History Awesome / BattleGround2020

* A quiet one for Ebenezar as well: When Mab tells him to brief Harry on the plan, she adds, "if you please."

* On their way to the front lines, Harry and his band -- including four Wardens, River Shoulders, and Listens-To-Wind -- make a detour to take on a group of {{Necromancer}}s attempting to raise an army of undead. They get the drop on them and Harry gets a shot at one of them; the cloak falls down to reveal [[TheBusCameBack Mavra of the Black Court]]. Suddenly Harry and his team find themselves up against eight Black Court vampires, the most cunning and dangerous example of vampire in the whole series, and realizes the necromancer drum beats were just an ''epic'' BatmanGambit to capture some of the top players of the Alliance. And the bastards ''[[TheBadGuyWins succeed]]'', [[HeroKiller killing poor Wild Bill and Yoshimo]] ([[MookFaceTurn and also likely turning them in the process]]).

** One for Demonreach. Four of the most powerful and skilled characters in the series--Vadderung, the Erlking, Mab, and Titania--were only able to go toe-to-toe with Ethniu for a brief period, if that. The moment Harry's got Ethniu bound, though? Demonreach shows up, grabs Ethniu and tows her away in seconds.

** Titania, at height of her power, faces the Eye of Balor, and redirects its emotion fueled energy to air, which was frozen by Winter Lady's troops, using conflicting energies to summon torrential outpour of rain to ground the magical aura of dread and fear that powered it. ''In single move'', she avoids the FantasticNuke and ''disarms it for almost the rest of the battle''. Oh, and also stops some fires around city. Mab was impressed.

** Titania, at height of her power, faces the Eye of Balor, and redirects its emotion fueled energy to air, which was frozen by Winter Lady's troops, using conflicting energies to summon torrential outpour of rain to ground the magical aura of dread and fear that powered it. ''In single move'', she avoids the FantasticNuke and ''disarms it for almost the rest of the battle''. Oh, and also stopping some fires around city. Mab was impressed.

** Titania, at height of her power, faces the Eye of Balor, and redirects its emotion fueled energy to air, which was frozen by Winters Lady troops, using conflicting energies to summon torrential outpour of rain to ground the magical aura of dread and fear that powered it. In ''single move'', she avoids the FantasticNuke ''and disarms it for almost the rest portion of the battle''. Oh, and also stopping some fires around city. Mab was impressed.

** Titania, at height of her power, faces the Eye of Balor, and redirects its emotion fueled energy to air, which was frozen by Winters Lady troops, using conflicting energies to summon torrential outpour of rain to ground the magical aura of dread and fear that powered it. In ''single move'', she avoids the FantasticNuke ''and disarms it for almost the rest portion of the battle''. Oh, and also to stop some fires around city. Mab was impressed.

** Titania, Vadderung, and the Erlking, all at once, vs. Ethniu. The latter ''wins'' (albeit just barely). The duel is so epic that even Harry, an experienced wizard, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm can barely comprehend what's going on.]]

** Titania, at height of her power, faces the Eye of Balor, and redirects its emotion fueled energy to air, which was frozen by Winters Lady troops, using conflicting energies to summon torrential outpour of rain to ground the magical aura of dread and fear that powered it. In ''single move'', she avoids the FantasticNuke ''and disarms it for almost the rest portion of battle''. Oh, and also to stop fires around city. Mab was impressed.

** Titania, at height of her power, faces the Eye of Balor, and redirects its emotion fueled energy to air, which was frozen by Winters Lady troops, using conflicting energies to summon torrential outpour of rain to ground the magical aura of dread and fear that powered it. By ''single move'', she avoids the FantasticNuke ''and disarms it for almost the rest portion of battle''. Oh, and also to stop fires around city. Mab was impressed.

** Titania, at height of her power, faces the Eye of Balor, and redirects its emotion fueled energy to air, which was frozen by Winters Lady troops, using conflicting energies to summon torrential outpour of rain to ground the magical aura of dread and fear that power it. By ''single move'', she avoids the FantasticNuke ''and disarms it for almost the rest portion of battle''. Oh, and also to stop fires around city. Mab was impressed.

** Ramirez counters with one heck of an ArmorPiercingQuestion: "Yeah. Who ''are'' you?"

*** [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Hendricks]], Marcone's right-hand man, TakingTheBullet for his boss by putting himself between Marcone and Ethniu as the latter brings down Gungnir on the former's head. The big guy takes the legendary spear of the All-Father to the chest and has just enough strength in him for a SpitefulSpit before dying. Sigurn later confirms that this earned him a place in Valhalla.

* A subtle one for Ebenezar: When Mab starts bossing Harry around, he steps in between them, and confronts her. In turn, she shows a certain amount of respect for him, even telling him to brief Harry "if you please."

