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Description
M.T.O MARU
Codename: Kobukarappa
Scientific Name: Sklavoteras matangoensis (Slave-Making Monster of Matango)
Height: ~150 m / ~492 ft (Main Body)
Length: ~230 m / ~755 ft (Main Body)
Weight: ~100,000 tonnes / ~110,230 short tons (Main Body)
Category: 7
Aggression Level: 6

History: Daikaiju are hard to injure, much less kill. That is a well-established fact that has proven itself time and time again with each successive encounter with these organisms of biblical proportions. The most damaging of conventional simply bounce off their skin, and even the most powerful nuclear devices leave them only partially scathed. The only times Apex or Adversary have been successful in bringing down daikaiju were either because the said creature was a rather low-tier monster or if the humans were aided by the actions of another titan. Outside of these few instances, humanity has often failed to catch the notice of more powerful titans in the midst of battle. Most large daikaiju tend to be too well armored for most forms of man-made weaponry to penetrate their hide, which is really only susceptible to the attacks of other equally powerful monsters. But even when a large daikaiju is susceptible to human weaponry, chances are it will not go down so easily. The best example of this would be the "super-fungoid" incidents of 1963 and 1971. This parasitic superorganism has proven hard to kill not because of its especially durable nature, but because of its incredible regenerative abilities. After seemingly being nuked out of existence in its first encounter as "Hedoron", it sprang back to life thanks to its underground mycelium network and continued to grow and mutate as it left the confines of its frozen domain. Once it made landfall in the Russian north, it had become a terrifying plague beast now labeled "Hedorah". There, it battled fiercely with the combined might of Godzilla, Mothra, Arasha, and Balkan as it began production of specialized spores that would launch into the sky and spread its influence across the planet in a global takeover. But before this event could pass, Hedorah was utterly demolished by the Elder Titan Arkion in a thermonuclear explosion that rocked the landscape and scorched the land bare of anything. It seemed as if the parasitic pestilence had finally been dealt with. But frustratingly, not even the intervention of one of the most powerful entities on Earth was able to fully erase this menace from the Earth.

  Saying Hedorah somehow managed to weather Arkion's onslaught is absurd at best. To be quite frank, no creature other than another Elder Titan is capable of surviving the supernova of a thermonuclear pulse the immortal daikaiju was able to pull off. All the portions of Hedorah's biomass that were caught within the confines of this attack were simply reduced to anywhere from meager ash to dissociated atoms. Instead, just before Arkion was able to unleash his thermonuclear pulse, one of Hedorah's rocket spores managed to blast off into the sky and thus was safely out of reach from the ensuing explosion. Unfurling its pappus-like structure akin to a dandelion seed, it glided high above in the upper atmosphere, going wherever the wind was taking it. After presumably a few years in the sky, the spore finally made landfall in the desolate Fezzan region of Libya. The area had very few resources to pull from, but it had the plus side of very few potential predators. The resulting fungal body slinked across the desert until it retreated into the depths of a vast tunnel system and discovered what can only be assumed to be a highly active geothermal pocket. Here, it took root and began growing in mass as it absorbed the life-giving energy of the radiation around it. But it wasn't alone in this underground environment. Another creature had discovered the cavern first and had also decided to settle down in this underground desert. On one of its territorial patrols, it discovered the alien flora and quickly decided it was food. The fungoid managed to ward the beast off with its defenses but lost a good chunk of its mass from the encounter. Once more, the beast would try to devour the fungoid, and once more it would be thwarted at the cost of the defender's biomass. As this process continued, the fungoid learned to adapt and grow ever harder for the beast to subdue. In response, the beast adapted in turn, getting better and better at feasting on the fungoid. An arms race began to ensue, escalating further and further until both organisms had reached a level of power that had left them in a stalemate. The superorganism could not deal enough damage to significantly wound its aggressor and the armored titan could not manage to eradicate enough of the fungoid to slay it for good.

In 1977, Adversary would meet the pestilence once more during the first modern documentation of a daikaiju event on the African continent. Exploring an underground ruin system inhabited by the former oceanic daikaiju Jiger, they discovered a large cavern hole seemingly overflowing with fungal growths. After Jiger fired her heat ray down the hatch and set most of the growth on fire, she was met in retaliation by a crimson beam that sent her reeling back in pain. The culprit emerged from the tunnel ready to do battle with the intruder, and it was none other than the super-fungoid. It had taken on a much different form, with a smaller frame and more discernable silhouette among other things, but it was no doubt at least the same species. Jiger arched her tail, raised her sail, and bared her teeth at the parasite, to which the fungoid responded with a threat display of its own. It stretched out its limbs, eyespots began to flash bright crimson colors, and digestive juices began streaming down its mouth and splattering to the ground like a torrent of acid. It was clear neither goliath was backing down. And so the two behemoths battled. Jiger lunged forward with her jaws managing to grab hold of her enemy's arm. The fungoid retaliated with a blast of crimson energy to the neck of its opponents before slamming its other arm down onto the horned titan. Jiger retaliated with a strike of her tail, the stinger raking through the "head" of the fungoid. A torrent of sludge-like material oozed out from the wound and seemingly enraged the titan. It belched out a waterfall of digestive acid onto Jiger before firing out twin beams of crimson that pushed back the armored behemoth into a nearby pile of ruins. With its foe momentarily stunned, the fungoid began releasing its spores into the air, its cloud of toxic spawn beginning to form a haze over the battlefield. But Jiger quickly counteracted this by heating her body, incinerating the cloud within mere seconds before leaping into combat once more. She released another wave of heat onto the plague bringer, setting fire to its body. Digestive acids poured out from the parasite's armor to stifle the flames, while it concentrates its physical might in keeping Jiger at bay.

But a third party would intervene in this turf war: Adversary. Already knowing the extreme danger the rest of life on Earth was in from the mere existence of this super-fungoid, the expedition immediately radioed to their superiors on the surface of the ensuing events. With haste, reinforcements in the form of fleets of Maser Tanks and Drone Aircraft rushed down the tunnels, while the expedition itself open fire on the super-fungoid with their artillery. The super-fungoid seemed to notice this, and after pausing for a brief moment, it let out an aggressive shriek. From the tunnel the main body emerged from, a flock of flying entities zoomed through the air and fired down on the ground from rows of eyespots lining a star-shaped appendage. A rain of crimson beams began to cut through the Earth, damaging the Maser Tanks. Those in the Gora were mostly safe from the aerial barrage, but even this armored vehicle could only survive the onslaught for so long. Fortunately for them, reinforcements finally arrived with the waves of new Maser Tanks firing at the sky while the drone aircraft unleashed their payloads on the fungoid's flying battle units in claustrophobic aerial dogfights. Jiger aided them in their battle, albeit inadvertently, as her searing heat waves managed to eradicate some of the flying battle units while she was fighting the super fungoid's main body. In response to the sudden loss of most of the volant battle units, the parasitic titan relayed another call to arms from its mycelium network. This time, masses of hexapedal, one-eyed entities stormed out of the cavern and began firing out turret beams into the sky, downing several drones in the process. Maser Tanks on the ground manage to incinerate large chunks of the initial invasion, but these roaming battle units come in waves, and pretty soon the Maser Tanks were beginning to become overwhelmed from sheer numbers. Even Jiger was beginning to feel the strain of battle, slowly being worn down by fungoid's attacks and toxic gases. The parasite finally managed to overpower Jiger with a well-aimed shot at her gills as she was charging up for a heat-ray attack, stunning her long enough for its long arms to pin the ocean titan down. Then it unleashed its crimson beams, slowly beginning to cut away at Jiger's armor.

