Abyssal Awakening

The instant that Alice expanded her zone, all of the Zenia guards felt a chill down their spine.

Subconsciously, they reached for their swords before pausing in realisation.

"You've got to be kidding…" One of the guards muttered in disbelief, realising that her range had extended this far. If they were her target, she'd be able to attack them from down there!!!

As for Selen, this reaffirmed her belief that Alice was abnormal and that Jyn needed to take this seriously.

'But for her to be able to use zone… at this magnitude as well… Either she's been trained by someone experienced or she's just that talented.'

Even though she wanted to do a background check on Alice immediately, their business with the Underground has been… Complicated for a lack of a better term and using their services right now would prove to be difficult.

"Caen, help me run a quick background check on her if you can. See where she came from and if she's affiliated with anyone we may know of." Selen ordered as one of the Guards saluted before leaving the room.

"Is she worrying you?" Erick asked, keeping his eyes on the fight.

"Her talents are worrying me. Someone of this calibre shouldn't be staying in a place like this. Either she's only begun to make a name for herself or someone sent her here."

"Any clues on who that may be? Or just a hunch for now?"

Hearing this question, Selen paused before shaking her head with a sigh.

"Just a hunch for now. I'll keep a close eye on her and see what she plans to do."

"I'll be counting on you for that." Erick chuckled as the fight resumed.

###

Jumping out of the flames, Jyn revealed his first Resonance form. He now had long wild hair, a pair of draconic pupils and tattered clothing hiding the black plated armour beneath.

In his hands, he wielded the same strange blade but this time, he paired it with a spear seemingly made from the flames he breathed from his mouth. Behind him, a serpentine wyrm coiled around him with hints of metal making up the core of its body.

All of her senses warned her of danger as Alice halted her attack and focused on defence.

Stabbing the greatsword into the ground, she activated both Tiamat and Allura's Sigils simultaneously to create a vacuum wall that shredded anything that came into contact with it, allowing her to back off momentarily.

However, Jyn wasn't about to let her get away easily. Taking a deep breath, he spat out three flaming bullets.

Widening her eyes, Alice bent her body back to dodge the first, coated her fist with Tiamat's power to destroy the second and slashed down with her finger to get rid of the third.

Cold sweat covered her back as she lost sight of Jyn who appeared behind her.

*BANG!!!

Thrusting his spear forward, he watched as Alice managed to dodge his strike even from this distance.

While he may be impressed, he wasn't going to go easy on her!

The ground began to rumble as tens of flaming spears erupted from the ground while Alice defended herself with corrosive energy, forming a swirling barrier that melted these spears.

"Your Sigils are more potent than I had imagined. If you have a fourth or a fifth Sigil, I'll give you time to reveal them now so that we can fight evenly." Jyn narrowed his eyes while Alice shrugged her shoulders.

"Unfortunately, a little girl like me only has three Sigils." Alice laughed, picking up another greatsword next to her.

Taking a deep breath, she gritted her teeth and twisted her body, throwing the blade at him!

Ducking down to avoid the projectile, he noticed that Alice had attached the power of Tiamat and Corrosion onto the blade as it shattered into countless pieces above him.

Quickly wrapping himself with his flaming wyrm, he managed to avoid the brunt of the attack but the power of corrosion began to penetrate through his shield.

Noticing Alice approaching while he was occupied with the blade, Jyn slammed his hand into the ground.

*BANG!!! CRACK!!!

A wave of jagged rocks pushed out with Jyn in the centre while flames burst through the cracks. All of the weapons that Alice had placed early were now being melted in these flames as her smile twitched.

"Oi lizard! That's not fair!" She complained, grabbing another greatsword and scythe before she ran out of weapons.

Once again, Jyn ignored her as he coated his ring blade in flames and lunged towards Alice.

His blade began to spin, creating a flaming disk that was gathering the flames he had conjured from the arena.

Furrowing her brows, Alice jumped back and threw the scythe towards him.

*CLANG!!!

Parrying the scythe to the side, Jyn watched as Alice grabbed the greatsword with both her hands and entered a defensive stance.

Absolute Zone!

Compressing her focus to a small circle around her, Alice needed to block this onslaught in order to find an opportunity for a counterattack!

