Slasher

The Slasher was the most common Necromorph form encountered during the outbreaks that swept the USG Ishimura, the Sprawl, and Tau Volantis. Reanimated from a single human corpse, it took its name from the sharp, blade-like protrusions of bone that grew from its arms. Relatively weak when alone and slow to react, a Slasher became a serious threat in groups, and entire crews fell to swarms of them. For survivors such as Isaac Clarke, recognizing a Slasher's distinct sounds and movements was a matter of life and death.

Anatomy#

The Slasher was created from a single human corpse and was named for the sharp, blade-like protrusions of bone that sprouted from its arms. In some hosts these blades formed by altering the original arms, while in others they grew as entirely new appendages from the shoulder blades or from a mass of flesh on the back. Combined with the creature's raw strength, the blades could easily dismember a victim, and they also served to stabilize the body.

Beneath these, the Slasher carried a lower set of arms. In some cases these were the host's original arms clamped to the sides of the body or mutated lengths of intestine, while in others they were spindly, vestigial limbs poking out from an exposed abdominal cavity. They were weak, but they kept the creature upright while it attacked with its blades, and could be used to hold down a struggling victim. The bones of the feet were often fused and lengthened, with the heel extended almost parallel to the sole into a sharp peg. This gave the Slasher an unstable gait while walking, so that it constantly moved its slashing limbs as counterweights, but it allowed the creature to crawl rapidly through vents and to break into a run.

A Slasher made different sounds depending on its state. One that had not yet noticed its prey gave off gurgling and choking noises, which also accompanied it when sneaking up from behind. Once it spotted a target, these were joined by menacing bellows and roars, and a charge began with a roar followed by rhythmic, angry yelling that continued until it reached its victim.

Hosts and variants#

Because each Slasher was shaped by the body it reanimated, the form took on a great range of appearances across the outbreaks. The naked Slasher, among the earliest and most common aboard the Ishimura, had its flesh torn away to expose musculature, its spine burst through its back, and its lower jaw nearly gone. Armored variants reanimated from miners and engineers in their RIGs retained intact armored legs, making them harder to bring down. Others carried the marks of their lives in death: flight crew, civilians, hospital patients and doctors, EarthGov security guards, Unitologist clergy frozen in a prayer gesture, and the scientists who had researched the Markers.

Aboard the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces ships and the research complex on Tau Volantis, the cold preserved the dead as mummified Slashers, dried and bizarrely mutated, some bearing extra abdominal limbs they used as backup legs after losing their original ones. The bodies of named individuals were taken too. Captain Robert Norton's corpse was reanimated as a Slasher, and in the original Ishimura outbreak survivors watched the dead Captain Benjamin Mathius transformed into an Enhanced Slasher before their eyes by an Infector.

The Enhanced form#

Like many Necromorphs, the Slasher had an Enhanced form. It was distinguished by mottled black and green tissue, glowing eyes, and maggots infesting the body, and it was far more resilient and ferocious than the ordinary kind. Unlike standard Slashers, Enhanced forms had a uniform look, with the individual features of their hosts largely erased by the infection. They were the most common of the Enhanced Necromorphs and appeared in every major outbreak. Their presence on Tau Volantis was unusual given the cold, which would normally have prevented the rotting of flesh, suggesting their hosts had died and turned inside the protected interiors of the research complex before making their way out into the snow.