* On their way to the frontlines, Harry and his band -- including four Wardens, River Shoulders, and Listens-To-Wind -- make a detour to take on a group of {{Necromancer}}s attempting to raise an army of undead. They get the drop on them and Harry gets a shot at one of them; the cloak falls down to reveal [[TheBusCameBack Mavra of the Black Court]]. Suddenly Harry and his team find themselves up against eight Black Court vampires, the most cunning and dangerous example of vampire in the whole series, and realizes the necromancer drum beats were just an ''epic'' BatmanGambit to capture some of the top players of the Alliance. And the bastards ''[[TheBadGuyWins succeed]]'', [[HeroKiller killing poor Wild Bill and Yoshimo]] ([[MookFaceTurn and also likely turning them in the process]]).

** Harry has just been kicked off the White Council due to PoorCommunicationKills and associating with monsters a few days before. When at the gathering of these supernatural powers, he looks around and realizes ''none'' of them are showing concern for the human loss. So what does he do? [[CallBack He does]] [[Literature/GhostStory something about it.]] Or, to put it another way, Harry's not being corrupted by monsters... Monsters are being corrupted by ''Harry.''

* When Ramirez grimly informs Harry that the [[UngratefulBastard White Council]] have [[ManipulativeBastard taken advantage of Listens-To-Wind and Ebenezar being hospitalized]] to hold the vote evicting him and are banning him from openly operating as a wizard under penalty of death, even [[KickTheDog ordering Ebenezar in his capacity as Blackstaff to kill him if he disobeys]], Harry [[ShutUpHannibal firmly tells him]] that he doesn't give a damn about the Council's orders anymore and that he'll do whatever he sees fit to help people. [[BadassBoast And if they don't like it, they should remember just how powerful and connected he is now.]]

** It's also worth noting ''how'' Harry seals her. After using Bob to create and preserve a magic circle around Ethniu (and honestly, Bob himself deserves a [=CMoA=] for managing to match wills with ''the Last Titan''), he binds her to a green crystal taken from The Well under Demonreach. After he tosses the crystal in Lake Michigan, a '''massive''' tidal wave crashes down upon Ethniu and [[EldritchAbomination Demonreach itself]] [[SummonBiggerFish arrives]], with the old GeniusLoci ''physically dragging the screaming Titan into the depths of the lake'', never to be seen again.
* Listen, TheDragon of King Corb, is a walking talking ''villainous'' [=CMoA=]. He is thoroughly appreciated by Ethniu despite her FantasticRacism so much that she ''lets him'' take over command from Corb, talks down to Ethniu and reminds her that she needs him as he's a Starborn and runs covert missions behind everybody's back. Every time he takes the field, his skills and strategy result in Chicago's defenders being forced back, and Harry has to ''personally'' counter him to prevent losing the battle. He finally loses after being blasted by Harry but not before managing to get a gut shot with his hand gun, which would've left Harry at Ethniu's mercy if not for him summoning Titania as backup. [[KarmaHoudini And he even escapes scot-free at the end.]]

*** [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Hendricks]], Marcone's right-hand man, TakingTheBullet for his boss by putting himself between Marcone and Ethniu as brings down Gungnir on the former's head. The big guy takes the legendary spear of the All-Father to the chest and has just enough strength in him for a SpitefulSpit before dying. Sigurn later confirms that this earned him a place in Valhalla.

** Doubling as a SugarWiki/FunnyMoment, when Harry tells Michael afterward what the Council has done, the latter is so furious at their vile treatment of his friend that he '''''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness curses them out]]'''''.

** When Harry tells Michael afterward what the Council has done, the latter is so furious at their vile treatment of his friend that he ''''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness curses them out]]''''.

* A joint one for Vadderung and Lacuna. She spears one assassin creature heading for him JustInTime. Vadderung, without even blinking at the near death, lifts the creature via her spear, flicks its off of the weapon, wipes it and hands it back to her like a true gentleman.

* Apparently, Mab had commissioned the creation of the Bean, and took advantage of that to hide an extensive weapons cache inside it, [[CrazyPrepared just in case she ever needed to arm several thousand Chicagoans in a hurry]].

** Even better? Harry's aforementioned WhatTheHellHero moment to the rest of the Accorded Nations, where he's able to convince them to make reparations to Chicago and the world at large, is mentioned as working in large part because these supernatural entities that include the Faerie Queen of Air and Darkness, the queen of the succubae and incubae, and ''the Allfather himself'' all show nothing but naked '''terror''' at the mere thought of the Librarians getting involved in supernatural politics.

** And for bonus points? Shortly before this happens, Molly has left Harry with a change of clothes: his [[IconicOutfit classic outfit]], down to the [[BadassLongcoat black leather duster]]. Moreover, when he jumps into the fight, the Winter Mantle is working in concert with him, not trying to corrupt him. This isn't Sir Harry Dresden, Winter Knight, waging war against the enemies of Queen Mab -- this is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Professional Wizard, fighting to defend his home as he's ''always'' done, just on a larger scale. This, more than anything else, proves that not only is he still the same man at his core despite the worries of certain characters, but HesBack in action with a vengeance.