The End Bringer Chapters 16 and 17 (Patreon)

A/N: Thank you, patrons for your awesome patience while I have not been producing like I should. I'm getting married this Saturday. So as a present for you, I have two parts of a three part Endbringer fight completed and here for your reading pleasure. Its raw and rough but it's been a blast to write. Holding back the third part until I can get it to sing like it should. Here's hoping you enjoy!

XVI – BOSS – XVI

It happened while we were driving home. Because of course it did. I’d felt… happy. So of course something had to ruin it. 

Something big. 

My fingers trembled in fear. Amy grabbed my arm comfortingly, but it did nothing to ease the palpable terror in my bones. I knew my face was white as a sheet. Amy’s matched my own. 

The rains were the first sign. Light at first, but they appeared almost out of nowhere. I’d come to the realization that something was wrong slowly. Rain clouds rolling in from the east. Then… Then the sirens. 

“Are you sure, Taylor?” Dad asked, tears staining his cheeks as he drove back towards the city. The opposite side of the road was packed bumper to bumper, but we had an almost open road, save for the few maniacs willing to drive on the wrong side in order to get out. 

“I’m not going to be a part of the fighting, Dad,” I said softly. “I’ll be far from the front lines. Right Amy?”

“We both will. I’ve… never actually been to one before. But they wouldn’t put us anywhere near the front. Might actually take us out of the city and then bring capes to us, rather than risk our lives. Really, Mr. Hebert. Taylor will be safer with me healing than anywhere else.” 

“I… have to abandon you yet again, don’t I? Dammit Taylor just… just come with me. Okay? We’ll turn around; get out of Brockton! You don’t owe anything to the capes so just–!”

Dad cut himself off and smacked the driver’s wheel.

My resolve firmed a little as Dad sobbed in the driver’s seat. I put a trembling hand on his arm and he steadied himself a little. He dodged an SUV going well over ninety miles an hour as the rain began to pick up, making it difficult to see, even with the wipers going full bore. 

“Dad. I’m a healer. I’m… I’m going. I can save lives. Hundreds of them.”

“That doesn’t matter Taylor! I… I can’t lose you!” he pleaded, sparing half a second to look back at me in the backseat. Begging me not to go, but knowing that no matter what he said, he couldn’t hold on to me.

‘You lost me long ago,’ I thought, but didn’t say. “Dad, this is our home. Everything I’ve ever known! And I can help save it. Or at least, a small part of it. I can’t sit out of that. Plus with Eidolon now feeling better than ever, this is probably going to be the best Endbringer fight on record.” 

Something tapped on the window mid-flight.

Dad jumped, startled. He slammed on the brakes, and I was thankful for my seatbelt. Amy’s own seatbelt failed to catch, and her head clunked into the headrest at the sudden lurch. I grabbed onto her as we screeched to a halt.

“The fuck!” Amy hissed once we’d come to a stop, rubbing her forehead, annoyed. “Did you have to–!”

She cut off as she saw outside the car. Through the dense rain, Glory Girl was visible, touching down in the middle of the mostly abandoned highway. 

“Dammit…” Amy murmured. “This can’t really be happening right now.”

Dad’s fingers were clenched tight on the wheel as he stared out at the superheroine. He glared at her, using her as a focus to vent his helpless frustration. Knowing she’d likely take me to the fight, leaving him alone.

Amy opened the door, rubbing her head. I took a moment to throw a cure spell at her, green novas flowing out from me and through the vehicle. She looked back, wishing me silent thanks as she became utterly soaked in moments. The water was freezing and we’d both been wearing warm weather clothes since it had been such a nice day. 

Amy didn’t seem to notice as she turned back to face her sister. 

“Get out of here, Dad. Please? I’ll be alright. Just, turn around and go, okay? I’ll feel better, knowing you’re safe!” I shouted at him over the pounding rain as it soaked into the open truck’s backseat. 

“You think I wouldn’t feel the same for you!?” he shouted helplessly, turning back to look at me in the backseat of the old car. “Dammit Taylor. I can’t lose you; not you too!”

“I’ll be alright Dad. I promise. But… but I have to go!” I screamed over the howling rain as I barreled out after Amy. “Turn around and drive Dad! I won’t have anything if you die following me to Brockton!”

“Taylor! Taylor!” I heard Dad shout as he got out of the car too. 

We’d been so happy just ten minutes ago. I’d finally felt like things were looking up. 

How could everything change so fast? 

