Abyssal Awakening

Sitting up, Alice massaged her neck before walking to the mirror.

She was still wearing the same thing she had worn while fighting the Amphiptere.

Forcing a smile, Alice changed her outfit for another set of clothes that she had bought earlier when shopping with Ria.

\'I\'ll have to throw this one out. Dried blood, burns and rips. I doubt anyone could fix it.\' Alice sighed as she was rather attached to the outfit. But she couldn\'t live wearing the same thing every day.

Before changing into her new outfit, Alice wanted to see what her third Sigil looked like. Turning her back to the mirror, she activated the Sigil as crimson marks manifested from her spine.

The Sigil depicted four wings, each tattered and worn yet radiating a menacing aura despite its damage.

Looking at the Sigil, Alice couldn\'t help but be reminded of the wings she had seen upon the back of her violet flames.

When she launched her flames as a large attack, often it would manifest itself as a dragon with four wings.

In that sense, the Sigil on her back looked exactly the same.

\'I suppose the flames manifested from my strange body in the first place.\' Alice shrugged.

While the Blood Coil Amphiptere didn\'t have four wings, the ability she chose was technically one that further augmented her blood. By activating the Sigil, she was able to conjure more of \'her\' blood that rejected the Abyss.

Flicking her wrist, blood and metal swarmed around her in an instant as she examined the metal.

Noticing that they didn\'t take any shape but instead stayed as lumps of metal, Alice couldn\'t help but wonder if they could be transformed into handier alternatives such as daggers or swords.

Following her will, the metal started to reshape itself as six daggers now hovered around her.

"Hou~ This… Might be more helpful than I expected." Alice couldn\'t help but mutter.

Narrowing her eyes, a daring idea appeared in her mind but she dismissed her blades.

Now was not the time to try it, she had to get changed and see where Ria and Thane were.

Browsing her wardrobe, Alice settled on an outfit she deemed to be cute while also practical to some extent. It consisted of a white turtle neck jacket with oversized sleeves, a comfy pair of black shorts that allowed her freedom of movement when traversing the terrain, black tights and finally, knee-high boots.

Giving herself a light spin in front of the mirror, Alice smiled in satisfaction.

Looking around the room for gloves and Bloodflame Blade, she strapped the sheath on her waist and equipped the gloves before leaving her room and locking the door.

\'Now… Where would Ria and Thane be? Ria doesn\'t seem to be in her room.\' Alice thought to herself, making her way down to the main hall of the Guild.

Pausing in surprise, Alice noticed that Ria and Thane were currently having some food by the bar.

"Seems like you\'ve woken up brat. How do you feel?" Thane asked with a smile as Alice couldn\'t help but notice that he seemed very refreshed for some reason.

Ria on the other hand, looked absolutely drained as though her soul had just been sucked out.

"I feel pretty good. Hungry though." Alice complained, ordering her own meal while sitting down next to them.

"That\'s obvious since you\'ve been asleep for an entire day. Must\'ve gotten quite the boost if your body took this long to acclimate to the power." Thane remarked while taking a drink of his alcohol.

"Speaking of which, I didn\'t pick Lifeblood Link."

Hearing this, Thane paused in surprise, as did Ria.

"Wait… You didn\'t get it? I thought the entire goal was to get this Sigil?" Ria asked curiously.

"Well, there was a slight… issue in picking that Sigil." Alice scratched her cheek with an awkward smile.

She wasn\'t sure how she was supposed to tell them that due to her negligence, she didn\'t check what kind of Sigil the Lifeblood Link was and by picking it, she would forfeit her chance of getting a 9 Sigil resonance in the future.

"Did the beast not have it? That shouldn\'t be the case." Thane furrowed his brows as beasts usually gave the same options unless something major had changed.

"Nono, it had the Sigil. Just… It turns out it was an Anti Beast Sigil." Alice sighed. There was no avoiding the topic so she may as well admit to it.

"Ah, you were going for Anti Hunter Resonance right?" Ria muttered in realization while Alice nodded her head.

"So… You gave up the Sigil you needed right now for a Resonance?" Thane questioned with a raised eyebrow.

He didn\'t think Alice would give up something she was actively searching for because of a slight oversight.

