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

Well, it wasn't like we had a choice in the matter. "Get ready."

Stretching out my hand to reach into the portal, the edges of the anomaly almost seemed like it was trying its best to reject us. The very thing glitched and flickered, its form almost dissipating before it stabilized.

[mI1numusd Level RquasdiremenTL: lEV3l 9273hasd$]

[PARTY SIZE INCOMPLETE]

[ENTER?]

Oh boy... The fact that it even asked us to enter despite the level requirement being shot to hell was a concern that I kept to myself. The fact that we were also somehow short members was also going to be kept secret until we were either done or if the fight was going so badly that I have to come up with an excuse as to why we were doing so horridly.

"Now or never," I sighed. "[Yes]."

⬛⬛⬛

The world faded to black as the instance began loading in. I didn't know what to expect, but we probably had all the time in the world to figure this thing out. So long as we kept our heads together, we'll be able to get through this.

Well, assuming we could even kill this thing.

[HALF PARTY]

[Withermoon Manor]

[The Lurking Library: Taenia]

As usual, I found myself floating through the room, the camera giving me a generous look at nothing as the room became pitch black.

[WE WILL HAVE OUR ANSWERS]

[*FLASH!*]

I almost tried closing my eyes as a flash of red light suddenly illuminated the room. The red eye floating behind Shizu began glowing brightly enough to show the room in all of its fleshy and tentacled glory, and floating right in the middle of it was Shizu. The camera flew around, giving me a very intimate view of the princess's anatomy as her one golden eye glowed with rage.

"C-Come, Moriya!"

[IMPOSSIBLE]

The camera shifted, zooming into the eye as it seemed to blink in disbelief. Beneath it, Shizu squirmed, her golden eye shining brighter as her body shuddered.

"I... I can't keep it down for long!" she called out, the tentacle keeping her captive shifting in an attempt to keep her submissive. "Cut me down before it can recover!"

⬛⬛⬛

[COMBAT COMMENCED]

And just like that, I was back in my own body, my head still swimming as I reoriented myself. To my side, Shen, Shade, and Maruki were all looking to me for orders, Shen in particular almost looking at her wrench as if hoping it would give her an idea on how to properly use it.

[Taenia's Tentacles: Level ???]

Looking up, the enemy wasn't Shizu or even the main body of the Eldritch itself. Instead, the only thing that seemed to be targetable was this thing's tentacles. [Taenia]'s tentacles to be precise.

Somehow, I couldn't help but think about how horrible of a name [Taenia] was for a monster.

"Moriya! Orders!"

Back to the fight, Maruki was almost standing right in front of Shizu, foregoing any sense of self-preservation as he skated the invisible aggro range for this thing.

"Back off!" I barked out. "We won't engage until I say so!"

"Of course!"please visit pαпᵈα-:)ɴᴏᴠᴇ1.co)m

"Are you serious, Moriya?" Shade complained. "The Princess is right in front of us begging for our help, and you want us to stand back?!"

"Us dying needlessly doesn't help that," I quickly responded.

"Didn't you just tell us that we'll come back to life anyway?" Shade reasoned with a raised eyebrow. "Why should we be cautious then?"

....Damn, that was kind of a good point. Still, "Us dying over and over won't stop us from figuring out what it could do."

While there was no way to know what it could do right now, there might be some clues as to what to expect while fighting this thing. That, and if this fight was meant to be tackled by a party larger than four, I could only assume that this thing would throw out mechanics meant to be dealt with by more than four people. We'll have to cheese it with only four people, all while being horribly under-leveled to boot.

Which meant that we'll be dying while we find a way to cheese through the fight... a lot...

"This thing has tentacles, so I guess that means we have to look out for underhanded attacks," I postulated, looking at the undulating appendages seemingly growing out of the walls and the floor. "They might come from anywhere, maybe even underneath us."

"That much is obvious," Shade rolled his eyes. "Anything else?"

I hummed as I looked at Shizu herself. Half of her body was visibly trying to fight the other half, her suspended body writhing and struggling as if trying to break free from her prison.

"We could probably expect Shizu's right side to be relatively safe," I hypothesized. "That seems to be the side that Shizu's in control with, meaning that her left side would still be able to attack us."

"Assuming we even try to hit the Princess," Shade scoffed. "We're focusing on the one thing we have to do, and that's cutting her off from the thing keeping her captive."

If Shade was afraid, he was doing a good job hiding it with his seeming impatience.

"We have to," I pointed out before turning to Maruki. "Let's get started."

"Of course!" Maruki declared. "[SHOUT!]"

And with that, the fight began. Shizu turned to look at the tank, her left side unleashing an attack that-

[FUTILE]

"ARGHHH!!"

What the-

"Maruki?!"

I blinked in shock as our tank went down in one attack, meaning that Shizu was now staring at the next person on the aggro list. But instead of attacking, she hovered right in the middle of the room, charging something-

[ELDRITCH WAVE: 87%]

An attack?! "Raid wid-"

[*asudhg9ya(&*Y$(JSdnasd*]

⬛⬛⬛

[CONTINUE]

I blinked as I found myself standing in front of Shizu again. The rest of the party all shook their head in confusion, their surprise palpable as they all looked at me with fear in their eyes.

"We... We just died, didn't we..."

"Yep," I nodded.

Well, this was going to be harder than I ever anticipated.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

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