Chương 15: Chapter 14 - Blindmaw

The alert went off in every car at once, just as I was exiting mine. KAIJU EVENT — MEDIUM SIZED — MONROE TOWNSHIP AND SURROUNDING — EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY Ah, so the early warning system still worked, just wasn't exactly early because we weren't exactly close to the coast. Half a mile west, past the sound wall and the marsh flats, something stood up over the rooftops. I had seen the water tower on that side of the river a dozen times on this drive. The thing next to it was taller. Nobody moved.

Three lanes of people sat in their cars with their windows down and their phones up, filming, because the alert had told them not to travel toward the river and none of them were traveling anywhere. A woman four cars ahead had climbed onto her hood for a better angle. I watched it blow up an entire house with a swipe of its arm. Was I going to ruin my best suit or was I going to get filmed almost naked? Meh, I liked the suit. I took off the jacket, and folded it over the seat.

Tie next, then the shirt, then the shoes and socks and trousers, all of it stacked in a pile that would have made my old tailor weep. I didn't have gauntlets nor the glaive. No reason to bring them for a ceremony. Then again, running around in trunks was going to look terrible no matter what I carried. I picked up the shirt, ripped it up, and wrapped it over the bottom half of my face. All right. I exhaled.

"Winds of war, flames of peace, water is blood, earth is the end." I jabbed myself with the thumb in the chest, kickstarting my heartbeat.

"Asura." My heart started pumping like crazy. I gave it a moment. The longer this technique ran, the more it consumed my life force, the bigger the boost. A kid from a car turned from the kaiju, staring at me. Too slow. He could have caught me if he had looked earlier. With a smirk underneath the ripped up shirt, I bolted toward the kaiju. Air exploded around me in a sonic boom. The monster was about eighty feet from the tip of the jaw to the end of the tail.

The skull ran back a third of the body, hinged so far behind the mouth that the whole thing could open like a bear trap, and it walked on four thick fins with finger bones splayed inside them, sunk into the ground up to the second knuckle. Grey wet hide covered its sinewy body, drowned-looking, crusted along the spine with barnacle clusters the size of dinner plates. A rusted crab pot hung off one shoulder in a tangle of net that dragged behind it down the street. It had no eyes.

Where they should have been there were two smooth plates of bone, and below them, down each flank, six gill slits opened and shut. I kept speeding up and rammed into the ugly piece of shit with my shoulder, straight into the chest. Chitin cracked underneath the impact, but didn't break. The body bounced us both off. It got thrown back a dozen feet. I flew a hundred feet back and hit a house. My back shattered the wall. I blasted through the back wall too, and finally stopped. Well, fuck.

How was I going to kill this? At least everyone had evacuated. With a click of its jaw, the kaiju bolted at me. This thing was so much faster than anything this size had any right to, the fin-limbs slamming down and cratering the asphalt, the whole road pitching under the weight. It opened the mouth so it almost touched the ground, massive teeth in six rows. I stepped in, slipped under the jaw, and twisted my entire body into an uppercut. My fist hit the jaw. The impact threw the jaw up, jerking the head up.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I darted at the throat, and rammed my arm into its flesh, using the combined speed of our crash. I pierced the chitin and muscle. But I couldn't reach anything that felt vital. The kaiju jerked its body, throwing me off. I tore out a chunk of its throat in the process. Dark blue blood spilled out, but I didn't hit any vein. I hit a tree with my back, pain firing through me. The tall tulip tree didn't budge.

With a grunt, I bounced off, but stayed by the tree. The kaiju charged again. I waited. A step short of me, it twisted its head sideways, opening the massive jaw wide. I jumped up. It snapped the jaws, biting a third of the tree off. I grabbed the tree's upper trunk with both hands, lifted it, and swung it down. The kaiju raised its jaw just before I could hit its nape. The tree hit the top of its head. The hit sank its head down. The wood shook in my hand. I spun mid-air, together with the tree, and hit its back.

The tree broke upon impact. But a crunch echoed from underneath. The kaiju jerked its body, whipping the tail at me. Yeah, nah, no way to dodge mid-air. The tail hit me like a ten-ton whip, shooting me to the side as I had to let go of the tree. I flew through another house, plowing the yard behind it. The pain blinded me for a split second. Damn it. I was taking too much damage while dealing too little in return. The monster shook itself and charged at me again.

