Blue-white light swelled in Godzilla's throat.
The glow climbed his dorsal plates, and the sea around him began to boil.
BOOM!!!!
The beam fired.
The first thing it hit was the mist, turning it into steam and ripping it apart. Zabuza and Haku did not have time to move away, and the beam swallowed the space where they stood.
Their shadow bodies broke apart on contact. Their forms tore into black smoke, then scattered across the air and water.
The beam kept going, carving a glowing line across the sea and lighting the fog from below, then finally stopped as Godzilla lifted his head and roared again.
"ROARRR!"
For a moment, the battlefield went quiet except for the sizzling water.
Shadow smoke began to gather again, pulled toward Ethan's presence.
Zabuza formed first. His shoulder and chest stitched together, then his arm, then the Kubikiribocho reappeared in his grip.
Haku reformed more slowly, his body coming back in patches, his face still cracked with thin lines.
As shadows, the atomic breath was not enough to kill them.
They could recover as long as Ethan supplied them with mana.
"Return. Both of you are still too weak for this."
Their half-formed bodies turned into smoke again. The smoke pulled back under Ethan's shadow.
Godzilla stepped higher out of the sea.
Broken bridge beams floated and sank around his legs, and the water rolled off his scales in heavy sheets.
His head lifted, one eye still clamped shut from the needle attack, the other locking onto Ethan and Kaisel.
The dorsal plates started to glow again.
"Beru."
The air behind Ethan darkened.
A tall shadow rose, and a huge pressure dropped over the sea so hard even Godzilla paused.
***
[Shadow: Beru]
[Grade: Marshal]
[Level: ???]
[Type: Shadow Soldier]
***
Beru rose from Ethan's shadow behind Kaisel. His wings unfolded once, then he dropped to one knee.
"My liege."
"Finish it," Ethan said.
Beru vanished. In the next instant, he was on Godzilla's face.
"ROARRRRR!!!!"
Godzilla snapped its jaws, but Beru was gone before the bite closed. He reappeared at the eye line and drove his claws into the soft skin around the lid, forcing the last eye to shut.
BAM!!!!
Godzilla's head jerked back as it lost its sight. The atomic glow faltered for a moment.
Beru dropped down the side of the face, his feet hitting scales, then he kicked off the jaw and landed on the dorsal plates.
The plates were hot enough to turn water into steam, but it did not affect Beru.
Godzilla's tail whipped up and slammed through the fog.
The impact hit the water like a hammer and sent a wave rolling under Godzilla's body and up into his back.
Beru's footing broke for a second. He drove one claw down between two dorsal fins like a spear and held himself.
STAB!!!!
"Do not disappoint me."
Godzilla roared again and thrashed, trying to shake him off.
The glow ran up the dorsal fin once more, as the beast was forcing the charge through pain.
Beru did not stay on the plates. He let go and dropped down the back than flew back up.
He reappeared under the jaw, right at the mouth corner.
STAB!!!
He hooked his claws into the edge and pulled down, forcing the jaw to open at the side.
Godzilla's throat light surged anyway. Blue-white glare spilled between its teeth.
Beru shot through the opening like a blade and tore upward inside the mouth.
His claws tore through the soft flesh under the tongue and along the throat, carving deep enough to make the energy leak.
He then escaped quickly through the other side carving a hole trough Godzilla's jaw.
BOOM!!!
The atomic breath misfired.
A burst of blue-white flame blasted into the sea at an angle, turning the water into a wall of steam and exploding across the battlefield.
Godzilla howled in pain, choking on its own heat, and its head slammed down hard enough to throw waves outward.
Beru flew back and landed on the beast's face. He struck the blinded eye again, drove his claws into the eyelid seam, and ripped it open wider.
Then he leaned in and bit down.
Godzilla roared, and its claws shot up trying to pry Beru off its head.
Beru kept chewing through the eye anyway, tearing deeper as shadow smoke poured off his jaw.
Godzilla's dorsal plates flared in panic. The glow surged up its back, and its mouth opened as a beam misfired straight into the sky, blasting a blue-white line through the fog and ripping the mist apart.
Beru didn't care. He forced his way into the opened wound and kept tearing, and biting until he reached the brain inside the skull.
Godzilla thrashed harder.
The sea churned like it was being stirred by a giant hand.
The roar turned weaker, then broke for a moment as the glow in its throat flickered.
Beru burst out from the top of its head in a spray of steam and shadow smoke. Godzilla let out one last roar, then its plates dimmed one by one, and its body collapsed back into the sea.
Beru flew back to Kaisel and dropped to one knee. "My liege."
A cold chime rang in Ethan's ears, and the system text flooded his vision.
***
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[System Adjustment Complete]
[Level: 50]
[Job: Shadow Monarch]
[Title: Dimensional Traveler]
[Health : 100%]
[MP: 10,000/10,000]
[Strength: 100]
[Vitality: 100]
[Agility: 100]
[Intelligence: 100]
[Sense: 100]
[Available Stat Points: 0]
[Shadow Soldiers: 9/XXX]
[Shadow Soldiers]
[1. Momochi Zabuza (Knight) Lv.2]
[2. Haku (Elite) Lv.2]
[3. Beru (Marshal) Lv.55]
[4. Kaisel (Elite Knight) Lv.43]
[5. Igris (Marshal): Sealed]
[6. Iron (General): Sealed]
[7. Tusk (Marshal): Sealed]
[8. Tank (Elite Knight): Sealed]
[9. Bellion (Grand Marshal): Sealed]
***
'Seems my ability is nerfed here. I lost the shadow army from Ashborn, and the rest of my grunts also disappeared. Igris and the others are still sealed.'
Ethan looked down at the sea where the giant body had sunk. He raised his hand, and shadow gathered under his palm.
"Arise."
[Shadow Extraction Attempted]
[Warning: Condition Not Met]
[Reason: Dimensional Power Required to Stabilize Target Soul]