Orochi

As you wish, I will bestow upon you terror.

"Monster King" Orochi ("怪人王"オロチ, Kaijin-ō Orochi), also called Lord Orochi (オロチ様, Orochi-sama), is a Dragon-level Mysterious Being and the leader of the Monster Association.

Orochi is one of the main antagonists of the Human Monster Saga.

Appearance
Orochi was a large and ominous-looking monster who was mostly humanoid. He had several large spikes pointing upwards above his head, cracked skin, empty eyes, and multiple sets of pointy teeth inside his mouth. His shoulders, wrists, and fingers had the appearance of monstrous snake heads with pointy teeth, with the latter ending in large claws. His knees had the appearance of snake skulls and his clothing consisted of a large cape connected to a circular, veiny joint in the center of his chest and a piece of cloth covering his lap. He also had a long, spiky tail.

During his fight with Garou, it was revealed that his body was actually made up of a multitude of small, serpent-like dragons, similar to how muscles wrap around the human body. His horns also grew into a crazed head of "hair," more like tentacles. He could unravel his body into a mass of writhing dragons, mouths, and claws, and back again, and in this form his cape transformed into a fiery veil around his torso. He appeared to have great control over his shape in that form, taking on a humanoid stance against Garou but climbing up to meet Saitama as a great mass of dragons and fire with no humanoid shape to speak of.

To fight Saitama, he transformed again, this time condensing his body into a more slim and humanoid figure. In this form, his fiery veil increased in size, and the horns upon his head began to glow and even grew dragon heads of their own. His mouth disappeared, his eyes grew in size and become completely white. This appeared to be Orochi at his ultimate strength.

Orochi's heart is an amorphous blob of flesh with eyes.

Personality
Orochi is a stern and merciless creature whose immense power is enough to keep in check hundreds of other monsters in the Monster Association. He does not speak much, mostly because he does not need to, since his partner and creator, Psykos, under the guise of Gyoro Gyoro, did all the talking for him. Although Orochi was the leader of the Monster Association, Psykos was the true person in charge, with Orochi acting like more or less an enforcer of her rule. After years of brainwashing him, Psykos had gained almost complete control over Orochi, to the point that he could essentially never defy her commands. However, it was still possible for Orochi to ignore Psykos in very rare cases, as he prioritized the threat of Saitama over his creator's calls for help.

Orochi is also much more intelligent than he appears. His laconic nature and beastly appearance caused Garou to underestimate his intelligence, believing him to be a mindless monster, when in reality he was described as a "fighting genius" by Psykos. He is also one of the few characters in the series who acknowledged Saitama's immense strength and did not disregard him based on his appearance before fighting him, with the others being Carnage Kabuto and Lord Boros. Additionally, upon fighting him and getting to see the depths of his abilities, he quickly realized that Saitama was the one who not only defeated Gouketsu and Elder Centipede, but was the one rumored as the "Monster of the Ghost Town," showing his advanced senses and deductive abilities.

While he may have been a monster, Orochi could control his violent urges and didn't outright kill humans immediately if they caught his interest, such as the case with Gouketsu. This is shown when, instead of finishing him off after defeating him, he captured the martial artist and offered him greater power as a monster in exchange for cooperation. He also grew fond of Gouketsu, often asking Psykos about the executive's current situation, showing that he does prefer some monsters over others. He displayed leniency again with Garou, only asking the recruit to kill one hero to prove himself.

However, he has little to no tolerance for failure from his subordinates, as he ate Awakened Cockroach alive after he failed to kill Genos. On the other hand, he can be convinced to spare subordinates such as Do-S despite their failures, if their usefulness outweighs their failure.

It is later revealed that due to being so powerful and Psykos's brainwashing, his emotions and sense of self were slipping away, very similar to Saitama's problem. He became excited upon seeing the unbelievable power Saitama possessed, a person who's reached the pinnacle strength possible for humans, and looked forward to seeing how the human's strength would fare against his own as the ultimate monster, giving him a rush and helping him override Psykos's brainwashing.

According to Psykos, during his past life as a human, Orochi was a broken man who was already losing his humanity when he met Psykos, making him a suitable candidate to be the future Monster King.

