The Endbringer dropped Armsmaster’s arm and Halberd, where the weight of the metal armor and device pulled them beneath the water.

Uh oh.

A lash of his tail dispatched two of my three swarms.  He watched, seeming not to care, as the third ran up to him, smashed against his leg.  The bugs spreading out, burying themselves deep into his injuries.

I don’t know if that’s going to help much, given that his flesh just gets even harder further in. But that’s not something Taylor knows.

I was hoping to find some weakness, devour him from the inside out, but the bugs might as well have been biting on steel.  Nothing budged beneath their jaws, their stings couldn’t penetrate.

Taylor has really shitty lucks when it comes to enemies and their skin/flesh.

From Extermination 8.2 (bold mine):

“I’m telling you your chances now because you deserve to know, and we so rarely get the chance to inform those individuals brave enough to step up and fight these monsters.  The primary message I want to convey, even more than briefing you on the particulars of his abilities, organizing formations and battle plans, is that I do not want you to underestimate Leviathan.  I have seen too many good heroes,” he paused for a fraction of a second, “And villains, too, die because they let their guard down.”

That said, I would advise you to think of him as having many of the strengths of both siblings at once.  You’ve seen the videos on television and the internet.  You know what he is physically capable of.  I want to be clear that despite the image he might convey, he is not stupid, and he can display a level of cunning and tactics that can and will catch you off guard.

“Our second priority is that we need to find ways to hurt him.  If you cannot, if your attacks are deflected or prove otherwise useless, work to support those who can.  It is vain to hope to kill him, but he can be whittled down enough that he will flee back to the ocean, and if we hurt him enough, it may delay the time before he is capable of making another attack elsewhere.”

Good job, Armsmaster, of ignoring every bit of advice Legend gave.

I didn’t hesitate a moment in sending out my bugs.  Three swarms, shaped like people, more as a general cloud.  The bugs all sagged beneath the drenching rain, the ones on top taking the brunt of the downpour.

It’s time for Taylor to do something.

She might not be able to harm Leviathan or snatch Armsmaster out of harm’s way, but she can make some excellent distractions.

Leviathan planted one foot beside Armsmaster for balance, reached out with his free claw, and pressed the tips against the side of Armsmaster’s throat and torso.

*poke*

Still holding on to Armsmaster’s hand and wrist, he pushed against the side of the man’s body.  Armsmaster screamed, a frantic noise that seemed to redouble in urgency with every breath.  He tipped over and fell with a splash.

Not so cocky anymore, eh?

The Endbringer stood, showing none of the frailty or pain it had been displaying seconds ago.  The injuries were there, to be sure, his head hung at an angle because of the way the weight of his head hung on the intact portions of his neck, but he wasn’t suffering, had no trouble putting his full weight on his more injured leg.  Had it been an act?

It… kinda seems like it. I suppose this is the more manipulative side of Leviathan.

Armsmaster hesitated, then threw his grappling-hook-Halberd forward into the onrushing waves like a javelin.  The gush of water froze in time,

Be careful with that. You don’t want to get trapped like Clockblocker.

and he leapt forward, stepping on the furthermost extensions of the immobile spray in a parkour-style ascent over the water and the pipe.

fucking

badass.

The water resumed its regular motion as Armsmaster took his final leaping step off the top, heading straight for Leviathan.

Leviathan moved faster than he had in the last minute, caught the blade in his claw.

aaand this is where it goes to shit, isn’t it?

Dust rose from the claw as the blade sank deep, blood poured out, but the blade remained fixed in place.  Armsmaster tugged, failed to dislodge it.  He tried to pull away, but I could see Leviathan had caught onto his hand and wrist with his clawtips, while the Halberd sat embedded in his ‘palm’.

Now what?

“How!?” Armsmaster roared.

How what? How did it get stuck? How did Leviathan move so much faster than before? How did you lose?

The ground rumbled again, brief, intense, stopped.

Armsmaster touched a hand to the side of his visor, and I thought I saw his lips crease in a frown before he turned his head away from me.

Yeah, whatever this rumbling is, whether it’s the aquifer about to create a sinkhole under CC-7 or something else, it’s not conducive to Armsy’s plan here.

Another fierce rumble, and a crack appeared like a seam down the center of the street, a straight line as far as I could see in either direction.

Yep, here we go. Sinkhole time.

Although that’s oddly straight. Maybe this has more to do with sewers and such? I don’t see that causing the same kind of rumbling, though.

