Tower of Hope III-2 [Mod]

[Pyxis]

Fifty floors up and still going. Pyxis knew she had to be halfway up the tower by now, or else somewhere close to that now. The higher she went, the greater the resistance from shadows got, but she was still making steady progress. Granted, this was now her third trip, but fifty shadow-infested floors in three trips was still very good.

Although, it helped that quite a few other Users had come through as well, all but clearing out the lower floors.

Pyxis emerged on the fifty-first floor, letting her sensors do their work. Several shadow presences nearby, just out of visual range. She slowly merged from the stairwell, sticking to the walls as she made her way into (big surprise) even more office space while waiting for the shadows to make a move.

[Erithania]

Behold, your drivers are out of date!

Pile Driver

Skills
Viper Smash
Twin Shot
Bufula

Null: Strike
Weakness: Lightning, Fire

Blood Drive

Skills
Fatal End
Twin Shot
Mudoon

Null: Slash
Weakness: Light, Wind

[Pyxis]

A sign of movement from behind a cubicle divider caught Pyxis's attention immediately. Followed by a second from just inside a nearby hallway. The sound of glass breaking echoed inside and outside of her mind as Pandora materialized. The persona turned the box she held on its side, letting the lid slide off and revealing a dark hole much deeper than the box should have been within. Innumerable needles flew out of the hole, spraying the entire room and catching both of the shadows in their path. Both of them emerged from their hiding place, smashing dividers and desks in their path. Pyxis identified both of them as Drive types before going on the defensive as both of them returned fire, with weapons built into their chests. She returned fire with a second volley of needle shots, spraying the both of them and prompting them to come in closer. One, red with bladed arms, spun to slice at her, while the other, gray with spiked clubs for arms, was content to simply try to clothesline her with its arms. Unfortunately for the second, Pyxis barely even budged as it hit her.

She turned toward the bladed Drive shadow. Pandora turned the box upright again, as a ghastly hand emerged from it. The hand slammed its palm straight into the Drive's torso, sending it rolling back on its wheel legs and causing steam to start blowing out of several vents on its body. It sliced at Pyxis again, but its movements were now much slower. Meanwhile, the club-armed shadow was still moving at normal speed and not overheating, but still having trouble causing Pyxis much damage with its clubs. Safe to ignore for the moment. With that thought in mind, Pyxis stretched her arms toward the blade-armed Drive and opened fire, finishing it off in a hail of bullets.

The remaining shadow then switched tactics completely, firing blasts of ice at Pyxis as she returned fire with even more bullets. Two exchanges later, and both shadows were down.

[Erithania]

And then?



You went home.

[Pyxis]

Pyxis didn't leave just yet after the fight. In fact, she continued for several more floors, until she found yet another barrier blocking her from going past the 60th floor. "Hm...another one," she said, examining it. Her sensors could detect more shadow activity across several more floors behind the barrier, but couldn't get a solid read on the barrier itself. In fact, just about the only thing she could tell about it just from examining it was that it was effectively impenetrable.

"Video game logic would suggest that some kind of obstacle has to be overcome to make this go away," Pyxis thought out loud. "Probably a boss battle of some kind." She thought back to the hospital, and the oversized, undead-looking, explosive shadow that had appeared there. Perhaps it was one of those 'bosses'. If that was the case, then there would be one lurking around the tower as well. In fact, there had probably been at least one more, which was defeated somewhere between her first and second trip.

The only problem was in figuring out how to make the one tied to this barrier appear. It was a problem for another time, though.