Nyum-Bunet stumbled forwards several dozen meters, it’s aim thrown off enough to cause its attempted hammerfist to smash the seawater and nyus beside one of the dodging boats. A neon blue ray was shooting out of the ocean behind it and striking the titan on the back of the head. While the temperature-canceling properties of the nyus coating its form ensured the burning blue didn’t sear through it like a blowtorch, the kinetic impact the beam had did knock it forward slightly. Godzilla Junior cut the beam off and exploded out of the nyus and water in a charge, surging forward and colliding with the back of Nyum-Bunet’s legs to force a stumble. Nyum-Bunet groaned, sluggishly turning back around to try and dislodge or deal with the stubborn kaiju.
Aboard the main ski boat, Captain Blueberry Frost chewed her teeth and took aim with one of the cannons despite the issue of Godzilla Junior and Nyum-Bunet’s clashing was making the waves toss the ship around like a bath toy. A small smirk crossed her muzzle when the cannonball spewed forth, sailed at, and exploded directly against one of Nyum-Bunet’s, for lack of a better term, eyes. Said smirk was replaced with vocal swearing when she saw no visible signs of recoil or damage once the smoke cleared. Spiral Tooth, who’d just previously fired the other cannon at where some semblance of Nyum-Bunet’s neck would be, growled and smacked the twelve pound cannon.
“Buck it, this ain’t working. It’s hide and the nyus lodged in it is too tough for our load.”
Captain Blueberry Frost held on tight as another wave rocked the boat. Neon blue light reflected across their faces again. Captain Frost looked up to see Godzilla Junior, now taking heed to dodge Nyum-Bunet’s sluggish swipes or backhands, hosing the colossus down again with his breath attack. While Nyum-Bunet did flinch and get momentarily pushed back by the blow, the Earth Pony couldn’t help but recall how the Gyaos had reacted to the same attack. There was a kinetic force and the sheer heat, the latter which did a lot of damage. Yet the Nyum-Bunet wasn’t even singed by the attack.
“Junior’s breath is ‘possed to be scorchin’ that thing, an’ it ain’t burning through. What gives?!”
Spiral Tooth quickly glanced at the nyus still rocking across the ocean surface.
“Nyus play havoc with temperature, if that’s stuff your friend is blowin out is hot either that thing or the nyus coating it might be canceling it out. And he can’t wrestle with something like that, it’s gotta be four times stronger than he is.”
“So we can’t gun it down an’ Junior can’t burn it down.”
Blueberry Frost muttered, mind racing for a solution. It came with Zealos. The diamond dog had a grappling hook and cable in one paw and a sack of the explosive charges the cannonballs were loaded with in the other. She pointed to Nyum-Bunet's back. While Captain Blueberry Frost was more than a bit confused, Spiral Tooth cackled a laugh like his monster hunting partner had just said something.
“Right! The creature is focusing on the other monster, if we get behind it we can plant the charges all in one spot.”
Zealous grunted, motioning with her head to Nyum-Bunet’s upper back where Godzilla’s beam had struck it. The surface wasn’t burned, but if one looked close they could see some cracks across the mineralized skin.
“Could work, harder it is more brittle it be if we hit a pressure spot. This buggers got a tough outside but might just be a softie past first couple layers. Like splittin’ a boulder. If we get a big ‘nough blast under his skin, shockwaves will certain ruin his day.”
Captain Frost grunted, rubbing at her chin. Zealous picked up another large sack of explosive detonation charges with a big grin, nodding at the plan being jury-rigged on the spot.
“Climb up a walking mountain’s back to shove some deto packs between his ears? I’m liking this plan! One problem though, how we gonna get the packs deep enough in once we get to the cracks? Cannons not cutting it.”
Captain Blueberry Frost’s eyes caught upon something. Kicked up by the waves of Nyum-Bunet and Godzilla’s clash, a very large ship groaned across aged timbers before getting stuck partly on it’s side halfway out of the water. A minotaur emblem was strewn across the torn banner at it’s broken mast, but Frost instantly recognized what kind of ship it was. Evidently it seemed they weren’t the only one concerned when trade ships went missing and the Minotaurs had sent a super frigate to investigate.
