Predatus

"Predatus was perhaps one of the most prideful of men that I have ever met. For this, I almost made him a lion, but since he wanted strength to surpass his pride, I made him a tiger. And he has haunted man and beast ever since. He has haunted me even longer."

- Artemis remembers Predatus Predatus was originally a creation of Artemis to befit the greatest hunter of all time, but was eventually transformed into a monster to become the king of all cats.

History
Predatus was a mortal who was once the greatest hunter of all time, as modelled by Artemis who influenced his life to show his prowess as a hunter. Eventually, though, he became extremely prideful in his talents and began to ridicule Artemis for being the deity of hunting instead of him, which led to him dragging a deer into one of her temples and breaking one limb at a time before finally breaking its neck. Horrified, Artemis inflicted a curse on him that made him an unnatural combination of man and beast - he maintained the body of a man from the waist up but from the waist down he had the body of a huge tiger, where he would spawn all of the big cats in the animal kingdom so that they would be the predators of man so much as he had been the predators of monsters.

One of the lesser-known Labours of Hercules was to restrain and steal five cubs of Predatus from the Forest of Artemis. During this quest, Hercules ventured into the forest and managed to take three of the cubs, before Predatus awoke and attacked Hercules. The two of them grappled furiously, the fight toppling a series of the trees in the forest, until Hercules finally outmatched the monster and knocked him unconscious with a brutal headbutt to his temple, and stole the five cubs before Predatus could recover

Appearance
Predatus had the torso, arms and head of a large, spectacularly muscular man with thick copper skin, powerful muscles, and a body that was terribly riddled with scars from when he clawed himself in a panic upon being transformed. He had waist-length fiery-red hair in a gigantic mess, with a large beard and terrifying yellow eyes. When he roared, it was commented that his jaws spread unnaturally wide and he showed that he had the teeth of a tiger. From the waist down, he had the body of a huge tiger with blood-orange fur and black stripes, claws bigger than knives and an abnormally long tail. He wielded a large Celestial Bronze spear as a weapon.

Abilities

 * Roar: Predatus's roar was incredibly powerful, known to shake the leaves from every tree in the forest and disassemble the flight of several birds with its sound waves.
 * Superhuman strength: He was incredibly strong, even as a human, shown by his ability to battle Hercules on even footing and topple several trees in the fight before he was defeated.
 * Claws and teeth: He had thick and extremely sharp claws and teeth, enough to bite through steel and claw suits of armour to pieces.