Yerin adjusted the makeshift mask on her face to keep it from loosening. These local 'capes' had strange habits: gaudy clothes and face coverings, and actual capes trailing behind them like they had come to a fancy-dress event. She preferred simple robes, and keeping her face uncovered, you show the enemy you are not afraid, of the fight, of getting cut, of death …
[You know they have families who don't have powers? That's why they hide their identity.] Ruby was lecturing her? Yes yes, didn't say they were cowards, did I? Yerin replied.
She shook the thoughts about the oddities of locals out of her head and kept running towards the battle, sloshing and kicking through water all the while. She could have just teleported straight to the beast's head and cut through its hide as an introduction but there was time enough for that. Ruby had wanted more information; less on the Endbringer itself but more about those fighting closest to it, to figure them in the battleplan. So, she was giving Ruby a little more time. They had both taken note of the flying Cape giving Leviathan the toughest time, another one continuously fired curved beams of hot energy at the Endbringer, both among others who fought their hardest, a group of sword-wielding capes among them.
With her spirit fully unveiled and focused on the battle, she could sense the heaviness of the monster as she drew closer. Like there was more to it than just the visible mass. Almost like a high-level weapon from her Home or an Abidan artifact. Could be that it was a weapon, the fiend's weapon. To destroy the world? she thought skeptically. Seemed like a slow method – for a supposed class two chaos fiend to use weapons only this strong if that was the goal.
Well, they would learn more, no doubt. For now, she would test her blade on this Leviathan.
She had sensed a couple of injured capes in her way too, down in the water half floating and half conscious, hidden among the debris. Moving them to safety would only cost her a few moments at best. You don't leave the wounded to die if you could save them, that's just how it was.
She reached the first cape, who was taking labored breaths curled up on top of a destroyed cabin. Her right arm was completely shattered from the elbow down and her left arm was pinned below rubble. She was alive, but looked like someone had used her body to knock a wall down. Her armor was broken in multiple places and her bulky costume was in tatters underneath, clinging wetly to her.
[Blunt force trauma across her body.] Ruby shared her prognosis. So a wall did hit her? A wall of water? Muscle? Yerin mused to her Presence. [Possibly both.] She got the answer she knew already.
She carefully lifted the piece of stone pinning the cape's arm down and threw it aside. A low groan came from the injured cape. Yerin sympathized. Most capes here had foundation level bodies; this one must have been in agony.
Crouching down to peer into the woman's face, Yerin asked her, "Hey, can you talk? You won't die if I pick you up, yes?"
[Wait, use that radio.] Ruby stopped Yerin and showed her the band around the woman's left bicep. Yerin found it similar to the PRT officer's construct in design. [Press the left button to call for aid for this woman; let's see if it works,] Ruby told her. She had apparently picked up on how to use this device in the past couple of minutes, she was sharp like that. Yerin liked her, not least because Ruby contained a tiny part of Yerin's own spirit in her constitution.
She pressed the button, trying not to disturb the swollen arm too much, and spoke in the device for someone to take the injured woman behind the lines. She got an acknowledgement after a few seconds, "Copied, a mover will arrive for Elegance in a minute." The battle was still some ways away so she went ahead, trusting the voice on the radio that 'Elegance' would get help shortly.
Over on the next street by the wreckage of destroyed shops, another cape was lying face down in the water. Yerin activated the Moonlight Bridge to appear just beside him, bent down and gently rolled him over. He was alive, without any outward bodily harm but unconscious. His helmet and mask were broken so she could see he was much younger than her. [There are children as young as 13 fighting here today,] Ruby informed her.
Children shouldn't have to fight on a battlefield where people like her were present. The whole situation was ticking her the wrong way more and more.
She called help on the radio for the kid while keeping an eye out towards the battle, then smiled when Mercy's attack almost knocked Leviathan down. She mentally thanked Mercy, gave the unconscious kid another look, drew the new and improved Netherclaw from her Soulspace, and disappeared with a flash.
The Moonlight Bridge materialized her directly in front of Leviathan, who was now on backfoot, relatively speaking. It was fending off a barrage of attacks from the defenders with swipes of its claw, trying to free its legs from Mercy's technique with the other claw, and generating water echoes with great speed with every movement of its body.
