Abyssal Awakening

Chapter 414: Path To Valkoria

The journey was rather uneventful. Several hours had passed and nothing happened.

Eating her fruit, Alice laid down lazily in the carriage while snow began to fall.

During this time, she focused on getting used to the new weapons that she grabbed from the armoury. The weight of the knife, the recoil of the crossbow and so on.

"Are we there yet~?" Alice asked, playing around with the dagger between her fingers.

"We're not going to be there for another day or so. Stop asking." Selen sighed in annoyance as Alice had been asking this question for a while now.

Kicking her legs in the air out of boredom, Alice glanced at the other party members and saw that they had spent this time sleeping.

Since she got plenty of rest due to her hangover, Alice didn't feel fatigued at all. In fact, she was eager to get into a fight or at least something that gets the adrenaline pumping.

However, nothing happened on their journey.

Setting up camp for the first night, Alice practised throwing her daggers against a tree.

She grabbed four daggers in total. Two of the daggers had wire attached to them while the other two were solely used for throwing.

Flicking her wrist, two daggers thunked against the trunk while Alice followed up with another flick, sending the second wave of daggers.

Even though she was practising this, Alice knew that she wouldn't be using this method when fighting. With her current strength, her daggers would just bounce off the body of her target. This was more of a final desperate gamble when her target ran out of defensive options.

Her main weapon was still going to be the crossbow.

Grabbing the crossbow from her waist, she fired two rapid bolts before reloading. For the time it took to reload the weapon, Alice was rather pleased with the damage it could do.

'It's not enough to kill a beast with four Sigils but it should be suitable for most foot soldiers. At least with this, I won't be completely useless if someone tries to target me.' Alice thought inwardly.

'That's only if most of the soldiers are three Sigils or less. We'll need to run if they're four Sigils.' Alyss spoke up.

People with one to three Sigils are still relatively 'weak' in terms of physical defences. For them, it should be doable.

'Mnm. Want to come out and stretch your limbs a bit? The others are pretty distracted with setting up camp so this should be a good chance.' Alice asked since they haven't been able to switch that often recently.

They were keeping the switch to a minimum since if Alyss stayed out for too long, the body would begin to deteriorate again.

'Sure.'

Closing her eyes, Alice relaxed her body as chains began to manifest around her limbs.

Opening her eyes, Alyss clenched her fist a few times before twisting her body.

*BANG!!!

Slamming her heel into the tree with a roundhouse kick, Alyss frowned after seeing a small indentation.

Even though their body was in this state, Alyss could exert more power than Alice. The trade-off was that she couldn't sense energy at all.

Grabbing a fruit from the pouch, Alyss jumped up to the tree branch and took a bite. Surprised by its taste, she could see why Alice would be addicted to it but as for her, she preferred to eat something spicy then sweet.

Not wanting to waste the fruit, she finished it quickly and enjoyed the night breeze.

###

"AMBUSH!!! AMBUSH!!!"

Woken up by the sudden scream, Alice's eyes snapped open and jumped down from the tree branch.

She could see a cloud of smoke billowing in the distance.

"Sh*t! What the hell?!?!" Alice widened her eyes as she ran towards the camp. Looking up, swarms upon swarms of flying beasts would swoop down and fire off their abilities while a single draconic like beast seemed to be commanding the weaker beasts.

It had a pair of multi-coloured wings that shimmered with a plethora of vibrant colours. Violet, lavender, orange, sky blue and so on. A kaleidoscope of patterns and movements almost feeling as though it was trying to hypnotise the opponent.

Large jagged scales covered its body while blue and green flame would burst out from the gaps.

A crown of horns and a trail of fire burning down its neck and spine.

Even without Cayla, Alice could instinctively sense that this beast was six stars! The sheer power it was radiating despite being this far away sent a chill down her spine.

'It's probably on the verge of becoming a Lord.' Alice frowned.

There was a distinct… strand of energy coiling around the beast. It hasn't quite formed properly yet but it was something she had sensed in all of the Lords she had directly faced. Especially those who liked to show off their power.

A direct connection to the Abyss.

*BANG!!!

A winged beast lunged out from the trees, interrupting Alice's thought process. Twisting her body, she dodged the initial lunge and grabbed it by the base of its wing.

