Tempestuous
Words are wind, so I write.
- Location
- CA
Looks like we forgot about our airburst ability.
Subsumption (PMMM Faux-Quest) (Witch MC)
Looks like we forgot about our airburst ability.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
At the moment, that's probably debatable. Give it a bit more time, and we'll see.
Who says she doesn't?
It's less that you've forgotten, so much as that you haven't really realized the possibility just yet.
...oh, and I finally got to use the Quixote reference in the title!
mCooperative
meanderingCephalopod
- Location
- Back in Mitakihara after like 1000 years.
x Press [] to not die
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
the fact that she died without having any such form, and is about to die and still hasn't revealed one?At the moment, that's probably debatable. Give it a bit more time, and we'll see.
Who says she doesn't?
It's less that you've forgotten, so much as that you haven't really realized the possibility just yet.
...oh, and I finally got to use the Quixote reference in the title!
- Location
- Aotearoa
[-] Dammit, screwed up again. <F9>
Emergence 25: A Window Quickly Closing
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
> Use Tome to defend yourself!
Bereft of any other options, you do the only thing you can think to do in the moment — you swing your lower body upwards and present the bottom of Tome like a shield.
The other witch's arm impacts with a sound like cracking thunder. Once again Tome proves far sturdier than you would have expected as the attack completely fails to cut through its cover, but the force behind the witch's massive swing still sends you flying through the air like an untethered piñata. Your straps briefly come into direct contact with Tome as you're forcibly pressed into its pages, until the book's weight inevitably pulls it back into its natural position, and you manage to float yourself to a halt.
Grateful that worked, but well aware that you're nowhere near safe, you ready yourself to start dodging again... until you hear a displeased screech of rust ring out from in front of you, and you realize your current positioning relative to the other witch. Wait, you're behind her...?
You're behind her! Hah! She backhanded you, and because you were so close to her side when she did it, she put you right back in the position you wanted to be in!
Just as this thought completes, the windmill witch starts to revolve around her bottom axis again, the grinding metallic sound this produces now much louder due to her vastly increased size. Not wanting to end up trapped in the water park from hell a second time, you speed-float forward and place yourself directly in front of her back, as far away from her ability to see you as possible. The witch's bottom arms resume their former defensive positioning behind her in an almost resentful fashion, while a geyser shoots up from the ground about 30 feet to your left, nowhere even remotely close to you. It isn't followed by any others, thankfully.
As you keep pace with her resumed rotation, more determined than ever to stay firmly in her blind spot, you notice a gradual "swelling" that's incrementally adding tiny bits of bulk and height to the segmented windmill's frame every ten seconds or so. Cautiously, you make a few new shatterwords and fire them into an unguarded spot on her side, but they inflict little noticeable damage, only knocking off a few tiny chips of stone. In response, the witch's guarding arms cease doing so for a moment to swipe blindly in the direction you attacked from, which you're thankfully not close enough to be hit by. You back away further anyways, even warier than before.
The other witch fractionally swells again as you quickly run through your options. This is bad... the damage you inflicted is still there, but it doesn't look like she's going to stop growing any time soon, and her attacks and defensive capabilities seem to be growing along with her. Hell, your shatterwords are already barely effective anymore, and those are your only real "attack". You need to finish this quickly, if you even can...
[-] Create the maximum number of shatterwords you can again, and unleash them all at a single, already damaged spot. Tougher or not, she's already weakened; you'll tear right through what remains.
[-] See if you can get her to shrink back to normal. It's possible her growth is reactionary in some fashion — perhaps you can reverse it if you simply stop attacking her, or fool her into thinking you've left?
[-] Fall back on one of your go-to witch fighting plans. It's worked before, and even like this, you think you could probably still make it work now...
[-] Write in.
Bereft of any other options, you do the only thing you can think to do in the moment — you swing your lower body upwards and present the bottom of Tome like a shield.
The other witch's arm impacts with a sound like cracking thunder. Once again Tome proves far sturdier than you would have expected as the attack completely fails to cut through its cover, but the force behind the witch's massive swing still sends you flying through the air like an untethered piñata. Your straps briefly come into direct contact with Tome as you're forcibly pressed into its pages, until the book's weight inevitably pulls it back into its natural position, and you manage to float yourself to a halt.
Grateful that worked, but well aware that you're nowhere near safe, you ready yourself to start dodging again... until you hear a displeased screech of rust ring out from in front of you, and you realize your current positioning relative to the other witch. Wait, you're behind her...?
You're behind her! Hah! She backhanded you, and because you were so close to her side when she did it, she put you right back in the position you wanted to be in!
