Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

He nearly fell as another pebble struck his thigh, watching the crusher stop as he arrived within a dozen meters of the Arbiter of Stone.

It wasn't because the torrent of rocks inhibited him; no, Seung smiled brightly as he raised his fist before slamming it down into the ground–BOOM.

"Enough sitting there and looking down on us!" Seung ordered with a fearsome smirk.

["Wave of Decimation"]

A ripple of golden force tore through the quarry, propelling right towards the faceless humanoid of pink flesh. It produced a flash of kinetic power that erupted right beneath the designated [BOSS], knocking it off balance as the orbiting stones around itself were thrown off their key.

The disruption of the Arbiter brought the hailstorm to a halt, taking the burden away from the assassin who had struggled to move further.

"Hurry up already! Don't waste this moment–!" Seung shouted from ahead.

Finn saw the chance, discarding the ethereal shield as he threw his dagger right towards the stunned Arbiter.

["Blade Warp"] [Mana: -100] [2350/2750]

Just as he caught the blade while meeting the entity face-to-face, he initiated the follow-up by expelling the chosen word from his lips, "Replication!"

The blackened copy of himself emerged from his shadow, following his movements as he set the visceral edge of his daggers upon the exposed figure.

["Death Flurry"] [2:59]

["Death Flurry"] [2:59]

From both sides, the rapid onslaught of slashes ensued; he moved his blades a dozen times in a fraction of a second, carving the surprisingly durable flesh of the Arbiter in the process. As he cut up its right side, with his doppelganger handling its left, all that he managed to create were shallow cuts, no more harmful than paper cuts.

'It feels like I'm cutting into stone still–! What the hell is it made of?!' He questioned.

The futility of his flurry of strikes was called out as the crusher shouted, "Hey! The hell are you doing?!"

Seung jumped in himself, cocking his fist back with the intent to finish it with his own strike, though with his arrival, the once helpless Arbiter suddenly took action. Its body flexed and swelled, bringing its pink complexion to a silver shade.

Pebbles and dust of stone rose up, orbiting with a visceral speed, bringing him to jump back, though his doppelganger was a moment too late to follow up. Even just being a second behind, he watched the copy of himself be turned to a paste in the orbital stones around the being.

'Shit…!' He thought.

Seung had moved back, raising his arms in a guard, though the rotating sediment managed to rough up his forearms as they were raw and bloody by the time he stepped out of the range.

"Coward! Damn thing is just turtling up now!" Seung shouted, uncaring for the cuts on his arms.

The Arbiter of Stone was completely unseen behind the storm it brewed around itself, creating an impassable veil of sediment that shredded anything it touched.

"What do we do now? We can't reach it like that, and even if we do, its flesh is tough as hell," Finn observed.

Seung huffed, wiping the sweat and sparse blood from his chin, "We? Just stand back right now–I'll bring that damn turtle out of its shell."

The claim from the crusher didn't leave Finn feeling very confident in his safety, taking more than a few steps back as he had a sinking feeling in gut. He felt no more vindicated than when witnessing Seung bend his knees before launching directly into the air like a rocket seeking the cosmos. Powered by m|v|l|e|mpyr

'Dammit…He's about to do something really goddamn reckless, isn't he?' Finn questioning, looking up at the glowing figure in the sky, taking more steps away from the Arbiter.

What were slow, cautious steps became him running back as the golden light expanded itself, causing the air to flex and the ground to rumble. Finn couldn't help but look up the entire time as he put at least a hundred meters between himself and where the Arbiter hunkered itself down.

From up high in the sky, just below the reversed land above, the voice of the crusher rang like a brewing storm, "WATCH ME! THIS IS WHAT LEVELING GETS YOU!"

The small origin of golden light stretched to a vast reach, shaping itself into a unique form; it resembled Seung himself, forged of the divine illumination, only a hundredfold the size of the man.

'What the hell is that…? Is something like that even possible!?' Finn questioned in awe.