"Well Allura mentioned that 9 Sigil Resonance was really good so I figured I should aim for it. If the Anti Hunter Sigils were bad, I would\'ve still gone for the Lifeblood Link. However, turns out it was better than expected if I read between the lines a little." Alice chuckled, feeling proud of her choice.

She was happy that she had double triple and quadruple checked this option to see if there was anything she had missed.

"Plus, the Resonance I got for it made up for what I lost so I\'m not too bothered by it." Alice shrugged.

Seeing her response, Thane couldn\'t help but be curious about her choice and what kind of Resonance she gained as a result.

"Alright. Finish your food and let\'s take the new Sigil for a test." Thane grinned.

\'If the brat is this happy she must\'ve gotten something good.\' He thought to himself. He could practically see the enthusiasm in her eyes, all she was looking for was a target to test herself again so he may as well play that role.

He wanted to see if she could satiate his boredom.

###

After the previous incident with the huge bet he placed on the fight, Thane was a treasured VIP in the underground fighting arena. Reserving one of the arenas with no one to spectate was simple as all he needed to do was throw some spare change at them.

Of course, for Alice and Ria, seeing Thane throw this \'spare change\' at them only caused their hearts to bleed.

\'So much money! We could\'ve just gone to the wild and you give me the funds rather than rent a place like this!\' Alice cried out in her mind as their money struggles seemed like nothing compared to what he was spending.

Standing in the empty arena devoid of spectators, Thane massaged his shoulders before flicking his finger.

His shadow started to twist and elongate as three dark tendrils manifested from his shadow.

"I\'ll limit myself to… Hmm. Let\'s go with decent Hunters with three Sigils. Of course, this is my standard so let\'s see how you compare to them." Thane chuckled.

Even though he called it \'decent\' Hunters, the people he judged as decent were the geniuses or treasured successors that people could only look up to but never reach.

Of course, while Alice didn\'t know this, she knew it was going to be difficult.

Even though she\'s just gained a huge boost in power, she wasn\'t going to drop her guard.

"Do you want the first attack or shall I take the first attack?" He asked as Alice stretched her body. Feeling the power coursing through her body, she curled her lips into a smile.

"I\'ll let you take the first attack."

Activating all three of her Sigils in tandem, a maelstrom of blood erupted around her as four metal blades hovered behind her. Each crafted from a mixture of hardened blood and metal.

Seeing this, Thane raised an eyebrow and understood that Alice must\'ve chosen the Blood Coil Manifestation Sigil.

\'Let\'s see what she meant by reading between the lines then.\'

Flicking his wrist, the tendrils lashed out towards Alice as they each transformed into a different kind of Hunter.

One had a greatsword, another had a spear while the last had a bow.

But despite this change, Alice wasn\'t worried as she slammed her hand down.

Shards of metal appeared around the arena as blood formed threads between them. In an instant, an territory of threads was created as Alice jumped back and used the thread to propel herself towards the shadow Hunters!

Twisting her body, she controlled two of the blades to lock down the greatsword before kicking the Hunter in the head.

Seeing that her kick was blocked by his arm, Alice couldn\'t help but chuckle since it wasn\'t going to be that easy.

\'Thane said they were decent. Something like this won\'t be able to scratch them.\'

Flipping back, she dodged two arrows in quick succession. The first was aimed at her while the second was aimed towards her landing spot.

She created a thread of blood and pushed herself away from the arrow.

Taking advantage of this sudden change in movement, the spear Hunter stabbed towards Alice\'s torso but it was blocked easily by one of the hovering blades while another pierced towards its neck.

*CLANG!!!

Parrying the blade with the shaft, the shadow watched as the blade was shattered into countless pieces that swarmed around him before stabbing down!

Twirling the blade in his hand, a swirl of shadows manifested around the Hunter, blocking the shards of metal as the blade reformed itself and floated next to Alice.

Jumping back, the three Hunters looked towards Alice who was now sitting on one of her threads and glanced down at them with a smile.

Seeing how quickly she was able to adapt to her new Sigil and utilize it in a fight, Thane couldn\'t help but be impressed.

\'Not many can adjust this quickly and this is her first fight too. Not bad.\'

Narrowing his eyes, Thane sent the Hunters towards Alice once more. It was simply a taster earlier, now they were going to take it more seriously!