Abyssal Awakening

"What's wrong? I heard from Minerva that you were quite the fighter. Don't tell me one hit was all it took to douse out your fire?" Darrow asked as he gestured for her to attack.

Furrowing her brows, Alice could feel an invisible pressure crashing down on her.

It didn't help that her disguise was broken almost immediately. Had she known this, she would've spared herself the effort and not bothered with the Jester's Sigil.

But for now, she needed to judge what he was capable of.

Alyss understood what Alice wanted to do and tagged out.

As the golden chains wrapped around her limbs, the Sigil of Duality exploded into action, reversing the motor controls.

Just as Darrow was about to intercept Alyss who burst into action, he noticed the change in his body and his mouth curved up into a smile.

'He's switching to energy!'

Alice tagged in and flicked her wrist. It interrupted Darrow as he was preparing a pulse of energy to push her back.

However, this was a trap!

"Seems like you can only choose between physical or spiritual. Not both at the same time." Darrow leaned forward, grabbing Alice by the arm and tossing her into the air.

Red and black lightning crackled against his arm once more as he unleashed a devastating cut that seemed to split the world in half.

Golden chains snapped around Alyss's limbs as she twisted her body and countered with her own slash!

"TSK!" Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Alyss could feel the blood blade crumbling under the pressure of this slash and decided to go a different route instead.

Discarding the blade and sacrificing her left arm, Alyss regenerated her arm before slashing her fists together.

Ruinous Void! Gauntlet Form!

Detonating the Void behind her, Alyss launched herself towards Darrow before swinging her fist.

Seeing her regeneration for himself, Darrow couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise.

He's seen countless variants of regeneration in his life. Regeneration via a slime like body. Regeneration through cancelling out damage and so on.

But it was the first time he's seen such a tyrannical pure type of regeneration that can regrow limbs. And the limb that was cut off transformed into blood before gathering back to her body.

He couldn't figure out the weaknesses of this regeneration unless he was to cut off her head.

But if he was to do that, then perhaps she might even regrow a new body.

The safest option was to destroy her completely.

Crouching down, Darrow caught Alyss's punch with the face of his cutlass before pushing up and preparing a counter.

But just as he was about to swing, the Void detonated in his face, causing him to stumble back a little.

'So her punches leave behind a mark.'

He could sense that these… explosions were harming him directly and ignoring the defences on his body.

A rather troublesome ability but that was it. Simply troublesome.

Tossing his cutlass up into the air, Darrow narrowed his eyes and slapped his palm against the side of Alyss's fist, pushing it off course. His spare hand slapped down on her knee before he followed up with an elbow to the chin.

However, Alyss managed to lean back just in time to avoid getting hit.

"So you're this kind of fighter. Alright, let's rumble." Alyss glared at Darrow before jumping in with a chop towards his neck.

He blocked with an open palm before trying to counter but Alyss caught his arm and attacked with an elbow towards his sternum.

*BANG!!!

Darrow caught Alyss's elbow between his own elbow and his knee before giving her a taunting smirk.

However, Alyss simply stuck out her tongue as energy was now introduced into the mix.

A pulse of energy pushed Darrow's arm away as she slapped him on the side of the stomach, hoping the detonation would cause him to move away.

"That it?" Darrow asked with a raised eyebrow.

*CRACK!!!

"!!!" Gritting her teeth, Alyss was forced to glance down as Darrow had released a powerful kick to the side of her knees, breaking her balance.

"Your lower half is too exposed." Darrow commented before following up with a kick to the side of the head, sending Alyss crashing into the side of the ship.

Tapping his foot against the ground, Darrow could see how Alyss was able to easily crush Minerva in a fight.

Even though her balance was off, she parried that last kick.

So while it looked painful, Alyss was actually relatively unharmed.

Pushing herself from the rubble, Alyss was clearly annoyed as she went in for another round of close quarters combat.

As someone who specialises in fighting with her fists, she refused to take this loss!

"Calm your emotions girl, it makes you easy to read." Darrow smirked.

Despite being a pirate, he had fought his fair share of opponents in his life and experienced countless forms of martial arts.

