Water crashed into me, hard as concrete, fast as a speeding car.  I felt more pain than I’d ever experienced, more than when Bakuda had used that grenade on me, the one that set my nerve endings on fire with raw pain.

Yikes.

It was brief, somehow more real than what Bakuda had inflicted on me.  Struck me like a lightning flash.

I plunged face first into the water.  My good arm on its own wasn’t enough to turn me over – the road just a little too far below me.  I tried to use my legs to help turn myself over.  Zero response.

…Taylor is rapidly losing the use of her limbs. At least so far they’ve stayed attached, which is better than Armsmaster or the ghost of Kaiser can say about theirs, but I say this without knowing the exact reason why Taylor’s legs aren’t responding. It could be temporary lameness, or but it could also be that they just kinda… aren’t there anymore?

That said, I highly doubt we’ll have Taylor sitting in a wheelchair for the rest of this story.

I suppose Tinkertech prosthetic legs are an option, though…

I climbed to my feet at the same time he did, but I had a clear route up the back of the shelter door while he had to squeeze through the opening.  I was on the street and running well before he was up out of the stairwell.

Nice work, you lured him out! Now what, though?

I gathered my bugs to me, sent some to him, to better track his movements.  As he climbed up, I gathered the swarms into decoys that looked human-ish, sent them all moving in different directions, gathered more around myself to match them in appearance.

A false clone technique, nice. Which is the real Taylor, Levvy?

With the effects of my slash of the Halberd combined with the damage Armsmaster had already done, Leviathan didn’t have the mobility with his tail he otherwise would.

Excellent.

When he attacked my decoys, he did it with slashes of his claw and pouncing leaps that sent out afterimages to crash into them.  A swipe of the claw’s echo to disperse one swarm to his left, a lunge to destroy one in front of him.  Another afterimage of a claw swipe sent out to strike at me.

Uh oh, he found you.

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.

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!

Alright, part 3 in progress!

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.

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.