Height: 300 feet when standing on land.
Gender: Female
Physical description: Dracochelys mostly resembles a gigantic sea turtle, with a few differences, most noticeably the crest of horns pointing upwards on the back of her head. The three horns, two longer on either side and a shorter one between them, give her a dragon-like appearance. This is helped by the fact that she has the head of a snapping turtle, giving her a meaner face, by the fact that her nostrils are constantly issuing steam (a result of an internal furnace that keeps her consistently hot), and by the fact that her shell has a rough and spiky texture. Unlike real sea turtles, Dracochelys has plates covering her neck an head, ending in a small horn on her nose.
The other most noticeable features are her posture and her hands - when on land, Dracocheyls stands mainly upright, leaning forward on the ends of her giant flippers for use as front legs. On closer glance still, the flippers are not regular sea turtle flippers - they are actually long, scimitar-shaped blades. Dracochelys' back, limbs and upper jaw are black with tan linings, and her underside and lower jaw are tan.
Emergence: TBA
Personality: Despite her fearsome appearance, Dracochelys is primarily a vegetarian, eating through forests of kelp, or even venturing on land to consume trees. Occasionally she will hunt small sea creatures, such as sharks or dolphins or large schools of fish, for extra sustenance, particularly when incubating eggs. She is generally a gentle creature who ignores all life she does not deem a threat. However, she has a strong maternal instinct and when pregnant or defending her young, her personality becomes much more cautious. In a fight she is a fierce and brutal combatant. Alone she is tough enough, but will retreat if it means saving her life - pregnant or close to her eggs, it doesn't matter who she is fighting, she will lay down her life.
This is not the first, original Dracochelys from the previous awakening. Though her parents are long dead, this particular one was born sometime in the awakening's last few centuries. Typically a brood will consist of only one or two eggs, and sometimes kaiju predators will kill the youngsters. The eggs take time to develop, and risk being smelled out before they hatch. Ecologically speaking, this suits the species as whole fine, as they grow quickly but otherwise live an extremely slow existence and, like many kaiju, have no discernible lifespan. Still, the reality of reproduction means that there may yet be more Dracochelyses out there, still sleeping.
Powers/Abilities:
Walking Hot Water Tap - Within Dracocheyls is a biological furnace she uses to regulate her internal temperature, keeping her hot and avoiding most pitfalls of cold-blooded animals. As a weapon, Dracoheyls can spew streams of water from her mouth, and a secondary function of the furnace is to moderate the temperature of the attack. For more direct damage, Dracochelys can ensure the water is scalding hot. This is not a big deal for some kaiju, but the pressure force of the stream is also enough to deal concussive damage. For longer exposure, Dracocheyls can emit vaporized water steam to engulf her opponent. She can also use this underwater, increasing the temperature of the water around to boil her enemy alive.
Sword-Juggler - like Tyrosus, Dracocheyls' sword-fins are sharp enough to slice through any known metal. As an added bonus, due to Dracocheyls' extreme heaviness and strength in her front limbs, to be hit by the face of the blades is tantamount to being concussively clubbed.
Protective Shell - Dracocheyls' carapace is very strong. To puncture it outright is near impossible.
Water-flyer - True to her namesake, Dracocheyls seems to fly in water. She is extremely fast, manoeuvrable, and can swiftly slash enemies with the ends of her blade-flippers without slowing herself.
Crushing Bite Unsurprising for her snapper-turtle head, Dracocheyls' bite is a devastating, bone-crunching attack. Once latched on, it is difficult to shaker her off against her will.
Weaknesses:
Slow on Land - On land, Dracocheyls is extremely slow. She makes up for it with her durability and hefty, forceful attacks, but nonetheless is unable to outrun, or outmanoeuvre, almost every other kaiju on land.
Cracks in the Armour - Though her armour is very tough, it has some very specific weak points where the plates meet that a savvy enemy could make use of - in the direct centre of her chest, over her right shoulder, the back of her neck where it meets the shell, and close to her back left leg. Pulling from inside, it is much easier to get leverage to rip off the rest of the shell as well.
Cold - the primary reason for Dracocheyls' internal heater is that she requires a constant hot temperature to survive. The heater overcomes the limitations of a cold-blooded animal, except that in extreme cold, for example in the arctic or in very cold winters, it will be gradually overcome and no longer able to self-regulate. Depending on the severity, this will weaken her and perhaps even kill her.
Ground-birth - like all sea turtles, Dracocheyls must give birth on land, where she is arguably more vulnerable. The size of her offspring, about the size of elephants when they hatch, means she must venture much further inland in order to bury them, and also means the offspring have further to travel when hatched to reach the safety of the sea.
), so I'll see about getting my first post up when I get back tonight.
. That was a very good opening post.
