I finally beat the first Liu fight, which took me multiple hours to do. This was probably the hardest non-boss fight so far since they deal so much damage and burn. I used the strategy by ALEPH to use Purple Tear's Guard Stance, Protection passives, and Netzach's floor in order to survive. I intentionally lose the first clash in order to make sure I can get Laughing Powder, and then I try to survive until I get Our Galaxy, then spam mass attacks. But now that I beat that fight, I can continue onto the second Thumb fight and the Index Proxies (which now that I think about I actually could have done earlier...)