Abyssal Awakening

Taking deep breaths while making some mental calculations in her mind, Alice observed her opponent. Unlike out in the wilds, there was no threat of death here so she could be a little more experimental with her abilities.

A good chance to test her limits.

"Can I pick weapon? Or only hands and Sigil?" Alice asked, holding her empty hands up.

"There's a weapon rack to your left. Pick anything from there, I will wait." Neal chuckled while folding his arms in front of him.

He was curious to see what kind of weapon Alice would choose. With his understanding of Hunters, she wouldn't go for anything heavy since her physique doesn't support such a fighting style. He could be wrong but there was a high chance that she'll pick something light.

'Maybe she'll use kicking power more. Or perhaps finesse weapons. She's seems to be looking at daggers and short swords.' Neal thought to himself as he was familiar with a variety of fighting styles, their benefits and short comings.

Whatever Alice picked, he wasn't going to make it easy for her to pass.

In the end, she picked a dagger and short sword combination with some throwing knives she spotted in a barrel.

Hiding the throwing knives across the different straps on her outfit, Alice adjusted her grip on the short sword and dagger before nodding her head in satisfaction. Compared to the weapons they were given in the arena, these were of a much higher quality and each one looked rather new.

"Sorry for long wait." Alice apologised.

"It's fine, you can start whenever you want. Nothing is off limits, just demonstrate to me how well you can fight while also using your Sigil." Neal dismissed as he cracked his neck and entered a fighting stance with his bare fist.

With him giving her the green light, Alice crouched down slowly before narrowing her eyes.

Even without clashing with him, she knows that his defences were going to be quite tough. Even now, she couldn't think she could throw anything fast enough for it to hit his body.

The dormant power hidden behind each of his muscles threatened to burst out at a moment's notice.

Breaking out into a sprint, Alice held the dagger in her mouth before throwing a handful of small rocks and dust she found near the weapon rack.

Naturally, it was easily blocked with a side swipe from Neal but she never expected it to work in the first place, it was to allow her to close the gap between them.

'He said he'll let me do whatever but that doesn't guarantee he won't attack me the moment I enter a certain range.' Alice thought to herself with a frown as she reached down and grabbed two throwing knives nimbly with her fingers.

Her fighting experience was nothing to be proud of. But with the benefits of her eye, she was able to handle small knives like trained professionals and throw them accurately. The moment she should let go, how much power she should put into the throw to ensure accuracy and how she should hold the knife for it to fly straight.

Her instincts were honed towards these hidden weapons and a single glance at how the Assassin in the arena fought was enough to teach her these techniques.

Neal was still composed. Everything he is seeing thus far was nothing special as he caught the knives with his fingers while keeping an eye on Alice.

'There's a third dagger just behind the two and she'll take this chance for a lunge.' He mused to himself, twisting his body to dodge the third dagger before stomping his foot towards her, breaking up her momentum and making it harder for her to attack.

If she ignored the warnings and continued forward, Neal will be able to hit her with a hard counter punch at maximum power.

'Ohya?' Raising an eyebrow in amusement, Neal watched as Alice took a step back but attempted to cut his achillies heel with her short sword.

"You don't have the speed for these attacks yet." Neal lectured as he pulled his foot back, avoiding the blade.

While his defences are indeed high enough to ignore the damage these weapons would cause to him, it wouldn't be far for Alice if he took advantage of his veteran status in such a way. Hence he was going to make sure she couldn't land a hit. He was going to test how she was going to surpass this wall.

Without saying anything in return, Alice didn't need Neal to tell her that she was slow to him.

With how her eye worked, everything would slow down in her vision. Yet there were still moments where Neal would move like usual. Meaning even if she watched the world in slow motion, he would still be able to launch a barrage of punches as though he was in normal speed.

But one didn't need to be fast if they wanted to be annoying.

Her left hand was completely free as two knives were thrown towards Neal's knee.