In the sky, the titanic projection of the brawler peered down while raising the gauntlet large enough to pulverize a mountain into dust. Each slight movement from the astral form, piloted by the man himself that hovered in the chest of his projection, caused the air to hum.

["Crusher of Stars: Apollo's End"]

The fist of the colossal aspect of Seung began to descend like that of a hammer wielded by a god to punish mortal land. Finn watched as it befell the Arbiter, though the quarry began to suddenly erupt in response.

"Hold on–what the–?!" Finn let out, feeling the stone at his boots rupture unevenly.

From the spot of the veiled Arbiter, a massive construct forged of minerals rose from the quarry. A titan that dwarfed all others unearthed itself, crashing its own fist against the golden gauntlet of the crusher's projection.

"--Hah?!" Seung's bolstered voice boomed through the sky.

A clash of giants; the titanic force of stone pushed Seung's ethereal form back as it rose to its feet properly. The stone giant was built with a form of sleek, gray rock, glistening with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds embedded into its body with a triangular head devoid of features.

'That's the Arbiter–? No, it created a suit of colossal armor…like a damn gundam pilot?!' Finn realized, watching the surreal faceoff.

A kick was launched by the stone giant, landing right against the torso of the astral form wielded by Seung, knocking the golden projection against the mountain right behind them.

"Grrhh!" Seung's growl of pain emitted like a roaring thunderstorm.

It hardly felt like there was any place for him in the battle, seeing as he was a mere ant in comparison to the two combatants. Even more frightening was that he was well aware that Seung was one open to friendly fire, not bringing him to so casually trust walking near that colossal projection.

'I really got myself into something crazy by following along…No, I already knew it'd get wild–I can't act surprised,' Finn reminded himself, slowly exhaling as he gripped the handle of his blade.

Against his better judgment, he sprinted through the quarry, approaching the clash of titans as the aspect of Seung threw his fist against the Arbiter's mountainous head of solid crystalline. It bounced right off the sturdy head of the elemental of earthen form, bringing the colossus to retaliate by smacking its arm right against Seung's projected torso.

"Gah!--" Seung winced as the astral form stumbled back.

Each little movement from either of the giant entities caused the whole quarry to rumble, bringing Finn's feet to lift off the ground just barely at some intervals.

'It's tough–not even Seung is doing any real damage with that over-the-top state of his. It might be nearly invulnerable in that form…It could be a trade-off? Maybe–I can find out,' he analyzed while moving.

As he got close enough, still far from the base of either colossus' feet, he looked up before tossing the blade he held with all of his might. He felt his shoulder nearly pop right out of its socket with how hard he threw the dagger, sending it up and up to the peak of the mountainous Arbiter's height.

["Blade Warp"] [Mana: -100] [2250/2750]

Transported from the ground, lower than even the ankle of the titans, he caught his blade now being at the height of the Arbiter's head.

'Don't look down,' he reminded himself as his coat and hair both fluttered in the high-altitude winds.

His boots landed atop the colossus' head, finding its flat, pyramid-shape to be vast enough to be an entire structure of its own.

He brought himself a bit too far, finding himself sprinting down the slope of its head as if descending a pyramid. The problem was, the colossus moved without even knowing of his presence, tilting as he did his best not to fall right off.

"Ghhh!—" Finn gritted his teeth, finding the massive head tilting down as the colossus was ducking itself beneath an incoming strike.

He pressed his back against the smooth stone, sliding as carefully as he could as his boot scraped on it. While descending closer to its mouth, he watched a flash of golden light pass right above.

"Shit!—" Finn reacted, ducking his head and raising his shoulders instinctively as if it'd help.

The projection of Seung's arm passed over the colossus that ducked to avoid it, resembling a golden skyscraper that made the air quake.

'Doesn't he see me here?! Of course he does…not like that'd hold the crazy bastard back—' He thought while sliding further.