Abyssal Awakening

"It's given up on surviving! Everyone! Deal with the mutated Hunters then deal with the beast!" Fulton shouted as he made his way towards the main ship where the young master was located.

Hearing this, Alice and Ria looked at one another before nodding their head.

Once they deal with these beasts, it'll be time for them to shine and steal the show.

On their ship, there were 3 mutated Hunters while 2 normal Hunters were barely able to fight.

Meanwhile, above them, lightning started to rumble with the beast now going all out and giving up its chance of evolving.

"I'll take two, you take one. Careful you don't get splashed by the water that's still on the deck." Ria suggested as she jumped back and fired an arrow at one of the beasts.

Nodding her head, Alice dashed towards the man on the right. Turning her bracelet into a sword, she narrowed her eyes and infused a small spark of fire in her blood. It was small enough so that even if it did try to go out of control, she could extinguish it without issue.

The man had turned into a beast with countless arms erupting from his back while his skin turned pure white. Several different faces emerged from his head as it tore his skin apart while his blade merged with his hand.

"H-HELP ME! ARGGG!" The man screamed as the blue energy pulsed through his body. What remains of his Sigil could be seen spreading across his body as spikes erupted from the ground.

Jumping to the side, Alice was able to see his movements clearly as he seemed to be more occupied with making the pain stop than trying to hurt her. The attacks were merely a side effect of him being unable to control his power and his instinct for self-preservation.

There was pity in Alice's eyes as she knew the pain well.

'I'll end it fast…' She thought to herself as she activated her first Sigil, boosting her speed twofold and closing the gap between them.

Four arms crashed down towards her as she twisted her body, cleaving up with her blade and slashing the arms.

Continuing her attack, Alice ducked down before slamming her elbow into his chest, causing him to stumble back.

"S-STAND BACK!!! DON'T KILL ME!" He screamed out in hysteria.

Four Sigils carved deep into his skin as the blue energy shifted to a deep purple with his flesh bubbling beneath the surface of his skin.

'Sh*t! Resonance!' Alice widened her eyes.

She could see the Sigils that floated above his head beginning to link to one another with a briar thorns as she understood that this was an Anti Hunter type resonance. Not only that, but there were also cracks in the designs of his Sigils.

'Is it because he's turning into something not human? Or am I missing something here?' Alice thought to herself.

With the man activating his resonance, a wave of force pushed Alice back as the hands around his body started to get covered by dark purple scales.

"W-ait! No!!! T… This isn't my resonance!" The man panicked.

Erupting from his chest, a dark purple crystal emerged as he clawed away at his face.

Widening her eyes in horror, Alice watched as his skin tore apart, revealing a set of scales while his fingers merged together and slowly formed serpentine like heads.

The flesh around his body started to bubble and grow as his size started to grow.

Purple chains started to appear around his flesh as he grabbed them using his claws and tore them apart.

*BANG!!!

Releasing a baleful aura that shocked the Hunters around them, Alice watched as the Sigils above his head fractured and disappeared before being replaced by something else entirely.

[Abyss Hydra (Juvenile) - ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦]

He now had several serpentine heads coiled around his torso and dark purple scales protecting his body. Two large claws helped him stand upright while his legs had fused together into a tail.

'He turned into an Abyss Beast?!' Widening her eyes, Alice felt goosebumps on her skin as the threat of danger rang out in her mind.

In a panic, she jumped to the side as the Hydra released a stream of dark liquid.

Rolling back onto her feet, Alice glanced back and saw the liquid splash onto the body of another Hunter, causing him to scream out in pain and slowly begin to mutate.

'It spat Abyss Water!'

Gritting her teeth, Alice knew that she had to take care of this beast quickly before they were surrounded by more beasts. The faster they deal with this, the faster Ria could resume her fight against the Storm Leviathan.

She could already tell that the fight was beginning for real as the sound of thunder strikes rang out across the seas with the beast focusing his attention on the stronger Hunters and leaving them be.

Taking a deep breath, Alice dodged another stream of water before turning her blade into a dagger. Twisting her body, she threw the dagger at the beast while running to the right. Controlling the dagger remotely using her blood, she swung herself around the beast before pulling the thread, causing the beast to roar out in pain.