-Probably thought it be pirates. And if them 'taurs always like to exaggerate in arms like I know they dooo...-
One could practically see the light bulb go off above Captain Frost’s head when she grinned at the sight of what was mounted at the bow. A huge, intact, hull buster cannon; easily a ninety pounder based off how many reinforcements were anchoring it to the ship which were likely the reason it remained aboard the wreck. It would need reloading, but if the cannon that big stayed aboard it practically guaranteed at least one of the solid rounds had.
Captain Blueberry Frost elbowed Zealos and Spiral Tooth, pointing to her discovery.
“That there’s our ticket! If we can get that thing aimed an’ loaded-”
Spiral Tooth, almost giddy at the sight of the giant weapon, continued her thought.
“-and blast the crack we lodge the charges in, it’ll punch the blast deep in and compound it!”
Zealos ignored the two’s grins and back up. Tilting her head towards the stallion at the helm, she eyed the struggling Godzilla Junior, Nyum-Bunet, and the minotaur frigate.
“Take the ship directly past the big one, ten meters if you want to live through this.”
“Y-yes ma’am!”
The stallion chirped, kicking the ship into high gear.
“All crew members, hang on!”
The ski boat started to lurch forward, breaking out of formation and charging towards the clashing titan and kaiju. Spiral Tooth, his throos spider, and Zealos took point on the deck with all the explosives they could carry slung onto their forms. Captain Blueberry Frost, with two barrels of black powder strapped to her flanks, snorted through her nose as she braced herself against the crashing waves and nyus. The boat got within one hundred meters, enough to feel the pressure waves of air coming from Nyum-Bunet’s horizontal swing that Godzilla Junior ducked under. The kaiju racked his spines across the underside of Nyum-Bunet’s limb, shaving off layers of nyus and underlying rocky body enough to earn a pained bellow from the larger monster. Spiral Tooth’s party steeled their nerves even as Godzilla’s colossal tail swung above the boat and crashed into the water several dozen meters in front of them. The tail’s resulting wave kicked the front of the boat up as the ship got extremely close to Nyum-Bunet’s leg, pitching the bow up just as the monster hunters rushed the stern. Zealos’ grappling hook, Spiral Tooth’s spear with an attached line, and the throos’ silk shot through the air and gained purchase on the living monolith. Using the momentum of the ship and themselves the trio launched themselves overboard and swung through the air to the sound of Spiral Tooth’s elated laughter.
Blueberry Frost, shielding her eyes from the seaspray and churning nyus, couldn’t help but give an impressed smirk at the display as the hunters; without pause, hit Nyum-Bunet’s leg running and started scaling the titan through a series of leaps and bounds to work their way slowly up it’s back. Calling out over the roaring sea and monsters, Captain Frost took the same point while the ski boat started to approach Nyum-Bunet’s other leg, which was closest to the minotaur frigate.
“Tell them other ships to keep circling and drop their spare black powder barrels by that frigate! I’ll need all I can get!”
“You want us to drop you off, Captain?!”
“Get to the order soldier! Don’t worry ‘bout me!”
The stallion at the helm, still wide eyed from the hunters’ choice of departure, just shakingly saluted. Captain Frost grinned and nodded, taking her aim as they went past the leg. With a gallop and leap, the mare vaulted herself into the air and off the ship while batting as a hidden level under her lance with her elbow. The lance was a hoof-me-down from her and Shining Armor’s predecessor and mentor, Captain Stalwart Sentry; and Stalwart wasn’t one for standard equipment. After all, he was a monster hunter. The lance quickly swiveled down and with a gust of springs and steam, fired it’s jagged head out like a cabled harpoon. Anchoring into Nyum-Bunet’s heel, Captain Frost swung herself around the giant’s heel and released, re-aiming and firing the lance head again to anchor into one of the shipwrecks and alter the course of her swing. For an Earth Pony, both she and Spiral Tooth could rival any pegasus in terms of airtime, Captain Frost nimbly swinging herself across the ship graveyard while Spiral Tooth vaulted himself across Nyum-Bunet’s expansive back.
