Abyssal Awakening

"Wait wait wait!"

Ellie's screams could be heard as she frantically rolled to the side, barely managing to dodge the blood orb that was flying at her.

"What's wrong? This is several times slower than the training that my teacher gave me." Alice tilted her head.

She knew that Allura's standards were too extreme hence she scaled down the difficulty of the training.

Right now, there were a total of 20 blood orbs that were under her control. 15 would be responsible for attack while 5 would hover in predictable patterns.

Compared to the barrage that Allura presented to her, this was child's play.

Ducking down at the last moment, Ellie tried to prepare a shot when an orb charged in from the right side, knocking aside her aim and causing her to miss.

"This is too many attacks!" She cried out while taking a step back only to get hit by an orb from behind.

Once she was hit by one, a chain reaction occurred as she was unable to recover her posture to dodge the others.

Flicking her finger, Alice halted the orbs.

"Do I have to tone it down some more?" She asked, tilting her head in confusion while Ellie felt like she wanted to cry!

'This was toned down? It's like I'm getting attacked by a giant mob of beasts while trying to shoot something far away. How is this toned down?!' Ellie shouted in her mind.

"Urg… How am I supposed to even complete this?"

"It's honestly pretty simple. You just have to notice the pattern of movement and squeeze in between the attacks. Once you have that down, you just have to aim your bow and shoot." Alice scratched her hair.

It was just 15 orbs, most of them were rather slow and she had left Ellie plenty of gaps.

"How about… You do a demonstration for Ellie. An example of how it's done." Isabella suggested. She too was intrigued by how Alice dealt with this training.

"Hmm, you make a good point. Alright, watch carefully. It's going to be a bit biased since I'm controlling the orbs but I'll repeat the movement that I did for you."

Hearing this, Ellie nodded her head and stepped out of the way.

Flicking her fingers, Alice had the orbs repeat the motions that she had performed for Ellie and took a step into the barrage of attacks.

She navigated the storm effortlessly while moving as little as possible. Her steps were light but nimble, never staying in the same location for more than a split moment.

Isabella and Ellie watched in disbelief as it seemed as though Alice was phasing through the barrage of attacks. Nothing could hit her and she was evading all of the attacks easily.

"Do… do you think you can dodge like she can?" Ellie asked as Isabella was the assassin of the group. Out of all of them, she was the most nimble and flexible.

"Definitely not." Isabella shook her head.

She may survive longer than Ellie in that barrage but she wouldn't be able to find a chance to attack back.

Any attacking posture she assumed would get instantly hit by the orbs.

As Alice neared the centre of the barrage where it was most violent, she twisted her body and pulled out her arrow. Barely giving the orbs a glance, she released the arrow while dodging orbs that tried to attack from behind.

The arrow found its mark easily as it pierced the orbs with ease. With three of the five orbs pierced, the barrage stopped as Alice furrowed her brows.

"I still need some practice myself. I'm not an archer but seems like I need to take account of the arrow speed some more. It slowed down after the first few hits." She lamented.

". . ." Ellie was silent.

'Are you kidding me???' Her mind was not.

"But setting that aside, it's just a case of finding patterns and taking the fastest shot you can while maintaining accuracy." Alice shrugged.

Looking at each other, both Isabella and Ellie sighed.

"What's wrong?" Alice blinked in confusion, their reaction was certainly not what she had expected.

"Alice… What kind of training did your teacher give you?" Ellie asked hesitantly. If this was considered toned down, then she couldn't imagine what the original training was like.

"Oh that's simple. But I won't be able to do a demonstration since my mind will be focused on controlling the orbs. In this version, I had to rely on a few shields and gimmicks to survive and even then, I still barely landed a blow." Alice smiled while flicking her finger.

From her wound, countless blood orbs started to seep out as she began to replicate the attack pattern of the Blood Widow that Allura had demonstrated.

She couldn't imitate the attack completely as it was far too fast and far too complicated for her current level of control.

###

'This is the training she had to survive?' Ellie asked herself, unable to fully believe that it was possible for a 2 star Hunter to complete such a training task.

