| “ | So, who is my opponent? He’s here, right? The insanely strong guy that I love so much! | ” |
–Grendel to the Occult Research Club, Light Novel Volume 14, Life 4 Go, Occult Research Club & Student Council! | ||
Grendel is an Evil Dragon, known as the Crime Force Dragon and a member of Qlippoth, prior to being sealed.
Appearance[]
Grendel is a 15 meter tall Western Dragon with black scales, bright silver eyes, horns, wings, and thick limbs, uniquely being a bipedal Dragon. Issei has compared him to a Giant with Draconic features, describing him as "possessing a form close to a human, with the wings, head and tail of a dragon." He has blue-colored blood.[1] He exudes a dark and ominous aura, filled with hostility and killing intent.
Personality[]
Grendel is an aggressive, psychotic Dragon that is only interested in fighting and killing. He is a battle maniac who loves physical combat and destroying more than anything, shivering in sheer joy when confronted by a foe that faces him in a head-on brawl instead of resorting to tricks & traps. He hates having to share opponents with his fellow Evil Dragons, and would even go as far as to disobey orders from his superiors in order to keep fighting. He shows masochistic joy when he gets injured,[1] and sadistic pleasure when torturing others.[2]
Despite his obsession with fighting, he is capable of recognizing that some foes are out of his league, conceding that he could at least not take on Crom Cruach with most of his body destroyed. Strangely, he can also give way to frustration, and even fear, when faced with an opponent who refuses to stay down, as shown in his fight with Sairaorg.
History[]
In the past, Grendel also fought against Ddraig at some point before he was sealed. He was later terminated by the original Beowulf, who left nothing remaining after ending his reign of tyranny according to Vritra.[1] Grendel was later revived by Qlippoth at some time before the start of Volume 14 using the Sephiroth Graal.
Power and Abilities[]
Immense Strength: Grendel has tremendous strength, as a normal punch from him was described as superior to Sairaorg in his Balance Breaker. Issei compared his power to a Dragon King, while noting that he might be even stronger, as he largely overwhelmed Issei in Cardinal Crimson Promotion during their first battle. He fought against the Gremory Peerage alongside Irina and Azazel (although he and Issei weren't at full strength). In fact, it took Issei wearing his Crimson Armor and Sairaorg in Balance Breaker (Boosted by Transfer) to wear him down.
Immense Durability: Grendel's dragon scales are considered to be among the hardest and toughest among the dragons, enough that he described a boosted Solid Impact punch to the face from Issei in his Welsh Dragonic Rook as "way too weak" and only received subtle wounds from a Cardinal Crimson Promotion Ascalon-enhanced Solid Impact Booster, which caused some blood to come from his mouth.[1] He took assaults from Xenovia's Ex-Durandal, Kiba's Demonic Swords, Irina and Azazel's Light Weapons, Akeno's Holy Lightning, and Rossweisse's full-burst magic attacks; only receiving substantial damage from Rias' Extinguished Star, although he survived. Grendel's defense was great enough that it required attacks from both Issei in his Crimson Armor and Sairaorg in Balance Breaker to inflict any sort of significant damage. Grendel also gained enhancements from Sephiroth Graal, the greatest being a resistance to the Dragon-Slayer trait, strong enough that he only took minor damage from even powerful Dragon Slayer weapons, such as Issei's Ascalon-enhanced Crimson Blaster and Kiba's Gram which is the strongest Demon Sword. Rossweisse also theorized that his natural Draconic resistance to magic must have been enhanced, as he was able to shrug off the various attributes of her magic attacks.
Immense Endurance: In addition to having the hardest scales among dragons, he is also tremendously resilient, continuing to move unhindered after taking absurd amounts of damage, such as barely being slowed by a Transfer-enhanced strike from Sairaorg that knocked him on his back while blood burst from his face. The most prominent example of this is the fact that he survived Rias' Extinguished Star with nothing more than half his head left, still showing intent to continue fighting, a notable feat considering that most beings of such resilience have regenerative abilities, while he has no such powers.
Immense Speed: Despite his size, Grendel is shown to possess great speed, something Issei also took note of during their fight.[1]
Fire Breath: Like most Dragons, Grendel can also breathe fire,[1] usually released in the form of individual fireballs.
Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Grendel is a powerful brawler, relying on savage instinct, raw strength and his abnormal durability to dominate his enemies, as he was able to fight alone against the entire Gremory Peerage several times. As a testament to this, he later fought Issei and Sairaorg, both of which are powerful hand-to-hand combatants as well, with Sairaorg stated to have fainted not long after their battle ended.
Trivia[]
- In the Light Novel, Grendel is the only known bipedal dragon. However, Tannin is also portrayed as bipedal in the anime and manga.
- Grendel is a fusion of two creatures in the Beowulf-myth. The original Grendel was a troll or ogre-like creature rather than a Dragon, while the actual dragon in the saga remained nameless. Grendel's bipedalism may be a reference to the original, humanoid Grendel.
Reference[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Light Novel Volume 14, Life 4 Part 3
- ↑ Light Novel Volume 17, Life.4 The Youth Devil, Life 1