Just as this thought completes, the windmill witch starts to revolve around her bottom axis again, the grinding metallic sound this produces now much louder due to her vastly increased size. Not wanting to end up trapped in the water park from hell a second time, you speed-float forward and place yourself directly in front of her back, as far away from her ability to see you as possible. The witch's bottom arms resume their former defensive positioning behind her in an almost resentful fashion, while a geyser shoots up from the ground about 30 feet to your left, nowhere even remotely close to you. It isn't followed by any others, thankfully.
As you keep pace with her resumed rotation, more determined than ever to stay firmly in her blind spot, you notice a gradual "swelling" that's incrementally adding tiny bits of bulk and height to the segmented windmill's frame every ten seconds or so. Cautiously, you make a few new shatterwords and fire them into an unguarded spot on her side, but they inflict little noticeable damage, only knocking off a few tiny chips of stone. In response, the witch's guarding arms cease doing so for a moment to swipe blindly in the direction you attacked from, which you're thankfully not close enough to be hit by. You back away further anyways, even warier than before.
The other witch fractionally swells again as you quickly run through your options. This is bad... the damage you inflicted is still there, but it doesn't look like she's going to stop growing any time soon, and her attacks and defensive capabilities seem to be growing along with her. Hell, your shatterwords are already barely effective anymore, and those are your only real "attack". You need to finish this quickly, if you even can...
[-] Create the maximum number of shatterwords you can again, and unleash them all at a single, already damaged spot. Tougher or not, she's already weakened; you'll tear right through what remains.
[-] See if you can get her to shrink back to normal. It's possible her growth is reactionary in some fashion — perhaps you can reverse it if you simply stop attacking her, or fool her into thinking you've left?
[-] Fall back on one of your go-to witch fighting plans. It's worked before, and even like this, you think you could probably still make it work now...
[-] Write in.
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This isn't meant as a slam, but I've found this fight utterly unengaging. Like, I can barely make myself skim over it. I'm trying to figure out why.
I think the answer is... it has no stakes. Literally none. How it goes isn't very important. So why should I care about the details?
The fake ending where Ashtaroth gets beaten was a good joke, but I think it was a terrible mistake to do it and then have the next half dozen updates be continuing the fight. Because guess what, the fix is in. You just showed that Ashtaroth literally can't die because the story will just reboot at a decision point to change what happened. All tension is now completely drained from the fight. We're just treading water until the Windmill witch is beaten, because basically nothing is at stake. Ashtaroth isn't going to die and no one else is at risk here.
So I'm stuck here going, "C'mon, c'mon, get past this fight so we can get back to all the interesting worldbuilding and mysteries of the setting."
I think the answer is... it has no stakes. Literally none. How it goes isn't very important. So why should I care about the details?
The fake ending where Ashtaroth gets beaten was a good joke, but I think it was a terrible mistake to do it and then have the next half dozen updates be continuing the fight. Because guess what, the fix is in. You just showed that Ashtaroth literally can't die because the story will just reboot at a decision point to change what happened. All tension is now completely drained from the fight. We're just treading water until the Windmill witch is beaten, because basically nothing is at stake. Ashtaroth isn't going to die and no one else is at risk here.
So I'm stuck here going, "C'mon, c'mon, get past this fight so we can get back to all the interesting worldbuilding and mysteries of the setting."
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This witch is seeming more and more OP as time goes on. This is getting ridiculous.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
On one hand, this isn't entirely true--by having Bad Ends, it shows that the main character can die. After all, if the main character in a story like this dies and there isn't some kind of "revert to last checkpoint", well, you get one hell of an anticlimax with no recovery possible.
On the other hand, I think you're right about this fight not being engaging. Her first Bad End was due to sheer, unbelievable stupidity. After that, it's all "this Witch gets more and more OP as time goes on, and the fight just drags on and on".
I mean, if the Witch could just become so tough that it's practically immune to damage in the span of a few minutes, why didn't she start at that level?
I think the story's biggest problem is pacing. After the initial encounter with the murderous MG, things have been incredibly slow and anticlimactic, without any real reason for it.
Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
I agree. I'm really just waiting for this fight to be over. The first few bits were fun, but the Witch has lost any teeth it might've had and the tension has drained out.
It's quest like pacing. First there was picking a location, then there was bit of power experimentation and barrier exploration, then picking the first encounter, so on and so forth. Things didn't start dragging until the first bad end, as not much worth talking about has happened. A few blows have been traded, but they aren't amounting to anything. There's no pain, no blood, the witch herself is kinda boring, just something to slog through. At this point it seems the only thing to do is whittle her down, which isn't exciting to read about long from.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
Hmm. And here I extended the fight by one update because the fight felt too short when I looked it over. Oh well. I admit this wasn't my most inspired fight scene, since Ashtaroth doesn't really have a lot of options right now and it's taking place on less than favorable terrain for her, so hopefully that'll be better later on.
