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 a blob of flesh.

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 his rule. After years of brainwashing him, Psykos had gained almost complete control over Orochi, to the point that he could essentially never defy his 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 was also much more intelligent than he appeared. 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 had little to no tolerance for failure from his subordinates, as he ate Awakened Cockroach alive after the Demon 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.

History
Orochi used to be a man who turned his back on humanity. Although it is unknown to what extent, he was also some sort of fighting genius.

Eventually he crossed paths with Psykos, who swayed him to join her cause. Psykos turned him into a monster through a special "growth" stimulating process by putting him through many near death experiences. Orochi became Psykos's greatest success after many failures and sacrifices occurring. As he began to transform from a human into a monster, his appearance began to change drastically, although he was not quite at the towering height he would eventually obtain. Psykos also conditioned his mind to be totally submissive to her.

Several years before the events of the story, Orochi battled and defeated Gouketsu. Instead of killing the martial artist, Orochi took him to the Monster Association Headquarters and gave him an offer to help the martial artist gain more power in exchange for cooperation.

Super Fight Arc
Gyoro Gyoro is first seen speaking with Orochi about the monster raid's situation, though he stays relatively silent. After Tatsumaki kills the Hundred-Eyes Octopus, Gyoro Gyoro finds the situation troublesome, but Orochi sees it as no concern because they can make as many Mysterious Beings as they please. Through his robot, Bofoi questions Orochi and Gyoro Gyoro about their goals, and while they tell him destruction is a natural part of a monster's instincts, it is not their end goal.

Orochi later kills and eats Awakened Cockroach for his failure to kill Genos and was about to do the same to Do-S, but spared her on behalf of Gyoro Gyoro's request. He realizes Gouketsu wasn't present at the meeting and has Gyoro Gyoro try to find him, but to Gyoro Gyoro's shock and worry, it discovers Gouketsu's head was cleaved from his body by an unknown hero.

Monster Association Arc
Bofoi mentions how Orochi destroyed one of his surveillance drones by impaling its thick armor with one of his horns. Moreover, the drone was unable to initiate the self-destruct mechanism before it was destroyed. This causes Bofoi a great deal of fear, and later he chooses not to help the Hero Association in their eventual raid because of it.

After Garou is captured and Gyoro Gyoro introduces him to Orochi, the Monster King gives him one day to bring back the head of any hero in order to prove his loyalty and join the Monster Association.

Later, when Garou returns to fight the Monster Association, Garou finds himself in Gyoro Gyoro's throne room and the two have a brief battle before Gyoro Gyoro decides to let Orochi take care of him. Orochi reaches through the floor and tightly grasps Garou in his hand, and the two move to the massive colosseum-like throne room to accommodate Orochi's massive size. The two begin to fight, and as the fight goes on Orochi begins to unveil his true appearance, unraveling his body into endless horns, mouths, and dragons, and Garou begins to take heavy damage from the onslaught of claws and fire. As the fight rages on, many Mysterious Beings are killed in the crossfire. Despite Garou's ferocious efforts, he is no match for Orochi's inhuman powers and is eventually sent crashing into a wall by a heavy blow.

Gyoro tells Garou to give up, for Orochi surpasses him in every aspect. But Garou derisively laughs and says that while Orochi is strong, he relies solely on his strength and has no real strategic or cognitive abilities, believing that he is a mindless monster and stating that he isn't at all afraid of him. Garou takes a fighting stance, but his eyes widen when he sees Orochi takes the same stance. Gyoro reveals that Orochi is in fact a fighting genius as well, and he was able to learn the Flowing Water Rock Smashing Fist just by observing Garou's movements. Orochi boasts to Garou that since he did not feel fear before, he will now grant him true terror. Alas, Garou is undeterred, and he passionately jumps up to strike Orochi. Despite this, Garou is easily knocked back, and collides into the wall yet again, knocking him unconscious and marking Orochi as the victor.

After the initial clash between the heroes and the monsters, Orochi and several other Dragon-level monsters are called by Gyoro Gyoro for a meeting. Soon afterwards, a small group of weaker monsters who fled from the clash are crushed by Gyoro Gyoro into a cube of meat and fed to Orochi.

Gyoro Gyoro calls for Orochi to save her after being utterly decimated by Tatsumaki, although Orochi is unable to hear her. This is because Orochi has already started climbing through the rubble of the Monster Association base to personally meet Saitama, increasing his size several times over and spewing streams of fire. Upon meeting him, Orochi realizes that Saitama is not trash that can be ignored and attacks him, only managing to singe the end of his cape. The nearby Overgrown Rover is awoken by the struggle after having been knocked unconscious by Saitama earlier. Orochi orders Rover to kill Saitama, but it flees with its tail between its legs when it catches a glimpse of Saitama's face.

Orochi is shocked by Rover's disobedience and asks Saitama just what he did to him. When Saitama replies that he went easy on him, Orochi realizes that he is the one who killed Gouketsu and Elder Centipede, two of the Monster Association's major executives. Orochi gets excited at the thought of such a powerful opponent and condenses himself into a slimmer, more humanoid form to fight at full force. As he properly introduces himself Saitama cuts him off, telling him his expectations are already low enough. Orochi then relentlessly attacks Saitama, his blows shaking the entire landmass of Z-City.

Several punches and enormous fiery blasts later, Saitama launches himself through Orochi's skull, having ripped the Monster King's body to shreds over the course of the battle. Orochi asks Saitama what happened and Saitama replies that it was just a normal punch. His fractured head then falls into the abyss, now knowing true terror for himself. Orochi's body is then discovered by one of Gyoro Gyoro's drones just before she is defeated herself by Tatsumaki.

However, Orochi ultimately survives Saitama's punch. His body, splattered across the Monster Association base, slowly reforms, absorbing all monsters unfortunate enough to come near him. He senses that Gyoro Gyoro is gone and Psykos herself is fighting Tatsumaki. Orochi blasts at Tatsumaki in all directions with his scattered body parts, then reforms to aid his master in battle.

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 didn't 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."

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. It's revealed that 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 afterwards.


 * 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 which they used to bite and scratch. After assimilating an enemy's fighting style, he could also use their skills and tendrils in conjunction with his multitudinous 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 while maintaining, and possibly gaining, momentum the further along they travel.

Monster Cell Generation: While it was not seen on-screen, Orochi was stated to have the ability 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 could 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, being completely enveloped in flames, very similar to Phoenix Man in his evolved states.

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.

Absorption & Regeneration: Orochi's body can absorb other organisms that touch him. Using their blood, he can regenerate his body from the brink of death.

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. During his fight with Saitama, he was able to briefly 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..."
 * (Referring to Saitama) "So this is... terror..."

Trivia

 * In Murata's original sketches of Orochi he appeared to be some sort of plant creature that grew out of a plant pot when watered. This is likely a very early design.
 * 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 (anime-only), 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 is uncertain who is stronger between Orochi and Golden Sperm, but states that Orochi has superior techniques.
 * 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.
 * 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.

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