Abyssal Awakening

Focusing her mind, she had some theories of her own.

This chill that she had always felt was a signal of danger. Her instincts warning her to dodge. Meaning right now, she was already in Shiera\'s Zone.

Slowly backing off while this feeling continued to persist, Alice wanted to find out the edge of this Zone.

"Are you not attacking?" Shiera frowned seeing Alice back away.

"Just trying to figure something out. I thought you said the Zone was a boundary you place around yourself, this range is quite ridiculous is it not?" Alice forced a smile as she continued to back away.

She was more than 100 meters away from her yet this chill continued to persist!

Meaning, if she were to make the slightest move, Shiera would be able to counter and attack with ease. Like a rope around her neck, Alice could feel herself getting suffocated by the pressure within this Zone.

It wasn\'t the same pressure as the layers of the Abyss but rather an invisible dread knowing your every move is being observed and scrutinised.

While she was trying to find the boundary, Alice didn\'t realise that what she had said surprised Shiera just as much.

\'This should be the first time she\'s hearing about the defensive stances and Zone Stance. How did she figure out she was already in range?\' She\'s seen people who are more sensitive to danger before but most would equate that danger to her.

Not once have they realised it was part of her Zone.

Letting out a small smile, Shiera relaxed her posture as the range of her Zone began to shrink.

Alice could feel this as the pressure disappeared.

"You can control the radius of your Zone?"

"Naturally. Zone Stance is a boundary you set for yourself. A range of absolute control that you\'re confident with. Within this range, it should be everything you can react to, no matter how fast. Anyways, just throw some attacks at me while I explain." Shiera nodded as she gestured for Alice to begin.

Following Shiera\'s instructions, Alice deliberately used her previous version of casting. One that requires multiple actions and low efficiency so they don\'t know her progress. As the strands of blood and metal shot towards Shiera, Alice watched as her hand flickered for a moment before all of the attacks were slashed apart.

"As you can see, the Zone Stance lets you counter any attacks that enter your Boundary. The key is observation. The greater your observation skills, the stronger this Boundary becomes. Once your Boundary reaches a certain threshold, you\'ll be able to expand the range without losing efficiency." She explained as she began taking steps towards Alice.

Since she didn\'t tell her to stop firing attacks, Alice narrowed her eyes and shot metal blades towards Shiera.

Naturally, all of them were destroyed without exception.

\'Nyer told me to act weak but not too weak to the point they lose interest. I shouldn\'t show Void Flux – Cleave since that\'s too similar to Allura\'s Executioner\'s Blade. But the standard Void Flux should be okay.\' She was also curious as to how Shiera would react to an attack that suddenly appeared in front of her.

Pivoting on her foot, Alice snapped her finger before aiming it towards Shiera. Blood manifested and gathered above her finger into a single spark.

Void Flux!

*BANG!!!

Firing the attack towards Shiera, Alice then followed up with blood mist that invaded the Zone. Her goal was to have Shiera\'s attention drawn towards the first attack while the mist would act as a catalyst for her to create more inside her zone.

But to Alice\'s surprise, Shiera simply smiled and concentrated her zone to a 20 meter radius around her.

The moment Void Flux came into contact with the edge, it began to disintegrate until nothing was left. The Blood mist was no exception either as it was warded off with ease.

"There are three types of Zone Stance and I\'ve displayed them all. First, Offensive Zone. That\'s the first one I showed, its range is large and great for pressuring opponents while attacking. But the defensive capabilities are lacking.

"Second is Passive Zone. It\'s a blend between the Offensive Zone and the third one that I\'ll tell you about in a moment. It\'s a mix of both offensive and defensive but not excelling in either.

"And the last one is Absolute Zone. This is where you condense your focus around your optimal range and bring out as much power as you can. In the Absolute Zone, you bring out 100% of your power to destroy anything that enters the range." Shiera explained as she glanced over to Arax who seemed to be napping away.

Seeing that he wasn\'t bothering on helping since Alice didn\'t use a shield, Shiera could only sigh as this\'ll be a one to one lesson between her and Alice.

Tapping her foot on the arena, grooves began to appear around the arena with Shiera in the centre.

