Warning, this chapter also contains some lines ripped straight from Worm. None of those are mine.
Eon yelped slightly at the tug on his tail, likely coming from one of the nearby Capes that'd fallen over from the effects of whatever had just happened. It was only one tail, luckily, so the curse wasn't likely to be heavy, but it was still a curse.
And in the middle of a fight with this Endbringer a bit of bad luck was the last thing they needed.
Then again... it was a weak curse, meaning they didn't know what they'd triggered when pulling the tail and also done it accidentally, so it might not be too bad... and he'd also heard, once, a story of a Ninetales controlling the curse they set.
Admittedly it'd been a much more powerful curse than this one, and also one caused on purpose, but maybe...
Live. Eon thought, trying to push that idea into the curse. Live through this battle, so that you must handle the aftermath. Nothing seemed to change, and a moment later there was a slight white ripple over his fur, the curse taking effect. He sighed. I suppose we'll never know if that did anything. At least I tried.
"Are you ok Shadow, Swarm?" He asked, as the pressure on his tail vanished- whoever had landed on it had moved away, and would probably never know of his hopeful curse on them.
"Fine, Eon." Shadow muttered, shaking her head.
"Me to." The bug user agreed. "Eon?"
"I'm fine. Shadow, get moving, find Panacea and find where the medical's going to be, get healing. Swarm, stay on me, start searching with your bugs but don't leave until you have to. I'm staying for research, then I'll go in." He commanded them. "Stay safe, both of you."
"We will, Eon." Shadow promised, as Panacea came over, somewhat unsteadily.
"Come on, Shadow!" She called, over the howling rain and crashing sounds of the approaching waves. "Vicky's gonna take us over to Strider, he'll teleport us to where the med-bay's being set up!"
"Alright!" She barked back. The little Vulpix glanced back at her friends. "See you later?"
"Of course." Swarm nodded, sounding a little choked up.
"Go help people, little pix." Eon grinned slightly as Panacea reached them. Glory Girl was hovering behind her, and for a moment the healer looked uncertain before lifting her up into her arms and stepping back, letting the flying Brute pick them both off the ground. Instead of watching them leave, Eon turned forward to look at Leviathan, the imposing figure now in fairly easy view for his eyes.
The creature was thirty feet tall at least, but slightly hunched over, making it look slightly shorter than that. The face area was flat; no nose, no mouth, just five slightly yellow eyes, staring into the gloom at the defenders. The rain was slightly heavier where he was, though he looked unbothered and- Eon squinted a little- completely dry, the water running off him before it even touched him and joining the awful water echo.
"Get ready!" He heard Legend call, the Endbringer bracing himself as well. Eon made his way closer to Swarm and stepped in front of her slightly, breathing in.
Then he moved.
The creature blasted past the defenders before he even had time to react, the echo following a few seconds later. Instinct alone sent the Flamethrower towards it, bleeding some of the water off of the thing, and moment later it blasted over the defending group. Eon grabbed Swarm in a mild Extrasensory, stopping her from falling over, and shooting another Flamethrower in his direction. He dodged away from it and back out to the ocean, heading towards the barrier group.
Carapacitator down, CD-5. Krieg down, CD-5. WCM deceased, CD-5. Iron Falcon down, CD-5. Saurian down, CD-5.
Ignoring the armband for a moment, Eon looked to Swarm. "You ok?"
"Alive, yeah." She hissed, staring at Leviathan as he rampaged through the crowd. "Holy shit, he's faster than I expected."
"Yeah."
Meadowtrance down, CD-8. Borderlander deceased, CD-8.
Eon growled slightly, beginning to layer on Agility boosts. It might not get him anywhere near the speed of the Endbringer, but it might well be close enough. "This looks like it's gonna be a lot more dangerous than I thought. I knew he was fast, but not that fast. Boosting to the point where I can hit him is gonna be hard, and unless he's distracted I don't think I'll manage to get him at all long range."
"Doesn't Will-o-Wisp deal some damage as well as making the target weaker?" Swarm was keeping her voice down, despite the distraction of the Capes they were currently among, which he appreciated.
Lupobreeze deceased, CD-9. Phantom down, CD-9.
"It does, and luckily this weather doesn't seem to dampen my Fire abilities as much as I thought." He nodded. "Perhaps it's a Pokemon thing, rather than a rain thing."
"Either way, that's good, right?"
