Spinal

Story

In life, Spinal was known as a rich and powerful bandit. One day, a mysterious vizier hired Spinal and his people to sabotage the flow of resources as a part of his scheme against the king of Babylon.

Unfortunately for them, the king proved to be too wise. All who were part of the vizier’s plan were found out, captured, and tormented with the power of sorcery. Using the Mask of the Ancients, the king subjected Spinal to slavery. The artifact did not restrict his mind or will to rebel, but it forced his body to obey the king’s every order, no matter how dangerous it was.

Feeling imprisoned in his own body, Spinal’s mind began to shatter, but it wouldn’t be long until a worse fate would befall him. Bored of his slave, the king ordered Spinal to burn himself alive as the final redemption for his crime. The flames consumed his flesh, but the bones remained. Even after the mask was removed, the undying will would move his bones.

Afraid of the consequences, the king ordered Spinal’s remains to be confined in a lead coffer and the mask thrown away into the sea. Centuries spent in insolation drove Spinal further into madness, but his will grew stronger, allowing him to reform his skeleton and eventually break out of his coffer.

Once free, Spinal took up a pirate's life and tried to seek the Mask of the Ancients, the source of his curse. Countless vessels were sunk and lives lost in his fruitless search. That was until Ultratech and ARIA got their hands on the artifact, the latter wisely using it to manipulate Spinal into entering the Killer Instinct tournament.

Once the tournament was over, Spinal was given the mask, as promised. However, to his surprise, it no longer held any power. As such, his new goal became to find whoever or whatever managed to absorb the mask’s power. To this day, he wanders the Earth and wreaks chaos on his path to power.

Personality

Spinal’s fate left his mind utterly shattered, removing any trace of what it once was. These days, he can only be described as a manifestation of chaos, seeking another battle to entertain himself. Despite his apparent insanity, he still aims to find the source of his curse and seems to find joy in the adventurous life of a pirate.

Playstyle

Categorized as a projectile rashdown character in the game, Spinal is a very offense-oriented fighter. While he does have projectiles, they consume his resources and primarily serve to initiate pressure rather than zone opponents. Once Spinal gets in your face, it’s extremely tough to stop him, as he has many potent mixups and can expend skulls to create more suffocating pressure.

As a downside, his defense leaves a lot to be desired. With no reversals, he doesn’t have many options to get out of pressure, and his backdash is laughably stubby.

Appearance

Spinal is a skeleton armed with a cutlass and a living Kraken shield inscribed with runes. He wears a red bandana, metal armbands, tattered vest, large leather belt, tattered kilt, and leather boots. His arms and torso are bound with rope, tying a cracked ship wheel to his back and shoulder.