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He’s torn through our front line, he’s taken down some of our best, and he’s deliberately targeted and eliminated most of the capes who were in Bastion’s group. We have precious few left who can take a hit from this creature and survive it, and we’re running low on those who can wall off another tidal wave or block his path.

Armsmaster, Extermination 8.3

Leviathan (pronounced: "leh-VY-uh-than") is one of the Endbringers. He is the second of the Endbringers to appear and is considered the "middle child" between Behemoth and the Simurgh. Despite not possessing the sheer power of Behemoth or the intellect of the Simurgh, he shares strengths with both of them, making him a dangerous threat that can be unexpectedly cunning.[21]

Appearance[]

Leviathan is thirty feet tall with a seemingly disproportionate body and scaly green skin. He has a top-heavy appearance due to his hunched shoulders and the large cords of muscles standing out on his neck, upper torso, and shoulders. The top-heavy appearance is only strengthened by his much thinner forearms and calves, topped off with massive claws and digitigrade feet. At the rear end of his body is a prehensile whip-like tail around 40-50 feet long.[22] Leviathan weighs nearly nine tons.[23][24]

His face lacks any kind of mouth, nose, or ears, with the only features being four cracks containing glowing green orbs that resemble eyes. These eyes are placed asymmetrically, with three on the left side of the face and one on the right.[22] At some point, Leviathan seemingly developed a fifth eye.[25] This eye appeared due to battle damage.[26]

When walking on two legs he sways his upper body back and forth in sync with the swaying of his arms, using his tail for balance. However he is far more balanced and significantly faster once on all fours, fast enough to run on the surface of the water. He leaves an "afterimage" of water whenever he moves, equivalent to the volume of whatever body part is in motion, perpetually shrouding him in water.

Abilities and Powers[]

Macro-Hydrokinesis[]

Leviathan's main power (and by far is his most powerful) is the manipulation of water on a massive scale. He often preludes his arrival to his target with a torrential downpour and a tsunami, which he continuously creates throughout the battle. Each one of these waves is more powerful than the last, eventually becoming powerful enough to topple entire buildings. The frequency of these is dependent on whether he is able to focus his ability on them, meaning a sustained attack can delay them. He often uses these to cripple strategic areas like evacuation centers or and smaller ones to change the balance of the battlefield if he begins to lose the advantage.

However the true strength of this ability is to create extreme amounts of water pressure and movement in unseen places such as underground aquifers or coastlines. When Leviathan approached Brockton Bay, Legend informed capes that Brockton Bay was a vulnerable soft target where they could not afford to buy time and let Leviathan build up the strength of his attacks[27] because the city was above an aquifer.[28] He could manipulate this aquifer in an attempt to erode the surrounding sand, silt, and rock, having the end goal of collapsing a section or perhaps most of the city.[29] If not stopped over the course of hours,[30] Leviathan can eventually even sink or level entire islands as he demonstrated with the complete disappearance of Newfoundland[31] and the shattered, half-sunken Kyushu.[32]

The only weakness to this ability is that it lacks fine control. When working with relatively small amounts of water the best he can do is create shield-like geysers or send smaller waves to throw off opponents. This means he can't do things like manipulating water within the body or pinpoint high pressure drilling.

After-Echo[]

Along with his hydrokinesis, Leviathan has an "echo" of water that appears whenever he moves. For any body part moved, voluntarily or being attacked, water will appear seemingly out of nowhere to fill the space in the air where that body part just was.[33] This water will maintain the speed and direction of the area that created it, even if the movement of that area changes.[34] For example if he whips his tail then quickly stops it, the water produced from that movement will continue forward at the same deadly speed as the tail was moving (something he uses to greatly increase the range of his attacks).[35] Normal physics still apply to this water and it can be manipulated by him afterwards. However, it is possible for a sufficiently powerful hydrokinetic to deflect his ranged attacks.[36]

Super-Speed[]

Unrelated to his hydrokinesis,[37] Leviathan has the ability to move at extremely fast speeds,[38] allowing him to move around the battlefield faster than many individuals can retreat and rapidly dodge slower ranged attacks. He could climb a 5-story building fast enough that his momentum carried him 20 feet above the rooftop.[39] On two legs, Leviathan can lunge forward at the speed of a locomotive[40] and swipe his claws as fast as a speeding car.[41] That said, non-speedsters such as Armsmaster[42] can aim dodge Leviathan's swipes with the help of combat analysis software.[43][44][45][46][47][48][49]

Leviathan crouching on all fours is typically an indication that he is preparing to charge into combat,[50][51][52][53] relocate,[54][55] or retreat.[56] On all fours, he is fast enough to run on the surface of water despite weighing nearly nine tons.[24][50] However, Clockblocker managed to tag a charging Leviathan with his power.[57] It is also possible for non-speedsters to aim dodge his charge (e.g., Armsmaster with a grappling hook and combat analysis software).[58]

If he chooses, Leviathan can run slower with a loping gait.[59]

While underwater, he can use his hydrokinesis with his super-speed to move faster than normal.[60] In a growing lake that was at least three city blocks across, Leviathan swam fast enough to essentially be a teleporter, finding the drowning and executing them.[61][24] He can also swim underwater to relocate[62] or retreat.[63][64] However, Skitter could track his underwater movements as he could not accelerate or decelerate fast enough to kill her bugs via G-forces.[61] Leviathan's swimming speed was not enough to dislodge a sufficiently ramped-up Lung holding onto his back and shoulders;[65] Lung was less than 15 feet tall at the time.[66]

A speedster, distinct from a flier,[67][68] describes an individual that can move their body at a ridiculous pace[69] using either a Breaker state, propulsion, environmental manipulation, or alien biology.[70] While underwater, Leviathan could move far faster than any speedster on record[60] as of May 15, 2011.[71] The only known parahuman speedster faster than him is Secondhand; Secondhand is faster than light in his time-dilation state.[72]

Enhanced Strength[]

Although Leviathan is not as physically strong as Behemoth,[21] he still has enhanced strength[38] on the same level as Echidna.[73] He can bend steel with his tail,[74] rip a transformed Hookwolf in half,[75] and claw away layers of armor from the Cawthorne.[76][77] Leviathan is strong enough to break through several steel columns (each 3-4 feet across) and a barrier of steel blades by pushing them.[78] He pinned Alexandria to the ground[79] and could hit hard enough to take Legend out of a fight.[80][81]

Leviathan can pick up debris,[82] capes,[83][84][85] Bitch's dogs,[86] and vehicles[87][88] to hurl as projectiles.

Fins[]

Following the Simurgh's upgrades to him in Gold Morning, Leviathan gained fins, which are just as tough as the rest of his body. They also sport nano-thorns, a blur of microscopic blades stolen from Defiant's design, which turns things to dust on contact. This is the reason the water around him turns to mist with the fins unfolded.