"Probably. The rain might put out the effects of the thing eventually, but hopefully by that point it'll have done some damage and stopped this damn thing from dealing too much." Eon sighed, still boosting. "Now, I just need to get close to it…"
Swarm's armband beeped slightly, making both of them look at it. Swarm half-sighed. "I'm moving on. Search and rescue, since people probably got knocked away from the waves."
"I… alright, yeah. That makes sense." Since no-one was looking, all too busy trying to reorganise themselves into something that could possibly go against Leviathan-
Sheer Cloak down, CD-9. Pierce down, CD-9. Bughand deceased, CD-9.
- so Eon leaned over slightly and hugged her legs. "Good luck, be careful."
"I will, Eon." Swarm withdrew into the rain, bugs buzzing weakly around her and skittering all over the floor, looking for people she could try and help. Eon, meanwhile, gave up on Agility-boosting when things began getting somewhat jittery for him, and started using Hone Claws instead, boosting Attack and Accuracy in the hope of landing some decent hits.
Hex deceased, CB-4. Raven deceased, CB-4. Flux down, CB-4. Cyvoice deceased, CB-4.
Grumbling and growling to himself, Eon manoeuvred his way closer to the Endbringer, still boosting and having to focus on not sending himself sling-shotting across the wet ground under the influence of all those Agility boosts, and began examining it.
For a while he just stood there, watching the distant slaughter- he really couldn't call it a fight, he decided, not with all of the names coming through the armband every couple of seconds as down or deceased- while boosting. He took note of the way it moved- fast, barely any pauses, and with the echo chasing its every step even dodging the physical attack wasn't a sure-fire way out of danger- and how little it seemed to care about the flying Brutes and Blasters that were slowly but surely peppering it with shots.
After a while of Hone Claws boosting, to the point where his paws were beginning to tingle irritatingly and he honestly felt as if he couldn't miss an attack if he tried, and a long enough period of watching Leviathan rampage and listening to the sound of the death toll ring on the armband- at one point, he'd almost panicked when he thought he'd heard Swarm's name come up among the deceased, but it had just been someone else with an annoyingly close enough name that he'd misheard slightly- Eon made a careful retreat away from the thing and closed his eyes, deciding the next thing he needed was some Calm Minds.
Agility to move fast, so I can hopefully avoid his attacks and get close enough to repeatedly hit him. Hone Claws, giving me the Accuracy to hit every time and the Attack to do some damage- even if I don't have many Physical moves, at this level of boosting even Scratch and Fury Swipes would do pretty good, and I've got a couple of other things I can use as well in a pinch, thanks to Shadow. Finally, Calm Mind. Easier to focus, since everything else is shoved to the back, and boosted Special stats too. Good for me, most of my attacks are Special, but I don't know if Leviathan's attacks would even count against a Special Defence… shame Shadow didn't know Cotton Guard or something from one of her weird ancestors, then I've have the full set. Or Double Team, evasion boosts would help too. Eon hissed a sigh aloud to himself, shaking his head a little.
Focus. Calm. Either way, I now have a lot of boosts, moves that work with both of those Attack boosts, and a way to get close to Leviathan to hit the thing. He's being distracted by the other Capes attacking, so maybe I could get close enough to land some fire or something on him… damn, do I regret not trying harder to learn some of Shadow's weird moves. Shaking his head again, he opened his eyes- figuring he probably had enough Calm Mind boosts by now- and stood.
-alker deceased, CG-3. Captain Shifting down, CG-3. Kid Win down, CG-3. Madam Wave deceased, CG-3. Radiance down, CG-3. Velocity down, CG-3. Drøm deceased, CG-3. Rip-Beam deceased, CG-3. Aegis down, CG-3. Vista down, CG-3.
Scowling to himself as he recognised the names of some of the Capes he'd come to work with over the last few weeks- including some of the Wards, which was unacceptable in his eyes, Eon shook himself out fully to try and get some of the rain out of his fur, and stepped out of his hiding place-
Only to be met with the form of Lung flying the other way.
Leaping to the side, he grasped at him with Extrasensory- now powerful enough to catch the dragon that was approaching ten feet tall, and in the middle of a battle like this there was no point hiding things- and set him down as the raging dragon shook his head, dazed.
"Lung!" He barked. The Changer took a moment, then looked down at him, nodding his thanks for the recovery. "Are you alright? You don't seem to be growing much." The dragon scowled, grunting and gesturing to Leviathan. Eon paused, thinking for a moment. "Are you not in conflict with Leviathan enough to ramp up? He is pretty distracted by this…" Lung nodded.