Backstepping and leaning back to avoid another haymaker of a swing by Nyum-Bunet that might have fractured his ribcage had it landed, Godzilla Junior whirled himself around and brought his most powerful extremity into play: His tail. Being over one hundred meters long and over ten thousand tons heavy, the appendage smacked down on Nyum-Bunet’s arm and forced the larger monster to stumble forward. Capitalizing off the act, Godzilla Junior rattled the air with his roar and charged forward. Before Nyum-Bunet could fully rise back up the kaiju pounced and grabbed hold of the titan’s head and shoulder. While still smaller and weaker than Nyum-Bunet, the sudden sixty thousand tons of weight wrenching down on its upper body forced Nyum-Bunet to bend over and brace its arms to the ground to avoid falling over head first. Having grown savvy to his foe’s apparent heavy resistant to his plasma beam, Junior acted fast and put either of his hands on the sides of Nyum-Bunet’s collar while digging his claws into its back. Flashes of blue energy akin to arcing electricity and quick rays of light shot out of the kaiju’s glowing dorsal spines, into his hands, and surged into Nyum-Bunet’s body with an uproar of shocks and explosions. Godzilla’s nuclear pulse attack managed to elicit a surprised, almost pained cry from the flinching Nyum-Bunet.
Knowing his window of attack was gone, Godzilla quickly let go of his foe before Nyum-Bunet could do the same to him. The kaiju kicked himself back a safe distance and watched as Nyum-Bunet slowly began to rise again. As he did, he soon spied a trio of dots moving up Nyum-Bunet’s back like fleas on a cat. Sharp vision and eyeballs the size of pickup trucks soon saw what the ‘fleas’ were and Junior frankly didn’t know whether to be relieved he got help in this battle, ones who could hopefully help him find a way to put this enemy down for the count; or shocked beyond all reason Spiral Tooth, Zealos, and Spiral Tooth’s throos were not only getting close to the monster but were practically mountain climbing it. Their pace had been increased greatly since Junior forced Nyum-Bunet to bend over, enough they were almost to where the start of the lower shoulder blades would be, if this monster had them.
Nyum-Bunet’s eyes were starting to grow ever redder, and the temperature of the Nyubet was slowly starting to drop, something Spiral Tooth picked up on.
“I don’t know what it’s doing, but I think it’s dropping the temperature!” he shouted to his comrades.
Zealos took out metal hooks lining her thighs and hung onto the body as Nyum-Bunet arose, furious about what was happening. Not once had it ever had this happen in its lifespan, and still, it did not know what to do. Tiny things climbing it, fast things pounding it with explosives, and a giant thing hurting it more and more. The skies slowly whitened as the winds spiraled into a tempest of freezing cold.
“Incomin’!” Commodore Boulder shouted, grabbing onto the deck's rails to keep steady.
Godzilla, seeing the massive blizzard lifting a tsunami of nyus and seawater far behind Nyum-Bunet, stood in front of the ski boats and used his body as a shield to block the wave, certain that such colds wouldn’t harm him. While the giant reptile managed to block the most of the impact, he found himself slowed, but this was enough for Nyum-Bunet to take its chance. With a massive hand, it grabbed the King of Monsters, raised him over its head, then slammed him painfully into the solidified surface of ice and nyus. A resounding crack echoed into the air accompanied by the deafening screech of the stone titan. It was certain to have won the day, but that would only be true for something like a ship.
“What…” Boulder exhaled. “It can control the cold?! What in Tartarus is this abomination?”
Godzilla, although wounded, stood back up and challenged the titan with a resounding roar. Nyum-Bunet threw another punch at Godzilla and found it reflected by the reptile’s own fist.
