This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

Okay, what do we do in a situation where both our tank and healer were pretty much sitting ducks? Do we just go in and hope for the best like the DPS that we were? Or do we just let it happen and wipe, hopefully coming up with some other solution now that we've gone this far?

"Dammit, let me think!" Guidance yelled out, her [Manifest] still busy casting heals on our tank. "We can't just let this thing kill us all!"

"It's coming closer!" Shizu alarmingly pointed out, her feet already shifting as if getting ready to engage. "Can't I just punch it already?!"

"You'll die as you soon as you get into its radius!" the dev quickly warned. "Do not go near there!"

I winced at the urgency in Guidance's tone. With this thing still walking towards Maruki, was there really no way for us to avoid this? Were we really going to wipe again?

[FIRE SWING: 40%]

My eyes widened, "Another attack!"

There was an indicator again. This time, it hovered over Guidance as four arrows all pulsed inwardly towards the dev's position. I haven't seen this before...

I had no idea what it did.

"Moriya! What's the indicator?!" Guidance yelled out.

"It's hovering above you, four giant fat arrows all pointing at you!" I quickly replied, racing against the boss's cast bar as it stood ominously over our healer. "I don't know what-"

"That's a stack!" Guidance yelped out in panic. "Hurry! Get here before-"

[*FWOOSH!*]

I could only gawk as the fire boss brought down its attack on Guidance. Its flaming fist bearing down on her, she fell to the ground with an unceremonious thud...

Whether she was dead or not... I didn't know.

"Guidance!"

"Fuck!" I cried out as the boss then continued on its path towards our tank. "How were we supposed to know that would happen?!"

I knew the answer to that question, of course. We were meant to bash our heads against this thing until we learned every single one of its attacks by heart. As of right now, we know three of them. Were there more? Who knows.

But right now wasn't the time to panic.

"RRAAAGHH!!"

"Shizu, no!"

Before I could stop her, the princess dashed forward, her fist raised for a blow as she roared at the flaming boss.

"You'll pay for what you did!" she cried out.

Blow after blow, Shizu braved the fires as she unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks at the thing. All the while, Maruki was grunting in pain with each second that our princess spent within the boss's kill radius.

"P-Princess... Lady Guidance.... Forgive me..."

Fuck...

In a flash of light, the glow surrounding our tank faded as he too fell to the ground. He had absorbed far too much damage now, I'm sure, and he finally collapsed... dead...

"M-Maruki?! Mo- AHHHGGG!!"

Damn... "Dammit!"

Surging forward, I forced myself to move as Shizu started to burn inside the boss's flaming aura. Pumping my legs, I could only hope that I was fast enough to at least pull her out before she died as well.

"Shizu!"

Bracing against the flames, I gritted my teeth as I dove inside the boss's range. Its aggro was aimed solely at Shizu, so I fired a few shots just to make sure that it would turn to face me.

[HP: 95]

Grabbing Shizu by the back of her kimono, I ignored my dwindling health as I pulled her out of the flames. She was still flailing behind me, surely confused by the sudden movement as she wailed.

"L-Let go of me! I need to avenge her!" Shizu cried. "We have to survive!"

"Calm down!" I shouted at her, my eyes still glued to the boss as I began running for our lives. "We can't die anyway! We'll be back to full health once we die!"

"B-But we'd still die!" she argued. "I don't wanna die!"

I winced at the pain and fear oozing out of Shizu's words. The grief she was feeling was as palpable as the heat trying to kill us, and I just know that she wouldn't take kindly to being pulled out of her rage-fueled frenzy.

Still, it was the right thing to do.

Tossing her forward, the princess eventually began running of her own accord as we put as much distance between us and the boss as possible.

"Okay, at least we've established that the radiant heat also has a range," I muttered to myself as took a glance behind us. "Just about twice the radius of the worst of the flames around it then."

"W-We have to turn around and kill it!" Shizu insisted, her sobbing audible despite the rush of combat happening around us. "Don't you wanna take revenge for Guidance?! For Maruki?!"

"I do, but that isn't the way to do it!" I replied, shouting through the sound of flames licking at the heels of our feet. "The best we can do is to survive for as long as possible, learn as much as we can, and then die for the sake of doing it properly next time!"

"B-But..."

"Just trust me, okay?!" I yelled out. "We've done this ten times already! What's one more?!"

"But I don't remember any of them!" Shizu fearfully screamed. "And the me that'll be with you after this won't be the me right now either!"

I flinched at her existential words, just enough that I actually tripped and fell on my face.

"Moriya!"

I couldn't even raise my head up as I instantly felt the searing heat of the boss above me. Right then and there, I knew that my time was up...

And Shizu all saw it happen before her.

"NOO!!-"

***

Well, that was a traumatic experience and a half. Shizu's final heart-wrenching scream almost made me wish that I didn't die and just helped her go through this. Then again, if we didn't wipe and actually cleared this thing, what would happen to those that did die? Would they even respawn? Or were they permanently dead?

"And that's on top of that existential crisis you just gave me..."

I sighed as I waited for the world to load back in. Shizu's words really gave me something to think about... I could only hope that I'd shake it off before the next encounter.

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