Tale of Diep:Skullcrusher

Skullcrushers are brutal members of the, and spawn as throughout the Desolate Plains area. While they can spawn anywhere in the area, as the player nears the on the map, their spawn rates seem to heighten. Even so, multiple Skullcrushers will not really be found in close proximity.

Lore
Skullcrushers are grand militants within the Cult of Panzer that have achieved the title through their brutal nature while serving in the "Custos de Fiden", the lesser ranks in the Cult's militant division. They portrayed great strength, and act not just as solo adventurers, scouts, and heroes for the Cult, but also as army leaders, making a superior to them. Most of the time, becoming a Skullcrusher takes rigorous training in the art of fighting with multiple weapons, a great deal of leading masses of soldiers, and also requires fierce brutality and little mercy for opponents outside of the Cult. Skullcrushers are members of the "", a collection of four high military orders within the Cult of Panzer.

Design
Skullcrushers are large, maroon colored tanks plated in black armor. From the sides of their body extend downward curved quarter-circular shoulder-plates with a spiked extension outward. These are laced with crimson accents, and a series of soft glowing red lights along the them. The black armor forms a helmet like that of a, but of course black, portrayed through a series of overlapping plates, and fit the circular body of the Skullcrusher. A white, slightly grayed skull mask-like covering extends down from the top part of the helmet, covering the upper part of the Skullcrusher's body. From their shoulder plate extensions, a series of gauntlet platings lead into black metallic hands that also glow with red crimson lights. Two dark golden eyes stare through the eyeholes of the skull mask on the body.

They wield a decorated flail in their hand. This can be either left or right, with no real differences to them except the angle on a few attacks. The flail has a gray handle, with numerous darker ridges for fingers in it. From that extends a golden trapezoidal tip with a few dips in it, from which a dark gray iron chain extends and twirls from. At the end of this chain, connected by a golden clasp, a dark gray iron ball covered in shiny gray spikes sits. It moves with relatively decent flail physics, dragging behind the Skullcrusher while moving, or the chain moving accordingly with the ball and handle locations.

Pre-Battle
Skullcrushers patrol the lands of the Desolate Plains, from its north to south tips, and from the sea to the border with Neverest Mountains. They can be found almost anywhere in the area if you look hard enough, and its not uncommon to hear the slams of their flails as they fight numerous other players in the Desolate Plains. They are immediately hostile to all players, and if one is not prepared for a battle with them, when they hear that "You'll make a fine addition to the bone piles, Imperial!", they better start running!

Skullcrushers are rather slow when not immediately provoked, so if a player does initiate combat with them and then quickly makes their escape, they could probably outrun its detection range. However, when a Skullcrusher first spots the player, they will ballistically charge them.

Phase 1
Once the Skullcrusher is within a close enough proximity to the player, they will immediately initiate a Flail Whip attack in their general direction. After that, they will begin choosing from the attack pool below. As the Skullcrusher's health diminishes and it gets closer to its Phase 2, its attack will speed up and become more frenzied.


 * Flail Whip: The Skullcrusher will turn their body to sort of one side, the side with the flail facing more toward the player, as they whip the flail out, the chain uncurling into a straight line, the ball reaching to its maximum distance. This attack is usually immediately directed at the player, does high contact damage, and inflicts Bleeding for 4 seconds. If contact is made with the player, the flail will almost immediately retract. If it misses, the Skullcrusher's eyes will widen and three sweat drop symbols will fly off of them, as they will get stuck, pulling on the flail chain with both hands, taking about 2.5 seconds to get it out of the ground and pull it back to them. If a player makes contact with the spiked ball as its being pulled back to the Skullcrusher, they will suffer the same effects as when it was being thrown out.
 * Ring of Pain: The Skullcrusher will laugh haughtily, before swinging the flail in a 360 degree arc really quickly three times centered on its body. The first swing will be slightly slower than the second, and the third swing around will be the fastest. The radius of the swing area will also increase over the course of the three swings as the chain extends outward in a straight line. Players that make direct contact with the spike ball will be Dazed for 5.3 seconds and dealt pretty hefty damage, being pushed in the direction of the swings, which will be either clockwise or counter-clockwise, chosen at the start of the attack. Players that touch the chain will suffer lighter damage, but be inflicted with Stunned for 2 seconds, which refreshes if hit by the chain from the later swings.
 * Grand Slam: The Skullcrusher's eyes will glow brighter, and they will begin "winking" their left or right eye numerous times. They will wink anywhere from 4-7 times, the number getting higher as they near their second phase. The eye winks can be either left or right for any of them, they won't all be the same. The Skullcrusher will be Armored while this telegraph occurs (with a 10% of chance of it suddenly switching to a higher-powered Flail Whip attack in the direction of the player if they attack it during this telegraph). If the telegraph is completed uninterrupted, the Skullcrusher will overhead swing its flail into the ground in the pattern of directions associated by the eye winks, slowly moving toward players as it goes, too. Each impact the flail makes will send out a bunch of fast moving black bullets in all directions, and apply Confused for 3 seconds to anyone nearby the impact zone. For example, if the Skullcrusher's eyes winked "left, right, right, left", it would swing the flail into the ground to the left side, then right, then right again, and then left.
 * Judgment Release: Will roar a groan, as the Skullcrusher reels back its flail arm, before quickly swinging it "overhead" as it slams into the ground near a cluster of players/the player. The spikes on the flail ball will be released in a wave of spike projectiles outward in the direction. These do moderate damage, pierce multiple players, and inflict Paralyzed for 1.1 seconds. The spikes will regrow on the flail about 2 seconds later, comically.
 * Blistering Swipe: The Skullcrusher will turn its body like during Flail Whip, but with the hand containing the flail more away from the players. After about a two second charge time, the Skullcrusher will roar, swinging the flail in a large 270 degree angle from the start point. There is a 20% chance the Skullcrusher will over-spin, forming a slower Ring of Pain spin and then a bit. However, if that happens, the Skullcrusher's eyes will become spirals for 3 seconds, as it is Stunned and Broken for that time. Afterward, it will slam its flail in anger, doing damage to nearby players, and re-prepare for battle.