The resounding rattle shook Nyum-Bunet’s body like an earthquake, forcing the trio scaling the living megaliths back to skillfully adjust their climb. Spiral Tooth gouged his spear into a small crack in Nyum-Bunet’s back, swinging around it and grabbing the reaching paw of Zealos. The diamond dog maximized her momentum and yanked upwards just as Spiral Tooth pried his spear out of the crack. The duo swung and jumped up to a higher elevation, using each other and their gear to steadily ascend. During its fight with Godzilla Junior, Nyum-Bunet attempted to bring its other arm down on the kaiju but was sidestepped. Junior grabbed onto the limb and pulled down, forcing the larger monster to hunch over and stumble forward. The change in incline angle allowed the hunters a better purchase, now practically running up the steep angle like a pair of sprinters running up hill. Spiral Tooth’s throos was charging up alongside them using its spider-like claws to help it grip onto the surface. Spiral Tooth’s eyes cast upwards and locked onto movement. Nyum-Bunet must have pried its first arm free of Godzilla’s grapple as it was swinging back. The grandmaster, even as he dodged back and forth to avoid getting hit in the face by falling debris that was but dust to Nyum-Bunet but was practically a deluge of boulders to them, grinned and got an idea. Even with as much of their effort as possible, Zealos and he could only get enough force to vault themselves upwards a few meters at a time, but Nyum-Bunet had lots more force than they possibly could.
“Hey Zealos! Grapple onto its arms!”, he belted. The diamond dog followed his line of sight and either didn’t have the time to argue or didn’t pay enough mind to care. She only growled and followed his lead. The arm swung by their position on the lower back and the lines were cast. Spiral Tooth’s spear and Zealos’ grappling hook caught hold of the mineralized limb and the pair lept off while also grabbing hold of Fyx. Soon their lines went taught and they were swung through the air in a wide arc chasing Nyum-Bunet’s arm. Zealos gritted her teeth and Fyx chittered loudly in surprise while they precariously flew around and upwards, Spiral Tooth was laughing ecstatically like he was on a rollercoaster. Nyum-Bunet raised its arm and the hunters along with it, swinging them around and in front of itself just long enough for Godzilla to glimpse them and adjust his plasma beam’s aim to avoid hitting them with it or its radiating heat as he hosed down Nyum-Bunet’s torso.
Slinging around Nyum-Bunet’s shoulder, the hunters snapped at their lines and unhooked their anchoring to nimbly land directly beside the edge of the target zone. The charred surface of Nyum-Bunet’s exposed back was alternating from black from the heat to glossy from the mineral-like surface almost turning glass-like in a few small spots; bordering a large concussive force-born crack at least five meters long by three meters wide. Holding onto the edge of said crack, Zealos could guesstimate it to be roughly six meters deep.
“Well, this is the place, unload.”, Spiral Tooth whistled to himself as he stabbed his spear into a stressed crack and stood on it while casually tossing in the almost comically large amount of explosives he had on him into the hole one by one.
“So, bigger than titan-class like that drake. Whadduya say on this one Zeal? Hecatonchires tier?”
“....”
“Thinking quad-star if so. Where the hay did something this big come from?”, Spiral Tooth chirped while taking a bag full of satchel charges off his throos, who was clearly angry at having to lug the load around and snapped at its owner. Zealos ignored their scuffle, just hanging on tighter when Nyum-Bunet shook again from its battle with Godzilla before tossing in a small barrel of powder. Spiral Tooth kept talking almost like she had actually replied.
“Right right. It was probably already here, along with the nyus, just not visible. Think the increased naval traffic might have agitated it into rising up.”
Spiral Tooth cracked an eyebrow while batting his spider on the head and leering at it for his throo.
“So basically it was probably under the ground or the sea floor until a passing spice vessel conked it on the head? I can see why it get cranky.”
Zealos, still unresponsive as ever to Spiral Tooth’s words, pried open the last barrel of powder and shook it above the crevice to slosh it around everywhere to ensure there was a powder trail leading to the main charge from virtually every angle. The bottom of the cavity and its walls liberally coated in that which went bang, Zealos tossed the spent barrel to plummet to the nyus and sea below. Spiral Tooth, pushing his chittering spider back, gave the loaded crevice a once over and emitted a long, impressed whistle at all the explosives they’d managed to haul up Nyum-Bunet’s back. Hecatonchires or not, this was going to hurt. Zealos nudged her fellow hunter with her elbow and nodded her head downwards. Following her line of sight, Spiral Tooth found himself cracking a snaggle-tooth grin at the tiny blue object aboard the minotaur frigate and the large cannon that had been moved into position.