It was at that moment that a blinding explosion burst through a nearby wall, sending rock and debris flying in every direction. An entity came tumbling through the other side and crashed to the ground. It was Irys as if Adversary had enough problems to deal with at the moment. More shocking than this though was the fact the titan looked wounded, with all but one of his tentaclansers had been damaged, and his armor was dented in a few places. Shortly after, two more creatures emerged from the newly-formed entrance: A giant cobra-like serpent and an armored mammalian wielding a massive club in its prehensile tail. The three newcomers seemed so enthralled in their battle with each other that they almost didn't notice Jiger and the super-fungoid. Irys and the serpent suddenly shifted their attention to the two dueling monsters two, while the mammal was almost startled by the gargantuan colossi battering each other into pulp. The fungoid noticed their presence and seemed immediately hostile, the mycelium blanket beneath it writhing to life at the appearance of the interlopers. The situation would only escalate from here. Irys looked over to the serpent and mammal, before quickly shifting its gaze back to the fungoid and blasting a hypersonic beam right through its armor. The fungoid reeled back before unleashing its own several crimson beams from its rows of eyespots at the trio of monsters. Irys managed to dodge the blast, while the mammal blocked the beam with its club and the serpent weaved across the earth to escape the barrage. With their enemies in disarray, Irys made his escape. Blasting a hole in the roof with his tentaclanser, he looked over to the serpent and gurgled out an insidious hiss before rocketing out of the cavern. The serpent attempted to chase after him but was knocked to the ground by a crimson beam landing a direct hit to its face. The mammal came to the aid of the serpent, slamming the fungoid with a well-aimed swing of its club, knocking the fungoid back into a pile of ruins. As Jiger lunged toward her now downed opponent, the two other titans regrouped. The serpent wanted to continue the chase of their target, but the mammal interjected with the problem at hand. Irys might be extremely dangerous, but what they have here is a creature potentially even more disastrous for the world. Eventually and begrudgingly, the serpent decided to turn its attention to the fungoid. It seems, for now, their hunt for the vermillion calamity would need to be put on hold. Just as this decision was reached, the fungoid pushed Jiger off its body and raised itself back to full height ready to slam down onto its opponent. It was then that the serpent unleashed a shockwave from its tail, staggering the fungoid back. Jiger looked over to the two intruding daikaiju as she got up to her feet. Normally, she wouldn't tolerate intruders in her territory. But considering the circumstances, it was perhaps best to make this one exception. Now man and monster made their assault on the pestilence. Adversary's remaining units continued razing through the hordes of incoming battle units while Jiger, the serpent, and the mammal ferociously fought the towering parasite.

  Now, the tables were turning against the plague bringer. Jiger continued to rip and tear at its chitinous exterior while the serpent blasts shockwave after shockwave into its now open wounds and the mammals continues bashing at its hide with its massive weapon. In a last-ditch effort, the titan unleashed all its crimson energy. The blast ripped through the ruined city and knocked back the enemy monsters. Jiger was temporarily knocked out by a blast to the face that broke two of her horns while the serpent was knocked into a collapsing temple and trapped under tens of thousands of tonnes of rock. Only the mammal was left standing, managing to shield itself from the blast with its club. The fungoid and its battle units then concentrated their fire on the mammals, the crimson wave of death pushing the mammal back as it tried its best to remain standing. But the fungoid hadn't yet realized it has sewn the seeds to its own destruction. As it continued firing down its beams onto the mammal's weapon, the oncoming energy was being absorbed and stored in the metal itself. By the time the fungoid had run out of radiation to fire at its opponent, the mammal's weapon was pulsing with the scarlet radiation. The mammal took one look at its charged club and uttered a confident growl. Grabbing the club in its hands now, the mammal lept across the ruins and jumped right at the fungoid with its club held high above its head. And thus with a single well-placed swing, the mammal slammed down its super-charged mace onto the parasite's "head", releasing the stored energy as an ensuing explosion. The mammal and its weapon were immediately blown back by the shockwave and tumbled through the ruins, while the fungoid's head had been ripped open and set ablaze in crimson flames. After coming to and seeing her enemy now more vulnerable than ever, Jiger unleashed her heat ray onto the hapless titan, furthering the damage to the fungoid's body. Again and again, she unleashed a wave of scalding heat that ripped her enemy apart, searing its armor off and ripping through its body. As the creature reached out one last time towards its opponent, Jiger unleashed a final heatwave, nearly incinerating the plague bringer's main body. What was once a towering mass of sludge and chitin now lay before her like a rain of ash and a pile of charred remains.

Jiger combed through the remains of her fallen enemy, wondering if it may still be alive. The mycelium carpet had been set fire to and was slowly being cooked alive by the raging fire. Jiger then came across a large clump of her enemy's mass still intact but fully cooked from the heat. Her enemy, or at least its main body, seemed dead. The titan tilted its head in contemplation as it sniffed the clump of dead fungoid, examining it with some level of interest. Then, something seemed to click for her. Bringing her tail up to the chunk, she inserted her ovipositor into the mass. After a few moments, she pulled it out and then looked around her territory. She had defended this land with great ferocity, but looking at it now, her efforts seemed almost wasteful. This was a decaying underground world that she had simply been driven to by a force too primal for her to ignore, a realm too barren for her to live long-term in. Turning back to the hunk of dead fungoid in front of her, she seized it with her jaws and began to walk off. Meanwhile, the mammal had gotten up and was searching the ruins for its ally. It managed to find the serpent, its head poking out of the rubble as it tried to wriggle itself out before plopping its head on the ground with a rather annoyed look. The mammal walked up to the struggling serpent and let out a haughty rumble to which the serpent responded with an aggressive hiss. The mammal simply rumbled back with the same cocky tone before grabbing hold of the serpent's horns. Before the reptilian could object, the mammal began pulling on its head, trying to pry it out of the rubble. The serpent hissed angrily several times before the mammal managed to pull its ally's entire body out of the collapsed temple. The serpent quickly nipped at the mammal with aggressive annoyance but the mammal did not seem to take any offense to this and simply acted as if nothing had happened. The two turned their attention over to the hole in the roof and the serpent was quick to make the move towards exiting the subterranean pocket. They still had a mad titan to catch. The mammal on the other hand stayed for a few moments looking around the area. It found the soldiers it and the serpent had aided and made sure they were retrieved by the other humans. Then, it saw Jiger walking off. The mammal rumbled over to the horned titan, wondering why she was leaving her territory even though she had won the turf war. Jiger rumbled back with a groan. She had been driven to this barren land years ago without a choice and had fought with this entity over what little there is. She only stayed because she could sense there was something apocalyptic about her enemy, something about it that made her stay and fight it to prevent it from growing too numerous. Now that the threat seemed neutralized, she could leave this barren ravaged land behind. Now, she could go back home. The mammal simply let out several huffs at this before taking its leave of the tunnel system. Jiger groaned to herself before turned her head towards a series of numerous cavern openings. She marched through the largest of them and began her long trek home, while the mammal clambered up the ceiling hole to join its reptilian ally in their ongoing chase...

