Abyssal Awakening

"Everything here is made for exploring the Inverted World. There are even students who bring relics back to be sold. But as mere replications, they lack the durability and power of the real relic." Erick chuckled.

Michael and Melissa nodded their heads in agreement.

In the distance, they noticed a small figure stomping her feet against the floor in front of the smithy.

"Big guy, what do you mean I can\'t try out the weapon before I buy it?! What if it\'s trashy like the rest of them?!" Kale shouted in anger while the owner of the smithy crossed his burly arms.

"I\'ve heard what you\'ve done in the arena lass! You\'re definitely going to break my weapon if you try it."

"Then you\'re trying to sell me weak trash! I need a weapon that can actually handle my power ya know? A Hunter\'s weapon is their lifeline and all that." Kale tried to persuade the owner but he was adamant in his decision.

"Miss Grani, seems like we meet again." Erick called out with a small laugh as Kale froze up and revealed an awkward smile.

"Are you having some difficulty finding a weapon?" He asked curiously as Kale sighed and nodded her head.

"All of these weak sh*t weapon\'s can\'t handle my Sigil power. I bought a greatsword before but it couldn\'t even last one swing." She lamented while Erick recalled the fact that she had requested several weak weapons to be placed in the arena.

"Selen, do we have any spare weapons that can handle her power?" He glanced back at his personal guard.

"Perhaps. But without directly letting her try it out, it\'s hard to say."

In the end, they gave Kale a spare greatsword they had prepared in case one of the guards lost their weapon.

Holding the weapon in her hand, Alice was rather surprised by the weight. For its size, it weighed practically nothing!

"Is… Is this really going to withstand my power?" She asked dubiously. Something this light and \'flimsy\' felt like it would crumble beneath Tiamat\'s power.

"We shall see." Erick laughed, gesturing for her to give it a try.

Narrowing her gaze, Alice activated Tiamat\'s Sigil as power began to flood the weapon. The metal in her hands trembled as cracks began to form, surprising Erick as his smile began to falter.

He was confident that this weapon would\'ve been fine considering it\'s been made with a six Sigil Hunter in mind but it couldn\'t handle Kale\'s power!

"Erm… I don\'t think I should continue…"

"Let\'s not explode a weapon in the middle of the market." Erick coughed awkwardly while Alice withdrew her power.

Looking at the greatsword that was now cracked, she could see that it had lost its initial lustre and sheen.

It is nothing but a broken hunk of metal in its current state.

Scratching her hair, Alice handed back the weapon immediately.

But just as Selen received the weapon, it crumbled apart.

"Do I have to pay for that?" Alice asked while Erick shook his head with an awkward smile.

He was rather confident in the weapons made for the Zenia\'s but Alice\'s power made him reevaluate the durability of such weaponry.

"What did you even kill for a Sigil this powerful?" Erick asked curiously.

Scratching her cheek, Kale hesitated for a moment.

"A dragon. I just found a dragon that looked similar to my bounty and it was the right one all along." She shrugged yet her nonchalance caused Selen\'s eye to twitch.

The dragon family is filled with different variants of the beast from wyverns to hydras. But within that family, only the purest of the lineage and most powerful could truly claim the moniker of dragon.

These beasts could be said to be on par with Lords in terms of power!

"I got pretty lucky though since it was basically on the verge of death. The scales were cracked, it even had hair sticking out from the gaps. So I can only assume it\'s an old one." Kale shrugged while creating an orb of power using Tiamat\'s Sigil.

Seeing the orb above Kale\'s hand, Selen was suspicious of the legitimacy behind this claim but if it was a dragon\'s power, I\'d make sense why the sword couldn\'t handle it.

Clenching her fist, Alice dispelled the orb as she sighed.

"Seems like you have quite the impressive range of Sigils Miss Grani. You mentioned that you were a three star Hunter right?" Erick asked as Alice nodded her head.

"Then do you have access to a Resonance?"

Realising that Alice might not have been going all out during their fight, Jyn\'s pupil shrunk trying to imagine what I\'d be like if she used her Resonance.