“Right on cue! Time to blow this joint!”, he chirped before reacting like Zealos had just chewed him out for that pun.
“Ah come-on! That one was timed right!”, the grandmaster hunter barked as he drew up the signal crystal. Catching it in just the right light to send a series of visible flashes down to the frigate, Spiral Tooth nodded to Zealos and Fyx before they unhooked from position and practically ran down Nyum-Bunet’s back to get clear.
Captain Blueberry Frost was a mare stronger than she looked. If her twang of an accent and chipper disposition weren’t much hint to her rank as Captain, her ability was. The passing ship crews who saw her bucking the Hull Breaker back into alignment, lugging extra barrels of black powder they tossed to her; and her managing to lift and load both said powder and the ninety pound solid cannon round ball were testament to that.Swiveling around her lance and stabbing it into the soaked floor planks, Frost grit her teeth and forced the grime-caked cannon’s pivot joints to groan to motion as she took aim through a sight crosshairs at Nyum-Bunet’s back before forcing it higher to adjust her aim. Godzilla Junior was snarling in pain, clearly straining to hold up against the much larger monster despite a firm anchoring.
“Come on big guy, come ooooon. Hooooold it steady now!”
She grunted, managing to get her aim perfected. The last thing she looked for was the falling flares raining down from the targeted region of Nyum-Bunet’s back. If one squinted, they could see a trio of shapes falling with them, skillfully bouncing, leaping, running, and swinging down Nyum-Bunet’s back. The grandmaster hunters had given the signal with the help of brightly colored crystals, and Blueberry Frost knew what it meant. With a smirk on her muzzle, she put her hooves to her ears and shifted to cause her lance to whirl around. The flat of the blade clacked against the cannon’s top and ignited the primer charge that lit up the rest of the enchanted black powder.
The Hull Breaker round shot forth from the cannon with a thundering crash, having been overloaded with an excessively large charge that flung it forward at near mach speed. It needed to in order to hit something so far up. And hit it did. Ninety pounds of solid, hot metal struck home right where Spiral Tooth and Zealos had planted the payload within the cracks Godzilla opened up. The sheer force and heat both shoved the explosives deeper inside the rocky body and set them all off at once inside Nyum-Bunet. While it wasn’t deep enough to impale into Nyum-Bunet’s center, it still punched almost ten meters. Had the Kaiju not pried open the hardest epidermis, the master hunters’ payload been smaller, or the Captain’s aim been a bit off, the effect would have been a wince and a grunt of pain. Instead it was a thrash and a roar of agony.
Nyum-Bunet let go of Godzilla and hoisted its arms upwards while it stumbled back towards the Minotaur frigate. In its blind thrashing at the smoking hole in its upper back, it might have taken Blueberry Frost down with the ship; but a cast lance harpoon-line from Frost that was nimbly caught by a swinging Zealos and Spiral tooth yanked the mare off the deck and into the churning nyus and sea along with the hunters.
Nyum-Bunet was still writhing and thrashing. In fury, it picked up the cause of its pain, the frigate, and threw several hundred meters up and across, the ship vanishing into the far tan of the desert horizon. Its strength faded for a moment, and Nyum-Bunet found itself falling to its knees and forelimbs. Still trying to make sense of what happened, it spied the floating forms of two ponies, a diamond dog, and a throos spider. In whatever mind the titan had working, it knew that new sensations often were associated with new sights, and considering that the wrecks had not done anything since it destroyed them, its eyes glowed a furious red in response to the realization. It had worked out to associate the pain in its back with this new group and their boats. These tiny creatures who dared harm it would soon see why it could destroy what it came across on a whim. It did it to the trade ships. It did it to the frigate. It did it to the village. It did it to all the things that came to invade its growing home. The Nyubet was its and no other. Neither sky nor land would escape its anger.
Nyum-Bunet screeched to such a degree that anyone hearing it almost found their ears bleeding. Raising a forelimb with every intention of making the sight of Zealos and Blueberry Frost’s forms the last moments of solidity. It should have been looking behind it.
