Abyssal Awakening

Taking a deep breath to calm his mind, Jin adjusted his grip on the chain blades in his hands.

'Analyse the opponents, see what they're good at. Visualise the boundaries of their weapon. Their reach, shifts in muscles.' Jin thought to himself as he entered an offensive stance.

The first opponent was a lady dressed in black and red. There was a strange orange flower motif around her outfit along with the sheath of her sword.

The second was a man wielding what seemed to be a greatsword. His stature was surprisingly, smaller than his but the fact that he could hold this sword with ease sent warning bells off in Jin's head.

As for the last person, it seemed to be an assassin cloaked from head to toe in black fabric, hiding their identity.

'Both the lady and the man have swords with long reach. They're probably going to find a gap in my defences so that the assassin can make a move.'

Twirling the blades next to him, Jin closed his eyes momentarily.

During their journey, he had Alice take a look at his martial arts.

Eclipse Reaver.

A style of martial arts that focuses on the chain blades and ferocity. It's not a style that's compatible with allies since it focuses on unleashing destruction in an area.

There were six branches within this style.

Chaos Fang, Blade Tempest, Chain Snare, Ember Steps, Guillotine and Wrathborn.

None of the branches had specific sequences to unleash a move but rather actions that'll help manoeuvre the chain blades.

To put it simply, they were akin to 'stances' that changed his attacking style.

He could still remember the lessons of his original instructor when he was learning the Eclipse Reaver.

'Unshackled, Unpredictable, Unstoppable. Remember these three words when using the Chaos Fang stance.'

*BANG!!!

Bursting into action, Jin hooked the chain blades around a table and threw it towards the man with the greatsword.

'The battlefield is a domain of war. Become a whirlwind of steel and leave none standing in your wake.'

Blade Tempest!

Using his body as the anchor, the blades whipped out around him as the woman tried to jump through the gap but the second chain blade stopped her advance.

'Ensnare, Strangle and Break whoever enters your grasp.'

Chain Snare!

Flicking his wrist, Jin sensed a splinter of killing intent behind him. After being exposed to Alice's killing intent for so long, something like this wouldn't even make him flinch!

The chains coiled behind him, wrapping around the assassin's arm, surprising the assailant.

'Each strike must end in death. Become the Guillotine of War.'

Pulling the assassin towards him, Jin tossed his spare blade above him before pulling down with all his strength.

*BANG!!!

Crashing down from above, the blade cleaved the Assassin in half before they could even roll out of the way.

'Pain fuels rage. Rage fuels power. Power fuels War. Let your body become the altar of which the might of war rages forth!'

*CLANG!!!

An overhead strike was unleashed by the man with the greatsword but Jin wrapped his arms with chains, taking on the strike at full force.

Blood dripped down his arms but a grin appeared on his face.

Twisting his body, the chain blade appeared from behind Jin, stabbing into the man's head as he placed the spare blade against his neck and stomped down.

Twirling the blade, he tossed the head towards the woman, surprising her and throwing her off guard.

Blade Tempest!

Two horizontal slashes shot forward, cutting the woman into threes as Jin whipped the blade back to his hands.

"Dirty as always. At this point, I should charge you for having me do the cleanup." Alice complained, flicking her finger as violet flames erupted from their corpses, burning them away and getting rid of the blood.

"If you're gonna complain about the blood shouldn't you take care of them to begin with?" Jin asked with a sigh.

"But they're weak and it's a chore to deal with them." Alice shrugged, pulling out some leftovers she had in her pouch and reheating them using her flames.

"Plus, weren't you the one who wanted to follow me? Can't complain about something as small as this if you tag along." Alice grinned.

Letting out a sigh, Jin put his weapon away while getting some food for himself.

If there's one thing that Alice had noticed about Jin during their journey together, it was that the lad had no reaction to killing people. From their first meeting, Alice had half expected him to be meek but that was clearly not the case.

Then there's also his martial arts.

Alyss had analysed it before and indeed, it was one extremely suited for the chaotic nature of battle. Or rather, war.