For a minute, Eon stood there, then closed his eyes. Another Calm Mind later and he had managed to stop his heart from racing as much from the startling sight of a dragon flying at his face, letting him think.
He grinned.
"So, you need constant, focused combat to ramp up well, right?" The dragon leader of the ABB nodded again, looking slightly confused through the scales. "Well, you're now in conflict with me." To prove his point, he reached out and poked the dragon's side, his boosts making it so the slight tap did some damage and surprising the Cape. "I wonder how far we'll get you to ramp up before Leviathan notices and takes offense?"
The smug smirk was matched by Lung, and never left the Ninetales' face, even as he started dodging around swipes from Lung, letting the flames wash over him and drain into his Flash Fire ability for even more power. Lung was already a few inches taller than he had been, and Eon carefully darted in to tap him with his paw again, sliding under a claw swipe to do so.
His boosts had taken about ten minutes to set up, and should last about fifteen- excluding the Attack and Special Attack, which were being reset every time he took a hit from the fire. Eon vaguely wondered how far up Lung would ramp during that time, and if he'd be able to start getting close to Leviathan's size before the horrible creature noticed that the two of them were levelling the playing field and decided to come stop them.
He hoped it was a possible. Especially since Lung's power seemed to be seeing him as a greater threat than the Endbringer, somehow, given how fast he was powering up. Maybe it was all of the boosts he was currently running? If so, he might have a better chance of damaging the thing than he thought…
Keeperflora deceased, CG-4. Kaiser down, CG-5. Aurashake deceased, CG-4. Hot Trick deceased, CG-4. Soundcover down, CG-5. Brandish deceased, CG-5. Nemesis down, CG-5. Regent down, CG-5. Night deceased, CG-6…
Swarm shook her head as she handed the wounded Cape she was cradling over to the nearest flier, then stretched her arms. Blood was beginning to stain on the costume, some of it from the unknown Cape she'd hopefully just saved and would be healed by Shadow or Panacea. Behind the orange goggles, she frowned at the reddish-brown colour.
Still, it's all worth it, in the end. Swarm thought. I have a spare costume, blood isn't that hard to clean out if you know what you're doing, and even if this thing does end up ruined then at least it got wrecked saving lives. Looking around with her bugs for anyone in the area she might have missed, with her real eyes she looked up at Leviathan.
She was annoyingly close to him now, probably close enough that Eon would scold her for putting herself at risk later; according to the map it was one CH-8, and she was on BF-3. Not close enough to be in trouble, she thought, but close enough that some of the remains of his rampage through the shielding ranks had ended up here, where she could safely find them.
The Endbringer was more horrible than she'd ever realised from pictures, all twisted limbs and strange twitching movements that made it look unreal. The thing felt more like a monster now, standing only a few blocks away, than it had ever done in moments of video and pictures on the internet.
Of course, the reeling death toll coming from her armband made the entire thing slightly more horrific.
Mist Demon down, CG-8. Grim deceased, CG-8. Lanceguard deceased, CG-8. Tsunami deceased, CG-8. Trickster deceased, CG-9.
Hissing slightly, Swarm firmly shook her head, licking her lips behind her mask and stretching a little before looking back at her armband. She noted dimly, in the back of her mind, that the water was slowly draining off the spider-silk costume, and taking some of the blood with it, leaving her costume only slightly stained brown with dried blood.
A few seconds later, more red dots began appearing on the map, showing her where there were more people she could help. Brushing her soaked hair back away from her face, Swarm wished bemusedly that she'd thought to get a hairband before she left, then gently touched the badge on her chest- completely untouched by any of the blood that had been on her costume, somehow- and started walking through the streets again, searching widely with her bugs as she paced closer to one of the dots.
Bugs, mostly roaches that had survived the flooding, began to stealthily converge on the area, looking for the person she was trying to find, and she cringed as a dead body floated by, face-down in the water and unrecognisable from the amount of blood mixing with their hair and costume.
That's awful. She swallowed, tears brushing her eyes slightly. For a moment, she thought about approaching it, turning it over and seeing if she recognised the Cape, when she caught the sound of a moan and turned to it, spotting a Cape against one of the walls, their arm torn off at the elbow by Leviathan's claws.
Hurrying over and ignoring the splashing, she reached the Cape's side- another out-of-towner that she didn't recognise- and reached into her backpack on her armour, one of the spiders in there pushing out a large swath of spider silk, which she took and stretched slightly.
