Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

He could feel the entire head rumbling as it began to tilt back. As it rose up, he rolled back onto his feet while sprinting towards the crater of a mouth still.

The reversed sky of soil and stone above disturbed his sense of balance while navigating the head of the giant.

-THWOOM.

He lost his balance as the entirety of the mountainous entity suddenly jolted, finding it as though it was crashed by a meteoric impact. Just ahead, he could see the mass of exuberant radiance had slammed his gauntlet right into the abdomen of the colossus, causing it to stumble back.

"HOW ABOUT THAT?!" Seung's voice boomed as though elevated through the grandest of microphones.

At the moment, Finn felt more annoyed than anything by his ally's actions, finding himself having to rapidly move his feet so as not to fall right off of the moving head of the Arbiter. Finally, the gap in the pyramid of stone was found, allowing him to slide down before landing on what was considered the "bottom lip" of the stone-carved mouth.

'Made it,' he thought.

Seeking the core of the Arbiter, it wasn't as if he believed Seung would be unable to win. No, he was certain that the brawler would be capable of it. What drove him was a sense of competition; whoever could defeat the Arbiter of Stone first–he wanted to test himself.

Looking in, the insides of the mouth resembled the maw of a massive cave, leading into the unknown depths of the titanic form. He stepped inside of it, though immediately having his balance pulled it from underneath him.

"Huh–!?"

The head must've begun tilting again, as the floor of the mouth was now a wall behind him, leaving him sliding down into the lightless chasm deeper into the colossus.

–THWOOM.

A massive tremor shook the entirety of the interior as stone dust rained over him, knowing full well it was the handiwork of the crusher to blame. Still, he allowed himself to slide down, finding roots of flesh clinging to the rocky walls, leading deeper.

["Lesser Wisp"]

To provide himself light, he called upon the meager orb of fire, bringing a small, but helpful amount of brightness in his descent. The further he slid down, feeling the rough grain of the stone scrape against his back, the fleshy roots became more plentiful, pulsating with a liveliness.

"Woah–"

The light of the wisp showed the end of the descent only a moment before he dropped, finding his feet landing squarely in an open, vast area of the interior: the stomach. There was a "squish" beneath his boots, unlike the firm stone before; he found himself standing among massive roots of muscle that pumped silver blood.

'There it is,' he found.

In the center of the colossal pit of the Arbiter's stomach, the core lay dormant, tethered by two lines of flesh to take the shape of a core made of platinum tissue.

'All I have to do is destroy its core–that heart, at least going by common sense,' he planned, readying his daggers.

Another quake brought him to stumble forward a step, looking up as sediment trickled down, finding that the crusher's gigantic punches were becoming an annoyance. As he set his focus on the pulsating core once more, he found his path becoming blockaded.

"Oh, just great," he mumbled.

From stone, an assembly of golems rose, using their giant bodies to get between the assassin and the heart of the Arbiter. With another impact shaking the entirety of the colossus, there wasn't much freedom in time with hunting the core.

As plentiful as the crystalline golems were, taking them each out would be a task too time consuming. A breath was carefully drawn in-and-out from his lungs as he stared down the approaching guardians of colossus' heart.

'--I'll try that. If not now, then never,' he readied himself.

As he closed his eyes, he took the situation away from his focus, instead concentrating on recalling a prior entity. The smell of blood, of unwashed fur coated in grime; the sounds of bestial growls that vibrated with malice and the roars of desperation; the imposing presence of the creature, invoking a sense of dread in his body.

He recalled every aspect of it, honing in on that memory as he opened his eyes with a sharp exhale as he faced down the stone golems, "Replication."

A large mass of abyssal fluid extended out from his position, much larger than simply forming a doppelganger of himself. The shadow-born substance rose up, matching even the golems in height as the shapeless mass was shaped into the memorized form.

The circumference; the texture of its fur, of its skin; he needed to drill each aspect of it into his mind.