In the midst of war, his fighting style would benefit greatly as many would be concerned about hitting allies and so on. But his style forgoes all of it. Find your next read at My Virtual Library Empire

Live in chaos, live in war.

That was the feeling Alyss got from the martial art.

Of course, the name of the style also raised an eyebrow.

Alyss had wondered if Jin had connections to the Eclipse cult but that didn't seem too likely. And even if he was, shouldn't he be in the south?

Either way, the fundamentals of his martial art no doubt require the perfection of the Offensive Zone. That way, he can accurately react in the most aggressive way possible as instructed by his martial arts.

"So what's our next target?" Alice asked, slurping some noodles while Jin pulled out his map.

There were locations that were marked with an X symbol, signifying the sects they had destroyed.

"Hmm… With the bounty on your head, I don't think we can approach any of the cities right now." Jin muttered, trying to figure out an alternative route to reach the other sects and houses.

However, they were all located in major cities within Jejin. It was hard to find one that wouldn't result in them trying to attack the entire city in order to reach the sect or house.

"Oh you don't need to worry about that. You see, I'm a woman of many talents. And lucky for us, disguise is one of them." Alice smirked, tapping her finger against the table.

Little by little, glass fractures appeared around her body as her appearance changed.

Her split hair was replaced by a blonde with streaks of red and a pair of grey eyes. As for her physique, her height was increased and so was her chest.

"Tadah~ See? No problems right?" Alice grinned, her voice a little different from her usual tone as well.

Blinking his eyes, Jin paused momentarily before simply accepting it as normal.

At this point, Alice had showcased way too many weird things for him to be concerned.

Split personality, state of unity, talent in casting and martial arts and now even disguise.

He had even obtained a new mantra for himself during this journey to help cope with sudden surprises such as this or anything else she would reveal.

That mantra being: Don't question it. The answer is Alice.

"In that case, then the next target would actually be a house rather than a sect. If we follow this route, we should be able to find two houses in the next city.

"The Vermillion clan and the Chi clan. Both of the clans have been competing with one another for generations now. Rivals in other words yet despite this conflict, they're also good friends.

"As for their martial arts, Vermillion specialises in overwhelming battle strength. One powerful punch to end it all would be a good explanation for them. As for the Chi clan, it's the opposite.

"Softness in motion, fluidity in intent, strength in resolve. While the Vermillion focus on brute strength, the Chi clan focus on soft strength. Sometimes Chi Clan wins with the Vermillion unable to hit them. Sometimes the vermillion breaks through the soft guard of the Chi clan through brute strength."

Listening to this, Alice couldn't help but feel a little interested in the Vermillion clan.

If they focus on brute strength, then how do they accomplish this? How do they control their flow of energy to bypass defences? How effective is it?

If the principles of their attack is useful, Alice wanted to learn it.

'Say twinnie, can the next one be mine?' Alice asked as she had been letting Alyss have her fun till now.

'Sure, go for it. I need a bit more time to fully digest everything I've learnt after all. It's proving to be harder than expected trying to make everything work together.' Alyss nodded.

Some of the martial arts that she stole was completely incompatible.

Using it would be creating weaknesses that she didn't have before. Gaps in movement, delays in action.

In a fight, this kind of mistake was lethal and what wasn't compatible had to be cut out. No matter how good it is on its own.

With Alice now quickly finishing her meal so that she could get to the city, Alyss focused on her own task once more.

Right now, she was in the midst of fully understanding the 'thought process' behind the creation of martial arts.

How the users synergise their Sigil abilities and martial movements to achieve the best result.

The people of the east didn't follow the three type rule that most would follow in the Abyss.

Instead, through generations worth of effort and research, each sect have their own 'set' of Sigils that work best with the martial art.

Some required a mix of Anti Hunter and Anti beast, causing them to only access their resonance once they reach 5 Sigils.

Alyss wanted to understand why each Sigil was chosen for the task and most importantly, what kind of movement would best suit their current set.

Hell, she could even go for the option of picking her own set of Sigils from everything she could access.

Regardless, it was merely one step in the process of making her own martial arts.