Ghosthunter:Swamp Phantom

The Swamp Phantom, formerly known as David De Montford, is the second boss creature fought in Ghosthunter, the first being the Hammer Knight.

History
According to a newspaper article Lazarus can find whilst exploring Oakville, David was the son of Lady De Montford. It's not quite determined how old David was at the time of his death, though it's hinted he was a young adult.

During one afternoon, David comes across a little girl stranded out on a small island within the bayou, and he bravely swims out to rescue her. However, the legendary monstrous alligator, (confusingly) dubbed 'Old Croc' by the locals, drags David under and the two battle to the death, ultimately leading to the demise of them both.

There are many hints of David's battle with the crocodile and his death throughout the swamp level aside from the newspaper clipping. In the cemetery, a large statue of David was built in his memory. It depicted him in a heroic stance fending off the monster alligator, very reminiscent of old medieval depictions of knights battling dragons. In the church, a ghostly ceremony is held in David's honor, as a ghostly preacher offers his grieving for the town hero.

Lady De Montford herself briefly mentions him when she is telling Lazarus about the 'bandits'. She tells how her son could have helped in fending them off, but was  away at the moment.. ''

Appearance
The Swamp Phantom consists of two separate entities fused into one; One being the spirit of David, the other being the vicious alligator that died alongside him. They are both horrifically mutilated to some degree. The alligator has significant battle damage such as spears, harpoons and gouged eyes, hinting to previous battles and may even hint to the fact that this creature may have already been an undead being before it had attacked and killed David, making this a rare case which the living has been greatly affected by the dead.

David himself looks to have a melted appearance, possibly for being 'digested' by the crocodile. This is further evident when it regurgitates David in the second part of the boss battle. David's face is forever fixed into a saddening, screaming expression with a gaping mouth. His body is very lumpy, rotten and swollen. In his phantom form, his stands at least twice as tall as Lazarus with the alligator attached to his right arm, which he uses to swing at Lazarus much like a tentacle.

Behavior
The Swamp Phantom, despite it's size and rotting appearance, is very agile, having the ability to jump to ridiculous heights before landing back down in an attempt to crush Lazarus. It also possesses a projectile attack, in which it fires orange glowing plasma balls at the player in spurts of three at a time. It will also slam it's body down onto the player when they are near enough, though it takes a long time for him to do this, thus can be easily evaded if quick enough.

The fight itself is in three stages:

Stage One After escaping De Montford's mansion by scaling across the bayou, you end up on a small island with three shacks and a small wooden dock where the girl you've just rescued waits. One Lazarus crosses the wooden bridge, the camera pans around to show the phantom alligator leap out and destroy the bridge, before climbing out to battle Lazarus. It's weak point is it's belly, and will take up to three hits for the next stage to commence. It attacks by scuttling towards the player in an attempt to bite them, before rearing up on it's hind legs to roar and hiss at the player, thus exposing it's belly.

Stage Two During a cutscene, the alligator will then vomit up David, fully forming the Swamp Phantom. The strategy here is to lure the monster over to the wooden shacks and trick it into destroying them, causing the alligator to become aggravated and attempt to bite harder into David's arm, this in return causing David to beat the creature on the head to get it to stop. Once all three shacks have been destroyed, the monster will leave the scene, allowing Lazarus and the young girl to escape in a cutscene.

Stage Three The final stage takes pace back at the cemetery. The Swamp Phantom will appear again, and this time the player must trick it to destroy the gigantic statue of David in the centre. Once the statue is destroyed, the alligator will bite off David's arm and separate, creating two separate beings for Lazarus to battle. David fires projectile whilst the alligator attempts to bite Lazarus. The player must lure the two beings together, causing them to battle each other. After about 2-3 fights between them, they will both be sufficiently damaged enough and stand dormant. This is the perfect opportunity for them to be captured before they become animate again.

Personality
David appears to be very loyal to his mother, Lady De Montford, and is hinted to be helping her kidnap the children in the bayou and being them to her so she can kill them to satisfy her unquenchable lust for revenge. He also seems to act very childish, as noticed when his only line of dialogue is screaming "MOMMY!" at Lazarus after he captures her. It's unclear whether this is attributed to David having some kind of mental condition when he was living, making him at as a 'man-child' of sorts, or whether he was simply devoted to his mother in such a childish way. The latter could hint to David having a very pampered and mollycoddled life when he was alive with his mother.