Yerin fired off an Endless Sword tinged crimson with blood, aiming for the wounds in the Endbringer's body. The technique worked differently after her Ascension; she no longer needed aura, and she could Will the other swords, blades, sharp objects and blood in her vicinity to cause damage in various ways. Her origin of existence was no longer tethered to Cradle, thus the upgrades.
Waves of madra emanated from Yerin, at the same time releasing waves of power from her sword and the swords of other fighters around her, and struck the Endbringer deeply, digging more gouges into its body. Yerin willed the second part of the technique to initiate while keeping up with Leviathan by flying and activating the Moonlight Bridge. The wounds in Leviathan's body exploded and gore flew high and wide from each one; if the monster could howl, it would have, Yerin chose to believe. She activated the final part of her technique, incorporating the Hunger elements of her path, willing the technique to devour Leviathan's strength and blood. She would not receive any power from it – the hunger aspect of her techniques was not as developed as Lindon's – but Hunger madra would leach power away from her target.
Still, her attack didn't pierce as deep and didn't do as much damage as she and Ruby had thought it would. The monster was tough and it had nowhere near the amount of blood it should have had, otherwise the Endless 'Bloody' Sword would have kept going.
Leviathan also never stopped, so Yerin had to burn Soulfire constantly to fly and keep up with it or spend madra to activate the Moonlight Bridge. The movement was erratic, never in a straight line for long, and quite often back and forth. It appeared to be only focused on causing as much destruction as possible by creating constant lashes with its water echo and bringing in larger tides from the sea. The waves of water also sabotaged the defender's efforts and discombobulated the ground fighters who had the hardest job according to Yerin's intuition.
[This is the time, keep hounding it. Suu says Mercy is also about to attack again in the next few seconds.] Ruby spoke in her mind, referring to their initial battleplan.
Yerin ceded control of the Moonlight Bridge and its activation to Ruby who had been analyzing Leviathan's movements for several minutes now and prepared the Flowing Sword.
In a flash, she was inside Leviathan's guard, who had thrown off Mercy's technique and was now once again standing at its full height. She lacerated it's neck in rapid succession with half a dozen strikes before it recoiled back and tried to swat her out of the air.
She kept burning soulfire to stay hovering in the air and trusted Ruby to find the next optimum spot for her strikes. And Ruby did exactly that. Leviathan was fast, as fast as a strong Overlord would be with a dedicated movement technique, but Yerin could move instantly. Not only that, Ruby was beginning to somewhat predict Leviathan's movement too.
She appeared below its raised claw and resumed her Flowing Sword to sever the muscles connecting Leviathan's arm to its body; eight, nine, ten sword strikes in no time before Leviathan completed the swipe that was intended for her and aimed at where she was an instant ago. Her strikes tore grisly gashes in the Endbringer's body, each deeper than the last. Its arm only hung by a thin cord of slowly healing muscle now, but both Ruby and herself had felt something really strange in their attacks.
Leviathan's body got remarkably tougher the deeper her sword went, every single time. The resistance she felt at the upper layer of the body was nothing, but the next layer was tougher, the one after even tougher, and on it went. And it healed on top of that.
At that moment Mercy's second arrow hit Leviathan, who almost flipped over under its force. It retaliated by using the momentum of its body to whip its tail like a cudgel in the direction of the defenders, hitting a flying cape and releasing another torrent of water in the direction of some massed fighters, all in less than a second. A cape in silver-and-gold armor found an opening and thrust a massive sword deep into Leviathan, the sword enlarged to be a truly ridiculous size, widening the wound in Leviathan's hide, before the cape retracted it. Leviathan then sprinted away on the water in the other direction, almost passing Yerin in a blitz. She could not allow that.
Ruby activated the Moonlight Bridge once more and then again and again as this time Yerin kept up with Leviathan, right behind its neck continuing her flurry of Flowing Swords. She poured Soulfire into her technique this time and stabbed deep with every strike instead of slashing and slicing. Leviathan took note of her and whirled to catch her with another swipe of a claw, and then again with its tail after Yerin evaded it. The monster whirled a few more times, creating big waves with its watery after-image each time, pushing every single ground defender back, such was the pressure of water.