Glory Girl glared at me, already holding Amy as she floated outside the vehicle. Already influencing her with the damn charm again, most likely. 

“Will you take me too, Vicky? I want to help,” I said. 

Dad left the car, but didn’t make a move towards us, clenching and unclenching his fists. Impotent. Enraged at his own inability to make any sort of difference.

Glory Girl sniffed, but she flew over to me, and turned around. She was still mad, both at me and Amy. But apparently, the Endbringer made her anger unimportant. 

“Grab hold. We’ve got to move. They’ve already gathered. I’ll bring you both to the command base on Captain’s Hill. For what it's worth, thanks for coming, Taylor.” 

Amy squawked a little at being whipped around while Glory Girl spoke but didn’t complain. I threw my arms around her neck, trying to keep the shaking down. 

“Taylor… please. Don’t do this…!” Dad plead behind me. 

I spared him one glance back, and managed a smile. 

“I’ll see you in a few hours dad! D-don’t worry about me! I love you!” I screamed, realizing that it was probably the first time I’d told him so in months.

We blasted off. I heard Dad shouting my name as the rain swallowed his voice. Shouting that he loved me, and crying like I’d never seen him cry.

We moved too fast for me to see if he got back in the truck. I hoped he did.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

“I think we might’ve missed the start of the fight,” Glory Girl shouted over the rain. “They had forewarning but I didn’t hear the sirens until I was half way back to the city.”

“Any idea how long it’s been since it started?” Amy asked, leaning into her sister’s ear so she didn’t have to shout. I could barely hear her.

“Not sure. Hey, hold your ears. About to breach the cloud cover!” she shouted.

I held on for dear fucking life as the girl blasted upwards at an angle. My ears rang and popped as we flew through the rain, then mist, then burst into a silent world of sunshine and glowing orange clouds.

The winds actually got more furious but without the rain it might as well have been still. It was cold, wind blowing my soaked limbs. Breathing became a little harder but Glory Girl made sure not to fly much higher than the sea of clouds, showing her experience with this sort of thing.

“W-wow…” I breathed. “It’s… it’s almost like I could believe nothing’s happening down below.”

The clouds lit every now and then with splashes of lightning and thunder.

“Recalculating,” came an automated voice. I blinked. Was that a…?

“Amy, can you see my watch?’ Victoria asked. “It should be directing us to Brockton.”

Amy craned her neck to see her sister’s smart watch before pointing in a direction that I could only tell was East because it was away from the late afternoon sun.

We blasted across the top of clouds, my feet and body actually leaving Vicky’s once or twice. I screamed in terror, and blinked as a new spell kind of just came to me. I didn’t cast it, but it was nice to know float was an option for me if I somehow let go of Glory Girl. Or if I choked her while we flew. She didn’t seem to notice but every polite bone in my body seemed to be urging me to ease up on her neck, while all the others urged me to choke her so tight she couldn’t possibly breathe.

The GPS in the girl’s wrist watch, which was apparently hilariously waterproof, kept trying to redirect her to roads. It repeated “Recalculating” at least ten more times as she moved as the crow flies, but it served well enough to direct us over the clouds.

She came to a stop shortly.

“O-okay. We’re, as far as I can tell, near the recovery area. Shouldn’t be even close to the frontline but we have no way to tell what’s happening down there. Ready?”

“N-No time like the present,” I breathed.

“Ye-yeah Vicky,” Amy breathed. I scowled as my resist effect alerted me that it had rebuffed charm again. Damn her stupid aura.

My mana pool was full, having recovered from its most recent uses. I couldn’t imagine being better prepared.

“R-Ready here,” I breathed, terrified.

“Okay. Here we go.”

We plunged into the clouds. It was a solid four seconds before we emerged into the downpour. Seeing was difficult and the sharp tang of saltwater filled my nostrils. Below I could see water frothing and burbling everywhere as it surged through streets just like cars used to. Bright costumes melded into a technicolor blur wherever the water wasn’t so high.

I tried to locate Leviathan himself but was distracted when Amy shouted, “Vicky! Up!” 

I turned and my eyes widened as I spotted the massive tidal wave that crested the top of a few buildings hurtling towards us with fatal speed.

‘Holy god… Has the city already been hit with one of these?’ I thought as we rocketed back up into the air before the wave rolled underneath us, but we needn’t have bothered. A green glowing man who could only be Eidolon floated directly in the wave’s path. He reached out a hand and touched the oncoming wave and suddenly the entire thing was moving the other direction, back out to sea.

