He then turned his back to the monster, bent down, and wrapped his arms around his knees. Half a moment later, Gurral was sent rolling forward as the Atomic Wave slammed into his body. Gurral was still curled into a ball when he crashed into the arena wall, creating a massive dent.
With the Atomic Wave finished, Gurral rose from the floor with smoke rolling from his Impervium-encased back. A deafening cheer came from the crowd as they realized he had taken the Earth monster’s most powerful attack completely unharmed.
Gurral looked at Atomic Rex and nodded. “That’s right, Rexy. If I fight smart, you can’t burn me with your blast, and I don’t think you can take me without it.”
Atomic Rex’s eyes lit up with anger when he saw that Gurral was unaffected by his Atomic Wave. The saurian monster snarled and then ran toward his foe. When he had almost reached Gurral, the Smasher turned his body in hopes of again slipping the charge and securing a headlock. Gurral however, was not the only monster that was able to adapt in the midst of a battle. Anticipating Gurral’s move, when Atomic Rex had nearly reached Gurral, he d
ucked down and shifted his momentum so that his tail swung forward to strike Gurral in the ribs, knocking the arena champion off balance.
As Gurral stumbled backward trying to fully regain his balance Atomic Rex stepped forward and swiped his claw across Gurral’s chest. Atomic Rex’s claws not only ripped new gashes across the gladiator’s chest but also tore through the strap that went across it holding the portal device and the taser weapon created from Zeus’ thunderbolt.
Atomic Rex followed the first slash with another from his other clawed hand, but Gurral was able to raise his forearm in time to block the attack with his Impervium wrist-spikes. Gurral then moved a step closer to his opponent, wrapped his arms around the reptile’s waist, lifted Atomic Rex into the air, and then slammed him to the floor with a crash.
Atomic Rex’s entire body was shaken from the impact of Gurral’s slam. The nuclear theropod was still on the ground when Gurral’s foot kicked him in the side of the face and snapped his head backwards. Knowing that he would be kicked again if he didn’t act fast, Atomic Rex threw the front part of his body forward and clamped his jaws around Gurral’s left leg.
Gurral roared in pain as the saurian monster’s teeth pierced through his flesh and struck the bone beneath it. With Gurral’s leg still in his mouth, Atomic Rex stood up and in doing so caused the Smasher to fall onto his back.
Gurral’s blood was streaming out of Atomic Rex’s mouth and down his leg. The pain the arena champion was experiencing increased exponentially when Atomic Rex began to shake his head from side to side in an attempt to tear the leg off completely. The arena champion looked past his body and saw Atomic Rex’s right foot near his free leg. Gurral snarled and then drove his fist into Atomic Rex’s foot causing the Earth monster to fall face first to the ground.
Atomic Rex: Challenge of Gurral Page 19
