Scene #6124: Fate of the Whale God

Owner	Pose
Bloody Revelations	The cluster of Elites set to end the reign of the 'Whale God' of Luthe is set bobbing upon the waves of the Western Ocean at night. The pitch black of the sky and the gleaming of the stars on the sloshing waves is the most auspicious of hours to enter battle, especially on the sixteenth day of the current lunar phase, if one is suspicious enough to believe in that kind of symbolism. Night has yet to fail them, while they travel under the aegis of the one who can take them to the middle of the ocean, accurately less than a mile from Luthe's submerged location, in mere hours across a darker, stranger sea. They are largely left to sortie their own vessels, even when the veil between worlds breaks and pushes them out on to the living seas of Creation, salt in the air and a cold breeze teasing limp sails. The Brass Leviathan itself, by joint decision, is held in reserve, exactly where Leviathan wouldn't be able to perceive its existence, but capable of entering at any time, and currently serving as a launching platform from the other side, for those in need of one. Though they're spat out onto a stretch of water with no land to navigate by on any horizon, the most basic sonar will easily locate the massive hulk of the artifact fortress-city beneath the waves. They need only draw its bitter master, no doubt eager for revenge, out.
Starbound Flotilla	"Well? How do we do it?" "How do we do what?" "How do we draw him out?" "Why the /fuck/ are you asking me?" "...You're George?" "Hey! I'm not automatically the guy who makes leaders angry." "Pah. Just tell him." "Hey, fuck you! I'm a complex person! I'm not just 'make guy in charge mad'." "Nah, that sounds about right to me." "Don't /you/ of all people pin me with this one-note characterization bullshit!" "Awkward. George, he... does sort of have a point." "Aw, what, even /you/?!" "Sheepish. Well, I need to be honest." "Come on, Biteblade, back me up!" "Backing up human friend iss eassiest way to make fish leader angry, so ssure." "Graaaaaah!" The Flotilla are busy directing a craft they have floating over the water. It's actually a hover-vessel rather than a water vessel, but it works much the same, it just feels /weird/. The others are invited aboard the elaborate wood-and-steel contraption, just as long as they don't touch the glowy bits that keep it hovering just on the waves. Much of the main deck is occupied by a set of six large mecha suits. "Alright, look, Fight Club wants us to bring out the soundwaves, right? Where I come from, easiest way to get a captain into the rage cage is to insult them a lot where the people who 'respect' them can hear it." "A matter of reputation?" "A matter of stupidity." "Look, if it works it works, you want my help or not?" "They're a god, right? Don't they need the worship?" "Clarifying. I thought they were a very ancient Lunar?" "Ssso, don't /need/ the worship, jussst addicted anyway." "Haw! Sounds about right!" "Alright, look, just-- Moonie, get the concert gear." "Oh? Oh, with pleasure." Speakers aren't exactly a hard thing to come by, and so the huge speaker they've built on the deck -- tuned to work best with broadcasting directly into the water, and likely crafted with some spare handiwork from Staren if they can convince him -- is sort of welded, roped, nailed, and strapped to one side of the ship, pointed down. The top (back) of it makes a makeshift platform where hopefully Wandering Dog can survive the high-intensity sound of it when he speaks into the microphone on the mic stand atop it. It should work, right? The sound goes down, and everything on the top is okay. Still, the Flotilla hands out some noise-cancelling headphones.
Staren	"I don't think Leviathan can get anything from worship here, actually." Staren points out. "Doesn't it all condense into quintessence in Heaven? I doubt anyone from Yu-Shan is coming down here to give Leviathan his share." Staren leaves the platform-building to the Captains -- his matter manipulator isn't as good, and he doesn't have practice using it for such things -- the underwater speaker works on principles he familiarized himself ahead of time, and so only needs a minimum of testing and tuning. Staren's main contribution, aside from tuning the speakers and providing the Captains with some mini-torpedo launchers to incorporate into the platform, is bringing his own forty-foot warmachine, which he's been testing to get the hang of operating under the influence of Wandering Dog's water charms. It is SO WEIRD to fly through the water on jets and rockets, and he's got to test lots of little things, including that the sniper railgun works with dummy rounds. "Awesome. I'd hate to be the guy fighting a bunch of warstriders operating under this power in the water..." During his tests, he also releases a bunch of little hydrostat sensors -- cameras and microphones and whanot to help him with situational and positional awareness in the area. If you have to fight the other guy on his turf, make it your turf first. Sun Tzu probably said something like that, Staren's not looking it up right now. Finally, the Star Hawk flies out of the water, transforms, and lands on the platform. "Tests complete. Ready when you guys are."
Starbound Flotilla	"Oh?" Pavo has an incredulous smirk on her beak as she turns to her Convenient Cockpit-Broadcasting Viewport while she manages the bridge of the platform they're bringing out into position. "Staren, trust me: When people want to be worshipped, practical benefit's usually just incidental." Powerful cynicism, coming from a cult-leader.