'That makes five knives. She took 8 knives, a short sword and a dagger. Meaning there should be 3 more knives that she can throw before she's forced to fight me head on.' Neal thought to herself.

By his estimations, she'll try to use one knife to close the gap once more and find a chance to throw the last two up close.

However, things don't often go to plan. Instead of throwing more knives, Alice twisted her body and made a wide arching slash with her short sword.

Raising an eyebrow, Neal caught the tip of the blade with his fingers before adjusting for a punch towards her head. He made sure to adjust is speed to match the speed that she's demonstrated thus far. Watching her skilfully twist her body to dodge his punch, Neal immediately understood that she had great kinetic vision.

'She was already prepared the dodge once punched towards her head. She definitely saw the trajectory of my punch. Seems like I should up my speed and see how good her kinetic vision is.' Neal mused to himself while trying to shake Alice off but she was persistent.

Jumping up, she attempted to kick Neal in the face as he reached out to catch her foot. If he catches her, he'll be able to prepare for a large attack and slam her into the ground.

Knowing this risk, Alice flicked her wrist and threw the dagger towards his eye.

Neal had to make a choice. Either block the dagger or grab the foot. He could see that behind the dagger, two knives followed closely. If he moved his head to dodge while grabbing her foot, one of the knives would hit him.

'Her instincts for opportunity are pretty spot on. She definitely suits the job of being a Hunter. Though with what she's demonstrated so far, she's more of an assassin than someone who hunts beasts.'

Opting to block the dagger and knives, Neal took a step back to dodge Alice's kick.

But Alice wasn't done, if this was the limit of her flurry of attacks she wouldn't have survived the arena!

Twisting her body, she used leverage to break the short sword from his fingers as she swung up with the blade, forcing him to take another step back.

'Let's see how she defends. I've been on the defensive for long enough.'

Aiming for the moment she lands on the ground, Neal leaned forward for a harsh punch. Twisting her body once more, she forced herself to make another attack but this time she used her Sigil to enhance her power.

Seeing the sudden increase of speed and power, Neal was forced to pull back his punch as Alice landed against the floor harshly and rolled away.

"I assume that is your Sigil. Is that the limit of the physical boost? Knowing what the Undead Fiend is like, the base enhancement should be pretty low until you take damage." Neal asked as he brushed off the dust on his body.

However, Alice didn't reply since she was formulating some back up plans in her mind.

Her lack of reaction caused him to chuckle as he adjusted his arm before punching out towards her direction. A sudden gust of wind assaulted her as dust was kicked up from the pressure.

Widening her eyes in shock, she watched as Neal charged towards her like an unstoppable beast.  She knows that she couldn't afford to be hit by this attack.

She had one more gamble she could take but this one was going to be riskier than what she had demonstrated.

Leaning forwards, she raised her blade and used it as a shield to block Neal's punch at the last moment.

Yet that wasn't enough to fully nullify the force of his punch as her blade warped while sending her crashing backwards.

But her goal was achieved as she had tossed out a small handful of her powdered dried blood. The effects should be rather quick and the opportunity of attack was small but it was her best chance. Quickly recovering her posture, she charged onwards with the final knife she saved for an instance such as this one.

But to her disappointment, the gap was much smaller than she initially expected as Neal had already recovered and caught her blade.

"Poison. Though dried so the effects were reduced. Had it been a stronger poison, I might've been forced to do more. You never planned to fight this fairly did you?" Neal chuckled though he didn't blame her. He did say anything goes.

"Well that's enough for today. I've seen everything I needed to see. You and your friend can wait in the hall while I finalise the report." Neal smiled, causing Alice to sigh in disappointment before thanking him and walking away.

'I wonder what poison that was. It even made me lose all my strength for a split second. If she was someone on the same power as me, that split second could've been the deciding factor.' He thought to himself since that last moment took him by surprise.

While she was unable to a hit, she definitely proved herself more than worthy to be a Hunter.