Chapter 261 49.7 Alliance Raid?

With a flash of golden light, a wave of energy washed all throughout the arena. There was no defending from this. Instead, I did my best to defend myself while also making a beeline for Guidance's location. She had been raising her keyboard up to defend herself from Lewis's incoming attack, but before I could even push her out of the way.... nothing happened.

[STATUS: SILENCED: 30 SECONDS]

Instead, I blinked at the new status effect that just showed up in my HUD. I played enough games to know what silence meant, and I really hoped that Guidance wouldn't be too crippled by what this man just did to us.

"Dammit!"

Hearing her curse, I could only assume that she couldn't cast any of her [Moves] now. With Lewis bearing down on her, I raised my pistols up to shoot at him, hoping that they would at least provide some cover for Guidance to leave with her health intact.

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

[HP: 277]

I winced at the [HP] drain I was starting to accumulate. Without Guidance's heals, I was effectively relying solely on [Hematopoiesis] to keep me topped up. And while it would be more than enough if I was timing my shots to not let my health drop too low, I was unloading a lot of shots on this man just so that his aggro would come back to me. More shots meant more health wasted, which also meant that my passive wouldn't heal me as quickly as it was supposed to.

"How cute."

[BULK UP: 44%]

I narrowed my eyes at the man's next move. If I recalled correctly, this was where he would get an exorbitant amount of health by eating a sandwich. Still, it gave us a bit of time to recuperate and wait out the silence as Guidance went to stand beside me.

"Now, I'm ready to take you kids on."

[ENEMY HP: 150%]

I clicked my tongue as I watched the man's health shoot straight past the bar, the UI element breaking somewhat in an effort to display just how massive this guy's [HP] was.

"Why didn't you shoot the sandwich outta his hand?" Guidance pointedly questioned. "Dammit.. I still can't do anything."

"Same reason why you can't do anything, Guidance," I quickly replied, my pistols still smoking as I fired shot after shot. "I don't think normal attacks would work on that thing."

"You should've still tried," she glowered. "At least we would know if the damn thing's even a target we can-"

[PAPERCUT: 11%]

My eyes widened. "Move!"

Pushing her out of the way of the cone, I braced myself for a ton of damage as Lewis swung his puny dagger at me from afar. With his wristwatch glowing, a ton of papers erupted from his swipe, cutting me from all angles as I gritted my teeth against the stinging pain.

[HP: 154]

"Moriya!"

[STATUS: SILENCED: 2 SECONDS]

"Just run until the silence wears off!" I called out, my eyes already watching out for the next thing that this guy will throw at us. "Heal me when you can!"

[BULK UP: 77%]

Clicking my tongue once more, I didn't even notice the man eating yet another sandwich as I put some distance between him and myself. My [Manifest] rang with each shot, my [Moves] still unavailable to me not because I was still silenced, but because I just couldn't afford the health to spend on them anymore.

[ENEMY HP: 200%]

"Oh my lord..."

I winced as I saw Lewis's more than beefy bar of health. He was currently sitting on twice his normal health now, my attacks effectively getting nullified time that he did that self-heal of his.

"You two are clearly fighting a losing battle," he scoffed in a strangely warm sort of way. "If you two simply surrendered, we won't have to end this battle in bloodshed."

[PAPERCUT: 44%]

I let out a breath as I saw yet another orange triangle of death shooting out from the man's location in a cone. Aimed right at me, I at least had the time to get out of the way this time, barely dodging out of the flurry of papers threatening to riddle me with a dozen papercuts.

Also, where in the hell were my heals?

"Anytime now, Guidance!" I called out, my patience running thin as I kept Lewis's aggro aimed solely at myself. "I'd at least want to fire back at this guy and maybe chip away at his massive health!"

"[Cure]! [Medica]!"

[HP: 307]

[STATUS: REGEN: 30 SECONDS]

"There!" she yelled out.

"Thanks!"