Wandering Dog	"This is my greatest idea yet." Wandering Dog says as the speakers are finished, admiring them briefly. There's a nod towards the Flotilla and a thumbs-up, though Wandering Dog is not dumb enough to pass up the headphones. Fitting them over his ears, he breathes in and out, allowing his Essence to flow and grant everyone the ability to work and breathe underwater, just in case. "Alright. I'll flow my essence and be a big glowing target. When he comes up to smack me, shoot the hell out of him, and then we rumble, got it?" It's a simple plan. Wandering Dog isn't the team tactician, after all. Stepping up to the microphone, the Dragon-Blooded Exalted flows essence through himself, grounding his feet with superhumanity so he doesn't get sent flying backwards off the platform by the speakers. And then, once he's ready, he gives another thumbs up to the group, and speaks. "Leviathan! Beastmen of Luthe! You hear the call of your conquerer! I am the Wandering Dog, the one who assaulted your city, slew your people, ended your mad games of slavery. I have come to end the life of the self-proclaimed Whale God, to slaughter Leviathan like the beast he is." "He is old and decrepit, outdated anathema who can do nothing but wallow in the light of his own mistakes! Where was he when I attacked? Where was he when your men and your gods fell? Was his rage enough? Was it enough for him failing you?" "The blood of Daana'd flows through me, the cursed blood you hate so much! If you, Leviathan, are truly what you claim, then strike me down! Show your people your power! Or fall in the attempt!" Wandering Dog is sure of himself. He can't fail - he's a hero, after all. However, he didn't think through the fact that other people could possibly hear these soundwaves. Hopefully there's no ships nearby.
Bloody Revelations	George certainly isn't wrong. There's no way he could be. His experience is ironclad with lesser despots of somehow more benign insanity and obsessive control than the 'Whale God' they know of. Though it is the middle of the night, the voice of Wandering Dog carries far under the waves with the use of his Essence of the water dragon, waking beastmen from their beds and sending soldiers to their night watch. Staren's and the Flotilla's sonar immediately picks the city starting its engines and beginning to rise, but it isn't what breaches the surface first. The savage marines of Luthe will not sortie while they are certain their god will smite the blasphemers, and Leviathan will not tolerate such insults so lightly. Not when Wandering Dog claims credit for ruining all he'd built before, as one of the hated Terrestrial Exalted that once killed his mate. The water breaks in an explosive, foaming torrent, where a great orca larger than even the most colossal of blue whales breaches its surface, the length and girth of an entire battleship. Swirling silver patterns along its flanks make no effort to hide its origin as it spouts a geyser from its blowhole, and opens its mouth wide in a terrific, skull-pounding roar of defiance suited better for a monster than even a giant whale, exposing its myriad man-sized teeth studding a maw fit to swallow a boat whole. Looking to swat down the threat instantly and dramatically, it plunges back down into the water, swoops low and fast as a diving falcon, and then surges back up, rocketing up from under the waves to crash into the underside of the flying platform like a train dropped out of the sky -upside down. Leviathan seeks to blow their craft to pieces and pick them off in the water.
Staren	Something appears on sonar, but the wrong shape to be the city. "That's him?! He's huge!" Staren takes to the air immediately, but it's not enough to avoid the huge wave / stray pieces of platform, even if he avoids a direct hit. The Star Hawk tumbles from the impact -- Staren rights it, while simultaneously unfolding the sniper railgun. Right now, Leviathan's attack on the surface, now is the time to strike, before it learns to be wary of the strange 'warstrider'. Charging it this fast isn't good for it, but he's not sure he'll get many more chances to fire it today anyway. He doesn't really need to aim, at this distance. Staren makes sure it's pointed 'towards the whale' and then there's a sonic boom and a streak of fire as a magic bomb is launched through the air at several times the speed of sound, burning the air itself! After the impact, water- and fire-aspected energy are allowed to mix, creating the elemental magic version of a steam explosion! Staren's not sure what kind of damage to expect against a being this powerful, but... hopefully something? The Star Hawk hovers there, stabilization thrusters firing in its back, legs, and on fins extended from the rifle, followed by a huge cloud of steam venting from the railgun as it cools.
Starbound Flotilla	"Alert. He's heading for us!" "Angle!" "Short. Directly below!" "Brace for impact!" "Launch Ssstarssstridersss!" "Go go go! Before we strike water!" "God, Fight Club, I dunno enough history but you sure did piss this guy off!" The Flotilla's platform is slammed from below, and it shows. The whole thing splits in half, launching partially into the air. Shattered hull and chunks of engine fly in dramatic arcs, and fuel pods explode in mid-air. The Flotilla are already rushing for their Starstriders the moment they get through the first impact; many of them are bruised and battered by it, but they're all skilled enough in anti-gravity mobility that they're well capable of maneuvering in mid-air as their vehicle's wreck arcs, using grappling hooks, air-jets, and cooperatio. They reach the limp forms of the large mecha right before the wreck slams back down onto the water; only one segment of it -- the chunk with the speaker, of course -- remains floating, on fire. The other rapidly sinks. "Report." "Star Two, reporting. How unfortunate he did not bring his city with him." "Dutiful. Star Three reporting. So we could enact the plan?" "Star Four reporting. So we'd have an audience, toaster." "Ssstar five reportsss. Or maybe a fair fight." "Yeah, yeah, don't get cocky about him. This motherfucker's huge." "We have our job in the plan." "What do you say we follow Staren's lead?" "Do not grant him a moment's respite then. Strike with our full force!" These fifteen-foot-tall mecha-suits menace with powerful weapons and armor. Moonfin's swift melee-spec'd Starstrider is designed after the aesthetics of submarines, with a heavy glass-domed cockpit set against heavy finned limbs, all pulsing with shining cyan energy, especially along the katana. Biteblade's construction is a mix of metal and densewood, heavy organic constructions mixed with scavenged machines. Its eyes and mouth glow bright green, the same green as its shining knife at its hip. Pavo's is made of huge gems and engraved temple-stone facades, it looks like a powerful mesoamerican warrior golem, with a pair of brilliantly shining yellow eyes, yellow wings, and even a brilliant yellow halo to match its ritual-looking cutlass. Albert has crafted a tremendous militarized walking tank, with thick limbs, treads at its feet, and large, fat arms that float at its side bearing five different artillery projectile weapons each, though it maintains a shiny white gleaming smooth aesthetic. George has an industrial mecha, looking far more like something designed to load huge and heavy cargo, with shining, crackling fists and drills, and a bright red HUD filling up the unsealed cockpit. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, has created what looks very much like a fifteen-foot-tall knight, whose thick helm hides a bright blue glow below the faceplate, and under the surface of its sword and shield.