As usual, humanity is left to clean up the mess. Adversary troops descended upon the site and immediately began plans to burn down whatever remaining fungoid biomass (now dubbed "Kobukarappa" after a malevolent beast of the extinct nomadic Futaka people) remained. The serpent and mammal were eventually identified as being "Garasharp" and "Monga" after carving through various literature from history, and they retrieved the Polisario and Moroccan soldiers they had carried with them along the way. After being sworn to secrecy by the foundation, the soldiers were returned to their home countries and relieved of their war duties. Both sides still didn't get along, but they were now not as comfortable battling each other as they once were. Garasharp and Monga were quickly discovered to have been on Irys' tail since around the late 60s if some sightings and bioacoustic data is anything to go by, likely being the only two titans around that are managing that situation. Their whereabouts are unknown, their signals disappearing from radar after going underground again a few dozen kilometers from the site, Garasharp in particular seemingly wanting to throw the humans off their scent. Jiger's location is also unknown, but it is a safe bet that she may be heading back to her home in the North Atlantic, and may soon be joined by a new face the next time they find her. As for Akurvaash, the incident proved both insightful and disastrous. The fungoid's presence in the subterranean environment meant the entire area needed to be quarantined for any residual biomass that might still be alive. And so Akurvaash remains abandoned once more, refrained from any further research and study until all remains of Kobukarappa have been wiped from existence. But what little information they were able to glean had opened up a whole new treasure trove of knowledge. Finally, they could complete the trinity of "Monster Dominions", with the Atlantic pantheon of titans joining the ranks of the beasts stationed around the Ring of Fire and the nightmares that dwell in the confines of the Skull Isles. It may have been nothing more than foreshadowing, but it was enough to give them some interesting insights and raise more questions in the process. The impending mystery of Reptilicus-Prime, the nature of the Seiseran's themselves, why they viewed their future destroyer Irys as their savior, and of course, the identity of the "Guardian of Fire", "The Frigid Enforcer", and the numerous other beast gods still unknown to humanity hibernating in the depths of the Earth, just waiting to be re-discovered...

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For the first time twelve-thousand years, Akurvaash was once again rife with humans clamoring through its streets. Adversary personnel dawning protective hazmat suits were in the midst of their ongoing siege against the super-fungoid. While the main daikaiju body and most of its battle units had been disposed of, there was still the possibility the creature could spring back to life from the intact portions of its mycelium network. Unwilling to let such a dangerous organism continue its existence, Adversary employed full-scale armies of personnel dawned with protective clothing and flamethrowers to seek and destroy this menace to the planet once and for all. Every single person who went into the Ruins of Akurvaash was being driven by the single-minded pursuit to finally rid the world of this most persistent of monsters.

  Except for one.

Far from the groups of Adversary personnel cleaning up any remaining mass of Kobukarappa, a man in a Hazmat suit was making his way through the burning ruins, carrying with him a scalpel in one hand and a vial in another. As he walked through the blazing mycelium mats, he eyed the ground for anything of interest, hoping to find what he was looking for. Shortly after, he did. It was a section of living mycelium, not yet having been overtaken by the flames. As he kneeled for a closer look, he saw it writhe and wriggle weakly in an attempt to outpace the flames, but at this rate, it would only take a few minutes for the inferno to catch up to it. Without outside intervention that is. With hurried movements, the man severed a piece of the mycelium with his scalpel and placed the sample in the vial. He then threw the scalpel into a nearby raging fire and walked off into the tunnel system. He slinked past the numerous personnel swarming the area and incinerating the leftover mass of the fungoid organism, slipping through the ruins to remain out of sight. Once he had reached the surface at a different entrance point far away from Adversary personnel, he got into a mundane-looking army jeep, placed the vial into a special compartment, and drove off into the distance.

After several days of driving, he made it to a campsite located in the vast depths of the desert. It seemed rather mundane looking, with nothing but a few tents, some vehicles, and two large, but old-looking buildings located in the middle of nowhere. The man stopped his jeep about twenty meters from the campsite and waited. Soon, a group of armed men and two other people in hazmat suits made their way out of the first building. The armed men set a perimeter around the area, making sure the man hadn't been followed, while the two people in hazmat suits escorted the man and the vehicle into the second building. There, the man found the building to be much tidier on the inside, the contents being kept hidden by the front they have of its exterior. The man, his vehicle, and the vial's surface underwent a rigorous cleaning process as they spent the next several hours being decontaminated. After that, the vial was sent to the first building while the man and vehicle stayed in quarantine for the next few days. The man didn't question these precautions. He had been in the presence of one of the most virulent entities known to man, and if even a few spores had managed to survive on his suit and vehicle, then it would prove to be an unquantifiable disaster. The vial's surface was deemed safe due to its small size allowing for proper examination, but larger items such as his suit and the vehicle were too complex and large to be able to examine closely enough. All they could do is wait and see if the fungoid would pop up again on its new foundation. But even if he ends up succumbing to the pestilence, at least there is the silver lining that he managed to bring back a sample of it for study.

  He didn't know what they were going to use it for, but considering the creature it came from and the measures these people went to obtain a sample of it, he assumed it was definitely something important...

Description: Kobukarappa is a testament to the resilience that is the Pestilence Opsithokont. The third stage in the continuous mutational metamorphosis of this super-fungoid chimera, this branch of daikaiju are by far the most frustrating entities humanity and the other monsters contend with. And in some ways, this resilience makes sense. Studies into the origin of this super-parasite have found that the original ancestor may have originated within the deepest chasms of the Skull Isles. In these filthy environments bathed in constant mutation agents and brimming with all sorts of creatures that have also been changed from generations of radioactive exposure, a parasitic fungoid would need to be able to adapt to constantly shifting conditions. And so from the filth and decay, a fungoid unlike any other emerged from this pit of death, managed to escape the confines of the Skull Isles, and go on to ravage the rest of the world...

