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

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

Blood bullets flew out of my pistols as I unloaded havoc onto our enemies, my attacks whizzing past Shizu as the princess ducked and weaved under every and all swings that the Marqueans could throw at her.

[+6000 EXP]

[+6000 EXP]

[+6000 EXP]

[+6000 EXP]

[+6000 EXP]

[+6000 EXP]

Numbers kept popping up on my HUD, my vision starting to get cluttered with the amount of stuff that was being thrown right in my general direction. Our enemies were all doing their hardest to stop us, but it all seemed futile against our combined onslaught.

"W-What the-"

"Arrest them!"

"Report to the Head Intellect!"

I kept an even breath as I duck under the safety of cover. With Guidance on the nearest cover beside me, we let everybody's attacks fly right over us while Shizu kept all of their melee fighters busy. It was a great system, one where us ranged fighters didn't even have to bother defending ourselves that much when we had our resident monk blitzing through our enemies like their sacks of meat.

"I mean, are we even needed here?" I jokingly asked Guidance as I poked my head out and shot a bunch of some of our ranged enemies.

"Unless you want Shizu to be riddled with arrows and other nonsense, then go ahead and leave," Guidance scoffed, her [Manifest] glowing with yet another cast of [Medica]. "She might be single-handedly decimating them all right now, but that's because we're providing her with cover."

I chuckled at the succinct observation. It was true, after all. With Shizu laughing and maniacally slaughtering all in her path, a considerable number of reinforcements began streaming their way into our location. Thankfully, we managed to hem ourselves in with a considerably decent way of defense in the form of scattered foundations and ruined walls. With our backs against the pillar of light, we were at an advantage against any kind of ranged attacks that might try and hit us.

"Enemy Somatic on our twelve, by the way," Guidance called out. "Looks like something that can manipulate fire."

"On it."

Poking my head out of my cover, I updated the level of carnage that was currently littering the kill floor in front of us. Shizu was still panting and dashing around like a mad dog, her body completely soaked in the blood of her enemies while her opponents were clearly starting to become afraid of even approaching her.

Well, I could probably fix that.

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

Providing support fire, some of Shizu's enemies approaching her back fell right onto the floor. They weren't dead, seeing as I didn't get any [EXP] from them, but that was more than enough for now. I really didn't want a body count the size of a small country to my name, and the [EXP] I was getting from them really wasn't worth the blood that I was spilling to get them.

[*FWOOSH!*]

And of course, the fire Somatic that Guidance warned me about finally showed themselves. They were wielding what looked to be dual scimitars, but the way they moved looked like they had no idea how to use their swords in the first place.

[*BANG! BANG!*]

With two well-placed shots, I disarm the poor guy, their weapons falling to the ground before they could even get close to Shizu. Really... I kind of expected more from these so-called Academics after fighting that one old guy back in Port Decim, but I guess he was more the exception than the norm when it came to these guys' combat prowess.

"Guidance, can you cover me while I try something out?" I asked as I casually twirled my pistols in both hands.

"Sure? But what're you planning?"

"Something that isn't boring," I vaguely replied, my body already going low to the ground as I primed my legs for a sprint. "You're more than welcome to join if you want. I know you're also starting to get bored with what we're doing."

"I suppose so," she scoffed. "But I'm not stupid enough to have all of us in the thick of it. I'll give you a [Medica] and an [Adloqium] just to be sure though."

With the dev giving me a shield and a regen, I let out a warm smile at her as I nodded in gratitude. "Thanks, Guidance."

"Anytime, Moriya," she smiled back, her cheeks sporting a faint blush. "Now don't go out there and get yourself killed on accident, alright?"

"Copy that, boss..."

Letting out a slight smirk, I turned my attention back to the thick of the fight before promptly pumping my legs and shooting myself headfirst into the enemy.

"Hahaha! Is this all you've all- Moriya?!"

[*THUD! BANG! BANG!*]

I couldn't help but chuckle as I landed against my first opponent, my [Blanc and Noir] already raised as blunt weapons as I slowed my approach down by using the poor guy's body as a cushion. With him going down, I then twirled around and shot two more opponents that actually had some sense in them to try and fight me while I was busy. Unfortunately, I still had Guidance's shield giving me some leeway on the amount of damage I could tank, leaving them wide open for my bullets to go straight through their chests.

[+6000 EXP]

[+6000 EXP]

That's twelve thousand more [EXP] for me. Not that it made a difference with how much I needed to get to my next level up.

"Mind if I drop in?" I jokingly asked as I aimed my sights at the Marqueans that looked utterly shocked at my sudden appearance. "I was getting bored playing keep-away in the back."

"Hah! I don't mind at all, Moriya!" Shizu beamed, her smile more sadistic than her usual innocence. "There's more than enough enemies for us to share!"

"H-Hey! Has someone told the Head Intellect of the situation here yet?!"

"They say that help is on the way!"

My ears perked up at that interesting piece of conversation that just flew by us. So reinforcements hadn't even gotten here yet? Then what were the guys that Guidance and I were shooting at and downing earlier?

"Say, we should wrap things up in here," I told Shizu with a serious tone. "We don't want to overstay our welcome here, don't we?"

"Aww~ Can't we just try and relish this a bit more?" the princess pleaded with her cutesy tone. "I'm just getting warmed up~"

Right where I came from, I gave Guidance a knowing glance before I turned my attention back to the matter at hand. We were getting surrounded, and we had to blow a hole through the wall of meat in front of us to proceed.

"No more games, Shizu," I scolded her. "We still have to save our friends on the other side."

"Oh, right," she sighed, her disappointment palpable in her tone. "Okay, but I get to be the one to end this, right?"

I chuckled, "Be my guest."

"W-What're you all-"

[*BANG!*]

[+6000 EXP]

Shutting up that one guy, I dodged and weaved my way out of Shizu's path of carnage as I let her do her thing. Using my pistols as some kind of makeshift tonfas, I was quite surprised with how skilled I was with hand-to-hand combat even though I literally never had any sort of formal martial arts training beyond reaching a yellow belt in karate. Making my way to Guidance, the dev promptly stood up and followed my lead, already getting a gist of what was about to happen as Shizu took everybody's attention all for herself.

"I take it we have to find some new cover?"

"Yep," I nodded at Guidance as I pulled her forward by the outskirts of Shizu's newly acquired territory. "I convinced her to end things in exchange for letting her mop up this batch of enemies."

"I thought as much," Guidance sighed. "Still, I'm kind of wondering just how Shizu got this bloodthirsty in the first place. I never programmed this much aggression in her. She was supposed to be this pacifist that wants the war to end because of the bloodshed that's happening."

"Well, just think of it as her having enough of things taking too slowly on their own and taking matters into her own hands," I chuckled as we situated ourselves on yet another ruined patch of buildings, taking cover behind a blown-out piece of wall shielding us from the light. "Besides, I think that might be because of what happened for her to get those eyes of hers. I don't even think she had turned them off since we found each other in the facility."

As we talked, Shizu was visibly vibrating with energy as her right fist glowed black and green with power. Wisps of light streamed out of her eyes and blanketed her fist, seemingly giving her more stopping power as she grinned maniacally at the Marqueans watching her.

"S-Stop her!"

"She's using her [Manifest]-"

"[LIMIT BREAK]!"

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