He could sense me somehow.  How?  It had been reckless of me to assume that he used sight to get by, especially when he didn’t have eyeholes in his mask.

…ooh, that’s a good point. If you can figure out what sense he uses, that might help you block it.

Maybe it has to do with temperature and heat signatures? Monitoring temperature and other environmental factors is very important for biospheres, so maybe he’s turned those sensors outward to replace his normal senses?

The fact that he hadn’t noticed I was faking meant he wasn’t relying on sight, or his sight was limited enough that he couldn’t make out the lack of blood through the cloud of bugs around us.

Right. I suppose getting your throat slit through the armor is a hard sell if the attacker can see it.

If he wasn’t hearing my breathing, I doubted he had super hearing either.

Taylor’s had enough of that one after her first encounter with Lung.

I just needed a second to think.  Mannequin could press an assault indefinitely, until he succeeded in cutting my throat open or delivering that mortal wound.

Taylor does definitely have weak spots he could hit (such as the back of her head), and her costume seems to be stronger against slashing damage than bludgeoning and piercing, both of which Mannequin can turn against her. She is by no means unkillable to Mannequin.

It was like sparring against Brian, but worse in every way.  Mannequin was stronger, faster, he had more reach, he didn’t get tired, he was good and he was out to kill me.

That’s the second time sparring with Brian’s been brought up. I guess it’s time to put a lot of what he taught her into practice.

He was versatile in a way no ordinary human could be.  He couldn’t be caught in an arm-lock – his limb would just come free or bend in some screwed up way.

Yeeah, that wouldn’t work at all.

He let go of my hair, and my mask clacked hard against the floor.  I heard a girl scream, heard noises and shouts from everyone else.

Seems it was convincing enough for the audience. For all they know, they just witnessed their one supposed protector getting her throat slit.

I swallowed, partially to check that my throat really hadn’t been cut.

That would be a problem.

My costume had saved me.  I wished the gathered onlookers hadn’t witnessed the scene.

I think this scene benefits from what we saw in 9.6. We saw back then that slitting her throat didn’t work with a knife, which was believable, and because we’ve seen this on that smaller scale already, it became more believable as a result. It came with a sense of consistency rather than “oh, okay, guess that works”.

This would’ve still made sense without the incident in Sentinel, because we’ve know her costume is quite tough from the start, but I don’t think it would work quite as well.

It would have been better if the bugs had blocked their line of sight, as their noises of fear and alarm were going to get his attention.

Ah, yeah, I thought about that too but forgot to mention it. I already expected his next priority to be further civilian slaughter, but it doesn’t help to immediately remind him of it.

As he’d done with the gray-haired doctor, he pulled the blade hard against my throat in one long, smooth motion, adjusting for the curvature of my neck.

Sounds like the armor is doing its job.

With the way the threats are ramping up for each Arc, it’s going to be good to have all the Undersiders (except Bitch, regardless of whether she stays or goes) in this kind of armor, assuming Taylor successfully completes that project without her customers dying or her progress being obliterated by the Simurgh or something first.

By the way, if Wreckedton Bay – or at least Taylor – is going to have to deal with the remaining two Endbringers as well, I’m about 80% sure we’ll see the Simurgh before Behemoth. Behemoth seems to be a stronger immediate threat, while the Simurgh apparently makes things bad after her visit more than during it, suggesting that we should ideally have more time to process the ramifications of the Simurgh’s visit (like we’ve been doing with Leviathan’s) and that Behemoth is more suited for a later boss.

(But of course, neither is going to be the final boss.)

I drew my bugs around me to conceal my movements as I rolled to one side, set my feet under me and sprinted to his left.

Yes, good, creative use of her power is exactly what Taylor needs here.

And also maybe some extra sets of eyes to watch the opponent’s moves through.

While still beneath the cover of my bugs, I was struck from behind and knocked face first to the ground.  The surprise was as bad as the pain.

That’s the problem with cover. It often also covers your perception of the enemy.

Through the swarm, I sensed him approach until he stood with one foot on either side of me.

Oh, hello there.

I felt him wind his fingers into my hair and pull my head up and back.  I struggled, trying to catch him in the knee with my baton, but he wrenched me to one side, and I felt a blade press against my throat.

This is far from ideal.

At least we know a simple knife has trouble slicing her throat, but this guy might have some better blades.

I didn’t have time to get out of the way, to bring my baton up to defend myself or even to do more than belatedly realize his near-collapse had been a feint.

Well, fuck.

Knights, am I right?

He caught me in the stomach with that same surprising strength as before, then slashed up toward my collarbone with enough force to lift my feet up off the ground.

That does not sound healthy. Spider silk, do your thing please.

I landed hard on my back, my armor absorbing the brunt of the impact.  The sides of my armor panels bit into the ribs of my back where they curved toward my body.

Oof.

Keeping the lessons I’d learned from sparring with Grue in mind, I tried to scramble back and away while Mannequin righted himself and put the forearm and hand he had connected to his foot in the right place. 

Feint or not, it really does seem like Mannequin’s weakness is having to take time to make sure all his body parts are where they should be.

Before I could get to my feet, he started striding toward me.

But of course, he’s had a lot of practice at that, so it’s not much time.

As his detached arm reeled in, the fingers folded backwards around the end of one of his feet, gripping it.

What is he doing now? Detaching one of the blades to use as a sword? That doesn’t seem worthwhile, though, especially if it messes with his balance.

He retracted the blade at the toe of the other foot and dropped that foot flat on the ground.  The motion seemed to unbalance him, and he teetered, almost falling over.

Yeah, like this but on the other foot. But if he does this, he could detach the other blade and not get the balance issue I was talking about.

But I stand by what I just said. It doesn’t seem worth it to switch to detached swords when he can do all the stuff he can do with his body.

Then in one sudden motion, he righted himself and thrust out with his other leg and the three-foot blade that was now attached to it.

…alright. Couldn’t he do that without detaching the other one, or did the pointy end just not give him enough foothold to do it?

As the blade bounced off my baton, he reversed the direction his upper body was turning to start spinning like a top.

By putting one arm forward first, he increases the distance the other arm has to build momentum for the sledgeblade. This next hit is going to be even harder.

His one attached arm hurtling around him, he sprung at me.  I threw myself back and away, escaping by a mere two inches.

Watch out for the arm! Presumably he took into account Skitter backing away from the body lunge when aiming his arm swing.

Unless I’m reading this wrong and Skitter just avoided the arm swing rather than the lunge.

His spinning upper body had, with his right arm spooled out, caused the chain to wind around his body.  He began reeling it in, the arm and blade drawing a lazy circle around him.

!!!

Ooh, I think we found his weakness. Too much spinning and such, and he risks tying himself up, leaving him open to attack while reeling in, or even so tied up that he can’t do much. That sounds like it would be a glorious way to defeat him.

I backed away, thinking I finally had a chance to get my bearings.

Right, leaving him open to attack and giving the opponent time to do other things.