Now , Yerin told Ruby who obliged and flashed her some thirty feet away, facing Leviathan with no other fighter nearby, except for some ever-present flying capes. They will have to contend with what's coming, they seem like the strong type, Yerin said to Ruby and shrugged internally.
So far, Yerin had been employing precise attacks on Leviathan, trying not to hurt those fighting alongside her.
Not a soul between them now. She could let loose.
Yerin kept hold of the Flowing Sword and layered a massive Final Sword on top of it. Simultaneously, six sword arms extended from her back and six more Final Sword techniques sprung into existence all around her. She infused the technique with Soulfire and the intent to Cut her opponent.
She had sealed her power before coming here, but not her skill or her techniques. She gave Leviathan a mirthless smile.
Then she unleashed her attack. The Final Sword techniques originating from her sword arms each curved to hit Leviathan from all directions. The Endbringer tried to dodge but Yerin had attacked from seven different angles, locking it down, so its attempts at evading the attack were useless. Its only hope was to be tough enough to survive this.
A veritable storm of sword and blood madra blasted Leviathan, flaying its hide completely all across its body. The Endbringer was flung back twenty feet through the air and before it could even land, a dozen curving beams of hot energy hit it, coming from a flying cape sporting a blue white costume, who saluted Yerin with his other hand as he flew past her. His beams – 'Lasers' Ruby told her – did substantial damage but not as much as they had on the monster's outer layer earlier in the battle. Right then the tough, grey-black wearing cape slammed into the airborne Leviathan with all of her considerable speed and power, pushing the creature several feet further back. For the first time in the battle, it was down on the ground and not running around like a rabid dog. Yerin's technique continued to devour and leech power from Leviathan for several moments even after it went down, before finally dissipating.
"About time I gutted that fish." She muttered.
[Its body is exponentially tougher the deeper it goes.] Ruby pretty much exclaimed to Yerin in her chiming voice. "Are you excited or worried?" Yerin asked her out loud, slightly annoyed.
[A little bit of both, it can't hurt you but you will also have a hard time stopping him from running around and tearing down more of the city if he won't be killed.] Ruby had a point.
"…well, that's a puzzle and a half." Yerin said after a pause, recognizing the difficulty of their task. "Ask Mercy to do something about that. Keep it fixed on the beach."
[Suu says it will take some time to prepare.] Ruby replied a moment later.
"It better be good then." She said.
Two more Strings of Shadow from Mercy wrapped around Leviathan and subdued its movements. Another cape – who was glowing green – began turning the water around Leviathan's legs into ice, encasing them.
Yerin took the opportunity to take a vial of replenishment elixir out of her void key – handily placed in her trouser pocket. Learned that trick from Eithan, she told Ruby and emptied the contents of the vial inside her mouth and started cycling them. She had a lot left in her tank but there was no harm in sharpening her sword when she could.
Leviathan now struggled with renewed frenzy and started breaking its shackles with considerably less difficulty than it had done so before. Its tail moved wildly, creating water echoes with much greater intensity.
Meanwhile the gray black cape flew over and hovered nearby. She was tall and powerfully built with the bearing of a leader. "Can you keep going? Hit him with more of the same?" She asked Yerin, flicking her head at Leviathan.
[Her name is Alexandria, one of those the locals look up to if I am not wrong.] Ruby told her. She must have got that from the scattered bits of conversation mentioning the tall cape, but it could have also been Dross or Suu who told her.
"Oh, I am feeling fresh as a spring flower." Yerin said with a bright smile that was hidden behind her mask, she hoped it reached her eyes. "Only getting started." She added.
Some capes had created barriers of forcefields, metal and stone over and around Leviathan but it was no longer holding back – that was the only explanation for the surge in its strength and speed – so those restraints were turning out as effective as a kitchen knife against a tree. They still persisted and created more, not taking no for an answer.
"You were holding back earlier." Alexandria noted, looking intently at Yerin. Then nodded in understanding. "Dragon, ask everyone with no or low Brute rating to retreat for their own safety, ask them to conserve energy or build fortifications." She said in her radio and turned her attention to Yerin once again, "I… we, will give you more openings, don't worry about hurting me and give him hell." The tall heroine said, looking Yerin in the eyes.
[Leviathan tries to drown her every chance he gets. But has not put a scratch on her otherwise.] Ruby said out of the blue. Interesting.
