The three of them half flew and half jumped from building to building using a combination of physical strength and Soulfire, Yerin confidently leading the way. Mercy knew that Ruby – Yerin's Presence – was guiding them all through the most direct route to the monster and the battle. The information gleaned from the PRT officer's device included valuable intelligence on the Endbringer and the defenders, as well as a map of the city, which they now knew was called Brockton Bay. Her Presence, Suu, had appreciated learning more about their circumstances in the new environment which were far from ideal for their first day.
Torrents of rain thundered down continuously and as if that were not enough, roaring tides of water and massive pieces of rubble being hurled about made just as much noise.
The clamor was further punctuated by screams of the wounded, shouts of the defenders in alarm, their enraged bellows, and interestingly, voices from and into some kind of communication construct, as her Presence helpfully supplied.
It took Mercy back to the first Dreadgod battle against the Wandering Titan at Moongrave. She had been unable to contribute directly to the battle then – because she was not strong enough – which had led her to vow Never Again.
That promise was unbroken since and would remain so. She had fought against the Dreadgods, won conflicts against the Monarchs, progressed to Monarch herself and then ascended to the Heavens with her friends. She was ready for everything this time.
[See that structure with the blue glass?] Suu alerted her. [You will be able to see the fight from there.]
Yerin's Presence had come to the same conclusion. They slowed down and stopped on top of the three-story building.
"There." Mercy whispered.
A few hundred feet away, on what should have been the seashore, was the monster. Constantly moving amidst a churning maelstrom of water, it was fighting against well over a hundred combatants who were attacking it from every direction.
The Endbringer had a strange body shape and scaly skin throughout; thin legs, thicker torso and huge shoulders below a small reptilian head. Its body would have been completely out of balance had it not been for an enormous tail that was just as much a weapon as it was a limb.
As Mercy watched, a flying "Cape" – sporting a literal cape – launched herself at the Endbringer showing impressive speed and power. Her punch rocked the monster back a couple of steps amidst a barrage of techniques flying towards it. The heroine herself kept attacking, trying to keep the monster off balance. She appeared to be physically the strongest among the defenders so far, but the monster retaliated with just as much ferocity.
"Tiny," Yerin remarked, though her expressions remained serious. "And fast," she added appraisingly, yet with a hint of admiration.
The creature was certainly tiny compared to most Dreadgods and indeed blindingly fast when moving through the water. Not only that, water seemingly emerged out of thin air around his movements, forming giant lashes that hit the defenders with the force of moving mountains. The unfortunate few who caught the worst of it were either swept away or got lost in the water, probably drowned for good, such was the volume of water.
[It creates water when it moves.] Suu observed, undoubtedly working on some kind battle plan for her.
Mercy's Archlord eyes could easily discern the features of the monster. It had no holes for eating or breathing, just three glowing orbs on the left side of its "face" and the fourth on the other. Eyes.
About fifty feet to her left, on top of another tall but clearly unfinished construction, a group of masked and flamboyantly dressed defenders were gathered, most of them appearing to be ranged fighters. She watched with interest as one of them grabbed a couple others and all three of them disappeared leaving behind smoky copies which dissipated slowly.
Strangely, each one of the fighters were masked in their own way. [They hide their identities here, the powered. Capes.] Suu concluded.
As Mercy turned her attention away from the group and back to the battle, she saw a piece of loose rubble as large as a house flying straight at them. Yerin acted first, and her Rippling Sword cut the huge stone into a thousand harmless pieces. Then she looked around and said a little too loudly, "Bleed and bury me, that's enough friendly time, Lindon." They had standing been here for a minute.
The action and noise attracted a little scattered attention. Suu notified her of some turning heads in their direction.
"Just another minute." Lindon promised.
