CQC with Leviathan

I had just enough time to swap out my sword for something heavier, with more heft and weight behind it: an ax, a gilded thing with a wicked-looking blade. Then, he kicked off, racing towards me with such speed that his feet never actually touched the ground, only the shallow layer of water that coated the street.

I deflected the swipe of his clawed hand down and into the asphalt, shrugging off the impact of his echo as though it was nothing — because it was nothing, little more than a tingle that I could easily ignore. With Godhand: The Twelve Labors, it didn’t even bruise.

I hefted up my ax and swung it down towards his hand, aiming to try and take off one of his fingers, but he pulled it back with speed, lashing out with the other hand. I ducked under it, using my own fist to push it high so that it missed completely. Again, the echo hit me in the wake of his missed strike, but again, it was easily ignored.

My ax was easily yanked free, and once more, Leviathan came after me, swiping at me with increasing quickness as he tried to land a solid, appreciable blow. I dodged and parried each, avoiding the sharp points of his claws, and with each exchange, I tried to get in an attack of my own, something that might let me blunt them.

But Leviathan himself was avoiding my return blows, angling his hands such that the best I could manage was shallow cuts, and with his enormous size and lightning fast attacks, he forced me to give ground, to dodge further and further back in order to keep out of range of the claws some instinct or intuition told me would be able to pierce my skin.