DOD: Kolrath

Name: Kolrath
Aliases: River Princess, Mistress of Blood, Princess of Putrescine
Pronounced: (Coal-wrath)
Faction: Terror — Sunset Blade — The Pack
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Classification: Cyprinus carpio haematopterus
Breed: Kōhaku variant
Length: 325 feet
Height: 120 feet
Weight: 220 tons

Weaponry / Abilities:

Rasping Toothed Maw:
Kolrath’s maw is a circular ring of muscle designed to suck and grind food. It is lined with multiple rows of tiny tooth-like structures, allowing her to rasp away at flesh as easily as it can algae and waterplants. Kolrath’s mouth can produce enough suctioning force to pull almost cookiecutter-like chunks out of unarmored flesh, and when this is done in rapid succession, she can even blood-let her targets.

Ripper Claws:
In combat, Kolrath’s primary weapons are her curved cutting claws. Designed primarily for gripping and dissecting the carcasses she feeds upon, these talons are also useful against living opponents. Lacking webbings between her fingers, Kolrath is capable of grasping and holding onto her victims.

Fan / Flail Tail:
Though Kolrath possesses an elegant, almost veil-like tail fin, her tail is anything but useless. While it appears frail at first glance, Kolrath’s tail fin is deceptively damage-resistant, and her actual tail is fairly powerful as well. The whole appendage is coated in some of the largest, sturdiest scales on her body, which makes it a formidable slashing weapon.

Kinetic Razor Scales:
Kolrath’s body is coated in an array of large interwoven scales. Unlike a normal koi, her scales are coated with multiple layers of keratin, making each individual scale extremely tough for its size. When coupled with her ability to contract the muscles underlying her skin, Kolrath can puff out her scales like the fur on a frightened cat. Kolrath is like a walking pincushion when she does this, slashing flesh like a thicket of sharp rattling blades.

Amphibious:
Kolrath is amphibious. Despite the addition of four limbs her swimming capacity hasn’t been inhibited in the least, and she is as fast and agile in the water as she has ever been. Additionally, she can process both fresh and saltwater, thanks to a small gland near her kidneys that can retain or expel salt as is needed.

Pseudo-Lungs:
Kolrath, like the arapaima fish, uses a modified swim bladder to breathe air. She still has functioning gills and can stay underwater indefinitely.

Ambush Predator:
Time and time again, Kolrath has proven to be among the most adept ambush predators in the kaiju world. Sitting patiently for hours, barely moving or even breathing, and streamlining her form by folding down her various bodily fins, she can wait it out for passing prey and enemies for hours, if not days at a time.

Electrosense:
Like many fish SGOs, Kolrath’s barbels are adept at detecting underwater movement and electrical activity. As such, she has a detailed electrosensory “picture” of her surroundings, regardless of the atmospheric conditions.

Pack Attack:
Kolrath is rarely alone. Accompanied almost everywhere she goes by a hulking electrical goonch, a ravenous steel-jawed snakehead, and a devious razor-clawed payara, a single shriek from Kolrath is enough to bring them all rushing to her aid, eager to slaughter any living thing that lays a hand on her.

Weaknesses:

Clumsy:
As a fish, Kolrath isn’t exactly built for terrestrial locomotion. While her limbs are plenty powerful enough to get her going, she’s simply not coordinated enough to keep up with more terrestrial monsters.

Lightweight:
Kolrath is small for a kaiju. Considering the size of some of the powerhouse behemoths that The Pack has to contend with on a regular basis, this could turn out to be fatal some day.

Personality:
Kolrath is a brat. Stubborn, self-centered, and cowardly in the face of true danger, she is the youngest member of The Pack and often gets away with things that would bring serious repercussions if any other Pack member tried it. A classic narcissist, Kolrath views herself as the greatest and most valuable thing in Sunset Blade’s possession, and her temperament reflects that. She often uses her position as the smallest and weakest to manipulate other Pack members, such as pitting Iranitith and Pirzak against each other should one permit Kolrath’s behavior but not the other. It’s a miracle she’s survived on post-Cycle Earth for this long.

Combat Strategy:
Kolrath isn’t much for actual combat, instead preferring to goad other Pack members into defending her. But if she is caught without her bodyguards, she’s still capable of fighting back. Slashing and swiping defensively, Kolrath keeps her enemies at a distance until she spots a weak spot to exploit with her rasping maw and sharp scales. If greatly threatened Kolrath will let out a shriek for help, summoning the rest of The Pack to her aid.

History:

“Mr. Sung, Sir, he’s en route to the convention as we speak.”

“Excellent, maintain your surveillance,” the voice behind the tall office chair echoed. Listening to the subordinate’s footsteps as she exited the head office doorway, Dragon Head Sung kept his eyes focused on the panoramic window, looking out over all of Hong Kong. The triad leader smiled.

“You’ve only brought this fate upon yourself, Mr. Ukusagami.”

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Slowly arcing right for a turn, the sleek black limousine cruised its way through the streets of Hong Kong. In the distance, their destination – a vast gray convention hall that loomed above the surrounding cityscape – came into view. Too busy milling through a stack of notecards to pay any notice, the suited passenger jumped in his seat when the driver’s intercom buzzed to life.