Towards the main battle, the Endbringer had cleaved through the first ranks of ground resistance and pockets of still standing Capes formed in the aftermath. It waded deeper towards the main city, confronting a second line of defenders who did their best to hinder its progress with screens of energy, metal and stone blocking its path. Meanwhile the aerial force kept peppering it from above, but except for a few of them who were somewhat hurting the monster and getting its attention, most had no real effect.
The biggest problem for the defenders was Leviathan's speed and unpredictable movement, in addition to the destructive echoes of water that the movement created.
Lindon spoke first what they were all seeing, "They are trying to keep it hemmed in on the beachfront, but.."
"They are failing." Yerin finished for him.
Not only were the after images of Leviathan a huge detriment to the defending effort, the continuous tides from the ocean, dozens of feet high, were bringing even more water to the battlefield. Not to mention the sheets of rain. Non-flying defenders were thwarted by the swelling water whereas those flying had to contend with the rain pouring down and making the Endbringer faster.
A few defenders were purely focused on stopping the waves, those from the sea and also the ones generated by the movement of the monster, from destroying whole city blocks. Among them were airborne fighters and others working from their vantage positions on the ground or on tall buildings. The skill of some defenders with their "forcefields" – as Suu informed her of the local lexicon – was admirable. They produced forcefields that tried to guide the waves parallel to the shore in an effort to minimize damage. Another flyer was freezing the waves as they came but each one that arrived was bigger than before. After building a temporary barrier directly behind the main area of action, he headed to the battle, leaving the rest of the tides to the other heroes.
The Endbringer continued its rampage in silence, either unwilling or unable to make any sound, except the ones emanating from the destruction it produced. It was eerie, like watching a silent machine at work.
"So many hurt and dying already within minutes." She pointed out to the other two. Flyers and teleporters were doing their best to take the fallen away from the carnage, but it was too ferocious and many rescuers did not look the most durable sort. Mercy saluted them internally, "These people do not lack courage," she said.
Lindon nodded in agreement, taking the entire scene in with an intense expression.
"Ruby has a plan for me with a sweet sound to it." Yerin told them.
"Close range?" Lindon guessed.
Yerin gave him a shrug but Ruby provided the explanation. [Her Moonlight Bridge is an asset the two of you don't possess, so she can more easily keep up with Leviathan, water or no water. Her attacks will cut through the scaly hide, although to what extent I am still unsure.] She hesitated for a moment. [There is something strange going on inside its body.]
Suu agreed with Ruby's assessment of the monster's physique.
[The closer Yerin is to the beast, the easier to work its blood, more effective anyway.] Ruby no doubt referred to the ichor-like substance coming out of the Endbringer's wounds. Some defenders had managed to carve deep gashes into its body but they were rapidly healing. Yerin's slaughter path meant trouble for those oozing cuts.
"Sounds good to me." Lindon said. It was a good plan, so Mercy expressed her approval too.
"That's just bare bones. Not a snowball's chance in hell I am not having her put some meat on it." Yerin clarified with a humorless smile. "Sever some limbs and such."
"By all means." Lindon acceded. "I'll help the injured first." He told them. "Once they are safe, more of the defenders can join the fight."
He continued, "We help the locals contain Leviathan to the peripheries of the city and see if any of them try to finish it off and how. If they even can. If the beast escalates then we do too." Lindon paused for a second. "Uh, though I don't believe with our powers sealed we will be able to kill it in one or two blows. But we are more versatile than most people here so it might be up to us to change the course of this clash."
Mercy thought that logical. Some of the Capes fighting here were clearly very powerful and could even cause trouble if it came to a direct confrontation with one of them. Still none of them had damaged the beast with any regularity who – on top his movement and speed and viciousness – also had an absurd healing ability.
Nonetheless, what Lindon said had merit; the three of them had the potential to turn the tables here, they could paralyze the creature's progress, even neutralize it if it did not have more tricks up its sleeve, but it would be reckless as long the more vulnerable fighters were in the thick of the battle.
