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

This wasn't how we envisioned our plan of attack, but I guess beggars can't be choosers, especially if said beggars didn't have a monopoly on the amount of firepower our party had.

"Oh my god, she just ran in," Guidance whispered out in shock. "And I can't believe I just said that..."

"I'm guessing it's an MMO reference I don't know?"

"It's the MMO reference," Guidance sighed, shaking her head with both shock and disappointment. "Shizu wasn't supposed to be like this. She was naive, sure, but not this impulsive."

I couldn't help but sigh alongside the dev. "This is our life now, I suppose," I humorously chuckled. "Still, shall we run after her?"

"As if there's any other choice," she scoffed. "Let's just hope she doesn't get herself into trouble again."

With a shared nod, the two of us followed closely behind our wayward princess's path. With our [Manifests] out and ready, we were prepared for the inevitable clash that would follow as soon as Shizu collided against someone that she just couldn't take out in one punch. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that didn't happen.

"What is she doing?" Guidance frowned beside me as we ran. "Is she seriously dodging everybody she's coming across?"

"I guess she has a plan in mind," I supplied. "Still, this means we're gonna have to pick up where she left off."

This was going to be a pain. If we wanted to follow Shizu on her path toward our party members, we'd have to punch through the rapidly advancing enemy forces that were desperately trying to plug the holes that Shizu was weaving through. That means that they'll be ready to intercept me and Guidance the moment we try and follow the princess's lead.

Guidance and I had our work cut out for us. We weren't as fast or agile as Shizu, nor will we ever even reach that level of speed. Instead, we had to do things the old-fashioned way.

"Ready?" Guidance asked, her keyboard already drawn as we rapidly approached the wall of people we had to put down.

"Ready."

With a collective nod, we both rushed straight into the fight. Using our momentum, I began rapidly thinning out the herd while Guidance provided backup in the form of healing and her own [Art of War] attack. Between my range and her AoE close-ranged attack, we were a ball of death cutting a swathe through the poor fools trying to stop us.

"What're these guys made of?!"

"How are they this strong?!"

I closed my heart to the guys voicing out their disbelief in our strength. Sure, they weren't even that strong to begin with despite clearly being Somatics themselves, but that was kind of the point, wasn't it? They weren't as strong as us. Us, who had [Manifests] and strengths that played well with actual combat. Judging by most of the people we've cut down, most of them didn't even have a combat-capable power. Instead, they were using weapons like any normal person. Some of them had powers, true, but they couldn't even bring them up fast enough before we disabled them.

That, and they were just that disorganized. Seriously, it was as if they were running around hoping that somebody would take charge.

"What in the world is happening here?!"

A hoarse voice paused the entire battlefield. Guidance and I debated on whether or not we should bolt, but for some reason, we wanted to stay and see just who was speaking.

"They're only a group of Somatics! Why is this so hard?!"

I blinked as the crowd in front of us seemingly parted. Walking through the newly-formed gap, a familiar figure power-walked towards us with a scowl that somehow barely managed to hide the fact that she was beautiful.

"H-Head Intellect-"

"Enough!" the newly arrived Head Intellect barked aloud. "Formation C! Now!"

And just like that, my prior observation evaporated in an instant.

Moving with an efficiency that I've never seen throughout this battle so far, the disorganized nature of our enemies had seemingly vanished, replaced with hardened formations and proper forms as they all lined up in perfect formation. Beside me, Guidance was on guard, her fingers typing frantically as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In front of us, hidden behind a line of Somatics, the Head Intellect glared at us with a stare as sharp as stainless steel. Her cigarette smoked with baleful embers, her grip on her cane making it obvious that she was holding back.

"Attack!"

Welp, this was it. "Guidance!"

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With two [Moves], the dev shielded us from the inevitable onslaught. And just on time too as all of our enemies seemed to have suddenly gotten better. Their movements weren't clunky, their attacks more straightforward as they danced to the tune of this Head Intellect.

"Close up! Prevent them from escaping!"

With yet another word from the woman, our enemies moved as one, the blob of Somatics encircling us in the same way that they did to Shen and the others. Hopefully, Shizu managed to reach them. If this was what they were facing back then, then I couldn't imagine just how much pain they had to suffer.

"Moriya, what's the plan?" Guidance hissed behind me. "We can't just let them close up like this."

"Well, I guess we can just brute force it."

Taking my own advice into account, I sprinted right onto what I hoped was the thinnest part of the encirclement. Aiming my pistols at the poor guys barring my way, I fired.

"[Blood Shot]"

pαпᵈα-noνɐ1·сoМ [*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

Three shots... Three bodies fell to the ground as the formation broke.

"What the- Close it up!"

Hearing the lady barking out orders, I turned to Guidance and gesture her to follow. "Let's go!"

Taking the hole I just created, we barely managed to squeeze through the gap. Before we knew it, the mass of enemies was rapidly trying to enclose us again, all in the orders of that one lady that somehow made this ineffective fighting force into a coherent unit with nothing but her words alone.

"Do you think that's her [Manifest]?" Guidance asked, her keyboard churning out [Art of War]s onto anyone that even tried to get close. "The ability to command?"

"Maybe," I grunted, my attention half being paid to the guys I was shooting at. "Though I think that cane of hers is her [Manifest]."

Doubling back, the fact that they were all on top of us this quickly was proof that there was no running away from this. Standing our ground would be the only option we'll have left if this continued. And at the rate we were going-

[*BOOM!*]

I almost had to shield my eyes as another explosion of black and green colored the air around us. The shockwave of the impact washed over the battlefield, everyone pausing as they all stared at the source of the attack.

Turning around, I fought a grimace as I recognized the [Move]. Just a ways away, it was clear that Shizu had used her new [Move] again, probably to try and break the encirclement that the rest of the party had found themselves in and were unable to break out of. Meanwhile, Guidance and I were once again hard-stuck against somebody. This time, it was the lady that I saw barking out orders a while ago.

Everyone was standing still except for her, the woman once more revealing herself to us with the confidence of a paranoid veteran.

"What the- Again?!" the lady growled, her poor cancer stick getting crushed in between her lips as her green eyes wandered toward the green explosion. "What kind of [Manifest] is even capable of such an attack?!"

Behind me, Guidance was already poised for another fight. Just from us pausing to look at Shizu's handiwork, we were once more surrounded from all sides with no way out. We could always try and punch through their guard again, but I didn't think that it would work again with this woman personally handling everybody's positioning.

"Head Intellect, we have them surrounded," one of the Somatics reported.

"Good," the woman scoffed as she spat out the cigarette that she had just crushed under her teeth. She then glared at us with the wrath of a thousand suns, her hands fumbling to light yet another cigarette to put in her mouth. "So, seeing as you're both surrounded, why don't you two surrender and spare us all the headache of trying to contain you and your group?"

Now, that wasn't something we were keen on doing. "Well, judging by the explosion that just occurred, I'd say your group is the one on the back foot, don't you think?"

"We don't negotiate with Imperial terrorists," the Head Intellect spat out. "We were wrong to think that you lot were mere sellswords. I'd have to personally fire the idiots that somehow let your group pass."

"Hey, on our defense, we didn't mean for all of this to happen," I quickly pointed out.

"Excuses," she scoffed. "Enough of this. You lot will be tried and hanged for destroying my precious city!"

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