Tao Kung

Tao Kung (タオカンフー Taokanfū) is an Etherious based demon from the lost pages of Zeref's book and one of eight members of the Lords of the Apocalypse of the Nightmare Wing. He is known as the Exploding Fist Lion (拳ライオン爆発, Ken raion bakuhatsu), a nickname earned for being a hurricane of violence that devastate and destroys anything in his pathway including enemies and allies alike in order to prove his superiority compared to anyone. He claims to be the strongest fighter within Earth-Land and always seeks a worthy contender to that title regardless of race or allegiance.

Formerly a member of the Army of Light under the alias "Howard Grant", he sold information to the enemy side in order to gain ultimate power to surpass any wizard as a result, he was amount those trapped within the Black Soul Gem before his release. Upon his rebirth as the Eitherous Tao Kung after merging with Demons soul within the stone, he became focused on regaining the power to prove he was the strongest warrior in Earth-Land once more.

Basic Demon Form
Tao Kung is a tall well-built demon covered with a Chinese-styled clothing wearing a long lion fur coat with one sleeve along He wears a black, gold and brown with his coat acting like skirt armor with a Chinese logo on the sleeve, with a cloth arm guard along his right arm. He is usually depicted with a psychotic look on his face as he shows his teeth while smoking his pipe. His cold red eyes which further enhances more ominous appearance. He has red eye shadow and small dot-shaped eyebrows following an old Chinese based appearance.

Human Form
During the great 500 years of war with Mana, under the name "Howard" acting as a secret spy within the human ranks. He appeared to be the blond hair gentlemanly figure with one blacken eye and a white eye wearing a red and white suit. However, when his well-hidden rage explodes and his cursed power seeps through a body, his one blond hair fades to white as his blacken eye turns Red. This form was later modified following his rebirth at the hands of Katsuyoshi Hojo remaking his soul to fit him in a body to better control his power.

Eitherous Form
When he takes his demon mode, he appears to be a large armored steel figure with his eyes glowing bright red. During this form, his clothing morphed into a heavy steel demon mode with spiked bladed claws and powerful demon look. When he loses his temper he is able to expel the armor revealing his "True" form as his muscles grew larger expanding into bones along his body that morphed into the skull. He appears to have multiple black tattoos with a skull metallic mask on his face with his hair turns longer as it extends longer and turned pitch-black during this transformation.

Personality
While appearing to be a normally as a laid-back individual, Tao Kung possesses a very brutal, impulsive, and excessively violent personality alongside a lethally short temper when enraged. However, despite his aggression and obvious blood lust in battle, he possesses a feral cunning and has a knack for quickly exploiting any opening his opponent reveals. In addition, he is blunt, sarcastic and quite sadistic, revealing a psychotic grin or laughing maniacally whenever he becomes excited.

However, he does have some form of a code of honor, as he is unwilling to fight an injured Fuyu Ketsueki so he merely let him rest to heal up instead of fighting him while he is weak, claiming he wants to defeat the strongest warriors at their best to simply to make fights more enjoyable before he kills him. With that said, he also showed during his time in training and practicing his fighting styles kicking down entire trees down with a single blow. Due to his arrogant nature, he has also been shown to be an incredibly sore loser. Refusing to accept defeat at the hands of his enemies instead forcing his broken body to get up and move on its own despite being in pain or simply would rather take death.

It's revealed deep during War times his drive to battle shows a sinister and sadistic ways when driven back as he was more focus on killing worthy targets while torturing and either slowly killing victims or simply outright murdering larger groups to thin the numbers of enemies nearby for just pure enjoyment. It's stated if he in this state if he doesn't find a worthy Challenger, he could turn on his own allies just to feed his bloodlust.

During the 500 year war as much as he was a gentleman to the eyes of the public and those around him. In secret, he was a very corrupt, cruel and powerful man who will kill anyone who stands in his way. He sees absolutely no value in human life and sold his humanity to gain ultimate power to be the strongest fighter in the entire Earth-Land.

Curse
Bomb Curse (爆弾の呪い Bakudan no noroi) Tao Kung is a master of a dangerous power known as the "Bomb Curse", they lie completely in the use of multiple types of explosions, which can be triggered remotely or upon direct contact and are usually on a very grand scale. Tao has proven himself capable of effortlessly generating blasts of huge magnitude, wreaking havoc over both large buildings and entire towns, slaughtering individuals as powerful as Star Breaker Guild Members. In addition, anyone that makes physical contact with the user becomes "cursed", with odd symbols appearing on the attacker's body in reference to how many times the user was directly struck. These symbols turn the attacker into a living bomb and detonate without any prompt from the user. Also, as per their ability to turn whatever they desire into a bomb, the user's own body is not excluded from this, and by sacrificing their own life, they can create an explosion that can decimate an entire large town. Above all, however, the user's explosions involve heat and are almost completely useless against those who can consume it, such as Fire Dragon Slayers or Fire God Slayers though depending on the severity of the explosion, damage can still be taken.
 * Exploding Spiral (爆螺旋 Bakurasen) is a Bomb Curse Spell. When the user brings their arm behind them while gathering energy, and consequently swings their other arm forward, swiping it in the direction of the target. This action creates a large explosion in the form of a spiral that covers a large area which can devastate a large group of enemies burning them to ash.


