Chapter 121: Arc 4: Chapter 9: Underground Demons

Professor Serizawa was the most experienced biologist on ancient titans in Monarch.

In his years of researching ancient titans, he had seen many strange sceneries and views; he had fallen into danger not just once before. As Merlin raised his head, Professor Serizawa then aims his gun to the other side of the swamp.

But he was a normal person, so he couldn't sense the faint vibrations that came from afar.

Merlin keeps the tube of blood in his hand and rushes towards Professor Serizawa, bringing him to where they parked the SUV.

As they ran, the two looked back and saw flying weeds and flowers on the other side of the swamp, along with alarmed birds flocking away; clearly, something was storming out of the ground.

Seeing this, Merlin asks in a deep tone:

"I heard you say before that the island hasn't been very peaceful these past few days? And the 10-year time limit Mark spoke about, what is that?"

"It's a group of reptilian creatures that live underneath Skull Island. We call them 'Skullcrawlers'."

Professor Serizawa breathes anxiously, he held the shotgun in his hand, yet this powerful weapon could not give him any sense of security.

He knows what may ensue next.

He ran towards where they parked the car following Merlin and says while panting:

"It's a large terrifying monster. Kong's archnemesis on this island, the survivors from Monarch during 1973 left some notes; these terrifying carnivores have a complex tunnel system underneath the island, they hunt within the area of the island, any creature on the island asides from Kong is their prey."

"Maybe...even Kong itself..."

Professor Serizawa says fearfully:

"There's a secret canyon north of Skull Island, in there are some nerve-racking secrets."

 "Bam“

Merlin pulls open the car door and pushes Professor Serizawa into the car, he then sits on the driver's seat; he starts the car while looking back behind them, a stinging smell of blood passes over.

The Sker Buffalo they tranquilized was probably done for.

In his second sight, Merlin could faintly see far by the edge of the water pool, a large, distorted creature was enjoying the flesh of its prey.

It was also a large creature reaching about 10 meters long, it had a long snake-like tail, a head that looked like it was wearing a skull helmet along with a bird-like beak; what's most odd was that the large lizard only had two large forelimbs and no hindlimbs.

It didn't look like a decent monster from the start.

"What's in that valley?"

Merlin tightly holds the steering wheel, he quickly turns the steering wheel, and as the monster was feasting, the car turns 180 degrees and speeds toward the beach carrying Merlin and Serizawa.

Merlin drives while spreading his dark senses to the limit. He asks in a deep tone:

"What exactly is that nerve-racking secret you talked about?"

Professor Serizawa feels a cold wind blow on his body and instinctively shivers, he holds the shotgun, looks around, and says:

"Kong is a juvenile, you know that already, haven't you ever wondered where Kong's parents were?"

"That monkey didn't come out of a rock."

Merlin says:

"I am curious. But you Monarch researchers have tight lips, right?"

"Don't be mad, Professor Merlin. We didn't mean to keep this a secret."

Professor Serizawa explains:

"I was planning on telling you after arriving on the island...Kong's parents were once the rulers of Skull Island, they were true mature titans 200 feet high and at least 30,000 tonnes, but even such terrifying creatures had died in the siege of the Skullcrawlers that appeared from underground."

"According to the information we collected during the 1973 exploration, Kong's parents had killed nearly hundreds of Skullcrawlers before their death, yet they eventually died due to excessive loss of blood. From the assay results of the bone shards they brought back, that happened at least 300 years ago."

"In 1973, a few members of Monarch helped the wounded Kong in killing the leader of the Skukllcrawlers, but from our observation, they seem to have a new leader, and they enact sieges on Kong every 10 years; but Kong gets stronger, and he learned how to use weapons in the death battle of 1973...due to this, the Skullcrawlers have been unsuccessful with their attacks."

"Wait."

Merlin raises a finger and interrupts Professor Serizawa's narration, he says:

"You just said Kong can use weapons?"

"Yes."

