Brooding Mawlek

The Brooding Mawlek is a minor antagonist and optional boss in Hollow Knight. It is a monster that roams around the Forgotten Crossroads in search for the missing members of its kind, despite having no memory of killing them.

Biology
Brooding Mawleks, according to the Hunter's notes, are usually benevolent and social creatures, only turning aggressive when isolated from their kind. When the Infection occurred, the Mawleks turned feral and attacked each other, slaughtering one-another until a single Mawlek was left. The Hunter notes how he can often hear the beast calling out to others of its kind, but feels sympathy knowing its calls will never be answered.

Behavior
The Brooding Mawlek is located in the Forgotten Crossroads, in an area that cannot be reached until the Knight obtains the Mantis Claws in Fungal Wastes to scale walls, although using the Nail at a certain angle can scale the wall. After navigating through a room of a spikes, the Knight reaches a room littered with Mawlek corpses, along with the Brooding Mawlek, which jumps out from the pile of carcasses and attacks.

The Brooding Mawlek attacks the Knight by spitting out Infection blobs from its mouth and slashing its claws out when they get too close. It can also spit out a wave of blobs on the side of the arena that the Knight is on, or leap to where the Knight was when it began the jump. Defeating the Brooding Mawlek grants a Mask Shard.

A second Brooding Mawlek is found in the Colosseum of Fools as an opponent during the Trial of the Fool. It uses the same attacks as it did in the Forgotten Crossroads, only there is less room to maneuver.

Trivia

 * The Brooding Mawlek is the second boss introduced in the Kickstarter, after Gruz Mother.
 * Despite supposedly being the last of its kind, there are other Mawleks, the Lesser Mawleks, located in the Ancient Basin, and a second Brooding Mawlek fought in the Colosseum of Fools.