DOD: Krazoth

Name: Krazoth
Aliases: Devil Bird, Terror Crane
Pronounced: (Kray-zaath)
Faction: Terror — Sunset Blade
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Classification: Aviversor malevolens (Malicious Avian-destroyer)
Length: 405 feet
Height: 185 feet
Weight: 440 tons

Weaponry / Abilities:

Adzebill:
Krazoth is a carnivore, his hunting weapon of choice being a powerful crushing bill. Deep, broad, and sturdy in construction, it can crunch through kaiju bones with a single good bite. Krazoth can wield his deadly bill with great speed and precision; the thick curved hook at its tip is effective for gripping, piercing, and tearing apart flesh. As Krazoth lacks teeth he processes food with the sharpened cutting edges of his bill.

Gripper Claws:
Thick, triangular, and moderately sharp, the talons on Krazoth’s feet aren’t anything anatomically special. Being fairly massive, these claws are still useful for gripping unstable terrain and for tearing into his enemies.

Manual Manipulators:
Oddly for a bird, Krazoth sports fully formed hands on his forelimbs. While quite dinosaur-like at first glance, these scaly hands are much more specialized: if anything, their skeletal anatomy is more like a primate’s than a theropod’s. Incredibly flexible in the wrists and digits, each hand is dexterous enough to delicately manipulate objects. Overall, his arms are actually quite muscular, and they can deliver surprisingly powerful punching and slashing blows in close quarters.

Avian Athlete:
Krazoth is built for speed and maneuverability. Long-legged, well-muscled, and streamlined in form, he is a highly athletic monster, being able to run circles around most kaiju and outpace the rest in a straight footrace. Like nearly all birds Krazoth’s body is lined with air sacs that are interconnected with his lungs, providing him with a constant flow of fresh oxygen. His legs can also deliver a punishing cassowary-like kick.

Dorsal Spines / Feather Armor:
Krazoth’s backbone is lined with bony plates; they’re there to deter attackers but are equally useful as actual defensive weapons. His dense coat of shaggy feathers provides both insulation and protection from heat, cold, electricity, and the ranged weapons of other kaiju.

Bird’serker:
When sufficiently agitated Krazoth can undergo a “berserker” state, temporarily casting aside his cowardly nature and becoming a brutal fighter. Believed to be induced by excessive adrenaline production, this state lasts for roughly fifteen minutes and makes Krazoth temporarily immune to fear, driving him to attack and kill any enemy he faces. He’s also given an exceptional tolerance for pain. This “berserker” state is what inspired his name: when Sunset Blade first witnessed it in action, someone remarked that the kaiju seemed crazed, hence “Krazoth”.

Atomic Flamethrower:
Krazoth can channel a stream of ionizing radiation from his reactor gland as a weapon, expelling from his mouth a thermonuclear blast that strikes targets with all the force of a nuclear weapon.

Weaknesses:

Coward:
Krazoth is famous for his cowardice. Though not a flighty or skittish monster by any means, he’s no hero when it comes to serious confrontations, and he rarely picks fights that he thinks he can’t win. Even when forced into battle by Sunset Blade, he may “turn chicken” and retreat if faced with a powerful opponent.

Personality:
Krazoth is a prick. He’s arrogant, aggressive, and downright unpleasant to be around. He’s quite famous for his sense of self-righteousness, frequently treating his fellow Sunset Blade kaiju like dirt and his adversaries as even lower than dirt. In contrast to his typical “holier-than-thou” charade, Krazoth is in truth a coward with little respect for anyone, including himself; the only reason he cooperates with Sunset Blade is for the free food and shelter, and to keep his captors from having to put him down.

In order to boost his poor self-esteem, Krazoth indulges in the suffering of other creatures, especially that which he has inflicted; it is because of this that he fights so fiercely for Sunset Blade’s causes. However, at the earliest hint of defeat, his deceitful side will show through, doing anything in his power to assert his superiority, whether it be a territorial disagreement amongst fellow monsters or an all-out battle against his adversaries. Though he is actually quite clever, Krazoth’s lack of patience hinders his tactical effectiveness, as does his intolerance for humiliation. It is because of the latter that Krazoth especially loathes the SGOC’s Defender Dikorus, whom has defeated him in combat on several occasions.