I saw a girl in a purple and orange costume appear from within the water as the receding wave exposed the beach for a few moments, only to be crushed by the bulkhead of a torn tanker as it followed the wave back out to sea. Somehow, the girl remained unharmed, water and metal both parting around her.

Others weren’t so lucky.

The sky was filled with capes, some tossed by the rain and the air the wave had generated. Vicky was sterner than most. I didn’t spot Leviathan anywhere. Further to the north, near the boardwalk, I saw beams of light echoing behind a few buildings.

“We’re going to the triage area! I need to get into the fight!” Glory Girl screamed, aiming at an area further inland where flashing lights were illuminating the rain covered world. 

‘Why the hell didn't we go there first?’ I thought.

We made for it now, my grip slipping under the wet conditions, and landed soon after.

I would’ve gotten on my knees and cried with relief if my body hadn’t insisted I do so with nausea instead. I almost threw up but managed to steady my stomach before I needed to.

I stood and found that Amy had already sprinted down to the rows and rows of men and women laid on the ground heading for the building. Vicky was already streaking across the sky back toward the beach. 

Most of the people outside on this grassy hill were either in pain or unconscious. None wore capes though. These were the victims. The living regular people lucky enough to have been pulled out by a benevolent cape on search and rescue.

The triage center, or what passed for one lay on a large hill, almost two miles from the beach. It was actually a school athletics center, I realized suddenly. Clarendon? No, too big for that. Belmonte, the private school, a mile north of Brockton itself. Well. The other private school.

The rain was lighter here, light enough that I could believe it was only a hurricane rather than an act of god.

Teleporters and fliers were flashing in and out, bearing bodies that they often let down in line before vanishing again. I thought I saw Strider himself appear in a small baseball field nearby with a group of twelve capes before he, and all of those capes vanished again. And was that… Oni Lee? I’d thought the ABB didn’t fight in Endbringer battles? Hell, and that was Purity! I didn’t realize so many villains came to these fights… why? Why would they be here? Sentimentality? What…?

Questions for another time.

Men and women, both wearing scrubs and costumes all ran up and down the lines carrying bandages, clothing, chemicals, syringes, and any number of different types of medical equipment that the rain wouldn’t hurt.

I suddenly realized that this wasn’t actually the main triage center. That was in the building Amy had sprinted into. A large gymnasium whose many rows of doors were swung wide open with people running in and out like mad ants over a disturbed anthill.

I knew my duty though. Perhaps these weren’t capes but getting them healed and away from harm would help the overwhelmed doctors and nurses trying to save as many of them as they could. As soon as I stood, I didn’t hesitate. The crushing weight of the rain pouring down on me seemed to slide away as I began to chant.

Layer upon layer, make your mark now! Haste!

Life’s refreshing breeze, heal from the sky! Cura!

The green novas flowed off me faster than they ever had before as I pulled out the pieces of my golden flute that I never went anywhere without these days. I attached them together and held the instrument, even as I cast the spells. I flashed into motion.

Lights flashed and swirled around almost thirty men and women as my healing took effect, restoring them simultaneously for a negligible ounce of my mana pool.

Many of them blinked, coming to awareness as if in shock. Maybe some of them actually were in shock in a way that my spells couldn’t affect. I didn’t know. I was already running towards the next group, casting again as the area healing of my Cura mended broken bones, soothed nearly hypothermic levels of cold, and restored people to as close to optimum health as it could.

People began rising as I ran, casting as fast as I could.

It wasn’t long before I’d actually cast at least one mending spell across everyone I could see in the rain, but more were always being brought, in ones and twos, in groups. Dragged in by struggling civilians, or capes who didn’t possess mover abilities.

I healed them one and all, and my mana pool barely fell.

I could do more than this, couldn’t I? I need to move faster!

“Mana! Mana!” came a girl’s shout as I finished yet another cast of my most useful spell. I turned and found a cape, maybe four years older than me waving frantically as she flew through the rain.

“They need you in the building! You’ve got to heal capes, okay?” she shouted over the rain.

I grimaced, watching as ever more bodies were deposited on the hill, while those I’d healed blearily stood and began to run in an ever growing tide of fear and panic.

I spared a moment to glance back towards the writhing sea. Another massive wave was gathering in the distance, visible even through the torrential downpour. It was huge, but probably wouldn’t hit us here. I hoped.