Other Abilities[]

Leviathan has incredible durability[89] and can regenerate[90] thanks to his Endbringer physiology. He perceives the world as water.[11]

Like other Endbringers, Leviathan cannot be predicted easily with the typical Thinker danger sense[91] and is also a blind spot to the typical precognition,[92] including Contessa.[93] That said, Armsmaster's combat analysis software[94] (with no interference and outside variables) genuinely worked against Leviathan by predicting his attacks, movement, counters, and tactics; Armsmaster lost the duel because he assumed his nano-thorn Halberd could fully cut through the Endbringer.[95][96]

History[]

Oslo, Norway[]

On June 9th, 1996, Leviathan appeared for the first time in Oslo, Norway. No other details are known about this encounter.[12]

Sydney, Australia[]

Leviathan attacked Sydney, Australia on January 18th, 1998. The city was destroyed, but was received a good amount of international funding and support, which allowed them to rebuild. The city became known as "The Harbor City," providing shelter and support to others after rebuilding.[97]

Kyushu, Japan[]

Leviathan's sixth attack was on the night of November 2nd, 1999, and continued into the morning of the day after. Leviathan surfaced at the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu, swamping the region with tidal waves from every direction and disrupting prearranged evacuation efforts.[98] The battle finally ended when Lung fought Leviathan to a standstill, with Leviathan fracturing Kyushu's landmass as he retreated.[64] The attack was incredibly devastating, with nine and a half million killed, and nearly three million evacuees left homeless.[98] Afterward, Japan was crippled, preventing it from becoming a world power and leaving it dependent on international assistance even twelve years after the attack.[99]

Hyderabad, India[]

No details on this battle were revealed except that it took place on July 6th, 2001.[100] An intriguing fact is that Hyderabad is over 217 miles inland from the Indian Ocean, making an assault from the water difficult. However, using existing rivers, there is a possible route to the city from the ocean. Leviathan would have had to make his way northward through the Krishna River and the Musi River, the latter of which is barely 10 feet deep in some places, requiring a disproportionate amount of effort just to attack one city.

Newfoundland, Canada[]

On May 9th, 2005, Leviathan began an attack on Newfoundland, Canada. Leviathan bombarded the island with incredible pressure beneath the water level, cracking the shelf of land holding it up and sinking the island, killing half a million people,[31] including Andrew Richter.[101] Since this point, Leviathan's potential targets were classified as hard, meaning heroes could stand their ground and gradually wear him down, and soft, meaning he must be attacked quickly and not given a chance to build up his attacks.[102]

Brockton Bay[]

At the end of Buzz 7.12, a program designed to predict Endbringer attacks anticipated Leviathan's arrival in Brockton Bay. Air raid sirens were activated to alert the public and allow them to evacuate to the local Endbringer shelters. Meanwhile, every major Protectorate and Wards group on call began arriving via teleportation along with a few villains. They joined local capes, including Skitter and the Undersiders.

Consequences[]

The attacks by Leviathan from his appearance up to 2011 had had global consequences.

Attacks on sources of fresh water has led to a water crisis.[103][104] The shipping industry was hurt, although not entirely extinguished, by his (and to a lesser extent the other Endbringers') attacks on port cities.[105]

Leviathan's devastation of Kyushu led to particularly dramatic consequences. Japan was no longer a world power, and was dependent on international assistance as of 2011. The wave of refugees caused minor unrest around the world. Many settled in the United States of America, where President Bradley passed a Preservation Act that helped them.[103]

His attacks on Sydney and Newfoundland, which left them unrecoverable, also had wide-ranging effects on the world.[103]

Later Appearances[]

Following the destruction of Behemoth, Leviathan would start to adapt hit and run tactics, attacking several targets at a time.

Gold Morning[]

Around the same time Tattletale "recruited" Simurgh, Leviathan joined the fight against Scion too. Leviathan was first "assigned" to go to a city created and controlled by the Elite through the powers of one of their members to destroy it. Within an hour he had demolished and flooded the entire city with his after-echo and a torrential downpour, killing almost all of the Elite present.

When Skitter's group arrived he was resting on top of one of the skyscrapers. Once Simurgh arrived in the area she immediately slammed into Leviathan and stabbed a long black blade she had built into his core. They remained frozen in place at the top of the tower until she let Leviathan crash to the ground. It soon became apparent that she had upgraded him with the sword as he sprouted collapsible nano-blade fins over his body. A serrated growth of fins sprouted along his spine and tail, ending in a bulb of blades at the tip. Several more grew along his neck and up the length of his forearms.

During the final battle, he managed to fight Scion head-on for a little bit before he retreated. As the battle moved over the ocean he took to suppressing the tidal waves caused by it as he regenerated. At the final staging area at New York, Earth Beta, he took Scion on directly with the support of the other Endbringers. However, Scion still managed to tear open his chest and obliterate his core with a sphere of golden light, killing him instantly.

Chapter Appearances[]