"This is the boundary for the three Zones that I\'ve shown you. Since we only have 24 hours, well… less than that now, you should only focus on the Passive Zone. Once you learn Passive Zone, you can expand it into either Offensive Zone or Absolute Zone." She shrugged as Alice nodded her head.

"First you need to get used to a boundary and refine your senses. I\'ll send attacks towards you from all directions, get used to sensing them out and countering them. Once you get used to that, you should get a rough feel for the edge of your detection range, reaction range and counter range. Combine them and you should obtain the Passive Zone."

Gesturing for Alice to stand in the centre of the arena, Shiera watched as Alice entered a drawing stance with her blade.

Shrugging her shoulders, she flicked her finger and a slash rushed towards Alice from behind.

*CLANG!!!

Blocking it with her blade, Alice flinched from the collision. Even though she had blocked it, the impact still sent shockwaves through her body.

\'Heavy.\' Alice thought with a frown.

But the onslaught wasn\'t over.

From her left and right, slashes rushed towards her once more.

Stomping her foot down, two pillars of metal intercepted the slashes only to be broken apart with ease.

\'Seems like I can\'t stop them unless I focus on the toughness. It\'ll take too long though… Guess I\'m counting on the Obsidian Blade.\' Twisting her body, she parried the two slashes before adjusting her posture.

Right now, Shiera was testing her detection range while Alice was faking her performance. For some of these attacks, Alice had already detected them the moment they appeared thanks to Cayla but acted ignorant.

It was only once they reached the 20 meter mark did she react.

As she continued to counter and parry attacks, Alice began to draw her own conclusion of her own radius.

\'The optimal range for my casting is around 30 to 20 meters. In this range, I can create Void Fluxes without any issues. Optimal Melee range if I include Void Flux – Cleave is around 10 meters around me max. Comfort would be 5 meters.\' Alice thought to herself.

Of course, this was just her internal calculations. For her performance, she made sure to weaken herself in order to fool Shiera since they weren\'t taking things seriously.

To Shiera, Alice\'s optimal range for casting was only 15 meters max and comfort was around 10 meters. Her melee range was 2 to 3 meters around her.

\'She\'s already establishing a Boundary of comfort. It\'s not quite a Passive Zone yet since it\'s messy… Perhaps I should increase the intensity in order to bring out more?\' Shiera mused to herself.

Flicking her finger, a barrage of attacks manifested all at once.

Naturally, Alice detected all of this and cursed inwardly. She wanted to keep going in order to get a better feel for her abilities but any further would raise suspicions.

Parrying the first few strikes, Alice got slashed on purpose before stumbling to the side and trying to ward off the other attacks.

Pivoting on her foot, Alice surrounded herself with a swirl of blood and metal, redirecting the weaker slashes while her blade would counter the stronger ones.

"I think that\'s enough, I got a general idea of your range and capabilities." Shiera called out.

Dismissing the slashes with a flick of a finger, she couldn\'t help but feel a little disappointed by Alice\'s demonstration. Sure, she had talent. But compared to the monsters known as Allura and Kaden, it was lacking.

She could still recall the threat she felt from Nyer and Allura when they went all out. Just their fighting spirit and killing intent was enough to make her doubt her defensive capabilities. In comparison, Alice was… sorely lacking. Even if she considered the fact that she only had three Sigils.

\'I\'ll just help her establish a Passive Zone. My job will be considered to be complete after that.\'

Wiping the sweat away, Alice grabbed a healing vial from her pouch and watched as Shiera clear the field while drawing new circles.

These represented Alice\'s range.

"You\'ll practice in this circle. Don\'t move out of it, don\'t dodge. Focus on either defending with your sword or defending with your Sigils. Focus and refine your senses within this area." Shiera instructed.

Nodding her head, Alice took a deep breath and focused her mind.

Taking the first step into establishing a Boundary felt simple for Alice. But controlling the range like what Shiera demonstrated was going to be tough, especially when she\'s trying to play off the fact that she\'s weak.

A tightrope act to not raise any suspicion.

Alice had to admit that it was a little nerve-wracking but the challenge brought a smile to her face. Her personal goal for her time with Shiera was to master Passive Zone without letting them know!