The Kobukarappa complex is not nearly as massive or extensive as the mighty Hedorah complex before it. This might be due to the frequent clashes with Jiger it had, removing large chunks of its biomass in the process which took slower to replace due to the lack of resources in the region. Still, it represents an "improvement" over Hedorah in other ways. Unlike its predecessor, which supported itself from hydrostatic pressure, Kobukarappa has begun development on an ossified internal support structure. This crude skeleton is a more energy-efficient body form as there is now an internal structure that allows for the fungoid's "muscles" to attach and pull on rather than simply pulsing around inside. The formation of this skeleton goes on to explain Kobukarappa's other "improvement" on Hedorah, in that it no longer is a sluggish brute that usually stays in one place for an extended period of time. While not quite speedy, Kobukarappa's can shuffle across the ground in short bursts thanks to its more well-defined legs and internal skeleton allowing such movements to be possible, the downside being that it seems to have lost its ability to split apart and recombine into separate entities (though this may have more do with how it has not reached the critical mass to do so). The forelimbs are also more defined, tipped with three barbed "fingers". Despite their appearances, the hands aren't quite well adapted at getting through the armor of equally powerful opponents, and in fact, the prime function of the arms may be to keep opponents at a distance with their length while they unload their more destructive abilities onto the hapless organism. While the creature is still rather prone to extreme bouts of heat, its armor is noticeably thicker than Hedorah's, and it can pump out a layer of slime and sludge that can smother any fires around it. This defense can be overwhelmed by enough heat, but it is still quite a bit more durable than previous forms in this regard. While Hedorah's pure size advantage makes it far more powerful and harder to kill, if one were to scale the two to similar sizes, Kobukarappa would in fact be the more difficult opponent.

In terms of base weaponry, Kobukarappa has roughly the same kinds of abilities are its previous stage. There are of course the digestive juices that leak out of the creature's body that can corrode through rock and irritate the skin of other daikaiju. The largest concentration of these digestive juices is located on the top of the head in large pustules which release an explosion of sludge and slime that grosses out the attacker long enough for Kobukarappa to retaliate. More devastating than this are the crimson beams it fires out of its eyespots. They don't differ too much from Hedorah, being located on a sort of conveyor belt that replaces older or withered eyespots with the next in line. However, the internal system that produces this energy seems to be more extensive in Kobukarappa, ramifying throughout the rest of the body. A large sail running down the back of Kobukarappa flushes with crimson energy when the Pestilence Opsithokont initiates its attack, which may suggest this is an adaptation towards venting excess heat away from the body. If this is true, then it means far more energy is being produced inside Kobukarappa's network per gram of fungoid than with Hedorah, to the point the creature needs to shed the excess energy as heat in order not to cook itself alive. But then there is the less conventional weaponry. Unlike its previous forms, Kobukarappa has since begun the production of specialized battle units designed to blitzkrieg larger targets and bring down smaller enemies like humans and their machines. The first are known as the Peseten Units, which walk around on the ground on their six legs. Able to adjust their aim by propping themselves up on different terrains or minutely shifting the position of their eyespot, they can fire out beams of crimson energy into the air to bring down aerial opponents. Effectively the biological equivalent of an anti-aircraft cannon. The other battle unit is the polar opposite in terms of its build. Known as the Hitodah Units, they are aerial fungoids that glide through the air on thickened chitinous wings to chase down aerial opponents. They are each adorned with a star-shaped appendage with each tentacle lined with eyespots capable of firing crimson beams at opponents. Sometimes, they are able to focus each eyespot towards one another to create a single laser capable of cutting right through stone. Despite these abilities, these battle units are very much glass canons. While quite powerful on their own, their chitinous exterior means they can be quite easily shot down or incinerated by moderate weaponry, though they seem to make up for this with their sheer numbers.

Like the previous stages of its metamorphosis, Kobukarappa is able to spread its deadly influence across the land. The mycelium mats it produces by splitting off sections of its biomass grow and smother everything it grows over with stone-melting acids. A toxic haze of spores is released from ducts atop its head as a means to suffocate and infect smaller lifeforms, as well as spread the overall influence of this complex to nearby regions to ease colonization. The lack of resources in the area this fungoid colony has found itself in has made this hard, however, and so made it more vulnerable to total annihilation at the hands of humanity and enemy monsters. Still, if past experiences have taught humanity anything, it's that the Pestilence Opsithokont is extremely hard to outright kill. Even if it seems as if the threat has been neutralized, kaiju organizations have begun taking measures in case another parasitic super-fungoid pop up on the radar. Whether it will be completely new or yet another phase of the Pestilence Opsithokont, it is clear the potential power these expansionist superorganisms are able to reach is apocalyptic in level, and thus should never get the chance to proliferate.

Character:  Like previous stages, Kobukarappa is urged on by the simple need to grow and consume. Treating foreign life as simply enemy or sustenance, it will do anything to expand its influence. This has only been cranked up several-fold due to the lack of resources in the Ruins of Akurvaash. The two titans have been fighting over this territory for years, and in each battle, Jiger has feasted on and destroyed a large chunk of Kobukarappa's biomass. This would not be a problem anywhere else, but in the nutrient-deficient desert that is the Sahara, it becomes increasingly hard to grow past a certain size or even replace lost mass quick enough to stave off destruction. This may also be used to explain the existence of the specialized battle units Kobukarappa has produced. The Hitodah and Pesetens are small and dispensable, easy to make en-masse even with limited resources. While unable to spread the influence of the colony effectively or be able to deal as much significant damage as the main body, they do serve their purpose of staving off Jiger's attack's long enough for the main body to replenish itself, much like how a soldier termites drive off a hungry anteater long enough to fix their nest. Through these years of conflict and resource shortage have molded this titan into a battle-hardened unit built to further and protect the spread of its colony.

Despite the Pestilence Opsithokont being reduced to all but a single spore after Arkion's ravaging, it seems that the collective hivemind of the fungoid organism allowed it to retain information that it had learned from its previous battles. Already a somewhat intelligent organism before, Kobukarappa has built upon the knowledge its predecessors have acquired. Compared to Hedorah, it is significantly more well-adapted to physical combat, capable of going toe-toe with Jiger in close-quarter brawls as opposed to Hedorah who usually kept its enemies at bay with energy attacks and mycelium. This increased intelligence may also be due to Hedorah's subsequent absorption of the mystery titan carcass of Mt. Orugah some suspect to be the "Death-Bringer" of old. If one is to believe this was once a Pestilence Opsithokont itself, then it likely stored information within its barely living husk that Hedorah acquired via absorption. Hedorah's intelligence already seemed to increase within moments of absorbing the carcass, and it seems that intelligence has grown over the years with Kobukarappa as the Pestilence Opsithokont fully processes the additional information has acquired. It is unknown exactly what limit there is to this titan's intelligence, but it's possible it may well be far beyond anything currently displayed...

