(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 4)

[Kilgamayan]

So do you think we should let go and aim for the thumb instead? If so, what should we do about the two arachnid limbs currently headed for our arms?

[Hello Purvis]

Well, freeing our arm will allow us to deal with one at least one of them.  There's not a whole lot we can do about the other right now.

At this point, it's largely do we think a headbutt will do anything to her? I think we can get a pretty nasty one going, but would it be enough to overcome the fact she doesn't seem to be affected by pain anymore?

[Kilgamayan]

At this point, I'm less interested in pain and more interested in disorientation. I don't think we're going to outdamage her, and she's still aware enough of what she's doing to know to dodge the nastier things, which suggests to me we need to reduce her awareness.

[Oldmansour]

At this point, I'm less interested in pain and more interested in disorientation. I don't think we're going to outdamage her, and she's still aware enough of what she's doing to know to dodge the nastier things, which suggests to me we need to reduce her awareness.

This. A decent headbutt might not do too much damage by itself, but it just might give us a few seconds of breathing room. Time enough to do something more than flail desperately, which is basically all we've been able to do for the past few commands.

[Hello Purvis]

Let's hope she's not also impact proof.

> Yank forward with both arms. The right arm should only be a generic forward yank, to put some forward pressure on her. With the left arm yank, however, try to pull her head straight toward ours.
> At the same time (and using the force of our pulling as much as possible), swing our head and however much of our torso is necessary up, so that we are thrusting our head toward her face, which the left arm should be pulling toward our head. Lower the angle of our head while pulling and swinging forward so that the crowd of our head is pointed toward her face.

[DracoOmega]

> Yank forward with both arms. The right arm should only be a generic forward yank, to put some forward pressure on her. With the left arm yank, however, try to pull her head straight toward ours.
> At the same time (and using the force of our pulling as much as possible), swing our head and however much of our torso is necessary up, so that we are thrusting our head toward her face, which the left arm should be pulling toward our head. Lower the angle of our head while pulling and swinging forward so that the crowd of our head is pointed toward her face.

>You yank fiercely with both of your arms, while tilting your head forward and driving it towards the youkai's face. You feel a sharp slicing against the side of your left arm immediately followed by an abrupt and heavy impact against your skull. The youkai lets out a sort of frustrated yelp, perhaps more surprised than pained; it is still a grimly satisfying sound. The path her claw was scoring along your arm trails off, and you feel her grip on you slacken just a little.

[Kilgamayan]

> Quickly, yank her in and drive our head forward again!

[Oldmansour]

Fuck year, finally some progress. And I'm sorry, Kilga, but I think we need to try something more than another headbutt, especially since we might concuss ourselves in the process.

>No headbutt, more metal.
>If we're still holding on to her head, release it, then produce the knife or kunai, whichever we can draw faster, and stab her in the gut.
>Take advantage of this momentary cessation of offense from her to try and wriggle out from under her as much as possible.
>Try to cut the tether on our arm with the sword, before she recovers enough to jerk our arm around again. Or, if we don't think we can, cut HER with the damn thing.

[Kilgamayan]

/shrug

[Hello Purvis]

I'm thinking the effectiveness of a second headbutt can be measured by whether or not we broke her nose.  If we did, now is the time to get out from under this.

>Before doing all that, did we feel her nose against our head? And if so, did it give?

[DracoOmega]

>No headbutt, more metal.
>If we're still holding on to her head, release it, then produce the knife or kunai, whichever we can draw faster, and stab her in the gut.
>Take advantage of this momentary cessation of offense from her to try and wriggle out from under her as much as possible.
>Try to cut the tether on our arm with the sword, before she recovers enough to jerk our arm around again. Or, if we don't think we can, cut HER with the damn thing.

>You tear your arm free of the youkai's grip, then quickly draw the knife from your belt and thrust it into her gut before she recovers her senses. There is no mistaking that this cry is born of pain at least as much as anger;
it comes out as something of a strangled growl.
>Her assault momentarily halted, you wriggle fiercely beneath the youkai. Even without her fighting back, she is still surprisingly heavy, but you try to shove her forward with your arm braced against the knife and slip a leg out to the side. There's one... and the other!
>As you pull yourself free, you try to twist the blade of your sword around to cut the tether. Somehow the youkai still manages to find the wherewithal to counter the motion. Grimacing against the pain and breathing heavily, she yanks on the tether, using a second limb on the strand for better articulation, and twists your arm aside again. Then she claws her left hand against the air. Several very thin strands fly from her fingertips towards your right arm; the range leaves almost no window to react.

[Oldmansour]

>Current positions of her and us. Are we still flat on the ground? Is the youkai crouching or standing?
>How much distance is there between us and her?
>Is our knife still in her stomach, or did it come out when we got out from under her?
>Did we move enough to give our tail more range of motion?

[Kilgamayan]

Since this is the first real instance where (a) we have the time, and (b) I'm around to point it out, since she's so occupied with webbing our right arm, might I suggest grabbing the sword with our left hand?

[DracoOmega]

>Current positions of her and us. Are we still flat on the ground? Is the youkai crouching or standing?
>How much distance is there between us and her?
>Is our knife still in her stomach, or did it come out when we got out from under her?
>Did we move enough to give our tail more range of motion?

