A nightmare, that's what this had to be. A continuous, repeating nightmare. A mobius strip of death and rebirth. Of loss and rematch. Over and over and over again.
But for a robot who doesn't dream? Protoman didn't really understand it either. One moment, he was plugging into a modified copy of the capsule they found 2k-tan in, the next he was here. Wherever "here" was. The smell of burning ash filled his nostrils, and he would've coughed if he had lungs.
Before him was a girl, who might even be considered cute, if he had time to think about such things. However, it seemed like he had been here, time and time again, confronting this girl in combat. No matter what he did, no matter what he tried, she was always faster, better, stronger. She would dodge his every move, his every attack, and strike. She would even charge through his buster shots unsinged to strike at him, or have her own sparkling projectiles burst through unheeded to hit him while his guard was down.
He wasn't sure how many times he'd tried her this night. He was mentally weary, even though his body felt rejuvenated after each match, ready to try again. If his buster hadn't been built into his arm, he was pretty sure his trigger finger would at least hold a phantom ache from how many times he'd attempted to blast her.
The sun was getting low in the sky of this hellish dream world. Once it set, he knew, the dream would be done. It would end and he would awaken in his charge tube as he always did. But it would come again, again the next night to haunt him. To batter at his mind.
He wouldn't, no, couldn't allow this to go on. Night after night of torment, this had to be brought to an end. If this was, in truth, a dream... it was his dream. He wasn't going to let anyone walk over him like this, in the real world... nor in a dream.
It was time to end this.
-----
I. Hate. This. AI.
With Evil Ryu and Ken down, there was one character still on my roster of opponents to take down. Another one of Luis' creations, the - as he calls her on his page - "Monster ai, a little cheap."
"a little" doesn't begin to describe how much of a bloody pain in the behind she is.
For one, she has attacks that have you stunned for at least a full second, if not a second and a half. Second, I'm not too knowledgeable on CLSN's(?), but I think her attacks have priority over every single one of mine. And to top it off, she has invincibility frames out the wazoo that she abuses like a drug addict. Not to mention that if you're guarding, she'll grab you basically the moment she gets to you. Add to that the fact she can turn on a dime and recovers from attacks a fraction of a second after the attack has ended, and you really do have a nightmare on your hands.
In short, I had to play keep-away with her because, should she get in close... I was done. Literally, I was surprised if I managed to escape from one of her contrite, repetitive combos with any of my health left. If she can pin you in a wall, she can and will - in a SINGLE combo - completely obliterate your health. And there is NOTHING you can do to stop it once it's in motion. The extra shows how much damage it can do even without you in a corner.
Again, I found myself manipulating a few loopholes in her AI. At certain points she'll just run forward, which is a good point to hit her with a buster and jump in for a hit and run. The other, which is a bit harder to get, was how I won: Pinning her to the other side of the screen with medium-speed buster shots to keep her from doing anything.
But seriously? I can't see myself ever being able to take her on with any characters without a ranged attack.
Fight her at your own risk.
Now I'm off to fight something easier... like the Flash or Sephiroth.
~*~
Stage: Route to Hell
BGM: La Mulana - Interstice of the Dimension
Wow, nice job RisenDevil. Wait a minute, you are saying that fighting Sephiroth is easier than this Athena by luis23456?
And again Luis insists on turning characters into bastardized monsters that could make the Gulthor Trio their lapdogs.
Wait a minute, you saying that Luis's characters can land very easy infinities on their foes because of excessive hitstun?
EvilSlayerX5 4 years ago
I've actually had the two in an AI battle.
And I basically stopped watching after several minutes because Sephiroth couldn't land a single blow on her due to her invincibility frame spamming.
And on the second - yes, I think Athena's low kick (which is very fast) gives a good second to a second and a half of stun time. Many of his characters seem to have bolstered stun times that allow for easy flow into the chains their AI seems to always gun for.
RisenDevil 4 years ago
Um ok, if a character can last against Sephiroth for several minutes without taking a single blow, then there is a very serious problem with that character.
Then again, this is Mugen Infantry and Luis we are talking about here, so this is to be excepted.
And wait, Athena's combo takes up like 85-95% of your health just like that?!?
EvilSlayerX5 4 years ago
All of it if you're unlucky enough to get pinned against the wall.
RisenDevil 4 years ago