Abyssal Awakening

With the flow of battle now shifted into her favour momentarily, Alice grinned and dashed towards the Cultist with no fear in her eyes.

All of the tools she has in her arsenal, all of the options presented themselves within her mind as she calculated the best ways she could utilize them to win this battle.

'He has two moves thus far. An attack with his shadow jaws and having those shadows protect him. Offensively, he's nothing remarkable. I don't know what he has under his sleeves though.' Alice thought while dodging more of his attacks.

Entering close-quarters combat range, she flicked her wrist and sent a dagger flying up while stabbing toward his joints with a smaller dagger.

His shadow armour didn't cover all of his body so Alice wanted to see if her daggers could still pierce his body.

With her shallow knowledge of Sigils at this moment, there was a possibility that the power flowing through his blood would enhance his physical body while the Sigil was activated.

Potentially an opposite of her own Sigil.

Just as her dagger was about to hit his joints, a wave of shadows moved over, blocking her attack.

'His body is not enhanced!' She thought with a maddening glint in her eyes.

With her obtaining the information she needed, she kicked off his chest before jumping up into the air.

Tying the end of the dagger handle with her threads, Alice twisted her body and slung the dagger towards the Cultist. Exploding forth with surprising speed, the Cultist was unable to respond as the dagger cut the side of his face, causing him to grit his teeth in anger.

Crouching down, he dashed towards Alice, waiting for the moment she landed.

Seeing this, Alice quickly grabbed a vial of her own blood before throwing it against the ground, shattering it to pieces.

At first, the Cultist was wary of what the vial could do but seeing no response, he managed to reach Alice and stomp down with his foot.

'Is he going for a punch?' Alice thought to herself while raising her guard.

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However, she felt the smile of death behind her and trusted her instincts.

Twisting her body, she sacrificed her left arm as one of the jaws tore off a large chunk of her flesh, causing her blood to explode out of her body due to having her Sigil activated.

Gritting her teeth, Alice slashed the blood into the Cultist's face before backing away. Grabbing a vial of healing blood, she tore off the lid with her mouth before drinking it. Little by little, her wound started to patch itself together while Alice could feel a burning sensation rising in her body.

'Damn are these defective goods??? Why is the side effect so strong!' Alice screamed out in her mind as this was much stronger than what she had anticipated.

Trying her best to fire growing inside her, Alice narrowed her eyes at the Cultist who was annoyed that his attack had missed.

His Sigils allowed him to conjure bestial jaws from shadows that he was in contact with. It doesn't have to be his own as long as he's in contact with a shadow.

He had to admit that Alice's instincts were on point as she was able to dodge something that most would've died at this point.

'I don't think she's figured out all of my powers yet. She seems to enjoy skirmishes… If I lure her into the forest I'll have access to more shadows but it'll leave me defenseless and drain me of the stamina I have left.' The Cultist thought with a frown.

Just as he was about to move, he felt his knees buckle under him as the edges of his vision started to blur.

Unable to stand up straight, he collapsed on one knee feeling the strength drain from his body.

Seeing this, Alice curled her lips into a grin and did not hesitate to run towards him.

Not only was he breathing in the fumes of the blood she kept in the vial, he was also directly splashed by her fresh blood.

She had a small window to act before he recovered.

But there was a theory that Alice wanted to test, one that might allow her to incapacitate her opponents more.

Arriving in front of the Cultist, she dodged his panicked attack before enlarging the wound on his neck.

Flicking her wrist, she tied him up and pinned him against the ground before rolling up her sleeve and biting a wound on her own arm.

"You see, the properties of my blood act as a poison. What do you think will happen if I pump it into your body directly?" Alice asked with a grin as she pressed her wound against his neck. Activating her Sigil, her blood started to surge into his body while she would drink a vial of blood to replenish herself when needed.

Unable to fight back, the Cultist could only feel his body continuously losing strength as the world around him started to warp.

Seeing her blood being super effective when directly pumped into the body, Alice grabbed a dagger before finishing the Cultist off.

With her opponent now dead, Alice was about to make her way back to Ria when she remembered something that happened during the fight. She had taken a bit of his blood and gained a boost similar to what she felt if she drank a beast's blood.

With this thought in mind, she narrowed her eyes at his corpse before curling her lips into a grin.

Grabbing a vial, she extracted some blood before drinking it all in one gulp. Feeling the energy surge through her body, she could feel something else flowing within. A foreign power not unlike her own Sigil but fleeting like the powers she gains from blood.

Widening her eyes, she slowly looked down at her hands and channeled her power similar to how she activated her own Sigil.

Little by little, a mark started to appear on her arm as her shadow started to flicker. Ultimately, the power faded away before it could truly solidify itself.

Seeing this reaction, Alice's heart started to pound in excitement.

'Can I borrow a Sigil's power momentarily?' She asked herself in disbelief.

Looking down at the man's chest, she couldn't help but swallow her saliva as a desire appeared in her mind.

The purest blood, the heart blood. If she extracts that from his heart, would she be able to sustain this power for longer?

With questions flooding her mind, she pulled out the extraction kit and carved a hold into his chest while ignoring the mess she was making. She was going to extract as much heart blood as she could before going back to help Ria.

If she is able to borrow the powers of others thanks to her strange constitution without being affected by side effects, then she may have to rethink her future battle plans.

While Alice was extracting heart blood from the Cultists, Ria fought to a standstill against the two Cultists she was trying to deal with. The first had a set of fire type moves that caused the ground beneath her to explode while also sending flaming orbs to circle around her.

But he wasn't the main issue. The issue was the second Cultist.

While the first was a three Sigil bearer, the second Cultist had four Sigils!

It was thanks to her speed that she was able to stall to this point, but things weren't looking optimistic.

After all, the second Cultist had Sigils that allowed him to conjure a myriad of metal weaponry to keep her at bay whenever she tries to attack.

From what she has seen thus far, Ria could estimate their Sigil abilities to some degree.

Before she could formulate any plans, Cultist 1 conjured a group of flaming orbs around her before attempting to detonate them.

With Ria having fought for quite a while, she was starting to show signs of fatigue. Even though her speed may have increased due to her Sigil gathering power, her movements were sluggish and made more mistakes as time went on.

Taking deep breaths to calm herself, Ria gathered her thoughts and tried to estimate what was possible and what wasn't.

'The first Cultist makes the ground explode and make fire orbs. I don't know what his third Sigil is despite glowing several times showing that its been activated. The second cultist has shown the abilities of creating metal weapons from the ground around them and nothing else… Is that the ability the product of several Sigils or just one?'

Regardless, she had to try end things now while her charge was at its highest.

'If I take care of just one of them, it should make the fight easier!'

Crouching down, she dashed towards the first Cultist as he was her target! With the amount of power she has gathered, killing him should be a piece of cake.

Noticing her intent, the second Cultist slammed his hand against the ground, launching metal spears upwards in an attempt to skewer her.

Narrowing her eyes, Ria coated herself with some of the energy she has gathered and dodged with a sudden boost in speed.

"!!!" Widening his eyes at her aggression, the first Cultist panicked and surrounded himself with flaming orbs to stop Ria's advance.

"Oi… Did you think a bit of fire was going to stop me?" Ria's voice rang out from behind as she had clawed through the flaming orbs.

Pushing the orbs aside, she ignored the burning around her body as she grabbed the man by the back of his neck.

*BANG!!!!!!!

Expelling all of the energy within her through her hands, his entire neck was obliterated in a flash of lightning as the flames extinguished themselves around her.

"Only you left." Ria grinned as she glanced back at the second Cultist while pulling out a vial of healing blood.