Manticore

A manticore is a giant beast with the body of a lion, bat wings, and scorpion tail. As a young witcher, Geralt fought a manticore. He also killed one during the Nilfgaard War near the town of Dorian.

They are said to somehow use the poison of the Bohun Upas."There's a cruel man-eater in these parts, laddie. He fell on a knight riding along the road with nowt but a boy for company. They say the monster rent the knight's head right off — helmet and all — and split the horse's gizzards...


 * 'A dragon?'


 * 'Nay, it's no dragon,' said the one in the straw hat. ' Tis said to be a manticore, or some such. The boy said 'tis a flying beast, awful huge. And vicious! We reckon he would devour the knight and fly away, but no! They say he settled on the road, the whoreson, and was sat there hissing and baring its fangs...'


 * ...he saw the great tawny body being lifted up by the soldiers. The monster's bat-like wings and scorpion tail dragged inertly along the ground."

- pgs. 10-11

Siegfried relates the story of how his father, Eyck of Denesle, died fighting a manticore when he first meets Geralt in the sewers. A letter from Patrick de Weyze can tell you same story.

In The Witcher 2, Geralt recalls that he fought an imperial manticore in one of his flashbacks while pursuing the Wild Hunt.


 * "One of the world's oldest and deadliest creatures, I used to feel excitement at times like this, but now the beast is just in my way. Its meat and hot blood will help me survive this icy hell."

Trivia

 * It was supposed to appear in the mountains near Kaer Morhen fortress but was replaced by a forktail in the game during its development. Leaked materials mention where the beast would have lived and how it would have attacked.
 * Manticore is a mythological beast with the body of a lion and the tail of a dragon or a scorpion. It is often depicted having a human face, like Sphinx, but unlike the later is more of a mindless beast. It can throw venomous spines to paralyze its prey.