But Alice wasn't done. There was a thin stream of her own blood travelling up the thread as she ignited it around the beast's neck, burning through the flesh and causing it to writhe around in pain.

The force of his pull dragged Alice off her foot as she could see the thread beginning to burn away from the repeated uses of her fire.

Even though the thread was powerful in deflecting elemental properties, it was still a material that was harvested from an Abyss beast. It was no wonder that the durability would run out quicker when using her flames.

Recalling the dagger, Alice pulled back with her arm and had her flames burn off the second of the thread that was around the beast's neck before reconnecting it to her dagger.

Jumping towards the beast, she bent her body back, avoiding a stream of water and stabbing the blade into the beast's tail.

Even though her thread had burnt the beast's neck, it was not enough to decapitate the monster.

Before she could get any closer, several heads snapped towards her, calming her mind, she turned her dagger into a blade and recalled it to her hand.

The moment she grabbed the blade, she cleaved up without hesitation, splitting the first head in half before ducking under the second.

Slashing down diagonally, she decapitates the third before stabbing it down the throat of the fourth.

Compared to the attacks of the Maiden of the Blood Moon, this was slow and easy to deal with. She could see the gaps in its flurry of attacks, how despite being a beast, there was still fear and panic in his eyes.

Somewhere deep down, the Hunter was still conscious within this beast.

Slashing her own forearm with the blade, Alice coated it in a layer of violet flames before rushing in. In the blink of an eye, she had breached his defences and stabbed the blade into his chest.

Adjusting her grip, she tore a large hole in his chest as the flames started to burn away at his insides.

Hearing his screams, Alice could only apologise in her mind as she wasn't able to give him the painless death that she had promised.

But she didn't have the time to worry as another Hunter had been mutated with his water attack.

Just as she turned around to face the other Hunter, she saw Ria jump down from above with a lightning infused arrow in hand and split the man in half, killing him in an instant.

"Gross. I knew the waters transformed you but I didn't think it would do so in this manner." Ria frowned as she dealt with her targets quickly.

They weren't able to withstand her attacks as their guard was down due to the pain of transforming.

"We can ask Allura later. We need to hurry up and deal with the Leviathan then run while we have the chance." Alice nodded as she had her own questions regarding this matter.

"Alright. See if there are any lifeboats left for the Hunters. We'll escape using this boat once we're done." Ria nodded as she glanced into her quiver.

Making a mental note of how many Thunder Caller arrows she had left, she activated her Sigils and wrapped herself in lightning then jumped towards the Leviathan's back.

Even if she was discovered, the strong Hunters wouldn't be able to target her without risking the chance of hurting the Beast. If they were to do that, it would put the entire Hunt in jeopardy and she gambled on whether or not they dare take that risk.

To them, she was just a simple three star Hunter, they wouldn't expect that she'll try to get a five star Sigil for her forth.

###

"Gods dammit! We need to kill this thing now or else it's going to sink all of us!" Haerun shouted as he sent out a wave of lightning to counter the Leviathan. Even if they were to succeed in this hunt, it'll be useless to them if they had no boats to get away from this place.

"We cannot make this any faster! If we do, we risk making you lose this Sigil." One of the five star Hunters replied as he was focusing on defending the ships and making sure they don't take extra damage.

But the Storm Leviathan was akin to a natural disaster right now. Each swing of its arm conjured a storm that crashed down upon the barriers surrounding the ships. Each breath released a torrent of lighting and each movement it made cause the Abyss Waters to rise up like a tsunami.

Gritting his teeth, Haerun was desperate as this was his best chance to get the Sigil of the Storm Leviathan. If he missed this opportunity, he would have to fight a much stronger beast that gained the blessings of the Abyss.

Noticing something on the back of the Leviathan, Haerun squinted his eyes and realised that it was a person!

Ria was currently planting Thunder Caller Arrows all over the Leviathan's body with nodes placed against the arrowhead, ready to detonate at a moment's notice.

Her goal was to detonate everything at once with the hope of killing the beast in one shot!