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

Let's try this again...

"[Shroud]!"

Bracing myself, I put all my faith in my one [Move] as I stood against the attack and took it. Once more, what looked to be a massive stamp materialized from his wristwatch and bore right down on me. And of course, my health cried havoc as it fell so hard that you'd think that I should've just died just to get health back faster...

Wait... wasn't [Shroud] supposed to make me invulnerable?

[HP: 125]

My eyes widening, I quickly rolled out of his immediate reach, my gaze glued solely to my slowly recovering health as I processed what just happened.

[Shroud] was supposed to be my answer to massive attacks like that [STAMP] thing Lewis just did to me. I would've thought that it was universal, but apparently, it wasn't?

[PAPERCUT: 11%]

I shook my head clear of all thoughts as I quickly dodged out of the way of yet another orange triangular cone, the sound of papers flying at Mach speed whooshing past me as I quickly trained my pistols at the man. I was almost about to fire when I realized that I couldn't afford to do so. My health was too low to be sustainable, and I was much better off waiting for my regen to ramp back up than to try and deal more damage.

"Dodging won't get you anywhere, Moriya."

[FIRE BLADE: 14%]

I gritted my teeth in thought, my legs pumping against the ground as I prepared myself for another round of dodging. If I recalled correctly, he was going to lunge at me at speeds that I wouldn't be able to keep up with. Then again, I was pretty sure there was a window to dodge the attack if I just timed it right.

[*FWOOSH!*]

Tensing my muscles, I fought the urge to flinch as the old man suddenly appeared right in front of me, his glowing hot dagger flying through the air as he attempted to slice me in half by the midsection.

[*SLASH!*]

His blade flew right by the skin of my teeth, my stomach tucked in just enough to barely escape with my clothes still in one piece.

[HP: 145]

Taking advantage of my momentum, I put some distance between myself and the old man, my eyes taking a glance at my slowly recovering health. It was slowly starting to ramp up due to [Hematopoiesis], but I still needed a bit more time until I was back to regenerating health at sustainable levels. It probably won't be until I had around 250 or more [HP] before I could even think about working on chipping away at his health again.

"Are you just going to dodge me, Moriya?" Lewis taunted, though he sounded more disappointed than anything. "Where was the technique that you showed me just yesterday? Or were you simply being propped up by your friends all this time?"

I couldn't help but scoff at what he just said. First of all, I wouldn't deny that I was being carried by my friends all this time. And second, the fact that he said it all happened yesterday meant that it had been over twenty-four hours since we last had a decent recent. While it won't affect me too much, the same couldn't be said for the rest, which only meant that I should really try and wrap this up as soon as possible.

[BULK UP:42%]

I blinked in recognition of the next move he was about to make. "Oh no, you don't!"

Aiming my pistols at the sandwich in his hand, I took a short glance at my health before promptly ignoring it anyway and firing out a shot. I could always just try and regen it all back up, but to let this man get another fifty percent boost to his health was just plain stupid.

"[Blood Shot]!"

[*BANG!*]

I watched with crossed fingers as my [Move] soared through the air, hoping that the sandwich actually had a hitbox that I could shoot at. For all I knew, it was something that couldn't be stopped, something that was so ingrained into this guy's mechanics that there was just no way that we could cheese it.

[*SQUELCH...*]

[BULK UP: INTERRUPTED!]

Or... maybe it would actually work.

"You... You just wasted perfectly good food..."

I couldn't help but laugh at the look of shock on Lewis's face. "As much as I agree, I can't just let you keep getting health from eating those things. Could you blame me for it?"

[HP: 120]

Taking a short glance at my health, I was back down to dangerously low levels just from that one [Move] I just did. I didn't even know if I should've used it or just tried doing it with a regular attack, but that was more than enough information gained for the loss to be worth it. At least now I knew that shooting at the sandwich would stop him from going over a hundred percent health, which would make this fight remarkably easier than it would've been if we just let him do whatever he wanted.

"I suppose that is the case, but I hope you realize that you've legitimately made me angry now," Lewis growled, his wristwatch glowing golden orange as he glared at me. "While I cannot stand to see unkempt paperwork, wasting perfectly good food when thousands are potentially dying of starvation is something I cannot stand for."

[GRAND STAMP: 11%]

And just like that, my laughs died in my throat as the entire arena glowed orange. Pulses of yellow flashed from beneath Lewis's feet, radiating outward like it was some kind of threatening aura that I had no chance of escaping.

And what's even worse, I just learned that [Shroud] had a cooldown.

"Farewell, Moriya."

I gritted my teeth as I saw a massive stamp starting to materialize above me. Glowing in all of its powerful glory, there was no way that I'd be able to survive this. Still, that didn't stop me from putting my arms up and defending myself.

"Shi-"

[*THUD!*]

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"Well, that didn't work..."

Letting out a chuckle, the fact that I was once again floating around in the dark void meant that I just ate dirt from that last attack Lewis did. I didn't know if it was some kind of last attack, or if it was caused by me shooting the sandwich off of his hands, but one thing that I did know was that there was no way that any of us would be able to survive that. Not with Guidance's shield, Maruki's [Manifest], or even all of the healing in the world.

"At least that's knowledge for the next do-over," I shrugged. "Note to self, don't shoot the sandwich..."

Guidance probably won't like that though. She was the one that suggested I try doing it in the first place. With just the two of us plugging against this man's overinflated health, it'll be a long and drawn-out fight of dodging and weaving for sure.

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[LOADING...]

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Blinking back into existence, the atmosphere of war and death flashed back into reality as I stood in front of Lewis's imposing form yet again. The presence of a loading screen kind of ticked at me in the wrong way, but I was pretty sure that there was nothing wrong with a bit of loading in from time to time... assuming it had been always there of course.

"Ugh... Getting stabbed by a thousand-degree knife wasn't in my planned methods of suicide, but at least I know what it feels like now."

Beside me, Guidance groaned as she held onto her head due to what seemed to be a headache. Then again, I guess this would be the first time where we'd get to test out if I wouldn't be the only person who'd get memories of previous fight attempts.

"You okay, Guidance?"

"I'll be fine," she grunted, hissing through her teeth. "My head's pounding, but at least I remember everything that happened this time."

"Good. That's another piece of information that'll be useful once all this is over."

"That's assuming that we're even remotely done with this fight," she scoffed. "So, what did we learn?"

I sighed as I began with the first thing that came to mind. "Shooting at the sandwich works whenever he bulks up, but doing it would make him do a raidwide that would just wipe us. Like some kind of rage attack or something."

"Like an Enrage?"

I blinked, "An Enrage? Is that what you call those kinds of attacks?"

"Well, that's what we called it on the MMO I based this game on," Guidance nodded. "That's also what happens when we hit a DPS check at the end of every fight like what happened on that bugged-out Island Sanctuary."

"Huh... Well, at least we have a name for attacks like that now," I shrugged. "Still, that doesn't really help because it just means we'll have to keep doing enough damage to keep his health down."

"And we're only two people," she sighed, finishing my line of thought. "Still, if the game- or should I say Engine, put us in here, it should theoretically be doable..."

I let out another sigh as I stared at the wall of muscle standing between us and our friends. I guess this was just going to be one of those problems where we have to bash our heads against the wall and see what stuck.

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