The sea roared and waves were thrown skyward as Godzilla charged behind and pounced towards Nyum-Bunet’s back feet-first. Using the momentum to carry his 60,000 ton form through the air in an almost comedic looking manner, Godzilla Junior kicked into Nyum-Bunet’s lower back and dug his claws in. The flare-like glow coming from the kaiju’s maple-leaf shape dorsal spines bleed onto the rest of his body. White-Blue light overtook patches of muscle and skin as well as the monster’s eyes. Anchoring himself to his rising foes’ back with a tail curled around Nyum-Bunet’s leg and clawed hands gripped the back of Nyum-Bunet’s head; the King of the Monsters roared to the sound of thunder before plunging his other hand into Nyum-Bunet’s back wound, claws first. His nuclear heart overclocking the whole of his body, Junior concentrated the energy into the hand he’d buried into Nyum-Bunet from halfway to his elbow and down.
Not one to let such things demolish its form, Nyum-Bunet twisted the stones forming its massive arms and hands and dexterously slammed into Godzilla multiple times, making resounding crashes and wounding the King of Monsters even further with every strike more than capable of breaking bones and rending flesh, but such pain was no stranger to Junior. In fact, it only served to intensify his resolve.
Nyum-Bunet sprung up to its full stature and rattled the air for miles with its bellow. As it called out, a white-blue glow built up in its torso until it began to show through growing cracks forming across the chest and stomach region. The constant pounding of its arms were for naught. Junior’s nuclear pulse shockwave exploded out from his buried arm all at once, blasting a hole in Nyum-Bunet’s chest like a human’s bunker buster. Chunks of mineralized, smoking Nyum-Bunet, encrusted nyus; and ash rained down upon the sea in a downpour more akin to a demolition landslide.
Nyum-Bunet’s bellow turned into an echoing roar of increasing frustration that continued to bounce across the sea even after the rest of its body broke apart and avalanched into the ocean. Nyum-Bunet’s form sunk back into the Nyubet tides with no sign of reforming. Godzilla Junior shot gusts of glowing steam from his nostrils, wreathing his head in a crown of luminous mists as he waited to make sure Nyum-Bunet wasn’t coming back up. With no sign of his and his allies’ foe, Godzilla let his power’s glow leave him. He stomped a foot into the sea floor, curled his tail, and threw his jaws skyward in a roar of declaration that all would hear from shore to sea. They’d won. Even the sailors aboard the ships who might have had their ears ringing from all the noise or been completely caught off guard by his arrival joined in on the cheering for their own and their champions’ efforts, weapons, hats, and helmets hoisted into the air along with Equestria’s flag standard.
Letting his usual, almost invincible visage fall off now that he was sure it was safe, Godzilla Junior heaved a tired breath and staggered himself. Holding off the Nyum-Bunet and unleashing a blast like that was a lot, even for him, but with everyone safe now and ever grateful the Princesses’ had approved of Captain Frost’s request he come on this trip, he could let himself get tired. The kaiju sank down to a hunch, bracing one hand on the seafloor and letting his upper body from the waist up partially sag into the surf that was now refreshingly cool with some of the nyus blown back. With his other hand, Junior very carefully curled his fingers around and drew them under the water treading trio who’d helped secure the victory. Drawing his house-sized paw up and letting the water drain out between his fingers, Junior grunted pleasantly at Spiral Tooth, Blueberry Frost, Zealos, and Spiral’s throos named Fyx. They all had different reactions as he slowly moved his hand past his face to quickly check and see if they were okay. Blueberry Frost was chuckling and casting a salute, the seawater and nyus having done little to remove the comedic levels of blackness she’d gotten from the cannon fire that stained her face. The grandmaster monster hunter pony tapped an armored hoof to Junior’s carriage sized claw like it was a hoof bump. His throos was chittering rapidly, though one couldn’t be quite sure if it was at the giant, seemingly burning red-yellow eye looking at it or fact it didn’t like get covered in nyus and seawater. Zealos just stood at the ready. Not taking her eyes off the titanic beast holding her up nor removing a paw from a polearm she’d been using. The same studious, cautious eyes that looked upon Junior as a pony looked at him now. For her, a monster was a monster no matter its actions or its form, and it was only a matter of time before she tried to take Junior down, but much like the humans, her chances of success were slim to none. Godzilla let an exhale seep from his nose, turning and placing his hand beside a ski boat to set the ground down. It was his last act as a kaiju for the day, as the same light that overtook his form when he transformed returned and gushed back into the unicorns who’d changed him; much to their confusion. Back into his unicorn form and bobbing in the waves, Junior paddled his hooves to swim to a boat.