Starbound Flotilla	Each surges over or below the waves as suits wherever Leviathan might hide, driven by the power of Wandering Dog's shared energies. Albert is the first of the Flotilla to open fire, overcharging ten different artillery weapons at once, firing a barrage of heavy ordinance in kinetic bolts, energy shots, explosive missiles, laser beams, and a multitude of other options meant to strike with variety where Staren has struck with intensity. Biteblade is the next to follow up, her heavy mecha-sized bow unleashing a massive shot so intense it leaves a wide wake of both air and water turned to fire or steam respectively, intent on piercing the tough hide and crushing through innards until it comes out the other side. Pavo floats above, surrounded by a shimmering halo of floating gems which twist and undulate dramatically, bouncing energy between each other. A shining whirl of golden light gathers behind her, unleashed in a beam of heavenly light that looks more like a divine sun-god striking from above. Seft rushes in shortly after, shield and sword at the ready, intent on crashing against the face of the massive beast and keeping its attention enough for the others to re-maneuver a moment, lashing out with thrusts of the blade surging with elemental, almost magical energy. It's meant to be cover for Moonfin, who swims in with great speeed, and gently mutters, "Sixth Sea Hylotl Style: Selachiic Frenzy!" Before attempting a rapid-fire flurry done through a multitude of strikes up and down the body through fast motions, a chaos meant for George to capitalize on. George's grappler can do little all on its own against the massive creature, but he can try to use his mecha's heavy drills to plunge thick grapple-lines into the body of the beast, ones he hopes to use to wrangle it urgently. Wrangle for what? Well, mostly to give Wandering Dog a shot; he's the one with the biggest reason to strike here, after all, and the biggest weight to put behind his fists.
Wandering Dog	Leviathan's coming. Wandering Dog knows it. So when something appears on sonar, and the others move, the Exalted braces. Right before Leviathan's about to hit the platform, he grins, and then flows essence through his legs. He needs to move... And move he does. The martial artist launches into the air, avoiding the platform's destruction narrowly, and surging through the sky like a comet. As debris flies through, Wandering Dog does flips and aerial turns to gracefully avoid them, before landing on the water, leaping over waves and turning towards Leviathan. "Nice try, but you've gotta move your old bones better than that if you're going to get me, Leviathan. Lemme show you the blood flowing through me!" As Wandering Dog runs across the water, his anima begins to flare. An aura flows around him, black and blue with tints of green, swelling around him intensely. His motions blur, almost oily, as he glances towards George grappling the massive whale-Lunar and nods. And then, Wandering Dog jumps again. This time, his goal is to come down on Leviathan's head, foot first, the aura flowing around him swelling in his foot and moving to give a bone-shattering kick to the whale's skull, with enough force and momentum to possibly tear through blubber if he was a regular whale and not a reinforced super-whale like Wandering Dog expects. If the hit lands, Wandering Dog will move to stay on Leviathan's head and start flurrying into him with enhanced punches, angling to the point he struck on to maximize damage and possibility of breaking bone and creating a weak spot, and then promptly damaging it some more. The fact he hasn't been hit yet means Wandering Dog is underestimating Leviathan. This could go poorly.
Azure Armature	A crew upon a boat(s) (well, mecha and components of Starbound Voltron), off to handle the quandry of Luthe. One of their number did not promptly return to the borrowed boat, as it fled from the slaughter upon the seas and the complete annihilation of the Lintha's yozi host-island-thing. And now, now that Leviathan, the Whale "God" had come out to solo combat the whole group. Debris, floatsam, and even the various crafts bob in the ocean, before the great Lunar would feel his anti-surprise powers screamed at him. Above, in the air, a number of strange image-runes flare into existance, spinning once in concentric rings before firing a large blast of electric essence, snapping through the air like lightning. "Analysis complete." Armature's voice calls out. "This won't take long." Snapping into reality in a flash of light and a pop of Math, Armature's scarf flaps in the sea breeze around her shoulders. "Don't commit everything just yet! These sorts burn brightly at the start, and wear out. Tactically - I recommend a battle of attrition."
