Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

While the eerie figure was bound, Finn didn't approach it, instead sucking in a breath as he called upon a skill he seldom experienced. It created a great hit in his stomach, moving up to his throat with a bright-orange glow before he opened his mouth–

["Fire Spit"] [Mana: -200] [2200/2800]

What released was an expulsion of red-hot fire like that of a loogie spat by a dragon, crossing the blood-stained cave before colliding with the web-bound leech into a blooming array of fire.

"Pyuh…" Finn coughed, caressing his throat as it felt as though he momentarily threw up a burning coal.

Sticking out his tongue briefly, embers dripped off as he coughed, though they didn't burn his mouth. It was an odd feeling, pushing smoke from his throat, though not finding himself burned.

'That one is unpleasant…It sounds like it was effective, at least,' he thought, looking ahead.

Amidst the bundle of blackened smoke, the sizzling was intertwined with a hissing sound as though air was escaping whatever was being cooked by the heat.

"I need…nourishment. I need to rebuild–I need to eat."

The foul voice echoed off the walls like an assembly of whispers, spoken as a malediction as though an invocation to incite dark magic.

Again, that sensation was felt in his veins, as though his blood was being riled up within him by the words of the minor deity.

"Relinquish your blood," the leech deity demanded, only its silhouette seen within the smoke.

It made his temperature fluctuate from cold to a fever, heightening his breathing as sweat left his pores. A command given to the liquid in his body; it boiled in his veins.

Tu-tump. Tu-tump. Tu-tump.

In his chest, he could feel his heart swelling in rapidity.

"Relinquish it…That blood in your veins; the formless essence of all life. I shall give it a place in my flesh," the harrowing commands of the leech deity continued.

It was spoken right to his face as he watched the freakish figure emerge from the smoke like a snake from tall grass.

He jumped back, though immediately feeling his chest tighten, "Ngh—!"

Tu-tump. Tu-tump. Tu-tump.

In his ears, he could hear his heart racing with such intensity that it felt like it may pop like a crushed cherry.

As he moved with attempted swiftness to avoid the relentless blood-pursuer, he found his movements becoming sluggish as his body heated up further and tightened. Finn slid back, barely moving his body to the side as a swipe came from the ominous hands of the minor deity.

"Cover your ears!" Corvus warned at the back of the cavern.

In that moment, while the advice was taken, Finn found himself again questioning why he was left alone to fight something so dangerous. Was it that Corvus was simply too weak, or perhaps too frightened by the entity to face it–no, that didn't seem right.

"Relinquish your blood."

Again, as the command poured from the lips of the cave-dwelling deity, he promptly covered his ears with both hands. In that exact moment, he watched the gray-fleshed being sprint across the room right at him, reaching for his stomach in a swift motion.

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["Phantom Flow"]

He slid back on the moving shadows before the fingers could reach his abdomen. It was quickly apparent that shielding his ears was a tactic that wouldn't help–it would do the complete opposite.

'I'm just leaving myself open that way, I won't get anywhere like this–but if I don't, the blood in my body is going to rupture. There is a way…' He realized as he placed distance between himself and the ravenous deity.

A deep breath was taken, filling his lungs before he exhaled, lifting both of his hands as he pointed his index fingers right at the canals of his ears.

'I can heal if I win–so just do it,' he urged himself.

There was no time to think, no chance to consider what he may feel from this course of action.

The only choice was to follow through–

["Orcish Boost"] [4:59]

With a single motion, he drove both fingers into his own ears, piercing right through with nothing held back. There was immediately a sharp pain that resonated through his skull, followed by a loss of balance as he stumbled a bit.

He could feel fluid dripping from his ears, leaking onto the shoulders of his black coat as he looked ahead. The folds of the leech deity could be seen moving as if it spoke to him while carefully approaching, yet he heard no words.

Only ringing; an intense ring ceaselessly played within his head. It took a moment to settle his footing, fighting past the sense of imbalance as his equilibrium was surely skewered. Just as he did, he found the being of ringed flesh leaping at him feet first.

