Chapter 76: Tiga vs. Golza
When that pillar of light capable of piercing heaven and earth thunderously struck the ground...
Even Golza was awed by this sacred aura. It roared and turned back around.
As the radiance faded, a Light Giant stood upon the earth while all the survivors held their breath.
The streamlined body in purple, red, and silver refracted brilliance in the fading sunlight. The color timer on its chest emitted a deep blue glow.
"That's..."
In the distance, inside the bus, the driver who'd just been gripping a screwdriver ready to fight the monster to the death let his tool clatter to the floor.
The female teacher and children were all so shocked by the scene before them that they lost the ability to speak.
After a brief deathly silence, some child shouted first.
"Tiga... it's Ultraman Tiga!!"
Immediately after, the entire bus erupted.
Those elementary students who'd been crying like fountains just moments ago now had their faces pressed against the windows, so excited they popped their snot bubbles.
For this generation of children raised on tokusatsu shows, this scene was more shocking than any religious miracle.
The female teacher covered her mouth as tears streamed uncontrollably, but this time they were tears of overwhelming joy.
However, Kazama Chiba—who'd become Tiga—was feeling a bit peculiar at the moment.
"So this is... what the air fifty meters up feels like?"
His viewing angle had risen over fifty meters. Those towering trees that had required looking up before now seemed like roadside weeds. And that monster that had been as massive as a mountain just moments ago now looked about the same height as himself.
Kazama didn't immediately deal with that roaring monster.
Instead, he carefully cupped the tiny figure in his hands and placed her on a relatively gentle and safe mountaintop nearby.
After finishing this, Tiga straightened up and turned his head.
Behind him, Red Lotus Golza was tilting its head to look at him, those murky eyes full of confusion, as if wondering where this glowing guy had suddenly appeared from.
"ROAR—!!"
Then the monster released a warning roar. The red patterns on its chest flashed wildly like a breathing light—the prelude to unleashing a special attack.
Kazama instinctively wanted to strike Tiga's classic opening pose.
Who knew that the moment he raised his hand, a light bullet fired out along with the motion.
"BANG!"
The light bullet struck Golza squarely in the face, exploding in a shower of sparks.
Golza was completely stunned.
It clutched its head and staggered back two steps, looking at this dishonorable giant before it in disbelief.
Wait—you're just attacking straight away?
Kazama himself froze too, awkwardly looking at his right hand.
"Hold on... I just wanted to strike a pose! How did this thing auto-fire?"
"So Tiga doesn't even have basic attacks, huh? Raising your hand is already a skill?"
But complaints aside, this hand chop light bullet had successfully interrupted Golza's charge-up.
Taking advantage of this opening, Kazama rapidly analyzed his opponent.
The Golza before him had a chest covered in crimson glowing patterns. It was clearly the powered-up version that had absorbed underground lava energy just like in the original TV series—Red Lotus Golza.
"Bit troublesome. This is a thick-skinned tank-type monster."
"ROAR—!!"
Just then, that opening attack had thoroughly enraged Red Lotus Golza.
It spun around. That tail as thick as a freight train swept across with a whistling wind.
If this strike connected solidly, it would probably level half the mountain.
"Bring it on!"
Kazama's eyes sharpened.
Although this was his first real combat, this body seemed to possess innate battle instincts.
He had no intention of dodging whatsoever. Crossing both arms at the crystal on his forehead, he swept them downward.
Light flowed.
The originally streamlined red-purple body was instantly covered by pure red filled with raw power.
Ultraman Tiga - Power Type.
"WHAM—!!"
An extremely heavy impact sound.
Kazama didn't retreat but advanced instead. Both arms like two iron clamps firmly caught that sweeping giant tail.
The massive impact force made his feet plow two deep furrows in the ground, but he only retreated half a step before stabilizing his form.
Immediately after, an astonishing scene occurred.
The red giant exerted force from his waist with a low roar, actually lifting that monster weighing tens of thousands of tons like throwing a sandbag and swinging it up!
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—CRASH!!"
Red Lotus Golza traced an elegant parabola through the air before being slammed heavily into the ground, raising dust clouds a hundred meters high.
"Yeah—!!"
"Go Tiga! Beat it!!"
The children in the distance went crazy with excitement, clapping their hands red.
Kazama rotated his wrists, feeling good.
But he didn't let his guard down.
This Red Lotus Golza clearly had even thicker skin than the TV version. Although that throw looked brutal, it hadn't broken any bones.
Sure enough, before the dust even settled, Golza shook its head and climbed up like nothing happened, the vicious light in its eyes even more intense.
"Thick-skinned as expected."
Kazama wasn't surprised. Instead, he pressed the advantage, leaping high and delivering a standard swallow kick that slammed viciously into the monster's shoulder.
"BANG!"
Sparks flew everywhere.
Golza screamed and that massive body staggered backward again.
Watching the monster rolling on the ground, Kazama instinctively started charging up a move. Pulling both hands to his waist, he prepared to release the Dilahume Stream.
But halfway through the motion, he stopped.
"No, that's not how you play Ultraman! Using a finisher before the monster's stamina is depleted absolutely results in smoke with no damage."