Bloody Revelations	Where Leviathan breaches, Staren takes his shot. The railgun couldn't possibly miss a target so huge, but the silver marks on the great whale's hide gleam with flickers of Essence like moonlight, glittering on the waves, and the slug shatters on its flank, exploding into a scathing wash of elemental energies that flow down its sides, preventing any internal damage. The tremendous orca turns forward to dive once more, crashing under the newly generated waves and slamming its tail down on the surface so hard that the water explodes into a lethal blast hard enough to knock Staren out of the sky. Where it dives however, the entire Flotilla follows it, harrying and chasing it from every side. Albert blasts it under a barrage of fire that makes the water vibrate from its intensity, rolling it over on its side. The arrow pierces its softer underside, albeit still not nearly enough, causing blood to seep out into the water and dissolve into red clouds. It crashes with Seft head on in a direct contest of strength --one she won't win, but gives her sword purchase into its snout, and holds it still long enough for Moonfin's blade to flash patterns of gouges through its side, spilling more trickling crimson into the water. Roaring its displeasure, the behemoth orca turns and smashes Moonfin with its tail, throws Seft clear with its head, and then charges down Biteblade, slamming past her to emerge into the open air, where it is immediately struck by lightning from Azure, stopped dead, whereupon Pavo then blasts it full on in the face with a divine pillar that makes the water explode into a mushroom cloud of steam. Wandering Dog plunges from the sky in a dramatic meteor kick dead into the middle of it, intent on flattening the old Exalt inside of it. Where he makes contact, the steam is torn asunder, cast away in tatters by the pressure wave, to reveal the Orca is no more, and a man of handsome features, bronzed skin, and glistening hair, stands atop the water, and has stopped the martial artist's foot cold with his hand. Numerous cuts and burns line either side. A blast mark mars his otherwise perfect facial features. He rips the shard of a mecha-sized arrow free from his stomach. The wounds begin flowing and closing, healing as only a Lunar can. "The blood of cowards and mutineers is nothing to boast of. Since you've deprived me of the rest of your number, you can take their place in their cells, and suffer for all of them put together in their place!" His hand clenches on Wandering Dog's ankle with bone-crushing force, flinging him like a pebble over the water and into the wreckage of the platform. Called to his hand, a gargantuan trident of whorled moonsilver and bristling coral erupts from the water beside him, snatched up in his hand, and then he turns on his heel (still on the water) and hurls it at Azure Armature so fast it bangs. "Absolutely, you must be deluded to just shout my name! I survived ten thousand of your number and your underhanded treachery, at the height of your limited power. What makes you think you stand a chance?!"
Staren	"Oh COME ON!" Staren shouts as his magitech explosive shell just SHATTERS on impact, destroying the explosive before it can go off. He doesn't let that put him off-balance, though -- As a plume of water comes up at him, he's quick to pull out the shield and fly back with it, softening the blow. He still grunts as the machine is jerked back around him, pushing him into the straps holding him in his seat. The water that hits the rifle's barrel instantly turns to steam. There must be a way to soften this guy up! Staren realizes, abruptly, that he doesn't know how Exalted defense charms WORK. Something involving essence, obviously, but HOW? The broken pieces of platform are sinking in the water. He may as well make use of them while he has them -- one of the mini-torpedo turrets ripple-fires a salvo -- Staren fires a wild burst from the gatling railgun in Leviathan's general direction as a distraction. The torpedoes have shaped charge warheads -- Staren hopes that blocking blast after blast will deplete Leviathan's defenses some -- or alternatively, some will get through and create wounds for others to target! It's win-win! Unless defenses don't work that way. "I could ask the same of you. I've lost count of the people we've saved, of the tyrants we've slain, of the worlds we've changed. What makes you think you're different from all of them? The unstoppable force for change meets the immovable object clinging to the past. Today, we see who wins."
Starbound Flotilla	"Pained. Watch it! He's grappling me!" "Buy me more time!" "Urgent. I can't, I can't-- Look out!!" "Grrrh--!!" "Panicked. Moonfin!! BZZT!" "Star Two, Star Three! What's your status?!" "Pained. Rebooting systems! He threw me clear!" "I need cover! His strike has lashed my armor." "I'm on it." "Floran got grazed bad!" "Star Six, do /not/ disengage-- Star Five! Report target status!" "He'sss tiny now!" "No, that's a normal size to me." "Focus!" "How'll we proceed?" "Get Star Five and Star Two out of their cockpits. I'll keep the tango locked." "Are we to match their size then?" "Could use some of that accuracy, right?" Seft is slammed back, crashing clear out of the water in a dramatic arc. Moonfin is blasted several hundred feet back by the impact, armor crunched badly and the overall suit damaged fairly severely. Biteblade is grazed by the rush on the way up, leaving her mecha slamming against the long body of the whale, kind of rolling down it like she was rolling down a long, painful hill. Pavo dives to help Biteblade, while George surges to help Moonfin, each intent on getting them back into the fight /fast/ while their Starstriders reboot. Albert is the one who surges around, coming up a stop, and unloading that artillery, orientedn to try to strike /around/ Wandering Dog and to keep the man occupied. Moonfin, on his way back, is the one who handles speaking. "You have survived, hidden away among your city, drinking from the blood of a corpse. You have survived, twisting anything in your reach into an ugly, revolting mess. But you have not thrived. You have made nothing beautiful and you have made nothing peaceful. Your kingdom is ugly and its people are violent. It would matter little to me if you were a true immortal, what you have made of Luthe is unconscionable. To strike and take it from you is as much a reflexive act of disgust as might be a sneer at its stench, Leviathan. Futility is irrelevant in the face of such hideousness." He's in his fancy diver-suit samurai armor, and it's likely he's about to join the brawl at his more manageable size shortly, as the battle progresses.