Worm Chapter Appearances
Extermination
1. Extermination 8.1 Mentioned
2. Extermination 8.2 Debut
y. Interlude 8.y Appears
3. Extermination 8.3 Appears
4. Extermination 8.4 Appears
5. Extermination 8.5 Appears
6. Extermination 8.6 Mentioned
7. Extermination 8.7 Mentioned
8. Extermination 8.8 Mentioned
z. Interlude 8.z Mentioned
Sentinel
1. Sentinel 9.1 Mentioned
2. Sentinel 9.2 Mentioned
3. Sentinel 9.3 Mentioned
4. Sentinel 9.4 Mentioned
5. Sentinel 9.5 Absent
6. Sentinel 9.6 Mentioned
Parasite
1. Parasite 10.1 Absent
2. Parasite 10.2 Mentioned
3. Parasite 10.3 Mentioned
4. Parasite 10.4 Absent
5. Parasite 10.5 Mentioned
6. Parasite 10.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 10 Absent
x. Interlude 10.5 Mentioned
Infestation
1. Infestation 11.1 Mentioned
2. Infestation 11.2 Mentioned
3. Infestation 11.3 Mentioned
4. Infestation 11.4 Mentioned
5. Infestation 11.5 Mentioned
6. Infestation 11.6 Absent
7. Infestation 11.7 Absent
8. Infestation 11.8 Absent
a. Interlude 11a Mentioned
b. Interlude 11b Absent
c. Interlude 11c Absent
d. Interlude 11d Mentioned
e. Interlude 11e Absent
f. Interlude 11f Mentioned
g. Interlude 11g Mentioned
h. Interlude 11h Absent
Plague
1. Plague 12.1 Absent
2. Plague 12.2 Mentioned
3. Plague 12.3 Absent
4. Plague 12.4 Absent
5. Plague 12.5 Mentioned
6. Plague 12.6 Mentioned
7. Plague 12.7 Mentioned
8. Plague 12.8 Mentioned
x. Interlude 12 Absent
y. Interlude 12.5 Absent
Snare
1. Snare 13.1 Mentioned
2. Snare 13.2 Absent
x. Interlude 13.5 (Donation Bonus) Absent
3. Snare 13.3 Absent
4. Snare 13.4 Absent
5. Snare 13.5 Absent
6. Snare 13.6 Absent
7. Snare 13.7 Absent
8. Snare 13.8 Mentioned
9. Snare 13.9 Absent
10. Snare 13.10 Mentioned
y. Interlude 13 Mentioned
Prey
1. Prey 14.1 Mentioned
2. Prey 14.2 Mentioned
3. Prey 14.3 Absent
4. Prey 14.4 Mentioned
5. Prey 14.5 Mentioned
6. Prey 14.6 Mentioned
7. Prey 14.7 Mentioned
8. Prey 14.8 Mentioned
9. Prey 14.9 Absent
10. Prey 14.10 Absent
11. Prey 14.11 Mentioned
x. Interlude 14.x Mentioned
y. Interlude 14.y Mentioned
Colony
1. Colony 15.1 Mentioned
x. Interlude 15.x Absent
2. Colony 15.2 Mentioned
3. Colony 15.3 Absent
y. Interlude 15.y Mentioned
4. Colony 15.4 Mentioned
5. Colony 15.5 Mentioned
6. Colony 15.6 Mentioned
7. Colony 15.7 Absent
z. Interlude 15.z Absent
8. Colony 15.8 Mentioned
9. Colony 15.9 Mentioned
10. Colony 15.10 Mentioned
i. Interlude 15 Mentioned
Monarch
1. Monarch 16.1 Absent
2. Monarch 16.2 Mentioned
x. Interlude 16.x Absent
3. Monarch 16.3 Mentioned
4. Monarch 16.4 Mentioned
5. Monarch 16.5 Absent
6. Monarch 16.6 Mentioned
y. Interlude 16.y Absent
7. Monarch 16.7 Absent
8. Monarch 16.8 Absent
9. Monarch 16.9 Absent
10. Monarch 16.10 Absent
z. Interlude 16.z Absent
11. Monarch 16.11 Mentioned
12. Monarch 16.12 Absent
13. Monarch 16.13 Mentioned
Migration
1. Migration 17.1 Absent
2. Migration 17.2 Absent
3. Migration 17.3 Absent
4. Migration 17.4 Absent
5. Migration 17.5 Mentioned
6. Migration 17.6 Absent
7. Migration 17.7 Absent
8. Migration 17.8 Absent
Queen
1. Queen 18.1 Mentioned
2. Queen 18.2 Mentioned
x. Interlude 18.x Mentioned
3. Queen 18.3 Mentioned
4. Queen 18.4 Mentioned
y. Interlude 18.y Absent
5. Queen 18.5 Mentioned
6. Queen 18.6 Mentioned
z. Interlude 18.z Mentioned
7. Queen 18.7 Mentioned
8. Queen 18.8 Mentioned
f. Interlude 18.f Absent
i. Interlude 18 Absent
Scourge
1. Scourge 19.1 Absent
2. Scourge 19.2 Absent
3. Scourge 19.3 Mentioned
x. Interlude 19.x Mentioned
4. Scourge 19.4 Absent
5. Scourge 19.5 Absent
6. Scourge 19.6 Mentioned
7. Scourge 19.7 Mentioned
y. Interlude 19.y Mentioned
z. Interlude 19.z Absent
Chrysalis
1. Chrysalis 20.1 Absent
2. Chrysalis 20.2 Mentioned
3. Chrysalis 20.3 Absent
4. Chrysalis 20.4 Absent
5. Chrysalis 20.5 Mentioned
x. Interlude 20.x Mentioned
y. Interlude 20.y Absent
Imago
1. Imago 21.1 Absent
2. Imago 21.2 Mentioned
3. Imago 21.3 Absent
4. Imago 21.4 Absent
5. Imago 21.5 Mentioned
6. Imago 21.6 Mentioned
7. Imago 21.7 Mentioned
x. Interlude 21.x Absent
y. Interlude 21.y Mentioned
Cell
1. Cell 22.1 Absent
2. Cell 22.2 Mentioned
3. Cell 22.3 Absent
4. Cell 22.4 Mentioned
5. Cell 22.5 Absent
6. Cell 22.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 22.x Absent
y. Interlude 22.y Appears
Drone
1. Drone 23.1 Mentioned
2. Drone 23.2 Mentioned
3. Drone 23.3 Absent
4. Drone 23.4 Mentioned
5. Drone 23.5 Mentioned
x. Interlude 23 Absent
Crushed
1. Crushed 24.1 Mentioned
2. Crushed 24.2 Mentioned
3. Crushed 24.3 Mentioned
4. Crushed 24.4 Absent
5. Crushed 24.5 Mentioned
x. Interlude 24.x Mentioned
y. Interlude 24.y Mentioned
Scarab
1. Scarab 25.1 Absent
2. Scarab 25.2 Mentioned
3. Scarab 25.3 Absent
4. Scarab 25.4 Mentioned
5. Scarab 25.5 Absent
6. Scarab 25.6 Absent
x. Interlude 25 Absent
Sting
1. Sting 26.1 Mentioned
2. Sting 26.2 Absent
3. Sting 26.3 Absent
x. Interlude 26.x Absent
4. Sting 26.4 Mentioned
5. Sting 26.5 Absent
6. Sting 26.6 Absent
a. Interlude 26a Absent
b. Interlude 26b Absent
y. Interlude 26 Absent
Extinction
1. Extinction 27.1 Mentioned
2. Extinction 27.2 Mentioned
3. Extinction 27.3 Mentioned
4. Extinction 27.4 Mentioned
5. Extinction 27.5 Mentioned
x. Interlude 27.x Mentioned
y. Interlude 27.y Absent
Cockroaches
1. Cockroaches 28.1 Mentioned
2. Cockroaches 28.2 Absent
3. Cockroaches 28.3 Mentioned
4. Cockroaches 28.4 Appears
5. Cockroaches 28.5 Appears
6. Cockroaches 28.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 28 Absent
Venom
1. Venom 29.1 Mentioned
2. Venom 29.2 Appears
3. Venom 29.3 Appears
4. Venom 29.4 Absent
5. Venom 29.5 Mentioned
6. Venom 29.6 Absent
7. Venom 29.7 Absent
8. Venom 29.8 Absent
9. Venom 29.9 Appears
x. Interlude 29 Absent
Ward Chapter Appearances
Flare
1. Flare 2.1 Absent
2. Flare 2.2 Absent
3. Flare 2.3 Absent
4. Flare 2.4 Absent
5. Flare 2.5 Absent
6. Flare 2.6 Mentioned
7. Flare 2.7 Absent
x. Interlude 2 II Absent

Trivia[]

  • The lowest fatality rate for a fight with Leviathan was 1 in 4 parahumans.[106]
  • He is implied to have attacked the San Francisco Bay Area and sunk Emeryville, one of its cities, at one point.[107]
  • Leviathan roughly means the twisting one and is the second creature in what can be called an Abrahamic trinity of beasts. As Ziz is first among the creatures of the air, and Behemoth is first among the creatures of the land, Leviathan is first among the creatures of the water. This serves as a larger clue to the Endbringers' constructed nature that they deliberately tap into these belief structures.
  • The Fallen branch dedicated to Leviathan tend to have duplicative powers.

Fanart Gallery[]

References[]

  1. Jormungand / Jörmungandr – Another name for Leviathan (see below). - Cast (spoiler free)
  2. Edit by Wildbow
    Not in the list of retracted edits.
  3. “Yes. This is likely,” Phir Sē said. “This is what he may want. I hoped for the Second or Third. This will have to do.” - Crushed 24.3
  4. Another note:
    they want to lose I think. set themselves up to fail. but not fail so bad they risk dying. levi was after something, noelle I think. but why didn’t he show up closer to downtown?
    “I don’t know,” I said. I felt a little chilled at the idea that this was the Endbringers pulling their punches.
    big b wants something. not at india gate. somewhere past it. why not come up right underneath it?
    “I don’t know,” I repeated myself. “It doesn’t matter.
    matters. looked at past attacks. pattern. small pattern. behe attacks nuclear reactor, appears some distance away. attacks birdcage, appears in rockies, no sign he was close or beneath cage. pattern says he wouldn’t emerge this close if he just wanted to attack india gate. He attacking something north of it. - Crushed 24.3
  5. Point_Me_@_The_Sky: She also joined the Levi fight. She apparently helped against the S9. She joined the Wards - Glow-worm P.9
  6. Foil, quiet up until this point, started shooting the crossbow, launching her augmented bolts. I’d known her as Flechette, back in the days when I’d thought my boyfriend, Eric, and Uncle Neil dying at the hands of an unstoppable giant lizard was the worst life was going to get. Back then, she’d had something elegant. Now she had something big. - Blinding 11.7
  7. 7.0 7.1 Scion was killing the serpent-Endbringer… Leviathan. Pummeling his chest, shattering it. Cracks radiated from the wound, glowing gold. Scion’s face was twisted in fury, his fury was that of a berserker. The blows were heavy enough that they drove Leviathan into the shattered earth below. Water was flowing in around them, Leviathan’s element, but the attack continued, the glowing wounds creating mountains of steam around them.
    [...]
    Scion merely shifted his orientation in the air. Not even shaking himself, not pausing to find his balance. He was roaring, screaming, and in his thrashing movements, his blind fury, I nearly missed it. In the moment he returned to an upright position, he flung out a sphere of golden light.