Kazama glanced at the still-glowing patterns on the monster's chest, remembering that Red Lotus Golza had the characteristic of absorbing beam attacks.
"Need to drain its stamina first."
So Kazama switched from red Power Type back to balanced Multi Type, then relied on the vast light energy within Tiga's body to use The Illusion card.
As that ocean-like light energy provided enhancement...
Hummm—
The air began violently distorting.
On Tiga's left and right sides, two dazzling lights condensed from nothing, forming two brand-new giant silhouettes.
The one on the left was Ultraman Dyna - Miracle Type.
The one on the right was Ultraman Gaia - Supreme Version.
Although they were just phantoms without substance, under Tiga's massive light energy enhancement, these two illusions were so realistic they were almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Even their auras were perfectly simulated.
"???"
Golza, who'd just gotten up ready to counter-attack, was instantly dumbfounded.
Wasn't this supposed to be a one-on-one?
How did you start calling for backup mid-fight?
And these two you called in look more troublesome than the last!
Especially that red one (Supreme Gaia)—just standing there gave the monster a "I'm going to twist your head off" oppressive feeling.
"Attack!"
Kazama gave the mental command.
Although these two were just images created by The Illusion card without real attack power, under the card's advanced application they possessed extremely realistic visual and energy wave effects.
Miracle Type Dyna moved around the monster like a phantom, appearing each time in Golza's attack blind spots. Although its punches caused no damage, that visual interference drove the monster crazy.
Supreme Type Gaia went even more direct with a frontal assault, striking the opening pose for releasing Photon Stream, scaring Golza into immediately pointing its absorption organ at him—only to find it was just a feint with no actual skill fired.
"ROAR—!!"
Golza was going insane.
It wildly swung its claws and fired ultrasonic beams, but everything hit empty air.
In just a few minutes, the monster was run ragged, its movements visibly slowing down.
"This trick is pretty interesting."
Kazama stood in the distance like a director watching a show.
Although it currently looked like a low-budget version of Gamma Illusion without real damage, it excelled at being annoying.
And if The Illusion card could coordinate with other Clow Cards, it might actually create damaging clones.
For example, Illusion card plus The Create card—creating real bodies on the phantom forms, then dismissing The Illusion afterward to make them vanish directly.
That way there'd be no worry about losing control. Plus with Tiga's energy supply, maybe it could really recreate the Heisei Trinity fighting side by side.
Hmm, worth adding to the future tactical development list.
At this moment, phantom Dyna teleported behind Golza, pretending to release Liebarium Light Wave.
Golza panicked and spun around to defend, only to find the light wave didn't even leave a mark on its body.
Before it could react, Supreme Gaia had already jumped onto its head, a Photon Stream slamming down viciously.
Golza screamed and assumed a defensive crouch, only to discover the attack didn't even scratch its skin.
"Roar roar!!"
It finally realized it had been played and jumped around in furious rage.
Just then, Kazama's real body had quietly entered the field.
Taking advantage of the massive opening created by the two phantoms' harassment, he unceremoniously delivered a hand chop to Golza's vulnerable neck area.
"SMACK!!"
Sparks flew.
"OWWW—!!"
This was a solid critical hit. Golza was in so much pain tears nearly came out.
It tried to counter-attack, but those two fly-like phantoms swarmed up again—firing beams here, striking poses there—making it unable to decide which side to attack.
Seeing the monster's stamina had been depleted sufficiently, Kazama also got tired of dragging things out.
"Had enough fun? Time to send you off."
Considering that Red Lotus Golza possessed beam absorption abilities, a frontal assault could backfire. To prevent accidents, Kazama first dispersed the phantoms and used The Time card.
After Golza was frozen in time...
Kazama slowly crossed his hands in front of his chest, then pulled them left and right, beginning to charge power.
Purple light particles gathered madly, forming a dazzling line of light before his chest.
"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—BOOM!!"
Then a full-power Zeperion Ray fired out, pouring unobstructed into Golza's completely unguarded body.
Because time was stopped, the monster's absorption organ couldn't activate at all. It couldn't even make the reaction of being hit.
That destructive light energy was like water forcibly poured into a balloon, filling every cell of its body in an instant.
After finishing the ultimate move, Kazama calmly turned around.
Real men never look back at explosions.
As color returned and time resumed flowing in that instant...
"Roar...?"
Golza was about to finish shouting that roar stuck in its throat when it suddenly felt its body freeze. Then red light began shining through cracks in every inch of skin. It didn't even get a chance to scream.
The monster exploded into fragments in brilliant firelight.
"We won!!"
"Long live Ultraman!!"
On the ground, the children threw their hats and homework into the sky, their excitement nearly flipping the bus roof.
On the mountaintop, tiny Michiyo clutched that backpack tightly, watching that silhouette standing in the setting sun, smiling even more brilliantly than the explosion just now.
Because that was her very own personal hero.
With the battle ended, Kazama didn't immediately cancel the transformation.
Because he'd just checked through Tiga's skill list and discovered one that could traverse spacetime.
So Kazama prepared to directly borrow Tiga's power to leave this place and return to his own timeline.
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