Wandering Dog	Wandering Dog did /not/ expect him to let down his whale form. He thought that Leviathan would be too proud to shapeshift, unwilling to reveal the humanoid underneath to him, which means that his foot is perfectly caught, and his ankle is damaged. There's a grunt of pain, before the martial artist goes flying at the platform's wreckage. He manages to shift his weight in mid-air, slowing his fall and stopping himself from hitting the wreckage straight on, but it still hurts, as he coughs up blood from the impact. Returning to the top of the water, wobbling before focusing his position, Wandering Dog... Laughs at the Leviathan. The Dog laughs. "What makes me different? Oh, buddy. I'm three hundred years old, an old man. I've got experience doing these hero things. And I'm not sure how much you know about martial arts...but I've done the impossible. I've reached the Bulb of the Perfected Lotus." His words suddenly have a lot of weight, and there's a pause. If Leviathan knows enough about Martial Arts, he might know that that should be impossible. "Let me show you." Wandering Dog inhales. As he exhales, his aura changes, forming road-like patterns in the colors. His motions become even oilier, like ink is flowing around him as he walks and punches. And then, Wandering Dog takes a single step. And in the next instant, he's suddenly in front of Leviathan, having run in a straight line so fast that he basically vanished. He crossed the distance, but it was at such an incredible speed that it was basically teleportation. As soon as he reaches Leviathan, Wandering Dog throws out a punch, infused with oily and smoky energy. It's one hell of a punch if it impacts, and with how accurate his line is, hopefully it will.
Azure Armature	"Yes. They didn't have the proper strategy." Armature smugs, in a cutscene, with a dramatic lens flare and close up. And probably a name bar. You know the one. Armature thought, perhaps rightly, that it would not be her that would draw direct ire. The Lunar was incensed, surely, but there was a large -- Staren gets a complete double take, being that he's in a large mecha-suit. This was the first time she had seen him like this. "But you're not... Nevermind." She announces suddenly, and aborting it just as suddenly. Right, anyway, there were multiple mecha attackers, and the rather tremendous local elite whom Leviathan would most likely be going after first. So she never sees the anchor coming. Unlike Leviathan, who probably has piles of ways to snap surprise, Armature recieves her inner ear warning signal too late. And so, instead of EDGILY AND COOLLY standing with perfect balance ninja-poised on a broken mast, Armature gets clocked in the chest like a fucking nerd, and is driven into the water. A moment later the soaked and no longer CHUUNI SCARF-FLAPPING Armature teleports back up to the mast. "As I was saying..." Armature leaps into the air, getting absurd air-floating time as she aims, quickly firing a series of lightning bolts from the light array limning her arm. "My analysis was already completed." 'Maker.' Armature self-monologues. 'Everyone here is so talkative - it encourages the divulging of priveleged information. Memo to self: Avoid battle dialogue.'
Bloody Revelations	Staren's railgun salvo goes blitzing at Leviathan, and just like that, the giant, silver trident whizzes back to his outstretched hand, slapping into his palm a split second in time to whirl it in the direction of the automatic burst, spinning it back and forth with impossible speed to slap away the sustained burst of iron slugs, not making a dent on the attuned moonsilver. He is, while he does it, completely rooted in place, and while he dispassionately stares down Staren (it feels like he's making eye contact directly through the cockpit, despite the huge distance), the torpedoes explode under his feet and launch him high into the air, where he is combo blasted by Albert's artillery fire. The Lunar slams back into the surface of the water, but doesn't actually go under, bouncing and then rolling over as the continued barrage falls around him. Charred and tattered, he rips his coat -like that of an admiral's- coat off and throws it to the side, exposing rippling bronzed muscle and faint spots like the belly of the orca that is his spirit animal, in addition to his fresh wounds. He looks to either side with the artillery exploding all around him, squaring his stance and hardening his skin further with another flicker of silver Essence, until the flames and shrapnel start parting on his bare chest like so much water and gravel against a rock. He doesn't charge directly through the screen though, doing what Albert aimed for and electing to let Wandering Dog to come to him. Leviathan belly laughs as the Terrestrial makes his absurd claims, right in the middle of battle, apparently confident that his constantly healing wounds will see him through whatever the rest of the group can throw at him now that he has a good idea of their strength and has toughened up further. "What a joke! A filthy Dragon-Blooded! Why don't you prove i-" and then he is zip-punched in the face. With his guard completely down, Wandering Dog can feel his jaw crack against his knuckles, albeit his hand will be bruised pretty significantly for how insanely hard the man's flesh and bones are. Leviathan is lifted off his feet, trailing blood from his broken nose and smoke from his seared flesh where he goes spinning and skipping off the water again, crashing into a prone position where he is blasted full on in the chest by multiple strings of lightning, howling in fury as much as pain. "You wretch! A filthy little street in the belly of Luthe is too good for you! I'll feed you piece by tiny piece to the sharks!" He kips up to a standing position, begins sprinting at Wandering Dog, and then in mid-run, shapeshifts right back into the titanic orca, using his momentum to plough into him like a freight train, and his size to make dodging far more difficult at the last second. He shapeshifts back right after impact, turning and skidding on the balls of his feet up the crest of an impact wave and hurling the trident at Albert next, which not only makes it to his mecha in the blink of an eye, but then erratically bounces off it and rips right at Staren at twice the speed. Where it strikes, a thunderclap of silver Essence explodes out in a web of glowing earthen cracks, and the damage to their machines exponentially multiplies compared to what it did to hitting a person. Azure he attacks by simply leaping the insane distance to suddenly be eye to eye with her, transforming one arm into a massive pillar of muscle and claws, and using it for a frontflipping axle swipe slash slam dunk. Well, he is using up a lot of energy, just like she'd suggested.
