LucyKitsune

  Depending on the specific game, you can absolutely still find all elements of the trinity, but the question has changed from which role a character falls into to how much of each role they can fill. For example DPS is no longer just about dealing damage, it is also about how to survive without tanks to absorb damage for them or healers to cleanse debuffs and apply buffs. This can be done either by keeping enemies at a distance, attacking from a range or by a variety of different means, one of which being increased durability, creating the cssic bruiser archetype.

  Bruisers are cssified by their ability to not just be decent at dishing out damage but also being able to take a hit and get back up. And of course, you have the bruiser’s big brother: the juggernaut. They can take even more of a beating than bruisers and they do not shy away from responding in kind. But even so they are banced, because they too have a weakness.

  They are too immobile to deal with ranged opponents. Unless they can outsmart their opponent or surprise them to close the gap.

  Excerpt from “PvP archetypes and where to find them.”, 2031

  Getting whatever had tched onto me off of me without the use of my dominant hand proved a bit of a struggle, but after tumbling down the entire flight of stairs, I managed to unsheathe my combat knife and blindly stab away at the thing until it let go.

  I would have loved to keep ying here, at roughly the halfway point between the 20th and 21st floor, but the Antithesis had other pns.

  Pns in the form of a horde of murder-dogs running up the stairs at an arming rate.

  I silently cursed, before scrambling to get up and grab one of my spears.

  One gnce at my attacker revealed it to be a model 4, that swiftly got a spear into whatever counts for its head, just to make sure.

  After that I once more thanked Austrian safety regutions for the guide-rails next to the staircase, which had definitely prevented me from tumbling into the abyss and prepared to stab a lot of dogs.

  After making my way back to the top of the staircase for more secure footing.

  “Lyona, what are the chances this is a one-off thing?”

  I cannot give you a precise answer without some form of sensor-reading scanning the building for Antithesis, however I do think it likely that this is not the only group of them within this building.

  Great.

  “Fuck it, we’re ripping off Spiderman. Can I get two more of the fox-drones to clear this building?”

  Certainly. Shall I withhold the boxes?

  I nodded and started the stabbing part of my “retreat to a defensible position and stab the ever-loving shit out of any aliens that come close”-pn.

  I actually did not need the help of the foxes for this specific encounter, but I felt like in the long run, it would be much less agonizing to let them handle clearing this building.

  Some quick purchases ter, I had prepared the distraction and was looking over it to ensure I hadn’t missed anything.

  “And you’re sure this is going to work?”

  I estimate that the model 15 will require two or perhaps even three shots to destroy the mirrored gss and until it is destroyed, there shouldn’t be any way for it to tell whether or not you’re behind the gss. Provided of course the gss is sufficiently loud to command its attention. If it sees you scaling down the building, it’s pretty clear you’re not behind the gss.

  I nodded. My points were slowly ticking up incrementally, as my foxes did some weed-whacking, also a distraction to make the 15 think I’d come out the main entrance.

  Should I upgrade my bones before jumping? That was probably a good idea.

  “Lyona, how much would upgrading my bones cost?”

  Another thousand points, you’d be left with 272 points plus your medical reserve. Alternatively the bones themselves cost only 500 points and could be installed over a longer period of time via nanites, which would remove the 500 points field install charge. If you wish to get full functionality of them right now however, there’s no real way around the 1000 points. This would however fix your broken arm.

  That would leave me with barely any points. I’d have to go kill some more aliens to get my fox ears. But on the other hand having bones that aren’t just ripped in half by my muscles would probably help a lot with that.

  “Let’s do it.”

  Besides, my points were slowly increasing anyways, courtesy of my trusty foxes. I should name them when I’m done with this. They more than earned it.

  Just like with my muscles, I didn’t feel anything different, but I figured if something had gone wrong, Lyona would have told me.

  So I gave the window a firm kick, sending it falling down into the abyss. Distraction two was on its way. Time to start humming the Spidey-theme.

  Surprisingly, everything went according to pn. The 15 fell for it, hook line and sinker and fired at the falling window. After that the explosives I had duct-taped to the back-side of the window went off, accelerating it downward even faster.

  I did my best to keep climbing down as fast as I could, and after the 15 had destroyed the window with a second shot, I was fortunately at a height where Lyona informed me it was just barely safe enough to jump and let the 15 cushion my fall.

  I did just that. I didn’t know these things don’t feel panic or fear at the time, but it did feel nice to imagine it panicking, as it’s scrambling to reload and fire at me again, but doesn’t have enough time to do so.

  I nded on top of it, grinning ferally upon hearing its armour crunch and shatter under the impact, and wasted no time in digging my monofiment cws into the artillery.

  And like always, Lyona was correct and it was pretty easy to damage it, once I was up close and personal.

  I smiled at the kill-notification with satisfaction, and was about to buy a flesh-eater, when suddenly a throwing-knife, with a strip of paper tied to it bounced off of the dead alien.

  “What the fu-”

  I didn’t get to say more than that, before the paper of all things exploded and threw me backwards into a wall on the other side of the street hard enough to make me dizzy.

  “I did it! I killed it!” Someone very enthusiastically procimed.

  “Wait, why didn’t I get points?”

  Ah, so I wasn’t alone in this after all.

  I opened up the note-app on my augs, not quite wanting to give away that I existed, just to be sure, and typed out ‘Lyona? What’s the damage?’

  Barely any. Your armour did a great job at spreading out the impact and while you will be dealing with some bruises, if you don’t want to use a nano regen, you are functionally unharmed. Such is the difference between Css II bionics and what I assume to be some esoteric form of Css I explosive.

  Reassured that I could defend myself if this dumbass for some reason was hostile, I decided to speak up.

  “Because I killed it. I was about to ask my AI to get me a flesh-eater to dispose of it, when I was thrown backwards by an exploding strip of paper.

  “Speaking of, hi, I’m Luna, my pronouns are she/her. I got an AI in my head earlier today and have been killing aliens since. I imagine a simir story for you?”

  I extended my hand to them, offering a handshake.