Abyssal Awakening

"Focus! You're not sensing you're just scrambling!" Alyss shouted as she stomped in front of Jin.

Giving herself a low centre of gravity, she jammed her palm into his stomach, causing him to buckle over before following up with an uppercut.

As his body was flying through the air, Alyss grabbed his ankles, slamming him into the ground. The recoil caused his body to hover momentarily.

Taking this chance, Alyss twisted her body and hit him with a round house kick, sending his body crashing into a boulder, cracking it in the process.

"Don't panic, don't fear. Simply observe and keep observing. React not out of fear but out of calculation. Calmness of the mind, survival of the body." Alyss instructed, rushing forward.

Panicking for a moment, Jin gritted his teeth and jumped over the boulder to dodge her punch.

Phantom Swallow Steps – Shift!

Alyss's body blurred, appearing behind Jin as she went in for a punch.

Just as he tried to use his martial arts to counter, Alyss grabbed him by the wrist and threw him against the ground.

"Have you forgotten my words? Every time you try to use the marital arts of the Eclipse Cult, I will increase the intensity. The further you are from the war Apostle's teachings, the better!"

Raising her heel above her head, Alyss dropped down.

*BANG!!!!

The ground shattered apart as a spider web of cracks expanded out but Jin managed to roll out of the way.

Instead of being allowed to use the Eclipse Reaver style of martial arts, Alyss had been teaching him the theories of the marital arts that she'd stolen thus far. The philosophies and movements involved within each of them. To filter out the bad and keep only the good.

Skybound Swallow being exceptionally good for footwork and quick counters. Instant Draw for the lethality of the opening move. Scorching Tyrant Arts from the Blazing Sun sect for the intensity of their attacks.

Unyielding Colossus from the Titan sect for their stability and unshakable foundation in each movement. Chi clan for their soft parries and the ability to fight against people with higher power and finally, the Vermillion clan for taking advantage of space to generate power and stacking up momentum.
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Of course, there are certain stances, moves and even forms that can't be replicated just through theory and understanding. They require certain powers to achieve the desired effects to the maximum potential. However, for those techniques, Alyss ignored them since Jin couldn't switch out his Sigils.

All of the core philosophies were hammered into him through Alyss's own understanding. To replace the teachings of the Cult and to remove the connections he has towards the martial arts.

Stepping down, energy flowed through his body as Jin activated the movement technique and approached Alyss with the intention of a rapid counterattack.

However, before he could take the final step to generate the power needed, Alyss intercepted, grabbing him by the neck.

"You took too long! What are you going to do if they interrupt that last step like I did?" Lifting him up, Alyss let go before twisting her body with superb flexibility, raising her heel above him and dropping it down onto his shoulders.

*BANG!!!

###

"Urg…" Feeling pain all over his body, Jin found himself on a bed of metal covered in bandages. He could feel some of the wounds already in the process of healing with Alice holding her hand over him.

"You should be a bit more careful when training with Alyss. Her standards are rather high you know?" Alice chuckled as Jin let out a sigh and tried to relax his body.

"In order to open your Zone, perception is a must. But there are moments when the eyes can betray you. Whether that's through deception, abilities or even footwork to confuse the gaze.

"A friend of mine was able to do just that. You see, my eye is quite special. It's more perceptive than the rest, allowing me to see things they cannot see. Thus my friend created a technique that could manipulate the perception of those she fights.

"To draw out the moment when they're focused and force them to 'space' out." Alice chuckled, recalling Selen's technique the first time she showed it.

Alice had to admit, if Selen never told her the gimmick behind it, Alice wouldn't have been able to beat her at all. The power to manipulate perception through time was truly a feat that even Allura would praise if she knew about it.

"How do you beat someone like that then?" Jin raised an eyebrow in confusion.

If the skill was truly as Alice had described, it's impossible to defeat!

