Free Raiju: A Kaiju Hunter Novel (The Kaiju Hunter) by K. H. Koehler

quivered into view only a few feet from me, a pulsating black mass that became more apparent as the smoke cleared. It was twenty feet high and as thick around as an old oak tree. I could see no head, no face, just a wall of darkness raining down putrid black oily water on the street. I heard a dull thudding noise that seemed to emanate from the very earth itself; it took me several moments to recognize it as a heartbeat so powerful the ground itself carried a wild current.
    The earthquake…it suddenly made a lot more sense.
    The thing curled over like a curious foraging centipede, the tip expanding into a bulbous, pod-like head. I stayed frozen in place, but the businessman in the street started screaming hysterically. Something unzipped itself across the thing’s face, a vertical insect jaw lined with jagged teeth that drooled clear mucus. I saw the jaws on the Venus flytrap head flex, once. Then the monster emitted a cackling bellow that sounded both amused and victorious at the same time and it shot downward, swallowing the man whole, in mid-scream. It emitted a terrible clicking noise as it swallowed, then began searching for more prey.
    I thought about screaming myself. It seemed like a really good idea at that moment. But something paralyzed me. All I could do was stand there and watch, wide-eyed, electric with fright, as the thing swayed overhead, searching for more prey. It wouldn’t take long before it detected me, I knew. I clenched my hands, noticing that they felt hot, like two irons in the fire.
    I glanced down. And despite the craziness of the situation, it actually got crazier in that moment—because I finally realized that my hands were on fire.
     
    2
     
    Gaping, I wondered what I had done to deserve this hell. I mean, I’m not a bad kid. Really. I don’t cut class, or smoke crack or backtalk teachers or set bugs on fire with magnifying glasses. I’m a really dull person. I think karma was picking on the wrong guy tonight.
    And yet, despite it all, I wasn’t really afraid, either. Unclenching my hands, I realized the flames were blue and almost cold to the touch. They leaped up, a column of fire within which I recognized a familiar object—one of those things you recognize even if you’ve never seen one up close and personal. It was insane, completely unlikely…but I know a samurai sword when I see one. I immediately gripped the hilt. I knew if I could just hold the sword, I wouldn’t be afraid of the monster anymore. Hey, it worked for Saint George.
    The monster’s mouth clicked open. I felt a spattering of hot saliva on my cheeks.
    I was afraid. And I was not afraid.
    Naturally, I thought of Mr. Serizawa. You were fighting the Orochi, like Susa-no-Ō. What a stupid, cheesy name, I thought even as the monster suddenly snapped at me with its wide, jagged-toothed jaws.
    I expected to be dead. Chomped. But my hand had moved faster than my eye, faster than it had ever moved before. And suddenly the sword that was on fire—or rather, the sword that was made of fire—had cut through the spongy flesh and left the “head” flopping around on the ground like a giant black fish out of water.
    The ground shook as the creature, much larger than I had expected, screamed in agony beneath me. Black fluid spurted from the truncated appendage as it flailed, smashing wetly into the street, covering everything in a burning black slime that immediately ate through the asphalt like the most caustic acid, and where it touched abandoned cars, ate them right down to their axles. The street rocked, and windows shattered apart on the upper floors of buildings on both sides of the street. Finally, the monstrous thing began sinking back down the hole into the ground. To the earth. To the water. Back to the unknown depths from which it had come. The other shrieking, swaying pod-headed appendages immediately followed suit, disappearing one after another.
    It was gone in seconds, as if it had never been. But it left