>>1038116
>lure her into hitting pitch with it
She just did. Totally ineffective, because she's cheating somehow.

>>1038120
...Seems I can't even give you partial credit on that response.
She was not standing *in* the pitch when she used her parasig. One look at the 5th image makes that clear, even if the text was ambiguous. Point blank explosions may differ from ones at a distance. Of course, given that there was no description of the pitch explosion's effect on the hostile, only a description of the explosion itself, the blast wave may have had effects that simply went unnoticed. Especially since the only thing we're sure her defense had an effect on was the round fired, which undoubtedly differs greatly from an explosion and its blast wave.

>Say, where's the tacmap?
Looks like the structure to the right on the previous map is our most likely location. No corner door evident where it should be, so Argine's dodge must've brought her towards the right, then she got knocked through the whole dang wall by the blast. Unless I'm misreading the perspective here.

>Through a wall
>ain't like I've got broken bones down in there
You might be sturdy, but wall vs meat is not a fight typically won. You could have fractures all over whole dang body, so I'd argue to pop a Briarspirit for the health recovery so you can move properly again, but you be the judge of that - take a moment to actually assess - as we haven't got great analytics of your bodily state.

>I can't dodge a blast this large
Of course you can - it's a cone-shaped strike, right? You just need to be closer to the source so it'd be easier to sidestep - heck, you might even manage it mid-range if you're lucky and can feint out her strike. Long range you're straight screwed unless you've got a Blink ready. Behind a wall you might even be screwed - at least you'd want to hide behind crates to take on shrapnel or have a barrier up in case she takes down something load-bearing and the roof caves in... hm.

>Celestis Cataclysmica
That is, by the way, a spectacular ace for a melee monster in a semi-enclosed space like this. That coupled with her little bullet-eating trick. But... there should be ways to counter both. Nor should we presume she can keep doing this forever. Like most things, there's probably a recharge period, a limited time of effect or a limited number of charges available to her. Same goes for her Solburst-like aura - at some point it's gotta fade.

>Next move?
Probe her a bit. Swap to the Sound & The Fury. Pummel her with rapid fire pistol shots as you try to keep to a mid-to-close distance and circle her - mainly to see if you can spend that solburst thing or see if it has any fluctuations in effect. You do need to be light on your feet for that sort of a direct challenge though, hence the recommendation for the Briarspirit's healing effect (though on second thought, maybe the barrier effect would be better, in case that helps with the heat aura). Also, with S&F you could if need be gunkata her if she chooses to close the range. You also have Break and Blood Circle to get away again in that case.

>Keep her riled
Continue with the smack talk, since you don't mind her knowing where you are at present. Anything like this may do:

"So that's it? Your epic tale is starting to sound like a buncha hot air, 'sis."

"Doesn't look like your parasignia can quite cut it. Or did I need to step into it? Was that what you wanted, trying to get me into a swordfight with that up your sleeve?"

"You keep talking about fun, but remind me again - why should I play things YOUR WAY? If I need to run and hide - I will. If I need to stand and fight - I will. If you say we can do things OUR OWN WAY - I AGREE! But I sure as heck don't need to do things YOURS. Unless you think you can MAKE ME?"

>The plan
>disarm her
>take down something load-beating
More long-term, if you can position yourself so that one of her Celestis strikes will take out one of the structures' walls (the partially destroyed one already might be best), maybe you can then goad her into a melee fight in the half-deconstructed building, then use explosive knives to drop the roof on her. THEN you move to disarm her as she's blast-vaporizing the roof or trying to dig out of the rubble. If you can get your hands on her blade, taking it and Blinking away sounds like the way to go, honestly. Puts some immediate distance between you again... plus if her heat aura's on you don't want to be too close too long.

>>1038131
It would, incidentally, be way funnier if you made her drop the roof on herself, but that'd mean fighting her in an even more enclosed space.

Seems we are going to need to fight her with something of lesser speed, like the knives or melee.
Taunting her into attacking you directly, then Blinking behind her (or at least to an angle she can't reach you and makes it less obvious you just used a gadget to evade her), might be the best idea.
Go for the arms with your sword, maybe?

1/4 Cross 2022/07/19(Tue)04:59 No. 1038569 ID: 73aaab
File 165823199680.png - (117.66KB , 1000x1000 , FoundryMap04.png )

>Hey, where's the tacmap?
Ah, damn, you're right.
I breathe in, trying to focus... and there it is. Guess the blast knocked me a bit dizzy, but I think I have to be actively trying to seek out the map to access it. Remember how it went when I got locked in by Ozone? Same deal there, it popped up when I was trying to get out.


