Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

[Special Entity Recognized.]

["Moon Thing"] [Level: 150]

It stood there with a blank expression, as if its own eyes were a foreign existence within its head. Though it attempted to resemble a human, not a single part of it made it convincing.

"That skill you used before…Think you could do it again?" Finn asked, glancing at the spellblade beside him.

Charlotte lightly shook her head, "It's a one-time per day ability…Sorry."

"Well, it was worth a shot," Finn breathed out.

[Adjusting personal gravity levels to accommodate movement on foreign territory.]

"It's the same level as the one we just faced. I don't know its deal, but let's approach this carefully," Finn suggested, readying himself as the armor adjusted, compensating for the new environment.

"Right–" Charlotte agreed.

As he turned his focus back towards the enigmatic entity, it was gone–no, it was right in front of him, staring face-to-face with its wide, unblinking gaze. Meeting those eyes, it consumed the entirety of his vision, sinking into those pitch-black orbs.

Moving wasn't an option, feeling everything flip to "nothing"--no ground to stand on, nothing to hold onto.

'I'm…falling?' He thought, feeling a helpless emptiness around his body.

It was only the sharp impact driven into his abdomen that snapped him back into focus, finding himself once more standing on the crust of the Moon.

"Uegh!--" He spat out.

The fist of the unknown entity sent him flying back against his will, choking on his own air as he rolled off the ground.

[Critical damage received to vitals | Suit functions damaged.]

"Finn!" Charlotte shouted.

There was no opportunity for the spellblade to check on him as she had to focus on defending herself, ducking beneath wild swings of the non-earth lifeform.

Finn picked himself up, breathing out as his lungs ached, feeling as though he'd just swallowed a stick of dynamite. Even standing himself onto his feet, he nearly collapsed back down, coughing blood into his own helmet.

'Shit…That thing hits hard–I couldn't defend myself…When I looked at its eyes, it felt like my entire mind just floated away,' he considered.

["Zombie"]

–The unique constitution to his body allowed him to force himself to his feet, easing the pain throughout his organs with a simple exhale.

Charlotte was kept on the backfoot, having to keep up pace just to evade the strange entity. It moved as if its body ignored the laws of physics, stretching its limbs to accommodate for misplaced steps, extending its arms out and turning them to whipping blades.

["Greater Gale Blessing"] ["Supercharge"]

–He burst forward, kicking a chunk off the pale crust of the Moon as he sprinted with the blessing of the wind around his body. It only took a pair of strides to intercept the unblinking entity, slashing at its wiggling arms–SQUELCH.

To his surprise, his blade effectively cut through the pale flesh, amputating both limbs in a single motion.

'I cut it–? It's different from the other Moon, then?' He observed.

That question in his mind was given an answer as a warped expression placed itself on the extraterrestrial stranger's face: new arms sprouted as though simply molding back into their original shape.

Its focus shifted to him, bringing its regrown arm back before it inflated over ten times its original size in an instant. At that speed and aggressiveness, he chose to defend himself–

["Impervious"]

[Disrupted.]

"Huh–?"

'This again–?' He observed.

–A different choice had to be made in that split-second as the colossal fist soared right for him, carving through the moon's crust.

["Shadow Grafting"] ["Orcish Boost"]

Summoning two more pairs of arms, flooding each with strength, he placed all six hands in front of his body. The utmost of his strength was put to the test as the oversized knuckles slammed into the set of hands, thundering against his palms.

He could feel the integrity of the prototype suit being challenged the instant the fist made contact with him, sending a shock wave that rippled across his body.

'What crazy strength…!' He thought, finding himself thrown back despite his best efforts.

The most he could manage was not being smashed into hits as he forced his body to flip around, catching himself on his feet.

[Heavy damage taken.]

"Hey, can you do anything useful besides adjusting gravity?! A bit of assistance would be nice here!" He abrasively asked, slapping the chest of the advanced armor.

[Battle capabilities unlocked. | Awaiting command inputs.]

"Hold on, it was that easy? Inputs…Is this a fighting game or something?" He mumbled.

"Finn!" Charlotte shouted.

There wasn't much time to waste as he looked up as his name was called, finding himself rapidly approached by the entity.

"Deploy…blades?!" Finn quickly shouted.

[Assassin mode initiated | Designated for user: Finn]

From the arms of the suit, sleek blades unfolded from a hidden compartment, humming with some sort of mechanism against the edge.

'Assassin mode—? Couldn't you have told me about this before?!' Finn thought.

He spun himself around just as the monstrous entity rushed him, using the blade along his arm to slash against it. As it made contact, the expanded edge didn't simply "cut" into the entity, instead delivering countless, small slashes as though sawing into it with a single motion.

'It's like a chainsaw—?' Finn realized, sliding back after landing the strike.

While it seemed effective, it didn't count for much as the man-shaped being reformed its split torso seamlessly. It was an annoyance, having to watch the small victory he felt he had be washed away as the wide-eyed figure remained unharmed.

"Well, let's see you try that—" Finn challenged.

From the right, he watched the spellblade unleash a manifestation of magic from her sword. A blazing head of a cerulean dragon crashed right into the "Moon Thing" like a speeding, blazing train.

—Of course, he knew it was never that simple.

The beast-shaped flames only burned a morphed part of the entity's arm, having turned its limb into an organic shield. More than just a normal shield, what the being had transformed its limb into resembled the frilled head of a triceratops.