Abilities and Powers
Orochi was the leader of the Monster Association, and his powers far exceeded that of even average Dragon-level monsters. Gouketsu claimed that Orochi was the strongest monster on Earth. Even Bofoi showed signs of fear when describing Orochi to Child Emperor. After seeing the damage done to the Metal King Drone, Child Emperor admitted he did not want to fight whoever caused it either. Psykos called Orochi "the ultimate being" and a "success" of her many attempts to break the limit of growth. She is unable to gauge Orochi's power, calling him a "true monster." Even after being blown to pieces by Saitama, he was able to somehow co-ordinate the actions of all of his newly regenerated monster heads.

Supernatural Abilities
Metamorphosis: Orochi's main and most terrifying ability was to change the shape of his body at will. He could shift to and from his humanoid and more monstrous appearances, revealing his "released form" while unraveling his bipedal appearance into a nest of monstrous dragon-like protrusions all along his body. There were nested mouths in place of his face and head while his limbs transformed into dragon-headed coils with their own appendages and extremities. When he wanted to fight with his full capabilities, Orochi could shift from his released form to a humanoid final form more suited for battle. After his body was nearly destroyed by Saitama, he was still able to manipulate and transform the bits of his flesh around the headquarters.
 * Elasticity: Orochi could stretch and deform his physical shape like taffy whether in his concealed or natural forms. Orochi was able to stretch his arms a good distance away, only to also snap it back like a rubber band afterward.


 * Shapeshifting: On top of transforming his limbs into dragon-like worms, he could make his coils sheathe and project tooth-like protrusions to act as his fingernails, indicating that he had some form of transformation capacity beyond just mode shifting. He had gotten larger from his initial monster form back when he first became a monster, suggesting some control over his size.


 * Tendril Generation: Orochi's body could unravel into a nest of dragon-headed tendrils with their own faces, claws, and fangs that they used to bite and scratch. After learning an enemy's fighting style, he could also use their skills in conjunction with his serpentine limbs.


 * Horn Manipulation: Orochi could extend his horns over long distances. He destroyed Bofoi's drone with a strike from his horn. They are incredibly heavy yet able to change and alternate their trajectory.

Monster Cell Generation: While the process was never shown, Orochi was able to generate Monster Cells with his body. The Monster Cells were harvested from Orochi and then nurtured using a large machine in the Monster Association base. Because he was the source of the cells, he could create as many Mysterious Beings as he wanted.

Fire Manipulation: Orochi can breathe fire from his mouth and from all of the dragons over his body. The intensity of his flames prompted Gyoro-Gyoro to create a barrier to protect herself, and the flames were ejected from his dragons' mouths so quickly that they appeared like beams of glowing energy. The fire was powerful enough to melt and explode the stone environment surrounding him. Had Gyoro Gyoro not protected herself, the fire would have burned her to death. When he transformed during his fight with Saitama, his dragons also changed shape and became completely enveloped in flames.

Electricity Manipulation: In his final form, Orochi could also generate some electricity, allowing him to fire a massive blast of lightning that spread across the headquarters of the Monster Association.

Energy Projection: During his fight with Saitama, he was revealed to have the ability to project large blasts of energy. His dragons could also shoot beams of energy. He was also capable of using his dragons to unify the energy blasts into a single energy beam. His energy blasts were strong enough to shake the entire area, destroying many buildings and raising the terrain several hundred meters into the air, while creating a massive tunnel. His energy beams were also strong enough to slightly penetrate through Tatsumaki's defenses, slightly tearing and singeing her dress. Absorption: Orochi's body can absorb other organisms that touch him and he can lash out with tentacles to grab at other creatures, bringing them into his mass.
 * Regeneration: Using the blood of absorbed creatures, he can regenerate his body from the brink of death. However, he is only shown to be able to regenerate starting from his heart.
 * Endless Growth: Orochi's voracious appetite contributes to his progression cycle. By eating other mysterious beings the Monster King gains both in size and power according to Gyoro Gyoro/Psykos.

Physical Abilities
Immense Strength: While the depths of Orochi's strength have not been shown, Orochi demonstrated amazing physical strength, as evidenced when his horn pierced through one of Bofoi's robots while its arms were raised in defense, going through its entire body with apparent ease and tremendous speed. Given the eerie tone Bofoi spoke in when describing the events, this is no minor feat. He defeated human Gouketsu in combat, and even after Gouketsu became a monster, he deemed Orochi as his superior. Orochi was able to casually restrain Garou within his hands and force his way past Garou's guard with pure strength, while still holding back.