>Why did you use the Pitch Prefect on the ground instead of directly on her like I suggested? And you tried to shoot her despite me advising not to do that?
Hey, I had a chance to set up a trap for her in advance, as well as checking whether she could actually see those tar pools or not. We got info from it - she doesn't seem like she does!

>You got knocked through a wall?
I didn't get knocked through a wall, the door was open to this room. Seems like someone didn't actually take care of her Sector like she was supposed to!
Saved me the pain of having to slam right into a steel door, so I can't complain.

Now that she's used her Parasignia - I can too. And with more weapons than before! Plenty of combinations.
But don't forget that these things are give-and-take! If I use it ineffectually, she'll be refuelled and ready to keep hitting me with bloody huge explosions!


>Astrolysis doesn't seem immune to explosions.
But her sword IS, considering that thing's what makes her Parasignia work.
Considering this, the previous idea we had of sticking explosive knives to the sword wouldn't have broken it at all. I still think that our best bet is getting rid of her sword somehow, because that severely limits her combat effectiveness against me.

>Maybe Plug can force her to drop the sword?
I'm not sure she'd ever actually drop that thing - her pain tolerance is probably something intense, and I wouldn't even be surprised if she glued the sword to her hand.

>Drop the roof on her!
If Diagram or Judicium were here, they'd be lecturing me about the risks of casual explosive use.
BUT THEY AREN'T SO LET'S SEE WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN ANYWAY!

I don't have another plan that's as effective for immobilizing her, so we've got to give this a proper shot.

2/4 Cross 2022/07/19(Tue)05:00 No. 1038570 ID: 73aaab
File 165823202031.png - (869.72KB , 1000x1000 , Arginethonking.png )

First, let's do some quick thinking on what her Parasignia's shown to do so far. At least the whole planning thing means I can sort my thoughts out a bit more quickly, but we don't have all the time in the world.

She can somehow get rid of or nullify the effectiveness of bullets that go toward her - but I'm not sure what extent she can do it yet. It's probably worth testing it out further.

>It's like she's using a stronger version of Judicium's power, which is just cheating. Also, it didn't protect her from your knives? ...I don't get it.

Let's think about this point a bit more. There's no way she literally just has a better version of what Judicium has, right? Their elements are also the opposite of each other - she deals with explosions, Judicium freezes things. Hot and cold.
Judicium, the way her Parasignia works is through SLOWING projectiles coming towards them until they have no more momentum. Literal freezing, right?

Astrolysis though - when I fired that shot, the round was burned to a crisp, basically slag. Which means that something hot, like an explosion, pushed it back and also made it lose momentum. Same end result, different means.
But - it didn't stop the knives. Which means: there's a size cap on the projectiles she CAN stop, which I don't think Judicium would have.
Feh. Of course the only melee fighter in the whole facility ALSO happens to have an ability that lets her nullify her most glaring weakness.
I... don't think it's from her main Parasignia since I didn't see any big explosions. While I said it worked similar to the Solburst cards, the Solburst is still like a big explosive wave - I didn't see anything like that from it.
That means it has to be a Psuedosignia of some kind, right? Which means it has to be the one associated with Nickel's. But how the hell does invisibility do anything to bullets?

I don't have the time to think that out fully, I'll leave that to you, Sykes.
I've got a new plan to put into action.

3/4 Cross 2022/07/19(Tue)05:00 No. 1038571 ID: 73aaab
File 165823204165.png - (1.12MB , 1000x1000 , ArgineTaunting.png )

With my two guns in hand, I'm ready to put things into action.
I laugh, loud enough that the brute can hear it.
"Hah! Nice Parasignia, chump! Looks like it didn't quite cut it, did it? Ain't got any broken bones here, so it looks like you still can't aim, even if you're a sword! Ha ha ha ha!"

That last part definitely seems to have pissed her off, as she's already walking toward me.
"Oh? Taking a stroll? I thought this was a fight, not a sight-seeing tour. Not that you'd be able to see anything!"

Not my best material, but I'm coming up with a lot of this on the spot.
Astrolysis hefts her sword onto her shoulder, with seemingly no worry about the heated edge being close to her body, nor whatever threat I could pose to her.

"You call that trash talk? You run your mouth like how you fight!"

...The hell's that supposed to mean?
In response, I take a shot or two - but, without even lifting her sword, the bullets drop down, reduced to a flaming lump.

