"Asuka, grab it!"
After kicking Reicubas flying, Yu Zhou shouted to Asuka.
Asuka quickly understood and rushed forward, once again seizing the monster's legs.
Yu Zhou didn't stay idle either. He followed up and clamped down firmly on its massive pincers.
This time, Asuka didn't misunderstand his intent. Together, the two Ultras carried Reicubas upward toward the surface.
With a thunderous crash, the two Ultramen burst through the sea, dragging the monster with them, and then flung it hard onto the Antarctic ice sheet.
Reicubas smashed into the frozen plain, roared furiously, and quickly stood back up, glaring at Yu Zhou and Asuka as if ready to unleash another assault.
Sure enough, after a brief moment of aiming, its eyes glowed scarlet again. It opened its jaws wide and spat two blazing energy blasts—one toward Yu Zhou, the other toward Asuka.
Asuka reacted quickly, firing a beam of light to counter the incoming blast.
Yu Zhou, on the other hand, raised both arms to project an Ultra Barrier, which absorbed the scorching attack.
But Reicubas didn't stop. It kept firing blast after blast, launching a relentless barrage.
Yu Zhou knew better than to stand still. After deflecting a couple of shots, he swiftly moved aside.
Asuka, however, remained hovering in the air, maintaining his barrier and drawing the monster's fire.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each successive blast hammered the shield, cracks spreading across its glowing surface. It flickered and wavered, on the verge of shattering.
Yu Zhou swept around to its flank and launched himself in a flying kick.
Crash!
The blow struck true. Sparks erupted from Reicubas's head, and its massive body toppled backward onto the ice.
Its final blasts went wide, gouging into the glacier and instantly melting large chunks of ice into steaming pools.
"The heat of those blasts is incredible," Yu Zhou muttered, realizing just how destructive they were.
Then again, it wasn't surprising. This monster had been sent by that giant squid precisely to melt the Antarctic ice. The high temperature of its beams made perfect sense.
From what Yu Zhou remembered of the original timeline, Reicubas's heat rays could even fire from Earth's surface into outer space—giving it a range far superior to most kaiju.
No wonder Ultraman Dyna had been overwhelmed in that battle.
With the barrage halted, Asuka dismissed his battered barrier and landed beside Yu Zhou on the glacier.
Reicubas stirred again, dragging itself back up. But this time, its eyes no longer glowed red. Instead, they shifted to an icy, chilling blue.
Asuka didn't notice the change. Without hesitation, he charged in.
Yu Zhou's face darkened. This isn't good.
He crossed his arms at his forehead, then slashed them apart—shifting into his silver-and-purple form.
Reicubas's eye colour wasn't just for show—it meant its attack mode had changed.
When its eyes were red, it used scorching heat rays. When they turned blue, it could unleash freezing mist capable of encasing its enemies in ice.
Yu Zhou knew this from the original battle. But Asuka didn't. That was exactly how Dyna had been caught off guard and frozen into a helpless ice statue.
Determined not to let history repeat, Yu Zhou quickly charged up a freezing beam and fired straight at Reicubas's head.
Boom!
The freezing blast erupted, instantly coating the monster in icy layers. Frost surged around its body, locking it in place.
Reicubas had been preparing to exhale freezing mist, but Yu Zhou's pre-emptive strike caught it completely off guard. It froze solid on the spot.
But before Yu Zhou could react further, Asuka rushed in and delivered a mighty punch.
Crash!
The frozen Reicubas skidded across the ice, shards flying everywhere. But the blow also shattered the freshly formed ice casing.
Inside, Reicubas's eyes flared scarlet once more, and it immediately spewed another heat ray.
Shatter!
The ice cracked apart completely, freeing the beast.
Yu Zhou: "…"
He could only shake his head in exasperation.
Once again, he raised his arms, firing another freezing beam at its head.
This time, though, Reicubas had learned. Anticipating the attack, it quickly spat out a heat ray to intercept.
Boom!
The two beams collided and exploded midair.
Seeing that the freezing tactic wouldn't work again, Yu Zhou dropped the attempt. Instead, he dove in alongside Asuka, preparing for close combat.
Inside the base command hall…
Mai worked frantically at her computer, analysing Reicubas's combat data and trying to track the massive squid, Sufume.
Suddenly, the screen went black. The entire system cut out at once.
"What? No… The system control has been hacked!" Mai's hands flew over the keyboard, but no matter how fast she worked, she couldn't restore it. Panic rose in her voice. "This is impossible!"
Daigo, however, remained calm, sitting quietly to the side. He had seen this kind of thing before—back when Gatanozoa's black mist had invaded TPC's ocean base.
"Don't panic, Mai," he said steadily. "Stay calm. There's always a way through this."
"Yes, senpai!"
Hearing Daigo's composed tone, Mai's anxiety eased. With a reliable senior like him here, she felt she could focus again.
Reassured, she redoubled her efforts, and before long she managed to restore visuals to the main screen.
The image that appeared made her gasp.
A colossal squid loomed in the depths, its eight massive tentacles thrashing as it advanced straight toward them.
"Senpai, look!" she cried out.
Daigo studied the screen, then nodded. "Stay calm. It'll likely strike from below. I'll go down to check things out."
With that, he left the hall and headed toward the lower levels.
Sufume, after evading Yu Zhou earlier, had set its sights directly on the sea base.
In its arrogance, believing itself to be the most intelligent lifeform in the universe, it thought that once it seized control of humanity's main stronghold, victory would be assured.
(To be continued…)