Staren	Staren has no clue just how ridiculous Dog's claim is, but damn if that didn't look impressive! Staren has the sniper rifle fold back up into its box behind the right shoulder while Leviathan is focused on the others. And Leviathan hasn't seen everything Staren can do just yet. As tthe trident bounces, the Star Hawk transforms and puts all its thrust into dodging! It still gets clipped by the trident, and thanks to the damage-amplification effect, that's nothing to sneeze at -- it tears a rent along the side of his machine, and a shower of metal shards rains into the water below. Staren needs a moment to come up with a new strategy. For the moment, he just keeps up the pressure with gatling railgun covering fire. Even if the lunar can facetank it... an experienced fighter's GOT to feel something when an attack is incoming, right? For him to either dodge or consciously ignore it is at least a small drain on Leviathan's attention. Staren hopes. Who knows what the mind of someone millenia old is like?
Wandering Dog	"Hah! How'd you like that?!" Wandering Dog grins, having shown his power (which he can't use lightly, with how exhaustive it is), though he's quickly met with a powerful strike that shows him to stop underestimating Leviathan. Wandering Dog is sent flying back /hard/, something cracking, though he's smart enough that instead of hitting the water flat, he lets himself sink through it, submerging below. He might be dead down there, drowning. Well, no, because he's still letting out Essence, so he's definitely alive, and he's definitely not drowning. As he sinks, Wandering Dog clutches his stomach in pain, and then bursts out of the water with movement abilities like a rocket, moving to launch up and behind Leviathan. When Wandering Dog reaches him, he moves to start spinning in mid-air, trying to floating kick in circles at his back if possible after his slam dunk. "Alright, you want to feed me to the sharks? When I'm done with you, you won't EVEN LEAVE A GHOST!"
Azure Armature	'They burn through their power quickly, and then either die in a nova of power, or slink off with their gifts to fight another day.' That was Armature's tactical analysis from plumbing the texts and records of bygone eras. The tactical data of the Deliberative, and the Usurpation. If it was mechanically possible - how? With how - how could that help her now? Her eyes whirred in comprehension as Leviathan raged. He would expend his vital silver essence here as his tempers flared, striking out with great ire. Certainly, the Lunars in their "War Forms" were demanding, terrifying foes... But it was all numbers. Armature's controlled floaty superjump is intercepted as Leviathan gathers up negative bball protons and prepares to enact a CHAOS DUNK. Bringing up a field of light-barriers, Armature soaks most of the slam and then dunk with her ablative energy shields, before being grabbed and crushed before being slammed down into the broken floatsam below, leaving a titanic splash. With a crash of water, flowing around her - brought by her mid-water translocation over to Albert's side, hanging off his craft if necessary. "I'll set him up. Tell your crew." She notices him, before popping back away. Re-appearing in the air above Leviathan, the soggy operative flares with an aura of blue while aiming her weaponized arm, firing a spray of pellets that burst into thick, chemical smoke. The lightning bolt of essence she strikes the cloud with after turn the whole affair into a large, floating cloud of electric smoke, crackling and popping with the lingering roil of the slowly thinning cloud.
Starbound Flotilla	"Blue One says she's setting him up." "And we would be /poor/ examples of our services were we not to knock him down." "Star Six, deliver Star Two on me!" "Yeah, whatever I guess!!" "Star Four! Star Five! Give cover! Star Two, bleed him dry!!" "I'll put the fear of god in him!" "Floran gonna SSSTAB!" "He deserves not one drop of lifeblood." George is here, helping deliver Moonfin; the smaller samurai is riding atop his Starstrider, clinging to it. He leaps quickly onto Albert's mecha, which charges its engines hard and rushes down the man just in time for the huge spear to pierce clean through the shoulder segment and one of the main fuel conduits. The Starstrider has a hefty hole blasted through it, prompting Albert to swiftly eject -- but Moonfin can keep riding it. In fact, he nudges it so that it heads towards the Lunar, intent on riding it as a defensive sort of thing. And then, at the last moment, he leaps off! Twisting in the air, he lets the mecha crash-slam into the waves and hopefully into the Lunar. "You use the ugliness of what you have made as a cudgel, a brutality that may be inflicted." He says, sneering in his voice. "You revel in hideousness like an animal playing in filth. Strength or no, doom or no, a Hylotl that respects themselves can little tolerate such a being, and if one might stand in the way of a goal, even pacifism as superior as ours can only buckle under the weight of the sin." He flicks his katana in a dramatic motion that conjures lightning along its length. "Fourth Sea Hylotl Style: Starvation at Sea!" He rushes forward as fast as he can, skidding over the water with the speed of the motions. As he does, he calls in support; Biteblade is firing arrows -- smaller now, from her personal magnetic bow, Pavo is lancing down less-charged shots like rain, and George is firing smaller mecha-mounted cannons rapidly into the fray, all meant to enhance and enable Moonfin's effort to lance lightning into the body of the man, taking advantage of his moment of excessive energy use to drain even more through debilitating and exhausting STATUS EFFECTS, and a relentless flurry that keeps in close to take advantage of what his allies, Flotilla or otherwise, are doing!