A person who loses themselves in their emotions and throws out attacks via brute force were the easiest to counter!

Catching Alyss's fist, he threw her over his head before twisting his body and landing a round house kick into her stomach.

*BANG!!!

Breaking the walls of the ship, Alyss coughed up a mouthful of blood as she tried to stand up but stumbled on her feet.

Realising that Alyss had lost her calm, Alice forcefully tagged in and dragged herself out of the rubble.

Despite having so many chances to kill them, Darrow was testing them instead. Doing what he believes was within the limits of their regeneration.

"Anyone told you that you're more suited to being a teacher than a pirate?" Alice asked as she wiped away the blood.

She gathered all the blood that she shed into a single bead in her hand before eating it.

"Anyone can look like a teacher if they're fighting someone inexperienced." Darrow taunted but Alice didn't bite.

'Her aura's changed. The chains disappeared as well.' He noticed the changes. It's as though a whole new person stepped out of the rubble.

"In that case then I hope you can enlighten me!"

Ruinous Void! Fractured form!

Slamming her hand down, glass like cracks began to spread out through the area.

Even though she replaced her fourth Sigil with something else, she could still emulate the Void Steps using the power from her artifact!

At that moment, Alice's body blinked behind Darrow as she twisted her body and kicked down with her leg.

"!!!"

Widening his eyes, Darrow stepped to the side and narrowly dodged her kick but Alice wasn't done.

Grabbing his shoulders, she swung herself around and tried to knee him in the face.

"Tsk." Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Alice couldn't believe he was able to catch her attack in that short period of time.

She kicked off his chest, jumped back and created a modified Void Flux using Tiamat's Sigil.

Aiming at Darrow, she flicked it and overlaid it with Void Steps!

Darrow's instincts screamed at him to either dodge or cut the attack apart.

Naturally, he chose the attacking option!

Grabbing his cutlass, he slashed down faster than the eye could see and the Void Flux was split in two.

Even with the boost using Void Flux, Darrow was able to react!

'F*ck! Is this how people feel when they fight me???' Alice cursed in her mind.

His reaction speed and instincts were simply too fast for her to take advantage of. She couldn't do anything to him but he could attack her whenever he wanted.

Meanwhile, Darrow could feel the cutlass trembling in his hand as that attack packed quite the punch behind it.

However, it wasn't on the same level as the attack she unleashed on the beach.

A smile appeared on his face as he rushed forward.

Since she wasn't using lethal force, he'd reply in kind and treat this as a simple spar.

There's no need to kill one another.

While Alice was exchanging attacks with Darrow using every trick she had in the book without going down the route of killing, Minerva watched from the side with sparkling eyes.

She was happy she could see Darrow fight against but what was more impressive was the fact that Alice was keeping up!

She could tell that Darrow was ramping up the difficulty with each subsequent attack.

He'll analyse the weaknesses of Alice's fighting style, her tricks and abuse the openings. To force the fighter to improve.

This was the training that Darrow provided to those that got his favour.

Yet despite sparring for this long, Alice was still going strong!

With each weakness that Darrow exploited, Alice would counter with a new attack to make up for the faults. She was unknowingly refining and absorbing all of the knowledge and experience that Darrow was imparting onto her.

At first, he was simply using his fists. But now, with Alice using the power of her Sigils and Tiamat's power, Darrow was forced to rely on his cutlass!

"Amazing…" Minerva muttered.

However, a shout came down from above as it interrupted her focus.

"TRADERS INBOUND!"

This shout practically stopped the entire battle as Darrow pushed Alice away and glanced up with a frown.

Crouching down, he jumped up to the crow's nest and focused his gaze on the horizon.

He could see the boats approaching and even from this distance, he could feel the ominous aura being radiated by them.

Despite having this many ships intercepting them, they're still approaching them.

This confidence caused Darrow to frown as a bad feeling filled his chest.

Meanwhile, Alice realised a slight issue.

She was wondering why Lorien had decided to bring along the previous shipments with him despite the risks. Yet now that the enemy ships is approaching, Alice had a theory in her mind.

He was trying to gather the shipments in one place!