A massive crack echoed like the sound of a cannon and I saw a splash of water burst up from behind a building far out towards the docks. What in god’s name could make a sound like that?

I shivered, my hands trembling when I realized just where I was. As I realized what had to be only a few buildings away from me.

“Y-Yeah. I’m coming,” I said to the girl, trying to pretend that it wasn’t fear driving me into the perceived safety of the building.

I followed the girl in the bright blue costume inside as she practically danced through the flowing rain. She was definitely an out-of-towner; I’d never heard of her before.

Inside the building, the rain echoed off the roof like the hoofbeats of an angry stampede, but even that was drowned out by the cries of pain and agony that seemed to permeate the place.

There were gurneys here and most held capes. The place reeked of blood and seawater, the once-pleasant smell turned foul by the overwhelming stench. I wiped water from my eyes and shook my soaked body, realizing that I might actually be suffering from acute hypothermia myself at the sudden shock coming into the buildings warmth caused.

I cast a cure on myself to be certain before sprinting after the girl, who had stopped flying the second we got out of the rain. A quirk of her powers maybe?

“Panacea has been gathering people. You can heal groups all at once, right? This way!”

The girl ran through the gym, slipping and almost tripping for a moment before she righted herself and continued running. Breathless, I could barely keep up even with my haste spell. The girl had to be a Mover. Soon enough, I saw what she was leading me to.

Capes were bunched together like sardines in a can, gurneys rolled as close together as physically possible, with still more people packed beneath them. Those who could sit up were leaned against them. A woman lay unconscious with blood leaking out her ears. Another girl in a green costume seemed terrifyingly familiar as she grit her teeth and struggled not to scream. Her arm appeared to have been sheared clean off. Tears were welling in her eyes.

I couldn’t save her lost limb but I could stave off her pain.

Life’s refreshing breeze, heal from the sky! Cura!

My lights swirled around the mass of bodies and sighs of relief and joy replaced the moans of agony. Bones knit together, sucking chest wounds closed, and ruptured eardrums reformed. I saw Brandish puking out water as my spell forced the unwanted fluid from her lungs. My spell brought health.

For all I did though, bodies still remained as the capes began to rise. Ones that I couldn’t save. Ones who had died in the mass.

“W-wow,” said the blue costumed girl. “Panacea wasn’t kidding. The next group is this way. Come on!”

Faster! We need to move faster!

Need always seemed to be the key for my power.

“W-wait! W-we can go faster!” I told her, stopping to begin another new chant. So much pressure. So much need. My powers were working overtime.

“Huh?” the girl asked.

I glanced at the slowly rising tide of woozy parahumans. People needed them now. Needed me now. My mana drained significantly for the first time today, plummeting to seventy five percent or so as the new spell etched itself into my mind.

“Time’s current, place me in your whirlpool! Hastega!”

The world spun. Time seemed to slow down. The rain outside seemed to lighten. Like the sound of it had slowed down fractionally. The capes enhanced by my power became blindingly fast. Some of them had to have already been Movers, their speed enhanced by my own ability making them able to gently move the slower bodies piled under the gurneys out of the way as they all made a beeline for the exit where teleporters could return them to the fight.

“Amazing. You can enhance other parahumans?” The voice came from a man in a blue and white costume. I gulped, spotting Legend himself. My recent run-ins with Eidolon had soured me to him and Alexandria, but Legend was no less impressive for his involvement with those two.

“I feel like I could move faster than ever,” he remarked as he flew next to me. “Mana. Good work. Today is going better than even I could have hoped.”

I couldn’t believe he’d been among the injured. Legend? How?

I shook it off. “Kick him out of my home, and we’ll talk about what I can do later, okay?”

Did I really just say that to fucking Legend?

The man grinned in spite of himself and blasted out of the nearest window in an array of neon lights.

I turned to the blue costumed girl. “What was your name?” I asked, during the lull while I caught my breath.

“It’s Streamlance,” she said. “From Utah.”

“Good to meet you,” I said worriedly. “Now the next group?”

“Yeah. This way!” she said, and darted off like a bolt of lightning.

I followed, moving faster than I would’ve believed possible despite not putting forth any more effort than a hard jog. I did my best to ration my stamina. Today would be a long day. My mana regenerated quickly but I couldn’t afford too many of those Hastega spells.

I turned a corner and slammed into a brick wall of a man rushing around the corner with another young man held in his arms.

“H-heal him!” the man screamed, proffering the body to me. The injured person’s head lolled, utterly limp, and I heard a sickening sound like a neck cracking. Blood was dripping from the man’s open mouth.

