DOD: Nalhest

Name: Nalhest
Aliases: The Temptress, Queen of Seduction
Pronounced: (Nahl-hest)
Faction: Terror — Sunset Blade
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Classification: Ornitholestes hermanni
Length: 455 feet
Height: 220 feet
Weight: 280 tons

Weaponry / Abilities:

Bird Robber’s Armament:
Nalhest bears the weaponry typical to her species, Ornitholestes. Her long, conical teeth and stiletto-like talons are built for stabbing through scales and feathers. Nalhest can even detach her lower jaw to engulf smaller creatures, just like a snake. Nalhest’s extremely long and flexible tail is a spiny whip that can coil around targets like a noose. Nalhest has retained the speed and agility capabilities once enjoyed by her species, allowing her to run circles around bulkier monsters and easily outflank and evade their slower attacks.

Hypodermic Fangs:
Rooted firmly in Nalhest’s upper jaw is a pair of long, needle-like fangs. From two glands in the jaw, a potent venom can be injected through hollow channels in these fangs into a target. If need be, these fangs can also spray venom through forward-facing nozzles at opponents, akin to those of a spitting cobra.

Neurotoxic Venom:
Nalhest’s venom is highly neurotoxic and thus targets a victim’s nervous system, including the brain and heart. The venom can induce paralysis of body parts and vital organs, and can even induce seizures in victims. Nalhest uses this ferocious chemical cocktail only as a last resort, as it takes a good deal of biological energy to produce it.

Ripscales:
On the palms of Nalhest’s hands are numerous enlarged scales. These sharpened scales, erected by muscular contraction, give her a grip beyond whatever her strength alone can provide. When not needed the scales are folded up tight against her palms.

Hallux Crampons:
Nalhest’s first toe, vestigial in most theropods, is now built much like the “killing claw” of the dromaeosaurs. Tipped by a large, curved talon of its own, this hyperextendable digit is used to hack, rip, and slash away at her opponents, or to even climb up on ones bigger than she is.

Defensive Spine Array:
Nalhest has a variety of keratin spines scattered about her body. Formed in various shapes and sizes, these sharp spines offer the otherwise unarmored kaiju some light protection from her adversaries. These form a decorative hood along her neck, which rattles as a threat display.

Chameleon Camouflage:
Nalhest’s skin cells contain advanced color-changing chromatophores, allowing the monster to change her coloration in a relatively short time. This ability allows her to blend into her surroundings, hiding herself in order to ambush enemies who may wander by.

Cobra’s Cunning:
Nalhest is a very intelligent kaiju. She is skilled at planning ahead and negotiating alliances with other monsters. Nalhest is capable of mimicking – and even speaking – human languages; so far, she has only learned enough words to taunt or frighten people with lisping fragments, usually in English but occasionally in Spanish and French.

Weaknesses:

Lightweight:
Well-armed as she may be, Nalhest is no heavy hitter, and must rely on her speed and agility to win the fight. Her light weight and fragile weapons put her at severe risk when up against larger, stronger kaiju.

Personality:
Nalhest is a power-seeker through and through, but she prefers politicking over brute force. Her ability to manipulate and sway other monsters (males in particular) has made her some powerful allies, notably the carnosaur Saurocyde, but she’ll get what she wants one way or another, relying on all her tricks and guile. Nalhest embeds herself among stronger allies – usually kaiju, but occasionally humans, in the case of Sunset Blade – in order to ride on their coattails, benefiting from their works and reaping their rewards.

She like most monsters seeks power and, while fairly powerful in her own right, she wants power to surround her, to envelop her, and to protect her in the form of allies. Any monster of sufficient strength will enamor Nalhest, but if they grow weak she’ll drop them at the first opportunity. Her alliances are fleeting, her friends few, but in the end she almost always comes out on top.

Combat Strategy:
Nalhest is a swift and stealthy fighter, weaving and dodging to deliver cutting blows and crippling neurotoxic bites. She’s well-suited for ambushes, camouflaging herself until a target wanders past, which she seizes and envenomates before melting back into her surroundings.

If forced into direct combat she is still a fierce fighter, slashing and hacking with her many claws and spines. Sunset Blade uses Nalhest as a support kaiju, relying on her fast movements and camouflaging abilities to hole up and take the enemy by surprise.

History:

Nalhest came into Sunset Blade’s possession in the April of 1996, shortly after being cornered in the tropical rainforests of former Cambodia. She put up minimal resistance against the NLD implant, which rendered her under her captors’ control. Guided to Sunset Blade’s Kerguelen Island base within the month, she’s been among the company ever since.

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Artist's Commentary:
This is the “seductive serpent” of DOD, Nalhest. I came up with her character back in mid 2008, when she was under the name of “Nagaraptor” and looked like a deranged hooded raptor. Several names changes and many redesigns later, Nalhest became the seductive, cunning, and cruel monster she is now. Initially, she was a hybrid of Utahraptor and a water cobra, hence her original name “Nagaraptor”. After further thought, raptors and cobras are pretty overrated and overused as kaiju these days, so I went with something a bit different: a serpent-like Ornitholestes kaiju. In all her incarnations Nalhest was inspired by Vertigo, the Primal God of Insanity from the Atari arcade game “Primal Rage”, though in human terms she could be called a gold digger.

Artistic Notes:
— Nalhest has three fingers per hand; she has four toes per foot, with the first toe as the “killing claw”.
— Nalhest has two sets of neck spines that both splay out sideways, vaguely resembling a cobra’s hood.