Editing Leviathan (section)

===Super-Speed===
Unrelated to his hydrokinesis,<ref name="Wog2">'''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.<br><br>'''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).<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' It is fanon. - [https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/4070836 Comment by Wildbow]</ref> Leviathan has enhanced reflexes<ref>'''Dandas52:'''  Why isn't Clockblocker a free out to the entire fight? At one point during the fight, he demonstrates the ability to freeze Leviathan, but only manages to do so after considerable losses from the capes, and has to be rescued after. Why doesn't he simply have a flying hero or teleporter pick him up, fly/teleport him to Leviathan and freeze him immediately? This gives the capes a chance to set up as comprehensive a trap as possible for Levi. If he unfreezes before they're ready, another tap will freeze him again.<br><br>All they have to do at this point is rinse and repeat. Freeze Levi, set up trap, Levi unfreezes, unleash trap, freeze Levi again, etc. etc. until he's too damaged to continue.<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Generally speaking, the fact that CB doesn't know for certain when his power will wear off makes this unsustainable - It's minutes (of standing in churning/flowing water) of waiting, trusting that when the power wears off, he'll notice and react before the super-speed Endbringer with enhanced reflexes moves.<br><br>What ends up happening, should you try to chain it, is that he stands there, poised and ready to use his power, then all at once, the Endbringer is pulling away, clock reaches out and fails to make contact and then he dies.<br><br>Flying isn't protection against Leviathan (see Shielder), cape-generated protection (a la Othala) tends to be provided by people who can't provide the granted protection to themselves (and who then get taken out of the picture), so the person giving CB a ride dies and CB dies with them, or the person granting protections dies and then CB dies after.<br><br>If you don't chain it, if you're trying to tag him, set up a trap, tag him, set up a trap, then actually getting close is really dangerous - as the story demonstrates with how CB got injured. Injury is likely because there's a split second where things kick in (which is why he was hurt in the first place), and the water echo provides a kind of snare when it is frozen as well (see how he was trapped and needed Trickster's help to get away). Getting close is ''difficult'', because so long as you're there and watching, you're in danger of being hit by a water whip or Levi going after you like he did Shielder. If you're not present, then by the time your side communicates his location and the opportunity to move in, well, he's a speedster and by the time you get there he's a distance away or the situation has changed.<br><br>Psychologically, keep in mind that he probably didn't seriously anticipate fighting Leviathan before that day - the people in charge of him weren't even ready to start discussing the possibility he might participate until after he'd turned eighteen, and even then it would have been preliminary, and in an ideal world they would've wanted to get him more intensive training. But Leviathan attacked his city, so he participated in the here and now.<br><br>Could they have discussed it with him beforehand? Yes. But that's a lot of organization and such to stake on 'if Leviathan attacks and you participate', 'if you can get close', and, finally, 'if your power even works on him' - if it doesn't then you've just got a dead CB. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!-- https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/39590539 --> and the ability to move at extremely fast speeds,<ref name="CastDepth" /> 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.<ref name="8.y e1">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.<br>[...]<br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/interlude-7%C2%BD-bonus/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 8.y]]</ref> On two legs, Leviathan can lunge forward at the speed of a locomotive<ref name="8.3 e7">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.<br><br>Anyone else might have been staggered in the face of several tons of water moving forward at the speed of a locomotive. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/extermination-8-3/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.3]]</ref> and swipe his claws as fast as a speeding car.<ref name="8.5 e3">Another afterimage of a claw swipe sent out to strike at me.<br><br>Water crashed into me, hard as concrete, fast as a speeding car. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/extermination-8-5/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> That said, non-speedsters such as [[Armsmaster]]<ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/sting-26-2/ Excerpt] from [[Sting 26.2]]</ref> can aim dodge Leviathan's swipes with the help of combat analysis software.<ref>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.<br><br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref><ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref><ref name="8.4 eBehindHit">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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref><ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref><ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref><ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref><ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref>