And they also had to be careful about the overall objective. The information they had availed so far was inadequate to jump to any conclusions regarding their mission. What exactly were these Endbringers? When did they appear? Did their appearances coincided with the Abidan estimate of the fiends' appearance according to the local planetary time? They would need to ask and find answers to these questions.
She voiced her agreement with Lindon's plan, "We don't know for sure if this is the fiend in some form or one of its minions. So best to help in more ways than one."
[Unlikely to be a class two fiend, far too weak. Perhaps lower class, or the real fiend's minion.] Suu offered his evaluation.
Mercy had an idea or two about what exactly she should do as well.
"Okay, you two go ahead. I will head there." She said to the other two and pointed at the rag tag group to their left.
"They are attacking Leviathan from range and also trying to constrain its movement." She clarified further. "Like I said before, I will go support them, then we see what happens."
If needed she could also forge her bloodline armor to match the Endbringer in size, but she may be slower than the beast in that case. Flying up and raining down a hail of arrows on the Endbringer was another option but she would not do it as her first move in the battle. Eithan had been adamant – to the point of being extraordinarily frustrating – that their mission was first reconnaissance and then confrontation, that the safety of the residents of this world was just as imperative, perhaps more so, than defeating the fiends.
So, they could not go all out or play their hand so early.
Yerin would keep the monster busy from close range for now; with her attracting the monster's attention the local heroes would be freer to attack too.
Mercy would go close only if necessary.
Then she remembered something she had thought earlier. "One more thing, we should cover our faces to blend in." She said looking at the other two, then pointed at the masked fighters nearest to them. "No undue attention, remember?"
They both grimaced, clearly not liking the idea, but understood the supposed necessity. Taking a piece of cloth out of their void keys, they each wrapped it around the lower part of their face.
"We'll try to stay in range." Lindon told her before leaving.
Yerin mumbled something under her breath about their loss and them missing out on her bright smile. Then hopped off the roof.
Now that they were going to fight, all three of them had removed their veils and extended their spiritual perception. Thanks to the attention Dross and their Presences had received from the Phoenix division's engineers, they could talk to each other in the range of their companions' spiritual perceptions even with so much of their power restricted.
She had to give up her old weapon to get a new Presence basically modeled on Dross. Her bow Eclipse, Ancient Bow of the Soulseeker – 'Suu' to her – had been unmade and its essence used in the creation of this new Presence. Hence the same name. To her there was no difference, Suu was Suu, just in a different form now.
Speaking of, [The battlefield is small enough for now. Communicating with the other two shouldn't be a problem.] Suu observed. If the monster managed to break the defenders' lines and plowed much deeper into the city, Mercy might find it troublesome to keep track of the other two with her perception, but at the moment that was a non-issue.
Satisfied, Mercy made a running start and jumped directly from her vantage point towards the group to her left. She half glided fifty feet into the air thanks to the lower gravity of this planet, and controlled her landing with Soulfire to drop softly at the edge of the rooftop.
The 'leader' of the group had already noticed her and advanced towards her with haste. He wore plated armor and a helm with eye protectors built into it. Mercy was suddenly conscious that no one else here had been wearing anything like sacred artists robes but had some sort of a trouser and shirt combination with different forms of armor and protection.
She did not give him a chance to speak and said first, putting a hand on her chest, "Mercy, I'm here to help."
The man faltered a little bit, then came to a stop near her. "Bastion. What can you do?" he said, examining her from top to bottom. "Why didn't you join sooner?" he asked.
So he had noticed them earlier. "Same as you all. Long range fighter, block its movement," she pointed at Leviathan, "and the rest," she completed, ignoring his second question.
Bastion accepted that; he didn't appear to have the time for anything else. "Take this." He took something out of his belt and handed it to her, it was the communication device they had noticed earlier. "You know how to use it?" he asked.
[Yes] Suu told her. "Yes," she told Bastion.