    The light curved in the air, and punched into Leviathan’s open chest cavity.

    The Endbringer fell. The color went out of Leviathan, his flesh breaking up, like clay overbaked in a kiln. The fins were the first thing to crumble, the rest of his body following suit. - Speck 30.6
  8. November 2nd, 1999

    Lung toyed with a flame in one of his hands as he watched the great lizard-man’s rampage. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  9. “That doesn’t make sense.”

    “He bloody well flies! And fights a giant continent-shattering lizard with golden laser beams! Nothing about him makes any sense!” - Interlude 18.x
  10. Pahan: “Leviathan leaped to hsi feet” should be “Leviathan leaped to his feet”.

    By the way, why is Leviathan a “he”? Why not at an “it”?

    wildbow: You’re not the only one to comment on the gendering of Leviathan.

    In short? Convenience of language, and there’s a kind of security in humanizing an inhuman threat, the same way one gives names to hurricanes. - Comment by Wildbow on Extermination 8.5, archived on Spacebattles
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 A current of water in a particular set of wavelengths, to her brother who sees the world as water – living things as balloons of meat largely made up of water, moisture in the air, moisture running over every available surface as he uses his abilities to move clouds and fog into place. - Interlude 28
  12. 12.0 12.1 Oslo, June 9th, 1996. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  13. The younger siblings are harder to target, but their birthplace is studded with temporal anomalies. Holes in time, wells, echoes, slowed time and accelerated time, from confrontations that have occurred, even confrontations she participated in. She manipulates the wind as she affected the water. - Interlude 28
  14. 14.0 14.1 The younger sister needs only a tremor, the very same wavelength their oldest living brother received. She responds in kind.

    The youngest sister needs only an expression of any power. By the time the others are alerted, the youngest is prepared. - Interlude 28
  15. Jguy: This is a bit out of left field but I didn’t know where to put it. In the comments during the Leviathan fight, you stated that Leviathan wasn’t considered a Brute 10, despite his incredible toughness. With the imprisonment of Lung, he was classified as capable of going up to Brute 9 on the scale. Does this mean that Lung has the potential in a drawn out fight to be as strong and as durable as Leviathan?

    wildbow: In terms of sheer physical power and durability, yes. - Comment by Wildbow on Scourge 19.5
  16. ereshkigala: Out of curiosity, how is Leviathan rated? Lung was potentially Brute 9, how does he compare with him? And does the scale max out at 10? I.e. how would Behemoth be classified as a brute?

    wildbow: The scale doesn’t max out at 10, but very few individuals actually exceed 10. Leviathan does not exceed 10 on the Brute scale. - Comment by Wildbow on Extermination 8.5, archived on Spacebattles
  17. Lung was the next one to speak. “What did she do?”

    “Upgraded Leviathan,” Tattletale said. “Attuned some device to the right frequency or setting, then tapped into his core without doing too much harm to Leviathan. Fed things into there. Knowledge, data, nanotechnology.”

    Defiant’s head turned, as if Tattletale had said something.

    “Yeah,” Tattletale said. “Nanotech. Why do you think the fins were turning water to mist?”

    My tech?” Defiant asked.

    “Among one or two other advancements. If the density rules are in effect, I’d bet those fins are just as hard to cut through as Leviathan’s arm or torso. Disintegration effect, maybe something else.”

    “Mecha-Leviathan?” Imp murmured. - Cockroaches 28.5
  18. But she could imagine Grue shouting at her, “Something we can use!” and that was nudge enough to get her to focus her efforts. “Weak points.”
    No vulnerable organs, hyperdurable tissues: simple organs exist at core of torso, where there is highest amount of surrounding tissues. Optimal thickness of layer and narrowness of body part at upper arms, just before shoulder joint, and upper thighs, just below hip joint.
    Something she – everyone – could use. - Interlude 8.y
  19. The Simurgh had both feet pressed against Leviathan’s stomach, one hand reaching up to grip his face, the other hand holding the gladius she’d made, buried so deep in Leviathan’s sternum that only a little bit of the handle stuck out.

    She’d hit his core. - Cockroaches 28.5
  20. Eidolon had reported that Leviathan descended into the Atlantic Ocean as he made his retreat from Brockton Bay. He had sustained heavy injuries, which led Dragon to think he would delay his next appearance slightly. She adjusted the window and checked the data. As was his habit, Leviathan would likely lurk in the deepest recesses of the Ocean to mend. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5
  21. 21.0 21.1 “We think of Leviathan as the middle child; he was the second of the three to arrive. He is not the physical powerhouse Behemoth is, nor the cunning manipulator that the Simurgh so often proves to be. That said, I would advise you to think of him as having many of the strengths of both siblings at once. You’ve seen the videos on television and the internet. You know what he is physically capable of. I want to be clear that despite the image he might convey, he is not stupid, and he can display a level of cunning and tactics that can and will catch you off guard. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  22. 22.0 22.1 Extermination 8.2
  23. Getting hit by something [Leviathan] that weighed nearly nine tons sent men, women, boys and girls in costume flying, if it didn't kill them outright. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 Leviathan is the middle child. He's fast enough that he can run on the surface of water, despite weighing something like 9 tons, and beneath the water's surface he's so fast as to essentially be a teleporter (assume faster than Superman, slower than the Flash on level terrain). - Wildbow on Reddit
  25. Leviathan had perched himself atop the castle's highest tower [...] Even through the rain, his five eyes glowed. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.5
  26. WOG on Reddit
  27. “These were errors, grave mistakes from defending heroes. We had but one strategy at the time – to hem him in, minimizing the effects of growing waves and casualties until Leviathan was beaten into a retreat or Scion arrived. These areas, however, were too vulnerable. Waiting let Leviathan build up the strength of his attacks, and we lost.”

    He paused. “We have since classified the locations the Endbringers target as either hard targets or soft targets. The hard battlefields are where we stand our ground, buy time, wear him down. The soft ones are locations where we cannot afford to do this.” - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  28. The television screen showed a cross section of Brockton Bay as seen from ground level. The West end of the city was bordered by hills, and the terrain sloped gradually from the base of the mountain down to the water. Directly below the image of the buildings that marked the city’s location, there was a large cavern, bordered by rock on all sides except the part nearest the beach, which was sand. It was marked blue – filled with water.