It blew apart the house, not slowing down at all as it came through. I needed a weapon. Not much around, just houses, left-behind cars, and electricity lines. Hmm. That F150 behind me looked heavy. The kaiju opened the jaw diagonally now. I waited. At the last second, I darted back. The jaw snap shut straight on front of me. I grabbed the F150 by the rear, and bolted sideways to its head, dragging the car behind me. The kaiju jerked its head after me with a short snap of its jaw.

I slid from it, planted my feet, and spun. I slammed the car into the side of its head. Windows blew out, the alarm blared, but the kaiju's head blew sideways. Oh, yeah, it felt that one. I spun again, swinging the car like a hammer. It jabbed at me with the tail. The car blew the tail away. With the next spin, I hit the kaiju's shoulder. The impact boomed through the air. Chitin, blood, bones, and car parts flew into the air. The car shattered, together with a chunk of the kaiju's shoulder.

Only a part of the car's rear remained in my hands. In the torn part of the body, I spotted the core, lodged high up under a collar bone, the metal and gem-like core shone. But it still snapped the jaw at me. I jumped up. It missed, but launched with the forehead at me. I smashed the remains of the Ford into its skull. The kaiju's bones won, throwing me away. I flew over another house, through a picket fence, across the yard, over the fence's other side, and I finally made contact with the ground.

My feet tore through a garden, slowing me down. My vision blurred slightly. While I could out-regenerate Asura, it wasn't by all that much. So, even though the impacts didn't harm me too badly, it added up. And the kaiju already tore through the house in the way, charging at me. I needed another car. Nearby, I spotted a Civic, and an old Cadillac. I rushed to them, grabbed the Civic, and threw it at the kaiju. The jaws opened in an instant and caught the car.

It smashed it within its mouth, crushing the entire car, and spat the pieces at me. I dodged while dragging the Cadillac behind me by its undercarriage's hind corner. The shrapnel missed me by inches and pummeled the car. I kept hold of it. The kaiju kept charging. I ran to the power lines. This time, it swayed its head before opening the jaws, trying to bait my swing. Nice try, dumb fish. I kept running. Its patience ran out, and it surged forward, opening the jaws wide. I jumped away, carrying the car.

The jaws hit the power line. Electricity sparked through the monster, stunning it in place. I spun mid-air, aiming for the core. The kaiju twisted its body, using its throat to block the strike. But I still hit it from the wound, tearing out another chunk of its flesh. I finished the spin, and as it got jerked sideways, I whirled vertically, and slammed the Cadillac into the core in its shoulder. The core shattered, the impact blowing up the car in my hands. I landed exhaling.

The monster started disintegrating into dark particles. I frowned. What the fuck? As I looked at it, the kaiju formed the faintest of smirks. Through the torn part of the throat, I spotted another core. It shone there, in its center. Did the blind fucker just smirk at me? In furious disbelief, I bolted to it, aiming for the core. The creature spun like in a spasm, slashing the tail at me. It hit me in the air, hammering me into the ground. The monster disintegrated to nothing. Fuck. That wasn't its death.

Even I knew that. And since when the hell did kaiju have multiple cores? I've never heard of that. Not that I paid attention during Cross's seminars, but still. My body barely steamed, no sweat left for it to evaporate. I ran back to my car, slow hypersonic on the way. I ran around the car, and jumped in. For nothing awaits. I jabbed my chest, my heart slowing down. A wave of tiredness hit me like a truck. I used a lot of strength. And I was more wounded than I had thought.

But I did manage to get dressed, suit on and no shirt under it. At the end, I threw the torn up shirt on the back seat, and got into the car. The little kid in the other car stared at me. He didn't have a phone, so nobody was going to believe him. When the traffic started moving again, I drove straight back to the base, not missing the new billboard with Lillith they had erected across the street yesterday. It showed Lillith standing on a skyscraper, posing above a dead kaiju, with a text God is Our Salvation.

Join the KSF! on it. Good that we were going to deploy soon.