Barracuda

**Barracuda** (바라쿠다;*Para-Koodah*) rules the Northern Vilzone until the elities of Gadam Vilzone perform a brutally successful raid. Defeated and utterly humiliated, Barracuda abandons the Northern Vilzone.

This villain has a long antagonistic history with Driver and the Gadam Vilzone.

He smokes cigars. He is implied to be Don King's relative as while his skills are weak and he has been defeated, he still receives the senior villain's full support.

## Appearance

Barracuda has green eyes lined with eyeshadow and a dark tattoo on one side. His blond dreadlocks are tied back in a manbun.

He often wears dark clothing. His favored weapon is a set of imbued spiked knuckles: The Fang.

## Personality

Barracuda is a typical musclebound idiot. Despite his resume, he's certainly not the brains during his time as vilzone boss.  He is respectful to his subordinates when they succeed. But when they report failure, he mocks or brutalizes them for wasting his time or not meeting expectations.

He only respects the strong. He prefers solving problems with his fists and assumes any fight will be won with his S Rank powers and that anyone under a certain rank isn't worth attention. His pride hinges on his raw power and he bows down to only those with a stronger magic energy than him or those in a high or similar position of authority.

He doesn't have a high opinion of skills as he prefers raw power over efficiency.

In the past, he was afraid of Driver, but expresses confidence after Driver's apparent dethroning. He expresses an inferiority complex towards Driver's confidence and momentum.

Barracuda has a habit of making fists and punching gestures while speaking.

## History

Some time before the main story kicks off, Barracuda approaches the other vilzone bosses of Seoul, including Driver. Barracuda proposes to them all that they should unite and stand against the psykers as one. His fellow vilzone bosses want nothing to do with the plan.

## Abilities

* "The Fang is his go-to. Rumor has it that it's imbued with a true magic stone."
* Barracuda prefers a meat-headed frontal assault.
* Barracuda headbutts Cassian.
* Barracuda pauses to disrespect his opponent.
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Barracuda is fast as he is able to react to Cassian's attacks though he is still slower and starts to lose in speed when Cassian increases and gets used to the pace. His strikes pack a punch, knocking Cassian back but does not do any lasting damage.

When combat ready, Barracuda creates large spikes that jut up from his shoulders. They likely create blindspots, as Cassian frequently slips behind Barracuda during their fight. Barracuda himself prefers a simple frontal attack strategy. He relies on his enchanted weapon's innate detection and homing attack properties to cover for his own shortcomings.

Barracuda prefers to take hits head on, as he doesn't dodge Cassian's initial attacks on him, only dodging when he feels it's an attack he cannot handle or blocking with his Fangs. This leaves him sorely exhausted once he starts to attain damage and his stamina is drained.

After his hands are amputated and cauterised by Cassian's flared blade, he loses the usage of his arms and is rendered mostly defenceless. He is healed with Don King's support and has his right arm replaced with a metal prosthetic.

He can fight against Cassian shortly in a fight and predict his movements but is taken down quickly once he faces a move he has not seen Cassian use before. This is thanks to Don King's VR headset support allowing him to re-experience Cassian's data and movements. This is not absolute as Cassian is stronger than before, and he cannot predict movements not shown then.

### Mental

Barracuda is simple and straight to the point in a fight. This has left his skillset much to be desired as he likely never trained and only focused on raising his magic points, to the point his experience in combat other than punching and kicking enhanced by his fangs leaves his skills with the style of a brawler rather than a trained combatant.

He doesn't people of lower ranks seriously, even to a point of pausing in the middle of a fight to brag about his power. He belittles and disrespects lower ranked opponents. While fighting Cassian, Barracuda takes his eyes off of Cassian multiple times.

After he starts to lose the advantage in his fight and realises that he has been disrespected by Cassian and Driver thinking he is defenceless without his Fangs, he loses his cool and attacks Cassian wildly.

### Magic Points

Barracuda is S Ranked. His magic energy manifests as a green or blue aura surrounding him and his weapons. His aura after a month's training is enough to pressure Blue Serpent.

### Barracuda's Fangs (바라쿠다의송곳니)

As he introduces, Barracuda's Fangs are unique and imbued with the power of a True Magic Stone, with its unique properties of shifting and reshaping itself to it's user's will. The Fang conducts Barracuda's bluish green energy and enhances his strikes.

After his loss to Cassian, it's magic stone has been extracted, and Barracuda has lost it.

### Spiked Right Arm Prosthetic

He has a prosthetic he received with Don King's support that is fixed to his right arm. The knuckles are fitted with 4 spikes and the forearms have 2 larger spikes for combat purposes. It is implied that it also contains a true magic stone, like his previous weapon the Fangs. He loses it to Cassian in their second fight.

### Skills

#### Homing Skewer (호응 스큐어)

The Fang's spikes rapidly extend. This makes for a linear long range attack that seeks out enemies by detecting their movement.

Skill: Homing SkewerHoming Skewer zigs and zags sharply to seek out an enemy.
#### Thorn Barrier (가시방패)

Barracuda rapidly extends his Fangs to cocoon him in thorny spikes to protect him from attacks. It blocks Cassian's flare though it leaves him pressured by the heat. He cannot attack unless he drops it however.

#### Thorn Hell (가시지옥)

He extends his fangs to focus and pierce a single point or spread out in all directions. It extends 3spikes on each of his arms. It's effects are not seen as Cassian slices through it with his flared blade.

## Trivia

* In the Korean original, Barracuda calls his boss "hoejang-nim.", referring to a president of a company, or the chairman of a powerful governing board.

* In the real world animal kingdom, a barracuda is a ferocious salt-water fish.

## References

1. ↑ Episode 55
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Episode 36
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Episode 35
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Episode 50
5. ↑ Episode 30
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Episode 46
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Episode 51
8. ↑ Naver Episode 30