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.

He passed one Halberd to the other hand, so he held two, wiped some frothing spittle from his mouth with his gauntlet.  “I am going to be the one to take your head, abomination.  I can only hope you know mortal terror in your last moments, know what you’ve inflicted on so many others.”

Okay, pride and falls and all that, but Armsmaster genuinely is pretty good at this kind of speech.

Leviathan stood, straighted itself, touched its claw to its ruined face, then its neck.  The amount of blood it was losing – it seemed somehow more than Leviathan should have been able to contain within himself.  I mean, he was big, but this was a lot of blood.

Wow.

For several long seconds, Leviathan didn’t move.

Considering how rapid his movements have been through the last few chapters, every time he stops moving feels quite significant.

“Delaying, buying time for a tsunami?” Armsmaster laughed, and Leviathan cocked his head at the display of emotion.  “No.  Three point four minutes before the next big wave breaks through the ice.  Dragon’s probes are giving me the data on that.  This will be over before then.”

Let’s hope you’re right about that.

Leviathan lunged, and Armsmaster fired out the grappling hook, stopped it in mid air by freezing it in time.  Leviathan ran himself through on the chain, the thing spearing deep into his neck and out the back of his torso.  Uncaring, the Endbringer continued to charge at Armsmaster.

Ouch.

Let’s make a Leviathan necklace!

Armsmaster let the chain go slack, ducked a swipe of the tail, leaped forward and to one side to avoid the claw that followed.  Another small hop and roll ensured he moved right beneath the afterimage, and he made two swipes with the blurry Halberd at the back of Leviathan’s thighs as he passed behind the Endbringer.

His chain reeled in, pulled free of Leviathan’s neck wth (sic) a spray of blood, came down and across Leviathan’s hip to snap back to the top of the Halberd.  He fired it off again to get himself more distance, pulling himself across the street, spinning to face Leviathan once more as he stopped.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This entire fight would be really cool to see animated.

Maybe Armsy is filming this with his visor, so that he can make sure his historical victory over Leviathan is properly recorded. That would provide more reason for his monologuing.

Armsmaster called out, “Let’s see how quickly you respond to classical conditioning.  Every time you try to run, I’ll do something like that.”

I mean… if you fail here, the world might regret you teaching an Endbringer not to run. Especially considering Plan A was “beat him up until he goes away”.

That said, I suppose it could help someone else take him down for good.

Leviathan had no reply.

Leviathan isn’t exactly the talkative type. Comes with having no mouth, I suppose.

He simply climbed to his feet, swiped a claw through the air.  Armsmaster parried the afterimage that sailed through the air toward him, using the purple flame. 

“For the record, that last trick was a temporal stasis trigger, with thanks owed to the cooperation of a subordinate of mine.  Drains my battery reserves, but you don’t understand that, do you?”

Man, it’s a good thing he doesn’t seem to understand you, because you keep laying bare your strengths and weaknesses.

I’m guessing this subordinate is Clockblocker. Much like how Bakuda was able to make bombs emulating Vista’s abilities (and probably Clockblocker’s too, for the time bombs – in fact I’m thinking that turning other parahumans’ abilities into explosives might’ve been a part of her specialty), Clockblocker and Armsmaster may have been able to emulate the former’s power in tech affected by the latter’s.