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

"What happened?!"

Shade's quick demand was warranted as he began to question me and Maruki about what happened after he and Shen went down. Of course, I obliged, telling him that we somehow survived, and that we reached what I could only assume to be the end of the fight.

"The end?" Shade asked, having calmed down during my explanation. "What do you mean by that?"

"It means exactly that," I responded. "It means that the fight is ending, and we only have that amount of time to beat this thing before it kills us all and spits us back out here again."

ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom It was a DPS check plain and simple. We kill it, or it killed us. Well, technically, we weren't trying to kill Shizu, just the tentacles controlling her, but it was basically the same thing.

"So you mean to say that we have to somehow survive up to that point so that we can beat this metaphorical timer," Shade repeated in his own words. "That's assuming Shen and I can even survive that one attack the Princess unleashed. You and Maruki have a shield [Move]. We don't have that."

Beside me, Shen could only nod despite the frown she sported on her face. She was upset, but she was thankfully keeping it to herself even if her face said otherwise.

Kind of mature of her to do that, actually.

"I think we can figure something out," I replied, my brows furrowing as I turned my gaze to the still captive Shizu. "There's got to be a way to get you two through that one attack."

Looking at my [Move], it certainly wouldn't be me doing the sharing, seeing as [Shroud] was a self-targeted [Move] that I couldn't even give to others. This left Maruki to be the one to do it. Recalling what he could do, he had [SHARE!], which enables him to take all of our damage in our stead. He also had his own version of invulnerability in the form of [PROVIDENCE!]...

I blinked... Surely that wouldn't work, but haven't we already done the exact same thing back in the dungeon? "Maruki?"

"Yes, Moriya?!"

"You can use [SHARE!] and [PROVIDENCE!] at the same time, right?" I pensively asked.

To my surprise, our tank seemed to hesitate before he replied. "It will be a tight window, but I can do just that!" he proudly declared. "I am to assume that I will do so once we reach the part where the world is enshrouded by numbers?!"

"Yep," I popped my consonants in response. "I'm pretty sure it'll work, then we can just wail at the tentacles and be done with this."

It was foolproof. We've seen everything this [Taenia] could do, and it was pretty straightforward for an instance that was supposed to be endgame content. Somehow, I had a feeling that the fight was supposed to be harder than it was right now, but I wouldn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth.

If the game wanted to give us an easy win against an Eldritch horror, then who was I to refuse?

"Okay, positions everyone!" I called out, my determination to end this thing and get Shizu back rising. Taking a glance at my party, I couldn't help but smirk as I shouted, "Hit it!"

"[SHOUT!]"

Once more, the fight ensued. We were all going through the motions adequately. It wasn't as smooth as when Guidance was leading us, but it was more than serviceable as we went through mechanic after mechanic without so much as getting any unavoidable damage. Shen was starting to get faster with her heals, and I swore I could even see a small smirk forming on her usually smug face. I guess she was starting to enjoy the healing business in the same way that Guidance did. Shade and I did our best to thin out the tentacles, and eventually, it finally happened.

[ANOMALOUS WAVE: 28%]

"Get ready!" I called out, my pistol already raised in anticipation. "Maruki!"

"On it!" our tank nodded. "[SHARE!][PROVIDENCE!]"

"[Shroud]!"

At our combined call out, Maruki and I shielded ourselves from the incoming damage. A blue sheen covered Shade and Shen, signaling that they were under our tank's protection as we waited.

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"NGGHH!!"

The inevitable wave washed over us, Maruki's health immediately dropping to one as he took in both of our unshielded member's damage. My eyes widened. He might die as soon as the buff fell off!

"Shen!" I barked out!

"Gotcha!"

Moving quickly, the mechanic began pumping out heals, forcing Maruki's bar to climb back up despite the onslaught of damage coming his way. Eventually, the wave stopped, just in time for our barriers to pop and leave us defenseless. It was only a matter of time now until-

[WE WILL HAVE IT]

[OUR ANSWER: 2%]

That was our cue! "Everyone hit the boss!"

At my call, everyone dropped what they were doing and began putting their all into hitting the tentacles. With Shen not having any way to attack just yet, she was stuck giving me [REGEN] in an effort to have me keep shooting. Slowly, the bar filled, and our attacks seemed to slow in comparison as we were about to reach the threshold.

[OUR ANSWER: 89%]

"Pump that damage!" I shouted out, my [Manifest] smoking red with how much I was firing the thing.

[COMBAT COMPLETED]

⬛⬛⬛

Just as I thought we were going to wipe again, the world faded to black, the last vestiges of a prompt still fresh in my memory as the cutscene played out. With the tentacles being severed, Shizu unceremoniously fell onto the ground, bits and pieces of the creature's appendages seemingly evaporating as the princess was left unconscious.

[THIS IS FAR FROM OVER]

⬛⬛⬛

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

A deluge of level-ups flooded my senses as the sound of fanfare echoed out in my ears. I was back in the boss room, my party quickly going to Shizu's side as they helped the unconscious princess up. Looking up to the wall, [Taenia] was still there, but its one eye was closed, seemingly subdued as the ominous feeling around us seemed to ease up somewhat.

"Moriya!"

I couldn't help but smile. We actually did it. "Coming!"

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