Professor Serizawa nods:

"From the data we collected on titans, Kong's physical ability isn't top-notch among titans even when it matures, but its intelligence, flexibility, and gift on learning, are all things other titans lack. In 1973, Kong used the propellor of a sunken ship to heavily wound the leader of the Skullcrawlers, ever since then, it has been attempting to fight using externalities."

"It learns fast."

Professor Serizawa laments so.

But then, Merlin's ears suddenly perk, he reaches out and disengages the seat belt on Professor Serizawa, and then he leaps out of the car towards the ground nearby while grabbing Professor Serizawa in one of his hands.

Behind them, the moving SUV was chomped apart by the ferocious creature that stormed out from the ground.

"Bang"

The fuel tank of the SUV crashes on the ground in front of Merlin, he and Professor Serizawa raise their heads and see the Skullcrawler that had stormed out from the ground staring at the two on the ground with a cold and indifferent gaze.

There was not one, but two Skullcrawlers. The vibrations caused by the first had hidden the traces of this second beast, thus Merlin could not anticipate the existence of this underground hunter.

"Bang"

Professor Serizawa instinctively pulls the trigger on the large creature before him, the small metal bullets shot out of the gun had only caused sparks to fly as they ricocheted off the Skullcrawler's face.

But the attack didn't turn the situation around, instead, it infuriated the ugly predator.

Merlin sighs, he takes off his glasses and karate chops on Professor Serizawa's neck, then as the lizard chomps at them, he swiftly transforms into black fog and dodges the chomp while carrying the unconscious Professor Serizawa.

The miss of its attack surprised the primitive Skullcrawler.

It had chomped at those two humans, but the two bugs had mysteriously disappeared somehow.

It supports its body with its limbs and shakes its head, attempting to sense the trail of its prey like a snake. In a bush a dozen meters away, Merlin hides the unconscious Professor Serizawa in the bush and takes his flare gun.

He stands up from the bush, looking at the fuel tank not far away and then looking back at the flaregun in his hand, then, Merlin's figure disappears once again.

"Hey!"

A few meters behind the giant lizard, Merlin who was next to the fuel tank shouts at the monster. The latter uses its tail like a whip and throws it at Merlin, though it missed.

Aerosolizing his body was extremely useful when facing these super creatures, as strong as they were, they could not harm Merlin through the fog.

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Seeing the unsuccessful attack attempt of its tail, the Skullcrawler lets out a horrible yet sharp roar; it opens its teeth-filled mouth and chomps towards Merlin, the latter easily threw the heavy fuel tank into the creature's mouth using Wingardium Leviosa.

He raises the flaregun and looks at the Skullcrawler's open mouth.

Then, he pulls the trigger.

"Shoo"

A red flare is shot into the lizard's mouth, igniting the fuel tank within it; blue flames abruptly light up, then, a bright explosion erupts from inside the creature's mouth.

"BOOM"

Burning fire spreads out of the Skullcrawler's mouth, Merlin could see a bright fire glow shining from below the ugly lizard's mucous membrane on its throat and chest.

Merlin takes out Lola from his waist and accurately lands a Reducto on the giant lizard's mouth, forcing it to swallow the heat of the explosion into its belly.

Any beast, regardless of how powerful their skin is, has soft internal organs.

The Skullcrawler wobbles after this lethal explosion, then like a collapsing mountain, it collapses onto the ground. Under the bone plate of its ugly face, the last green light in its indifferent eyes dimmer.

And in its open, scorched-black mouth was a disgusting stench of burnt meat.

"Mmm...they're not so hard to deal with."

Merlin throws the empty flare gun onto the ground, he looks at the dead Skullcrawler before him, and while this thing was ferocious-looking, it was still flesh-made, it could bleed, feel pain, and die.

It was much easier to face these things than facing Ronan the Kree Accuser. Although the former's size was ten times larger than the latter...

But size does not determine combat power.

Merlin looks around, the Skullcrawler which had finished off the Sker Buffalo was now rushing towards him, Merlin's fight with its companion had drawn this ugly thing's attention.

These giant lizards move in a group, which means they behave in a grouped manner as they would cooperate during hunts, or they would be stimulated by the death of one of their own.

