Astra and Moby exchanged blows and kicks, each impact echoing through the chaos around them—bang! bang! bang! Astra clearly had the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat, her movements fluid and precise, driven by her analytical prowess.

But something was off; no matter how many attacks Astra landed on Moby, he seemed to absorb them with an unsettling resilience.

In a sudden burst of aggression, Moby picked up a large wooden log from the ground and hurled it at Astra. With a swift transformation, Astra morphed her left hand into a plasma cannon, firing a concentrated beam that disintegrated the log mid-air.

Without hesitation, Astra pointed her plasma cannon at Moby, unleashing a devastating plasma beam. "BANG!" The beam struck Moby square in the stomach, sending him hurtling through four buildings before he finally came to a stop, a cloud of dust and debris erupting around him.

As Astra scanned the aftermath, she noticed something peculiar about Moby; the more damage he sustained, the stronger he appeared to become. Right now, he was bleeding from a cut on his forehead. Moby stood up, a grin spreading across his face as he wiped the blood away with his left hand. "Funny enough, this is the second time today I've actually been hurt",he taunted, his voice dripping with arrogance. "You lot really shouldn't be underestimated. It's not every day I end up bleeding."

Astra's circuits buzzed with urgency as she compiled all the data she had gathered on Moby, cross-referencing it with the vast information stored in her memory banks.

Suddenly, Moby dashed toward Astra, moving so fast that he created a sonic boom, a trail of destruction left in his wake. His fist connected with Astra's gut, the force sending her flying through the visitors' district and crashing through multiple buildings before she finally landed in the forest outside of Slave City.

But Moby wasn't done yet. He leapt into the air, landing with tremendous force on Astra's chest. The impact created a massive crater in the ground, shaking the very earth beneath them.

Astra screamed in pain, the sound echoing through the chaos as it was clear she was in agony. Bruises marred her silver skin, resembling the injuries of an organic creature despite her android form. A peculiar blue liquid dripped from her mouth, pooling beneath her as she struggled to recover.

Inside her body, the nanobots worked tirelessly to repair the damage, their microscopic movements a flurry of activity. But the process took time, and every second felt like an eternity.

Moby loomed over Astra, a sadistic grin on his face as he relished her suffering. "Ha ha ha! You look confused! Let me explain before I kill you," he taunted, his voice dripping with malice. "I have a super rare job called Energy Absorption. I can absorb all kinds of energy and turn it into kinetic energy, significantly increasing my power."

Astra, gritting her teeth, shot back defiantly, "Revealing your abilities to your opponent is an illogical strategy."

Moby's expression shifted, irritation flickering across his features as he placed his massive hands together, preparing to smash Astra's head.

"Preparing countermeasures," Astra stated in a calm, tone. Just as Moby's hands descended, Astra's own shot up, catching his arms with surprising strength.

Shock coursed through Moby as he looked down, stunned to see glowing vertical blue lines pulsating across Astra's body.

With a fierce determination, Astra pressed against Moby's arms, unleashing a massive shockwave that surged through his limbs.

The shockwave slammed into Moby, causing his arms to vibrate violently as pain surged through his body. With a deafening roar of agony, he summoned every ounce of strength to wrench his arms free from Astra's grip and leaped back, desperately creating distance between them.

The moment he was free, Moby took a deep breath, feeling the ache begin to subside. Confusion clouded his mind as he processed what had just occurred, struggling to comprehend the unexpected power Astra had unleashed.

Astra's eyes locked onto Moby, her sensors scanning his every move. Her voice clam and collected, cut through the chaos. "Surely, you comprehend by now that entities possessing energy absorption proficiencies channel energy through their dermal layers. Therefore, circumventing the epidermis and directly targeting musculature, vital organs, and skeletal structures proves infinitely advantageous. Inducing vibrations within these deeper systems guarantees the utmost efficiency in inflicting internal devastation."

With a subtle mechanical whir, the mechanisms in Astra's hands activated. Two small holes appeared in each of her palms, and she raised them toward Moby. "Initiating internal shockwave."

Pew! Pew! A pulse of invisible energy rippled from her palms, undetectable to the eye but carrying devastating force. Moby stood firm, confident in his ability to absorb the attack like all the others. But as the shockwave hit, his expression shifted from confidence to sheer disbelief.

