Dark Guardian

The Dark Guardian is a humanoid Dark Gaia monster that appears as a boss in Sonic Unleashed. When Dark Gaia's evil essence dispersed around the planet, it came into contact with lunar energies contained within the Gaia Temple at Shamar, which combined to form this vicious creature.

Appearance
The Dark Guardian has a humanoid form similar to that of the Deep Nightmare creatures. It has dark-purple skin, glowing white eyes and cyan-coloured spines, claws and hair. It has a sickle-shaped horn on its head which appears to bend to its right side. It also wears armour on its arms and legs and carries a large hammer.

Abilities
The Dark Guardian has abilities similar to that of the Nightmares, except his are more powerful. He can both stretch and enlarge his right hand over long distances, and strike with such force that it can leave Sonic the Werehog dazed and immobilized for a short while. He also possesses a Nightmare's defensive maneuvers, which involve jumping back to avoid attacks and guarding against assaults with his arms.

The Dark Guardian is incredibly fast, capable at moving at such high speeds that he is almost invisible to the naked eye. He is also capable of energy projection, allowing him to launch powerful purple energy blasts. In the Wii/PlayStation 2 version, he is also capable of teleportation.

The Dark Guardian's power stems from lunar power (the energies from the moon) which it draws from the Moon Altar. This allows the Dark Guardian to summon orbs of energy to give him a power boost, or even heal himself from any damage he might have received. In the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version, this ability makes Dark Guardian nearly invincible. However, the Moon Altar is also the monster's greatest weakness, as destroying the altar will cut the creature from his power supply, leaving him weak and unable to heal himself.

Besides physical capabilities, the Dark Guardian wields a hammer imbued with the power of thunder. With it, he call forth lightning bolts to strike Sonic from above, unleash a vortex of lightning, or simply smash Sonic with it while charged with electricity.