    “Brockton Bay, this location, is a soft target. The city was originally founded at this location because of the proximity to the coastline for trade routes and an aquifier that provided the first settlers with access to fresh water. This aquifier, essentially an underground lake beneath the city, is our weak point. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  29. From the moment Leviathan shows himself, we expect Leviathan will stir and manipulate this underground reservoir to erode the surrounding sand, silt and rock. Add the tidal waves from above, with the resulting tremors and impacts…”

    I doubted anyone failed to understand what would follow. A section of the city, perhaps most of the city, could collapse into the aquifier. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  30. moridinamael: If he just sucked all the water out of rock in the subsurface below Newfoundland, the island would sink. The briney water that permeates all earthly rocks below sea level always helps support some of the overburden pressure of the rock above it. If you suck some of the water out of an aquifer or an oil field, the ground above it will sink. Only a few meters at most, in the worst known scenarios, but Leviathan can move a lot more water than humans with a few wells with limited operating conditions.

    Wildbow: Yeah. My mental picture of the scene & understanding of how things could theoretically work was that Newfoundland has historically been prone to erosion, and there's a lot of stuff going on with plates and separation from the crust/mantle. Water within the rocks creates a kind of erosion from within, concentrated, high-pressure movement of water erodes the layers most prone to damage while scooping out water while creating a kind of power-augmented hydroplane/sediment layer, and... over the course of hours, it slides beneath.

    Of course, the entire thing goes hand in hand with calamity, waves taller than many boats, people trying to use powers to mitigate the damage and give people a better chance to evacuate, yadda yadda. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  31. 31.0 31.1 “Newfoundland,” he spoke.

    I knew exactly what he was speaking of, and mouthed the date as he spoke it, “May ninth, 2005. Nearly half a million dead. The Canadian island simply gone, after the shelf of land holding it up cracked in the face of what we now understand were incredible pressures beneath the water level. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  32. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t use Dodge’s technology to visit the United Kingdom or Africa or even shattered, half-sunken Kyushu. - Excerpt from Interlude 26.x
  33. Gallons of water poured around him in the wake of his movements, roughly the same amount of mass as the body part that had just occupied the space. This ‘afterimage’ streamed down him and splashed violently against the water he waded through. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  34. Leviathan charged forward as if to meet the heroine in a head on collision, then stopped abruptly. His ‘echo’, like a model of himself shaped out of water, continued forward with the same momentum he’d had while sprinting forward. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  35. Leviathan whipped his tail around, slamming it through the ranks of capes. Immediately after, a lash of water followed in the wake of his movement, cutting down yet another line of gathered heroes and villains. The armbands announced the losses to the defending side with every attack Leviathan made. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  36. Eidolon was fighting now. He hurled globes of energy the size of small houses at Leviathan, and each one was sufficient to knock the creature away, flaying away the thing’s skin and simultaneously slowing it. The hero’s own hydrokinesis deflected the lizard’s ranged attacks, diverting them skyward or off to one side. Leviathan couldn’t attack from range, and couldn’t get close without getting pummeled. He attempted to run, only for Japan’s foremost team, the Sentai Elite, to step into his way, blocking his progress. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  37. Egleris: Leviathan, on the other hand, increases his speed by manipulating his own water echo, and we've seen how that allows him to deliver hits more powerful than his body frame would grant. Despite not being much bigger than a T-rex would be, he can demolish buildings and cut people apart with a single slash of his tail, which T-rexes wold not have the strength to do, while Leviatan does: it's his (hydrokinetically granted) speed (and hyperdurable body) that allows him to.

    Mook: That sounds like fanon. Where was it stated that Leviathan used hydrokinesis for that? It seems more like he just has super strength and super speed in addition to his hydrokinesis (and durability).

    Wildbow: It is fanon. - Comment by Wildbow
  38. 38.0 38.1 Leviathan is a thirty-foot tall monstrosity with enhanced speed, enhanced strength, a watery afterimage that follows after his every movement and macrohydrokinesis. He killed forty six parahumans during his attack on Brockton Bay, leaving many others wounded or crippled. Most see him as the weakest of the three. Has shattered islands and coastlines in the course of his attacks. - Cast (In Depth)
  39. The man with the jetpack gripped her wrists and carried her up a dizzying height to the roof of the nearest building, five stories tall.
    [...]
    The building shuddered, one wall of the building began to crumble, and Leviathan climbed fast enough that his momentum carried him twenty feet above the rooftop. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  40. It was Alexandria who speared forward to confront Leviathan. He saw her coming, ceased his onslaught to rear back and then lunge ahead to meet her. When they were only fifteen feet apart, he stopped, let his water echo rush forward to meet her.

    Anyone else might have been staggered in the face of several tons of water moving forward at the speed of a locomotive. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  41. Another afterimage of a claw swipe sent out to strike at me.

    Water crashed into me, hard as concrete, fast as a speeding car. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  42. I’d seen him fight Endbringers in that suit, seen how he could move as fast as anyone who wasn’t a speedster, turning his spinning weapon and those shield-like extensions on his armor into a whirling flurry of nano-thorns, cutting through seventy to eighty percent of the Endbringer’s flesh before they reached material too dense to penetrate. - Excerpt from Sting 26.2
  43. Leviathan slapped his tail at Armsmaster’s legs, and Armsmaster leaped over it, swiped out with the blurry Halberd. It carved a chunk out of Leviathan, left a cloud of dust that the rain quickly drove down into the expanse of water beneath them. The Endbringer reared back in pain, and Armsmaster stepped forward, leaped up higher than any normal human could, and caught Leviathan just above the knee with the Halberd, driving the blade nearly a third of the way to the bone.

    Leviathan retaliated, swiping at Armsmaster, but the hero planted a foot on the uninjured part of the knee, and kicked himself back and out of the way. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  44. Some remains of the afterimage struck his armor, but he slid back and rolled with the impact, keeping his feet on the ground the entire time, enabling him to leap and roll to one side as Leviathan’s tail came down from behind and directly above him. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  45. Leviathan lunged, swiped with the oversized claw. Armsmaster rolled to one side, then swung both Halberds behind him to intercept the wave that was coming from behind, vaporize it. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  46. Leviathan lunged, stopped, letting his water echo get ahead of him, then lunged again, a half second later. Armsmaster leaped out of the way of the echo, drew his knees to his chest to avoid a claw swipe while he was still airborne, and sent his grappling hook between Leviathan’s feet to pull himself to the ground in a flash. He skidded with the momentum, right between Leviathan’s legs, and raised the blurry Halberd to strike Leviathan between the legs, against the first ten feet of Leviathan’s tail. The tail was turned to dust where the blade made contact, the plumes of it briefly obscuring Armsmaster. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  47. Leviathan whipped his tail at Armsmaster. Armsmaster stepped out of the way, slapped at the tail with the broad side of the blade. More dust, another chunk of flesh gone, ichor pouring from the injury. He ducked the echo as though it were an idle afterthought. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  48. Armsmaster let the chain go slack, ducked a swipe of the tail, leaped forward and to one side to avoid the claw that followed. Another small hop and roll ensured he moved right beneath the afterimage, and he made two swipes with the blurry Halberd at the back of Leviathan’s thighs as he passed behind the Endbringer. His chain reeled in, pulled free of Leviathan’s neck wth a spray of blood, came down and across Leviathan’s hip to snap back to the top of the Halberd. He fired it off again to get himself more distance, pulling himself across the street, spinning to face Leviathan once more as he stopped. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  49. Armsmaster went on an all-out offensive, slashing as fast as his arm could move, cutting leg, knee, tail, leg again, moving out of the way of Leviathan’s attacks as though it were easy. For ten seconds he continued, relentless. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  50. 50.0 50.1 It was hard to say whether Leviathan heard the command or if Legend had spotted some tell, but Leviathan dropped to all fours at the same time Legend gave the command. With Legend’s cry still ringing in the air, Leviathan moved.

