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I swallowed the scream, the grunting of pain that threatened to escape my throat, stood again, slowly.

With only one hand, I didn’t have the leverage to really swing the Halberd.  I had to hold it towards the top, near the blade, which meant having less reach, having to get closer.

Just… be very careful where you stick that hand.

When I was close enough, I drew the blade back and raked it just below the base of his tail.  Where his asshole would be if he had human anatomy.  Easiest place for me to reach, with him crouched down like he was.

This is incredibly risky but I love it.

Dust billowed and Leviathan reacted instantly, swiped with one claw, fell onto his side when the damage to his buttocks and the hampered mobility of his tail screwed with his ability to control the movement of his lower body.

Yesss

His claw swipe went high.  His afterimage was broken up by the the wall above the door, but enough crashed down in front of and on top of me to throw me back out of the shelter, into the toppled shelter door.

There’s a lot of in and out in this chapter.

I was pushed under the water, the Halberd slipping from my grip.

Welp.

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I ran past Impel and Apotheosis, passed Laserdream, and reached the shelter’s entrance once more.

Honestly, Taylor accomplished more by running out and finding Impel’s armband than she’s likely to be able to pull off by going back in. Though at least she has the Halberd – maybe she can find some creative use for that.

Leviathan was further inside, crouched, his back to me.  His tail lashed in front of him.  Terrified screams echoed from within.

Honestly, with how quickly Leviathan acts, it’s a wonder there’s anyone left to scream.

It was agonizing to do it, but I moved slowly, to minimize the noise I made, even as every second allowed Leviathan more time to tear into the crowd.  To move too fast would alert him, waste any opportunity I had here.

It might. We still don’t know if he has a sense of hearing, but it’s best to give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

A backwards movement of Leviathan’s tail arced through the air, fell atop me, forcing me down into the water.  Gallons of cold water dropping down from ten feet above me.

Whoop!

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I stopped, when I found the Halberd, picked it up.

Good to have. Bug power is mostly or entirely useless at the moment, but the Halberd might come in handy again.

Found Impel’s armband, bent down and pressed the buttons to open communications, “Leviathan’s at the shelter in CB-10.  Need reinforcements fast.”

Yes, good!

Chevalier replied, “Shit.  He must have gone through some storm drain or sewer.  Our best teleporter’s dead, but we’ll do what we can.”

Good luck.

Which left me only one thing to do.  I had to be better than Mr. Gladly.

Yes, but what can you do? The Halberd is pretty much all you have here.

Oh, also, if it’s possible to do so, you really should nab Impel’s armband. Your own is busted and you might still need portable communication without relying on other capes or corpses.

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I saw Laserdream lying face down in the water, bent down and turned her over with my good hand and one foot, checked she was breathing.

O hai.

The two capes, who I took to be Impel and Apotheosis, were torn into pieces.  

That tends to be bad for your health.

I ran past them.  Ran past the civilians who Leviathan had struck down, ripped apart.

Jeez, what an unhealthy fad.

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It was a dark mirror to what Mr. Gladly had done to me.

Really dark. He left you at the mercy of the Harpies. You’re leaving him at the mercy of a fucking Endbringer.

What Emma and her friends had done, I couldn’t say for sure that I would have had the mental fortitude to put up with it if I hadn’t gotten my powers – and for all he knew, I hadn’t.

…are you saying you think you might’ve ended up committing suicide?

I couldn’t know whether I could have dealt with everything that had followed the incident in January, if I could have made it this far if I hadn’t had my powers, these distractions.  In every way that mattered, Mr. Gladly turning his back on me, back there in the school hallway, a time that felt so long ago, could have killed me.

I still don’t think it’s quite fair to think like this when this happened right after you – as far as I remember – pretty much told him to mind his own business.

I think I’m gonna have to reread that part later, update myself on the exact sequence of events, but I’m fairly sure that’s what happened.

A fitting justice, maybe, leaving him in that shelter with Leviathan.

I suppose, but I’m personally too sympathetic to Mr. Gladly to think he actually deserves it.

Jeez, Taylor can get pretty dark sometimes.

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Leviathan took a step forward, putting me behind him and just to his right.  He lashed his tail again.  Another dozen or two dozen civilians slain. 

He’s cutting through them like they’re made of whipped cream.

Mr. Gladly’s girlfriend was screaming, burying her face in his shoulder.  Mr. Gladly stared up at Leviathan, wide eyed, his lips pressed together in a line, oddly red faced.

Leviathan: “NO ONE’S GONNA DO IT IF IT’S OPTIONAL”

I didn’t care.  I should feel bad my teacher was about to die, but all I could think about was how he’d ignored me when Emma and the others had had me cornered.

Oof, harsh.

I still don’t think Mr. Gladly was necessarily as in the wrong in that situation as Taylor thinks. Taylor had just gotten done telling him how much she didn’t want his help. He may have simply decided to respect that. It wasn’t a really good decision as a teacher, but still, I don’t think it was as malicious or uncaring as Taylor makes it out to have been.

One hand on my shoulder to steady my throbbing broken arm, I slipped behind Leviathan, hugging the wall, slipping around the corner and moving up the vault door with padded feet.

There’s really not much Taylor can do here. Besides the armor, she’s pretty much like the civilians here.

This is all about survival, it seems.

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And he was there, climbing through the vaultlike door, so large he barely fit.

…the downside to having a large bandwidth is that big bad things fit through. Well, shit. Running back into the shelter seems to have backfired a bit.

One claw on either side, he pushed his way through.  Stood as tall as he could inside the front door, looking over the crowd.  Hundreds of people were within, captive, helpless.

Yeeeah, you fucked up, guys.

Although… if they’d gotten out, would they actually have gotten anywhere?

A lash of his tail struck down a dozen people in front of him.  The afterimage struck down a dozen more.

No death notice from the armband for civilians.

Yeah, that’s a thing I’ve been painfully aware of for a while – we know there have been lots of cape deaths, but we have no idea how many civilians have perished during the chapters up to now. This city does seem to largely respect the evacuation orders, but there’s always going to be those who don’t make it to a shelter, and those who decide to be “brave” (read: foolish). Neither of those are facts that this story is the type to ignore.

Add to that the effects of panicked masses and people who can’t handle the stress.

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It was surprising how much that chance meeting bugged me.

A shriek startled me out of my contemplations.  It was quickly followed by a dozen other screams of mortal terror.

Uh oh. Did Leviathan catch up?

Impel deceased, CB-10.  Apotheosis deceased, CB-10.

How many capes were there working on unblocking the door, again, besides Laserdream and Skitter? I think it might’ve been two.

I felt him arrive, a small few bugs still inside him, though most of the rest had been washed away in his swim.  There were so few I’d missed his approach.

Leviathan.

In other words, he’s significantly closer than the outer range of the power.

People ran back inside the shelter, screamed and pushed, trampled one another.

Can’t blame them, really. Waist deep in water is arguably better than being open prey for an Endbringer. Although in this case, said Endbringer could easily kill them with that water, too.

I was forced into the corner by the door as they ran into the shelter, tried to make some distance between themselves and the Endbringer.

Laserdream down, CB-10.

Aaand there she goes down too. You’re stranded, Taylor.