...She's coming closer. But my Blink Capacitor's off cooldown now, so I can hop back whenever I need to.

Instead of coming at me with a strike though, she stops, sneering.
"You really think I'll follow you in there, Wirehead? No wonder why you have that name. Come on then - you've got your little peashooters. I thought you were going to keep scurrying around and poking me like a chump."

...She's not biting.
But she's not advancing any further either.
I don't like this - I feel like if I continue to stand here, she's going to just start swinging - and I think having to deal with an explosion indoors is the exact opposite of what we want right now.

4/4 Cross 2022/07/19(Tue)05:00 No. 1038572 ID: 73aaab
File 165823205989.png - (95.94KB , 1000x1000 , FoundryMap05.png )

She's closed the distance. I don't have much time to make a decision, but if she's not going into the room so we can collapse the roof on her, we're going to need another plan.
The explosive knives alone probably aren't enough to break the walls, and she'd see it coming from a mile away if I start out like that.

I'm starting to figure out what the hell Astrolysis is doing with that Parasignia of hers to protect herself from my attacks.
Given that she doesn't seem to actually need to swing her sword to protect herself, something automatic's happening that we can't see. That would line up with Nickel's Parasignia being tied to invisibility, yeah? So Astrolysis has some kind of invisible protective force around her, I think. Question is how we're getting past that...


So, a few options come to mind right now -
1. - Using the Pitch Prefect to push the offense. Last time, I wasn't able to shoot at Astrolysis directly since I was setting up a trap - this time, I can try again, especially since she's got her guard down a little.
2. - Switching to the Creirwy and seeing just how resilient her defenses are. As it's multiple pellets, it does mean there's a chance she can't block all of it, or it could be blown away by an invisible shockwave.
3. - Maybe something else comes to mind? Not sure if there is a way to bait her into the room or not, but I can't just sit here and eat more explosions to the face.


Remember, I can make use of my Parasignia right now!
If you're going to suggest using it, give me a weapon combination out of two of the ones I already have and tell me what the plan is. A shiny new weapon means nothing if I can't actually get anything out of it!
It could make for an effective followup for whatever plan we've got cooked up as well, since then we can really hammer her with lead when her defenses are down or negated.

Remember the Elephant Gun I talked about yesterday? Make one now.
Combine your shotgun and sniper rifle. Choose Slug Shells for ammo. Those have enough mass and size to overcome the heatshield.

I remember now. Heat-based mecha was annoying to pilot, but I remember. Do not take any frontal melee opportunities, no matter how stunned Astrolysis looks. If she's using a Scorch kit, she can temporarily set up a hand-held shield with a temperature akin to magma. Keep flanking her, and do not give her enough time to set up gas traps, or power through them so she can't detonate in time.

>>1038570
>size limit on projectiles
If only you had a rocket launcher. Or shotgun slugs, those might be big enough. Hmm, can you combine the rifle with your shotgun to produce a bigger bullet?

I considered using echoscribe but I don't think either the flash grenade or the holo-cloak would do anything against astrolysis. You COULD use it to get a single-use Explosive Disc though? That could allow you to blow up the room.

Gooping her up directly with Pitch Prefect seems like a good idea. Then when you hit her with more knives it'll do extra damage! The goop might potentially make it harder for her to use her sword, too.

OH, I bet her shield doesn't prevent point-blank shots. If you can stun her with a Solburst then you can get in and unload directly into her face.

...So she's effectively immune to firearms and explosions at a distance? Sounds like it beats the pants off of solburst, getting yourself an equivalent would do wonders for survivability in general.

Either way, while the sword may be immune to point-blank explosives (whatever it's made of, get yourself armor made of that material!), the sword's user would probably at least be hurt by them, so covering her in pitch would be a good tactic if the pitch goes through her defense. Even if she realizes the threat, she either has to take the hit to attack outside of close range or not use her parasig, which is nothing but good. Downsides are she may take the hit if she's sure she has a way to finish you off, and that you only have so much pitch to use.

Slighty concerning is her tactics now. She's not rapid firing her parasig at your location, not dashing to melee, she's just slowly closing the distance. However, that may just be because she has nothing else to do while her parasig reloads.

So for now, toss explosive knives followed by heading for the door at the opposite side. Distance is your best ally here.