The sight before her was in no exaggeration, a meat grinder. There were hardly any safe spots that she could find and even after finding one, it would be quickly filled up with attacks that would shred her to countless pieces.

Each attack was filled with deadly precision and murderous intent while the passive aura that Alice emanated would slow her movements down.

Ellie knew the feeling in her heart.

Fear.

The fear one felt when facing an absolute beast you have no chance to fight against. The power difference one would experience and the futility of their actions against such overwhelming force.

That's what she felt right now.

Just the sight of this barrage of attacks caused despair to embed itself into her heart.

'If a two star Hunter could do this, does that mean there are 'weak' beasts who are just as strong as her?'

Fear gripped her throat.

What if her next hunt had a beast that could do what Alice is showing right now? How would she survive such an ordeal?

Ellie didn't know.

She had no answers.

After all, the only thing on her mind after seeing this was death.

If she stepped into that array, she would die.

If a beast released that attack, she would die.

Death was the only answer she could think of.

Clenching her chest, Ellie could feel the fear digging deep into her heart.

'How could Alice even survive this kind of attack?'

Looking at Alice's back, Ellie felt fear.

"#####!"

"#####!"

"Ellie!"

"Huh?" Ellie blinked as she glanced to her side and saw Isabella's worried expression.

"Ellie you scared me for a moment. Are you feeling alright?"

"Ah sorry, I think I'm feeling a bit more tired than I expected." Ellie smiled.

It was a lie.

"Ah I see. Go back to sleep then, I can cover the shift like usual."

"Mnm, thank you. Sorry Alice, I'm going to go back and rest for now. We can continue later if I have some time." Ellie apologised as Alice nodded her head.

It was a lie.

Stepping away from the two, Ellie made her way back to her tent. She tossed her bow to the side of her tent and sat down on her bedroll.

She was satisfied being the Hunter she was, the missions they took while dangerous, weren't something they couldn't deal with. But having saw what Alice demonstrated, her mind began to doubt and fear the unknown.

She felt the inevitability of death.

###

"Maybe she felt overwhelmed by what you showed. Sorry about that." Isabella apologised as they both understood that Ellie's reaction was unnatural. Isabella didn't blame Ellie as she too couldn't believe the spectacle that Alice demonstrated.

'Anyone would be turned into a meat paste if they tried to walk through that.'

"It's fine. Hopefully she feels better tomorrow. I'll go back to my tent now." Alice smiled.

Saying goodbye to Isabella, her smile slowly faded away.

Sitting down by her tent, Alice took out her flask but didn't take a drink.

*Sigh…

"She's definitely scared." Alice muttered.

It was a gaze she had seen before. Long ago when she was still part of the Zenia family.

'Was it during my birthday?' She asked herself. The moment she was injected and had become a beast.

Looking up at the moon, Alice realised that perhaps she was more unnatural than what she had originally expected. Or perhaps it was simply a byproduct of gaining strength.

The gap between her and normal Hunters would only widen as she needs to challenge her limits. If she wishes to accomplish her desire, vengeance and the recreation of Ayr, she needs the strength befitting of a Lord. An Abyss Lord with no equal.

Alice understood that she would feel these stares more often as she grows in strength.

Sighing out softly once more, Alice took a sip of her mead and enjoyed the comfort of the cold night wind.

###

As night passed, the caravan continued the journey and Alice noticed that Ellie seemed to have grown meek after the incident last night.

Deciding to give her some space, Alice spent the time laying on the rooftop of her carriage.

The following night and day followed the same routine as they continued towards their first destination.

With each passing moment, Alice could feel the mark on her hand growing stronger. She understood that they were approaching the 'ruins' that Cayla spoke of.

And soon, they reached the entrance of a forest where the path diverges. Should they go to the right, they would reach a faster path to their destination, Eldoria.

However, due to the mission that Cedric had given to the Raven's Watch party, they travelled to the left, entering the forest.

Alice could feel the reaction in her mark growing stronger than ever as they ventured into the forest.

'Seems like the ruins are in this forest. With the Raven's Watch needing to collect some water, I can probably use this time to explore a little on my end.' Alice thought to herself as Cayla had mentioned the ruins holding some information that she may want to know of.