Soul Merger

Monsterpedia

Giant Hummingbird

Monster Level - IV

Soul Type - Composite

Intelligence - Animal

Strength - Average

Magic - Low

Rarity - Very Rare

Between five and six feet tall, giant hummingbirds are similar to their real world counterparts. Beautiful, fast, and unreasonable vicious. These massive birds will attack anything in their territory, including other small birds and monsters. This, combined with their need for vast amounts of nectar, is probably why giant hummingbirds are exceedingly rare outside labyrinths with massive amounts of giant plants.

In terms of combat ability they're one of the least dangerous level IV monsters you might encounter, though they're still troublesome. They use their speed to grat advantage, darting in and out of combat while biting and stabbing with their long beak. Good armor will resist both, meaning if you can get the hummingbird to target your front liners you should have little to worry about. Sadly the creatures like to spread out their attacks.

The biggest issue in confronting these monsters is of course their speed. It can easily dodge arrows and many spells, and it avoids attacking melee warriors from the front where it can be countered. Fortunately these creatures are fragile. While a solid blow won't kill one due to size, it will almost certainly stun it, and may prevent flight entirely from broken bones. Preferred tactics against giant hummingbirds are nets or arrow volleys. Area saturation spells are useful as well, though you don't want to strain your mages this deep in the labyrinth unless absolutely needed.

Giant hummingbirds show better tactics than a lot of monsters. No one is quite sure why, because they aren't smarter. Maybe its because whatever mental force boosts monster aggression isn't needed for them. They're quite willing to fight anyone.

Merge

Benefits : Hyper speed

Weaknesses : Hyper metabolism

One of the most visually striking merges, those few that merge with a giant hummingbird gain an iridescent sheen to their hair, and a dusting of tiny feathers that create colorful patches around their body. One of the most common areas is below the throat at the breastbone, with emerald and ruby plumage predominating. These feathers are much easier to maintain than most bird merges as well.

In terms of powers however they get something far more impressive. Limited bursts of super speed. Commonly refereed to as a 'flicker,' these bursts allow the person to move ten times faster than a normal human for up to two seconds. That doesn't seem like much at first glance, but they maintain a fair amount of coordination, meaning they can pack 20 seconds of unskilled work into that gap. They then have to rest twice as long as they acted, but it allows for a blur of rapid action and pauses.

The downside is they need massive amounts of food to cover for their enhanced speed. If they never use their merge they won't need much extra food. That's very unlikely given the speed boost will sometimes just trigger if the person wants something done fast. As the amount of time they spend in hypers speed increases so too does the amount of calories required to keep them going. If someone wanted to do an entire day's work in hypers peed they'd need entire barrels of syrup and molasses to keep from starving.

As such this merge is usually only given to bodyguards of the rich. People who benefit from the speed when needed, but aren't called on to try their hardest regularly.

Fortunately the insane metabolism of a giant hummingbird merge slows down when sleeping. In fact it drops below normal human levels, which is probably why their lifespans aren't affected. However it makes waking up in the morning really hard. Keep a bottle of syrup around for the mornings you are too tired to make coffee.