Overall, despite her aces, you've still got the edge, especially if you avoid parasig usage to maximize her reload and avoid close quarters.
She attempts to close the distance? LOL RUN AND KNIFE SPAMMING
She uses her parasig? LOL PITCH AND BARRIER TP
Perhaps it's a bit dull to just whittle away, but the more you bore her, the more likely she is to give up.

You once mentioned that the little holes on the end of Astrolysis’ snout allow her to sense heat and she has an innate sense of echolocation. This means that it would be impossible to sneak up on her just by turning the lights off.

However, I’m guessing large amounts of heat and lots of noise will disorient her and make it harder for her to “see”. You know what causes large amounts of heat and causes lots of noise? Explosions.

Now, I’m not saying you should try to sneak up behind her, that’s a bad idea when she’s got a stinger on her tail that could stab you. But what I am saying is that creating explosions will give you an opportunity to get away from her if you need it.

Also……
>>1038571
>the bullets drop down, reduced to a flaming lump.
Seems to be the opposite of the ice queen, Judicium. Instead of freezing your projectiles, Astrolysis is somehow melting your projectiles.

>>1038721
Yeah they're melting, but just melting a bullet won't *stop* it, if they were just melting then they'd continue forwards and splatter Astrolysis with slag. So it's melting it AND stopping it.
Huh. An invisible force that stops things while heating them up? Sounds like friction.

>>1038721
>>1038722
Argine speculated on this - if it's not just melting, but some manner of invisible explosive counterforce, much like the Celestis strike.

>petty trash talk
So she says, but making light of her melee prowess did seem to get a rise. She's felt the sting of something there before.

>"I thought you were going to keep scurrying around and poking me like a chump."
Perhaps the chump pitying the champ will bite her harder. Words to that effect, at least.

Think about it. While she's a superb melee fighter, Astrolysis has a deadly serious handicap in a future that's all but given up on the kind of close quarters battles she seems to prefer. Before Parasignia - heck, maybe after - war was all about ranged firepower. Even if Astrolysis has her 'signias now, previously 'scurrying around' and 'poking her' until she was done for was the strategy to nope out of her medieval gimmick. Given volume of lethal fire, distances guns can be effective at and the likely limited range of whatever blindsenses she's got... Astrolysis is kind of terrible modern soldier material, at her base.

That badass 'I fight to kill,' comment hides a bitter truth - in a modern war she'd probably get killed just trying to get TO the fight. The 'signias make her somewhat more viable for assault actions, but even so. Even still. No matter how hard she trained - how badass her magic swordswings, her armour and her shield...

Would this battle maniac ever have been fielded in the way she'd wish?

She might have stopped caring - war's over, she'll never have that chance anyway - but I suspect the question has a sting to it and may be part of why she's all 'fuck da rules, I make my own'. Why she - rather literally - overthrew the last Sector Boss of the Armoury and got the people here to make her the cool shit she needed to be equipped to do her thing - and why she tried to tempt you into making this a straight melee by offering you Plug and the deal.

It was the only way she could get the sort of battle she really wants.

It's speculation, but Astrolysis comes a teensy bit off as the last knight, the old warrior in a new age, striving to keep themselves relevant still and prove that their way isn't outmoded - or maybe just wanting to prove that she's not all that handicapped after all, when all things are equal (and in a ranged battle they never could be). So yes, if she doesn't want to come closer - poke her with pity and see what kind of fire that lights.

>If I just stand here she might just start swiping explosions again
If that damages the building then this could serve Plan Roof Drop. If need be, use Blink to escape her next Celestis and put yourself in cover by the crates inside the building. Obviously her senses will tell her you've popped back in there, but it won't necessarily give her much details if you rummage around and make noise doing shit, right? She'll just know where you at and making a racket. Probably be wary all the same, now.

>Hidden Demolition
Pop a few crates, dump out crap to make them light enough to be throwable - and at the same time, dump a bunch of timed explosive knives in one or more crates - and then throw crates at Astrolysis when she comes in after you. Those would be big solid objects you could use to test the strength of her explode-melty counterforce - or rather, that's what you'd be trying to look like you'd be doing, when instead that's a distraction to your real goal of making more load-bearing shit go boom. All you need to do is 'fumble' the toss of the explosive knife-crate to where it needs to go.

And if she swipes at it anyway, well, at least you blew her up again. Inside a building you're also inside of. Hm. Maybe save a crate or two for cover? Anyway, if you do lure her in, you might still need something extra to really send that roof tumbling - and you might want to do that at range.