    He was fast.

    Fast enough that his clawed hands and feet didn’t touch the road beneath the water – after the initial push, his forward momentum was enough to let him run on the water’s surface.

    Fast enough that before I could finish drawing in a breath, to scream or shout something or gasp in horror, he was already in the middle of us, blood and water spraying where he collided with the lines of assembled capes, and the armbands were beginning to announce the hopelessly injured and deceased. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  51. Tattletale grinned, turning her full attention to the Endbringer from beneath the waves. It was crouching, preparing to charge. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  52. There was a crash as Leviathan whipped his tail toward Legend, a blade of water soaring through the air to strike the hero out of the air. The onslaught of lasers interrupted, Leviathan shifted from a crouch on one side of the road to being the midst of the defending heroes in one fluid motion, resuming the carnage in the span of a heartbeat. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  53. Leviathan didn’t make noise. I kept expecting a roar, or hiss, or something, but Leviathan was dead silent. I somehow imagined a victorious howl as he broke through the barrier, crouched, and lunged into the crowd. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  54. Leviathan turned around, lashing his tail behind him to cast three lashes of water our way, then crouched.

    “He’s running!” someone called out.

    Leviathan dashed away from us, fast, only to skid to a stop and turn a corner for cover as Legend, Lady Photon, Laserdream and a half dozen other heroes opened fire from the skies above. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  55. He turned, crouched, bolted West, away from the coast, full speed. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  56. Another blast of golden light, and one side was stopped, stalled. A third blast was spared for Leviathan, who was getting his hands and feet firmly on the ground, crouching in preparation to run. The Endbringer was knocked squarely to the ground. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  57. Leviathan didn’t make noise. I kept expecting a roar, or hiss, or something, but Leviathan was dead silent. I somehow imagined a victorious howl as he broke through the barrier, crouched, and lunged into the crowd.

    He stopped, and I thought he was using his afterimage, halting so it could rush forward, but even the watery echo stopped a second after it appeared, only the very edges of it continuing forward to crash violently against the sides of the alley.

    For several long heartbeats, it was nearly quiet, but for the sound of rain, people’s noises of pain, mine included, and the sound of one of Kaiser’s iron columns ripping free of the wall and falling atop a pile of blades.

    It took me a second to realize what had happened. Leviathan hung frozen mid-pounce, and his emerging afterimage similarly stood there, frozen in time. In the midst of the afterimage was Clockblocker, half-immersed in water. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  58. Leviathan lunged, dropping to all fours, as if trying to swamp Armsmaster with a huge volume of water by way of his afterimage. Armsmaster was already casting his grappling hook out, pulling himself out of the way. In the final moment before he pulled away, his other Halberd swung up and into Leviathan’s neck, making a wound mirroring the spot where Narwhal’s forcefield had cleaved deep, the one Kid Win had undoubtedly opened wider with his laser turret. Armsmaster reeled the hook back in.

    The Endbringer turned, as if to run, only for the loop of the grappling hook’s chain to pass under his ‘chin’. Armsmaster heaved himself up and onto the Endbringer’s back, drove the Halberd into one side of the neck, lengthening the cut he’d just made. He stepped on the top of the Endbringer’s head, leaped down, catching the Endbringer across the face with the Halberd as he descended. Leviathan collapsed, going spread-eagle. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  59. He dropped to all fours, ran away, a loping gait, not the lightning fast movement he’d sported when he first attacked. Still fast enough. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  60. 60.0 60.1 “What sets him apart is his focus on water. You’re likely aware of his afterimage, his water echo. This is no mere splash of water. At the speeds Leviathan can move, surface tension and compressibility make water harder than concrete. He also has a crude hydrokinesis, the ability to manipulate water, and there will be water on the battlefield. We believe that this is what lets him move as fast as he does when he is swimming. Faster than he is normally, far faster than any speedster we have on record.” - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  61. 61.0 61.1 It was almost a lake, now, three city blocks across and growing rapidly.
    [...]
    I could sense the Endbringer through the bugs that had made their way deepest into his wounds, the ones that had found spots where his afterimage couldn’t flush them out each time it manifested. With my power, I could track him beneath the water. He was moving so fast that it was almost as though he were teleporting, finding the drowning and executing them.
    [...]
    As it stood, he was entirely in his environment, in the heart of the city, where he could continue to work whatever mojo he needed to bring more tidal waves down on our heads. To my bug senses, Leviathan was deep beneath the waves, moving rapidly, acting like he was engaged in a fight. Against Eidolon? I couldn’t tell. Every darting, hyperfast movement dislodged a few bugs, made him harder to detect. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  62. Another tidal wave hit. Leviathan disappeared in the midst of it, reappearing elsewhere. Lung could hear the destruction as the beast clawed and tore through the base of one building that heroes were perched on. He quickened his pace, felt himself growing stronger as he got closer. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  63. I gathered my bugs to me, sent some to him, to better track his movements.
    [...]
    Scion stopped the third wave in its tracks with a fourth blast, but the water was still there, and it still bowed to gravity. The water level around us rose by a dozen feet, momentarily, slopping as gently over us as physically possible, like a lap of water on the beach.

    When the flow of water was past us, I could see a fifth blast of light following Leviathan, who had used the cresting water to swim away. He was making his way to the coast. Scion rose, flew after his target with a streak of golden light tracing his movement. Eidolon followed soon after. - Extermination 8.5
  64. 64.0 64.1 The landmass disappeared beneath the pair of them, the shards of land drawn beneath the waves, and Lung was now fighting Leviathan in the monster’s home ground.

    For an instant, he thought he would die. But Leviathan, wounded, broke away and fled into the depths. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  65. He found handholds in the shallow wounds on Leviathan’s back and shoulders. The abomination moved, and the watery echo that followed its movements crashed into Lung. Not enough to unseat him.

    The tidal wave that struck wasn’t enough either, nor Leviathan’s speed as the creature swam. Lung dug deeper, clawed flesh away. Deeper in Leviathan’s body, the flesh was only harder, the ichor making it slick.
    [...]
    Leviathan surfaced, and Lung found his way up to the monster’s neck. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  66. Leviathan knocked him aside, and Lung rolled, putting taloned hands and feet beneath him before rushing forward, shallow leaps that carried him over the water that was knee-high to the humans. Barely halfway up Lung’s own calves.

