Godzilla caught sight of Ghidorah the moment he emerged from the ice.
He threw back his head.
"SKRRAAAOOONNNKKK!!"
The roar rolled across Antarctica.
Without hesitation, Godzilla charged, each step shattering the already fractured ice beneath his feet.
Ghidorah answered with three separate roars.
"SKREEEEONNN!!"
All three heads lunged at once. The center head slammed into Godzilla's neck while the other two snapped at his shoulders and arms.
Godzilla met the attack head-on, driving his shoulder into Ghidorah's chest and forcing the three-headed Titan backward across the glacier.
The ice cracked beneath their combined weight.
One of Ghidorah's heads wrapped around Godzilla's neck, trying to pin him. Godzilla grabbed it with both hands, hurled it aside, and swung his tail.
The massive tail crashed into Ghidorah's side with a thunderous impact, sending the golden Titan sliding across the ice.
Ghidorah recovered quickly. Its enormous wings spread wide, kicking up a blizzard of snow before all three heads unleashed streams of golden gravity beams.
The blasts tore across the battlefield, carving trenches through the ice and forcing Godzilla several steps backward.
The moment the attack ended, Godzilla opened his jaws. A brilliant blue glow traveled up his dorsal plates.
SKRRAAAOOONNNKKK!!
The atomic breath erupted forward.
Ghidorah twisted its body, avoiding the full force of the blast as it struck one of its wings and scattered burning scales across the glacier.
The three-headed Titan roared in anger and launched itself forward again, crashing into Godzilla with enough force to send both through a ridge of ice.
From above, Ethan watched with his hands in his pockets. A faint grin crossed his face. "Now that's a fight worth watching."
***
The battle quickly changed.
Ghidorah stopped trying to overpower Godzilla with brute force.
It spread its massive wings as golden lightning began crackling across the membranes, electricity arcing between its three necks.
The clouds above darkened, the wind grew stronger, and the gentle snowfall turned into a violent blizzard as the atmosphere around Ghidorah rapidly shifted.
Ethan's amusement faded. "That's not good."
He looked toward the MONARCH helicopters retreating from the battlefield.
They were flying as fast as they could but still within range of the storm forming around Ghidorah.
The winds continued to build, shaking the helicopters violently as turbulence struck them. Warning alarms sounded inside the cockpits.
"We're losing stability!"
Another helicopter suddenly dropped several meters before recovering. Rick Stanton grabbed the seat in front of him. "What's happening?"
"The storm is getting stronger!"
Outside, golden lightning continued spreading through the clouds.
The helicopters were tossed from side to side as powerful winds battered their rotors. The pilot tightened his grip on the controls. "I can't hold her steady!"
Then came a knock on the cockpit window.
Tap. Tap.
The pilot froze. Everyone inside looked toward the glass.
Ethan was floating outside the helicopter as though the freezing wind didn't exist. He smiled and waved. "Need a hand?"
Rick stared at him through the windshield. "...How are you even standing out there?"
Ethan ignored the question and placed one hand against the nose of the helicopter.
The world blurred for an instant.
The violent shaking stopped. The warning alarms fell silent. Dark storm clouds were gone, replaced by bright daylight filling the cockpit.
The pilot blinked at his instruments. "We're... out."
Rick looked through the windshield. The storm surrounding Ghidorah was now several kilometers behind them.
They had crossed the entire storm in an instant.
Ethan removed his hand and floated outside the cockpit with a yawn. "There. Now you won't crash."
He disappeared from outside the window, leaving everyone staring at the empty sky.
The battle continued across the glacier. Every collision between Godzilla and Ghidorah sent another shockwave through the Antarctic ice, deep fractures racing across the shelf as entire sections began breaking apart.
Ghidorah seized the opening. With a powerful beat of its wings, it pulled away from the fight and climbed into the storm.
Godzilla roared after it.
"SKRRAAAOOONNNKKK!!"
Ethan glanced up, ready to follow. Then another tremor rolled beneath his feet. He stopped.
The ice around Outpost 32 groaned under the strain.
Fresh cracks spread for kilometers and several enormous slabs broke loose from the surrounding shelf.
Ethan looked across the widening fractures. "...I'm not a scientist." He watched another section collapse into the sea. "But that definitely looks dangerous."
He knew enough to recognize the scale of what he was seeing.
A collapse of this magnitude wasn't just local damage. If the grounded Antarctic ice continued breaking apart and flowing into the ocean, global sea levels would rise, threatening coastlines around the world.
Even the destruction of the floating ice shelves would remove the natural barriers slowing the glaciers behind them, allowing more land ice to pour into the sea and accelerating the process.
***
A/N: And on Patreon, The Boys arc started.
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