"You have fighting experience, I don't know how or where but that's irrelevant at this point. Will you work with us?" Alexandria asked her.
"Don't have to ask me twice to bleed him. Already fighting, aren't I?" Yerin replied, pointing at Leviathan. "Your other friends also joining us then?" She meant the dozen or so capes who had been ever present since the Yerin had joined the battle. They were stuck to Leviathan from the beginning and were doing their fair share to wound the Endbringer whenever they landed a hit.
"Some will, some don't need to come close to join, it's up to them. You can't hold back because of them now, they have been warned." Alexandria said in a stern manner, no doubt referring to capes with a low 'Brute' rating.
What's this? Akura Malice's spirit reside in her? Yerin thought, half speaking to Ruby.
[She is right, soldiers need to follow orders, and despite you keeping Leviathan busy, the number of dead and wounded is only increasing.] Her Presence came up with another good point.
Yerin had picked up a constant drone of names being recited but had paid little attention to it. So those were the losses.
That irked her, she had flayed the monster alive but its water attacks were too destructive for the city and the other defenders, it had also been casually swiping its claws when running on water hitting them directly or with powerful sheets of his 'magic' water. If it was a contest between her and Leviathan with nobody else around, she'd feel at ease and kill him twice over, but as it was, this fight felt like a tilted scale if there ever was one.
"Have them build something like a fence, get him on it too." Yerin said and pointed to the glowing green man. "Herd Leviathan only to us." She explained further.
Alexandria gave a curt nod and flew away.
[Hey, she looks like fun,] Dross suddenly said in her mind. [You have a new friend Yerin?] He asked innocently.
[What news do you bring?] Ruby went straight to the point.
"Why are you here Dross? Not much action with Lindon?" Yerin said.
[For your information I can be in two places at once, or three, or more…] Dross said grandiosely, then added with a little more seriousness, [You probably experienced this already, but we found out that this beast's body is denser inside. Deeper you go, denser it gets.] He paused. [That is because he has a core of dense mass. Does his body stem from it? Possibly. Heal from it? Probably. This one, maybe the core is at the center of the chest, or torso? I came to say you should try stabbing there.] Dross projected an image into Yerin's mind – with Ruby's tacit permission – of her stabbing deep into Leviathan's chest, killing it and then bowing to Dross for showing her the way. Ruby cut off the projection and Dross before the last bit was over.
Yerin contemplated what Dross had told them.
So far, it had been like she was chasing a greased pig who kept slipping away.
This new information changed things.
"Mercy knows this too?" Yerin asked Ruby.
[Yes.]
"Tell her to stop everything else and aim for his chest, see how dense he really is. It may be a tall cliff to climb with half our power sealed but worth every inch." Yerin said. She had not exactly exerted all her strength into the Final Sword but she still put her back into it and that had not killed Leviathan. Having thrown around a Herald's strength ever since she was an Overlord, this restriction on her power brought her to a new level that she was not used to.
In some ways, she could – and she had – hit harder as an imperfect Herald then she could do as a sealed Archlord, although she was leaps and bounds ahead in terms of skill now which always mattered. She remembered Eithan when he was a mere Underlord, he had beaten her with superior skill an embarrassing number of times during their sparring sessions at the Uncrowned tournament despite having similar strength. Still a Herald was a Herald.
"Let's go tell one of them too. They can spread it around, if they want." She referred to the capes engaging with Leviathan, they could use the intelligence and focus their offense.
A flash of light and she appeared hovering a short distance away from the blue-white cape shooting lasers out of his hands. [His name is Legend, tell him a thinker has deduced the truth of Leviathan's physiology. He has a super dense core sustaining him at the center of its body so we should aim there.] Ruby gave her the talking points.
Yerin came closer to the man who went alert and turned to face her. He was tall with a lean but muscular build, a white mask hiding much of his handsome face.
"Legend," she said first. "Just got hold of some information may be worth a treat." She told him about the Endbringer physiology. "Do with that what you will."
Legend examined her, judging by the tilt of his head, as she talked. Then said in a measured tone, "I have seen you fight, but who are you exactly and how did you come by this information? You don't even have Dragon's radio. Not that I doubt the information necessarily, I can see how it could be true."
[He is wary of you.] Ruby said. No surprises there, she had rag dolled Leviathan.