...as for the Bad End seeming to take the stakes away though... I mean, I get what you're saying, but they were a thing before, and they're still a thing now, which I don't plan on stopping. I don't know what to tell you there.
It's less that she's OP and more that Ashtaroth starts out REALLY weak by her very nature, and this is a bad matchup for her to begin with. Hence why the bad end went that badly.
Hmm. Well, I'm not sure about the comment that you need blood and pain to make a fight interesting, but I always expected this version to start out slower than the original, and I guess that causes its own problems. I'm not restarting this again though, so I suppose all I can do is try my best to learn from my mistakes.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You don't need blood and death to make a fight interesting, but you do need SOMETHING. The blows traded in this update don't matter in any way. Narrative-wise, this fight had a few purposes: establish Ashtaroth's strength relative to other witches, establishing Saar's powers should she be consumed, and probably establishing Ash's consumption powers too. All of those things were finished in Quixote's Vindication. It's not like this update is bad in a way that needs to be re-written or anything, it's just that i'm not going to really remember this update because nothing in it seems like it will matter.
The issue is REALLY accentuated by the short posts though. If I was re-reading this later I probably wouldn't be at all annoyed by this.
The issue is REALLY accentuated by the short posts though. If I was re-reading this later I probably wouldn't be at all annoyed by this.
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Seconding this. The fight scene isn't long, but it's taking a long time to get through.
...You do realise that some people haven't read the original and would prefer not to be spoiled, right?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sorry, forgot about that. It's behind a spoiler now.
So, the blocking thing worked and we are still alive, kind of being a Witch.
I think this is probably some kind of Trick fight. If this Witch could grow without limit she would be to OP, and she was killed in Canon.
So either hit her Weakpoint for Massive Damage or find a way around her Trick.
Maybe blow her up from the Inside? She is a Building.
Or we could try to pull a Chestburster on her, and eat her from the Inside.
[X] Fall back on one of your go to witch fighting plans. It's worked before, and you think that even like this, you could probably still make it work now…
Ashtaroth was a Shapeshifter befor turning into a Witch and with the Plan working NOW, I think it's something about killing the Enemy from the Inside, with how we carved some Big Holes in Quixote's Back.
Also there is still some Tension in the Fight because Ashtaroth could run out of Grief. Sure we can avoid Bad Endings, but it limits our Choices later.
I think this is probably some kind of Trick fight. If this Witch could grow without limit she would be to OP, and she was killed in Canon.
So either hit her Weakpoint for Massive Damage or find a way around her Trick.
Maybe blow her up from the Inside? She is a Building.
Or we could try to pull a Chestburster on her, and eat her from the Inside.
[X] Fall back on one of your go to witch fighting plans. It's worked before, and you think that even like this, you could probably still make it work now…
Ashtaroth was a Shapeshifter befor turning into a Witch and with the Plan working NOW, I think it's something about killing the Enemy from the Inside, with how we carved some Big Holes in Quixote's Back.
Also there is still some Tension in the Fight because Ashtaroth could run out of Grief. Sure we can avoid Bad Endings, but it limits our Choices later.
Emergence 26: Old Fallback
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
> Fall back on one of your go to witch fighting plans.
There are a couple of basic strategies that you used to use fairly commonly when fighting witches. Neither of them was particularly magic expedient, and honestly always struck you as slightly ridiculous — yet they tended to have an almost humorously high rate of success all the same. One of them is definitely no longer possible, but the other... given that Tome's cover has seemed almost completely impregnable to attack thus far (if not its pages), you think you might still be able to do something similar. You're not certain, what with the rather large number of differences between now and then, but since your only other method of dealing damage has basically been rendered null at this point, you think it's your best shot at ending this.
...in order to pull this off however, you'll need to get back the altitude you just lost and then some, and with the other witch growing like she is, combined with how slowly you move through the air, you're not sure you'll be able to position yourself before she becomes too big for this to really work. Given your rather limited options, how can you get really high, really fast...?
A memory from earlier in the fight flashes to mind.
...ohhhhh, this is such a bad idea...
This time, when the windmill witch rounds on you, you don't bother moving out of her line of sight. As expected, geysers begin blasting up at you from the ground again, each of them now doing a passable Yellowstone impression... which you don't even try to dodge.
Instead, you do your best to place yourself directly above one of them, and let it strike the bottom of Tome at full force.
The water all but smashes into you from below, the pressure sending you exploding upwards like a just-popped cork. The brewing storm above begins rapidly growing closer as you waver around, struggling to keep your purchase atop the increasingly-towering stream — were you not physically attached to the inside of Tome, you are quite sure that you would have fallen off by now. You're also rather glad that Tome's cover doesn't seem to have the same magic nerves its pages clearly do, because even without any immediate sensation, this still feels being struck by a fire hose trying to funnel the ocean through itself.
