Kaiju All Stars: Dikorus

Name: Dikorus
Factions: Rogue
Alignment: Chaotic neutral
Kaiju Rank: Rank 4

Stats:
Height: 60 meters
Length: 134 meters
Weight: 43,000 tons

Powers:
Rapier Claws: Dikorus' primary weapons are his massively built arms, each of their three fingers tipped with a long curved claw. In addition to his “true” claws, Dikorus' knuckles and wrists are also lined with claw-like spines that give him a truly formidable swing, no matter the angle, speed, or force.
Claw Armor: Leading up from the wrist spines are yet more claw-like spines, two rows of which run up all the way up Dikorus' outer arms, as well as a similar set of spines lining his legs. These function like angular plates of armor, deflecting and catching edged weapons, giving Dikorus an unprecedented edge in close-quarters combat.
Adze Bill: Oddly for a mutation of a supposedly herbivorous dinosaur, Dikorus' beak sports a large, sturdy hooked tip, with two smaller hooked edges leading off from it. This heavy-set beak allows Dikorus to feed on nearly anything he can find, in addition to granting the monstrous ostrich-mimic a deadly close-quarters weapon.
Combat Versatility: Dikorus is a very fast and versatile mover both on and off the battlefield, easily switching from running to climbing to, most impressively, swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper like some monstrous primate. He is well-known for swinging like this straight into battle, tackling his foes head-on, and claws-first.
Predator Intellect: Dikorus is an infamously clever kaiju, and a personal nightmare for mankind's military forces. Dikorus' highly dexterous hands allow him to construct simple objects, such as territorial markers, as well as employ natural traps upon unsuspecting prey and enemies. Like any predator, Dikorus is a wary opponent, well-versed in studying a foe's anatomical weak points, or utilizing a choice opportunity to strike.
Blackout Breath: Dikorus, like most daikaiju, has a naturally-generated ranged weapon at his disposal. However, his is totally unique in form and function. Believed to be an odd form of thermonuclear, or atomic, breath, the blast is theorized to, upon hitting the target, enter the flesh at the atomic level. Within the target, the atoms may hit and disrupt those of nerves, sending the foe into slight seizures or, during stronger blasts, actually cause some organs to temporarily—or even permanently—shut down.

Weaknesses:
Slow Swimmer: While Dikorus isn't actually harmed by water, his physiology is best suited to running and climbing, not swimming. He is relatively slow and clumsy in deeper water, leaving him at the mercy of military forces or more amphibious kaiju. Additionally, his insulating feathers are hardly watertight, and he typically avoids saturating them lest he risk pneumonic infection in the waters of his frigid Alaskan territory.
Minimum Height: For Dikorus to be able to swing from structures effectively, the minimum height of the structures, be they buildings, mountains, or canyons, must be as least 200 feet high; if any lower, Dikorus wouldn't have any maneuvering room between him and the ground.

Personality:
Dikorus is, like many daikaiju currently roaming the planet, a loner. He goes wherever he pleases, with little regard to humanity and fellow monster alike. Dikorus acts almost entirely in the benefit of his few objectives; to find food, acquire territory, and obtain Enigma. Dikorus will eagerly take any kaiju he sees worthy as his allies, and will help them in their times of need, but ultimately they are second-best to his personal interests. Slightly obsessive, almost draconian in this sense, Dikorus keeps a large cache of Enigma hidden deep within his territory, and he will fight off just about anything that dares to steal what power he has so rightfully earned over the years.

History:
In the northernmost reaches of North America, there was a legend upheld by the Kwakiutl and Haida tribes, a forewarning tale of a monstrous being they called “Raven”. These tribes feared and respected this almighty beast, this gigantic bird, bearing not wings, but huge hands tipped with nightmarish claws. Many of our modern age have dismissed this as mere folklore, a story imagined to explain the mysteries of the north Pacific forest.

But to every story, there is a grain of truth.

Christmas Eve, 1908. Journalist M. Georges Dupuy, along with a number of Native Americans, headed back to their makeshift camp in Alaska’s Cherski Mountain range. The cold unbearable, and the wind almost painful to face, the troop trudged on through the rugged wilderness and towards Armstrong Creek. Dupuy came face-to-face with a living nightmare: “as big as ten elephants, it passed like a hurricane across the frozen river, smashing immense blocks of thick ice into the air. Its long bristles were covered with hoar-frost and its immense red eyes flamed in the twilight. The monster held in its mouth a caribou of close to 700 pounds, while it careened at twenty miles per hour!”

August 20th, 2010. A frenzy of reports flooded into the Anchorage Police Station’s call center late that day, all claiming to have seen a “feathery monster” patrolling the forests. Obligated to investigate, police prepared a search party to find this so-called “monster”. They wouldn’t need to travel far.

For the almighty Raven, once ruler of these frozen lands, had returned for his throne.

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Finally! First of my kaiju entries to Kaiju All-Stars, my main monster in both KAS and my personal kaijuverse, my Deinocheirus kaiju Dikorus. Though I’ve been a bit late to the party, I think Dikorus will fit into the current roster nicely. As compared to the DOD Dikorus, KAS Dikorus is a bit more “modern” in build, though I kept most if not all of his major defining features in some shape or form. Primarily, I redesigned Dikorus’ trademark serrated claws into “multiple” claws per digit, and added in even more to give him a more feral appearance. The rest of the design was generally unchanged. As for my historical reference, the legend of Raven is in fact an actual story told by the Kwakiutl and Haida tribes. The encounter with Georges Dupuy is the very one he reported as the so-called “Partridge Creek Monster”, a little-known cryptid saurian of the far north best described as a Ceratosaurus covered in protofeathers. Some info on the Partridge Creek Monster for the curious: [link]

And finally, his theme song, Erase My Scars: [link]

Important Dates:
December 25th, 1908 – First appearance (unsubstantiated)
August 20th, 2010 – First public appearance