"I'll be honest, you don't. Before she told me the secret of her skill, I lost to her convincingly. No matter how much I tried to break it, it always failed. She even gave me a hint at one point, letting me see if I could figure it out. It was only after she told me did I force a draw to happen." Alice admitted with a shrug.

Indeed with Selen's skill, she was practically unbeatable in a one on one situation. Any amount of focus could be drawn out to forcefully open a gap in the opponent's guard.

"But she's an anomaly. In order to fight someone like her, you need high control over your own senses. To be able to force yourself to turn your attention away and keep calm, no matter how dangerous it may be.

"Basically, you need to get used to using all of your senses during a battle. To control them as you would with your eyes. Feel the wind and vibrations across your body, the prickle of your skin from your sixth sense and even taste the air. Taste how it changes based on what skill they use. Everything can be used to hone the boundaries of your Zone." Alice explained, taking her hand away.

Jin doesn't have regeneration like they do so his training needed to take regular breaks.

The Sigil she was using to heal him essentially put the body into a 'debt' state. As long as she didn't overdo the healing, this debt can be cleared up after some sleep.

"Anyways come on, you're finished with Alyss's training but you're only beginning with mine."

###

While Alyss's training pushed his body to the limit, Alice's training pushed his senses as far as possible.

Training under waterfalls to pick up the distinct sounds of rocks flying towards him. Blind folding his eyes and ears to push his sense of smell to the limit and even making it so that the sense of touch was the only thing he could access.

Flaming arrows that brushed past his skin, the static in the air.

If it wasn't for the fact that it was meant to heighten his senses, this would be no different to torture. In fact, this was indeed torture. No on in the right mind would go through this kind of training.

Those without a keen sense at birth cannot open the gates to open a Zone. But through this, through life and death training, Alice will forcefully make Jin open the gates.

"Not enough! You're taking too much time to think. Familiarise yourself with the options open to you. The martial arts and movements. Once you're familiar, they become instinct. Once they become instinct, it eliminates the time needed for thinking." Alyss would shout while linking up four forms of martial arts and unleashing a tsunami of attacks against his body.

"Feel the prickling on your skin. Your body warning you of the danger to come. Feel the grasp of death and evade its touch. Dance on the edge, teasing the reaper yet never allowing him to control you." Alice would instruct while surrounding him with a hailstorm of needles and flaming arrows.

The tingle on the skin as her killing intent focuses on his limbs.

"Keep your lower body stable but know when to flow like the tide. Switch between the forms to adapt to the ebb and flow. Never fight against the current, embrace it, use it to your advantage. Embolden the might of the offence with the raging current.

"If you require its help yet it refuses to turn in your favour, manipulate it. Change its course, redirect and redistribute. Use everything that I've told you to make it happen. If there is no path ahead, sometimes it simply takes a single step back to see the full picture."

Their training continued throughout the entire day. 8 hours spent with Alyss to train the body, the other 8 to train the senses and casting.

"There are three foundations to casting. Power, speed and efficiency. Heighten two and the other will fall. For greater power and speed, you lose efficiency. For greater efficiency and speed, you loose power. However, the form of casting can drastically change this foundation.

"Speed and efficiency with the power of rotational forces heightens piercing potential despite the drop in power."

Jin didn't have any Sigils to help him cast. Right now, he possessed four Sigils, two Anti Beast two Anti Hunter.

All of his Sigils are those that help him prolong the fight, to savour the feeling of war and destruction.

Therefore, Alice wanted him to find something more suitable for his fifth and Sixth Sigils, something that'll suit the new style of fighting he wanted to go for. Right now, the best she could do was teach him theory.

###

Standing guard by the gate, several clan heads and the last two remining sect leaders couldn't help but stare blankly.

"Are you sure she was enroute here?" One of them couldn't help but ask.

After all, the demoness attacked the Vermillion and Chi clan. Going off of her predicted route, she should've arrived at this place a day or so ago.

Yet she was nowhere in sight.

They couldn't expect the reason as to why Alice wasn't here yet was because she was busy training Jin.