Leviathan whipped his tail at Armsmaster.  Armsmaster stepped out of the way, slapped at the tail with the broad side of the blade.

Ah, I guess he didn’t manage to detach it completely just yet.

More dust, another chunk of flesh gone, ichor pouring from the injury.  He ducked the echo as though it were an idle afterthought.

Making progress, though.

Leviathan turned to run.  Armsmaster sent out one blade like a grappling hook, circled the smaller of the Endbringer’s claws with the chain.

Huh. It seems Leviathan actually feels threatened now. Nice. But Armsmaster’s not going to let him get away – he wants to kill him. A bit of pride that might just bite Armsy in the armse.

Leviathan moved, oblivious or uncaring, and Armsmaster waited until the slack was out of the chain, pressed a button.

The chain and Halberd ceased moving, and even Leviathan’s strength ceased to move it.

Huh.

Rather than pull away, the Endbringer skidded, fell on his back, wrist still held by the chain.

A half second later, the chain went briefly slack, then rigid again as Armsmaster reeled himself in.

And there he goes.

Hm. One potential outcome here is that Armsmaster ends up killing Leviathan, but taking out himself in the process, possibly intentionally. That would make his exit a true heroic sacrifice, set apart even from all the other sacrifices in this Arc, through its successfulness at doing what it seems like no one has ever done before: Taking out an Endbringer.

In death he’d finally get his precious reputation, and deserve it too.

He drove the blurry blade straight into Leviathan’s face with all the force of his forward momentum.

Ooh, that’s gonna smart. Well. No it isn’t– actually, yes it is? Leviathan has been seemingly reacting to pain even though he doesn’t have a nervous system? I’m confused. *checks Interlude 8* Ohh, Tattle’s power said he had a nonstandard nervous system.

It’s gonna smart. Probably.

He pulled it free, slashed again, then freed the chain and used it to pull himself across the street, out of reach of Leviathan’s violent response.

Nice work, man.

Leviathan lunged, stopped, letting his water echo get ahead of him, then lunged again, a half second later.  Armsmaster leaped out of the way of the echo, drew his knees to his chest to avoid a claw swipe while he was still airborne, and sent his grappling hook between Leviathan’s feet to pull himself to the ground in a flash. 

That said, Armsmaster really does seem to know what he’s doing. Out of everyone still alive, he probably has the best shot at this.

I don’t think he’ll pull it off, but he’s gonna do a damn good job trying.

He skidded with the momentum, right between Leviathan’s legs, and raised the blurry Halberd to strike Leviathan between the legs, against the first ten feet of Leviathan’s tail.  The tail was turned to dust where the blade made contact, the plumes of it briefly obscuring Armsmaster.

Oh shit, it seems like Armsmaster just straight up got rid of the tail, assuming the turning to dust went all the way through. The tail is not only one of Leviathan’s most effective weapons, but Taylor explicitly pointed out that it seemed to help him balance.

…

I can’t help but imagine Leviathan comically tipping over like one of these things:

Leviathan was badly injured.  Ichor poured from six large wounds that hadn’t been there when he’d arrived on the street.

Seriously nice work, Armsmaster. Seriously, it seems like this is almost as much as a hundred heroes pulled off in 8.3.

“You dumb brute,” Armsmaster growled.  He was panting for breath.  “Every fight you’ve done so far, that we’ve got on camera?  I’ve watched it, put it through programs.  I’ve got a computer on my back that’s relaying to a supernetwork, noting your every move, using subsonic pulses to read every aspect of the street, the surrounding buildings, every feature of the terrain.  I know exactly what you’re going to do next – you’re going to try to catch me from behind with a wave.”

Much like Taylor, Armsmaster is a hero who does thorough research, and then adapts. We saw it in Tangle, and we’re seeing it here. The level of badassery he’s showing here thus becomes another reinforcement of the theme of “knowledge is power”.

That said, pride cometh before the fall.

Leviathan lunged, swiped with the oversized claw.  Armsmaster rolled to one side, then swung both Halberds behind him to intercept the wave that was coming from behind, vaporize it.

I do wonder if Leviathan has a sense of hearing. If he does, and can understand English, then he’d have reason to switch up his methods after hearing what Armsy just said. Doesn’t seem like he’s doing that just yet, though.