Phase 2
When the Skullcrusher hits 10,000 health, they will enter Phase 2. Phase 2 is relatively similar to Phase 1 in design, except the armor plate to the opposite of the flail hand will break off, the crimson lights on the armor of that side of the body will go out. The skull mask will get a crack from its top, connecting to the right eye, and then travel down near the bottom without making connection. The Skullcrusher will take 3x damage from attacks shot on the now unarmored arm for this phase.


 * Flail Whip Deux: Very similar to Flail Whip in the initial telegraph and attack pattern. If the player is struck with the ball, the Skullcrusher will quickly reel it back in and then follow up with a second overhead slam that does lighter damage and pushes the player away from the impact zone, as well as inflicting Stunned for 3 seconds. If it misses, instead of getting startled, they will laugh, and instead yank it from the ground immediately.
 * Ring of Pain Duex: Very similar to Ring of pain in attack pattern and attack nature (in that it speeds up as it goes), but instead of three quick swings around its six, and every swing completion there's a 33% chance of the Skullcrusher stopping for a half second, and changing the direction of the swing.
 * Blistering Swipe Duex: The Skullcrusher will turn its body like during Flail Whip, but with the hand containing the flail more away from the players. After about a two second charge time, the Skullcrusher will roar, swinging the flail in a large 270 degree angle from the start point. There is a 20% chance the Skullcrusher will over-spin, forming a slower Ring of Pain spin and then a bit. Unlike the original variant of this attack in Phase 1, instead of getting dazed and open for attack, they get enraged for 3 seconds, and their attack power increases for another Blistering Swipe attack that will not fail.
 * Torrent of Chains: Will reel back the chain, hold the ball in their other hand, and throw it outward to a targeted area on the map, where it will land there. Numerous hooks will be launched out of it in every direction. Players snagged by the hooks will be pulled toward the ball. The Skullcrusher will then haughtily laugh, as they swing the ball "overhead" and slam it on the complete other side of them, where the players will be moved to and dislodged. The Skullcrusher will then reel the ball back in again for the next attack.
 * Imperial Grinder: Will raise their unarmed hand, as it glows a crimson light. From behind them, numerous melee weapons such as knives, swords, spears, etc. will be formed out of glowing red light, before flinging toward the closest player. If contact is made, the weapon will be stuck into the body of the player for 3 seconds, dealing light damage over time and snapping into a small aura that inflicts Blinded for 1.8 seconds after that time ends.
 * Crimson Flush: Will raise their unarmed hand as twin spirals of crimson energy will spin around the arm and meet into a bright red burst of energy in their hand. Afterward, they will aim their hand at the closest player, releasing a series of red crimson energy blasts one at a time, about a second apart. Three to five crimson blasts will fired. If they make contact with a player or obstacle, they will explode in a supernova-like effect. Dealing damage to and pushing away all players nearby.
 * Have a Ball: The Skullcrusher will stop, go Armored, close its eyes, and rest the ball of the flail on its other hand, which sends glistening red energy into it. The tips of the spikes on the flail will illuminate a blinding red. The Skullcrusher will then reel back the ball and grip the chain in its other hand not holding the handle, swing it overhead to build up power, and then release a slow moving sweep from one side of its front to the other, as the ball becomes consumed in a red trail of energy. Player struck will have their screens flash red quickly, as they go absolutely FLYING backward, probably out of the Skullcrusher's sight range. This will also Paralyze and Stun for 6 seconds, but due to the long telegraph to get out of the way, that's on you.

Death
When they reach 0 health, the Skullcrusher will bellow a "No! I have spent years training to dismember the likes of you!", as it will go completely in rage. The right half of the mask will crack off, the other shoulderplate will crumble away, and the flail ball will rip off of the chain, landing elsewhere as the Skullcrusher drops the flail.

The Skullcrusher will then recover 2000 health, summon a spear made out of red energy in its hands, and begin making very quick chase after the players, swinging its weapon around madly with no particular rhyme or reason. Its speed and aggression only increases as the Skullcrusher's health approaches 0 again. Upon death, the Skullcrusher will roar again, as its weapon drops to the floor, disintegrating into red mist. Following this, its body will begin to illuminate white, sending out rays of light, before crumbling into a pile of dust with the helmet on top.

Trivia

 * The page attempts to use gender-neutral pronouns, as Skullcrusher is a position and not a person, which means it could be held by anyone.
 * Crimson Flush bursts may or may not look suspiciously like Nebula Blaze attacks from Terraria.
 * The Realm Boss hinted at for probably the longest on the page.
 * Flail attacks sound overcomplicated when it practice they're not, and are probably still very easy to dodge.