>Possible Weapon combo
An idea. Combine Plug and H-ED DSTR to form a new attack - Cutting Rain - a slicing shot combining the arc of a swordslice with the range and power of a sniper rifle. Is this possible? I dunno, you tell me, it's your 'signia - I just feel something like that COULD probably take a chunk out of something load-bearing. If Astrolysis' armour was like concrete to Plug, actual concrete might be like soft butter to this. Ah, but H-ED DSTR is still on cooldown, right? Maybe you need to delay this until it's ready. Or your other guns could substitute.

>If Astrolysis won't take the bait
She knows you pulled an ambush on her the last time she went through a door, so put yourself in crate cover so you can retreat in either direction in case she just blows more building apart - or cuts through the wall. You mainly want to maneuver so that you can lure her under whatever part of the building's become unstable. Heck, you could still have an explosion go off to reduce structural integrity and just pretend you thought she would've rushed in like an idiot after you - just so long as you can get her in position later.

1/5 Cross 2022/07/28(Thu)18:17 No. 1039465 ID: 73aaab
File 165905745234.png - (252.47KB , 1000x1000 , ArgineThinking2.png )

The standoff between me and the blind brute continues - I think she knows that I can teleport, so she seems to be holding off for now.

>...So she's effectively immune to firearms and explosions at a distance? Sounds like it beats the pants off of solburst, getting yourself an equivalent would do wonders for survivability in general.

Yeah, sure, let me just twist myself into knots to go and gain that kind of ability. Parasignias are finnicky like that - I'm not going to be able to get an equivalent just because I want to have that kind of power, and I'm pretty sure whatever kind of shields this place can produce won't ever live up to THAT kind of defensive potential. I guess we should consider the deck an extension of what I CAN do - versatility's the name of the game.

>Can you stun her with a Solburst?
Given that it's supposed to be something that works off of light and heat... maybe?

I don't think it'll have the same effect on her that a flashbang would have on a normal soldier though - I'm guessing that it's only going to look like everything's all white for a moment, but not actually 'stun' her because she doesn't have eyes that can be hurt to begin with.

And as for weapon choices...
There's a bit of a split on this then - Elephant Gun or something a little... different. Combining Plug and the H-ED DSTR to make some kinda... sword sniper rifle thing. I've actually got no idea what this'll turn into, since I don't think I've actually had access to a sword AND a sniper rifle of this power at the same time.
...What's an elephant, anyway? Must be pretty big if we're putting a shotgun and a sniper rifle together.

I won't use it now, but these two options have the greatest chance of doing something worth my time.

Speculating on what Astrolysis' powers can do is one thing, but I'm going to take action.

>Pop a few crates, dump out crap to make them light enough to be throwable - and at the same time, dump a bunch of timed explosive knives in one or more crates - and then throw crates at Astrolysis when she comes in after you. Those would be big solid objects you could use to test the strength of her explode-melty counterforce (when actually, it's a distraction to make Plan Roof Drop happen.

This ain't a bad plan, but I feel like moving into the room to start cramming things into a box comes off far too suspicious for Astrolysis not to take a move yet. I'll keep this idea in mind for later.

2/5 Cross 2022/07/28(Thu)18:18 No. 1039466 ID: 73aaab
File 165905749081.png - (953.73KB , 1000x1000 , pointnlaughgine.png )

>Would this battle maniac ever have been fielded in the way she'd wish?
Good question. Astrolysis talks about how 'things were different before', when people couldn't survive shots to the head. If that's the case, someone like her would be way worse off - a severed finger or two probably couldn't be reattached so easily either, right?

We would have been able to plink her down so much earlier if she didn't have stuff like her Pseudosignia protecting her!


Hm. Gives me some ideas for more insults, actually.

"I feel sorry for you, Astrolysis. You really think you're some kind of fighter? Some badass? You said it yourself - back in a different time, people couldn't just take a shot to the head. And you? You're a blind melee combatant in a world where everyone uses guns. You may as well have been cannon fodder!"

She drops her sword down, the edge cutting a gouge into the floor again.
"Keep talking, Wirehead, I'll separate your head from your body."

Hahaha~
She looks mad.

Once she's in range, I'll ready the Pitch Prefect to try and hose her down.

"No wonder why you asked me not to use my Parasignia! It's because you can't fight at all without yours, because little things like BULLETS make you completely useless! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Before I can continue the stream of insults, Astrolysis shouts at me.
"Enough!"

Wait. The hell is she doing?

