Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 191: Thane's Advice

Looking at the blade next to her face, Mira felt a chill down her spine as she hurriedly nodded her head.

While the Sigil was important, it wasn't worth exchanging their lives for it. Plus, they were clearly outclassed and trying to fight would only bring more harm than good.

"I-I surrender! Please don't kill me!" Mira cried out as Alice pulled out her blade and sheathed it.

"If I wanted to harm any of you some might not be breathing right now." Alice shrugged while giving her body a stretch.

A warm-up fight after the training with Thane felt great as she could feel her reaction and decision making improve.

If it was her from before, she might've been too focused and get hit from behind.

With Mira surrendering to Mira, Rowan could only smile bitterly and deactivate his resonance and check up on how the fighter and swordswoman were doing since they were injured more than him.

"Thank you for going easy on us." Rowan sighed in relief seeing that the two were alive. It would've been easy for Alice to kill them with the prowess she demonstrated yet she chose not to and spared their lives instead.

"You're welcome. But can I ask why this commission is so important to you? It should've been fine right? Since I'm only here for the Sigil." Alice asked curiously since they were quite determined to stop her from getting this beast.

"Ah that was a lie. I… Was kinda going after that beast for my third Sigil ahaha…" Mira smiled awkwardly.

Hearing this, Alice finally understood the conflict of interest.

'If they had told me sooner we could've talked about it.' She thought to herself.

Unlike conventional Hunters, she was not bound by their restrictions of choosing a target before a hunt. Whatever she saw and wanted to hunt, she could designate it as her target.

Depending on the information or other forms of compensation, giving up this beast wasn't an impossibility.

"Do you have any more leads on other Blood Coil Amphipteres?"

"Sadly no. We missed out on a hunt the first time Mira chose this as her bounty target since someone killed it before we could arrive. This was going to be our second attempt after quite a long time of looking for one close to us." Rowan shook his head while the other members recovered from their injuries.

The fighter was still glaring at Alice in annoyance and looked elsewhere while the swordswoman had countless questions swimming through her mind but decided not to say anything.

Thinking to herself in silence, Alice hesitated for a moment before shaking her head. A win is a win, she was simply stronger so the prey belonged to her.

They were kind to her and her kindness was not killing them in their conflict. She didn't owe them anything.

"Sorry. I can only wish you luck for your next hunt." Alice apologized before walking away.

Once they were alone, the group collectively sighed out in disappointment.

"What kind of monster was she??? How the hell do you even move like that????" Mira complained. A bitter feeling enveloped her heart as she missed out on her third Sigil for a second time.

At this rate, she might be stuck as a two star Hunter for years to come.

"Just be happy she didn't try to kill us. She had plenty of chances to end Celine and Alex's life." Rowan smiled as he remembered her gaze.

The way those eyes looked at them… There was no doubt, it belonged to a killer.

Even now, he could remember the sensation he felt all over his body when she stared at him. Her gaze felt like invisible daggers were stabbing into his skin, flaying him apart, toying with his life before ending it.

She owned such a gaze yet was capable of kindness and mercy.

'Truly a strange one.' Rowan thought to himself as he was prepared to sacrifice himself to hold her back if she tried to kill them.

"Old man, how many Sigils do you think she's got. That reaction speed and fighting instinct couldn't have come from a newbie." Alex grumbled as he was barely able to throw two punches during the entirety of that fight.

"She's probably three stars at most. Notice how she didn't use a resonance? I can only assume she either didn't find a need for it or doesn't have one." Rowan shrugged.

While they were discussing with one another, Celine stared at her blade in silent thought.

"Say… Are there any beasts that can cause your attack to just disappear?" Celine asked after a period of silence.

"I'm not sure. I've never heard of such a beast. Perhaps it was something to do with her gloves?" Rowan suggested but Celine was unsure.

Alice had demonstrated several abilities during their fight. First was her blood that could be controlled at will. It could be gathered up and exploded to divert Rowan's attack.

Along with that, it was this same move that caused her Sigil to deactivate.

'Was it her Sigil? Or was it something else…' Celine thought with a frown.

However, one thing was for sure.

"Do you think… She is a two star Hunter?" Celine spoke up as the others were silent.

Such a notion felt impossible for them.

"She could set her blood on fire and control her blood. Not only that, when she threw her blood at me, I fell into a hallucination. I'm guessing both of her abilities are based on augmenting her own blood which is why she's going after the Blood Coil." She explained herself but Alex and Rowan was still skeptical due to the power she demonstrated.

"Either way let's make our way back. No point hanging around if she's going after the Blood Coil. Sorry Mira, hopefully we can find another one soon." Rowan apologized as he stood up.

With them recovering their stamina, the group made their way out of the forest while Ria observed from the mountains silently.

She was prepared to step in but when Alice turned around, she had clearly signaled for her not to step in.

And seeing as how the group was leaving, they weren't going to cause Alice anymore trouble.

"Oi brat. If you were with that group fighting against Alice how would you approach it using the new stuff I taught you?"

"ARGH!!!!" Crying out in shock, Ria had a heart attack hearing Thane's voice so close to her ear as he had appeared behind her.

"Jeez! You're not different to Allura! Why do you two always just appear out of nowhere?!"

"Well of course. I'm the one who taught her this. But setting that side, how would you have approached that fight?" Thane smiled while glancing down at Ria.

Even for his standards, he had to admit that Alice's improvement was fast. It wasn't perfect but the skill and intuition she demonstrated in that fight was satisfactory. It was clear that she had taken the training to heart.

"Hmm… It's hard. If I'm going long ranged, it'll be difficult to catch Alice off guard since she was keeping herself close to the other members of the group. If I was to shoot my attack without much thought, there was a high chance I'll injure my allies. Rather than looking for the kill, the best I can do with range is probably to just hinder her movements." Ria replied after reflecting on the fight.

"Cut off her paths for movement and let the others handle it if they can. Unless I'm willing to risk friendly fire that's about as much as I can do." She shrugged.

"The standard response. Not bad but not great either. It's certainly one method you could use but there was a better option." Thane chuckled.

"First, you should spend the time observing your opponent's movements. Alice had taken this into account and made sure she was close to her enemy to avoid ranged attacks.

"But no one can keep their guard up 100% of the time. And that's when you should strike. The first hit should aim to kill. But if that's impossible, it should aim to disrupt her movement as much as possible, luring her into your next shot. Once this condition is fulfilled, you become the proactive party while she becomes the reactive party.

You can dictate how the fight will progress if you play your cards right." Thane explained as he flicked his finger.

In front of Ria, a replica of the fight began as there was now a mini her added into the mix. Following his advice, the first shot displaced Alice at the exact moment she was kicked into the air towards Rowan.

With both Rowan and the shot rushing towards her, shadow Alice was forced to move awkwardly as she shifted Rowan's stab before twisting her body to narrowly dodge Ria's shot.

Once she landed, a barrage of shots cut off her path of retreat while the party regroup.

Seeing this, Ria was surprised by how one sided the fight had become. It wasn't that Shadow Alice wasn't reacting as fast as the real Alice but rather all of the shots were placed in a way that it forced the most awkward dodging patterns from her.

It now required far more stamina to avoid these shots and the pressure was immense!

"I see… Alright, thank you." Ria smiled as she looked up towards Thane. Only to see that he had long disappeared, leaving her sitting by herself.

". . ."

'Appear fast, disappear just as fast. Why are these old people the same?' Ria thought to herself with a sigh before making her way to Alice. With the group now dealt with, it was finally time to track down the beast and slay it for Alice's third Sigil.