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

"Okay, let's see how far we'll go this time."

Once more unto the breach, huh... There was just no other way of going about this stuff.

"[Blood Shot] [Iron Spread] [Hemolysis]"

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

Opening up with my usual salvo, Lewis made a beeline for me as I took aggro. Likewise, Guidance assumed her usual position of being as far away from me as possible, avoiding any and all attacks that might splash off me and risk her taking unnecessary damage.

"Okay, Moriya! From the top!"

I couldn't help but shake my head at Guidance's as the dance began. Well, it was the fight, but the more you did it, the more it just became second nature to just move out of the way and keep on shooting. It was all choreographed in a way that it was possible to keep attacking the boss while making sure that we wouldn't get hit. Well, at least for Guidance that was the case. As for me, I was guaranteed to keep tanking hits that were supposed to go to a designated tank... which was currently me.

Slowly but surely, we whittled down Lewis's health. Granted, it immediately went back up the moment he had one of his sandwiches, but we were at least doing decent progress compared to the first few times we went through this.

[ENEMY HP: 88%]

"So far so good," I mumbled aloud, taking a good look at all of the numbers that were in play at the moment. "[HP]'s still at sustainable levels, and I'm still doing decent damage..."

"What're you mumbling about over there?!" Guidance scoffed from the other side of the arena. "Focus more on the fight! Let me handle all the macro stuff!"

I let out a chuckle of my own. "As if I'll die this early in the fight now. I can run circles around this guy!"

"Is that so?"

[STAMP: 55%]

Like clockwork, Lewis began casting his tank-buster attack. Well, what he said was new, but his moves were so telegraphed now that I didn't even flinch despite the massive amounts of damage heading my way. "Give me my shield, Guidance!"

"On it!"

[*THUD!*]

Bracing myself for impact, the imaginary stamp landed on my back, almost threatening to kill me if it weren't for the shield that Guidance just gave me. Of course, some damage still went through, but it wasn't as bad as if I just let it hit me like the first few times it happened.

[HP: 298]

"[Medica]!"

And just like she had done dozens of times, she just casts a regen on me and called it a day. It was more than enough to get me back up alongside my own passive regen anyway, which allowed her to focus more on dealing damage on her own and chip away at this man's constantly fluctuating health.

Slowly but surely, we progressed through the fight. With each minute that passed, Guidance and I fell into a rhythm we've been practicing for what felt like ages now as we ducked and weaved through each and every attack. Before long, Lewis began repeating the same patterns, allowing the two of us to be even more brain-dead as we put all our effort into optimizing our movement and damage.

"Have you tried maybe not getting shielded on that move?" Guidance called out just as we dodged yet another AoE [PAPERCUT].

"And risk my health dropping below sustainable levels? I don't think so," I quickly rebutted, my pistols still smoking as I kept up with my attacks. "Don't you already know that more health means more damage for me? I need to be healthy to deal this much damage constantly throughout the whole fight."

"A strange ability for a [Manifest], but I've heard of far more ludicrous powers," Lewis butted in on the conversation even as he was busy swiping and giving out hits to me. "However, speaking about your abilities tells me that you've been taking this fight far too lightly."

[STAMP: 88%]

Without even prompting, Guidance gave me another shield, her internal clock giving her the cue to cast the [Move] on me and prevent the sizeable amount of damage coming my way.

[*THUD!*]

"[Cure]! [Medica]!"

Gritting my teeth, I let Guidance's regen and healing put me back up to relative health. Pacing my shots, I didn't ramp up my attacks until after I was back to relatively full health. Not that I wasn't doing that before, but Guidance's constant healing did kind of spoil to the point of me just unloading shots nonstop like it was going out of style.

[ENEMY HP: 69%]

"His health is down to sixty-nine percent!" I called out to Guidance.

"Nice!" Guidance affirmed with a giggle. "That's the lowest we've gotten him down to, right?"

"The lowest we've gotten him down to so far," I cheekily corrected her. "If he doesn't bust out anything new, we'll just breeze through him. We already know most of what he can throw at us, so it's just a matter of dodging them all."

"Don't be so sure, Moriya," Guidance reminded. "The moment he hits fifty is the moment the fight might change."

I nodded in understanding. As was tradition to any big boss fights, the lower their health got, the more powerful and different their attacks become. They might get a buff that would power up their hits, or maybe even change forms. Either way, Guidance had also clearly taken that design philosophy and ran with it, what with her previous fight designs we've encountered so far having different moves throughout the entire fight.

[ENEMY HP: 50%]

"Here we go," I called aloud. "He's at fifty."

"Let's see what happens then."

Keeping up our attacks, we never let up on our efforts even as Lewis suddenly disengaged from me. At the same time, Guidance made her way toward me, standing by my side as she seemingly prepared herself for another round of constant healing.

"Okay, this is new," I chuckled.

"It's probably a raid-wide," Guidance postulated, her keyboard already glowing as she then cast out a few [Moves]. "[Adloqium] [Adloqium]"

As our shields came into reality, I kept my fingers pulling on the triggers as Lewis's health kept slowly dropping throughout this time. He wasn't doing anything so far, merely standing right in front of us without even saying a word. He wasn't even pulling out a sandwich and raising his health, even if that was usually what happened every time he did something like this.

"You two have certainly improved since last time," Lewis remarked as he made his way to the center of the arena. "However, it still won't be enough for you to escape your crimes."

[CODIFY: 12%]

Now that's definitely new! "Guidance?"

"I already have our shields up," she quickly replied, her [Keystroke] already in the middle of another cast. "If you want regen on top of that, I'll give it to us until after the attack goes off. Otherwise, let's just keep dealing damage while we can."

Nodding to her advice, I kept up the pace as I did more damage. Slowly, fifty went down to forty, Lewis still standing still as this long cast just kept on going.

[CODIFY: 56%]

"This is taking way too long," I remarked in absolute suspicion. "Shouldn't this thing already be going off by now?"

Guidance frowned as she replied, "Why even question this now? Do it later once we're done. For now, let's just hope that the game's bugging out and it won't even let the man complete his attack."

Shrugging, I returned to the boring, but highly important task of shooting this man dead. He was still standing in the center of the arena doing nothing except to glow with power, his attack still building up after a solid minute of constant attacks.

[ENEMY HP: 33%]

[CODIFY: 75%]

Without the need to heal or shield, his health began dropping at an even faster rate. Guidance and I were making great time now, and by the time his cast was at around a quarter of the way to completion, his health was already down to just almost a quarter of a hundred.

It was at that point that something started to feel genuinely wrong with what was happening.

"Something's wrong," I called out to Guidance even as we kept on attacking. "He's almost dead and he's still in the middle of this one attack."

"Yeah... This might be Rnrage, actually," she pondered aloud, her brows furrowed as she spoke. "This might be the DPS check, but for it to happen at fifty percent is too ridiculous to even think about."

"Still, this guy's health is almost around fifteen now," I pointed out with worry. "Meanwhile, his [CODIFY] attack is at around ninety-four percent now."

[ENEMY HP: 5%]

[CODIFY: 98%]

I blinked as I watched the one move he was casting finally reach a hundred. He was almost dead, but it felt like we just lost as a golden aura suddenly erupted from his wristwatch.

"On behalf of the Marquan City-State Government, I pronounce both of you to be guilty of endangering and attacking the innocent citizens of Marquee!"

[ENEMY HP: INVULNERABLE!]

What the-

"GUILTY!"

[*BOOM!*]

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