“Hoist him up carefully!” Boulder Brash commanded his sailors.
With a carefully levied system of pulleys and poneys, the wounded form of Junior made its way onto the deck, then onto a grouping of straw bale and cloth. Frost checked on him and noticed something peculiar about his bloodied frame.
“Some ‘o yer bones ‘re...broken?”
Junior coughed. “That thing was tougher than I gave it credit for. Didn’t underestimate it, but I guess my expectations could be seen like that.” He forced a shrug and winced in pain from one of his arms being stubbornly slack and broken.
“I should be able to regenerate all of this without issue.”, he grunted. Already some of his surface cuts and bruises were closing or fading, but the more severe trauma was obviously going to take a bit longer. He tried to stand up, but the sailors forced him back down.
“Woah woah! You should be lying down and resting if you have broken bones,” Boulder said. He puffed on a pipe and looked at Junior from the lower corner of his eye.
“Ye' smoke?” Frost asked.
“Only on occasions like this.” He leaned in towards Junior and exhaled smoke from the side of his mouth. “So you’re the famed giant who saved Canterlot, eh? Godzilla right? I have to be honest, I doubted the legitimacy of that news.”
“Hey, he fought to protect us. Ye' should be-”
A raised hoof interrupted Frost’s angered rant. “You saved us from something that managed to destroy all of these ships and their crew. It would go against a sailor’s honor to reject somepony who helped us and, most importantly, our ship.”
“Woooo!” Spiral Tooth shouted. He nearly caused the commodore to have a heart attack. “And did you see that? Huge explosions! And then he thrust his fist into the air, and then he bellowed out plasma bea--”
Spiral stopped his foalish recountings when he witnessed Fyx carefully approaching Junior with the obvious intention of investigating possibly wounded prey. Junior wasn’t oblivious to it’s approach and, far too annoyed to bother, hissed as a festering glow began to build up on his mane. Spiral Tooth stepped in front of the arachnid before it could risk being flash fried and bapped it on the mandibles.
“No! You don’t do that,” Spiral scolded his pet. Fyx hissed in response and the throos lifted its forward-most legs up in a threatening manner. “Don’t you lift your legs at me!” The exchange led to the two fighting and trying to get the upper hoof on each other.
Blueberry Frost stared in disbelief and annoyance, turning to face Zealos. “That’s ‘pposed to be a grandmaster?”
Zealos could only shrug in response.
“Well, to be put it bluntly, without all your help, I don’t think any of us would have survived this encounter,” Boulder interjected. “I trust you have all you need to file a report?”
“Ah' have more than enough, and ah' can even tell the princesses that the sea is free now.”
“I’m not so sure,” Junior pondered. “That thing didn’t die when I destroyed it.”
“Are you serious? It crumbled into pieces!”
“That may be, but it didn’t die. I can still sense something of it is about. Won’t be getting back up anytime soon, probably leave the area too if it is still alive. It wasn’t prepared to face something like me. Just thrashed about like a child not knowing what to do and wouldn’t want to risk that sort of pain again.”
Commodore Boulder was about to interject when spiral rolled next to them and stretched. “Goootta side with the big lizard on this one. Iiiii’m not so sure about that 'dead' part Commdore,” he stammered. “Spoke with Zealos as we were climbing, and we came to the conclusion that it was not a regular beast, but a quad-star creature of the Hecatonchires variety.”
Boulder scratched his head. “What? What does that mean?”