The Cape was mostly unconscious, she noted as she knelt, yet again thankful for the waterproof silk, and didn't seem to register that she was there while she wrapped the length of silk around the stub of... his, she guessed from the body shape, arm and pulled it tight, hoping to stop the Cape from bleeding out on her.
It was an idea she'd only had a few weeks before, when Shadow had first started her stint in hospital work. She and Eon had been over for dinner the next night, since Shadow was still pretty tired from healing, and the little Vulpix had told her some stories from the day before that hadn't been on PHO. Eon had mused aloud that it might be a good idea for the three of them to carry bandages with them on patrol, because it wasn't always a guarantee that Shadow would be able to heal, and it had given her an idea.
Even while still eating, Taylor had began setting up her spiders to weave massive sections of cloth, tightly woven enough to work as bandages in a pinch, and had taken to carrying a few of them around in her backpack while on patrol. She hadn't needed them in the two weeks since she'd started, but luckily in the rush to get out of the house and towards the PRT building she'd had the presence of mind to grab all of the spider silk bandages that she'd made up and thrown them into her bag before leaving.
Pulling the knot close, she began looking around for a flying or teleporting Cape that would be able to take him back to the medbay, where Shadow and Panacea could hopefully save him.
"Hey, excuse me!" An unfamiliar female voice made her look up, spotting a Cape with crystalline wings above her circling lower. "Need a hand?"
"Yeah!" Swarm called back, limiting the amount of bug-buzz in her voice. It would only make it harder to talk over the rain. The Cape landed next to her in the water, cringing momentarily as it splashed up, and smiled.
"What's up?"
"He needs to get to the medbay." She said, rolling her eyes behind her mask, honestly, was that not obvious from the amount of blood?
"I can get him there, no problem." The Cape nodded, blue eyes looking slightly worried behind her blue domino mask. "What about you? I can get someone else to carry you there too…"
Swarm paused, blinked, then chuckled. "No, I'm ok, I'm just doing search-and-rescue. None of this is mine." She gestured at the blood slowly mixing into the water on her costume, suddenly understanding why the girl had been so confused. The other's eyes widened, and she nodded.
"Oh. Right, sorry." There was a slight blush under her cheeks. "Sorry. Um, good luck, I guess?"
"Good luck to you as well." Swarm watched the girl lift the other Cape- she obviously had some kind of Brute rating too, because she did not look strong enough to do that- then raised her arm automatically to shield herself from the spray as she beat her crystal wings to take off, rising high enough that Swarm struggled to see her in moments.
She stood there for a second, the spiders inside her backpack probing about and looking at things. She only had four of the bandages left, though the spiders in there were close to finishing making a fifth, and there were still so many wounded Capes left sprawled on the battlefield…
This is horrendous. She thought lowly, shaking her head. Not just awful… I understand why some people only ever go to these once, even if they survive the fight. Shivering under the rain, she chewed on her lip. I'm almost upset that I refused to back down against Eon when we argued about me doing search and rescue. I'd have been way safer back near the medbay doing defence or whatever…
More names beeped from armband, some familiar but mostly not, and a number of them close enough to where she was for the red dots to begin appearing on her map. Hissing, and sparing only half a second to mourn the ones that had come through as deceased, Swarm started to wade through the water again, moving to the nearest red dot.
But if I did that, then I wouldn't really be doing anything at all. My bugs couldn't do anything to Leviathan if he decided the medical bay was a good target to go for, I couldn't really hit him from long range, and more people would be dying out here on the battlefield completely on their own after taking a strike from that damn thing because I wasn't there to pick them up. At least this way, I'm doing something helpful, even if I'm in danger while doing it and seeing some pretty awful stuff. That thought was only compounded by another body making its way past, someone in heavy-looking plate armour and covered in so many knives and other blades that the only way he hadn't sunk yet had to be through Leviathan's influence on the water, making her wince but continue resolutely towards her next targeted Cape.
This is awful, sure, but it's saving lives, more lives than we manage when Team Inari goes out on patrol… it's hero work, just like that is. It's just more violent than normal, that's all.
Those thoughts would stalk Swarm for the rest of the battle, especially during the unfortunate period where she ended up barely a section away from Leviathan due to an unlucky change in current coinciding with a lucky hit from a number of the defenders actually managing to knock the Endbringer off balance and send him flying back a slight distance before he managed to reassert himself in the air and continue the battle- and deciding to tear some of the nearer and weaker Capes into bloody shreds for the insult.
Eon panted slightly as he settled onto the ground again, having just dodged one of Lung's strikes. "I think that's enough, Lung!" He called, even as he began Hone Claws boosting again.