I cast detect and grimaced. No health. No life. Neck snapped. Probably by a wave considering he was covered in saltwater.

“I… I’m sorry!” I shouted, before stepping around and rushing past him after my blue-caped guide.

“N-No!” he shouted, screaming as he held the younger man.

Nothing can heal the dead, right? 

I trembled, the man’s pitiful cries following me as he cradled the smaller man, falling to his knees as I moved on.

The next group was smaller. Panacea herself was nearby, healing the worst cases with a touch. It was weird to see her healing people just like we were in the hospital, irritably asking each one for their permission before healing them as fast as she could and moving on. She already looked tired.

“Life’s refreshing breeze, blow in energy! Cure!” 

My spell brightened Amy’s eyes but she barely took time to acknowledge me with a sharp nod before returning to work. I wasn’t done though.

“Layer upon layer, make your mark now! Haste!” 

The spell wasn’t too expensive, and having a faster Panacea was well worth the cost. The girl blinked, and glanced at me with a ‘why the hell didn’t I know about this?’ sort of look, before continuing to heal with practiced efficiency.

I continued healing for almost fifteen minutes. The doctors had apparently been told to group capes tightly together for me so as not to waste my mana on cura’s that didn’t heal enough people. The line of injured never ceased. A constant stream of people brought into the massive gymnasium, healed and returned to the battlefield, only to either die, or again wind up in the gymnasium as the rain pelted the roof outside.

Even so, after a while, I began to think I’d be safe. I began to think maybe I would heal all these people and break down crying afterwards, having never really encountered the monster that was destroying my home.

Even if thousands died, I was going to make it.

The ground shaking for half a moment was the only warning we had. Somehow, through the endless groups of doctors and surgeons and capes I found Panacea’s eyes as she fell over onto the floor.

Then, my stomach grew butterflies as the entire building shook. Then fell. I screamed as the walls collapsed around me.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

XVII – SUPPORT – XVII

“Shit!” I heard as I watched the roof of the gymnasium split and crack down the middle. My feet left the floor, falling even faster than I was, while my mind screamed at the impossibility of the fucking floor falling.

One side of the roof caved inward, lights abruptly snuffing as we were cast into near darkness. That lasted only a split second before the roof tumbled inside, slamming against the interior wall and crushing a few unlucky people who’d been floating in freefall. Somewhere I heard an armband ping out

...Tally Deceased. Burnout Deceased. Lighthog Down. Deadtorights Deceased.... 

The damn armband kept barking out deaths as I floated in the falling building, certain I was about to die.

Streamlance was suddenly before me, holding me for dear life. My head jerked, whiplash temporarily blinding me as we both suddenly stopped falling. Water poured into the remains of the building, coming down on us like a waterfall, and Streamlance angled her body towards the downpour. The second we hit it, we both rocketed up into the sky, forcing me to close my eyes as we rushed through water so fast my eyes rolled inside my brain. 

“Wh-what happened!?” I screamed through my waterlogged throat, as the girl somehow flew up through the rain and out the hole in the gymnasium’s tumbling roof.

Drenched again, the girl held me in the air as I gazed back down into the sinkhole. I had just enough time to see Strider appear and then a hundred floating bodies disappear before the building slammed into what looked like an underground lake.

Water was everywhere, flooding the building as it drowned deep within what looked like a crater. 

How many people just died? Amy? All those capes? The people on the hill? Oh god…

I vomited down into the frothing lake as it swallowed the building I’d been healing in only moments ago.

“S-sorry!” Streamlance grunted in apology. “I-it’s hard to fly with two people, even with this much water! But A-Alexandria told me to keep you safe and as long as y-you’re with me, Water sh-shouldn’t hurt you!

Alexandria?

I almost sneered. Alexandria, protecting her fucking asset. 

I clenched my fist in rage. I’d been on a date with a boy two hours ago at a theme park. I’d been having fun. 

Now… now Amy might be dead. Now I was floating in the middle of a fight with a fucking Endbringer, completely at a loss for what to do.

Inside, I felt the red sensation again. Like I needed to do something. Like something was burning beneath my skin, just begging for me to delve into my mana pool. To delve deep and bring forth… something. 

“Oh my god! Mana, look!” Streamlance screamed, pointing down below, distracting me from my inner rage.

Almost three hundred people were floating, suspended in glowing transparent orbs. In the middle of them all, Eidolon.