With my [HP] now back to manageable levels, I finally allowed myself to pull the trigger on my [Manifest], riddling the man with bullets in an attempt to try and at least get his health back down below 200%. All the while, I found myself getting kind of jealous at just how broken a self-healing spell with that kind of potency would be for me to have. Really, why in the world did all of my stuff run off of percentages of my maximum [HP]? Sure, it helped me scale, but it also scaled in a way that adding more [HP] wouldn't help me sustain. Instead, it gave me more damage as my passives took it all into account.

And of course, Guidance hadn't shown any sort of [Move] that could maybe increase my max health even temporarily.

"[Blood Shot] [Iron Spread] [Hemolysis]"

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

[HP: 295]

[MP: 186]

Three consecutive [Moves], three consecutive shots as my pistols smoke with blood and iron. The beam of red seemingly burned at the man, his health dropping considerably as I kept up the onslaught.

[ENEMY HP: 180%]

A whopping twenty percent wasn't bad at all, especially with his values being massively overinflated like this. There wouldn't be-

[FIRE SWORD: 59%]

"Moriya! Get out in front of him!"

Wha-

[*FWOOSH!*]

...

...Pain.... Burning pain!

"ARRGHGH!!!"

[HP: 95]

"[Adloqium]! [Medica]! [Cure]!"

[HP: 245]

[STATUS: REGEN: 30 SECONDS]

Just as the fires began to burn right through my skin, Guidance's [Moves] quickly soothed the pain as I managed to recompose myself. I hissed through my teeth, clicking my tongue in annoyance as I stared right in this man's glowing blade.

"I'm surprised you're still standing," Lewis remarked almost remorsefully as he slowly walked up to me. "Again, just give up. If anything, your group will at least live to see another day-"

"[Ruin]!"

Before I could even fire a shot, Guidance had already taken the initiative as her keyboard fired off a blast of energy at the man. To my surprise, she actually did decent damage. Then again, she was sitting at around level 50 right now due to the level sync.

[ENEMY HP: 170%]

"Go!" Guidance yelled out. "[Adloqium]!"

Feeling yet another shield forming around me, I took that as my cue and forced myself up, wielding my pistols like tonfas again as I began to deliver a combination of blows against the man's rather bouncy stomach. It was like punching blubber, only a hell of a lot more solid as my blows got absorbed like they were nothing.

[ENEMY HP: 168%]

Still, at least it chipped away two percent of his massive health.

"That tickles, Moriya."

[STAMP: 95%]

Woah! This was new!

[*THUD!*]

I didn't even have the time to brace myself as a massive visage of a stamp bore down right on top of my head. The indicator that briefly showed up around me in the form of a red circle was more of an indication that it was meant as a single target damage dealer. Though, it didn't anything to lessen my frustration at just how quickly that attack went out. Like, seriously, the pressure I took was unbearable, and it was only through luck that I barely managed to keep myself upright.

"Fvck me..."

Just from the force of the blow, I was already dreading my situation as I took a look at my health. There was no way that it didn't deal a lot of damage, even with Guidance's shield taking the brunt of it away from me.

[HP: 24]

I winced at how low I was. Yep.... That was a massive attack meant for a tank to take. At least that was new information we could use later.

[PAPERWORK: 24%]

Another attack began charging up before I was ready, and I could barely hide my surprise as I saw a massive circle of orange erupt from beneath Lewis's feet. Looking back, even Guidance had to back away in an effort to dodge to blow with just how big its radius was.

It also meant that unfortunately, I was well under its range no matter how quickly I tried to sprint away.

"Move, you idiot!" Guidance yelled out. "You don't have the health for that!"

"I think I'm dead!" I nervously chuckled aloud. "I think- Wait!"

My memory being thoroughly jogged, I raised my pistol high above my head as I prepped the one [Move] that might save me. I was pretty sure it would though, even if Guidance's now nonexistent shield failed to absorb the blow.

"[Shrou-]"

[*FWOOSH!*]

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