“Mr. Ukusagami, we’ve almost reached the AsiaWorld-Expo building. Will you need any assistance in carrying in your, um…luggage there, Sir?” The driver indicated the small glass tank sitting at the man’s feet. Within it, a small koi swam around in slow circles.

“No, no, thank you, I’ll handle it,” Goro wearily replied. Just as he slumped back into his seat, his back pocket began vibrating; Goro sighed and withdrew his ringing smartphone.

“…Yes, Simmons?”

“Goro, we’ve just received intel on a couple SGOs heading up from the South China Sea in your direction. I highly advise that you postpone your presentation at the convention hall, Sir.”

“Let’s keep this intel to ourselves for now, no need to leak out any further information to the local triads.”

“…The triads, Sir? What makes you think they’re invol-”

“Let’s just say one of their current Dragon Heads and I have crossed paths before. They’re probably listening in on us as we speak. Now, as long as the SGOs don’t get to the venue ahead of me, we might be able to salvage this event should it go south. Oh, and Simmons?”

“Yes?”

“Dispatch The Pack to my destination, please.”

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September 3rd, 2008.

This year, Hong Kong was hosting the world-renowned International GMO Convention, a biennial business convention dedicated to the global genetics marketplace. Among the most prominent business entities on the IGMOC convention floor was Sunset Blade, and while it was standard practice for a company representative to hold press meetings at IGMOC, this year would be different.

Head of Sunset Blade, Goro Ukusagami himself, was scheduled to make an appearance at IGMOC ’08 to showcase the latest advancements in Sunset Blade’s SGO-based biotechnology. For two days the convention had been running smoothly, but now, less than half an hour before the awaited guest speaker’s arrival, disaster sirens began sounding all across the city. From the outer reaches of the South China Sea, the three sources of the alarm were headed towards shore, straight for the heart of Hong Kong.

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“Mr. Ukusagami! Huan Wu with the Metropolis Daily! What are your thoughts on the SGO confrontation that occurred in the South China Sea earlier today?”

Goro assessed the rapid-fire tactics of this woman. She was tall, slender, and had short, dark hair: right in his wheelhouse. He smiled and prepared a response.

“Well, Ms. Wu, I don’t really know much beyond what’s already been said. Three rogue SuperGiant Organisms were spotted heading towards Hong Kong, and a few of the local fish didn’t take kindly to their territory being invaded.”

“Sources indicate that that the four SGOs that defended the area – successfully, I might add – are in fact Sunset Blade property. Can you confirm or deny this allegation?”

“I can confirm that those creatures were under my company’s command.”

Upon hearing this, the surrounding crowd’s clamor rose to a roar, peppering Goro and the reporter with camera flashes and jabbing at him with newscaster microphones. Goro’s security entourage kept most of them at bay.

“Hong Kong and Chinese authorities may seek you out now that you admit your company was involved in today’s events. What do you say to this?”

“Ms. Wu, even if some consider Sunset Blade’s actions today unnecessary, unlawful perhaps, the people in my company should be treated as heroes. We saved an entire city, one of the most populated in the world, from three hostile creatures that otherwise could have inflicted untold amounts of destruction. We minimized structural damage by containing the hostiles in the open sea, and to my knowledge no casualties have been reported. On top of all that, we put on quite the show, didn’t we?” Goro winked suggestively.

A large bald man abruptly stepped in next to Goro, waving high and smiling for a few photos.

“That’s all Mr. Ukusagami would like to discuss on the matter. Now please everyone give him some space, Goro’s very busy and has a lot of stops to make today! Thank you, thank you for your time, thank you….”

Goro waved to the crowd just like he’d practiced, while Simmons shepherded him into the waiting cabin of a black limousine.

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Artist's Commentary:
This is DOD’s resident koi kaiju, Kolrath. A couple years back, when I was still new as a member to DeviantART, one of the first friends I made was . Ever since, our two kaijuverses have had some crossovers in both serious and humorous contexts, though one of the most common of these crossovers dealt with my bumbling goonch kaiju Iranitith being, well…himself. Through means I cannot recall, RR devised an accompanying kaiju for Iranitith and the rest of The Pack – a horde of freshwater fish kaiju enslaved by Sunset Blade – that was adapted from an old idea of his: a koi kaiju. Being up for ever more monsters, I went along with this plan and, in time, he produced a text Deviation for the beast he dubbed “Kolrath”.

Once I got around to DOD’s big overhaul, I decided to actually include Kolrath in my kaiju roster, and subsequently created this illustration for her; the illustration was in itself a personal milestone for me, as I had never drawn a piece with such skin detail as this. Design-wise, that was all up to RR, I just adapted it a bit for the DOD universe. So yeah, thanks for the monster, dude.

Artistic Notes:
— Kolrath has four fingers per hand; all of these fingers bear longish cutting claws.
— Kolrath has three toes per foot; these toes are smooth-skinned and almost frog-like in texture.
— Kolrath has five spines supporting her dorsal fin; the front spine is soft and fleshy, while the last four spines are hard like bone.
— Kolrath has three fins on her body; one dorsal fin, one small tail fin, and one large tail fin.
— Kolrath’s mouth is extended in this illustration, much like a normal koi’s can extend. She has two short barbels on her face, as well.

*First koi kaiju on DA!*