You don't quite manage to ride the geyser to its zenith, sliding off into a hovering not-quite tumble before it completely peters out, but you still end up FAR higher above the other witch than you were before — considerably more so than you were honestly expecting, in fact. From up here, she looks almost small, despite the fact that she'd tower over the average mansion at this point. You can see her trying to look up at you again, but she'd need to be taller still for that, and you have no intention of waiting around to let her to catch up. Regardless-
Your opponent's attention suddenly seems to drift away, her head turning back to the ground as if looking towards something in the distance. A moment later, her arm blades straighten back out and appear to lock in place, trembling violently as if struggling not to move. You hear the wind begin howling around you again, the mournful, soul-rending wail warning that another gale is on the rise.
...time's up. You need to end this.
You quickly position yourself as best you can, praying that you're lined up correctly... and then let yourself stop floating, now shoving yourself downwards for all you're worth.
A split second later, you strike the other witch like a meteor from Heaven.
With a sound like a mountain being split in two, the witch's upper body finally gives in to the stress you've been putting on it and fully separates from the rest of her. Her top half crashes to the ground, just shy of the colorful flowers at her base, while her prismatic aura abruptly winks out of existence.
You've won.
[-] It is time.
[-] She is finished.
[-] NOW TAKE HER
There are a couple of basic strategies that you used to use fairly commonly when fighting witches. Neither of them was particularly magic expedient, and honestly always struck you as slightly ridiculous — yet they tended to have an almost humorously high rate of success all the same. One of them is definitely no longer possible, but the other... given that Tome's cover has seemed almost completely impregnable to attack thus far (if not its pages), you think you might still be able to do something similar. You're not certain, what with the rather large number of differences between now and then, but since your only other method of dealing damage has basically been rendered null at this point, you think it's your best shot at ending this.
...in order to pull this off however, you'll need to get back the altitude you just lost and then some, and with the other witch growing like she is, combined with how slowly you move through the air, you're not sure you'll be able to position yourself before she becomes too big for this to really work. Given your rather limited options, how can you get really high, really fast...?
A memory from earlier in the fight flashes to mind.
...ohhhhh, this is such a bad idea...
This time, when the windmill witch rounds on you, you don't bother moving out of her line of sight. As expected, geysers begin blasting up at you from the ground again, each of them now doing a passable Yellowstone impression... which you don't even try to dodge.
Instead, you do your best to place yourself directly above one of them, and let it strike the bottom of Tome at full force.
The water all but smashes into you from below, the pressure sending you exploding upwards like a just-popped cork. The brewing storm above begins rapidly growing closer as you waver around, struggling to keep your purchase atop the increasingly-towering stream — were you not physically attached to the inside of Tome, you are quite sure that you would have fallen off by now. You're also rather glad that Tome's cover doesn't seem to have the same magic nerves its pages clearly do, because even without any immediate sensation, this still feels being struck by a fire hose trying to funnel the ocean through itself.
You don't quite manage to ride the geyser to its zenith, sliding off into a hovering not-quite tumble before it completely peters out, but you still end up FAR higher above the other witch than you were before — considerably more so than you were honestly expecting, in fact. From up here, she looks almost small, despite the fact that she'd tower over the average mansion at this point. You can see her trying to look up at you again, but she'd need to be taller still for that, and you have no intention of waiting around to let her to catch up. Regardless-
Your opponent's attention suddenly seems to drift away, her head turning back to the ground as if looking towards something in the distance. A moment later, her arm blades straighten back out and appear to lock in place, trembling violently as if struggling not to move. You hear the wind begin howling around you again, the mournful, soul-rending wail warning that another gale is on the rise.
...time's up. You need to end this.
You quickly position yourself as best you can, praying that you're lined up correctly... and then let yourself stop floating, now shoving yourself downwards for all you're worth.
A split second later, you strike the other witch like a meteor from Heaven.
-CRAC-C-C-C-CK!!!-
With a sound like a mountain being split in two, the witch's upper body finally gives in to the stress you've been putting on it and fully separates from the rest of her. Her top half crashes to the ground, just shy of the colorful flowers at her base, while her prismatic aura abruptly winks out of existence.
You've won.
[-] It is time.
[-] She is finished.
[-] NOW TAKE HER
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Jaune Pendragon
King Of Servants
- Location
- Avalon
[X] NOW TAKE HER
Metroidwave
Strength To Lean On
- Location
- Somewhere in Colorado
...These aren't choices, are they.
I'm ninety nine point nine percent certain that this is just our train of thought. (The point one percent believes they may in fact be a prismatic furby. I don't know why)
I'm ninety nine point nine percent certain that this is just our train of thought. (The point one percent believes they may in fact be a prismatic furby. I don't know why)