The force lifted Moby off his feet, spinning him mid-air before slamming him into a nearby tree. He crashed into the ground with a thunderous impact, his body convulsing with pain. His face twisted in agony as if needles were piercing every inch of his body. He tried to stand, only to stagger and collapse again, the world around him spinning.

The shockwave had bypassed his energy-absorbing skin, directly assaulting his organs and even his brain. Moby's mind was in disarray; his body refused to respond properly. His vision blurred, and he struggled to distinguish up from down, wobbling like a drunkard, his once-fearsome strength reduced to helplessness.

Astra's voice, steady and calculated, broke through his disoriented thoughts. "This is the ideal moment to terminate you." Without hesitation, Astra sprinted toward him, her movements fluid and precise. Leaping into the air, she pointed her palm directly at Moby's chest, ready to fire another shockwave that would end the fight.

Despite his scrambled senses, Moby's battle instincts kicked in. Desperation gripped him as he fumbled for a small magic tool from his space ring, slicing his finger to smear blood across it just as Astra unleashed her next attack.

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The shockwave struck Moby dead center, but instead of crumpling under the impact, he stood firm. The magic tool in his hand shattered into pieces, leaving him unharmed. Astra's sensors detected the shift instantly.

"The scapegoat doll," Moby muttered weakly, his breathing labored. "It absorbs all damage, but it's a one-time use." The doll had taken the full brunt of the attack, leaving Moby unscathed, though his body was still recovering from the previous assault.

Astra landed, her eyes narrowing as she recalibrated her strategy. "Adaptive measures... impressive. But delaying your defeat won't change the outcome."

Moby steadied himself, ignoring the pain and injuries that plagued him, his eyes locked onto Astra with unwavering determination. Without hesitation, he dashed forward, adrenaline coursing through his veins, amplifying his speed. In a blur, his left leg shot up, crashing into Astra's face with a sharp crack. The impact sent her head jerking to the side, but before she could recover, Moby closed the distance and delivered a savage headbutt. His forehead collided with hers, and the force reverberated through her metallic frame.

Not letting up, Moby twisted his body and delivered a powerful uppercut straight to Astra's chin. The hit sent her reeling, her body staggering back a few steps from the sheer force of his assault.

Astra paused for a moment, her systems quickly recalibrating, processing the damage. Blue liquid—her synthetic blood—dripped from her lips. With a calm precision, she wiped it away with the back of her hand. Despite the brutal blows, her expression softened into something resembling amusement. Her lips curled into a smile, and there was a gleam in her bright, mechanical eyes. The battle was pushing her to adapt, to evolve—and she relished the challenge.

Though her body ached with the force of Moby's strikes, it only fueled her resolve. The blue lines on her body flickered, glowing faintly, indicating the continuous flow of energy and the adjustments being made to counteract her opponent's attacks. She could feel her nanobots working tirelessly to strengthen her, repairing the damaged components, ensuring that she remained one step ahead.

Astra was no ordinary android—her most powerful ability lay in her capacity to scan her opponents for weaknesses. With every movement, every strike, her brain her CPU (Central Processing Unit) analyzed data, calculating and pinpointing vulnerabilities in real-time. Once a weakness was identified, her body would adapt, evolving on the spot to create precise countermeasures to exploit it.

This ability was known as Absolute Certainty.

When Astra discovered that Moby could absorb energy through his skin, her internal systems immediately began to react. The nanobots coursing through her metallic body initiated a rapid restructuring process. Her energy output shifted from traditional attacks to something far more specialized: vibrations. By recalibrating her form, the nanobots reengineered her palms to generate powerful vibration-based shockwaves that could bypass Moby's energy absorption completely. This transformation was visibly marked by the glowing vertical blue lines that streaked across her body, signaling her system's adaptation to his ability.

However, this adaptive power came with a significant cost. Once Astra activated Absolute Certainty, she was locked into that form for one hour, unable to utilize any of her other abilities. The nanobots focused entirely on maintaining the newly engineered countermeasures, and until they reverted her body back to its neutral state, she was fully committed to this strategy. It was a calculated risk, but one that granted her a crucial advantage against her enemies.

