Tower of Hope(?) III-4 [Mod]

[Pyxis]

At this point, it wasn't even about uncovering the "boss" anymore. The tower was still just a perpetual obstacle that she only even still visited because she had set it as a personal goal to get to the top. But more bosses meant the potential of more people dying because of her failures. If that was the case, maybe she'd just find it and kill it on her own before anyone else could show up. It might destroy her in the process, but...well, at least she'd be the only one dying in that case. The organization would write it off as resource loss, and nobody inside except maybe Alisa would miss her. And although it pained her to even consider making Alisa go through losing someone else...maybe that was for the best.

Ugh...where were these thoughts even coming from. Depression didn't suit her. Hopefully, properly carrying out her mission would help deal with her frustrations.

[Erithania]

Behold!

Lightning Sword

Skills
Zionga
Fatal End

Null: Lightning
Weakness: Wind

Strong Hand

Skills
Viper Smash
Tarukaja

Null: Strike
Weakness: Pierce

[Pyxis]

Shadows. Pyxis detected them on her sensors and instinctively moved to engage, but she only barely acknowledged their presence. She opened fire on one, a disembodied hand, and found that it was effective. The other, a sword, slashed at her, while the hand tried to punch her. The punch didn't work very well. Pyxis shot it again, filling it full of holes in seconds. The sword slashed at her again, doing a bit more damage. Pyxis opened fire on it as well, not doing effective damage but still leaving bullet holes in the stone arm holding the actual sword. It slashed yet again, but Pyxis barely noticed as she continued to fire. Then, the stone hand raised the sword high, calling down a bolt of lightning on Pyxis.

The next thing she knew, Pyxis was on the ground, staring up at a Sword-type shadow. The bullet-riddled remains of a Hand type sat nearby, slowly dissolving. Her body was recovering from an electric shock, presumably delivered by the Sword type. "Oh..." Pyxis said, standing up. Somehow, she had allowed herself to go into 'autopilot', so to speak. She had been fighting the two shadows on instinct, without even using her Persona. That...was dangerous. The lightning strike was a blessing, of sorts, since it had snapped her out of it. The damage she incurred in the process...less so. Summoning Pandora, Pyxis healed off the damage from the lightning, then turned her focus back on the sword. A brilliant light began emanating from beneath the lid of her Persona's box, charging her up. The sword struck again, slashing at the Persona herself. Pandora's image flickered, very briefly showing a pained expression, only to then let the lid of the box slide off. In a flash of movement, a figure of some sort materialized in the air outside of the box, drove a ghastly-looking fist into the Sword shadow, then disappeared back into the box. The shadow, now broken, collapsed to the ground and dissolved.

[Erithania]

And then?



You found a Fire Weapon Mod. Tier 1.

[Pyxis]

Despite healing herself mid-battle, Pyxis had taken entirely too much damage for fending off two minor shadows. Especially when one of them had barely managed to do anything to her when she was just shooting it on instinct. This state she was in now was worse for her than she'd realized. Despite promising Alisa that she wouldn't harbor a martyr complex, she'd gone in with the attitude that dying, so to speak, would have been okay, and then gone on autopilot for much of the last fight.

"Maybe I should just come back later," Pyxis said. She felt like she had come to her senses, at least, but she was still in a bad enough state that she could lapse back into it at any time. "Being here now isn't doing me any favors."