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NEXT: The Hunted

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Marukobukarappa is owned by Kadokawa

Description
M.T.O MARU
Codename: Kobukarappa
Scientific Name: Sklavoteras matangoensis (Slave-Making Monster of Matango)
Height: ~150 m / ~492 ft (Main Body)
Length: ~230 m / ~755 ft (Main Body)
Weight: ~100,000 tonnes / ~110,230 short tons (Main Body)
Category: 7
Aggression Level: 6

History: Daikaiju are hard to injure, much less kill. That is a well-established fact that has proven itself time and time again with each successive encounter with these organisms of biblical proportions. The most damaging of conventional simply bounce off their skin, and even the most powerful nuclear devices leave them only partially scathed. The only times Apex or Adversary have been successful in bringing down daikaiju were either because the said creature was a rather low-tier monster or if the humans were aided by the actions of another titan. Outside of these few instances, humanity has often failed to catch the notice of more powerful titans in the midst of battle. Most large daikaiju tend to be too well armored for most forms of man-made weaponry to penetrate their hide, which is really only susceptible to the attacks of other equally powerful monsters. But even when a large daikaiju is susceptible to human weaponry, chances are it will not go down so easily. The best example of this would be the "super-fungoid" incidents of 1963 and 1971. This parasitic superorganism has proven hard to kill not because of its especially durable nature, but because of its incredible regenerative abilities. After seemingly being nuked out of existence in its first encounter as "Hedoron", it sprang back to life thanks to its underground mycelium network and continued to grow and mutate as it left the confines of its frozen domain. Once it made landfall in the Russian north, it had become a terrifying plague beast now labeled "Hedorah". There, it battled fiercely with the combined might of Godzilla, Mothra, Arasha, and Balkan as it began production of specialized spores that would launch into the sky and spread its influence across the planet in a global takeover. But before this event could pass, Hedorah was utterly demolished by the Elder Titan Arkion in a thermonuclear explosion that rocked the landscape and scorched the land bare of anything. It seemed as if the parasitic pestilence had finally been dealt with. But frustratingly, not even the intervention of one of the most powerful entities on Earth was able to fully erase this menace from the Earth.

  Saying Hedorah somehow managed to weather Arkion's onslaught is absurd at best. To be quite frank, no creature other than another Elder Titan is capable of surviving the supernova of a thermonuclear pulse the immortal daikaiju was able to pull off. All the portions of Hedorah's biomass that were caught within the confines of this attack were simply reduced to anywhere from meager ash to dissociated atoms. Instead, just before Arkion was able to unleash his thermonuclear pulse, one of Hedorah's rocket spores managed to blast off into the sky and thus was safely out of reach from the ensuing explosion. Unfurling its pappus-like structure akin to a dandelion seed, it glided high above in the upper atmosphere, going wherever the wind was taking it. After presumably a few years in the sky, the spore finally made landfall in the desolate Fezzan region of Libya. The area had very few resources to pull from, but it had the plus side of very few potential predators. The resulting fungal body slinked across the desert until it retreated into the depths of a vast tunnel system and discovered what can only be assumed to be a highly active geothermal pocket. Here, it took root and began growing in mass as it absorbed the life-giving energy of the radiation around it. But it wasn't alone in this underground environment. Another creature had discovered the cavern first and had also decided to settle down in this underground desert. On one of its territorial patrols, it discovered the alien flora and quickly decided it was food. The fungoid managed to ward the beast off with its defenses but lost a good chunk of its mass from the encounter. Once more, the beast would try to devour the fungoid, and once more it would be thwarted at the cost of the defender's biomass. As this process continued, the fungoid learned to adapt and grow ever harder for the beast to subdue. In response, the beast adapted in turn, getting better and better at feasting on the fungoid. An arms race began to ensue, escalating further and further until both organisms had reached a level of power that had left them in a stalemate. The superorganism could not deal enough damage to significantly wound its aggressor and the armored titan could not manage to eradicate enough of the fungoid to slay it for good.

In 1977, Adversary would meet the pestilence once more during the first modern documentation of a daikaiju event on the African continent. Exploring an underground ruin system inhabited by the former oceanic daikaiju Jiger, they discovered a large cavern hole seemingly overflowing with fungal growths. After Jiger fired her heat ray down the hatch and set most of the growth on fire, she was met in retaliation by a crimson beam that sent her reeling back in pain. The culprit emerged from the tunnel ready to do battle with the intruder, and it was none other than the super-fungoid. It had taken on a much different form, with a smaller frame and more discernable silhouette among other things, but it was no doubt at least the same species. Jiger arched her tail, raised her sail, and bared her teeth at the parasite, to which the fungoid responded with a threat display of its own. It stretched out its limbs, eyespots began to flash bright crimson colors, and digestive juices began streaming down its mouth and splattering to the ground like a torrent of acid. It was clear neither goliath was backing down. And so the two behemoths battled. Jiger lunged forward with her jaws managing to grab hold of her enemy's arm. The fungoid retaliated with a blast of crimson energy to the neck of its opponents before slamming its other arm down onto the horned titan. Jiger retaliated with a strike of her tail, the stinger raking through the "head" of the fungoid. A torrent of sludge-like material oozed out from the wound and seemingly enraged the titan. It belched out a waterfall of digestive acid onto Jiger before firing out twin beams of crimson that pushed back the armored behemoth into a nearby pile of ruins. With its foe momentarily stunned, the fungoid began releasing its spores into the air, its cloud of toxic spawn beginning to form a haze over the battlefield. But Jiger quickly counteracted this by heating her body, incinerating the cloud within mere seconds before leaping into combat once more. She released another wave of heat onto the plague bringer, setting fire to its body. Digestive acids poured out from the parasite's armor to stifle the flames, while it concentrates its physical might in keeping Jiger at bay.

But a third party would intervene in this turf war: Adversary. Already knowing the extreme danger the rest of life on Earth was in from the mere existence of this super-fungoid, the expedition immediately radioed to their superiors on the surface of the ensuing events. With haste, reinforcements in the form of fleets of Maser Tanks and Drone Aircraft rushed down the tunnels, while the expedition itself open fire on the super-fungoid with their artillery. The super-fungoid seemed to notice this, and after pausing for a brief moment, it let out an aggressive shriek. From the tunnel the main body emerged from, a flock of flying entities zoomed through the air and fired down on the ground from rows of eyespots lining a star-shaped appendage. A rain of crimson beams began to cut through the Earth, damaging the Maser Tanks. Those in the Gora were mostly safe from the aerial barrage, but even this armored vehicle could only survive the onslaught for so long. Fortunately for them, reinforcements finally arrived with the waves of new Maser Tanks firing at the sky while the drone aircraft unleashed their payloads on the fungoid's flying battle units in claustrophobic aerial dogfights. Jiger aided them in their battle, albeit inadvertently, as her searing heat waves managed to eradicate some of the flying battle units while she was fighting the super fungoid's main body. In response to the sudden loss of most of the volant battle units, the parasitic titan relayed another call to arms from its mycelium network. This time, masses of hexapedal, one-eyed entities stormed out of the cavern and began firing out turret beams into the sky, downing several drones in the process. Maser Tanks on the ground manage to incinerate large chunks of the initial invasion, but these roaming battle units come in waves, and pretty soon the Maser Tanks were beginning to become overwhelmed from sheer numbers. Even Jiger was beginning to feel the strain of battle, slowly being worn down by fungoid's attacks and toxic gases. The parasite finally managed to overpower Jiger with a well-aimed shot at her gills as she was charging up for a heat-ray attack, stunning her long enough for its long arms to pin the ocean titan down. Then it unleashed its crimson beams, slowly beginning to cut away at Jiger's armor.