Combat Strategy:
For all his personal shortcomings, Krazoth is still a dangerous monster. Lashing out with slicing bill and ripping talons, he’s like a walking set of knives in battle, cutting and tearing into his opponents with sickening speed and ferocity. Krazoth always takes his cruel attitude into war, using it to intimidate his foes whenever possible, which only compels him to become more and more violent. If faced with a well-matched foe, the cowardly bird will resort to cheap shots to attain victory, spewing nuclear flame in their faces or kicking up dust to obstruct their vision, and then attacking them from behind or simply running away while he has the opportunity. Having few other useful skills besides combat, Sunset Blade employs Krazoth solely as a warrior, only letting the feathered beast loose when someone opposing the company’s will needs to be dealt with directly.

History:

“…So how did our feathered friend’s procedure go?”

“Well, Sir. No hiccups to speak of.”

“The Neural-Link Device is installed? We can connect to him right now?”

“Uh, yes, Mr. Ukusagami. I believe we could.”

“You believe we could?”

“Well, the technical jargon in the mission report is beyond my understanding of the topic.”

“Fair enough,” the lone man said calmly, his clasped hands gently rocking back and forth on the table. “And how would you rate your company’s performance over the events of this last week?”

“Well, Sir, I wouldn’t even know where to begin….”

The brunette stammered on for a moment. The man sitting across the table simply sighed and tilted his head down, dark brown eyes boring into her.

“Be honest.”

“Permission to speak freely, Mr. Ukusagami?”

“Given, Ms.…um.….”

“Samantha, Sir, though just Sam for short.”

“Ah, right then. Please continue.”

“Well, in my opinion, Sir, I believe Blue Phoenix went above and beyond the call in fulfilling its tasks. My men and women performed admirably even with the failure of our first capture attempt. We completed our trial mission with no loss of personnel, minimal equipment loss, and well within our allotted time limit.” Sam could hardly stifle a grin of pride for her company.

The man briefly looked back to his mission report. “Yes, why did your initial attempt fail? Fear? Lack of preparation? Your company did know what it was intending to hunt, no?”

“Fear, Mr. Ukusagami. We were afraid, true, but we didn’t let that keep us from our goal. My team and I knew the risks involved when we went in…certainly more than you may think.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Do you now?”

“Story for another day, Sir.”

The man leaned back in his chair, smiling thinly.

“Well, from what I’ve seen and heard today your company has proved itself fit for duty and in the process outperformed all of its competitors. None of them bagged their quarry, and only one besides you made it back intact. That’s quite the accomplishment. You've got the job. Congratulations. As head of Sunset Blade, I would be proud to have Blue Phoenix aboard with us.”

The man extended a handshake to seal the deal.

“Thank you, Mr. Ukusagami, Sir,” Sam replied, her voice a tiny bit higher with giddiness. “The guys and I will definitely take you up on your offer.”

“I'm glad to hear it. And please, call me Goro.”

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Artist's Commentary:
This is Krazoth, DOD's terror bird analogue and – in the earliest drafts of DOD – Dikorus’ nemesis. As the second kaiju that I ever created, Krazoth has been around for quite a while, and his design and character certainly reflect that.

The original design for Krazoth was essentially a terror bird with a scaly tail, loosely inspired by the fictional Stratoraptor velox from the novel “Dinosaur Summer”; he also sported a fanged beak, an odd crest-like protrusion from his bill, and Godzilla-style dorsal spines. As the original illustration was of poor artistic quality, I later revamped it once my skills were better developed. This version was also based on the Stratoraptor, even more heavily than the original was; after some time, I grew tired of this blatant rip-off and totally revamped it.

Krazoth was originally a full-blown terror bird, but I recently changed him to being a descendant of the Gastornis, for originality’s sake. Initially, Krazoth was intended to be Dikorus’ kaiju nemesis, but I’ve since given that title to another monster. Character-wise, Krazoth was always intended to have an unpleasant personality, though the exact nature of his unpleasantness has varied over time. His bio is intended to shed some light on Sunset Blade’s earliest involvements with kaiju, specifically while Goro was interviewing private military companies (PMCs) to hire as trappers. While Krazoth no longer has a big role in the DOD storyline, he still holds a high place in its creative history, so I’m happy to let him play out his part in the Days Of Dikorus universe.

Artistic Notes:
— Krazoth has four toes on each foot; the innermost toe is vestigial and pretty much useless.
— Krazoth has three clawed fingers on each hand; the innermost digit is thumb-like.
— Krazoth has a total of eleven dorsal spines running from his neck down to his tailbone.
— The front of Krazoth’s bill is expanded into a vaguely plow-like shape.