"Ah… About that. I kind of… Messed up with my choices so I don\'t have a resonance ahaha." She scratched her hair.

It wasn\'t wrong considering the fact that she can\'t use her resonance right now since she\'s replaced her Sigils.

But a resonance between Sigils owned by Lord level beings would be quite the spectacle to see.

Talking to Erick and co for a little longer, Alice decided to end it early and bid farewell to them as they couldn\'t get her a weapon capable of withstanding Tiamat\'s power.

Making her way back to the Academy while making sure there were no eyes on her, Alice sighed while looking at the bracelet on her hand once her disguise was lifted.

\'Seems like only Void Fang can hold my power.\' She sighed inwardly.

###

Over the course of the next few days, Alice, Ria and Luke continued to take lessons from Kaden who ensured that each of them couldn\'t move by the end of the training sessions.

Luke focused on survival while Ria was distracted by thoughts which only served to annoy Kaden, thus making her training harder.

As for Alice, Kaden had a different kind of training for her. One that worked on her risk taking nature and allowed her to plan things out more thoroughly without over relying on Cayla\'s power.

Standing in the middle, Alice took deep breaths to calm her mind. Kaden had placed a blindfold over her eyes made from his power of shadows, leaving her with just her ears and other senses.

She was allowed to only use her blade to parry attacks that he sent towards her.

The whistling of a projectile rang in her ear.

\'There!\'

Turning her body, Alice slashed towards it with her blade but she had missed, allowing the orb of shadow to hit her in the chest.

*BANG!!!

Flinging her body back from the collision, Alice felt as though her body was shattered apart when a portal opened up beneath her and sent her back to the middle of the arena.

Getting back up on her feet, she gritted her teeth and sharpened her senses once more.

Now that Cayla was \'sealed\' it reminded her of how much she\'s been relying on her abilities to survive.

"Taking risks is good but your risk taking is built on the foundation of the Eye and your body\'s unnatural composition that lets you ignore the side effects of blood. Lose the wings that allowed you to soar and learn how it feels to walk. Only then will you fully understand the gift you\'ve been given." Kaden explained while sending more projectiles towards Alice.

While her accuracy and reaction may have improved over the course of this training period, she still failed in hitting the projectiles.

When she tried to expand her Zone, the range was practically non existent as her Zone was constructed using Cayla as a base.

Frustration filled Alice\'s mind as she tried different methods to accurately hit the projectile but failed each time. Not only that, but Kaden didn\'t allow her to use her other Sigil powers, leaving her with just her senses.

At the end of the session, Alice\'s body was filled with bruises as he handed her a vial of healing blood.

"Do you think it\'s impossible?" Kaden asked with a smirk, standing next to her while she sat on the floor.

"A little. But you don\'t give me impossible tasks do you?" Alice pouted while Kaden raised an eyebrow.

"Nope. It\'s definitely impossible for you right now."

Hearing this, her smile twitched but she let him continue.

"Since the beginning of your fights, you\'ve been using the power given to you by Cayla. It\'s become the foundation of your entirety you could say. You take risks and you can react to when it goes south because of the kinetic vision. You are allowed sight into the flow of energy and activation time of powers.

"But if someone is to realise that, and understand the meaning of you having Cayla, they would immediately seek to destroy her. What will you do then if they were to remove the foundation of your fighting style?" He asked as Alice understood that the training was to put her in a situation where someone takes away Cayla.

If… She had to confront the real Nyer who knew of Cayla, this would be the situation she\'ll be in.

"Here is my task for you in order for you to improve to the next level. First, keep Cayla closed. Second, do not use the weapon I gave you. Strip yourself bare of these powers that act as your foundation and try to survive. Even if you\'re about to die, you should find a way out without relying on these two.

"Once you can do that, I will then acknowledge the fact that you\'ve become a proper Hunter." Kaden smiled as Alice clenched her fist.

"Then can you let me take one more risk?" She asked, causing Kaden to raise his eyebrow.

"Can you seal Cayla and Void Fang?"