It was at that moment that a blinding explosion burst through a nearby wall, sending rock and debris flying in every direction. An entity came tumbling through the other side and crashed to the ground. It was Irys as if Adversary had enough problems to deal with at the moment. More shocking than this though was the fact the titan looked wounded, with all but one of his tentaclansers had been damaged, and his armor was dented in a few places. Shortly after, two more creatures emerged from the newly-formed entrance: A giant cobra-like serpent and an armored mammalian wielding a massive club in its prehensile tail. The three newcomers seemed so enthralled in their battle with each other that they almost didn't notice Jiger and the super-fungoid. Irys and the serpent suddenly shifted their attention to the two dueling monsters two, while the mammal was almost startled by the gargantuan colossi battering each other into pulp. The fungoid noticed their presence and seemed immediately hostile, the mycelium blanket beneath it writhing to life at the appearance of the interlopers. The situation would only escalate from here. Irys looked over to the serpent and mammal, before quickly shifting its gaze back to the fungoid and blasting a hypersonic beam right through its armor. The fungoid reeled back before unleashing its own several crimson beams from its rows of eyespots at the trio of monsters. Irys managed to dodge the blast, while the mammal blocked the beam with its club and the serpent weaved across the earth to escape the barrage. With their enemies in disarray, Irys made his escape. Blasting a hole in the roof with his tentaclanser, he looked over to the serpent and gurgled out an insidious hiss before rocketing out of the cavern. The serpent attempted to chase after him but was knocked to the ground by a crimson beam landing a direct hit to its face. The mammal came to the aid of the serpent, slamming the fungoid with a well-aimed swing of its club, knocking the fungoid back into a pile of ruins. As Jiger lunged toward her now downed opponent, the two other titans regrouped. The serpent wanted to continue the chase of their target, but the mammal interjected with the problem at hand. Irys might be extremely dangerous, but what they have here is a creature potentially even more disastrous for the world. Eventually and begrudgingly, the serpent decided to turn its attention to the fungoid. It seems, for now, their hunt for the vermillion calamity would need to be put on hold. Just as this decision was reached, the fungoid pushed Jiger off its body and raised itself back to full height ready to slam down onto its opponent. It was then that the serpent unleashed a shockwave from its tail, staggering the fungoid back. Jiger looked over to the two intruding daikaiju as she got up to her feet. Normally, she wouldn't tolerate intruders in her territory. But considering the circumstances, it was perhaps best to make this one exception. Now man and monster made their assault on the pestilence. Adversary's remaining units continued razing through the hordes of incoming battle units while Jiger, the serpent, and the mammal ferociously fought the towering parasite.

  Now, the tables were turning against the plague bringer. Jiger continued to rip and tear at its chitinous exterior while the serpent blasts shockwave after shockwave into its now open wounds and the mammals continues bashing at its hide with its massive weapon. In a last-ditch effort, the titan unleashed all its crimson energy. The blast ripped through the ruined city and knocked back the enemy monsters. Jiger was temporarily knocked out by a blast to the face that broke two of her horns while the serpent was knocked into a collapsing temple and trapped under tens of thousands of tonnes of rock. Only the mammal was left standing, managing to shield itself from the blast with its club. The fungoid and its battle units then concentrated their fire on the mammals, the crimson wave of death pushing the mammal back as it tried its best to remain standing. But the fungoid hadn't yet realized it has sewn the seeds to its own destruction. As it continued firing down its beams onto the mammal's weapon, the oncoming energy was being absorbed and stored in the metal itself. By the time the fungoid had run out of radiation to fire at its opponent, the mammal's weapon was pulsing with the scarlet radiation. The mammal took one look at its charged club and uttered a confident growl. Grabbing the club in its hands now, the mammal lept across the ruins and jumped right at the fungoid with its club held high above its head. And thus with a single well-placed swing, the mammal slammed down its super-charged mace onto the parasite's "head", releasing the stored energy as an ensuing explosion. The mammal and its weapon were immediately blown back by the shockwave and tumbled through the ruins, while the fungoid's head had been ripped open and set ablaze in crimson flames. After coming to and seeing her enemy now more vulnerable than ever, Jiger unleashed her heat ray onto the hapless titan, furthering the damage to the fungoid's body. Again and again, she unleashed a wave of scalding heat that ripped her enemy apart, searing its armor off and ripping through its body. As the creature reached out one last time towards its opponent, Jiger unleashed a final heatwave, nearly incinerating the plague bringer's main body. What was once a towering mass of sludge and chitin now lay before her like a rain of ash and a pile of charred remains.

Jiger combed through the remains of her fallen enemy, wondering if it may still be alive. The mycelium carpet had been set fire to and was slowly being cooked alive by the raging fire. Jiger then came across a large clump of her enemy's mass still intact but fully cooked from the heat. Her enemy, or at least its main body, seemed dead. The titan tilted its head in contemplation as it sniffed the clump of dead fungoid, examining it with some level of interest. Then, something seemed to click for her. Bringing her tail up to the chunk, she inserted her ovipositor into the mass. After a few moments, she pulled it out and then looked around her territory. She had defended this land with great ferocity, but looking at it now, her efforts seemed almost wasteful. This was a decaying underground world that she had simply been driven to by a force too primal for her to ignore, a realm too barren for her to live long-term in. Turning back to the hunk of dead fungoid in front of her, she seized it with her jaws and began to walk off. Meanwhile, the mammal had gotten up and was searching the ruins for its ally. It managed to find the serpent, its head poking out of the rubble as it tried to wriggle itself out before plopping its head on the ground with a rather annoyed look. The mammal walked up to the struggling serpent and let out a haughty rumble to which the serpent responded with an aggressive hiss. The mammal simply rumbled back with the same cocky tone before grabbing hold of the serpent's horns. Before the reptilian could object, the mammal began pulling on its head, trying to pry it out of the rubble. The serpent hissed angrily several times before the mammal managed to pull its ally's entire body out of the collapsed temple. The serpent quickly nipped at the mammal with aggressive annoyance but the mammal did not seem to take any offense to this and simply acted as if nothing had happened. The two turned their attention over to the hole in the roof and the serpent was quick to make the move towards exiting the subterranean pocket. They still had a mad titan to catch. The mammal on the other hand stayed for a few moments looking around the area. It found the soldiers it and the serpent had aided and made sure they were retrieved by the other humans. Then, it saw Jiger walking off. The mammal rumbled over to the horned titan, wondering why she was leaving her territory even though she had won the turf war. Jiger rumbled back with a groan. She had been driven to this barren land years ago without a choice and had fought with this entity over what little there is. She only stayed because she could sense there was something apocalyptic about her enemy, something about it that made her stay and fight it to prevent it from growing too numerous. Now that the threat seemed neutralized, she could leave this barren ravaged land behind. Now, she could go back home. The mammal simply let out several huffs at this before taking its leave of the tunnel system. Jiger groaned to herself before turned her head towards a series of numerous cavern openings. She marched through the largest of them and began her long trek home, while the mammal clambered up the ceiling hole to join its reptilian ally in their ongoing chase...