Leviathan raised his claw, and the road suddenly split, heaving upward as a concrete pipe wide enough to fit a man crested from the pavement like a whale rising from the waves.  A second later, water gushed forth, veering toward Armsmaster.

The storm sewers.

Alright, that is what we’re going with for now. Sinkhole time isn’t just yet, then.

So, Armsy, what does your computer have to say about this?

Armsmaster slashed at Leviathan’s forearms as the Endbringer started to clmb (sic) to his feet.  More damage done, though it didn’t stop Leviathan from rising.  While Armsmaster pressed the attack, his armband hissed with a message I couldn’t make out.  I glanced at mine – still broken.

Hrm.

“This will be over before then,” Armsmaster echoed an eariler statement, speaking more to himself than to the armband or Leviathan.

I guess the armband might’ve been reminding him of the wave?

Leviathan hopped backwards to create some distance, staggered a little as the more injured of his two legs failed to take his weight, used his smaller hand to stop from falling a second time, poising himself on three limbs.

He’s really been taking a beating.

Armsmaster used his grappling hook to haul himself close, readying to make another slash for the neck.

He mentioned he wanted Leviathan’s head, and while that was probably just metaphorical like it usually is, it does seem like he might be trying for a decapitation.

He changed his mind as the ground rumbled, pulled the hook free to latch it on a garage door.

Oh no. Considering the whole aquifer situation, rumbling ground is not a good sign. Not that it would be one without the aquifer either, of course.

Countering his forward momentum, he swung himself to one side of the road, staying out of Leviathan’s reach.

Your friendly neighborhood Armsmaster.

Armsmaster went on an all-out offensive, slashing as fast as his arm could move, cutting leg, knee, tail, leg again, moving out of the way of Leviathan’s attacks as though it were easy.  For ten seconds he continued, relentless.

Good work!

“I should thank you, monster,” Armsmaster spoke, after he’d just finished a backflip that had carried him near enough to Leviathan’s torso to strike the creature across the lower belly.

For giving him a chance to restore and boost his reputation?

Leviathan lunged, dropping to all fours, as if trying to swamp Armsmaster with a huge volume of water by way of his afterimage.  Armsmaster was already casting his grappling hook out, pulling himself out of the way.  In the final moment before he pulled away, his other Halberd swung up and into Leviathan’s neck, making a wound mirroring the spot where Narwhal’s forcefield had cleaved deep, the one Kid Win had undoubtedly opened wider with his laser turret.  Armsmaster reeled the hook back in.

This battle is really cool.

The Endbringer turned, as if to run, only for the loop of the grappling hook’s chain to pass under his ‘chin’.  Armsmaster heaved himself up and onto the Endbringer’s back, drove the Halberd into one side of the neck, lengthening the cut he’d just made.  He stepped on the top of the Endbringer’s head, leaped down, catching the Endbringer across the face with the Halberd as he descended.  Leviathan collapsed, going spread-eagle.

Leviathan down, CC-7! For some definition of “down”, anyway. It’s not quite clear what the armband’s definition of that was, considering the unconscious Clockblocker was never reported as “down” as far as we heard.

He stepped forward, then stepped again, waiting for some cue from Leviathan.  On Armsmaster’s third step, Leviathan took a small step back, lashed his tail behind him.

“Finally scared?” Armsmaster taunted.  “Good.”

Try not to be too cocky. Before you know it, you might misinterpret a preparation to attack as fear because that’s what you want to see in it.

Nausea and pain was welling up in me again as I watched from the corner of the building, under the carport, threatening to override my sense of awe.

She may have her reasons to dislike Armsmaster, but she can identify badass when she sees it.

Besides, she did spend most of her life admiring Armsmaster before she found out he was a dick.

It was all I could do to keep quiet, keep from distracting Armsmaster, or distracting Leviathan and throwing some wrench in Armsmaster’s data.

I suppose that is one way of helping.

The last thing I wanted was to become the hostage that made Armsmaster hesitate for the fraction of a second that cost him -cost us all-  the fight.

Yeah, that would be unfortunate.

So what is Taylor’s role here?

Having one single hero take out Leviathan pretty much on his own without Taylor finally finding a way to help seems a bit… counter to some of the things that’ve been somewhat in focus in this Arc – teamwork to take down a threat to everyone and trying to find a way to help even though it seems hopeless.

That said, maybe that’s the point.