Leviathan crouching on all fours is typically an indication that he is preparing to charge into combat,<ref name="8.2 e20" /><ref>Tattletale grinned, turning her full attention to the Endbringer from beneath the waves.  It was crouching, preparing to charge. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/interlude-7%C2%BD-bonus/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 8.y]]</ref><ref name="8.3 eEchoLegend">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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/extermination-8-3/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.3]]</ref><ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/extermination-8-3/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.3]]</ref> relocate,<ref>Leviathan turned around, lashing his tail behind him to cast three lashes of water our way, then crouched.<br><br>“He’s running!” someone called out.<br><br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/extermination-8-3/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.3]]</ref><ref name="8.4 eArmsmasterLost">“How!?” Armsmaster roared.<br>[...]<br>Leviathan planted one foot beside Armsmaster for balance, reached out with his free claw, and pressed the tips against the side of Armsmaster’s throat and torso.  Still holding on to Armsmaster’s hand and wrist, he pushed against the side of the man’s body.  Armsmaster screamed, a frantic noise that seemed to redouble in urgency with every breath.  He tipped over and fell with a splash.<br><br>The Endbringer stood, showing none of the frailty or pain it had been displaying seconds ago.  The injuries were there, to be sure, his head hung at an angle because of the way the weight of his head hung on the intact portions of his neck, but he wasn’t suffering, had no trouble putting his full weight on his more injured leg.  Had it been an act?<br><br>The Endbringer dropped Armsmaster’s arm and Halberd, where the weight of the metal armor and device pulled them beneath the water.  A lash of his tail dispatched two of my three swarms.  He watched, seeming not to care, as the third ran up to him, smashed against his leg.  The bugs spreading out, burying themselves deep into his injuries. I was hoping to find some weakness, devour him from the inside out, but the bugs might as well have been biting on steel.  Nothing budged beneath their jaws, their stings couldn’t penetrate.<br><br>He turned, crouched, bolted West, away from the coast, full speed.<br><br>I hurried to Armsmaster’s side. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref> or retreat.<ref>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/extermination-8-5/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> On all fours, he is fast enough to run on the surface of water despite weighing nearly nine tons.<ref name="redditWWW e1" /><ref name="8.2 e20">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''.<br><br>He was fast.<br><br>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.<br><br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/extermination-8-2/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.2]]</ref> However, [[Clockblocker]] managed to tag a charging Leviathan with his power, albeit being half-immersed in Leviathan's echo.<ref>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/extermination-8-3/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.3]]</ref> It is also possible for non-speedsters to aim dodge his charge (e.g., [[Armsmaster]] with a grappling hook and combat analysis software).<ref>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.<br><br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/extermination-8-4/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.4]]</ref>

If he chooses, Leviathan can run slower with a loping gait.<ref name="8.5 e2">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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/extermination-8-5/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref><!-- Combined with his other two main powers, Leviathan can flood the battlefield with his after-echo very quickly and run on the water's surface when it is too shallow to dive into.  -->

While underwater, he can use his hydrokinesis with his super-speed to move faster than normal.<ref name="8.2 e6">“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.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/extermination-8-2/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.2]]</ref> In a [[Crater Lake|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.<ref name="8.5 e1" /><ref name="redditWWW e1" /> He can also swim underwater to relocate<ref name="22.y eRelocate">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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/interlude-22-donation-bonus-1/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 22.y]]</ref> or retreat.<ref>I gathered my bugs to me, sent some to him, to better track his movements.<br>[...]<br>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.<br><br>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]]</ref><ref name="22.y e16" /> However, [[Skitter]] could track his underwater movements as he could not accelerate or decelerate fast enough to kill her bugs via G-forces.<ref name="8.5 e1">We hadn’t set down for more than ten seconds before the building shuddered and began to collapse.  The ground beneath the building cracked and tilted, no doubt because the underlying soil and rock was being drawn away by churning water.  The flooding in the streets was diverted into the deepening bowl-shaped cavity Leviathan was creating, filling it.  It was almost a lake, now, three city blocks across and growing rapidly. Only fragments of the taller buildings in the area stayed above the waves; some buildings were already toppled onto their sides, others half-collapsed and still breaking apart as I watched.<br>[...]<br>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.<br>[...]<br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/extermination-8-5/ Excerpt] from [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> Leviathan's swimming speed was not enough to dislodge a sufficiently ramped-up Lung holding onto his back and shoulders;<ref>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.<br><br>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.<br>[...]<br>Leviathan surfaced, and Lung found his way up to the monster’s neck. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/interlude-22-donation-bonus-1/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 22.y]]</ref> [[Lung]] was less than 15 feet tall at the time.<ref>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.<br><br>He found handholds in the shallow wounds on Leviathan’s back and shoulders.<br>[...]<br>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.<br>[...]<br>He was only half the height of the Endbringer, but it was enough. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/interlude-22-donation-bonus-1/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 22.y]]</ref>

A speedster, distinct from a flier,<ref name="II8.7 e1">If they go for a drive late at night, we have a flier or speedster track them. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/07/24/beacon-8-7/ Excerpt] from [[Beacon 8.7]]</ref><ref name="II15.3 e1">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. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/07/13/dying-15-3/ Excerpt] from [[Dying 15.3]]</ref> describes an individual that can move their body at a ridiculous pace<ref name="6.6 e1">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.<br>[...]<br>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. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/tangle-6-6/ Excerpt] from [[Tangle 6.6]]</ref> using either a [[Breaker]] state, propulsion, environmental manipulation, or alien biology.<ref name="II10.5 e1">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. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/11/06/polarize-10-5/ Excerpt] from [[Polarize 10.5]]</ref> While underwater, Leviathan could move far faster than any speedster on record<ref name="8.2 e6" /> as of May 15, 2011.<ref name="25.6 e1">'''Brockton Bay''', May 15th, 2011 // Leviathan<br>Notes:  Scion victory.<br>Target/Consequence: Noelle?  See file <u>'''Echidna'''</u>.  No contact made. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/scarab-25-6/ Excerpt] from [[Scarab 25.6]]</ref> The only known [[parahuman]] speedster faster than him is [[Secondhand]]; Secondhand is faster than light in his time-dilation state.<ref name="II15.y">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. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/08/06/dying-15-y/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 15.y II]]</ref>