Le Veritable Dragon Rouge [Mod]

[Pyxis]

A few small fights along the way back to the library had proven to Pyxis just how good her new armor was. The damage she had sustained from the attacks she'd taken was drastically reduced: by more than half of what her armor would have taken before she reinforced it after lard shadow incident, even. This was a good sign. During the major battles in the past she had already been a front line fighter, but now she would really be able to take the vanguard position. And to think, this level of protection had been provided by a maid uniform.

Now no one could say that she didn't have a reason to wear one into battle.

Pyxis wanted to test it out a little more, though, and continue searching for the 'boss' of sorts for the library while she was at it. So she made her way in there, and continued her search.

[ChromaticTruthsayer]

The hero this citidel needs.

Batman

• Death's Chill
• Auto-Suku
• God Hand
• Charming Bolt

Absorb: Repel: Null: Dark Rs: Wk: Light

[Pyxis]

Well now, this would be a good opponent for Pyxis to test out her armor against. It was a Knight type, with black and gray armor and wearing a black mask and cape. In fact, it almost looked less like a knight shadow and more like...well, no, that probably didn't have too much significance. Shadows were born from human thoughts after all. It wasn't too surprising to run into one that seemed to draw from popular culture.

Still, it was a Dark Knight in more ways than one. And that meant it would probably use darkness and close-quarters physical attacks. Maybe a few gadgets. That was fine. Pyxis could easily deal with that. She opened up with a massive attack of her own, calling Elpis from her mind to slash at it with her crescent blade. The attack connected despite a valiant attempt to dodge it, but failed to do crippling damage, despite not being resisted. This shadow had some impressive endurance. Its offense, though, left something to be desired. Or perhaps it was just that Pyxis now outclassed it for armor. It unleashed a blast of darkness that struck Pyxis but didn't damage her all too seriously. Instead, the new maid uniform dispersed most of the damage and redirected most of the darkness harmlessly off to the sides. In resposnse, Pyxis opened fire on the shadow with her main weapons, but the shadow proved to be a lot faster than its armor would suggest and evaded the gunfire. It found an opening in the barrage and rushed in towards Pyxis, slamming a fist into her head. But, as had been the case ever since Pandora awakened into Elpis, the blow did absolutely nothing to her. Nothing, of course, except put the shadow in point blank range where it couldn't avoid her next volley.

Recognizing this, the shadow put some distance between itself and Pyxis, and fired off another blast of darkness, with the same effects. Pyxis prepared to fire off another volley, but then stopped, getting an idea. There was one more thing she needed to test, after all, and while this shadow wasn't sentient it did seem to at least be intelligent enough for strategic thought. "My weakness is electricity," she called out, standing still while Elpis began to glow brightly. If it didn't recognize what she was saying, or didn't have any electrical attacks, that was fine. She'd just try it on a more definitely electrically inclined shadow later.

The shadow didn't seem to react to the words. In fact, it seemed to not do anything at all, although Pyxis noticed the faint aura around it begin to intensify. But since it didn't attack, she called down a charged rain of meteors on the shadow, smashing its armor and armored mount into molten bits. But still, the shadow didn't die. The bits of the armor contracted and fused together into a lithe and surprisingly mobile body. Meanwhile, two jagged pieces of the horse armor mount melted into daggers, connected to the shadow's hands by wires. The shadow threw the knives at Pyxis. Pyxis attempted to dodge them, but while she managed to avoid getting impaled, they still ended up wrapping around her arms by some strange and illogical force. Electricity then coursed through the wires, flooding Pyxis's body. Or, it would have, if it didn't pass harmlessly through the divine fabric of her maid outfit, unable to reach Pyxis's body until the resistance in the garment completely negated it.

"Oh, Mitch, I'm sure you'd love to see this," Pyxis said, pulling herself free of the wires and firing on the shadow again. It was now less of a Dark Knight and more of a non-literal Black Reaper. But despite being fast enough now to dodge several of Pyxis's attacks, it couldn't hurt her enough to finish her off or even inflict major damage before she landed the killing blow.

[Kitten4u]

That was a fierce battle!



Almost as fierce as me!

[Pyxis]

Pyxis picked through the remains of the shadow once it dissolved, but found nothing of interest. Its 'transformation' had rendered most of the remaining armor unusable, and what could potentially be used was inferior to what Pyxis currently wore. Perhaps it could still fetch some money from the junk dealer at least. Other than that, though, all Pyxis had gained was another story to tell for the next time she met up with her old teammates. She said 'old', but really they had only worked together on entering, and after that had only really met up to exchange information. Heck, neither of them even showed up during the full moons, and instead spent that time scouring the shadow-infested area on assignment to see if anything turned up while most of the city was distracted by the big boss.

While thinking of how best to spin this particular story, Pyxis set aside what little of the shadow's remains were salvageable. Once she was done, she continued deeper into the library. She wanted to test the armor out just a little more before the full moon.