    He found handholds in the shallow wounds on Leviathan’s back and shoulders.
    [...]
    Leviathan surfaced, and Lung found his way up to the monster’s neck. He tried to reach around, and his arm shifted, reconfiguring to be a fraction longer. Lung’s legs, arms, and talons were growing as well.
    [...]
    He was only half the height of the Endbringer, but it was enough. - Excerpt from Interlude 22.y
  67. If they go for a drive late at night, we have a flier or speedster track them. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.7
  68. The speedsters, acrobats, fliers, and other movers could get around or get through that gap, but they couldn’t make a lasting dent in enemy forces while they were out there. - Excerpt from Dying 15.3
  69. Battery and Velocity were both speedsters of a sort, giving them the ability to move at a ridiculous pace. They were very different kinds of speedster, though.
    [...]
    The actual act of moving at the speeds these guys could manage was an incredible strain on the body. There were only one or two parahumans on the planet who could manage that kind of movement without any workarounds or limitations, and Battery and Velocity weren’t among them. - Excerpt from Tangle 6.6
  70. He was a speedster, but he looked and felt a damn sight like a bio-speedster. There were breaker speedsters like Velocity, who shifted into an alternate state to access reality on a different level, there were ones who had a great deal of propulsion, ones that manipulated the environment, and then there were the ones who just had biology that alien – usually through changer powers. - Excerpt from Polarize 10.5
  71. Brockton Bay, May 15th, 2011 // Leviathan
    Notes: Scion victory.
    Target/Consequence: Noelle? See file Echidna. No contact made. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6
  72. He relied on the dense lines and numbers his lenses fed him to position his body and weave through the pockets of air and air currents. He approached a tough spot where something was burning on the far wall, and he adjusted settings, drawing on his battery for a bit of extra power. The benefit was slight, as the heat reached him less and the air worked with him a little more, and the battery power raced from a hundred to sixty in those long, long picoseconds. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.y II
  73. “She’s as strong as Leviathan, physically,” Tattletale said, “She’s not as tough, based on what I’ve seen. - Excerpt from Queen 18.3
  74. I got my orders and left behind a bizarre scene where Armsmaster was working hand in hand with Kaiser, of all people. Kaiser worked to build the same sort of trap that he’d imprisoned Lung in, some time ago, creating bars of metal between and around each of Leviathan’s limbs, a cage tight to the body. Rune and another telekinetic were working to bend the metal from Kaiser’s shaken barrier around Leviathan’s limbs and face.

    It wouldn’t last. Leviathan was too big, his tail extended a long distance behind him, and it was thin and supple enough to slip through almost any barrier Kaiser could erect, strong enough that it could bend metal. Leviathan would get free, there could be no illusions on that front. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  75. Leviathan used his claws to heave Hookwolf off his face, tore the metal beast in half, and then threw the pieces down to the ground, hard. One landed straight on top of Shadow Stalker, the other almost seemed to bounce, rapidly condensing into a roughly humanoid form before it touched the ground again, landing in a crouch. Hookwolf backed away, the blades drawing together into a human shape, skin appearing as they withdrew. He brought his hand over his head and pointed forward at Leviathan. A signal for the next front-liner. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  76. The suit collided with Leviathan a half second after the missiles exploded against his torso and shoulders, and steel claws gripped his limbs.

    The ‘face’ of her armored suit opened up and began discharging a blue-white flame into his face. The ‘flames’ didn’t move like flames should, spilling off him and down into the water, where they pooled on the road and continued to burn – after a fashion – beneath the water. Leviathan, for his part, began tearing into Dragon, clawing away layers of armor with each swipe of his claws, almost uncaring as to the liquid fire that was spilling over him. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  77. A series of explosions and a massive collision marked Dragon firing a full salvo of missiles and entering close quarters combat with Leviathan.
    [...]
    Dragon began breathing out a stream of what might have been plasma in Leviathan’s face. From his increased struggles and frenetic clawing at her, I gathered he didn’t like it. Still, it was doing surprisingly little damage to him.

    Leviathan found a point to get a solid grip on Dragon’s armor, and tore off a plate. His next swipe took off another, and it careened a good twenty feet before landing with a heavy splash, close enough to me that I was caught in the spray. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  78. Kaiser changed tactics, creating columns of steel instead, each three or four feet across, harder to shatter. They were slower to emerge, but they bent rather than broke.

    Leviathan responded by pushing. He exerted his full strength on the barrier of blades and the columns, leaning against them. The walls broke around the base of the columns, and the pieces of steel fell. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  79. Whatever advantage Alexandria had gained, it didn’t last long. Leviathan’s tail snaked up and around the heroine’s neck, catching her. He whipped her into the ground, beside him, up into a wall, then back down. This time, he held her beneath the water, using one claw to help pin her. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  80. Legend fired a barrage of lasers at Leviathan, but the Endbringer was quick to hop to one side, landing on the roof’s edge. He made a sudden, standing leap a good eighty or a hundred feet into the air, tail extending to reach for the airborne heroes.

    The whiplike tail struck Legend, and there was a firework display of light and sparks, Legend tumbling out of the sky, head over heels. In the same movement, the tail reached for Laserdream and Shielder.

    Legend down, CD-6, The armbands announced, just in time to coincide with Legend hitting the ground. - Extermination 8.3
  81. Conversely, his enemies could try to hit him with enough speed and force that even a hundredth of a second of contact was sufficient to take him out of the fight. Leviathan and Behemoth had managed to land blows of that magnitude. - Interlude 14.y
  82. Leviathan heaved himself up out of the building’s remains in one motion, used his tail to pick up and fling a mess of broken wood, concrete and rebar at us. Aegis threw himself into the cluster of projectiles, but two capes were struck down by smaller chunks. A third was folded in half by the arc of water from Leviathan’s tail. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  83. The explosion made Leviathan rear back, and the water that followed in his wake moved slower in that bubble, slowed down with each passing second.

    Leviathan himself wasn’t as affected, and he had one foot and an upper body outside of the bubble to help him pull himself free. He raised his leg free of the golden string goop and up out of the sphere, lashed his tail toward the crowd I was at the back of, catching three people, entwining the tip around their arms, legs and necks. He flicked them into the center of the time distortion bubble, where they got caught, unable to make their exit fast enough to avoid being frozen in time.

    Jotun deceased, CD-6. Dauntless deceased, CD-6. Alabaster deceased, CD-6. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.3
  84. Boots, was the thought, as the tail snaked around him. The Leviathan had him, and he’d been just a little too slow to get out of the way.

    If he’d infused the boots, then maybe.

    He was flung, with a force he knew would kill him. He used his boots to try to slow the movement.

    He didn’t die. Things around him flickered, then dissipated. - Excerpt from Heavens 12.none
  85. A slash of Leviathan’s tail brought down two of the stuffed entities, and Hookwolf tackled him to ensure the Endbringer didn’t get a moment’s respite. Leviathan caught Hookwolf around the middle with his tail, flecks of blood and flesh spraying from the tail as it circled Hookwolf’s body of skirring, whisking blades. Leviathan hurled Hookwolf away. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  86. It wasn’t enough. The dogs were strong, there were six of them left, even, but Leviathan was more of a monster than all of them put together.

    He heaved one dog off the ground, slammed it into another like a club, then hurled it against a wall, where it dropped, limp and broken.

    With that same claw, he slashed, tore the upper half of a dog’s head off. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  87. As he’d beaten a path deeper into the city, he had found opportunities to do damage on the way. A police car had been thrown through the second story of a building. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  88. Leviathan grabbed a car, twisted his entire upper body to toss it in the style of an olympic hammer-throw. The car hurtled through the air, and Scion batted it aside with the back of one hand. The vehicle virtually detonated with the impact, falling into a thousand pieces, each piece glowing with golden-yellow light, disintegrating as they splashed into the water. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.5
  89. She hunkered down to to watch the fight, mentally opening those doors that let more information flow.
    Leviathan, nonstandard cardiac, nervous systems: irregular biology. No standard organs or weak points. No brain, heart or center of operations for rest of his body.
    Irregular biology, no vulnerable organs: body divided into layers, extending down to hyperdurable core body, each layer down is slightly more than twice as durable as previous. Exterior skin is hard as aluminum alloy, but flexible, lets him move. 3% deeper in toward core of arms, legs, claws, tail, or .5% in toward core of head, trunk, neck, tissues are hard as steel. 6% in toward core of extremities or 1% toward core of main body/head, tissues strong as tungsten. 9% toward core of extremities, 1.5% toward core of main body, head, tissues strong as boron. 12%-
    She had to stop, start again. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  90. Another try.
    Durable layers to body, no conventional organs, irregular biology: Tissues mend from the inside out, layers expanding to fill wounds and integrating into surrounding structures. Not human.
    Knew that much.
    Not human: Never was human.
    That gave her pause. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y
  91. “Could it be an Endbringer?” Rain asked.

