Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 476

Chapter 476: Secret Behind Selen’s Skill Chapter 476: Secret Behind Selen’s Skill Blinking her eyes, confusion filled Alice’s mind.

‘When did she get this close?

When did she pull out the blade?

What happened?’ One moment, the spar began.

The next, Selen was in front of her and the spar ended.

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

“Hehe~ Seems like even the great Alice is taken by surprise.

So what do you think?

A pretty good skill if I have to say so myself.” Selen 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 defend against that if you try to assassinate them.

Only issue I can see is with the opponent’s defences but it shouldn’t be an issue if they can’t react.” “Yep, that’s still an issue I haven’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.” Selen 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 opponent focuses, the stronger this skill becomes.

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

Since Selen is able to traverse the space between 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 Selen’s power doesn’t stretch that far.

Otherwise, she would’ve mentioned it already.

However, despite creating a grid, Alice still lost with Selen 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 offensive stance.

During these fights, Alice had been the passive one so she was going to take a different approach.

She’ll attack Selen before she can use this skill.

“BEGIN!” Egil shouted.  .

.

.

“EHHHH???” Alyss blinked her eyes, realising that she was flat on the ground with Selen pointing her blade towards her.

“How the f*ck???” Alyss was completely baffled.

“Want me to tell you two the secret?” Selen 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 Selen’s.

Furrowing her brows, Alice understood that it was something to do with Selen’s ability to control time.

The question now is what exactly does the skill do.

For this attempt, she’ll read the flow of energy!

“BEGIN!” .

.

.

“??????” Alice lost before she could even see the flow of energy.

“Fufu~ Shall I give you a hint to try and figure it out?” Scratching her hair, Alice relented 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.” Selen challenged.

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

“Deal.” Standing opposite Selen, Alice dwelled on Selen’s words.

Perception and Focus.

The hint to how Selen’s skill worked.

First match €“ ended in an instant.

Second match €“ Alice tried to close her eyes and use her ears to focus on Selen.

No use, ended 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 surrounded 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 when 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 ends.

None of the process could be seen.

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 defending herself.

As the match began, a singularity appeared in Alice’s eye as she created a defensive circle around herself.

A zone using the properties of the Void to stop attacks.

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

“And that makes five wins.” Selen 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 moment where her skill set is completely countered.

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

“Because this skill is probably the worst enemy for someone like you with extremely high instinct and focus.” Selen chuckled.

“Oh?” “Basically my skill messes with your perception of time.

The more you try to focus, the more the moment of focus is dragged out.

Essentially, 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.

“Then 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.” Selen explained.

Hearing this, Alice blinking her eyes in disbelief.

If that was indeed the case, then whenever anyone is in a high stress situation where it requires concentration 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, even if they knew how the skill worked, how do you stop yourself from focusing when death is so close at hand?

“How the hell did you even think of something like this???” “I got a slight hint when I was talking to Egil about my abilities.

I had to rethink my approach and I got an idea when I recalled your instincts and focus.

Though there is a downside to this skill.” Selen shrugged.

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

“Let me guess, it depends on whether or not the opponent keeps their attention on you.” “Exactly.

If their attention is turned away, the skill is broken and all of my movements became clear as day to them.

Once that happens, reapplying the skill becomes a pain in the ass and it’ll even give them a hint on how it works.

“Since you never looked away or turned your attention 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 energy.” Selen chuckled.

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

But in a one vs one situation where all attention is focused on her?

Unbreakable!

“Let’s have one more spar, you can see how the skill works that way.” Selen was the one who suggested it as Alice nodded her head.

Taking a deep breath, Alice stood opposite Selen.

Since she needed to divert her attention 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 surroundings.

Two, focus on her own actions.

“BEGIN!” *BANG!!!

Selen shot forward as Alice found herself spacing out momentarily before taking back control.

Even though she knew how this skill worked, it was still disorientating even if you managed to react to it.

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

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

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

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

But this moment of focus was enough for Selen as she activated her skill.

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

“I’ll be damned.

Even after knowing how your skill works it’s still annoying as all hell to go against.” Alice smiled as Selen 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 opponent, even if it was just for a split moment, this lapse in focus could become extremely deadly.

A deadly trump card that can save a life or take one in a split moment.