3/5 Cross 2022/07/28(Thu)18:18 No. 1039467 ID: 73aaab
File 165905751453.png - (812.75KB , 1000x1000 , AstrolysisBoomJump.png )

Another explosion - this time, centered ON her.
"Thought you were the only one who could do this trick? Nickel told me alllllllll about it!"

SHE'S FLYING TOWARD ME!

4/5 Cross 2022/07/28(Thu)18:18 No. 1039468 ID: 73aaab
File 165905753778.png - (778.04KB , 1000x1000 , ArgineTeleport.png )

I barely manage to dodge out of the way as she thrusts her blade, causing me to expend the charge on the Blink Capacitor in the process.


She slams against the wall, her sword driving deep into the foundation. What the hell is that sword made of? Cracks are running all along the wall - so Plan Roof Drop can still happen.
I'm still only inches away from a monster with a sword that's nearly as long as I'm tall, so that's just great.

5/5 Cross 2022/07/28(Thu)18:19 No. 1039469 ID: 73aaab
File 165905757431.png - (115.33KB , 1000x1000 , FoundryMap06.png )

Okay, that's bad, really bad - while outside, she can explosive jump, just like me. What the hell? I thought she wasn't immune to explosions!
...Ah, shit. I think I slept through the class about this, but... I think there's something about how Parasignias protect the user against their own abilities? Isn't that why Judicium is fine even at lower temperatures?

So instead of being able to just whittle Astrolysis down over time, she's now flying at me. This day's just getting better and better, isn't it? But she still isn't immune to MY explosive knives, so she's not invulnerable.

Question is what I can do to deal with her now - she’s much closer in distance than I’d like, and the Blink Capacitor only took me away enough to dodge the attack, which means it’s back on cooldown. I can't just stand here and wait for her to cut me in half!

>>1039465
>What's an elephant, anyway? Must be pretty big if we're putting a shotgun and a sniper rifle together.
YES.

Remember, she literally cannot see you blinking.
Too bad your charge is out, because here's the plan:
Slam the door, then blink to the other doorway and sneak your way out of this mess. Repeat multiple times.
Once she catches on and pays more attention to your footsteps, go crazy with sound. Plug your ears and fire your loudest noisemakers. Keep insulting her, add her screams of rage to the cacophony. The more noise you can make, the less she can detect her surroundings.
If you can deafen her, this fight is as good as won.

She's stuck, now's the best time to load her down with tar. After that, when you get a chance, you can hit her with explosive knives again for a BIG BOOM.

Also, please be advised. Elephant Guns and Punt Guns and similar are more like... small handheld cannons. There is a reason people don't use them, and instead tend towards emplaced and sandbag supported crew weapons at those recoil levels. The recoil may be injurious, evek if you are correctly braced. People have been knocked over and broken their backs due to recoil from various 'extreme' novelty guns that tend to not be used in military contexts for lots of good reasons. I don't know what you'll do with this knowledge, but good luck. Also an elephant is a quadrupedal land mammal with the mass of a small armored vehicle. Maybe 6 tons or so? Though the word 'ton' means lots of different things in different contexts...

>let me just twist myself into knots to go and gain that kind of ability
Ha, you say that like you both know the limit of your abilities and that you've already peaked. Or that no gadget you get or gadget combo you make would ever successfully emulate whatever she's doing. Very pessimistic for a person with abilities that break known laws of physics.

>she can explosive jump
Of course, the caveat is she has no ability to change course. Perfect if you have a trap set up behind yourself that she cannot see.

>Question is what I can do to deal with her now
Options:
1) Her sword is stuck in a wall. Sounds like a great opportunity to disarm her, quite literally if need be. Her hands will regrow... or at least it seems they should.
2) How many explosive knives can you throw into her exposed back (or head or arms) before she gets her sword free? Once she does, you're right next to a door to escape.
3) Get a holocloak with echoscribe, toss it to a random wall. Have it insult her in creative ways. Smirk as she gets stuck in wall two. However, if this would require prerecording, nevermind.
4) Fire pitch at the corners of the room you're inside. Hit her with pitch too, if you feel it'd help. Goad her into parasigging. Perhaps use your parasig to do extra damage and assure hers is ready to be used. Once you detect she's activating, escape. Laugh as her parasig and the secondary pitch explosions get the roof to fall on her head.
5) Pop a void, combine the previous options however you feel.