    “Jesus,” Byron said. “Don’t even joke. They’ve been dormant.”

    “They can’t be predicted easily with danger sense either,” I said. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.12
  92. It wasn’t Jeanne who answered. Cinereal gave me my reply. “Thinkers say no. They’re either drawing blanks or they don’t like what they see.”

    “Nothing specific? No details?”

    “No,” Cinereal said. “But if you look at some of the other major thinker blind spots, you’re going to find yourself running into topics like Eidolon, Sleeper, the Endbringers, Valkyrie, the Island-state, the Pastor incident…”

    “Concentrations of power,” I said.

    Jeanne shook her head. “Complexity of power, most often. Whatever thinker powers come into play, with these cases, there’s often too many variables to fully consider, thinkers report that their powers are fuzzy, inconsistent, or blacked out.” - Excerpt from Blinding 11.4
  93. “Right, that wasn’t my second question. What I want to know is why the hell you haven’t used a power like yours to figure out how to beat the Endbringers.”

    “My power is a form of precognition,” she said. “Unlike most such powers, other precognitive abilities do not confuse it. That said, there are certain individuals it does not work against, the Endbringers included.”

    “Why?” Tecton asked.

    “No way to know for sure,” she said, “But we have theories. The first is that they have a built-in immunity, something their origins granted them.” - Excerpt from Crushed 24.2
  94. “You dumb brute,” Armsmaster growled. He was panting for breath. “Every fight you’ve done so far, that we’ve got on camera? I’ve watched it, put it through programs. I’ve got a computer on my back that’s relaying to a supernetwork, noting your every move, using subsonic pulses to read every aspect of the street, the surrounding buildings, every feature of the terrain. I know exactly what you’re going to do next – you’re going to try to catch me from behind with a wave.” - Excerpt from Extermination 8.4
  95. Legend talks about underestimating Leviathan... which is a complete aside and totally unrelated to me bringing up Armsmaster vs. Leviathan. I should explain (because I think it was unclear) - Armsmaster's computer didn't let him position the others so they would die, exactly. That was secondary. He put the villains in the way (particularly the giant bruisers and the wall-creating Kaiser) and set himself up so he would be able to fight Leviathan one on one. That let the simulation program be clean of interference and outside variables.

    It wasn't that Armsmaster screwed up, but that a weapon that's supposed to cut through anything gets part of the way through Leviathan's claw and stops. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  96. Plendamonda: Reminder that Armsmaster's prediction software worked perfectly at predicting Leviathan
    until it didn't
    [...]
    Wildbow: His combat analysis software did work

    Xantho: The data it had was incomplete

    Wildbow: Not that.
    It let him land the blow just where he wanted it. But he was working on the assumption that his halberd cut through everything.
    His software doesn't get into the nitty-gritty of powers or composition or figure out what can be cut through and what can't. It's about movement, attacks, counters, and tactics.
    Watch how someone moves, get all the data from video footage and whatever else, gather data on mindset and habits, extrapolate.
    Even if there's 50 possible moves (in a broad sense), it can still guide you to places where you're safe, and that reduce the opponent's future options for courses to take. - Conversation with Wildbow on Parahumans Discord
  97. Sydney was destroyed but would've been rebuilt. Other areas that suffered direct or incidental damage received a great deal of international funding and support... which declined as time went on.

    Sydney was early enough in the grand scheme of things to get some attention, before the decline & the crisis fatigue of the world at large. In the Wormverse notes, it doubled down on its nickname the 'The Harbor City' in that it gratefully received the international support, rebuilt, and tried to transform the negative into a positive by providing shelter and support to others (That is, safe harbor). The good was a great deal of national pride (and international pride in the country). In terms of the bad, well, I actually wrote the notes before the whole political shift and the voice xenophobia has found in politicians in recent years, but you could see new Sydney as a kind of microcosm of that sentiment. While it offered shelter to the displaced and the needy, it also was argued to be a shelter and haven for crime and shady types looking for a footing.

    Dunno if you're far enough along that you can't use that note, but such is my jotted-down notes in the Worm bible, re: Australia. (I'll leave Canberra aside) - Wildbow on Reddit
  98. 98.0 98.1 “Kyushu, the night of November second and the morning of the third, 1999. His sixth appearance. Nine and a half million killed when the region was swamped with tidal waves from every direction while Leviathan disrupted prearranged evacuation attempts. Nearly three million evacuees rendered homeless, a nation sundered. - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  99. You have the events that left the world reeling: Lausanne, Hawaii, Kyushu, Newfoundland, Moscow, Sydney. The attacks that left major areas uninhabitable or unrecoverable, with wide-reaching effects on the rest of the country/region/world. In this setting, for example, Japan isn’t a world power and it’s still dependent on international assistance 12 years after Leviathan’s visit to Kyushu.

    But even there, where do you say, “Ok, that’s the sum total of the damage done”? The disaster at Kyushu, the number of refugees seeking living space/work and the pressures on the rest of Asia’s pacific border might have led to some more unrest and tension. Some friction, some ‘small’ wars, infighting and intermingling. Refugees and immigrants. Many settle in major cities across America because President Bradley’s Preservation Act gives them a hand in getting on their feet. - Comment by Wildbow on Colony 15.5
  100. Hyderabad, July 6th, 2001. Leviathan. - Excerpt from Interlude 24.x
  101. From her vantage point in Vancouver, she had watched as the island crumbled and Andrew Richter died. As authorities had dredged the waters for corpses, they uncovered his body and matched it to dental records. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5
  102. He paused. “We have since classified the locations the Endbringers target as either hard targets or soft targets. The hard battlefields are where we stand our ground, buy time, wear him down. The soft ones are locations where we cannot afford to do this.” - Excerpt from Extermination 8.2
  103. 103.0 103.1 103.2 Comment by Wildbow
  104. Way I see it, having a local team of superheroes is like having a sports team. Everyone's rooting for them, they make for great media that isn't about wars or the water crisis or whatever - Excerpt from Agitation 3.6
  105. Shipping wasn't hurt because of boats - Leviathan tended to have periods of activity where he'd attack a city, then retreat to deep water. Boats weren't really hurt, except incidentally.

    Shipping was hurt because ports in target cities and port cities near the targets were left devastated. (Also port cities visited by Simurgh/Behemoth/Tohu Bohu/Khonsu) Shipping still is a thing in the Wormverse. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  106. Extermination 8.1
  107. LacePrisonQueenBreaker: On a semi-related note, was taking a look at the map for WD Oakland campaign and Emeryville is noticeably absent as if that part of the shore fell into the bay or something. Is that intentional, and if so, what happened to wipe a(n admittedly small)town so cleanly off the map?

    Wildbow: It was intentional, and there's typically one good answer to that question. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit

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