I cough his hand up and kick it to the side.
Karkinos suddenly falls to the ground beside Typhon. Its body is torn up, but still mostly hale. The giant is quicker to its feet this time, squaring off with Nemesis again, whose shredded flesh is leaking red blood. She might be taller than Karkinos, but the doppelganger Kaiju is more powerful. Nemesis, on the other hand, is a bit of a savage. She has the end of Karkinos’s tail in her mouth. She spits it away.
We’re a real pair, Maigo.
Typhon roars, and it’s a sick sound, like a crocodile puking up a shrieking cat. Accentuating the horrible sound is Typhon’s face. It splits vertically and opens, as four, long, bone-like mandibles lined with hooks spring out.
Even Nemesis reels back with a wutdafuck look on her face.
Round two is about to begin, and I have a strong feeling this will be the end of it.
But like any good tag-team smackdown, a newcomer suddenly appears. The Air Force is back. But they’re not streaking past, firing random missiles. They’re in a holding pattern, a mile out. A line of harrier jets and attack helicopters hover at the edge of the burnt city. I wish I could hear what they were planning and help direct them, but at the moment, I’m a 300-foot monstrosity. I don’t think they’ll listen.
Then it happens. All at once, the legion of helicopters and jets unleash a cloud of missiles. I look ahead, judging their course. My gaze falls upon Nemesis. To the military, all four Kaiju are the enemy, and Nemesis is the most feared. And right now, with her skin falling away, she’s the most obvious target. The problem with that, aside from the fact that Nemesis is our only chance of stopping Gordon’s Kaiju, is that they’re going to hit several of her explosive membranes and that could level the rest of the city.
“No!” I shout, though it sounds more like, “Orgh!”
I step in front of Nemesis and turn my back. The missiles hit one by one, digging through Scylla’s body, tearing away great hunks of flesh. I can feel each explosion, searing flesh. Blood flows down my great back. But Nemesis is protected, and what remains of the city is unharmed.
Nemesis meets my eyes for just a moment. I see surprise and appreciation in them. And then I’m blinded by pain. Real pain, from my gut. I turn my wide head down and see clawed fingers protruding through Scylla’s stomach.
Not my stomach, I tell myself.
As the hand retracts, I feel the fingers wrap around Scylla’s spine.
This is it. Scylla is a goner. Nemesis is on her own.
49
Typhon’s hand tightens around Scylla’s spine, and I feel sharp pain, unlike anything I’ve felt before, lance up my back. I might not be inhabiting my own body, but it sure as hell feels like it. And if I don’t pull out of Scylla’s mind soon, I’m going to experience the Kaiju’s death, which could possibly result in my own. No one has said as much, but if my consciousness is locked in a dead mind... Even if that’s not the case, I don’t think I want to know what it feels like to die. All I need to do is concentrate. Loosen my grip on the Kaiju’s mind and return to my own. It’s like backing out of a room, except the room and door don’t exist.
But I can’t. When the agony of Typhon’s killer attack screams through Scylla’s body, the gift of rage given to me by Maigo is ignited afresh, like one of those birthday candles you can’t blow out. The fire burns hot and bright, drowning out the pain. With the last of Scylla’s strength, I leap up.
I feel the giant spine break as I rise up and twist around. Vertebrae snap with the sound of a felled tree. The Kaiju’s legs go limp, severed from the mind. But I don’t care. The parts of Scylla I need are all still working.
Typhon’s hand, slick with brown blood, can’t stop me from spinning. When I face the giant, whose mandibles are flexed open in anger—or is it surprise?—I reach out and grasp them, oblivious to the spikes slipping into the flesh of Scylla’s hands.
Then I pull, drawing Typhon’s head closer.
The monster resists, seeing his fate.
With a Nemesis-like rage-fueled roar, I yank harder. One of the mandibles snaps free with a spray of brown blood. Typhon screeches and forgets himself for just a moment.
It’s all I need.
With a final lunge, I open Scylla’s mouth wide, wrapping the jaws and long sharp teeth over Typhon’s head. What are likely the most powerful jaws on the planet snap shut. Long teeth slide through Typhon’s neck. While the life drains out of Scylla, I command her to shake, to thrash and to never let go.
I can feel Typhon’s head coming loose in my mouth, a gush of hot blood spraying down my throat. Both Kaiju begin falling to the ground.
Death, the only unstoppable enemy of life, is claiming them both.