How many times are we going to have to shoot at her with no result before we figure out that bullets aren't doing anything against her? It looks like we're going to HAVE to use the sword instead of trying the same thing over and over till we get something important cut off. We need to bait her into charging again and try to get behind her. Trying to stay behind her is probably the best way to get any damage in on her. Might want to cut off her tail tip first though. Definitely toss the tar at her for now, we probably will have to blink behind her because I'm sure she knows how much of a weakness that is.

ARGINE
can you make a gun that shoots swords?!

>>1040111

That only works in settings with a rule of cool based narrative causality, with a very particular definition of 'cool', like bad children's animation!

Make a gun-powered sword, then.

Hear me out. Fuse the sniper rifle with the silk weave gauntlets.

The gauntlets alone might only be able to stop a bullet, but what kind things could we block if that was fused with the power of a sniper rifle shot, or shoot. Maybe even our shotgun? The only downside to this I can see is we might get one hell of a kickback on our shots.

BGM Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:28 No. 1040561 ID: 9dceff
Audio AstrolysisPart2_SomethingMemorable.mp3 - (5.48MB )

Title: Something Memorable (FURI)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbJJmOJLz8

1/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:32 No. 1040562 ID: 9dceff
File 166020315955.png - (78.33KB , 1000x1000 , DramaticThinking.png )

Only a few moments before she gets her sword unstuck and starts blowing me up again.
We have to choose - NOW.

>Ha, you say that like you both know the limit of your abilities and that you've already peaked. Or that no gadget you get or gadget combo you make would ever successfully emulate whatever she's doing.
No, that's not it - I'm talking about what I have NOW. It doesn't matter if there's gadgets out there that can do what she can with the whole bullet-melty thing, when I don't have anything like that right now!

>ARGINE
>can you make a gun that shoots swords?!
Uh, no? Swords aren't exactly good ballistic weaponry, BUT...

>Make a gun-powered sword, then.
Like I said before, I get the feeling that if I jam the sword together with the sniper rifle, I'd get something more akin to a railgun instead.

>Hear me out. Fuse the sniper rifle with the silk weave gauntlets.
...Huh. I didn't consider the gauntlets... but they ARE an option. But not one we'll need right now - the gauntlets protect me against bullets, but not explosions. We'll test it out next time.

>Use this as an opportunity to lay into her with tar and explosive knives.
I get what you're saying, but... this is an opportunity. I'm going to roll with plan Roof Drop from before, with a few caveats. The goal is to disarm her - because without her weapon - she won't be throwing out any explosions.


> Her sword is stuck in a wall. Sounds like a great opportunity to disarm her.
Yeah. Yeah, it is. Even though some of you guys are suggesting stunning her with the tar - but when we've got an opportunity like this, I'm suggesting we enact a previous plan of ours - one we've already been working toward.


>How many times are we going to have to shoot at her with no result before we figure out that bullets aren't doing anything against her?
It's kinda like with armor, really. If a shot isn't strong enough to make it through, then it'll bounce off, doing little-to-no damage at all. So I've got something of my own to propose.

Think about it. If her sword's made outta something that's immune to explosions, more explosions aren't going to break it. It's true that Astrolysis' the one who's actually immune to her own Parasignia - but her equipment is still holding up, even now. By extension, even if we broke through the barrier of hers
It's not going to work if we're just gradually increasing our firepower - we're going to max it out in one go.

We're going to go bigger.

2/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:33 No. 1040563 ID: 9dceff
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I breathe in and both the Creirwy D-3 and the H-ED DSTR appear in my hands. Wielding them like this, they're much too unwieldy to fire.

3/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:34 No. 1040564 ID: 9dceff
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But the weight of both guns in my hand remind me exactly what I'm capable of.
A grin creeps across my face.

"Ignition Complex..."

4/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:34 No. 1040565 ID: 9dceff
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"Guns Blazing!"

9/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:37 No. 1040570 ID: 9dceff
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>With debris scattering over the floor, a deafening roar can be heard.
>The doorway, warped by heat gives way as another blast cracks the building.
>From the flames of possibility, new solutions emerge.

>The bloom of a new crimson flower has been witnessed.



I missed this feeling.

A varnished wood stock and all - this thing's a lot more elegant than I thought it was going to be.
I'm going to call this... the Wallflower. Perfect considering that both of the gals that the composite guns come from are total recluses, right?

You don't need to tell me what to do next, either.
The blast created by my entry's probably going to do it's fair share of disorienting the brute in front of me.

>Also, please be advised. Elephant Guns and Punt Guns and similar are more like... small handheld cannons. There is a reason people don't use them, and instead tend towards emplaced and sandbag supported crew weapons at those recoil levels.