 * Landmine Curse (地雷呪法 Jirai Jūhō) is a Bomb Curse Spell. He user creates a symbol on the ground. This beeping symbol is a mine that is triggered once someone steps on it and detonates once that someone moves. It can also detonate on command by the Tao Kung as well should it be a tactically support him.
 * Bomb Orb (爆弾オーブ Bakudan ōbu) is a Bomb Curse Spell. The user creates a spherical container around the target. This orb restrains the target's movement and can be detonated at will by the user. Like it's lesser counterpart Burning Ash Bomb, it can also be used as a projectile based weapon to launch a sphere towards an enemy target moments before it explodes on a much large scale to burn victims to ash.
 * Explosive Thrust Fist (爆発スラスト拳 Bakuhatsu surasuto ken) is a Bomb Curse Spell. This user creates a curse seal on either hand of Tao Kung. Using the powerful thrust of a fist, it detonates on contact for a devastating melee attack or from a distance to send a wave of the explosive gust of flames towards a target.


 * Ultimate Explosive Thrust Fist (究極の爆発スラスト拳 Kyūkyoku no bakuhatsu surasuto ken) is a Bomb Curse Spell on a much larger scale compared to the normal version. With a single thrust downwards into the ground, it generates a large shockwave of an explosion that forms around the area of Tao Kung to burn nearby victims alive from around him. Another version of this is where he focuses a much larger explosive seal onto either of his hands on turning it into a much more powerful melee based bomb which detonates on contact with a target.
 * Burning Ash Bomb (アッシュ爆弾バーニング, Asshu bakudan bāningu) is a type of bomb curse spell on a basic level. It releases an orb like projectile weapon that can be launched by Tao Kung to strike at multiple targets before exploding or simply too painfully strike into an enemies body. This curse spell when detonated releases a stream of burning ash to form around the victim to burn them from multiple angles or simply focused into a single blast depending on how tactically it's used in combat.

Physical Abilities
Berserker & Unyielding Bloodlust - Tao Kung most frightening trait is his lust for battle. Driven solely by their raging desire to spill blood and take lives of his enemies. With the sole purpose in life is to destroy their enemies of greater or lesser power and take life in the most brutal and barbaric fashion imaginable. His lust for violence and death is so bad that if in this thick of battle, his bloodlust can grow to the point, he would turn on his own allies and start to tear them apart in order to slake his thirst for blood.

Immense Strength - Tao Kung has shown to have frightening levels of strength on top of his skills as a Marshal artists through his many years of battle. He is shown with a single roundhouse kick into a slab of nearby rock, he can send a large boulder towards a group of Star Breaker Guild members using it like a projectile during combat. With that said, he also showed to be able to lift heavy objects though his upper limits are unknown even to him though he often tries to tests himself but at the same time overestimates his natural power. This strength is clearly shown to be doubled during his transformation into his true form using his fists to punch from the ground to split it with a single fist while also being able to overpower fighters like Takashi Suzugamori, Fuyu Ketsueki & Shiro Yoshimitsu during his combat with each of them.

Immense Endurance & Durability - On top of his skills as a fighter and a martial artist, he been spending years training his body in multiple arts of combat being able to train under large waterfalls while also spending months on end punching rocks and trees. His endurance and durability skills are often said to be rival to near the guild master himself, however with that said he is not a perfect defense though after having a long battle with someone equal in martial art skills it begins to make him more tired. He also is shown to take great deals of impacts and still be able to keep fighting, this was shown during the battle with Fuyu Ketsueki where he was impaled by his Fuyu's claw through the chest and still kept going for a long period of time.

Immense Speed & Reflexes - Granted with his Marshal arts mastery, Tao Kung has shown to be a very flexible and mobile fighter in combat. Though being extremely sharp reflexes, and a high degree agility and speed his skills in this art are not as focused on the other skills, though, he claimed that "he could go faster" however it's unclear how fast he can go if pushed to the limit. Despite his disadvantaged facing much faster enemies, he is a very quick fighter able to use his reflexes and skills to outwit them.

Grand Master Level Martial Artist - Tao Kung is an uncontrollable monster during combat, using his masterful skill of hand-to-hand combat though he prefers hand-to-hand combat, he is shown to be able to integrate weapons into his combos. The fighting style he employs is called the "Way of the Demon" (悪魔の道, Akuma no michi) or "Ansatsuken" (暗殺拳, Assassination Fist) which is a type of martial arts that takes knowledge of multiple forms molding them into one. This form of fighting focuses on powerful strikes forming magical energy through the fists or feet to completely destroy a foe's guard while also keeping a strong defense. It employs numerous forms of fighting and takes a approaches to Karate, and Japanese martial arts through targeting joints in an enemy's body while still keeping a strong defense.

