Zahakar

Appearance
Zahakar has a stout, round body with powerful hind legs. The skin is thick and two dents on its back can hold a small puddle of lava. While the back is covered by rough, red skin and black lava stones, the Amphibian's skin on the stomach is smooth and beige while still thick enough to withstand lava. The orange hind legs are muscular and covered in warts while the black front legs are thin, smooth and only long enough to step on the ground. Zahakar's throat sac is rudimentary and hardly distinguishable from the rest of its belly. Further up the body the dark grey head is broad with small eyes slightly protruding on each side. The Amphibian possesses a large, black nose with big nostrils that it can close completely and a thick, black horn grows from the tip of the nose. On each side of the head dark grey to black sacs extend from under the eye to its shoulders, thin beneath the eyes, broader on the neck and shoulder. The mouth can open pretty wide and has a lighter grey coloration with small teeth.

Habitat and Ecology
Zahakar is endemic in the Lava Landscape and can usually be found in the lava lakes in which it either floats pretending to be a rock or walks on the ground of the lake. The Amphibian is an omnivore that can be seen grazing lava grass close to the lakes but it also ambushes other monsters that come too close to the lava. Zahakar isn't a picky eater and tries to swallow everything that fits in its mouth which results in deaths if it either chooses a too big prey or a monster that is poisonous or has other defense mechanisms. The prey's size can go up to almost its own body proportions.

Unlike other Amphibians Zahakar is pretty independent of water and only has to regularly drink water to keep its water balance in check. Because of its thick skin water doesn't escape as much from the body but this as well as its habitat inside of the lava prevent the skin from taking in oxygen. To get enough oxygen to live the monster keeps its nose out of the lava and inhales almost constantly the air from which Zahakar takes both oxygen and smoke which it stores in the black sacs on each side. Only when the Amphibian walks on the ground of a lava lake for a few minutes, it keeps its nostrils closed up.

The actual horn is a lot smaller than it appears. Like on the monster's back lava stone attaches to it and makes the horn larger, but for Zahakar to use it effectively, it has to grind and sharpen the horn regularly or else it becomes too jaded to use. The size of its horn is a good indicator of how old an individual is as the Amphibian lives a rather routined life, staying most of its life in the lava. The monster isn't very social but it is seen together with other members of its species, even though they usual ignore each other, though a bigger individual does sometimes swallow a smaller one. It seems the Amphibian reacts to smoke released by another Zahakar.

Zahakar is rather dangerous due to its aggressiveness and is the cause of many casualties of rookie hunters and researchers that came too close. The Amphibian often attacks even bigger monsters but flees if those fight back. The black sacs on the side of its head and neck store smoke, the monster releases from its nostrils, it uses to either confuse, blind a threat or to blow it into the breathing system of the monster. Zahakar has a lot of predators, especially in its adolescence, but because of the sheer amount of offspring the monster isn't endangered in any way. In spite of its aggressive behavior, the monster eats lava grass. It is unknown why it does that but the Amphibian seems to regularly seek out the plant to feed on it so the assumption is given, that this nutrition is necessary for the monster.

In mating season both females and males are in the lava lakes. The males use sounds and waves made by their vestigial throat sacs to attract mates. While the throat sac isn't strong enough to make a loud noise outside the lava, inside of it the vibrations and waves are easily received by the females. If a female gets interested in a male, she jumps on his back and he carries her to one of the few water ponds in the area. Even though the water is boiling hot both the eggs and the yound tadpoles survive without a problem.

Interestingly not many predators can actually get to these tadpoles as many monsters endemic to the Lava Landscape only come to the water bodies to drink but don't go into them. Only monsters that also inhabit other areas and can endure the boiling water usually prey upon the tadpoles. The mortality rate of Zahakar is actually higher in adolescent and adult stage than it is in its larval state. But that doesn't mean that all tadpoles survive, as the biggest one in the pond may attack smaller individuals. This happens if too many tadpoles are in a single pond and their main food source, small extremophile mollusks that live in the same water, gets scarce.

Interactions with other Monsters

 * Predators:
 * As larvae only bigger tadpoles prey on the smaller ones and a few predators are able to get to them. In adolescent and adult stage a lot of bigger monsters can hunt the Amphibian down.
 * Prey:
 * Zahakar tries to swallow anything moving that fits in its mouth.
 * Turf Wars:
 * WIP

Abilities
Zahakar can suddenly jump at opponents in close proximity to crush them with their body weight or it uses its horn to thrust into opponents. The Amphibian is able to utilize the smoke it stores in several ways, as smokescreen to either escape or attack unseen, as an attack itself which inflicts pollution or as a way to call for other Zahakars. For full-body attacks it relies on its lavastone decorated back rather than its smooth stomach.

Attacks

 * 1) Horn thrust: Zahakar aligns its horn and thrusts it forward into the opponent.
 * 2) Horn rocket: The monster leans its upper body downwards and then lunges abruptly several metres forward with its horn directed at the target.
 * 3) Sudden jump: The Amphibian strains its hind legs and jumps abruptly. This attack is either used to maul over a target or realign its body chaining it to other attacks.
 * 4) Jump charge: The monster jumps towards an opponent. While the jumps are fast, the general speed of the charge is low, as the intervals between jumps take time. Between each lunge Zahakar can change direction closer towards the target but only by at most 45°.
 * 5) High jump: The monster strains its legs while looking up and jumps into the air. Its shadow shows where it will land and can be manipulated to a degree. After it landed, the force of the jump makes it bounce a bit forward.
 * 6) Kick: The Amphibian lifts one leg, aligns its body a bit and kicks to the side.
 * 7) Swallow: Similar to Zamtrios, Zahakar opens its mouth shortly then presses its lips together. After a while it jumps towards a close target while opening its mouth wide and tries to swallow the victim whole. This is a pin attack.
 * 8) Shaking: After it was in the lava the monster shakes itself flinging lava in the dents on its back around it.
 * 9) Smoke clouds: The Amphibian takes a deep breath, then releases two smoke clouds right in front of it which disappear after some time, as long as those smoke clouds are visible, breathing in while within the smoke will inflict pollution.
 * 10) Smoke projectiles: Zahakar lifts its upper body while inhaling, aligns it towards an target and then shoots two smoke projectiles each three times, once in front of it, then 45° right and 45° left from its its first position. The smoke, that is left after the shots hit a obstacles, only remain for a few moments.
 * 11) Smoke spin: Again, the monster breathes in while looking to the side, then it spins in the direction it looked releasing smoke. The smoke covers the whole area close around its body and persists for ten seconds. This attack can be used when it got turned upside down as well, but will only do this in Rage Mode.
 * 12) Smokescreen: If overwhelmed by an opponent the Amphibian releases a smoke cloud as wide as possible to distract and blind the foe. It will try to use this to escape the area.

Materials
Zahakar Hide, Zahakar Wart, Zahakar Horn (only when broken twice), Zahakar Leg (when damaged), Zahakar Smooth Skin (when stomach damaged), Smoke Sac, Lava Stone (when back damaged)