Manticore

The Manticore was a flying monster of the Greek world, a creature with the face of a lion, the wings of a dragon, and a scorpion's venomous tail. A great female of the breed nested in the heights of Delphi, and Kratos brought it down there before facing another of its kind above the island of Delos.

A beast of many parts#

The Manticore was a monster assembled from many creatures. It bore a lion-like face set with the jaw of a shark that could become unhinged, the leathery wings of a dragon, a human torso and arms, and a long scorpion tail. Plates like a scorpion's lined its back, and the spines of its tail were venomous and could be flung at prey from a distance. In flight it spat fire, and on the ground it fought with its tail, throwing spikes and slamming the earth, while a clap of its wings together could blow a warrior off his feet.

The Manticore of Delphi#

The greatest of these beasts was the Manticore of Delphi, a female who nested among the heights of the city where Kratos sought the Oracle. Patches of her eggs could be found throughout the mountains of Delphi, scattered around the mechanized remains of the great serpent Python that powered the climbing of the tower.

She first attacked Kratos as he ascended the Python machinery, trying to make him fall to his death, and fought him briefly in the air. Their true battle came at the summit of the Tower of Delphi. There she flew above him and spat fire, and when she came to ground she struck with her tail and hurled venomous spikes that had to be wrenched free at once if they struck home. Kratos drove a blade into her and, as she flew back, hauled her in by the blade's chain. After evading her aerial assaults he pulled himself to her and tore away the wing that served also as her frontal left leg, robbing her of flight. He then leapt upon her belly and stabbed her chest, and finished her by seizing her tail, cutting off its sting, and driving it into her mouth.

The beast of Delos#

A second Manticore was found in the air over Delos, near the great fallen Statue of Apollo. Kratos leapt upon the creature and used it to carry him from the statue to its lantern, forcing the beast to collide with the sharp roof of the lantern and so shearing off its left wing and leg. Crippled, it fought him as the first had after losing its wing, and it died in the same way, its sting torn loose and turned against it.

Hatchlings of the breed#

The small young of the Manticore, the Hatchlings, came from eggs that could be found in many places but most thickly in Delphi, where the great females could spit forth eggs that hatched at once. The Hatchlings were weak alone but dangerous in numbers, and they breathed fire much as the Harpies of Greece struck from the air. A rarer and stronger kind dwelt on Delos, wielding lightning rather than flame and seeking to choke their prey with an electric tail.