Bloody Revelations	This time, Leviathan is on guard for Wandering Dog. He can take that as a compliment if he likes, given that the Lunar is significantly older and more experienced than even he is, and punching him in the face like that had clearly gotten his attention. He twists to face the martial artists and braces behind an arm guard to block and deflect his hail of floating kicks, batting them away with strength more than finesse, taking a solid kick to the side of the head, but then responding by striking Wandering Dog with a dead center punch --right after suddenly doubling in size as he explodes into a hulking titan of an absurdly overmuscled beastman, his skin glistening jet black and blotted with white, possessing the tail of a whale, and baring rows of needle-like teeth as he hits back with double his previous strength. The rate of his healing accelerates even further, trying to compensate for the mounting damage as he is provoked into his full Warform. Even tougher and stronger than before, he hunkers down and flexes all of his muscles, such that more railgun rounds pound against his back like especially heavy and fast hail crystals, causing no more than showers of bruises. In his rigid posture though, he isn't about to dodge what happens next, and having chosen a whale form means having skin with zero electrical resistance, and so the moment after, he is consumed in a coruscating field of Essence lightning, howling in furious convulsions while he is set up for the dunk shot. Paralyzed as he is, scores of arrows, slugs, and energy blasts spatter into his exposed and un-tensed chest, leaving shafts sticking out of all of his upper body before they snap with the pressure of his paralytic convulsions, a tapestry of shallow, bloody potholes, and even more burns to add to his collection. When Moonfin gracefully slides by, his sword bites into Leviathan's flesh in a dozen places, sending flickers and motes of silver Essence spraying from the wounds as much as blood. Leviathan himself either doesn't notice, or won't dignify, the loss. With a tremendous roar, so loud as to crater the water around him with the sound wave, he blasts the chemical cloud, and its electrical charge, away from him in every direction. He is literally drooling with overheated exertion, his eyes bloodshot with fury, much like an animal rather than how the human body handles stress and exhaustion, but he is enraged beyond words and beyond reason. Were Wandering Dog of all people not provoking him, he might have engaged this tactically, but the haze of moonlight around him finally turns from a constant silver stream to a blazing pillar with the illumination of a full moon, creating a shimmering aurora borealis above him through which a ghostly killer whale slowly swims and circles, casting its arctic light and eerie whalesong on the battle below as Luthe continues to rise, and close in, on sensors. He summons the artifact trident again, cocks his arm back, and when he javelin throws it towards Moonfin, a miniature ocean hurricane explodes around its point, becoming a cone-shaped vortex of wind and spray and thunder to form around it, accelerating with a further charge of Essence. He doesn't wait for it to come back. Raising his hands, copper-coloured lightning cracks down from the sky without a peal of thunder, gathering on his arms and arcing between his palms to the appropriate charge, which he then fires directly at Azure Armature. Hit or miss, it explodes into a blast of streaking red sparks after, most of which hit Staren full-on like a huge anti-air burst.
Staren	Staren tries to huddle his mecha behind his shield again -- it flickers, some of the sparks getting through, and others getting around it anyway -- all dig into the mecha, leaving tiny holes or scoring the armor where they graze it. Ever slowly, Leviathan's wearing him down... He's gotta do SOMETHING. Shame about those torpedoes sinking... Wait. He was prepared for UNDERWATER COMBAT today. So what if they sank? The Star Hawk dives into the water to retrieve the torpedo turrets. An intermittant smattering of mini-torpedoes and gatling railgun fire comes up from the depths, just to keep the orca-man on his toes. Staren doesn't have more witty banter for him at the moment. In this bestial state, could he even understand it...?
Wandering Dog	Even if Wandering Dog is now taking Leviathan 100% seriously, that doesn't mean dodging and avoiding hits. It means taking them head-on, showing that he's the better fighter, rallying against him. As the hulking punch comes for his center, Wandering Dog reinforces his body, tiger-stripes of essence banding over him, allowing him to withstand the hit - at the cost of being sent flying back and skidding across the water, and being in a WHOLE lot of pain, something else cracking. "You're nothing! The Anathema you failed to protect, the ones who died in the rebellion? They fell because they were weak. They fell because they were fools. They fell because they were /scum/." Wandering Dog's taunting him. In his rage, it should work. It should let the martial artist get a clear punch on him. Because as he speaks, a wild green energy begins to flow around him, into his fist. Leviathan, if he's familiar with the Wood Dragon Style of martial arts, may recognize it. If he does, Wandering Dog thinks he should be scared. "And I'll make sure you /never/ get a chance to see them again." Sprinting against the water, Wandering Dog only has a few seconds to make his strike. His legs are flowed with essence, speeding him up. He hopes Leviathan charges him, so that he can crack into him. All he needs is for the hit to make contact - it doesn't need to truly hurt him more than a little. If the hit makes it, the energy glows out of Wandering Dog and into Leviathan. It is quite possibly the most painful (physical) experience he's ever had. The energy wracks through his body, attacking not his organs, but his soul. And if it kills him? His soul will be ripped out of him, permanently dead. Resurrection won't help, and one could only guess whether or not he'd enter the reincarnation cycle.
Azure Armature	Armature sees the full powered warform of Leviathan rise up, even impaired as he with the electric smoke, and begins preparing herself as she fell towards the ground. Her sparking blue battle-corona flashed with crackles of lightning before she started charging up her power, the aura being sucked in to the air before the palm of her right hand, the strange math-essence being completely diverted to her strange weapon. She was charging her shot. As Leviathan moved against her, with a twist of the heel and a flicker of rainbow glitter. This wasn't an average speed-dodge, but a full on reflexive combat-translocation. Of course, she reappears in the air off his flank, left hand hracing her right bicep as her entire set of clothing becomes aphotic blue and streaked with brass. A serpent's jaw, crackling with inner power, opens wide to disgorge the charged Hyper Beam "Predictable. I told you. My analysis is complete. This operation..." Her D-Buster finishes charging, hand closing into fist around the overcharged energy and blasting out as a column of energetically explosive light. "... Is going exactly to plan!"