He flipped out of the way, landing with a slight uneasiness, though catching himself as he felt the stone rumbling from the impact of the deity's soles slamming down. All he could hear was the ringing, though he could tell it was quite the loud impact.

'That's better,' he surprisingly thought.

The pain was easily ignored, as he had felt worse. It was a somewhat enlightening experience; losing his hearing took that sense out of the equation, leaving him only to focus on seeing and feeling the hostile that came at him.

As the relentless swipes came from the bloodsucking deity, he weaved through them with ease as his sense of sight felt empowered with the loss of hearing. Amidst his evasive maneuvers, he countered with quick slashes against its body.

Each time he eviscerated it, he watched its grotesque flesh close itself as quickly as the wound was made. It was clear physical strikes would be close to useless against it, though he noticed something when caught up close and evading it:

Its gray, ringed flesh was heavily burnt on its chest, as though it attempted to heal the damage taken from the earlier flames, though failed to completely recover.

'Fire it is, then,' he decided.

With a plan in mind to bring down the blood-sucking deity, he quickly knocked his stygian wristguards together while ducking beneath a swipe. Even with his ears decimated, the "ring" that emitted from the collision of his equipment was heard loud and clear through the marrow of his bones.

["Reaper Time activated."] [4:59]

The foul hand swept upward as though intending to suction to his chin, leaving him lean back before spinning around and instead closing the distance again. Any sense of imbalance that came with his destroyed eardrums was thrown away when in ["Reaper Time"], finding all other senses heightened to an astronomical degree.

["Magnificent Blade"] [Mana: -600] [1600/2800] [2:59]

Each dagger was engulfed in a shroud of the colorful unison of fire and lightning as he brought himself close enough to smell the putrid, blood-stenched body of the lesser deity. In a movement of his arms too quick to be perceived, he crossed an "X" with his daggers across the being's chest, leaving a trail of silver flames and golden sparks.

"--Replication."

Before the elemental infusion could leave the grace of his blades, he spurred the skill to return once more, connecting into a secondary attack while the leech deity was still writhing from the first.

He flipped up, spinning himself around with unseen agility even for himself; all of the movements seemed to be spurred on by a killing creativity, onset by the reaper mindset. As he landed behind the leech deity, he brought both blades across its back with a roar of elemental impact.

The radiant shine of the golden sparks intertwined with the glow of the platinum blaze engulfed the lesser deity like a fantastical firework. He couldn't hear the screams it unleashed against his ringing ears, though the way it writhed as the unison of elements tore it apart was seen clearly.

["Ebi, Minor Deity of Leeches defeated."] ["Anarch Coin x7500 obtained."]

[Experience Points: +50000]

[Level thirty-five reached!] [36010/70000]

[Assimilated ability from ["Ebi, Minor Deity of Leeches defeated"]: "Unbleeding"]

As the level-up went into effect, the ringing in his ears was suddenly replaced by sound once again, first hearing his own breaths pass between his lips. He stood there for a moment, finding that a shrieking sound came from the burning body of the lesser deity that had collapsed onto the ground.

It sounded like a tea kettle as steam escaped, rising into a grating noise.

Before he could even celebrate, he found a hand befalling his shoulder, bringing him to glance over to find the man of magenta irises stepping past him.

"Thanks for the help," Finn sarcastically said.

Corvus smiled, cracking his knuckles as he looked ahead at the writhing body of the leech deity, "You did good. The thing is, that creepy guy isn't dead yet."

"What? How?" Finn asked, left confused by the assumption.

It didn't process in his mind until then that the body of the lesser deity was still moving, though he thought it was simply the dying spasms of its abnormal form before. What were convulsions from the leech god turned to full thrashes as the body managed to slip itself into the pool of blood at the chamber's center.

There was an excited smirk from Corvus as he stepped ahead, "When you're fighting a god, even a bottom feeder like this one, just one death won't do it–you need to kill them twice."