Anzu

The **Anzu** (**アンズー**) is an ancient weapon created by the Brain Flayers.

It is an artificial lifeform created as a weapon of mass destruction, and is fought as a boss in Taimanin RPGX.

## Abilities

The Anzu is capable of manipulating wind for offensive purposes, from creating small typhoons to making large "tornado fortresses". While the size of the typhoons remain, visually, around 50 km wide and 10 km high, the speed at which the wind blows is so high it can potentially rip anything appart and is possible the speed can increase indefinitely. The speeds measured inside started with around 50 mph, then to 160 mph and afterwards it kept increasing. It is likely but not certain the speed of wind depends on how strong the Anzu itself is. The fortess itself works as a strong magical barrier thanks to the speed of the wind which makes the use of magic impractical, but even without it, approaching it is dangerous as multiple minor creatures travel and reside inside it.

The Anzu itself cannot be seen inside the storm, as he hides in this "fortress of wind" and is constantly flying around. As such, attacking it, is almost impossible even with the future techonology of the RPGX world.

If the Anzu needs to physically defend itself, it has a number of options. It can create small magical cyclones with its wings, create lighting that guards it, courtesy of its generators, and shoot lasers. Furthermore, like an apex predator of the skies, it is very skillful in air combat to such an advanced degree that even multiple strong opponents are unable to take it down. As an added bonus, it is able to predict what its enemies will do in direct combat and more often than not it will dodge any attack.

As an ancient weapon, it acts as a force of nature without any sentience, acting on instinct as it moves over an area and destroys it. As it moves, it starts to store energy and there is a danger of explosion if killed without enough force or without a way to redirect that force somewhere else.

## History

A weapon of Brain Flayer design, it is speculated that it was left behind in the RPGX Universe for unknown reasons and meant to be somewhere else.

It awoke in the RPGX Universe and caused a small but intense typhoon that threatened Japan. Moving over the Pacific Ocean, it arrived around 1500 kilometers east of Tokyo and it would hit the city in a few hours. The air force was dispatched to investigate but was forced back, all signs indicating that this storm was of artificial origin. Further information gathered by Karina Cochrane further supported this hypothesis. Due to the grave danger it posed, Taimanin, DSO and even Nomad sent help to take out the cause of the storm.

The Taimanin used a team of Wind Art users, which took care of the multiple creatures inside and created a breathable atmosphere on the typhoon, breaching the fortress. This was done by the combined effort of Hoshino Mitsuki, Yubashiri Hayate, Mochida Megumi and Linoa Serin; who started to fight the Anzu.

The DSO, sent out Koukawa Asuka with a number of new weapons made from Uranos-Alloy, which was supported by Lune, Mishea Silkies and Karina Cochrane, their objective being able to breach the wind fortress, which they promptly did and then joined the fight.

Lina convinced Ingrid to support the effort. Nadra Vyrol used her ability to see into fate and saw Lina gaining wings, so a quick brainstorming was done how to make this possible. Lina had too little magical powers for such an act but with the help of Lilith Abel Bindernagel she gained wings, the added control was done by Dolores and Ingrid provided her with her own magical blade. Lina and company were also able to pierce the barrier and joined everyone else in their attack against the Anzu.

However, even with the combined strength of the attackers, the Anzu proved to be a very powerful foe, with both Asuka and Ingrid struggling in their fight as it either dodged or used its lighting to defend itself.

Meanwhile, the Taimanin Task Force of Fuuma Kotaro hovered out of reach of the typhoon with a secret weapon on hand. Mizuki Yukikaze was ordered to shoot an unrestrained attack down at the beast to disable its lighting defenses. She was supported in that attack by Makishima Ayame, who used her Ninja Art of wind reading to find the Anzu in the tempest, Shinganji Kurenai, who helped to create an opening in the storm, and Uehara Shikanosuke, who linked the information from Ayame to both Kurenai and Yukikaze. Ayame at first struggled with the speed the wind had reached to see the target, but at some point the storm slowed down, giving her a chance to pinpoint its location and Yukikaze was able to release a large lighting that hit the Anzu.

In secret, the group was also supported by Lilim and Mizuki Shiranui, both of whom slowed the storm long enough for Ayame to use her Ninja Art.

The Anzu was hit from outside his point of view, which render its predicting abilities useless, and in its confusion its defenses were disabled. Asuka and Lina then dealt a mortal blow in which it lost both its wings. However, the energy stored inside it started to release itself, only averting disaster thanks to a combined large magical and taimanin particle cannon made on the spot by Asuka and Lina, which diverted it upwards into the atmosphere and caused minimal damage.

## Appearance

The Anzu takes on the form of a chimeric creature with an eagle's body and a lion's head. It has blue wings and a purple body, while the head has a white mane and a gray head that is covered with a visor. It is outfited with a pair of gold and yellow wing generators near the end of its wings while around its chest it holds energy generators that are connected by a reddish cable to a golden contraption in its tail. Another reddish cable connects its visor with its head.

## Trivia

* Anzu, also known as Zu, Anzud or Imdugud, was a demonic tempest bird in Mesopotamian mythology. In his most famous mythical role, Anzu steals the Tablets of Destinies from Enlil, the lord of the wind. These objects gave the power to control fate to whoever possessed them, which in Mesopotamian mythology amounted to being able to control the universe. The supreme god Anu promised sovereignty over the gods to whoever recovered the tablets from Anzu. Due to the surviving texts being in fragments, it's unclear to establish the outcome, but it seems Ninurta, Enlil's son, recovered the Tablets. In at least some accounts, he was tricked by Enki afterward, which seemingly prevented him from becoming the ruler of the gods. In some versions, Ninurta's deeds were instead ascribed to Marduk. The myth Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the nether world mentions Anzu as one of the monsters infesting a tree planted by Inanna. She enlists the aid of the eponymous heroes to get rid of it. A more benign version of Anzu appears in a myth about Gilgamesh's father, Lugalbanda. The creature rewards him with the ability to travel at supernatural speed to reward him for taking care of an Anzu chick he found.
* Lilim and Mizuki Shiranui slowing down of the storm was very dangerous for them and could have gone wrong, so Lillm had asked Ereshkigal for support, to control the power of lord Kamadeva that they both had. However, Ereshkigal refused these efforts, not caring about the total destruction of Japan. Shiranui herself, disappeared after this cooperation only with a slight smile and no words.