"Get going then, and keep him busy." He said, nodding towards the battle, and hurried back to organize another flurry of a mixed bag attack consisting of physical projectiles, energy rays, and forcefield projections, not that it had stopped during their conversation.
She turned the device on. [It's a 'Radio', made by the hero Dragon] Suu said, interrupting an unformed thought of hers. The radio started rattling off names of the downed and the deceased in rapid succession.
Sham down, CD-5. Acoustic deceased, CD-5. Harsh Mistress down, CD-5. Resolute deceased, CD-5. Woebegone down, CD-5… and on and on.
Mercy eyebrows shot up, the speed of updates and the ratio of deceased was too high for her liking.
[Wear it around your arm like others, screen tells you your location and Levitahan's, left button for general messages, right button for emergencies, both buttons to be heard over everyone.] Suu explained briefly.
The device was useful, she tightened it around her arm and walked to the other side of the rooftop. Some defenders were throwing projectiles, a couple with a crossbow, one with his rifle and the rest with their techniques. Some were creating forcefields to keep Leviathan contained which were partially successful, largely because of their quantity.
Mercy kept her spiritual perception focused towards Lindon, Yerin and their enemy. It would not do well to make the locals heroes uncomfortable even if her spiritual pressure would not affect them as badly as it would a Cradle resident.
She approached the two girls with crossbows and from her Soulspace took out her own bow, the freshly named 'Nova'.
It was her mother's bow that Mercy had inherited, she remembered with a pang of sadness. Akura Charity had refused to take it as the new Head of the clan, calling it Mercy's right to wield that weapon.
As she reached the two crossbow-women they kept up their assault and paid her no mind. Mercy watched them shoot a few of their bolts and needles for a few moments. Interestingly, the shorter girl's needles were piercing much deeper compared to the taller girl's bolts – which were rather ineffective - whenever they could hit the Endbringer. Even more fascinating was the trajectory and the weight of her projectiles. They felt conceptually heavy like Sage or Herald level attacks would, going beyond just physical power and flew in a completely straight line, ignoring gravity.
She filed that in the back of her mind and built a technique of her own.
Forging twin-pointed and solidified Strings of Shadow, she layered it with Shadow's Edge to bring a bite to it, then willed the technique to follow the Endbringer – she wasn't very proficient at this yet, especially with her power sealed but every little bit should help – and aimed for the Endbringer's spindly legs before releasing.
The technique exploded out of Nova like a bola, vanished in a blur, and struck true. It wrapped around the creature's legs, wedged itself into his flesh and made him stumble. He balanced himself with his arms and tail, but that allowed more defenders to land their attacks, forcing Leviathan on the backfoot, however temporary. Others started to build more forcefields and restrictions around Leviathan. If not for the massive tail maintaining his balance, he would have completely fallen down; as it was, he was still more horizontal than vertical.
Mercy could also see and feel Yerin who had started her own onslaught on the Endbringer. The rapid flashes of bright white light interspersed with explosions of Leviathan's body matter and ichor-like blood meant Yerin was successfully attacking from every angle and wanted to keep him off his balance.
The monster disappeared from the view with all the water and forcefields and barriers surrounding him.
Suu told her as she also felt the taller girl looking at her with approval. The black clad girl was wearing a heavy cloak - complete with a hood and all - and donned a black mask as well. Mercy also noticed a second crossbow slung at her belt.
She decided to break the ice. "Hi, I am Mercy," she said, offering her hand to the other girl who grasped it firmly, a little too tightly if anything, and gave it a squeeze.
"Shadow Stalker, you have a weird name for a Cape." The girl replied. "Nice shot by the way," she added coolly.
Mercy just shrugged and looked to the other girl who also faced her now. "And you are?" she asked, reaching out to shake her hand as well.
"I'm Flechette," the petite girl said, giving Mercy's hand a brief clasp and looking at her curiously. She wore a purple skintight suit with white armor panels, a visor hid her eyes and upper face, and her dark hair was bound in a ponytail much like herself. Her weapon was also more like a modified arbalest instead of a conventional crossbow.