He’d saved them? I couldn’t make out individual faces but the clothes seemed to look like a lot of scrubs. There were hundreds of them, each trapped in their own little bubbles as they floated, shielded from the rain. They encircled Eidolon as he floated towards the ground.

To the East, I saw a flash of movement.

I quaked. My body locked up and became deadweight, but Streamlance didn’t see it, grunting as holding me became more difficult.

Leviathan. Below between two buildings, moving like a lizard but blessed with lighting speed it flashed forward to strike at a flying cape dressed in red. It was too far away to make out what happened but the red suddenly became much more… liquid as the body seemed to explode before me.

A black blur flew in mad circles around Leviathan before it slammed into the figment of water left behind by the monster. Another crack cut through the air and a nova of water erupted from the point of impact, deafening me even from all the way up in the sky where we were descending towards Eidolon’s orbs. I watched the spectacle below in terror.

I wanted to go, to leave this horrible place. I’d never seen so much death. So much blood. So much fear. But I couldn’t. I could help. My mana reserves were already back up to almost eighty percent with the break from constantly healing. I couldn’t help but feel like I should be doing more. Like I was worth more than just patching up the people who’d already lost to the monster.

The orbs winked out one by one as the people were gently laid on the ground or on rooftops that were still standing steady. Eidolon didn’t have time to be precise, laying people down wherever he could. The moment the last one touched down he rocketed through the rain back out to the ocean to turn back yet another wave.

Seeing him go, seeing him rescue so many and keep fighting, I thought maybe I could forgive him for what he’d done to me. All I hoped for now was that he could truly stop Leviathan. I just wanted this to be over.

“Wh-where should I set down?” Streamlance called out, sounding almost as terrified as I was.

“I-I don’t know! I–!” I cut off as I watched Leviathan bat away the black blur that had challenged it before. The person, probably Alexandria now that I got a closer look, crashed through the third floor of a skyscraper and out the other side before slamming into the ground, digging a trench through twelfth Avenue. I saw sink holes appearing all over the city and other buildings falling, tumbling into the abyssal lake below.

“B-Bring us down. Anywhere that I can’t see… this…” I shouted over the rain.

“I’m sorry,” Streamlance said as we touched down on a rooftop where a few capes were watching the battle far below.

“A-Any injured?” I asked the gathered capes, focusing on a tall man wearing what looked like riot gear and a… dress? No. Not important. “I’m a healer.”

“Oh thank god. When we heard the triage sank, we feared the worst.” I blanched at the voice, having thought she was a man despite the dress and long black hair. Her costume was impressive and built for utility but was remarkably androgynous. Her voice made her gender more obvious than any physical features did.

“Eidolon took care of that. We think he saved the majority of people in the triage before it sunk into the Aquifer,” Streamlance said behind me.

“Good. Doubly good. I saw Eidolon take a hit earlier, and the armband said he was down. Uh, healer girl. You’re a local… Mana right? Yes, we have injured.”

She pointed to a girl lying on her back. The water on the roof was a couple inches tall despite the way it tumbled off the buildings well-designed roof, and the girl was soaked in it. She didn’t wear a costume, instead sporting a pair of pants and a green denim jacket that had definitely seen better days.

She didn’t appear to be breathing. My heart swelled as I realized she was probably even younger than me. 

I got to work.

Life’s refreshing breeze, blow in energy! Cure!

She began coughing quickly, resuscitated by my cure spell, blinking water out of her eyes as best she could. A tall man, who I suddenly realized was Dauntless stood over the girl, blocking the rain for her as she recovered. 

“Labyrinth. Are you alright? Shit, I knew we shouldn’t have taken this job. Fighting one of these is never worth it,” she barked angrily to herself.  

The girl seemed awake but stared vacantly, not really aware of her surroundings as far as I could tell. Before I could examine her further, Dauntless’s armband began to bark a warning.

“Leviathan spotted at E-12. He’s heading for the new triage point!”

I heard the whirring mechanics of something massive striding through the streets below and found an absolutely enormous Dragon suit charging towards where Eidolon had deposited the survivors of the triage collapse. I didn’t see Leviathan but another crack, which I now recognized as a brute slamming into Leviathan’s water echo, sounded near the other side of the building. 

I blinked as the creature suddenly rocketed into view below, crashing into a small supermarket that collapsed under its weight. I’d bought a Gatorade there just a few weeks ago. 

