Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 192: Tracking The Amphiptere

Regrouping with Alice, the two made their way through the mountains as they finally found their first track.

There were pieces of metal left over in deep grooves as though something heavy had just passed by.

"Seems to have gone north, towards the top of the mountains." Ria muttered noticing the direction of these tracks.

"Mnm, we'll need to be careful from now. It could be waiting below ground."

"Guess I'll continue scouting from above, I'll let you know if I find any tracks." Ria stretched before teleporting away using her lightning while Alice made her way up the mountains. She was careful to examine her surroundings for any additional tracks.

Not only that, she kept her guard up at all times, ready to move should the ground break apart signaling an ambush.

As she climbed higher, her senses continued to sharpen as her mind attuned to even the slightest movement she could perceive.

Every now and then, she would stop and inspect the ground, sending blood needles down to see if there were any potential tunnels.

Just as she was about to leave, she felt her blood needles breach into the dirt into a tunnel and widened her eyes. Without hesitation, she gestured for Ria to come down and explained the situation to her.

If it turns out that this was indeed the tunnels that the beast had dug, she would engage the fight using her skill and force it to the surface.

"Take this. If things go south and I can't force the beast up, I'll detonate the blood orb." Alice said while handing Ria a small condensed blood orb the size of her pinky.

"Alright, I'll jump in if things don't look good."

Nodding her head with a smile, Alice dug a hole barely big enough to allow her through as she didn't want to make too much of a commotion. She still had the upper hand right now and it was a race of who could find the other first.

Not that the beast knew it was being hunted right now.

Taking a deep breath, Alice calmed her mind and made an orb of blood. Controlling it to take the left route, Alice made her way down the right side of the tunnel while making small blood trip wires behind her.

If they broke, that meant something was behind her and she'll be able to react accordingly.

Creating a small flame, Alice had it scout out ahead so she could get a clear view of the path while keeping herself out of the light.

'Even if the beast was to react against the light, I should be relatively safe if I'm this far back. It'll probably think something strange entered its tunnel and nothing else.' Alice thought to herself while noticing the traces of metal on the walls and floor.

However, on top of the metal that was present before, there seemed to be dried blood in the mix.

'Is it injured? Or did it leave behind parts of its blood mist?'

Furrowing her brows, Alice continued down the path.

Each footstep, no matter how careful she was, felt extremely loud in this darkness.

As she continued forward, Alice furrowed her brows as she felt her instincts warning her of danger. She couldn't see the danger nor did she know the direction but it was the same feeling as standing on the edge of a cliff.

Her body was rejecting whatever was about to arrive.

Unable to quell this feeling, Alice dug a hole to her right and hid in it while allowing her flame to continue down the path.

Peeking just a bit of her head out of the hole she dug, she kept her eye on the flame.

The feeling of danger grew stronger the further her flame travelled. And then, within the darkness where the flame couldn't reach, something stirred.

"!!!"

Before she could even read the tag floating in the darkness, a gust of wind exploded forth as Alice dove back into the hole, barely managing to stop herself from getting hit.

Her flame was snapped up in an instant!

Darkness returned to the tunnels as Alice held her breath. She could see and hear the metal scraping against the walls of this tunnel as it was inches away from her face.

Had she not decided to dig this hole, she would've been hit by that lunge!

However, she was now prepared.

'The Amphiptere hasn't noticed me yet.' She thought to herself as she waited for the beast to move back to its original spot.

Once the beast stopped blocking the exit, Alice poked her head out of the hole and looked at the tag floating above its head.

[Blood Coil Amphiptere - ???]

Seeing that there were no strange addition to its name, Alice couldn't help but sigh out in relief as most of the beasts she had faced thus far had been abnormalities.

'Nothing out of the ordinary, the plan can continue as normal.' Alice thought to herself as she had a daring thought in her mind. It felt risky but the reward could be spectacular.

A brave smile appeared on her face as she was still following her original plan but with some… minor tweaks.

Exiting her hiding spot, Alice created several tripwires with her blood, enough to cover a decent length of the tunnel before creating one final net with the thread from her gloves.

As much as it hurt her to do this, Alice decided to separate the thread she was going to use from her glove as if it wasn't able to withstand the charge of the beast, it would definitely break the mechanism from the resulting pull.

The threads could be replaced, the mechanism however, could not.

With her preparations in place, Alice forced a brave smile and activated her second Sigil.

Immediately, flames burst out from her body as she condensed her blood into an orb above her finger.

A brilliant purple glow lit up the tunnels as Alice felt a chill down her spine. It felt as though two daggers had just stabbed into her skin as she dismissed the feeling and continued to charge her attack.

The convergence of fire dispelled the darkness while the ground started to rumble.

Despite not seeing the beast, Alice could tell it was now rushing towards her.

'Not yet…'

Narrowing her eyes, she continued to charge the orb as she needed to condense as much power as she could in the first hit. She needed to compress it to the point it felt similar to what Alura had demonstrated. A single spark of light that felt harmless until impact.

That was what she needed to achieve.

Taking a deep breath, Alice funneled as much power as she could into the orb as it exploded with violent vigor. Chaotic tendrils of violet energy whipped out, melting the tunnel walls before being absorbed into the orb.

This cycle continued as Alice could feel the strain on her body. All of the blood felt as though it was boiling from within as the flames continued to roar out uncontrollably.

But this was what she desired.

She needed to manifest the strongest flame she could before condensing in one go. That was how Allura achieved her spark.

'No… That's wrong… It didn't feel like this.' Alice frowned as this didn't feel quite like the process Allura had demonstrated.

This was far too chaotic and lacked the elegance of her technique.

The expansion of power and the compression was done in the blink of an eye. It did not require the same effort she was exerting right now in order to maximize the power it could generate.

'What should I do in order to bring out as much power as I can then compress it in an instant?' Alice thought to herself as she remembered the scene of Allura demonstrating the attack.

She remembered the flow of energy, how it exploded out before being crushed by an overwhelming force.

'I don't have the power required to bring out the maximum effect of my flames at once. But it's not impossible…' Alice thought to herself as she curled her lips into a dangerous smile.

Looking at the orb in front of her, Alice crushed it with her hand as she reabsorbed all of the flames.

Since she couldn't bring out the power of the flames in one go, she'll become the container to hold this flame then allow it to burst out in a single moment!

Activating her second Sigil once more, Alice could feel her blood boiling as violet flames enveloped her body. Her hair danced wildly behind her as she felt her first trip wire being broken followed by the second and the third.

The beast was here!

'There are three steps in Allura's skill. First, explode all of the power and gather it in one spot!

'Second, converge the power into a single spot!'

Gritting her teeth, Alice controlled her blood so that she had just enough not to pass out.

She was going to burn all of this in a single attack to replicate the power of the true Nova Core!

As she controlled her blood, the flames around her collapsed into a single radiant shard of blood that hovered above her finger. A shard that contained the full might of her violet flames.

Even now, she could feel the shard on the verge of breaking as she could not keep the flames contained in this state for long. But thankfully, she didn't have to.

As the beast broke the final trip wire made from blood, Alice snapped her finger and set them all on fire.

Violet flames danced around the beast, lighting it up as the effects of her blood activated.

She was going to negate its power momentarily to prevent it from defending itself!

*BANG!!!!

Crashing into the final web of threads, Alice came face to face with the beast.

A body of blood mist covered by an armour of metal and a pair of eyes that looked as though it held the hatred of the entire world stared back at her.

Curling her lips into a smile, Alice aimed the shard towards the beast and let go of her control.