"Hey, you aren't related to her, are you? Or… just a fan?" Shadow Stalker asked in a vaguely sarcastic manner clearly referring to them both sharing the color purple in their outfits. Her sarcasm – at least that's what it sounded like to her, she had no way actually knowing the girl's intention – felt forced to Mercy.
"Uh, no," Mercy replied, noticing Flechette's fist tighten on her arbalest. She quickly added while raising a hand in a calming gesture, "I'm not. This," she pointed to her robes, "is just a coincidence." She tried a reassuring smile, then a laugh when she remembered they wouldn't be able to see her smile. The delayed laugh did not help much.
"I have two other friends joining the battle, I am with them." She explained further. [Tell her you are from "The Reapers," a new hero team.] Suu helped her out.
"We are a new hero team, The Reapers."
That did help. Mercy saw the tension in the purple clad girl ebb away. But she did inch back a little and prepared to resume her strikes at Leviathan, loading a shot in her arbalest.
"Wait, can I take a look at one of your needles?" Mercy stepped forward to face her and asked, deciding not to waste any time. "If you don't mind of course."
Flechette's lips parted in surprise at the question, then set into a flat line in suspicion. "Why?" she asked, and flicked a glance at the battle which was still obscured.
"Look, I'm new here. I don't really know your powers, but I can see they are effective." Mercy tried to alleviate the girl's distrust. "Maybe we can work together and hurt him more." She said and gestured towards the battle.
Shadow Stalker turned her back at the two of them with a dismissive snort. Flechette sent her a sharp look, and it seemed to spur her into making a decision.
"Alright, don't mess with it though." The girl pulled out a needle from her quiver and handed it to Mercy. She examined it with her spiritual perception and flipped it around to look at it from all sides.
Suu reached his conclusion first, [Entirely ordinary.] Mercy agreed with her Presence who continued, [You could snap it with your fingers.]
"This is different." Mercy raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Different from the one you shot earlier." She explained.
"They are all the same." Flechette said flatly.
Mercy focused her perception on the quiver and found that the girl was right, there was nothing special about these needles.
"The last one you shot felt powerful, and unstoppable. Is it not the needles? Are you making them so?" She asked a better question.
Flechette took a deep breath, then said "Uhh, yes. Here." She raised her hand towards the needle in question. "Be careful with it once I touch it," she said.
When her hand brushed the needle, it was as if that projectile came alive. It suddenly held the same weight as Mercy had felt earlier, like there was more to it than just its physical appearance and sharpness. Almost as if the girl had imbued the needle with an unassailable will and intent to be impossibly sharp and unstoppable.
The act instantly stirred up memories of their training on Sanctum focused on imbuing non-living matter with living will and intent. Even back on Cradle, a version of this existed with living techniques, her aunt Charity was a master at those.
She tried to Read the item and only got the impression that once thrown it would stop for nothing, that was all the needle was for, that was its purpose.
[Even a Sage wouldn't scoff at a weapon this potent.] Suu said to her, she was inclined to agree.
Impressed, she handed the needle back to the purple clad girl.
"When you feel comfortable, give me one of those to shoot," she told her. "I will layer my techniques onto it and then we will see if he," she raised her bow in the direction of the rising Leviathan, "doesn't run away from that."
Then she turned to face the Endbringer, forged another arrow and this time layered it with Shadow's Edge and Dark Tide Incantation and released. This one took Leviathan in his flank with terrible force, disappearing inside his flesh, and almost flipped him around. In response, his movements grew more frantic causing the volume of water around him to surge and erupt with greater intensity.
Two out of two.
Dragon's radio announcements of the fallen had slowed during the time Leviathan was down but they were ramping up again and Mercy did not accept that.
Her first battle of the mission had begun in earnest and she intended to show no mercy to the fiend or its creatures.
She prepared another arrow.