The brute, not Alexandria I noticed, followed up with another punt that sent the creature, and a large amount of debris from the store, flying further out towards the ocean. 

Dragon followed up, the massive legs of her bright red suit launched a salvo of missiles while the mounted shoulder cannon launched what must’ve been an ICBM as the creature. All of them exploded on impact, obscuring Leviathan temporarily from view. 

I expected roars. I expected nightmarish rage. Leviathan’s silence as the rain quickly dispersed the dust was more unnerving than any roar I could’ve imagined. 

Leviathan, seemingly perturbed by the resistance near us, turned and headed back towards the beach where Eidolon was floating, about to turn back another wave. 

My eyes widened as Leviathan batted Eidolon out of the air from behind. Eidolon dodged at the last moment, but the wave wasn’t turned back. Instead he was swallowed by the water as it smashed into him. 

“I have to go. My shield could save people down there,” Dauntless said, even as his armband barked “Incoming Wave! Brace for impact!” 

He jumped, flying down towards a group of stranded capes, many of which were staring dumbfounded at the spot where Eidolon had been subsumed.

All across the city barriers of energy rose up. Capes gathered in little pockets below, gathering beneath the shields wherever they could. Some didn’t make it. I watched a boy pounding on the outside of one of New Wave’s iconic energy barrier while the wave approached. 

If only there was a way to…!

Spells had never come to me so quickly as they were in this disaster, but I wasn’t complaining. 

I stepped up on the building’s ledge, aiming a new area of effect spell for a larger distance than I’d ever attempted, hoping that I could reach the terrified people below. 

Elemental light, guard us from the typhoon! Nultide!

Aquatic blue lights surrounded the group of maybe nine frantic capes, none of whom seemed to have a shaker or brute to protect them. My spell took hold just moments before the wave hit them. I grabbed the edge of the building as the wave continued, on towards us and almost fell as the crest of the wave swept over the top of the building and washing us. Streamlance’s hands wrapped around my waist again, and when the water finally continued past us I found myself lying flat on the building’s roof, gasping for breath. 

I stood shakily, glad to see that Faultline and Labyrinth seemed to be alright, though they had been buffeted to the backside of the building. 

Staring down at the soggy ground, I found to my shock that all of them had remained standing in the same places they’d been before. Completely unaffected. 

That spell had been even less expensive than cure, and it would last for almost ten minutes!

“H-how did you do that?” Streamlance asked, staring down at the same people I was. One was turning in circles, trying to figure out who had saved him. Another was jumping in joy.

“G-Get me down there,” I said through chattering teeth, feeling the cold wetness seeping into my bones. “Back to wherever triage moved! I don’t know if it’s strong enough to stop the water echo but that spell has a countdown. It keeps lasting. They’re safe from the waves for a while. If I could cast this on everyone…!

She grabbed me immediately, realizing how useful the spell was. I was dragged off the side of the building, flying down and away from the beach while I prepared to cast the spell again. 

It took a few minutes to get to the place where Eidolon had deposited the largest group of people. There was no longer a building so the doctors and nurses were making do outside as best they could. The new area was a large empty parking lot outside a strip mall, a little ways inland from where the gymnasium had been. A JCPennys sign actually somehow still had electricity but only “enny” remained of the previous letters, the others having fallen to the ground. I spotted Panacea as we were flying but lost her when we landed. 

Relief flooded my veins as I realized she’d made it out. 

Novas flowed off me as I began the new spell certain that I would be using it a lot today.

Teleporters were flashing around still, but with less consistency now. Fliers made up the majority of new patients as they came and I found new groups of injured who needed healing.

For every Cura, I added the new Nultide spell, hoping that even if I couldn’t see the effect, the difference would be made known in the fight against Leviathan. 

I didn’t really understand how it worked but it seemed to grant complete immunity to water attacks. Whether that meant it could be overwhelmed or was permanent I couldn’t tell. The effect had lingered through a fucking tidal wave though, so either way it was invaluable. 

In a way, I was grateful for the distance my ability allowed. I didn’t have to see the broken bones up close. Didn’t have to talk to the survivors, and could choose to ignore the dead ones who didn’t get up after I cured them. 

“Thank you Mana,” came from an absolutely devastated looking Armsmaster. He was missing his leg and part of his shoulder had been sheered down to the bone. 

The same with everyone, I ignored him. My mana was still doing okay, the rose flute supplementing my supply, but it was dwindling.

