Invictus Maneo/Lord Raptor

**“**It's time for my encore!**”**
— Invictus Maneo selection quip
**Lord Raptor** is an Australian zombie guitarist who was once seen as the "next big thing" in the rock music world, seen as the God of Metal by his cult-like followers. His biggest record, Punishment, sold over a million copies through word of mouth. During his final live performance, he killed himself and 100 fans via a ritual sacrifice, which caught the interest of Emperor Ozom and made him resurrect Lord Raptor to recruit him as his personal assassin. He plans to not just defeat the Darkstalkers, but also destroy Ozom and become the next emperor.

Lord Raptor originates from the 1994 game Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, and his home stage is Haunted Graves.

## Fighter Info

### Basics

Lord Raptor is a middleweight zoner character who places all his focus in dominating the stage with his presence, utilizing his transformable limbs to outrange his opponents and keep them at a distance. Though he lacks any dominant strengths beyond good range, he has no weaknesses to prey upon either, making him an optimal beginner's pick.

Unique to Invictus Maneo is Raptor's ability to build up electricity upon each successful parry ("Death Phrase"), which allows his next few attacks to deal additional damage and forces direct attacks on his body to inflict recoil damage upon his foes. These can additionally strengthen all of his special moves. With that aside, Raptor retains his ability to mold his body parts into blades, drills, chainsaws, and various killing tools you might see in cheap B-horror flicks. His electric guitar is used in some of his attacks too, with shockwaves emitting from the headstock of his instrument in his "jab" and shooting out lasers from its headstock in his ledge grab. Specific moves like Loudness Screw, Death Hurricane, Skull Sting, and Skull Punish are respectively reflected in his dash attack, neutral air, down air, and down throw.

Lord Raptor has no specific weaknesses, although he does have slightly below-average frame data and his speed means his zoning game isn't as good as it could be, overall he's a very fine character for beginners to pick up.

### Specials

* **Special A: Evil Scream**
Lord Raptor transforms his right arm into a massive blade outsizing his body, thrusting it forward. If it makes contact with a foe or more, he'll pull them back and immediately restore his arm to normal so he can uppercut the caught foe(s) with oversized claws, shocking them with electricity and briefly stunning them.
* **Special B: Death Voltage**
Lord Raptor will cloak his body up in electricity before spinning forth like a tornado, hitting his foes multiple times while slowly but gradually rising into the air. If he performs this move while he's airborne, he can use it for quick horizontal recovery. Covers more distance if he powers it up completely.
* **Special C: Hell Dunk**
Lord Raptor will leap high in the air at a very slight angle, trying to grab a foe. If he succeeds, he'll summon his best friend Le Malta, a cyclopean creature who immediately transforms into a basketball hoop that he slams his foe through. If no foe is caught, he will start falling helplessly at the apex of his jump.
* **Special D: Hell's Gate**
Lord Raptor will once again summon his friend Le Malta, who will very quickly devour him and "teleport" him across the stage. The player can control when he pops out from the shadow and where he goes, though his time is limited. He always faces his foe when he comes out and the move has a cooldown after usage.
* **Showstopper: Ultimate Undead**
Lord Raptor will summon Le Malta if there's an enemy in his range, who will transform into a golden chainsaw before Raptor jumps up with it and plants his foot against the caught target, grinding the saw aggressively against their body to deal much damage. If he hit multiple foes, he'll try shredding them down simultaneously.