Their mini combat had lasted just over fifteen minutes, causing Eon to lose most of his boosts- he'd been boosting a little bit throughout, but most the time he was avoiding being 'hit' by Lung or just absorbing fire attacks- and the Dragon of Kyushu was just under thirty feet tall- much like he had been at that famous battle, and in significantly less time than then, too.
He had four wings, four arms, and digitigrade feet, and looked somewhat terrifying. Apparently his mask had melted at some point, slight bits of molten steel flecked on the ground, revealing a crossed-mouth and burning orange eyes. Claws stuck out of his fingers over a foot long, which Eon had spent the latter part of the fight dodging, and danced with little flames.
Eon was slightly awed; he was bigger than the extreme majority of Pokemon that he'd ever seen- he could only think of three- and for a few seconds it gave him a feeling of hope that they might do ok.
That came crashing down a moment later, the intervening time being made up of Lung giving a slight grunt of acknowledgement and bathing him in flame for a second to restore him slightly, when he recalled that Lung had been bigger than that during the fight for Kyushu, and the dragon had still lost.
How much are these damned things holding back, I wonder? Eon mused softly, closing his eyes and Calm Mind boosting. And, for that matter, why?
The Legendaries and Mythicals of his home world held back a lot, sure, but that made sense; they didn't want to hurt anyone, excluding a few select individuals, so they held back in battles against normal Pokemon to avoid causing any permanent damage to anyone. Against other Legendaries or Mythicals, they held back to avoid damaging the scenery with their attacks, or hurting any Pokemon that might accidentally end up in the battle zone.
The Endbringers, though… from what he'd seen their only purpose was to destroy things, breaking this world down into nothing bit by bit. But they had no reason to go bit by bit. Behemoth controlled energy; why not just nuke everything he can reach, then move on and do it again? Leviathan was hydrokinetic on a massive scale; why not just flood the entire world, or sink it like he did to Kyushu and Newfoundland? The Simurgh was precognitive and telekinetic; she could just manipulate the entire world into imploding with a few careful moves, or drop an asteroid on it and kill everyone. So why didn't she?
Eon couldn't understand their motivations behind holding back at all, and it both annoyed and worried him.
Breathing deeply and pushing everything behind another Calm Mind, he shifted to upping his Agility boosts back to the standard they had been before his impromptu ramp-up fight with Lung. Luckily he'd managed to salvage some of the boosts, so it wasn't taking as long this time to take himself up to full again, but the fact that he hadn't managed to maintain the full boosts annoyed him.
Oh well. Soon they'd be back up to full, and he'd have another fifteen minutes to get close to Leviathan and try and deal some damage. Then he'd retreat, boost up again, and go back in until the damn thing made its escape.
A roar sounded across the field, followed quickly by the ground quaking as something heavy slammed into it. Looking up, Lung had just thrown Leviathan away, which had pushed him through a number of buildings further away. The dragon began approaching as the Endbringer recovered, then the sound of the armband pinging a new sound drew Eon's attention away-
Wave approaching.
Oh shit. Eon mentally swore, looking around him. There were a handful of Capes there, mostly those who had ranged options but no way of flying, and some of the few Capes that had just been released from the medical bay- probably all Shadow's work, since her Move restored some energy as well, which he knew Panacea's didn't do- and were still looking to get back into the fight.
He thought he saw a couple of the Wards there as well, some of the ones that had fallen during one of the earlier salvoes of the battle, one that had knocked down a fairly large number of them, that had clearly been saved- only to be risked again.
There was no way he'd be able to shield all of them, even if he just pumped all of his power into a Flamethrower that he tried to manipulate into some kind of defence against the thing-
A clawed hand was suddenly just in front of him, no longer on fire and just resting there, causing Eon to blink and look up. Lung gestured with his head towards it, then went back to looking around the area, where the other Capes were standing, frozen and looking frightened.
Eon sighed, then snapped at them, "Come on! We need to get out of the way of the wave! Hurry!"
Somehow, the Ninetales' voice reached them all, and as one they began bolting for the Dragon of Kyushu's hand, climbing up and helping each other out of the way of the wave. Eon helped, lifting some of them up with Extrasensory, and he smiled reassuringly at Vista and Gallant as they went up past him, along with a couple of out-of-towners that were probably Wards and looked something between terrified and awed.
The distant rumble of the water had gotten far closer now, and Eon quickly made his own way up onto the slightly-crowded hand, helping to hold people steady with Extrasensory as Lung shifted some of them onto his other two hands, leaving the fourth one free in case Leviathan decided to target him, then leapt for the air to escape the wave.