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin is blasted back by the clearing of the chemistry in the air, his blade held in a defensive position and his feet skidding over the ground. He knows the nature of that sort of roar. A kiai of tremendous intensity means an attack of similar intensity is forthcoming, and he can see it in that wind-up. The man cocks his arm and Moonfin presses one foot back dramatically. "First Sea Hylotl Style:" He mutters, gently. He twists his blade in preparation... He can see the muscles tense as the throw winds up... "Seas Still as Glass." He flows like water. The trident slams into his blade and yet somehow it's like it became the weight to a tremendous lever. His body moves around it elegantly, stylishly, like a dancer or like an incredibly pretentious pool when you run your hand through it. The trident barely grazes along his body with the absolutely lightest touch possible, and then his body swoops and swirls right back up, twirling until he restores his stance. At his shoulders, eight chunks of refined hyperglass eject from ports. They are blisteringly hot, and visibly steaming; the little cartridges of depleted hyperglass ping as they clear the armor, and steam when they hit the water and gently drift below it, leaving a trail of boiling bubbles around them. "Seft," He says, bemused. "I must admit your handiwork with the hyperglass has no shortage of an artist's touch. I beg a moment of respite, my batteries are drained; George, please do all you can. Seft, ready Brass Leviathan if Luthe is where your sensors alert us it is." "You got it, Nemo." George calls out over his radio, surging in over the water. He rushes in a frankly irresponsible way, moving to grapple as George often must. But George's grapple, in this case, is in a newer context. He still has his mecha on-hand, and can swing that big metal fist to try to clamp it around the Lunar's body, and electrify it. "Heya buddy! Been thinking about having some fried fish, what do you think?" His goal? Well, he can see Wandering Dog going for a big swing, so he intends to set him up to truly and properly land that strike dead-on. Unfortunately, this means grabbing a man so deeply overheated that it'll likely slag his mecha's hand at the very least, pushing his system past its limits and dealing a hefty chunk of damage to it -- and through convection, to George within the mecha.
Bloody Revelations	Leviathan's animal outrage is comprehensible even on his savagely twisted whale-features, even with the blank note of comprehension playing through them, as Moonfin not only doesn't die, but somehow avoid Islebreaker completely. The trident flies back to his gigantic hands (now properly sized for the absurd weapon), still smoking with sorcerous energy, but just as it arrives, Azure Armature suddenly pops into existence right below him, and blasts him full on at point blank with the Essence discharge patterns copied from the Brass Leviathan's main weapons barries. To say the effect is dramatic is an understatement. Leviathan flies backwards faster than Islebreaker can reach him, going from an inch outside his grasp to being flung far out into the waves. The silver Essence coating him flares to a shining white crescendo to preserve his flesh against the wave of absolute destruction, begins to crackle, gutter, and then shatters completely, dispelling the Anima Banner roaring away overhead with one last wail of the illusory orca. When George grabs him, he catches the Warform Lunar out of the air like a baseball pitch, missing his right arm at the shoulder with only a charred and withered stump remaining. One remaining arm is not enough to break free before his is electrocuted again. --and then witnesses for himself the mastery that Wandering Dog purports to possess. The blow hits him dead on in the heart, causing little physical damage to his battered, burnt, and bleed body, but instead completing some sort of circuit with a resounding snap of metallic green energy, flashing viridian in the midst of a smoggy black nimbus, and then a blurred, translucent white shape goes flying right past George, phasing through his cockpit, that can only be Leviathan's soul. The Lunar's body slumps in his grasp, all lifesigns going flat, despite the lack of real physical trauma from the blow. A mile off in the distance, the dully gleaming spires and domes of Luthe rise up from the water, waves and waterfalls crashing down from its bulk, but it is already far too late, and even the rumbling of its emergence is delayed due to the extreme distance. Their Whale God is dead, just like his priests, and there's about a second or so to try and squint at the weird, fuzzy silhouette punched out of him, before it suddenly jerks to a halt in mid-air, and then is sucked straight down into the dark waters, just as as they become a rapidly expanding ring of black glass that oozes the deathly Essence of the Sea of Shadows that exists parallel to this place. Bloody Revelations emerges from thin air, without the Brass Leviathan, hovering aloft with a four-set of expansive, pitch black wings behind her, materialized from some darker material than the night sky, pulsing with their own, cold stars. She takes a look over the state of the group, giving a hard, pitilessly appraising stare, and then after a bit of a heart-jumping moment, seems to find it satisfactory. "You didn't have to beat his soul half to death. I had plans for his ghost. Now I don't even know if it can become one." she says, focused instead of her fingers as if she can her nails through her gloves. "Well, I'll admit, I've never seen the Immaculate Dragon arts personally before. It's a chance to study what exactly that technique does to souls, isn't it?" It's about as positive as she's been about something going somewhat off the expected rails, even and light in tone, too determined to reach the end goal of spiting someone else to bother to be upset with trivialities in the meantime. She glances back up at Luthe in the distance, and then begins silently drifting towards it. "Take the rest of the day off. I'll finish up with this before dawn."