CHAPTER 878: OPERATION

"Ha... Haa... Haaa..." Panting heavily, Elias gritted his teeth and kept himself on the run.

Around him, blood mist surrounded his body and blocked his view, mimicking the environment of the Nightmare realm.

Hidden within that mist, a silhouette dashed in and out of view.

The beast was ’hunting’.

There were countless wounds scattered across his body, healed to the point they wouldn’t affect his movements.

How many deaths has he suffered now? How many times must this continue?

*BANG!!!

Rolling out of the way, a spiked claw dropped down from above as Elias quickly landed a slash with a moment of opportunity.

Recovering from his roll, he raised his buckler in preparation for the second hit.

*CLANG!!!

Parrying the second, he slashed up at the arm before going in with a stab, twist, pull.

Raising his buckler, he parried the response to the side of him before another slash under the arm.

A backstep to avoid the unblockable swing.

Lunge forward at the gap and another stab to the back.

Everything had to be calculated. What he can risk, what he can’t. The feints, the traps. He had to memorise every move set.

And once the move set was memorised, he had to learn how to observe the changes in their body.

As a doctor, this wasn’t too difficult. But reacting to those changes was the barrier he had to surpass.

"Alright, I think that’s enough." Alice snapped her fingers and dismissed the mist.

At this point, Elias had thoroughly memorised the attack patterns of the basic grunts. This should let him survive a little better in the first area.

The issue now was everything after that.

The traps, the ambushes, the new mobs that he may see.

She had to prepare him for that.

Checking the time, Alice let Elias have a break for now.

"Phew..." Letting out a sigh of relief, Elias collapsed on the ground as sweat covered his body.

His arms were numb and he took this chance to heal himself to peak condition. The number of times he died during this training... easily over three digits.

Late parries, late dodges, early parries, early dodges.

Fell for feints, attacking when he shouldn’t.

His death piled on and whenever he died to the same mistake over and over, his mental state would tank due to his frustrations.

"Good job. We still have some time so I’m going to do a quick demonstration of something called the Zone. I don’t need you to master it. Just look at the principles at work and do what you can, okay?" Alice praised with a smile.

Sitting up, Elias tilted his head in confusion.

"The Zone? Isn’t that something used by the Sun Church?"

"Oh? Well that certainly makes it easier if you know what it is. Yes, it’s something used by the Sun Church but also slightly different. As for my connections to them, I have a few even if I dislike Solaris." Alice chuckled.

"I’ll only use physical reactions and a few of my blood powers. Try your best to ’kill’ me, don’t worry about the damage done. I’ll regenerate anyways." She reassured, causing Elias to frown.

Usually, Alice would prove herself by blowing up an arm or two. But since she hasn’t told him about her connection with the Zenia family yet, it’s best she kept quiet for now.

Showing him this level of regeneration straight up was practically telling him she had better regeneration than Hybrids. Man made monsters of the Zenia family so what was she?

Elias was still a little unconvinced.

Rolling her eyes, she pulled him up and simply waited for him to make a move.

Summoning his umbrella, Elias took aim.

Since she wanted him to try his best to kill her, using all of his abilities should be fine.

Opening his palm, a tiny dome of energy gathered.

"Operation."

As the dome expanded, he twisted his body and slashed towards Alice.

"I told you to come at me like you’re trying to kill me. Is this the extend of your power?" Alice asked as she appeared in front of him.

Her hand already grabbing his face.

Sweeping her leg, she broke his balance and slammed him against the ground.

Lifting him up, she kicked him in the gut as he crashed into the wall.

Raising an eyebrow, Alice touched her own stomach for a moment and grinned.

"Hou~ Damage transfer huh?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Somewhat. Doesn’t make the pain any better and yet I see you unfazed." Elias smiled bitterly.

He knew she could hold her own and even kill someone under the protection of a Lord. But wasn’t she saying she was going to hold back?

Elias recalled Alice killing the Hybrid he had so much difficulty with in one go.

Simply ripped her head off and didn’t care.

Yeah, it was stupid of him to take her lightly, thinking he would make progress without the intent to kill.

"Don’t be too disappointed okay? At the end of the day I’m still just a doctor. My tool kit mainly focuses on healing rather than fighting." Elias stood up and dusted himself.