The core of Astra's power sits a small, spherical energy generator embedded in her chest, roughly the size of a golf ball. This core was her heart, a constantly spinning engine that powered all of her abilities. The faster it spun, the greater her power output. Right now, with much of her energy depleted from the shockwaves she had unleashed, she had to recharge so the core was spinning at an alarming speed, generating the necessary energy for her next move. The sound it produced was a deep, mechanical hum, growing louder with each passing second—so loud that even Moby could hear it. It resembled the whine of a turbojet engine preparing for takeoff.

As Moby listened, his confidence faltered. He stepped back cautiously, unsure of what Astra would unleash next. The intensity of her glowing lines, the relentless hum of her core—it was clear that she was preparing something devastating.

All the vertical lines across Astra's silver skin began to glow, brighter and brighter, until they shone like the core of a star. The air around her crackled with energy, humming with an intensity that set the scene on edge. And then, in the blink of an eye, she clapped her hands together.

BOOM!

A thunderous shockwave exploded outward from her body. The sheer force of it was like an invisible bomb detonating at the center of the battlefield, obliterating everything in a 40-meter radius. Trees were uprooted and sent flying, the earth itself was torn apart, and rocks shattered like glass as the shockwave blasted them into the distance. The ground split, and the once lush forest was reduced to nothing but debris in an instant.

Even Moby, with his enhanced abilities, couldn't withstand the force. His body was flung through the air like a ragdoll, crashing through countless trees before finally slamming into a massive boulder. The impact was so severe that the rock itself cracked under the force of his collision. Moby slumped to the ground, his body broken and bleeding. Blood dripped from his mouth, nose, and ears, his body covered in gashes and bruises. His breath came in ragged gasps as he tried to push himself up, frustration etched across his face.

Moby hadn't expected this fight to be so tough. He hadn't anticipated being forced to the edge like this. With trembling hands, he reached into his space ring and pulled out a small bead, holding it up in the air.

Astra's sensors registered the movement instantly. Her neural processors surged, calculating outcomes. Self-repair in progress, she deduced. Without a second's delay, she accelerated, moving at light-speed to intervene. But her analysis was off—it wasn't self-repair. The reality was far more insidious.

But just as she closed the distance, Moby crushed the bead in his hand.

BOOM!

An even larger explosion erupted from where Moby stood. It was a blast so violent that it dwarfed Astra's shockwave, tearing through the battlefield with devastating power. Astra was just outside the center of the blast, but the force was still enough to send her skidding back several meters. She quickly dug her heels into the ground, anchoring herself, and managed to land on her feet, her glowing lines flickering from the strain.

As the dust settled, Astra's advanced systems processed the situation in an instant. Her mind pieced together Moby's plan. He's absorbed the energy from the explosion. She narrowed her eyes, watching as the smoke cleared.

Moby stood tall, his entire form transformed. The fat that had once made him appear slow and bloated was gone, replaced by a muscular, chiseled physique. His body looked as though it had been sculpted from stone, every muscle defined and tense with power. He exuded raw energy now, a force of nature in his own right.

Astra's processors whirred, analyzing the data at lightning speed. He's reached peak energy absorption capacity, she assessed. She scanned his altered form, seeking vulnerabilities. Conventional strikes should be effective now, she concluded. Yet, her nanobots restricted her system from shifting strategies. The current adaptation—vibration-based attacks—remained locked for the next hour.

Moby smirked, his eyes gleaming with newfound confidence. "I've got to hand it to you. It's been years since anyone's pushed me this far. But now..." His grin twisted into something darker. "Your chances of victory? How should I put it? Minuscule."

He flashed her a mischievous smile, flexing his newfound strength as the ground trembled beneath his feet.

Meanwhile, at the members' district, Alonso and Nightowl clashed, exchanging blows in a furious dance of fists and blood. The battle was evenly matched, each of them testing the limits of the other's strength. But suddenly, the sound of Moby's explosion echoed through the forest, cutting through the air like a cannon blast.

Nightowl paused, his expression turning smug as he glanced in the direction of the explosion. "Oh dear," he said, his voice dripping with amusement, "Is your companion fighting Moby? I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. No one survives when Moby uses the bead."

Alonso, his expression as calm and calculating as ever, replied coolly, "No need to worry."