Healing in groups began to become less helpful as I ran out of injured to heal. I helped a shirtless boy only a little older than me to his feet after curing him and practically squawked as he kissed me on the cheek. Before I could say a word, he sprinted back towards the beach, shouting into his armband for a flyer. Dammit, I wanted one of those fucking armbands. 

I turned, ignoring my shock to find the next person in need. My muscles ached from running and probably from mild hypothermia. I felt like I’d been moving for hours. I cast another haste spell to keep myself moving faster than I should be able to, and a heal to sooth my joints. By some act of god I hadn’t actually been injured yet.

I spotted Panacea and sent a cure her way, knowing she must be in more pain than me, needing to kneel down to touch and heal more than half of her own patients. She sent me a smile as the spell hit her, but had no more time than that. 

I couldn’t stop. If I stopped then I might have time to think, and if I had time to think I might just curl up into a ball and cry. There was nothing but the next victim.

“Mana! Mana, Leviathan’s coming this way again. We need to evac!” Came Streamlance’s panicked voice. 

Shit. I thought. 

I ran to her, preparing for another sudden flight when a massive tail smashed through the building. Streamlance only had enough time to turn in shock before the tail flicked her. She rocketed back through the parking lot and landed in the road beyond. 

“Streamlance–” Came from one of the armbands, the tail’s water echo hid her final fate from me. 

My eyes were locked on a group of four eyes hovering over the side of the department building. Leviathan himself seemed to stare into me. Directly into me. 

Fear and anger filled me, but I couldn’t do anything against fucking Leviathan. 

Or… or could I? 

"Time, rest and give your kindness to the worthy! Slow!"

Leviathan struck faster than lightning, but it’s claw was batted away by a cape in a red costume. Assault, I thought, giving me just enough time to finish the spell. 

If it did anything to the monster, I couldn’t tell. Leviathan rounded on the red suited cape, flinging its tail forward. Assault leapt over the tail but couldn’t dodge the water echo as it slammed into him. A flash of aqua light showed that he’d received my Nultide as the echo failed to do anything to him, but the lights shattered and evaporated like breaking glass. So. It could withstand one hit from the water echo, but the tidal waves weren’t enough to stop it. 

I cast it on the cape again as a thank you before turning and running for Streamlance’s broken body. 

Capes were everywhere, running from Leviathan en masse. Luckily, the road Streamlance had been hit towards wasn’t the best way to get away from the parking lot, else she might’ve been trampled by terrified capes and doctors as they all sought to get away. 

I found her body, along with the blood trail that stained the soaked street where she had landed. 

I knelt down next to her, casting a detect as fast as I could. 

I don’t know why I was surprised though. She was dead. Just like that. Dead. Tears welled in my eyes for the girl who’d kept me alive twice already today. Whose name I didn’t even know. Streamlance, from Utah. 

I turned back to Leviathan. Hookwolf was running on the monster’s back, digging blades of metal into its back that did little more than give him a foothold. I watched him leap off the endbringer and onto the remains of the Penny’s. As he left blasters pelted him with burning lasers of all colors. I heard what had to be gun fire from somewhere to my left. Chunks of flesh boiled on Leviathan’s back as he recoiled and tumbled. 

Inwardly I cheered as the monster lost his footing, but cursed myself as I realized I could be helping. 

“Shining light, shield from all directions! Protectra!”

Brighter lights this time, formed transparent shields around all the capes fighting Leviathan before fading into nothing. The only evidence of my power remaining was the lessened effectiveness of Leviathan’s strikes. Attacks that should have killed only maimed.

Leviathan was fast. Unbelievably so. His claws carved out capes in sprays of blood, while his tail broke the sound barrier like a whip. For all that though, the defenders seemed to be pushing him back. 

I was about to turn and run to the nearest body with an armband before I heard a series of screams, cut short all at once. The ground shook as Leviathan landed north of me, amongst the fleeing capes.

Then, from the armband of another downed cape, I heard words I didn’t realize I’d been dreading. 

Panacea deceased. 

It kept going. Listing names of more deceased and more downed. But I didn’t hear them. 

No.

No!

My fingers trembled, but not in terror. Not in fear. But rage. My mana burned inside me, less than twenty percent. 

I didn’t notice my body beginning to glow a strange purple and white shade. Didn’t care as I burned mana that I shouldn’t have. Didn’t notice my own searing bones as I fell into a Trance. I walked toward the beast, killer of nations, Jörmungandr, my flute somehow still in hand. I brought it to my lips as I saw red.