I don't have the time to set up something more! This is my chance to get a killer hit in!

10/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:38 No. 1040571 ID: 9dceff
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I pull the trigger - and it's like a flashbang's gone off in my face. The damn ringing in my ears, the blindingly bright flash - it takes a moment before the crack of the shot even registers to me.
Then, stinging pain.
I stumble back, the kick from the Wallflower threatening to throw me back out of the room.

>The consequences of ignoring warnings provided by your own advisors.

Ah- ah shit, did I break a bone in my shoulder? I've got no clue but I can't see anything but the blast in front of me. It's so bright that it's basically a bloody flashbang when we're in a darker room like this!

11/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:38 No. 1040572 ID: 9dceff
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>Searing heat.
>For a moment, that's all Astrolysis could feel, moments after she freed her sword.
>The blast engulfed her sense of self in that moment.
>Though she had never seen it - she knew that what she was standing in front of was like the sun itself.
>A memory crossed her mind, of when she named herself - a declaration that she would have the strength to split the skies themselves apart. But what could a blind soldier do if she could not see her target?
>But here, now?
>For the first time - she saw the sun.

12/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:39 No. 1040573 ID: 9dceff
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Before I'm even done recovering from the hit to my shoulder or the blinding flash, I can HEAR the cracks running through the walls of the building.
Whether it's the shrapnel, the backblast or something else - the amount of dust being kicked up is absolutely enormous.

Another cracking sound, and a rumble. This thing's going down!
I scamper back, still nursing my arm - dunno if the damn thing's been dislocated or just bruised like hell!
But I'm not giving her a free win by getting crushed under the roof!

13/13 Cross 2022/08/11(Thu)00:40 No. 1040574 ID: 9dceff
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The rumbling around me doesn't stop as more debris falls, throwing up plume after plume of smoke. It's like we've got a bonfire here, except much more dusty.

Agh- damn it, I can't see anything in all of this smoke, and my Blink Capacitor's still not ready! I don't even know if Astrolysis was downed by my shot, she got absolutely engulfed in the blast! So until we see her, we're not in the clear yet.
And my arm's still hurting like hell, I can barely move it.

Even if I'm out of the doorway, the sheer amount of dust and debris makes it hard to see where the hell I'm going!

If you can't see to move, then don't. Surround yourself with tar, so that if Astrolysis shows up before you can see she'll get stuck. At the very least that will give you time to blink, but I kindof want to start setting fires too, so that you can blind her with ambient heat. ...it occurs to me that giant blast might have fucked up her heat sensing anyway. Like a flashbang but for heat pits.

Can you get the map working again?

>>1040574
you're probably going to have hearing trouble for a bit after that. Focus on feeling for vibration and movement, this girl's tanky as all fuck and even that wasn't a guaranteed down yet.

It may be salient to crouch down, minimize our profile until things clear up enough to safely move.

That's one hell of a boomstick... but crouch down, then move forward through the smoke! Slither, scramble, stumble, whatever, towards where she might be!

If anything left Astrolysis distracted it has to be this. Do not waste seconds to see - seize the initiative, or she will have it, to feel and poke around for her. You can use Plug like a walking stick - have it at the ready in your offhand to feel your way forward - and at hand to attack, parry and block in case she is still able to feel or hear your approach and lashes out blindly.

You created this scene - this mess - with the intent to do a thing so don't just stand around waiting! Find her and try to disarm her while you can.

(And take shallow breaths - too much dust ain't good for ya.)

The noise will keep her from hearing you set up traps. Now's your chance to mine the floor with tar and knives!

Bait her one last time. Act like you're aiming but set up a goddamn minefield. When she finally charges, Elephant Gun Jump! Keep firing through the smoke, try to bring down the roof, and don't stop until we tell you the test is over!

... Did you know elephants normally can't jump due to their sheer mass? Oh well...

Wallflower used solarbeam!

...How many walls did that blast through?

Either way, the cape will reduce dust exposure if you use it to cover your mouth. Have a briar at the ready, because if she still has fight in her, you'll probably need the arm healed.

Honestly, I'd usually advise getting a fallback area full of traps, but right now you fully have the initiative. Wasting it would be foolish. Sure, she could be baiting you, but the odds of that seem low.

Find an unassuming corner among the rubble and set up a defense there. Make sure to not move until you actually see movement.

If you're not able to see where you're going, then staying put for now sounds like the best option. Try to listen to your surroundings and watch out for anymore falling debris.