A cloaked beast of black fur, exuding a foul breath as the darkness forged a towering sword into its hand. It stood with its back to the assassin; Finn watched it carefully, wary of it somehow turning around to lash out at him.

As he observed the beast reborn, it instead lunged forward towards the obstacles ahead, using its nimbleness to move like a predator hunting its prey. With a single slash of its blade, the doppelganger of the Forgotten Beast split multiple golems in half before continuing on its rampage.

Finn witnessed its efficiency, this time from the perspective of one allied with the frightening beast, though finding his muscles already cramping after just a few moments, "Ghh–"

'--It's difficult to maintain…I knew that though–there has to be a trade-off for making something that big and powerful. The only reason I could Replicate something like that is the mark it left on me; the image of that bloodthirsty beast imprinted itself on my mind–of course I'd never forget that,' he thought, witnessing the doppelganger decimate the Arbiter's soldiers.

Another impact slammed against the colossus from the outside, bringing everything to quake again. Finn forced himself to move, keeping his focus on the giant sphere of flesh ahead while the beast kept the golems occupied.

He was unsure if he could manage to warp while at the same time maintaining the beast's doppelganger, only certain he could hold it while running. Just a short sprint ahead, the core pulsated, pumping its silver blood through the roots of flesh.

As he readied his blade to strike, the stone in front of him rose into another humanoid golem, blocking his way with its sturdy body–

"To me!" Finn shouted, producing a bloodied noise as his body ached.

With the golem's fist raised to him, it was intercepted by a blur of black sweeping through. The replication of the ill-omened beast skirted by, leaving the stone guardian bisected from the waist.

Finn continued to move forward as the path was reopened as his nose leaked from the strain of maintaining the boss replication.

As he got within range, finding all of the closest guardians sliced-and-diced, he relinquished the beast, immediately feeling the pressure on his body being freed.

["Blink Slash"] [2:59]

He warped right atop the spherical core, stabbing his daggers right into the living organ. It took some struggle to fully sink his weapons into it, as the strength of the heart's muscles was like digging through solid stone.

It wasn't deep enough to be a lethal wound, not to the core that was tenfold the size of his own body. Once more, he felt the rumbling intensify from outside the hollow giant, bringing him to squeeze both handles of his daggers–

["Magnificent Blade"] [Mana: -600] [1650/2500] [2:59]

A brilliant rise of silver flames and golden sparks were imbued from the blades right into the heart, delivering an elemental execution that burnt the core from the inside out.

["Arbiter of Stone defeated."] ["Anarch Coin x5000 obtained."]

[Experience Points: +75000]

[Level thirty-four reached!] [51010/65000]

[Assimilated ability from ["Arbiter of Stone"]: "Stone Warping" 1 / 1]

An exhale of relief escaped his lips as he sat there, still clinging to the core as it deflated like a balloon once popped.

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'I'm getting pretty good, aren't I, Damian? You can watch me, too, Magnus–I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough before, but I'm not going to half-ass it anymore,' he thought, suppressing the doubts of himself he had.

All around him, the colossus made from the Arbiter began to crumble around him, bringing him to descend from the peak of the fading world's heights. He looked around hurriedly, finding, quickly pulling his daggers from the slain heart as he began to sprint.

The walls of the mountainous golem came down around him, collapsing like falling towers. He sidestepped a massive chunk that fell near him, having to pivot around as another piece slammed beside him.

'Shit–I have to get out of here!' He urged himself while sprinting.

As he ran with it all crumbling, the foothold he ran across crumbled from beneath him; a weightlessness under his boots spurred his stomach with a fluttering feeling. He looked around, finding himself exposed to the sky as his messy, dark hair rustled.

All around him, enough stone to build a mountain rained down, bringing him to land himself on a falling chunk, sprinting across it as it descended.

"Hhaaa!--"

Drawing in a quick breath in his quick descent through the sky, he leapt from one platform to another, watching as the quarry below approached rapidly.

Whatever fear of heights he might've possessed, he ignored it as he repeated the same mantra in his head while moving–"Don't look down!"

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