As usual, humanity is left to clean up the mess. Adversary troops descended upon the site and immediately began plans to burn down whatever remaining fungoid biomass (now dubbed "Kobukarappa" after a malevolent beast of the extinct nomadic Futaka people) remained. The serpent and mammal were eventually identified as being "Garasharp" and "Monga" after carving through various literature from history, and they retrieved the Polisario and Moroccan soldiers they had carried with them along the way. After being sworn to secrecy by the foundation, the soldiers were returned to their home countries and relieved of their war duties. Both sides still didn't get along, but they were now not as comfortable battling each other as they once were. Garasharp and Monga were quickly discovered to have been on Irys' tail since around the late 60s if some sightings and bioacoustic data is anything to go by, likely being the only two titans around that are managing that situation. Their whereabouts are unknown, their signals disappearing from radar after going underground again a few dozen kilometers from the site, Garasharp in particular seemingly wanting to throw the humans off their scent. Jiger's location is also unknown, but it is a safe bet that she may be heading back to her home in the North Atlantic, and may soon be joined by a new face the next time they find her. As for Akurvaash, the incident proved both insightful and disastrous. The fungoid's presence in the subterranean environment meant the entire area needed to be quarantined for any residual biomass that might still be alive. And so Akurvaash remains abandoned once more, refrained from any further research and study until all remains of Kobukarappa have been wiped from existence. But what little information they were able to glean had opened up a whole new treasure trove of knowledge. Finally, they could complete the trinity of "Monster Dominions", with the Atlantic pantheon of titans joining the ranks of the beasts stationed around the Ring of Fire and the nightmares that dwell in the confines of the Skull Isles. It may have been nothing more than foreshadowing, but it was enough to give them some interesting insights and raise more questions in the process. The impending mystery of Reptilicus-Prime, the nature of the Seiseran's themselves, why they viewed their future destroyer Irys as their savior, and of course, the identity of the "Guardian of Fire", "The Frigid Enforcer", and the numerous other beast gods still unknown to humanity hibernating in the depths of the Earth, just waiting to be re-discovered...

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For the first time twelve-thousand years, Akurvaash was once again rife with humans clamoring through its streets. Adversary personnel dawning protective hazmat suits were in the midst of their ongoing siege against the super-fungoid. While the main daikaiju body and most of its battle units had been disposed of, there was still the possibility the creature could spring back to life from the intact portions of its mycelium network. Unwilling to let such a dangerous organism continue its existence, Adversary employed full-scale armies of personnel dawned with protective clothing and flamethrowers to seek and destroy this menace to the planet once and for all. Every single person who went into the Ruins of Akurvaash was being driven by the single-minded pursuit to finally rid the world of this most persistent of monsters.

  Except for one.

Far from the groups of Adversary personnel cleaning up any remaining mass of Kobukarappa, a man in a Hazmat suit was making his way through the burning ruins, carrying with him a scalpel in one hand and a vial in another. As he walked through the blazing mycelium mats, he eyed the ground for anything of interest, hoping to find what he was looking for. Shortly after, he did. It was a section of living mycelium, not yet having been overtaken by the flames. As he kneeled for a closer look, he saw it writhe and wriggle weakly in an attempt to outpace the flames, but at this rate, it would only take a few minutes for the inferno to catch up to it. Without outside intervention that is. With hurried movements, the man severed a piece of the mycelium with his scalpel and placed the sample in the vial. He then threw the scalpel into a nearby raging fire and walked off into the tunnel system. He slinked past the numerous personnel swarming the area and incinerating the leftover mass of the fungoid organism, slipping through the ruins to remain out of sight. Once he had reached the surface at a different entrance point far away from Adversary personnel, he got into a mundane-looking army jeep, placed the vial into a special compartment, and drove off into the distance.

After several days of driving, he made it to a campsite located in the vast depths of the desert. It seemed rather mundane looking, with nothing but a few tents, some vehicles, and two large, but old-looking buildings located in the middle of nowhere. The man stopped his jeep about twenty meters from the campsite and waited. Soon, a group of armed men and two other people in hazmat suits made their way out of the first building. The armed men set a perimeter around the area, making sure the man hadn't been followed, while the two people in hazmat suits escorted the man and the vehicle into the second building. There, the man found the building to be much tidier on the inside, the contents being kept hidden by the front they have of its exterior. The man, his vehicle, and the vial's surface underwent a rigorous cleaning process as they spent the next several hours being decontaminated. After that, the vial was sent to the first building while the man and vehicle stayed in quarantine for the next few days. The man didn't question these precautions. He had been in the presence of one of the most virulent entities known to man, and if even a few spores had managed to survive on his suit and vehicle, then it would prove to be an unquantifiable disaster. The vial's surface was deemed safe due to its small size allowing for proper examination, but larger items such as his suit and the vehicle were too complex and large to be able to examine closely enough. All they could do is wait and see if the fungoid would pop up again on its new foundation. But even if he ends up succumbing to the pestilence, at least there is the silver lining that he managed to bring back a sample of it for study.

  He didn't know what they were going to use it for, but considering the creature it came from and the measures these people went to obtain a sample of it, he assumed it was definitely something important...

Description: Kobukarappa is a testament to the resilience that is the Pestilence Opsithokont. The third stage in the continuous mutational metamorphosis of this super-fungoid chimera, this branch of daikaiju are by far the most frustrating entities humanity and the other monsters contend with. And in some ways, this resilience makes sense. Studies into the origin of this super-parasite have found that the original ancestor may have originated within the deepest chasms of the Skull Isles. In these filthy environments bathed in constant mutation agents and brimming with all sorts of creatures that have also been changed from generations of radioactive exposure, a parasitic fungoid would need to be able to adapt to constantly shifting conditions. And so from the filth and decay, a fungoid unlike any other emerged from this pit of death, managed to escape the confines of the Skull Isles, and go on to ravage the rest of the world...