Leviathan had almost broken through all the barricades hemming him in at the beach, and was making swift progress towards the city, despite Mercy's arrows staggering him and pushing him back every few steps. The water from his after-echoes and the swelling tides from the sea had never stopped even when Leviathan was down and were still a huge problem for the defenders.
She turned her attention back to Legend. "Got it from someone I trust, all I'll say." She told him straightforwardly. "Besides, you said it yourself, there's a sense to it."
She was about to leave but then remembered, "I'm Yerin." She told him.
[Tell him you are a new cape.]
"New cape, just arrived."
"I doubt it but even if you are, then please listen to me and don't share what you told me with anyone else, I will make sure it reaches the right people."
Yerin nodded in acceptance. "Fair deal, talk more when the fight's over." She said and activated the Moonlight Bridge.
In an instant, she was right in front of the now-leaner Leviathan with a Final Sword forged and ready. She made to plunge it deep into his chest but he had gotten faster and shifted just in time to take the blow on his shoulder. Shredded meat like matter flew everywhere with almost no blood in it. She followed up with a Rippling Sword aimed again at his chest and forged two Hidden Swords in his path immediately after. Leviathan crouched very low and very quickly to dodge her striker technique but then stumbled, one of the Hidden Sword techniques having scored a gash in its leg. Alexandria came flying in from behind him and punched his other leg making it buckle. Leviathan had to use his tail and one of the arms low to the ground to balance himself, momentarily stopping him from creating massive lashes of water in all directions with his tail and arms. He never ceased creating those.
That is when a crystalline purple arrow, several feet long and trailing dark shadowy smoke, hit Leviathan in the chest with the crash of thunder. Mercy's forged arrow was of the same madra as her bloodline armor and punched deep into Leviathan's center mass. He was thrown back with the impact and hit the ground hard.
Yerin's spirits raised in cautious hope. She followed Leviathan.
Two capes – the iceman, glowing green with his face hidden in a hood and another glowing bright white – unleashed white hot lasers onto the prone Leviathan searing away the layers of his flesh. He scrambled back on all his limbs to avoid getting burned, the lasers followed him for a time until he erupted geysers of water as shield and used his tail and an arm for long ranged water strikes aimed at the flying capes.
Yerin noticed with begrudging admiration that Leviathan had managed to shield his chest by placing one of his arms in front of it before Mercy's arrow could hit him. His quick reflexes meant that the arrow had punctured through the arm but left the chest unharmed except for a shallow cut.
Legend fired numerous beams out of his fingers hitting Leviathan squarely in the chest despite his shuffling around on the ground, most of the beams curved and followed Leviathan's path no matter its unpredictability. Yerin activated the Moonlight Bridge again and appeared directly above Leviathan having forged another Final Sword and this time managed to pierce his torso. In response, Leviathan rolled over, and attempted to hit Yerin with his tail. She stopped its momentum by punching it with her left hand, propelling it back. The impact shoved her back too, before she got drenched by the canon of water that materialized out of Leviathan's tail.
A split second later, another crystalline arrow from Mercy flew towards Leviathan after a loud boom. Having stood up just then, he tried to sidestep and slap the arrow aside but Alexandria hit him from behind making him stumble. Mercy's arrow cut through the side of Leviathan's lower body and lodged itself deep in the sand and water behind the monster. Striker techniques from other capes kept making their mark on the Endbringer's body too, some more effective than others.
Leviathan had been on the backfoot for several seconds receiving a constant barrage of attacks from no less than a dozen capes, not counting Yerin and Mercy. His body looked like a mesh of wounds and one of his arms had been hanging limply, but all of his wounds were still healing. He threw up a sheet of water in front of him before leaping back dozens of feet. Yerin saw through the water as he crouched low in absolute stillness.
Then the rain stopped. The geysers of water and smaller waves Leviathan had been creating died down. Every cape on the battlefield slowed for a moment as a result, in varying degrees of anticipation, dread and confusion.
Yerin felt it as Ruby said in amazement, [He is taking it up another notch!] There was a dark shadow far behind Leviathan on the horizon, rising and rising.
It manifested in the shape of a colossal tide no smaller than a thousand feet high only a couple of miles away from the city.