Stabbing a dagger into the flesh, she pried the wing from the socket before raising her foot and jammed her heel against the beast's head.

*CRACK!!!

Twisting her foot to break its jaw, Alice grabbed her crossbow and fired two shots towards its brain.

Once she was sure the beast was dead, Alice recovered the bolts and glanced towards the camp.

She could see several captains fighting off the stronger beasts in the sky. Bo jumped from beast to beast, tearing them to shreds as though the sky was his domain.

Arriving at the camp, Alice paused in shock seeing all of their supplies being set on fire by the beasts while Warriors scrambled to put it out.

"Alice! Duck!" Selen's voice rang out.

Immediately throwing herself to the ground without hesitation, Alice watched as Selen rushed past her from above and slammed her foot into the stomach of a camouflaged beast that was about to strike. Releasing a follow up kick to the jaw, Selen sent the beast into the sky before conjuring a staff.

Slamming the staff into the ground, the beast's body was suspended in the air.

*BANG!!!

Bjorn's arrow pierced into the beast, exploding it from the inside out as blood, guts and bones rained down from above.

"What the hell is going on?" Alice asked, wanting to get a grasp on the situation.

"Camouflaged beasts invaded the camp and burned our supplies. The big one in the sky seems to be commanding them all and it's just watching right now. The Captain has instructed us to reduce their numbers and to leave the big one to them." Selen explained while marking more beasts with her barrier for Bjorn to hit.

On cue, arrows rained down from the sky, killing the beasts in one go.

Looking up at the multi-coloured beast in the sky, doubt filled Alice's mind. She knew roughly how strong Bo was due to the duel she had with Egil.

Based on her gut instincts, he won't be able to kill that beast!

At that moment, the colours of the beast began to shift until it was mostly dominated by a neon yellow. The flames across its body disappeared while crackles of lightning sparked across its scale.

Widening her eyes, Alice scanned her surroundings and found all the members of their party.

Throwing her shard into the sky, she split it into several fragments and expanded a shield above everyone.

*RUMBLE!!! BANG!!!!

A storm of lightning crashed down from the sky striking each and every warrior!

Those who were weaker and were unprepared were reduced to ashes in an instant while those who noticed something wrong prepared their own defences.

Thanks to her shield, most of the lightning was absorbed but without energy, it couldn't hold itself together.

However, her fast reaction bought Brynja enough time as she ran towards the centre and slammed her shield into the ground.

Resonance!

"FORTIFICATION!!!" Brynja shouted as her body began to shift.

White and gold armour manifested around her body as her shield grew in size. A spectral dome pulsed out from Brynja as she gritted her teeth. The dome expanded until it covered the entire camp, saving those who were about to reach their limit.

*RUMBLE!!! BANG!!!

Lightning assaulted this barrier but it refused to budge.

Collapsing onto one knee, Brynja's armour started to chip away with each consecutive strike of lightning.

"Good job!!!" Bo roared, turning into a blur that rushed towards the draconic beast. Flashes of energy rushed out as Bo was being assisted by the other captains, allowing him to bridge the gap between himself and the beast.

With Bo coming this close, it was unable to maintain the lightning strikes and the colour of its body returned to normal.

Swinging its tail towards Bo, it wanted to knock him to the ground but Bo's form flickered and turned into an illusion.

Seeing this, the beast narrowed its eyes as it snapped its head to the right and cracked open its jaw.

The flames on its back erupted with energy and coalesced in front of its mouth.

*BANG!!!!

Before the fire breath could hit Bo, one of the captains appeared in front of Bo with a shield. An illusionary avatar far bigger than his own body covered him and Bo while deflecting the attack.

Not letting this chance go to waste, the muscles on Bo's arm bulged as he twisted his body and released two slashes at the beast.

Dark red energy gathered on the axe blades and shot out while the colour across the beast's body turned silver.

*KSH!!!!

Deflecting the slashes with its physical body, the beast reared its head back and let out an ear shattering roar!

Sending out a command, the colour on the beast shifted to a dark violet as the space around it started to tremble before cracking apart. The same phenomenon appeared next to the other beasts who were still alive, giving them a path of escape.

Retreating into the Void, the beast gave Bo a taunting glance.