“Quad-stars are special monsters that cannot be killed by conventional means, and the signs of all of these large fleets splintered and shattered in this sea are more than enough to prove it.” He looked around. “Not to mention this stuff taking over the sea in this spot. All these nyus were probably under the surface until it grew big enough to become visible and surfaced; that thing included.”
“An' the hecatonchires classification?” Frost asked.
Spiral Tooth twirled his wrist. “It’s more of aaaaa...general classification, but they are far stronger than titan class stuff, be it by strength, size, or some kind of special ability. They’re pretty much impossible to kill.”
“Though evidently, not impossible to drive back for ‘while.”, Captain Frost added with a nod.
“Seems so, then again most hunter guides didn’t account for our kind of back up.”, Spiral Tooth noted with a nod towards the Captain and Kaiju.
“If it’s not dead, would it move to another area?”, Junior muttered, still keeping an eye on Spiral Tooth’s giant arachnid and getting bad flashbacks to Kumonga. Spiral Tooth shrugged his shoulders and held up his hooves.
“Eh, probably not. Zealos and I guessed given some nyus were known around here that the Nyubet was probably always here, just not where folks were seeing it like on or just under the seafloor. All the boat traffic caused it to get angry and spread. And when the Nyubet grew, it grew up and not really out yet.”
“Hence why it’s all over the surface now.”, Boulder noted while motioning to the sea and nyus around the boat; getting a nod from Spiral Tooth.
“This is its territory then.”, Godzilla noted. “Explains why it attacked the boats, it was agitated at the intrusion. Best close off the area with magic until more permanent measures are found. I have experience with beings like this. If left alone it should keep to itself.”
Boulder groaned audibly, shaking his head. “That means redrawing the trade routes, again. Oye. Well, better than alternative....”
“Hey, outta curiosity what would Godzilla Junior here be classified as?”
“Hmm...I’m not sure. Maybe-” the pony was interrupted by his throos slamming into him.
“Well,” Boulder added casually. “Now we know what lurks here, and we now have a method of fighting it!” he grinned.
Junior cast a frown and glanced over to Captain Frost. The latter shrugged, rolling her shoulders.
“Problem with that is, he can’t fight for all these scuffles.”
Boulder coughed up smoke and stared at him. He appeared insulted. “And why not?”
Captain Blueberry Frost stomped a hoof, stepping up to protect the stallion easily five times her mass. “Because he’s gonna be needin’ to go home eventually. Needed there. ‘Sides, if we can’t figure out how to handle our own varmints ourselves, what’s in it for us?”
Junior gently nudged the defensive captain, giving her a slight nod to signal he could defend himself. “I’ll do all I can while I’m here, but Captain Frost is right. Probably best you find a way to handle it or avoid it.”
The pony grinded his teeth but eventually drooped his head in defeat. “I’m showing myself as a springwater sailor to my comrades.” He adjusted himself and took another puff of his pipe. “Right. I understand what you mean and by hail and high-water we’ll be prepared next time! Hayfries, that cannon rig you lot pulled is giving me some ideas already if we see that bugger rear it’s head again! Thank you for your help, and please send my humble regards to the princesses when you return to Canterlot, if you please.”
Zealos pushed the commodore aside and stared at Junior still held onto the floor by a vast multitude of sailors to keep him from getting up and hurting himself. Frost found it amusing how many had to pile on top of him to keep the giant stallion from getting up. The diamond dog took her spear from her back and slammed the hilt onto the deck, cracking the wood. There was a lengthy exchange of looks before Zealos lifted her spear up and left to separate Spiral and Fyx.
“What was that all about?” Frost wondered aloud.
“She sees me as a threat,” Junior explained. ”She doesn’t take kindly to my kind, not a new experience.”
Boulder Brash laughed loudly.
“I don’t think she takes kindly to much anypony,” he added blandly.
A low-toned echo Nyum-Bunet’s screech resounded in the Nyubet, and Spiral Tooth thought he saw the nyus wiggle a bit from forces outside of the flow of water. He rubbed his chin then grinned at the prospects that came to mind. With everything that was happening lately, monster hunters were going to get a lot of missions. And with some new allies to boot!