The Undersiders' Endbringer shelter was chosen as the center of the operation.People moved frantically back and forth, reaching for the armbands, moving closer to the groups they were assigned. A few stopped to glance at me as I walked into the room, my reputation preceding me, but most were too focused on the situation.Among the many, many parahumans, two groups stood out. The first wore mostly white and red, while the second wore bright neon green costumes. Those were the parahumans that had been produced by Panacea and the project that began with her. Panacea herself was here, wearing her costume, panicking internally.Legend had already given his motivating speech, so all that remained was the strict instructions that everyone needed to follow."You were already split into groups depending on your powers. Those able to face Leviathan in close combat, to survive against the waves, will be led by Alexandria. You'll be split into teams of four or five, to be placed near each other based on compatibility of your powers. Each of those teams will have one Mover-" he pointed at the group of neon green capes "- they'll act as both your coordinator and lifeline. Keep them alive, because they're the only ones able to bring you to the healers on the backline if you're injured. And you will be injured."I continued to walk forward, towards Legend. Tattletale noticed me and shot me a worried look, but I didn't linger to talk with her. She glanced down at my side, where Habakiri was sheathed, and was confused by what her power told her."Brockton Bay is a soft target. The longer we fight, the more likely it is that the city will be lost. The faster we can repel Leviathan, the more lives will be saved. Time isn't on our side. But, at the same time, we're stronger than ever."Legend gestured for me. I walked beyond the crowd and stepped onto the raised platform, Alexandria and Eidolon made space for me. Arsenal remained with the crowd below.The Triumvirate hero called out, "Capes! If you have faced an Endbringer before, stand!"People all across the room stood up straighter. A call out made to show the newcomers who were the veterans here, who they should listen to if communications broke down. Though there was another purpose today."You've all seen footage of Blackwall's fight against the Blasphemies. Against the Simurgh. Some of you were there, in Toronto. Like then, Blackwall will stand at the center of our strategy. She and Eidolon will be our spear and shield. But against Leviathan, that won't be enough. Do not underestimate the waves. Do not underestimate Leviathan's speed. And, especially, do not think that the beast is stupid. He will surprise you. Leviathan, like his siblings, is deceptively smart. And a single mistake will kill you or people around you. So don't make any." The room became visibly tenser as Legend spoke. At the same time, an undercurrent of hope began filling the room. Especially those that had watched me fight, or that had fought by my side. Adriana. Julius. Dragon. Arsenal. The Undersiders. And many more.Weaver was not in the room. But she was here. In Brockton Bay. Waiting and hiding.Not even I knew where, only that Contessa was with her."Heads up, contact in seventy-three seconds." Dragon said to our private communication channel, one Legend also has access to. Hers and Arsenal's prediction algorithm had come a long way since May."Capes! Leviathan is approaching! Follow the direction from your armband! I'll see you on the other side!"One of the neon-green Movers stepped up to the platform and reached out towards us. The Triumvirate, plus me. We placed our hands on the Mover's and instantly the world around us split.
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When we reappeared, we were met by a rushing flood of water underneath our feet. Rain crashed against my skin, the sky was a terrible gray. We were in the center of a wide street, going straight towards the bay. Following Dragon's coordinate systems, the area we were in was 'BP-6'. Not too far behind us sat the Undersiders' base - with Noelle still inside. Moving her had not proven possible, not with her size and power.More groups appeared behind us. I recognized the capes as being those that could take multiple hits from Leviathan and survive. Julius and Adriana were among them.The water underneath us began to recede.I unsheathed the Habakiri. A quiet humming began to reverberate around me, able to be heard even over the sound of rushing water.Then, finally, he appeared.Leviathan stepped out of the water in the distance, his inhuman head slowly rising to reveal four eyes, glowing a dull green. One on the right side of his face, and three on the left. He swayed as he walked, seemingly taking his time.Unlike the Simurgh, Leviathan's body resembled a human only in the roughest sense. Two legs and two arms. But the proportions were out of place. Stranger still was the constant torrent of water that was 'released' from his body, in a way that I now recognized was very similar to how Cariddi himself could release water. The water formed into an exact copy of Leviathan. His water echo.Behind him, Brockton Bay was already falling apart. The bay itself had swollen past its banks, swallowing three blocks in the time it had taken him to walk into view. Streetlights stood half-submerged, flickering beneath the waterline. Somewhere further in, a wall groaned and buckled, and a tall building folded into the flood like wet paper. This was the prelude to a fight against Leviathan.The moment half of his body surfaced over the water, he lowered his upper half and got on all fours."Ready!" Legend shouted, his voice amplified by the armband.The world turned gray and slowed down as I amplified all of my senses. Even my newly crystal body struggled to stay whole as I pushed my speedwares beyond their limits.Leviathan moved.The windows all around us shattered into a thousand pieces. The concrete below us as well cracked under his immense speed. The water parted, only to rush after Leviathan, forming long blades that aimed at each of us.Even with all of my crystalline implants, even with months of preparations, I quickly realized the truth of the matter. I realized that in all of the previous fights, Leviathan had held back. Already he was able to catch up to Alexandria and even outpace her, and he'd been holding back.Leviathan was much faster than me.His tail slammed into the various groups of capes behind me. Their bodies broke, many turned to red gore, or were bisected in half. But these were only the toughest of the capes. Few died.The massive tide behind him was slowed down by Eidolon who was visibly strained by the effort.