Lethe vs Tesseract

Vs

There isn't an image of Lethe anywhere I'm afraid

• In character
• Full knowledge
• Fight in a dojo
• Win by death

SP:

@alphaq@hittheassasin

This a very hard decision.

In regards stats, I think Lethe should be the overall superior. Striking isn't too dissimilar, both of them have made short work of Skulduggery's durability when they tagged him, actually if anything I think Lethe strikes harder, considering he was shattering Skulduggery's bones with blows IIRC, I know he did break Skulduggery's forearm at the end of their first fight. Whereas Tesseract admitted that it was partly luck that he could break Skulduggery's jaw in the fights at Skul's house and I think a jaw is easier to break than an arm. Tesseract is probably stronger in a lifting sense, considering he's a larger man and ragdolled Val badly, whereas I can't remember much from Lethe in that regard. Still, it shouldn't be a huge difference considering Skul was able to wrestle with Tesseract over control of a gun when they first met, and I can't imagine Lethe is much weaker than Skulduggery. Lethe is clearly more agile and quick, he was described as fighting as a blur, disarmed and killed one of his underlings before she realized anything was happening, was described as being as agile as a Cleaver and was doing extremely agile moves against Skulduggery, with lots of explosive kicks, cartwheeling into advantageous ground positions and using one handed cartwheels to escape throws. He also fought Skul and Resurrection Val when they were using scythes, which impresses me more than anything Tesseract speed-wise. Still, Tesseract shouldn't be too far behind in agility, considering he's faster than Tanith, but he's less agile and his size hinders him there. Lethe should be more durable on account of his armor, which if I remember correctly was considered to be around Ghastly's wares in durability (though realistically they should be, considering a random Roarhaven tailor had clothes almost as good), and he seemed to fair slightly better against Skul's blows that Tesseract (he was merely winded, although that was possibly feigned considering he was intentionally quirky so he wouldn't be recognized, whereas Tesseract was nearly knocked down and had a rib popped by Skulduggery's blows). Tesseract probably has more pain tolerance, considering he kept fighting despite having burns on his back from Ravel but I would say Lethe has more soak considering he regularly lets people beat the shit out of him. Tesseract does have a strong size advantage though.

Onto magic. Lethe's power set is a bit, we're never really told if he loses at the start of fights because he legitimately has to absorb his opponents style or if he lets them win to absorb as many style as possible or if he just lets them win to mess with their heads. When he fought Temper he said that he wasn't going to play around, but this might've been because he saw Temper fought before and didn't feel the need to learn more or maybe he had run out of patience. Temper managed to last at least a little while IIRC, but I don't know how significant that is since he we don't know what level is except that he got stomped by Nero, which is to be expected against a Teleporter. When he fought Val and Skull he was originally losing but considering he wasn't getting tagged by their scythes, I imagine him letting people win is just to let them reveal their style and maybe mess with their heads/gain the element of surprise (which Skulduggery said was part of why he got stomped when Lethe got serious and said that he was confident he could do better after reappraising Lethe). I imagine that Lethe would be able to perform well at the start of the fight and then get progressively better, wait, now that I think about it Lethe fought Skulduggery with melee weapons before absorbing his style... and Skul tagged the Black Cleaver several times with an electrified stick (albeit after the Cleaver underestimated its power) and managed to deprive the Cleaver of his weapon when he was disarmed. Considering the Cleaver is a Skulduggery level H2H fighter and he should be more skilled with his scythe, it seems Skulduggery is actually more skilled with weapons than his fists (although I suppose he did wield a sword in the War although it seems weird that he was so far off Burgundy if this is the case). Add Val into the equation and I suspect Lethe's feat against those two shows more skill than anything Tesseract did. I do think his feat against the Scooby Gang in Mortal Coil is a bit overrated, some parts of the fight had me thinking he got lucky. Ravel telegraphed his Elemental magic allowing Tesseract to knock him with a lamp, Skul lost his cool and distance advantage when Tesseract ragdolled Valkyrie (whereas Resurrection shows that if he can he prefers to dodge and analyze styles against skilled opponents), Tesseract was admittedly lucky when he broke Skul's jaw and he almost fell for a feint of Ravel's that would've shattered his knee. So I don't think either is stomping the other when the fight starts from the onset but I do think that if Lethe gets the chance to absorb Tesseracts style he'll win for sure.

