Gore Magala

Gore Magala is a monster of the ??? type first introduced in Monster Hunter 4. It is known to inhabit temperate zones. It is first encountered in one star Village Quests but will appear in other quests of other ranks up until five star in the village. It is also the flagship monster of Monster Hunter 4 and the juvenile form of Shagaru Magara.



Physiology
Gore Magala is a very unique wyvern, sharing traits and similarities to that of the Elder Dragons, possessing six limbs, including the clawed wings on its back. Though, its overall appearance and stance resembles a quadrupedal wyvern like the Nargacuga. Its body is covered in dark exoskeleton plates, with notable features including the hidden horns that are folded alongside its face, the lack of visible eyes and fanged jaws that are actually parts of its external armor plates. The other unique part is its wings, which are covered in jet-black fur that resemble a tattered and ragged cape. The claws on its wings are extremely prehensile, and even seem to possess opposable thumbs. They are used for grabbing, help at running and maintaining stability.

Abilities
Gore Magala's most unique ability, and its main form of offense is the ability to produce feral wyvern virus that can infect both hunters and monsters alike. The virus is known to transmit in two ways; through Gore Magala's fur which it scatters about like pollens, and through its breath attacks, in which it blasts out condensed spheres of virus that explode on impact. Gore Magala can also leave pools of virus in surrounding areas, which will infect careless hunters who accidentally step into them. Once infected, the hunter will slowly be consumed by the virus, which when reached full incubation, will drastically reduce the hunter's defense, affinity, and negate natural recovery (red health regeneration) for a period of time. Before the virus can take over, the hunters must either consume an nulberry to delay the effect, or overcome the illness completely by keeping on attacking Gore Magala, until the virus is cleansed. By ridding the virus through repeated attack, the hunter will also be rewarded with an increase in affinity, as well as an immunity to the virus for a short period of time. There are currently no other mean of curing the virus.

While the virus weakens humans, it seems to have the opposite effect on other monsters. Monsters that are infected with feral wyvern virus will display a change in appearance and behavior; their skins are visibly darker, with a tint of purple, and are shown to be leaking out virus from all over their bodies. The infected monsters will become much stronger and more ferocious, behaving as if they are in a constant state of rage. They also gain the ability to produce the virus and infect other beings. Most infected monsters will show no symptoms until they become weakened enough for the virus to take over completely, in which at that point, they would drop down as if they were dead, before rising up once more with altered appearance and go on a mad rampage. So far, all monsters seem to be able to get infected by the virus, except for certain gigantic class monsters like Daren Mohran.

Apart from the virus, Gore Magala also exhibits great strength and agility; able to shatter the ground with its clawed wings effortlessly, and leap around quickly to confuse hunters. While it fights mainly on the ground, it will occasionally takes to the air and start bombarding hunters with virus spheres from the sky, as well as swooping down for a ramming attack. It fights by cleverly keeping hunters away with its virus pools, while delivering ranged attack from a safe distance, before closing in quickly for some strong melee attacks.

Gore Magala's true strength is shown when it becomes enraged. In this state, it will emit an unusually large amount of virus particles into the air, so much that the surrounding area are darkened. Gore Magala will also undergo a transformation, unfolding its gigantic clawed wings that can smash hunters from afar, and showing its normally hidden horns at the side of its face. Apart from an increase in its strength, vitality and agility, it can also now use an explosive breath attack that explodes in a sweeping motion, dealing high damage, and infect the hunters. Unlike other monsters that will eventually tire out and return to its normal state, Gore Magala will keep on rampaging until receiving enough damage that snaps it out of its frenzied trance.