The Kobukarappa complex is not nearly as massive or extensive as the mighty Hedorah complex before it. This might be due to the frequent clashes with Jiger it had, removing large chunks of its biomass in the process which took slower to replace due to the lack of resources in the region. Still, it represents an "improvement" over Hedorah in other ways. Unlike its predecessor, which supported itself from hydrostatic pressure, Kobukarappa has begun development on an ossified internal support structure. This crude skeleton is a more energy-efficient body form as there is now an internal structure that allows for the fungoid's "muscles" to attach and pull on rather than simply pulsing around inside. The formation of this skeleton goes on to explain Kobukarappa's other "improvement" on Hedorah, in that it no longer is a sluggish brute that usually stays in one place for an extended period of time. While not quite speedy, Kobukarappa's can shuffle across the ground in short bursts thanks to its more well-defined legs and internal skeleton allowing such movements to be possible, the downside being that it seems to have lost its ability to split apart and recombine into separate entities (though this may have more do with how it has not reached the critical mass to do so). The forelimbs are also more defined, tipped with three barbed "fingers". Despite their appearances, the hands aren't quite well adapted at getting through the armor of equally powerful opponents, and in fact, the prime function of the arms may be to keep opponents at a distance with their length while they unload their more destructive abilities onto the hapless organism. While the creature is still rather prone to extreme bouts of heat, its armor is noticeably thicker than Hedorah's, and it can pump out a layer of slime and sludge that can smother any fires around it. This defense can be overwhelmed by enough heat, but it is still quite a bit more durable than previous forms in this regard. While Hedorah's pure size advantage makes it far more powerful and harder to kill, if one were to scale the two to similar sizes, Kobukarappa would in fact be the more difficult opponent.

In terms of base weaponry, Kobukarappa has roughly the same kinds of abilities are its previous stage. There are of course the digestive juices that leak out of the creature's body that can corrode through rock and irritate the skin of other daikaiju. The largest concentration of these digestive juices is located on the top of the head in large pustules which release an explosion of sludge and slime that grosses out the attacker long enough for Kobukarappa to retaliate. More devastating than this are the crimson beams it fires out of its eyespots. They don't differ too much from Hedorah, being located on a sort of conveyor belt that replaces older or withered eyespots with the next in line. However, the internal system that produces this energy seems to be more extensive in Kobukarappa, ramifying throughout the rest of the body. A large sail running down the back of Kobukarappa flushes with crimson energy when the Pestilence Opsithokont initiates its attack, which may suggest this is an adaptation towards venting excess heat away from the body. If this is true, then it means far more energy is being produced inside Kobukarappa's network per gram of fungoid than with Hedorah, to the point the creature needs to shed the excess energy as heat in order not to cook itself alive. But then there is the less conventional weaponry. Unlike its previous forms, Kobukarappa has since begun the production of specialized battle units designed to blitzkrieg larger targets and bring down smaller enemies like humans and their machines. The first are known as the Peseten Units, which walk around on the ground on their six legs. Able to adjust their aim by propping themselves up on different terrains or minutely shifting the position of their eyespot, they can fire out beams of crimson energy into the air to bring down aerial opponents. Effectively the biological equivalent of an anti-aircraft cannon. The other battle unit is the polar opposite in terms of its build. Known as the Hitodah Units, they are aerial fungoids that glide through the air on thickened chitinous wings to chase down aerial opponents. They are each adorned with a star-shaped appendage with each tentacle lined with eyespots capable of firing crimson beams at opponents. Sometimes, they are able to focus each eyespot towards one another to create a single laser capable of cutting right through stone. Despite these abilities, these battle units are very much glass canons. While quite powerful on their own, their chitinous exterior means they can be quite easily shot down or incinerated by moderate weaponry, though they seem to make up for this with their sheer numbers.

Like the previous stages of its metamorphosis, Kobukarappa is able to spread its deadly influence across the land. The mycelium mats it produces by splitting off sections of its biomass grow and smother everything it grows over with stone-melting acids. A toxic haze of spores is released from ducts atop its head as a means to suffocate and infect smaller lifeforms, as well as spread the overall influence of this complex to nearby regions to ease colonization. The lack of resources in the area this fungoid colony has found itself in has made this hard, however, and so made it more vulnerable to total annihilation at the hands of humanity and enemy monsters. Still, if past experiences have taught humanity anything, it's that the Pestilence Opsithokont is extremely hard to outright kill. Even if it seems as if the threat has been neutralized, kaiju organizations have begun taking measures in case another parasitic super-fungoid pop up on the radar. Whether it will be completely new or yet another phase of the Pestilence Opsithokont, it is clear the potential power these expansionist superorganisms are able to reach is apocalyptic in level, and thus should never get the chance to proliferate.

Character:  Like previous stages, Kobukarappa is urged on by the simple need to grow and consume. Treating foreign life as simply enemy or sustenance, it will do anything to expand its influence. This has only been cranked up several-fold due to the lack of resources in the Ruins of Akurvaash. The two titans have been fighting over this territory for years, and in each battle, Jiger has feasted on and destroyed a large chunk of Kobukarappa's biomass. This would not be a problem anywhere else, but in the nutrient-deficient desert that is the Sahara, it becomes increasingly hard to grow past a certain size or even replace lost mass quick enough to stave off destruction. This may also be used to explain the existence of the specialized battle units Kobukarappa has produced. The Hitodah and Pesetens are small and dispensable, easy to make en-masse even with limited resources. While unable to spread the influence of the colony effectively or be able to deal as much significant damage as the main body, they do serve their purpose of staving off Jiger's attack's long enough for the main body to replenish itself, much like how a soldier termites drive off a hungry anteater long enough to fix their nest. Through these years of conflict and resource shortage have molded this titan into a battle-hardened unit built to further and protect the spread of its colony.

Despite the Pestilence Opsithokont being reduced to all but a single spore after Arkion's ravaging, it seems that the collective hivemind of the fungoid organism allowed it to retain information that it had learned from its previous battles. Already a somewhat intelligent organism before, Kobukarappa has built upon the knowledge its predecessors have acquired. Compared to Hedorah, it is significantly more well-adapted to physical combat, capable of going toe-toe with Jiger in close-quarter brawls as opposed to Hedorah who usually kept its enemies at bay with energy attacks and mycelium. This increased intelligence may also be due to Hedorah's subsequent absorption of the mystery titan carcass of Mt. Orugah some suspect to be the "Death-Bringer" of old. If one is to believe this was once a Pestilence Opsithokont itself, then it likely stored information within its barely living husk that Hedorah acquired via absorption. Hedorah's intelligence already seemed to increase within moments of absorbing the carcass, and it seems that intelligence has grown over the years with Kobukarappa as the Pestilence Opsithokont fully processes the additional information has acquired. It is unknown exactly what limit there is to this titan's intelligence, but it's possible it may well be far beyond anything currently displayed...

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NEXT: The Hunted

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Marukobukarappa is owned by Kadokawa