Abyssal Awakening

Blinking her eyes, confusion filled Alice's mind.

'Wh did she get this close? Wh did she pull out the blade? What happed?'

One momt, the spar began.

The next, Sel was in front of her and the spar ded.

Seeing the confusion on Alice's face, Sel had a smug smile on her face as she withdrew her blade.

"Hehe~ Seems like ev the great Alice is tak by surprise. So what do you think? A pretty good skill if I have to say so myself." Sel puffed up her chest with proudness as this was a de facto one sided win for her.

Revealing a smile, Alice nodded her head.

"Yeah it is. I don't think anyone can defd against that if you try to assassinate them. Only issue I can see is with the oppont's defces but it shouldn't be an issue if they can't react."

"Yep, that's still an issue I hav't figured out yet. During the time I'm using this skill, it's hard to put a lot of power into my strike so it's relatively weak compared to what I can usually do." Sel admitted, twirling the blade in her hands.

"Let's go again, I wanna see if I can figure it out." Alice suggested.

"Sure, though I don't think you'll figure it out with that mindset."

After all, the more her oppont focuses, the stronger this skill becomes.

Taking their stances once more, the two stared at one another as Alice narrowed her gaze.

Since Sel is able to traverse the space betwe them in an instant, she needed to set out a grid to protect herself. A grid that'll let her react instinctively.

She knew that this wasn't a case of time stop either since Sel's power doesn't stretch that far. Otherwise, she would've mtioned it already.

However, despite creating a grid, Alice still lost with Sel appearing in front of her.

'Let me give it a try.' Alyss spoke up as she too was extremely interested by this skill of her's.

'Sure.'

Switching out, Alyss cracked her neck while taking an offsive stance.

During these fights, Alice had be the passive one so she was going to take a differt approach. She'll attack Sel before she can use this skill.

"BEGIN!" Egil shouted.

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"EHHHH???" Alyss blinked her eyes, realising that she was flat on the g with Sel pointing her blade towards her.

"How the f*ck???" Alyss was completely baffled.

"Want me to tell you two the secret?" Sel grinned, resting the blade on her shoulder.

"Nah, let me try and figure it out some more." Alice shook her head as she took over once more.

So far, neither brute force nor passive styles have worked against this skill of Sel's.

Furrowing her brows, Alice understood that it was something to do with Sel's ability to control time. The question now is what exactly does the skill do.

For this attempt, she'll read the flow of ergy!

"BEGIN!"

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"??????" Alice lost before she could ev see the flow of ergy.

"Fufu~ Shall I give you a hint to try and figure it out?"

Scratching her hair, Alice relted as she nodded her head with a sigh.

"The hint for you is perception and focus. I'll give you… 5 matches to figure it out." Sel challged.

Alice's smile twitched as her fighting spirit was ignited.

"Deal."

Standing opposite Sel, Alice dwelled on Sel's words.

Perception and Focus.

The hint to how Sel's skill worked.

First match – ded in an instant.

Second match – Alice tried to close her eyes and use her ears to focus on Sel. No use, ded in an instant.

Third match – Alice tried to switch with Alyss midway through in order to dispel the skill but once again, it was no use. Alyss was also caught up in the skill.

Fourth match – Alice sured herself with blood mist to try and block the skill. No use, instant loss.

Fifth match.

Taking deep breaths, Alice tried her best to calm her mind.

So far, nothing had worked. She tried everything she could think of wh it came to her Perception and Focus but it was no use.

The issue was that she didn't know what was going on in the skill. It's like someone just snapping their finger and the match ds. None of the process could be se.

If she can't see the process, she can't figure out how to counter it. Thus, this time, she was going to go all out in defding herself.

As the match began, a singularity appeared in Alice's eye as she created a defsive circle a herself. A zone using the properties of the Void to stop attacks.

However, halfway through activating her defces, it collapsed from destabilization while Sel tapped her on the forehead.

"And that makes five wins." Sel chuckled.

Revealing a helpless smile, Alice gave her body a stretch a sighed.

"You really made something impressive. I seriously have no clue on how it works." Alice shook her head and admitted her defeat.

For the first time, Alice suffered a convincing defeat from someone with the same number of Sigils as herself.

She understood that the abilities of the Abyss are vast and numerous. No matter how she may consider herself as powerful, there will still be a momt where her skill set is completely countered.

Hell, a situation where someone with less Sigils defeating her could happ.

"Because this skill is probably the worst emy for someone like you with extremely high instinct and focus." Sel chuckled.

"Oh?"

"Basically my skill messes with your perception of time. The more you try to focus, the more the momt of focus is dragged out. Esstially, I place you in a state where you focus so hard you begin to space out. During that instant, you are not digesting any of the information you're seeing and thus can't react.

"Th it's just a case of activating my acceleration on my own body to bridge the gap while you can't react. No matter how strong your instincts are, you can't use it if you can't process the information." Sel explained.

Hearing this, Alice blinking her eyes in disbelief.

If that was indeed the case, th whever anyone is in a high stress situation where it requires conctration and focus, the stronger this skill becomes and the easier it is to pull off.

The more Alice tried to figure out the skill during the battle, the harder it became to break out of it. A cruel loop that's unbreakable unless one knew how the skill worked.

Heck, ev if they knew how the skill worked, how do you stop yourself from focusing wh death is so close at hand?

"How the hell did you ev think of something like this???"

"I got a slight hint wh I was talking to Egil about my abilities. I had to rethink my approach and I got an idea wh I recalled your instincts and focus. Though there is a downside to this skill." Sel shrugged.

Thinking about it for a momt, Alice realized what it could be.

"Let me guess, it depds on whether or not the oppont keeps their atttion on you."

"Exactly. If their atttion is turned away, the skill is brok and all of my movemts became clear as day to them. Once that happs, reapplying the skill becomes a pain in the ass and it'll ev give them a hint on how it works.

"Since you never looked away or turned your atttion to something else, I was able to keep the skill activated on you. But if I was to use it in a situation where there's a lot of things to focus on, such as multiple people to fight against, it becomes a waste of ergy." Sel chuckled.

She was testing this skill out while walking a the marketplace and noticed the flaws early on.

But in a one vs one situation where all atttion is focused on her? Unbreakable!

"Let's have one more spar, you can see how the skill works that way." Sel was the one who suggested it as Alice nodded her head.

Taking a deep breath, Alice stood opposite Sel.

Since she needed to divert her atttion to something else in order to break this skill, Alice needed to find something to focus on. There were two options for this.

One, find something in her surings. Two, focus on her own actions.

"BEGIN!"

*BANG!!!

Sel shot forward as Alice found herself spacing out momtarily before taking back control.

Ev though she knew how this skill worked, it was still disoritating ev if you managed to react to it.

Creating a blood blade in her hands, Alice twisted her body and parried the blade.

Hitting Sel's wrist to try and disarm her, Alice kicked towards Sel's stomach only for the skill to reactivate.

Immediately turning her atttion towards making a conctrated orb of blood, Alice slammed it down, pushing the two of them away from one another.

However, just before Alice could land, a portal oped behind her as she appeared behind Sel ready for the finishing strike.

But this momt of focus was ough for Sel as she activated her skill.

The two stood with blades pointed at each other's necks as a smile could be se on their faces.

"I'll be damned. Ev after knowing how your skill works it's still annoying as all hell to go against." Alice smiled as Sel chuckled.

"Of course. I have to figure out something to keep up with the sh*t you get yourself into."

In a high level fight against a strong oppont, ev if it was just for a split momt, this lapse in focus could become extremely deadly. A deadly trump card that can save a life or take one in a split momt.