Twisting his body, Jyn slashed horizontally in an attempt to break Alice's weapon but she was prepared.

Now that she had condensed her Absolute Zone to a small circle around her and paired with Cayla, every single movement he did was captured by her vision, allowing her to react accordingly.

Jumping up, she adjusted her greatsword to redirect his attack into the ground.

*BANG!!!

Taking this moment, Alice spun her body around and gathered as much force as she could, swinging the greatsword down towards Jyn who was surprised she had the reaction to dodge his blade.

With Alice stepping on his arm right now, it was difficult for him to use his blade and thus he decided to discard it for now.

Pulling his arm back, he punched the face of Alice's greatsword, shattering it into pieces but this didn't stop her assault!

Revealing a grin, Alice grabbed Jyn's ring blade!

Mimicry!

Recalling all of Jyn's movements that he's performed thus far, Alice twisted her body and embedded Tiamat's power into the blade before slashing towards Jyn who jumped back with crimson wings unfurling on his back.

Sliding across the ground, he looked up in surprise as he watched Alice twirl his blade around as though she'd been used to using it for many years.

"Yiya~ This is quite the weird weapon lizard. A bit annoying to control but it's pretty fun." Alice laughed, spinning the blade around her body before narrowing her eyes.

Releasing a downward cleave, an invisible blade shot out towards Jyn who created two flaming spears and parried the attack.

Deflecting the attack upwards, Jyn gritted his teeth and lunged towards Alice, wanting to get his weapon back.

Designating her as the target with his finger, the flaming wyrm jumped from his back and tried to drag Alice into the air but she simply laughed.

Jumping to the side, Alice spun the ring blade a few more times, releasing a multitude of slashes that tore the wyrm apart, revealing the metal skeleton beneath the flames.

While her attention was taken by the wyrm, Jyn appeared behind her before she noticed and reached for the blade.

Alice's eyes darted back, she wasn't able to pull the blade away in time. The two of them were now locked in a tug of war for the weapon but Alice took the initiative to let go.

Climbing up his arm with ease, she wrapped her leg around his neck, putting him into a leg lock while corrosive energy burst out from her body. Even with his defences, his armour began to melt.

"ARG!!!" Letting out a shout, Jyn tried to pry Alice off from his back but she would create pockets of energy using Tiamat's power to disrupt his stance, making it harder for him to exert power.

Seeing this, the wyrm reignited and shot towards the duo.

Since Jyn was unaffected by his own power, the only one in danger would be Alice!

"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Alice kicked off Jyn's back and created an orb of power using Tiamat's Sigil.

*BANG!!!

Throwing the orb at the wrym, she watched as it transformed into a spiral of flames that obscured her vision. But despite this, her senses were warning her of danger!

Jumping through the flames, Jyn's blade was mere moments away from colliding with her as Alice widened her eyes.

What she needed now wasn't a full body enhancement using Tiamat's power.

No, she needed the fastest way to counter this attack!

Tiamat + Allura!

Funnelling the power into her legs, she pivoted on her left foot and slammed her heel into the face of the blade.

*BANG!!!

Stomping the blade into the ground with her left foot, she followed up with a roundhouse kick into Jyn's jaw as his vision flickered while a wave of dizziness assaulted his mind.

Redirecting all of her energy into her arms, she slammed her palms into Jyn's chest, shattering the armour from the impact!

Before his mind could even register the pain, Jyn slammed into the wall of the arena and collapsed on his knees.

Taking rapid deep breaths, Alice blinked her eyes as she didn't think Allura's Sigil could be applied in this manner.

The instant slashes when paired with Tiamat's Sigil, allowed her explosive short-term speed that surpassed even Ria's top speed!

To others, all they saw was Jyn jump from the spiral of flames before being launched back into the wall.

But those with more Sigils noticed that Alice had released three movements! A sweep to knock the blade to the ground and use it as a foothold, a kick to disorientate Jyn's vision and finally, a double palm strike with an orb of energy to the chest, launching him out of the arena.

Watching all of this happen, Selen was silent as was all the other guards.

Erick had an amused glint in his eyes while the two researchers couldn't believe a three Sigil Hunter actually defeated a six Sigil Zenia Guard!