Glancing a little bit over the edge, Eon gasped as the torrent of water passed by below them, crashing into buildings and flowing around for the fraction of a second before they splintered and cracked, falling over. There were a number of points where shields had been put up, gatherings of Parahumans in one place for safety…
And also providing perfect targets for the Endbringer to pick off once the water stopped moving and the walls came down.
Leviathan was already moving towards one of them, he noticed. All he had to do was stop the waves for a moment, making them think they were safe and drop the shields, then he could attack.
Eon couldn't allow that, and focused.
Ice. Cold, frozen ice. Ice so cold that it's painful to touch. So cold it freezes water on contact. The exact opposite of everything fire, everything I do. No fire, vaporising the water on contact, but ice, freezing it, trapping it, stopping it. Stopping everything, paining Leviathan, and making damn sure he doesn't get to those Capes!
Something horribly cold had formed at the end of his nose and slightly within his mouth, and Eon only spent a second wondering how on earth any Pokemon, even Ice type, could handle this, before he took aim and fired a thin, unstable beam of Freeze-Dry ice at Leviathan, ending in a tiny blob.
Moments later, it impacted, causing the Endbringer to scream in pain and flash-freezing some of the water around him, which was promptly carried off by the current. Some of his water echo froze as well, sticking to his body for a little longer before being torn off, and frozen raindrops began making their way down to earth.
The Capes stared at Eon, who mimicked them looking towards Leviathan.
"Didn't realise it'd be that effective. I know that Naynteyls from the mountains said it would make Water types regret trying to fight you, but damn."
"Think you can do it again?" Vista asked, sounding shaky.
"No idea, might as well try." Closing his eyes again, he focused on trying to get back into the state of mind he'd been in a few moments before, cold forming slowly near his muzzle once again. This time, he focused on gathering in into a ball first, then spat it downwards at the apparently confused Leviathan, who was looking around for where the first attack had came from.
The ice ball impacted and flash-froze again with a slightly muffled bang, frozen raindrops from its path down following, and Leviathan seemed to figure out where he was just barely before the Freeze-Dry hit, though he wasn't able to dodge.
At this point, Eon was panting heavily from the exertion of using a Move that was a, not his Type, b, the exact opposite of his type, and c, a Move that he didn't even know how to do until a few seconds ago… and given that he was actually being supported on that endeavour by the Flash Fire, Hone Claws and Calm Mind boosts… he made a mental note never to try using Freeze-Dry more than once at a time when he started practising again, and only to do that when he had Shadow around to make sure he recovered.
The ice below him cracked slightly.
Leviathan's frozen, but he won't be for long. He knows I'm up here, and that one of us here fired those attacks. Lung can't really defend with only one hand and his tail, plus the fact that he's suppressing his flames to let everyone else stand on here. Breathing deeply, Eon forced out another Calm Mind to steady himself, then a final Hone Claws for the attack bonus, and focused on using one of the very few lineage Moves he'd woken up with, when he first appeared as a Ninetales with no memory.
Luckily for him, he was close enough to the edge of Lung's hand to slip around everyone and start running onto his arm, calling out as he did,
"Lung, launch me at him!"
His ears, now ringing from the effects of exhaustion, picked up the sounds of startled and scared cries from the Capes that had heard him, and even Lung, wings beating steadily to keep them in the air, looked surprised and worried, but his one free hand came up and over, letting Eon transition to it.
All nine tails felt heavy, the change from normal fur and flesh to solid iron taking moments, and Eon glanced back over them once to ascertain that they had all changed before giving the far larger Cape a nod.
Seconds later, Eon was falling through the air, nine tails curled slightly before him as a shield, and he flipped himself once with monumental effort before slamming down on Leviathan's head, merely fractions of a moment after he broke free of the ice.
Something seemed to splinter and crack, though whether it was his tails or Leviathan's body Eon couldn't tell, as the world began swaying and spinning.
A scream echoed in the back of his mind, and through the disorientation it took Eon a moment to notice that Leviathan had recovered- well, slightly; more than he had, at least- and had grabbed at him, tearing him from his head and throwing him away.
By all nine of his tails.
Die, you monster. He wished woozily, still confused. Get out of Brockton Bay and away from these Capes. You won't hurt any more.
The Ninetales slammed into something seconds later, and there was a period of all-consuming excruciating pain before the world went completely dark instead.
.
