Abyssal Awakening

In one swift motion, Alice unsheathed the katana and held it by her side. As the blade met the cold night air, it seemed to hum out in excitement as the flames flickered in the wind. The ethereal tune echoed in the silent forest as the beast could feel a sense of despair creeping up its back.

It kept an aggressive stance with its eyes not daring to stray away from Alice.

Silence ensued between the two as neither made a move.

Alice could feel her mind sharpening as her senses fully focused on the beast. The thrill of the hunt pumped through her veins as she activated her Sigils.

The gentle moonlight shone down from above, seeping through the gaps of the leaves as Alice spread out her arms and closed her eyes, basking in this feeling.

###

An unseen predator had appeared near its territory. A surge of bloodlust and killing intent washed over the forest and it had wanted to run but it was no use.

The intruder, a two legged figure with an unusual aura around her had already appeared near it.

The beast could sense an impending doom as she unsheathed a stunning blade that hummed with the song of destruction and malice.

It locked eyes with the intruder and knew that the moment it lost sight of her, it could spell its doom.

*BANG!!!!

With a heavy stomp, the woman shot from her location, swinging her blades with deadly intent. Flames danced forth from the blade as the creature jumped back, slashing its claws against the woman.

It managed to parry several attacks as the woman seemed unfamiliar with the weapon. However, she adapted to the situation, ducking to the side before twisting her body and letting out another slash.

By the time the beast had managed to jump aside and parry the slash with its own claws, the woman had disappeared.

There was an ominous crackle in the air as the beast started to panic. It had lost sight of woman but could still feel her gaze upon its figure.

A soft chuckle rang through the surroundings as bushes would rustle from the wind. It could not track her down at all as it felt like countless spectral beings danced through the forest, encircling it in a dance of death.

Sensing a burst of malevolent energy behind it, the beast howled in anger as it twisted its body and lashed out with the tail.

But upon seeing the thread holding up a dagger covered in flames, the beast knew the end drew near.

In the mist of its confusion, it heard a soft thud behind it and lashed out with its tail.

*BANG!

The beast's retaliation missed the mark as it was a simple branch that had been crushed under the attack. It could feel its mind cornering itself as fear took over. Taking several steps back, it howled out in defiance, putting up one last act to hopefully dissuade the attacker.

"It's late at night, don't cry so loud."

A soft voice echoed next to the beast's ear. Widening its eyes in panic, it rolled across the ground and clawed at the space behind it but the intruder was not there.

It was only after it had tried to retaliate did the beast notice the flaming blade pressed against its neck. Before the creature could let out one last cry, the blade dug deep into the flesh and separated the head from the copy in one clean slice.

*Thud

Glancing up at the sky, the light in the beast's eyes faded away as its last sight of this world was of the moon.

###

Sheathing her blade, Alice took a deep breath and sighed out. The beast had surprising reactions and finding the opening for a clean kill was not easy.

She had to bait the beast into exposing its weak point before she could land the final blow.

However, with the beast now dead, her meal for the night had been secured. Taking a moment to survey her surroundings to make sure there weren't any more beasts nearby that could pose a threat to her, Alice grabbed the beast by one of its legs and started to drag it back to the camp while leaving the head behind for other beasts.

Meanwhile, Ria had just entered the forest and caught sight of the final attack that Alice had landed.

"Jeez, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that sword." Ria remarked as that beast was rather sturdy to say the least. It was able to parry several attacks that Alice threw out yet still died to a single attack.

"Mnm, it's a good sword. Matches well with my fire. But since I got a clean kill, I suppose it's my win?" Alice chuckled, holding up the headless carcass.

"Yep. It's your win. Let's head back and start draining the blood. We got a bit of time to spare since you killed it pretty damn quickly." Ria smiled, pointing to the direction of the camp.

Making their way back, some of the Hunters were surprised to see Alice and Ria back so soon and with such a large quarry too.

With a beast this big, it would be enough to feed a whole party.

Naturally, it wasn't just the Hunters that were surprised by their speed and efficiency. Even the merchants were bewildered by how fast Alice had accomplished this task while Ellie was speechless.

It wasn't that long ago did she tell Alice that if they struggled with finding a beast to kill, she would cover for her meal.

With the beast now back at the camp, it was time to drain it of its blood so the meat doesn't go bad.

Laying the beast down in front of her, Alice made a small cut on her arm as she allowed her own blood to drip into the wound.

Closing her eyes, she focused her mind and activated her second Sigil.

The Sigil belonging to the Maiden of the Blood Moon allowed her to control blood at will. All Alice needed to do was to 'infuse' her blood into the target. With her target being a carcass, it was much easier to infuse and take control of all the blood within this body.

Little by little, the blood started to wiggle out from the wound and gather into an orb that floated above the carcass. She needed to drain all of the blood from the meat so that eating it would not have the risk of giving them side effects due to ingesting the blood.

As the orb of blood continued to grow above the beast, there were whispers between the merchants and Hunters but eventually they settled down.

The ability to control blood was not seen often as not many would choose this path. After all, the risks of gaining said ability was the concern over side effects of Abyss Blood.

Having seen Alice's eye and hair, they were convinced that this was the side effect of Alice choosing the Sigil.

Once the blood was drained, Alice took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. She extended her hands, palms facing each other and started to exert greater control over the pool of blood that hovered before her.

As her hands inched closer to one another, the pool started to shrink as the outer edges seemed to crack and fracture yet retained its form.

With a final push, Alice clasped her hands together and the pool of blood was condensed into a small solid orb that could fit easily atop her palm.

Taking the orb, Alice placed it inside one of her empty vials and leaned back with sweat covering her forehead.

During their two weeks of travel, she started to use this method to substitute using large quantities of her own blood to ignite into flames.

As her blood had taken over, it was still able to invoke the violet flames but required her to compress the blood into an orb first. Unfortunately, she has not found a use for these orbs just yet as they proved to be difficult to utilize but she didn't give up on her experiments. Sooner or later, she will find a use for these orbs.

"Do you want to do the skinning and carving today or should I?" Alice asked curiously as she was feeling rather exhausted already.

"Since you hunted and drained the blood, I'll do the annoying job today."

However, just as Ria was about to borrow Alice's bracelet, she realised that using it in front of everyone may cause a bit of trouble.

But Alice had her covered. Grabbing her katana, she handed Ria the blade.

"You… Want me to use this to skin and carve the carcass?" Ria asked, unsure of Alice's plan.

"Yep. I mean it's sharp and it's the only knife we on hand." Alice shrugged nonchalantly as a blade was made to be used. She was simply using it outside of a hunt and in this case, to prepare their dinner.

Feeling her smile begin to twitch, Ria simply sighed and stared at the Bloodflame Blade. The fires upon its blade edge was silent as it seemed to also be in disbelief that its owner would actually degrade it into a mere butchering tool!

'I'm sorry.' Ria apologised as she began to skin and carve the meat, separating it into edible chunks that could be eaten while setting the parts that couldn't be used aside.

Once again, Ellie was speechless at their efficiency as Ria seemed to be experienced in preparing the meat.

Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to help out a little by giving them some spices that the merchants had offered to her.

"Would you like to have some spice with the meat? It should give it more flavour and make it more digestible." Ellie asked as Ria glanced back and nodded her head.

"If you don't mind. You can join us for the meal if you want." Alice offered as Ellie contemplated her options before shaking her head.

"It's fine, I have some food prepared for me already. It would be disrespectful to those that already made my meal." She declined and placed the spices next to Ria for her to use however she wanted.

Time passed quickly and soon Ria was done with the carving process. All that's left to do was to simply grill the meat and apply the spices.