Alice simply nodded her head, gesturing for him to attack her when he felt like it.

Elias took a deep breath.

Operation, by designating an area where he would commence his operation, he’s able to unlock abilities matching his Sigils.

Scalpel allowed him to ignore all defences so long as it’s an extension of the body.

The hybrid’s arrow and spear were all created from bone hence why he was able to bypass it.

Diagnosis allowed him to observe his opponent. To see their body composition and understand what they are. It also reveals the incision lines where he should cut for the most damage.

In a sense, Diagnosis worked similar to Zone only a little worse since it was limited to one patient.

Next, Sterilisation. A cool down based ability where he can expand a pulse of energy to the edges of his barrier, destroying foreign objects and keeping the operation room clean. A defensive tool that can be used offensively if the situation called for it.

And finally, Rearrange. Depending on how much he’s able to understand about his ’patient’ he’ll be able to restructure their bones, organs and other parts of their body he deems fit.

It was mostly used to stall or make things harder for his opponent, enough where he could use scalpel to kill them.

Unfortunately, his power is also contract based. The effects remain permanent if they sign a contract with him.

Otherwise, it’ll be temporary unless they die of course.

As for the abilities outside of his Operation, he only had damage transfer and self reconstruction.

Activating Diagnosis, his eyes shifted as rings appeared around his pupil.

The world shifted and his smile twitched.

There were... incision lines yes. But they kept shifting, changing locations, appearing then disappearing. Unless his speed far surpassed Alice’s, landing those hits are probably impossible for him right now.

Then there was her body composition.

It was a strange sight. Did she have a body of a human? Yes she did.

He could see her organs just fine unlike the weird hybrids.

But... at the same time... there were strange ephemeral overlaps. Shifting in and out of existence.

He couldn’t help but doubt his sight momentarily but no matter how he blinked or what he did, everything stayed the same.

However.

The strangest matter, despite everything, was...

The complete lack of side effects from Abyssal powers. Her body was ’pure’, sparkling clean.

Not a single blob of darkness on a white canvas.

She had an ocean of abyssal influence in her body yet not a speck of side effect.

And if he was to look closer... He saw sources of energy that should be fighting harmonised in a single body.

Taking a deep breath, Elias lunged forward.

His eyes focused on Alice, ready to capture every movement she made yet she stood still.

This was a game of chicken and reaction speed.

Whoever made the first move lost the advantage. And if neither of them moved, they’ll simply crash into one another.

Alice smiled and offered up her advantage without care.

She stabbed her fingers forward. If Elias didn’t react, his eyes will be poked out.

Scalpel!

Twisting his head out of the way, he slashed towards her arm but Alice was already following up with a counter of her own.

She moved her arm out of the slash and went in for a punch against the chest.

Elias shifted himself slightly, contemplating on what to do but Alice was faster.

She had already rearranged her attack to match whatever he planned to do!

This was a constant game of rock paper scissors and he was slower! No matter how he shifted, Alice would match.

And by the end of it, he stood in front of Alice without making a single move.

Sweat rolled down his face as his smile faltered.

It was completely one sided.

And... the worst part of it all...

"Do you have to keep your eyes closed for the entirety of that?" Elias smiled bitterly.

During the entire exchange, Alice was relying on other senses rather than her eyes.

"If I had used my eyes, it would’ve been too slow." She shrugged.

It wasn’t an insult, but the simple truth.

Even without Cayla, her standard Zone was far too strong for Elias to breach.

"But I’m surprised you have something similar. A slight downgrade sure, but it’s not too shabby. Shall we work on getting you to use it outside of this barrier of yours?" Alice tapped her finger.

A spark of energy flicked out, shattering his operation room in an instant.

It wasn’t a standard Sigil power after all...

But rather, an altered First Resonance.

One that targeted the space itself rather than the user, similar to a Second Resonance.

So with that in mind, breaking his control over this space was rather simple thanks to her connection with Ruinous Void.

Shrugging his shoulders, Elias sighed in defeat. He already struggled with her initial training, what was the rest going to be like? How did she plan on having him use Diagnosis outside of the operation room.

With Alice’s back to Elias, her smile slowly curved up to match the sadistic smile she had when training Jin.