I actually suspect Lethe has the advantage from the onset if you set Tesseract's magic aside, on account of his superior stats and great skill feats even before absorbing his opponents styles. Tesseract also seems to favor using his fists over magic, so this could go well for Lethe, who will absorb his style and get the win for sure if he does, but on the other hand Lethe does like to tank things which could backfire with Tesseract's ability. If by in character you mean the Lethe who lets his opponent tag him, as he was in the first fight with Skulduggery, I think Tesseract would win. If by in character you mean the more serious mindset he had against Temper and at the end of the book, I think it really depends on if they have knowledge. It also depends on if Tesseract can bypass the armor with magi and to what degree. I imagine that it would lend similar protection as Val's clothes, and she was able to quickly recover from Tesseract attempting to break her spine but that would only imply he used a fraction of his full power, which can shatter an entire skeleton. I reckon Tesseract could destroy whatever he touches if he uses his full power, but without using his full power Lethe should tank an attack only meant to destroy one part of his body. Tesseract will probably use partial power at first, so Lethe could tank it and be more cautious from there on. Tesseract wouldn't know Lethe is absorbing his style... although I question how much he could do to stop it considering rushing Lethe is a bad idea on account of his striking power.

I think I'll give the fight to Lethe. If they have mutual knowledge, I don't think Tesseract can either hold back on his skill, and get beaten on account of Lethe's superior agility and striking power or use his skill to try and get that bone-breaking contact before Lethe absorbs his style, which I don't see happening since Lethe could protect himself from Skul and Val's simultaneous scythe attacks before absorbing their styles. With no knowledge, I think Lethe can be a little too inclined to tank attacks, which would lose him the fight if Tesseract uses his max power from the onset, although I think realistically he won't and only hurt Lethe without breaking any bones on account of the armor.

So, yeah, in the end I think Lethe would win in a close decision.

@alphaq: Great analysis and a fun read as always.

Honestly, I'd say Tesseract. He's almost as capable as Lethe in H2H,, considering he to was capable of consistently holding a solid advantage over Skulduggery in a pure fist fight, defeating Tanith solidly and winning against Ghastly and Ravel as well. Lethe is obviously superior interms of speed, but I'd say Tesseract can keep up for sure, as he had little to no problems dealing with Tanith, who's extremely fast in her own regard and he was stated to be faster than Book 5 Tanith as well, which is quite the accolade. besides, even if Lethe does have the speed advantage, it would take quite a while for him to actually put Tesseract down, that guy is a real tank, he took tons of shots from Skulduggery, Tanith, Ghastly, Val and Ravel before going down and basically defeated the lot of them, if not all at once(more in teams of 1 or 2 at a time), which is honestly more impressive than Lethe's feat of matching and starting to win against Skulduggery and Adult Val, at least in my opinion.

Then there's his magic, which is pretty much a one-shot kill. Usually I'd say it just allows him to stomp Lethe, due to the latters nature of playing around, but due to the fact that everyone has full knowledge, it probably won't come into play that much. Nevertheless, if Tesseract can ever get a hand on Lethe's chest or head, or even an arm or a leg, which I think is quite likely considering his experience, durability and skill, he prettty much has a win in the bag, as Lethe doesn't have to many especially impressive durability or pain tolerance feats.

Taking all of these factor into account, I think Tesseract would win in a close fight, as his feats simply impressed me more, defeating Val, Skulduggery and Ravel at once, followed shortly by Tanith is just such an impressive showing. Oh, and his magic is extremely OP as well and would potentially allow for a quick win if he gets to use it.

So yeah, Tesseract wins in a good fight.