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.Leviathan himself reached us, becoming a violent blur. His claw slashed through the air as he aimed for me.He struck me straight in the chest. My skin split and cracked. The shockwave alone was enough to knock aside Alexandria and Legend.But I did not move.Cariddi's power had made me much too heavy for even Leviathan.Blades of water crashed against my body, slicing into my outer clothes but vanishing once they touched my skin. Absorbed by Cariddi's power.And for a single moment, Leviathan became still.At a speed comparable to his own, I slashed upwards with the Habakiri. Water surrounded the blade, trying to slow down my attack. Red and black lightning arched over the edge, the nanothorns cut through the dimensional layers, fully annihilating the water. Finally, my blade reached the Endbringer's neck.Leviathan still managed to react in time. He desperately retreated backwards, jumping just in time to avoid being beheaded. Green blood poured out of his throat.The water below reached up, surrounding Leviathan. It spun faster. Rose higher, widening into a column.I had cut halfway through his neck. Another half a step and I'd have taken his head. But it didn't matter, I fully knew that the Endbringer's outer body was merely a costume, a mask. The only thing that mattered was finding where his core hid within him.Leviathan's echo crashed into me a moment later - to no effect as I immediately absorbed all of the water. The concrete below me cracked as the density of my body had increased to resist Leviathan's strike, but I quickly lowered it.Alexandria flew in a circle above the Endbringer, careful not to enter the column of water he had surrounded himself with. Drowning was a painful way to die, and the only way to kill the invincible hero.Leviathan's four eyes narrowed, looking at me. Behind him, at the coast, the tidal wave became even higher as he clearly focused his power to increase the damage.By this point the rest of the heroes behind us had recovered. Another blast of energy reached Leviathan's water shield, turning it into steam. Bronze covers rose up as Julius diverted the flooding water away.For the first time in the Endbringer's lifespan, Leviathan was pinned.And he didn't like that.The water around him began to swirl and spin extremely rapidly, the column of water rose higher and the radius increased. Most worryingly, the water was funneled above us.It wasn't just from the street he was pulling from. Dragon's feed, filling my interface with data, showed me that the drain spread block by block around us. Streets collapsed as Leviathan pulled from the underground reservoirs. He was gathering the city's entire water supply into a single column, surrounding himself and creating an ocean over our own head."Get into the buildings!" Phir Sē shouted into the communications, his voice sent to everyone by Dragon. The Thanda leader had the power to step a few minutes into the past.I shot forward, the tip of my sword aiming straight for Leviathan's chest. As I breached the outer layer of the water column, I felt the pressure around me increase as Leviathan tried to crush me. To no effect.So he rushed forward to meet my charge.Now that we were within water, Leviathan became even faster. He dodged around each of my attacks, even as I slashed with perfect precision. For every slash I threw, multiple strikes cracked my crystalline skin. Two to my side and one to my head, attempting to decapitate me.Then, a current locked around the Habakiri, like a grip. It pulled at my hand. Trying to disarm me.But as he focused on the blade, he neglected to dodge other attacks.My knee crushed against the already open wound on his neck, cracking his skin and widening the wound. The water around me evaporated as heat built up within my body. Lightning crackled all over my skin as I began to fight hand-to-hand with the Endbringer.Just in time, I managed to reach out and grab the end of his tail, hooking my fingers into his skin. Without hesitation, Leviathan willed the water to cut as he sheared his own tail to escape my grasp.This was getting out of hand. Leviathan's objective, in the end, was not to kill me, but to severely damage Brockton Bay's infrastructure. I could not allow the fight to go on much longer.Legend continued to shoot from outside, while Alexandria waited for the right moment to rush in.I focused all my computing power into the Habakiri's internal system. The black glass wrapped around the red nanothorns began to vibrate in a specific pattern. Cracks appeared around the blade, overlapping into reality. Water drained into those cracks.Then, with a swing, I slashed horizontally in front of me. Leviathan dove upward just in time.The water in front of me ceased to be, disappearing. A large section of the building behind it vanished as well, carved out of this dimension. Leaving a clean cut in the concrete.Leviathan's left leg dropped away at the knee, taking another length of his tail with it. Both sank to the water below us.In his expression I saw the briefest flash of worry, before it was replaced by the emotionless mask the Endbringer always wore. Phir Sē continued to shout, louder, but his voice could barely be heard over the sound of water.The sky fell down all around us.
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Leviathan himself had not avoided the brunt of the attack. His own body was covered in wounds. Only I still stood on the now flattened battlefield.The sky was clear of rain, for only a moment.The Endbringer had dropped multiple tons of water around himself, pulling it from the clouds themselves. Alexandria and Legend had been buried underneath the ground. Notifications rang out.Legend down, BP-6. Chevalier down, BP-6. Adamant down, BP-6. Julius down, BP-6…Followed by many others.The area around us didn't look like a street anymore: only a lake surrounded us, with only the top of the tallest buildings jotting out of the water. Cars that were on the street now were flat, crushed at the bottom of the water. The few footholds remaining were rooftops of the few buildings that had managed to resist the destruction, even partially.Capes were stuck underneath the rubble, alive only thanks to the resilient structures that Dragon and Tattletale had built through the months. But they would soon drown if nobody came to help.Alexandria dug her way out of the rubble. She glanced towards me, then focused on the Endbringer. Then she shot forward, smashing her fist into the side of the injured monster.Water began once again to flow from the debris below, and rain from the sky above. Multiple neon-green-wearing capes appeared all over the destroyed street, reaching down and disappearing once again. Saving those who could be saved.I sheathed the Habakiri, giving it time to recharge, and followed Alexandria into the melee.