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

GUIDANCE

⬛⬛⬛

"Moriya!"

Guidance winced as she saw Moriya get bonked into oblivion. The hilarity of the way her boyfriend died clashed with just how horrifying it was to learn that the boss had a one-shot attack. It hadn't even been cast. It was just a plain old attack that had no windup or warning whatsoever.

"Great... now I'm alone..." she grumbled to herself, her keyboard still churning out [Move] after [Move] in an effort to keep herself alive. "Do I just kill myself so we can try again?"

Logically, the best move was for her to play out the fight and see if she could gather a bit more information on the boss that they could use for the next run. That was how they've operated before as well; with any survivor trying to glean as much knowledge as they could on both mechanics and possible weaknesses that they could use and exploit to beat whatever it was that was wiping them.

"I can't even see the indicators," Guidance gritted her teeth in annoyance, her feet already moving to make sure she would avoid the same fate that just befell Moriya. "Thankfully, she hasn't done anything of note yet."

True enough, this Head Intellect woman had shown little of her mechanics beyond those two attacks. Granted, one of them was a one-shot ability, but it was still anemic compared to what a boss should normally have for mechanics.

Moving along the borders of the arena, Guidance kept an eye on the walking woman, casually throwing out [Ruin]s at the boss in an attempt to try and coax out more mechanics for her to learn. Moriya hadn't told her what percent the boss's health was before it began doing that first mechanic, but she could only assume that it was a number that was divisible by five.

After all, round or even numbers were the perfect triggers to place mechanics in.

"On me!"

Hearing the boss speak, Guidance readied herself for... something. Without Moriya to tell them what to expect, she was left with no choice other than to hope that her reflexes would be enough to dodge whatever it was that was about to be thrown at them.

"There Ads last time... Maybe more of them?" Guidance whispered to herself as she let her eyes scan the area both within and outside the arena. "Maybe an Ad phase?"

Ads were something that she never truly believed were good boss mechanics. Sure, they added a sense of scale and difficulty to the fight, but fighting extra garbage in the middle of a cool boss battle just never suited her tastes. Instead, she focused more on the spectacle. Set pieces were her bread and butter, and quite frankly, it was quite a wonder just how she hadn't seen those parts of her design philosophy in the fights just yet.

"Dammit, it is Ads..."

Guidance couldn't help but grumble as she saw a line of soldiers begin piling up in the middle of the arena. Forming a circle around the boss, they all seemed to have rifles on them. Well, they were rifle analogs that she designed, but they were essentially the same.

"FIRE!"

"Sh1t!"

Her eyes widening, Guidance hissed as she felt a stray round hit the side of her right arm. Looking at the pattern, she couldn't tell if there was even a blind spot that she could've used to dodge the volley of bullets that just erupted from the center of the arena. Then again, there was technically some space right in the middle with the boss that would theoretically be safe... but would it actually be?

"Are we supposed to just take the hit here then?"

Before she could ponder more on the logistics of the last attack, her gaze was already on the boss as the woman slowly began her advance toward her again. The ads had disappeared, once more leaving the boss all alone as she approached her.

This time, however, her gait was starting to get faster.

"Okay, something's definitely up here..."

Picking up the pace, Guidance's cautious walk slowly began to increase in both speed and gait to match the walking boss. Inevitably, her walk became a slight jog as the Head Intellect seemingly went faster with each minute that passed.

"This is ridiculous!"

Guidance couldn't help but complain to the damn Engine as she found herself running for her life against something that was more akin to a terminator than a boss fight. The woman didn't even do anything! She was just powerwalking towards her like a freight train slowly picking up speed.

Was this seriously the whole fight?

"[Ruin]!"

Turning on a dime, Guidance threw out a [Ruin] in frustration in the hopes that she had somehow gotten this woman's health down for her to show another mechanic. Unfortunately for her, the attack didn't even faze the boss. Instead, her pace only increased even further, her cane now raised up high as if she was getting ready for the inevitable attack.

"Dammit! This is so stupid!"

Running away at breakneck speeds, Guidance cursed the Engine for what it had created. Why? Why even make a boss that was this basic in design? Even a toddler could've imagined a more fun and fair boss mechanic than just having the woman be a walking train that could kill her in one shot. It was dirty. It was unfair. And worst of all...

"It's so lazy!"

It was the worst sin that Guidance could ever tolerate. Sure, she was lazy herself, but she was never lazy whenever it came to her work. Even now, she could vaguely remember drawing up a character design that match the boss's description. She couldn't remember the mechanics of it, assuming she even designed them, but surely she wouldn't be this lazy about it!

"UGH! Enough of this! [Adloqium]!"

With a frustrated grunt, Guidance turned on a dime, facing the boss for the first time in a while since the boring chase started. Casting a barrier on herself, she raised her keyboard in front of her and stood her ground.

"I'm not going to tolerate you not having anything interesting going on in your fight!" Guidance declared. "If you're going to kill me, then kill me!"

It was stupid, that she knew, but the frustration of seeing just how unimaginative this boss fight was starting to cloud her judgment. She didn't care that she was wasting her opportunity to try and learn the fight. She didn't care that Moriya would probably scold her for being so impatient. She just wanted to get this fight over and done with.

Besides, it wasn't like there was anything left to learn about this fight.

Yes... Even as the woman stood in front of her and aimed her cane right at her head, she was absolutely certain that there was nothing else for her to learn about this stupid fight other than they just had to beat this boss to submission before she became fast enough to become unavoidable.

"Come on! Do it already-"

⬛⬛⬛

The wait hadn't even taken a minute as Guidance found herself standing side by side with Moriya once more. The frustration she felt for the fight was still running hot in her mind, and it took everything she had in her not to scream out her grievances at the unmoving statue of boring waiting for them to initiate the fight again.

"Guidance?"

"What?!" she spat out, her nerves still running hot due to her own unmet standards. "Are you gonna tell me to calm down!?"

"Well, yes?" her stupid boyfriend hesitantly replied. "What happened?"

"Boring mechanics is what happened!" she ranted. "After you stupidly got killed, she did nothing else of import until she just suddenly walked faster towards me! I mean, why?! Why even have that as a mechanic?!"

"So you mean to say that she just walked around until she became so fast that it was technically just Enrage?"

"It might as well be!" she angrily shouted, her fists shaking as she stomped her foot. "It's just so stupid! Why are the bosses so boring?! And even the first ones we fought didn't feel like I designed them! They're just so short!"

It was that blasted Engine's fault, she was sure. While the damn thing borrowed her designs and fundamental rules on making fights, it was clear that it was just patching together random bullsh1t and hoping that it would make for a fun fight. But no... It was lazy and slap-dashed together! It hadn't even bothered using some of the more fun mechanics she had made for some of the prior bosses! It just recycled the same fvcking thing over and over again and called it a day!

"Guidance, calm down-"

"I am calm! Don't tell me that right now!" Guidance shouted at him, her chest tightening up the angrier she got. "Let's just pull this thing and kill it before it gets me riled up even further!"

"Aallright then..." Moriya shrugged in resignation. "Anything else I should know about the fight?"

"Absolutely nothing," she scoffed. "Just don't be stupid and keep moving. I'm sure this thing has nothing left to offer us."

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