Some of the capes took several steps back in alarm and fear.
To their credit, many who had retreated since Alexandria's order began creating barriers in unison. It was clear someone with experience led them in that defending effort.
Yerin kept her attention on Leviathan, who had stayed still, crouching and healing. "I'd bet my soul against a rat's tail he can't do that and fight at the same time." She said, raising her sword towards the oncoming tsunami.
[This much effort must be taking a lot of his concentration and energy.] Ruby agreed.
"Can't have that, can we?" Yerin replied. "Let them stop the tide, we'll bury him."
She cycled her madra with the fullest intent to kill Leviathan and asked Ruby, "Tell me, what can they do to stop this much water?"
Ruby stayed quite for a heartbeat then said. [The green cape, Eidolon, may be able to freeze some of it, or most of it, I am not sure. Lindon could destroy and burn parts of it with blackflame. The cape named Narwhal can create forcefields that direct the water away from the city. There may be others too but I have not the full handle on their powers. Even the ones I listed will need to coordinate their efforts for any success.]
"No point dallying then, go tell them what to do." Ruby went quiet, concentrating on splitting her attention multiple ways. Yerin had her task.
She appeared in a flash above Leviathan and struck with seven Final Swords like her big attack earlier. She liked to think that the Endbringer felt mighty frustrated with her for interrupting him. He tried to dodge, but since he had made the mistake of backing off for his trump card, there was no one around which meant Yerin's technique was even wilder than before. It ripped another layer of Leviathan's body to shreds and pushed him back and into the ground.
Alexandria swooped in to grab hold of Leviathan's tail and lifted him in the air with an impressive display of strength and flight. Yerin flew up to chase, then changed her mind and activated the Moonlight Bridge to appear high in the air above both the heroine and the emaciated-looking monster. Leviathan tried his best to wiggle and shake to loosen Alexandria's grip and even tried to mosquito-clap her by slamming his claws together with the heroine in between. She let go just in time after throwing the Endbringer up with a heave.
Yerin sharpened her focus. This was her chance.
She infused her sword with Soulfire and built the Flowing Sword technique to enforce her weapon. Then burned most of the remaining Soulfire at once to drop like a meteor on the helplessly ascending Leviathan. Her sword cleaved through the front of Leviathan's head and face, annihilating two of his glowing eyes, and continued on to his chest, torso and one of the legs in a deep diagonal cut that severed the monster's right leg completely off his body.
Failure . Yerin thought and cursed internally, knowing she missed any dense core in her strike, she had only cut through fleshy matter. Leviathan had managed to twist his body at the last moment and was still alive and kicking. [There's no guarantee it dies even if you cut the core.] Ruby was back. No guarantee I cut the core either. Yerin replied to her Presence sourly.
She released an Endless sword in anger and all seven of her blades rang like a bell, adding more cuts in Leviathan's back and obliterating his after-echo. Then she flashed back on the beach and watched as the falling Leviathan was subjected to a barrage of lasers and striker techniques by a variety of capes.
She had succeeded in her secondary objective at least; the onrushing tide was only half as large as before and losing more of its height too.
Yerin saw Lindon throwing absurd amounts of blackflame at the tide, turning the entire horizon foggy. A flying cape with a staff hovered near him banishing the hot steam in some portal. She applauded internally as Eidolon continued to build a massive wall of ice a hundred feet wide sprouting from the ocean floor a mile into the sea, some parts of the ice extended further into the heart of the tsunami. She noticed more heroes supporting Eidolon's barricade with their forcefields. To her right, other capes had built a large forcefield barrier protecting the city from the worst of the water that would be here soon. The barrier was reinforced by other walls of stone, metal and wood.
She may not have been able to kill the Endbringer, but on the bright side, he had never managed to enter the city proper. In fact, he had retreated voluntarily for his big throw of the dice.
She had also given the defenders time and a better chance to limit the damage from the tide that was about to reach the coast in less than ten heartbeats.
Yerin opened her void key and focused her perception on a selection of items conveniently bundled together. She flexed her Will and the treasures were unmade, their essence filling her reservoirs of Soulfire. She took out another elixir, drank it and cycled the contents to restore her madra reserves.
There was more fight to come and she would be ready for it.
She flashed again in front of Leviathan. That was when the tsunami hit.