>You are in the process of pulling yourself off the ground. The youkai seems to be beating you to the punch, just a little; she is already in a crouch and trying to stand. Her expression is tightly gritted, and fairly obviously pained, though still grimly glaring at your sword arm.
>No more than a couple feet.
>It is still embedded in her, after you shoved her off. Blood is starting to brightly stain the fabric of her dress around the wound.
>You have perhaps a little more now, but once you pull yourself a little bit higher, you should have full range of motion again.

[Oldmansour]

>Do we have enough leverage to manage a forward lunge with any speed?

[DracoOmega]

>Do we have enough leverage to manage a forward lunge with any speed?

>Given that you're still closer to lying on your back than standing, you'd need to raise yourself up first.

[Kilgamayan]

> Do these strands look the same as the tethers she's been using so far?

[DracoOmega]

> Do these strands look the same as the tethers she's been using so far?

>The tethers are substantially thicker, at least an inch or so in diameter. These are extremely fine, almost filament-like.

[Kilgamayan]

> Use our tail to swipe the lit end of the torch across the path of the strands, preferably near her hand.

[DracoOmega]

> Use our tail to swipe the lit end of the torch across the path of the strands, preferably near her hand.

>You hoist yourself and swing your tail back around to the other side of your body in an attempt to interpose the flame in the path of the oncoming tethers. Unfortunately, this isn't quite fast enough. As you bring the torch up, several of the strands hit your arm and coil tightly around it, digging into your flesh. They are... surprisingly sharp!
>The youkai jerks the tether and these new strands in opposite direction and you let out a sharp hiss. You can see thin trickles of blood well up along where they bind your arm, though the strands seem to be wavering along the point where the flame engulfs them.

[Kilgamayan]

> A piano wire youkai! Keep the flame on those strands, gotta get them off.
> Grab the sword out of our right hand with our left hand and immediately swing the blade end of it at the tethers holding the right arm.

[DracoOmega]

> A piano wire youkai! Keep the flame on those strands, gotta get them off.
> Grab the sword out of our right hand with our left hand and immediately swing the blade end of it at the tethers holding the right arm.

>You grit your teeth fiercely as you try to will the flame to hasten its work. Dammit, those stands need to go, now!
>As you move to grab the sword with your left hand, the youkai gives another sharp jerk on the tether and lunges towards you with the other pair of arachnid limbs. You manage to twist the blade away from slicing your own hand but pay for the maneuver as the wire-like stands cut deeper into your arm. This time you cannot hold back a cry as the thin filaments etch a vivid pattern in your flesh. You take another small gulp of blackened air, every bit as unpleasant as the last. It feels like long ages since your last proper breath, and you're still running on very little. Your lungs ache under the strain.
>Despite the pain, you grab your left hand onto your right and work your fingers around the sword grip. You've got it!
>The youkai and the two claws she's leading in with are virtually on top of you, both driving towards your left arm. You feel one of the wires around your right go mercifully slack as the fire collapses her grip on it.

[Hello Purvis]

>How are we both positioned and intertwined at the moment?

[DracoOmega]

>How are we both positioned and intertwined at the moment?

>You are both standing now, the gap between you closed to almost nothing with the youkai lunging at you. She is leading with her right side, both arachnid limbs extended and aimed at your left arm. Their claws are no more than a couple inches away. You right arm is still connected to a tether held jointly in her right hand and an arachnid claw on her left, while her left hand grips the remaining wire-like strands binding you.

[Hello Purvis]

So. We pretty much can't dodge because she'll jerk us like a puppeteer. She's inches from us, so we don't have the time or space to free ours with the sword or put the sword between us.

Possibility:  Elbow to the face? Might stagger her enough to keep those arachnoid limbs off us.

Alternately: Turn sideways a bit to minimize how much of a target we present, and let her run into the torch. The problem being I dunno if that'll stop her. Or if we can resist being marionetted enough to pull it off.

[Kilgamayan]

Elbow to the face sounds fine to me. I'll be pretty much for any blows to the head as they get suggested.

We might also have to start slashing limbs, as much as it pains me to say it.

[Hello Purvis]

Indeed. But that'll be for when we get to be a bit more free.

>Whichever arm we feel is best suited for the task, raise the elbow at about her face level, preferably around her nose, and move to meet her charge.
>Should there be no time for that, smack our upper forehead into her face as she closes in and let the momentum of the charge do the rest.

[DracoOmega]

>Whichever arm we feel is best suited for the task, raise the elbow at about her face level, preferably around her nose, and move to meet her charge.
>Should there be no time for that, smack our upper forehead into her face as she closes in and let the momentum of the charge do the rest.

>Given that the bindings on your right arm make it painful to wrestle for control of it, you turn the sword aside and angle your left elbow towards the youkai's face instead. From her own motion, you think she might have stopped short of impact, but you forcefully close the distance and connect solidly with her nose. She lets out a sharp yelp at the impact, which you find yourself echoing a moment later as one of her claws digs into your upper arm.
>You feel another wire or two on your right arm go limp.

[Hello Purvis]

>With our left arm in its current position, can we make a quick swipe downward to sever some of the bindings on our right arm?

[DracoOmega]

>With our left arm in its current position, can we make a quick swipe downward to sever some of the bindings on our right arm?

>You might have to jerk your right arm back a little for room, but otherwise this should be no problem.