“You don’t even speak English, do you?  Or you’d know what I was saying, you’d know I already won.

Looks like Armsmaster is thinking about the same thing.

The others helped, slowing you down, stopping the waves.  But this victory, this killing blow?  It’s going to be mine.”

Oh yeah, the pride is strong in this one. That’s another death flag for you, pal – you’re up to at least three or four now.

Leviathan retaliated, swiping at Armsmaster, but the hero planted a foot on the uninjured part of the knee, and kicked himself back and out of the way.

We’re looking at a pro, here.

I suppose if we’re doing the heroic sacrifice thing I’ve suggested for Armsmaster, or at least following through on his death flags, it’s only fair that he gets one last chance to prove his worth first.

The afterimage followed him, and he swiped at it with the other Halberd.  The blade erupted with a flame like a giant purple blowtorch, turning the worst of the afterimage into steam before it could crush him.

Sweet!

He turned his back so the steam didn’t billow against the exposed flesh of his face.  Some remains of the afterimage struck his armor, but he slid back and rolled with the impact, keeping his feet on the ground the entire time, enabling him to leap and roll to one side as Leviathan’s tail came down from behind and directly above him.

Woo!

Seriously, he’s being pretty awesome here. I’d love to see this animated.

I had no idea how long it took me to pull myself together.  It could have been two minutes, it could have been ten seconds.

Even ten seconds kinda sounds like a lot in this situation.

I managed to climb to my feet.  Stumble back toward the carport, staying to the shadows.

Hm. Are you thinking that Leviathan believes he’s successfully gotten rid of you? Or maybe that he didn’t notice you to begin with and attacking the carport was a coincidence?

As I approached the corner of the building, I saw Armsmaster fighting toe to toe with Leviathan, a Halberd in each hand.

Oh, hey there!

Is it sacrifice time already, or…?

One was similar to the one he’d used the night we attacked the fundraiser, capable of unfolding into a grappling hook, the other was simpler, a dull stainless steel from tip to butt end, with no decoration or style to it.  The head was surrounded by a strange blur that seemed static, unmoving around the blade and point.

Huh. Some kind of concealment tech to hide what he’s actually doing with the Halberd head?

Leviathan slapped his tail at Armsmaster’s legs, and Armsmaster leaped over it, swiped out with the blurry Halberd.

I suppose they don’t make you head of a Protectorate division if you don’t know how to move effectively in combat.

It carved a chunk out of Leviathan, left a cloud of dust that the rain quickly drove down into the expanse of water beneath them.

Nice!

The Endbringer reared back in pain, and Armsmaster stepped forward, leaped up higher than any normal human could,

Jump boost tech in his boots, I imagine.

and caught Leviathan just above the knee with the Halberd, driving the blade nearly a third of the way to the bone.

So he does have bones, then? It didn’t really sound like it when Tattle examined him, but I suppose her power never said “no skeleton”, and his body does act as though he has one.

I’d cleared enough ground that the angle of the hit didn’t throw me straight into the side of the building.  I was thrown a distance, rolled on my side, on top of and over my probably-broken arm.

As if that arm hasn’t been through enough.

Although to be fair, that’s peanuts compared to what happened to a lot of the corpses lying around.

Pain consumed me.  I writhed, my good hand pressing on my bad arm.  I gagged, pulled my mask up to throw up, as if my body was trying to find some way to rebel against the pain. 

ew

I tried to climb to my feet, but I was too weak, dizzy, and my good arm gave out.  I landed face first in dirty water.

Shit. For all we know, Leviathan is still after her. Lying face down is not a good position to be in under those circumstances.

Hm, maybe if I first radiate some sleet and then radiate with that sleet, I can choose what sort of radiation it makes. If I can make some sort of radiation that hurts Leviathan significantly without hurting myself, then that’s worth giving him just a little more ammo on top of the huge masses of water he already has.

Today’s powers: “scrape (with) popcorn”, “radiate (with) sleet”, “signal (with) income”.

Well, I doubt scraping popcorn or telling Leviathan my non-existent income via Morse code are going to be very helpful. Sleet rays could be useful against other enemies, but sleet is water (and far less solid than ice), so he could probably just turn my rays back at me.

Looks like I’m not gonna be very useful today either.

Anyway, let’s get back to the chapter!