His advanced knowledge of the art of Ansatsuken gives him a great knowledge of the multiple joints & pressure points within the human body which, he can strike to disable victims or set up for a killing blow depending on how exposed they are during battle. Tao Kung is a clear cut master of within Nightmare Wing Guild using this type of fighting style using merely his bare hands to take out multiple targets at once like a hurricane of death and destruction.


 * Ennetsu Jigoku Kikku (炎熱地獄ック, Flames of Hell Kick) At first it seems like a simple yet powerful roundhouse kick. However, it is a powerful spinning roundhouse kick with enough force to shatter an entire skull with a single sweep while also leaving a large shock wave that is generated by the wind into a large Orb-shape during the impact.

Etherious Form (エーテリアス フォーム Ēteriasu Fōmu): Tao Kung is able to enter the Etherious Form that much of the rest of his race employs. His version turns his very skin into an outer layer of steel armor which augments his strength and durability during combat however this also slows him down due to a large amount of weight of this form. While this form he can access much stronger versions of his bomb curse while also improving the force used in his hand-to-hand combat. However when under an extreme amount of rage, he can take this up a step and extend his muscle mass and reveal his true form from within the armor itself.


 * Augmented Strength - During his Etherious his already powerful strength is even more boosted to much higher levels than before being able to match power with Kronus The World Eater during a contest of power and nearly overpowering him before losing to the Dragon King. However, despite this loss, he still was renown for his power being able to stand toe-to-toe with even the strongest enemies.


 * Augmented Durability & Endurance - The boost from his Etherous form has him able to handle a strong contest with the "New" Dragon King Kronus in a contest of raw power which being able to fight a fully grown dragon for a long period of time is nothing short of amazing compared to others who faced him. With his enhanced durability, it boosts his power to above his peak of his body to supernatural levels included with his metallic skin to be able to take most of the damage to protect his inner skin.


 * Immense Magical Power - Along with all the other perks of Etherous form Tao Kung gains a huge power boost during combat when activating this form. It was powerful enough to boost his power to the point he can take on The Dragon King Kronus in a battle while still retaining enough power afterward keep himself alive. With that said, his magical output is nothing short of quite impressive it's able to handle large amounts of boost and is able to generate a large field of the weight of pure magical force. His magical power is colored gray.

Etherious Titan Mode When Tao Kung loses his temper, his rage builds, and boils until he lets loose his rage during combat during this he can shatter his armor itself to reveal his inner layer that his body underneath which he pushes his power to the limit to the point his muscles growth pushes into an abnormal amount growing much larger using dark steel that remains to rebuild into a steel outline of his body with skulls and bones growing outwards to intimidate victims. During this state, his right arm grows out a cannon which folds forward which fires flaming balls of burning hell-fire of lava towards his victims to burn them alive while his other arm has a chained up curved blade which not only adds to the force of impact when striking but also adds a slicing element during his strikes. Along the back, he carries multiple tendrils out of his back he and uses them to attack large groups or impale multiple targets at once.
 * Flame Devouring Power - Following his transformation he was able to gain a new ability being able to use fire-based attacks turning it into his body to heal his wounds & restoring his energy as while during Etherious Form unlike his immunity during basic form.

Cursed Power
Immense Cursed Power - As an S-Class Mage of the Nightmare Wing Guild & a member of the Lords of the Apocalypse, Tao Kung possesses a tremendous amount of Cursed Power. Being able to handle being matching the legendary Dragon Tyrant Takashi Suzugamori in terms of naturally magical power. His natural Cursed energy color is Black. When released at once his aura generates into a giant frightening demon skull screaming at his enemy at once made from his pure rage to murder his foe at all costs even his own life. If focused enough his aura is even strong enough to force victims to slowly lose their grip on sanity and begin to go insane from the intense force overwhelming their senses.

Equipment

 * The Twin Hookswords The Hook sword is shaped like a shepherd's hook. There are four main components to the weapon. The back, which is used like traditional swords, The hook, which is used for slashing, as well as catching weapons and tripping opponents, The end of the hilt, which are shaped into daggers to finish off targets & the crescent guard, which is used for blocking and slashing. The Twin Hooks are primarily a slashing weapon, although the dagger ends can be used for stabbing. Another technique shown was to hook the two blades a together, with the user swinging one, causing the dagger of the second sword to slash the opponent.

Trivia

 * Tao Kung's name is a reference to the Kuntao or kuntau (拳道, Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kûn-thâu, Tagalog: kuntaw) is a Hokkien term for the martial arts of the Chinese community of Southeast Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago. It is most commonly practiced in and associated with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. This is a unique style but both northern and southern Chinese martial arts are represented in kuntao, but the majority of systems originate from the same southern states as the Southeast Asian Chinese communities who practice them. Fujian, Shandong, Kung-fu and Guangdong styles dominate.