Merlin notices the giant lizard rushing towards him from behind, but he didn't dodge, he stood still and watched as the beast opened its mouth at him.

Merlin looked like he was terrified.

"Swoosh"

Merlin along with the ground he stood on and the dirt on the ground was swallowed by this ferocious lizard-like Merlin had already been torn apart and swallowed by it.

But before the Skullcrawler that had avenged its companions could let out a sharp roar, it notices that something was wrong.

Indescribable heat energy was expanding in its mouth as it had just swallowed a dangerous bomb.

The Skullcrawler senses the danger, it shakes its head and opens its mouth in an attempt to 'spit' Merlin out.

But the clump of black fog in its mouth was shining brighter, the quickly gathered mana, and the burning fire-like glow meant that Merlin's mana explosion was in its final countdown.

This was the second time Merlin had used mana explosion since he acquired Morris' shard of power.

Before, he used this method to attack the powerful Ronan, only to leave some insignificant scratches on him.

But that doesn't mean Merlin's enhanced mana explosion was weak in power...that wasn't the case.

It was just because Ronan was too powerful, that strongest Kree warrior had enough power to withstand Merlin's full-powered attack. But the unfortunate Skullcrawler before him had no way to make a forcefield shield from nothing.

"BOOM"

The violent explosion was like the sunlight that shone over Skull Island in the afternoon, in the eruption of the suppressed to the limit mana within Merlin; the Skullcrawler which swallowed him was like it had been thrown into a burning furnace, in the bright explosion, its mouth was the first to disintegrate, scorched flesh was torn from the skeleton, then the skeleton was slowly burnt to nothing.

Then its snake-like slender body, the distorted bone plate on its back, its soft bones and organs, then finally its claws and tail.

As the glow dissipates a few seconds later, Merlin stands where he was; behind him, the ferocious 12-feet long lizard had left nothing but a pile of mincemeat with a horrible stench and shattered bones.

Merlin who had just finished off two Skullcrawlers stands firm, but he soon frowns.

The shaking ground had not disappeared, to be exact, it became more violent following the explosion.

More Skullcrawlers were running underground, Merlin was in trouble.

"Swoosh"

Merlin takes out a black one-handed sword from his spatial pocket, the sword was odd but sharp and had perfect balance. It was a weapon he took from the strong Kree warrior Korath, the sword originally had a green energy blade, but it was identity locked by the Kree warrior.

But it was still sharp enough.

Merlin takes out his wand Lola and taps on his necklace, the Kree faceguard gifted by Carol quickly covers the lower half of his face.

Merlin was now combat-ready.

Around the swamp not far from the beach, one after the other, Skullcrawlers began to rush out from the ground; a few seconds later, there were already 5 Skullcrawlers surrounding him.

Yet, as the last monster rushed out of the ground, a weird windbreaking sound resounds from the sky on the other side of the swamp, like something heavy was falling from the sky.

Merlin raises his head.

In his second sight, he could see a rusty metal propellor that belonged to a freight being waved around, the thing slammed towards the ground under the guidance of the thick chains like a meteor hammer.

A Skullcrawler senses the danger and tries to burrow underground in a panic, but the propellor came too quickly and ferociously; like a falling meteor, it heavily slams into its body, cutting apart the body from its slender tail.

The giant lizard lets out a painful roar, then, a large stone spear suddenly soars over and accurately penetrates its head, locking it onto the ground like forking a fish.

"BANG"

A furry black creature leaps off from the mountain and lands on the surface of the swamp, the shaking ground felt like a sudden earthquake had just occurred.

The giant lizards that were prepared to hunt became agitated, Merlin raises his head, and as the Skullcrawlers fled, as the thick dust cloud dissipates, he finally saw the large creature before him.

It was 30 meters tall with black fur covering its body, it held a propellor chain in one hand and grabbed a large stone spear off the ground. It casually throws it and sends the corpse of the tail-less lizard monster into the nearby swamp.

It was a gorilla, one that was walking with two legs and could use weapons...

It was the god of Skull Island...

It was an ancient titan...

Kong!

Or to say...

King Kong.

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