Immense Speed and Reflexes: Orochi was able to strike Bofoi's robot with his horn so quickly that the self-destruction mechanism was broken before it could activate. Awakened Cockroach was not able to react to Orochi's attack despite having a sixth sense, although he had previously lost his legs. Orochi was even able to react to incoming attacks from Saitama to an extent, grabbing the hero out of the air with one of his horns to stop his attack, and later dodging his punch by moving upwards. He is the only monster besides Boros that has been capable of doing this so far.

Immense Durability: Orochi was shown to receive no damage from his fights against Garou or Gouketsu. After setting his own cloak on fire, Orochi was able to wear the flaming garments for an extended period of time without difficulty. After his fight with Saitama, he was able to stay alive and remain conscious despite having the majority of his body blown to pieces by Saitama's punch.

Fighting Styles
Genius Combatant: Similar to Garou, Orochi could instantly learn any move used by his opponents. With just one look, Orochi mastered Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist to the same level as Garou.
 * Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist (流水岩砕拳, Ryūsui Gansai-ken): A martial art Orochi copied from Garou. He uses Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist with his horns and his multiple dragons tendrils as arms against Garou. He is seen using this fighting style against Saitama.
 * Gouketsu's techniques: While never explicitly displayed as such, Orochi defeated Gouketsu in one-on-one combat prior to the series and took some of his moves for his own.

Quotes

 * "Why are there defeated among us?"
 * (To Saitama) "I don't know where you crawled in here from, but you are clearly not just some human trash that can be ignored."
 * (After being defeated by Saitama) "So this is... terror."

Trivia

 * ONE told Murata the Monster King was a nurtured/cultivated type of monster. Murata drew a now-rejected sketch on the spot based on what he interpreted that statement as.
 * The name "Orochi" (大蛇) literally means "great snake." Yamata no Orochi (八岐大蛇), a legendary serpentine monster/god with eight heads and titanic body who fathered a demon general Shuten-dōji (酒呑童子), is one of the most famous examples.
 * Orochi's tail is modeled after a sandworm. Murata went fishing during golden week and got bitten by the worms used as live bait.
 * Orochi's "released form" strongly resembles the descriptions of Typhon, a serpentine giant who is one of the largest and most powerful creatures in Greek Mythology. Common or similar characteristics include bodies consisting of hundred serpents or dragons, unearthly glowing eyes, breathing fierce flames, and fathering numbers of monsters.
 * Orochi's "released form" is also confirmed to be inspired by the kaiju film monster Biollante.
 * Orochi is the eighth of many "Kings" mentioned in the series and the most powerful of them all, the others being the Subterranean King, the Beast King, the Deep Sea King, the Ancient King, the Sky King, the King of the Underworld (anime-only), the "second Sea King," and the Forest King.
 * He is the second king with a confirmed first name, the first being Pluton, King of the Underworld.
 * According to Murata, Orochi is 10 times smaller than Marugori.
 * Murata said on stream that Orochi's disaster level is Dragon or above, but did not outright say God. This is similar to the statements made about Boros.
 * Murata states that if Melzargard, Groribas and Geryuganshoop work together to fight against Orochi, even with preparation, they have almost no chance of winning.
 * A year before Chapter 108 was released, Murata told the viewers of his live stream that ONE had told him that Orochi would not be one-shotted by Saitama. Murata then added that it should not be a problem for Orochi to survive a few of Saitama's normal punches. This is ultimately proven true when Orochi is revealed to have survived one of Saitama's punches.
 * Murata originally speculated that the reason why ONE decided to add Orochi into the story was to give Tatsumaki a big fight in order to injure her so Psykos could disable her later in the story.
 * Murata showed ONE's notes for Orochi in one of his live streams. The original plan was that Orochi would fight eight of the invading S-Class heroes. The heroes would easily toy with him thanks to their speed and numbers, giving off the impression that Orochi is nothing more than a big boss. Orochi would then transform into his monstrous "released form" and each of the eight heroes would fight and defeat one of Orochi's eight dragons, until Tatsumaki finally finishes him off. When everything seems to be over, the Monster Association executives buried by Tatsumaki would appear on the surface.
 * He is the third monster to acknowledge Saitama's power at the first glance. However, unlike Carnage Kabuto or Boros, he sees through Saitama's god-like power through perception instead of any kind of power-reading ability.
 * Orochi is the second monster to stay conscious after being defeated by Saitama and still be able to exchange words, the other being Boros.


 * Murata is uncertain who is stronger between Orochi and Golden Sperm, but states that Orochi has superior techniques.

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