Snakes Without Sin
Ageha, Jinzo, Shion, Jingorō - Human World
While Jin focused on his battle, Rio’s eyes burned with passion as his arms flared up. He analyzed the hollow movements with precise accuracy as they rushed in, striking wildly with jagged claws. Rio dodged the attacks with fluid side steps, counter-attacking with practiced motions as he laughed. Each hit landed with resounding thuds, and ending with explosions as Rio imbued the hollow with his spirit energy. The largest hollow out of the bunch, however, survived an explosive attack. Rio, distracted in his fun, left himself exposed enough for the hollow to appear behind, and grab him. Another hollow ran up and struck out at his torso. It would have pierced through his stomach if it weren’t for the hardened spiritual energy wrapped around his body acting as a shield as well. At the same time, Rio would notice Jin being pushed into the water. However, it allowed the journeymen to walk past them safely. Rio imbued his legs with spirit energy and kicked out, smashing the mask of the hollow attempting to strike him. The close-proximity explosion sent him and the giant hollow flying backwards, slamming into a shipping container that caused the hollow to release its hold. Rio spun, cocked his arm back, and let it fly, smashing straight into the mask of the hollow and sending it flying into the container. The sudden flinging of the doors opening caused most of the workers to direct their attention to the container, accompanied by shouts of ‘who forgot to lock the door’.
“Oops!” Rio said as he peaked his head into the container, noticing the hollow dissipating into particles. Rio then turned his attention to the soaking wet Shinigami, ready to answer his question until…
The hollow continued its ascent quickly, nearing the operator and ready to pull him down until its hand was pierced with a knife pinning it to the crane. The hollow raised its other arm before several knives pierced into its shoulder, stopping its movements before its other hand was pinned to the crane as well. The hollow looked up at the enigmatic silhouette atop the crane, bathing in the moon’s gentle light. The poised posture suggested readiness and balance as one foot was planted firmly on the crane’s platform, while their other leg slightly bent. The serene and silvery moonlight was accompanied by a silver flash in the figure’s right hand. It seemed like an eternity, awaiting death, were the words that scattered across the creature’s mind.
Thoughts. Before it could even comprehend what those were, in a millisecond, a blade struck right into its mask ending all traces of a thought.
Shion would flash step behind the hollow and slash at the back of its head. However, it seemed to be anticipating such an action and rushed in to strike at the humans. A blur would appear in front of the hollow, as it
wasn’t expecting Shion’s skill in consecutively using Shunpo as well as her strong dedication to protect the humans. Shion used the momentum from her missed attack to keep moving, focusing and using her flash step at just the right time and angle to come crashing down in front of the hollow in a spinning attack. A severed arm flung into the air as the hollow sacrificed its arm to take the brunt of the attack, and then jump backwards. The humans were now hastily making their way to a ship container that suddenly opened, leaving the hostile area entirely.
“Grim-Reaper! Behind you!” The human called out, taking advantage of the slamming of ship container doors hoping no-one else heard him.
Shion would instinctively turn around to see another agile-hollow striking out at her. She would flash step once more to avoid the attack, however, once landing on the ground began stumbling on her own feet. The hollow would take advantage and begin to close in. Suddenly, a pipe would fling from the stack of boxes and with surprising accuracy, smack directly into the mask of one of the hollow, sending it momentarily to the ground. The one-armed hollow closed in on Shion and struck out, but she was able to use her unique-fighting style to her advantage. Being used to making purposeful mistakes, that also meant she was used to correcting herself. In this case, she was able to recover quickly enough to only receive a slash across the ribs, instead of a full-blown impale of the claws. The blood began to soak into her garb, but luckily not life-threatening. She took a moment to catch her breath before she would hear the human call out,
“Behind yo-No! Above you-”Ageha would plunge downward once more, this time using the perfect mixture of speed and power given what she learned about the limiter with her first attack. What remained of her blade dug straight into the porcelain mask of the white creature, but she wasn’t done. Ageha flexed every muscle she could control and grit her teeth as she pushed with every ounce of strength, ripping the pinned arms of the hollow straight from its body. They both shot downward as Ageha used her
Reforge ability to recall her blade, the rest of it sticking out the opposite side of her opponent’s head. The body began dissolving into particles, but before it dissipates she would come crashing down into the hollow recovering from the pipe attack. The rest of her blade struck perfectly into the mask of the second hollow, pinning them to the ground with one foot firmly planted atop their bodies. She would then grab her Zanpakuto with both hands and pull upwards as hard as she could, removing their heads that momentarily laid rest across her dadao before they dissipated completely.
“Whoa..” Rio would say to Jin as he pointed to the scene across from them. He nudged Jin to follow as he made his way over.
Suddenly, Mei would drop from the sky and land near everyone. Shion would be the first to notice what was happening, however, as it was right in front of her. The one-armed hollow kill was taken from her just as she was ready to go in for the finishing blow across its already-scratched mask, it began to turn into white ash and float in the direction of the warehouse. The human would jump from the boxes and take off running in the opposite direction of the Shinigami, stripping his safety vest off in the process. Mei glared in his direction before her eyes drifted to Shion and glared at her for a moment, before turning her attention towards everyone.
“I know you may be thinking I’m here to say good job, but in actuality your squadmate is going to die without help,” She nudged her head towards the warehouse. The Shinigami were able to make out a hulking white figure on the rooftop stomping towards something, while another one was being formed. Rio grinned and began to take off before Mei placed a hand on his chest, stopping him.
“No sir, this one's on the rookies. His life is in their hands,” she smirked,
“I’ve done everything I can to help him. We’re getting a headstart into the warehouse.” And with that, Rio frowned but obeyed and began making his way to the entrance alongside the woman.
Meanwhile…The night was interrupted by guttural growls as the trio of shadow hounds pressed the attack alongside Jinzo. The scythe user worked well in tangent with the dogs, his blade easily carving through the mask of hollow that carelessly jumps at him. His controlled strikes were accurate and fluid, using the long-range capabilities of his blade to strike in a sweeping motion. The blade managed to slice a few, while keeping the others at bay. Two hollow, however, managed to slip past his range and close in. Ready to strike, claws out, one would be stopped in its tracks as a singular red beam of Kido struck through its porcelain mask. A shadowy blur would lunge forward and tackle the other hollow. Its ominous red eyes glowing in the darkness, full of anger and hunger as its jagged teeth ripped through the hollow mask. Jinzo took a second to breathe, and in that instance noticed a large amount of spirit energy below him, inside the warehouse.
Jinzo would be able to make out three individuals within, near the larger amount of Reiatsu that was calling for him to consume. That momentary distraction was enough of an opening, however, as first he would hear a whine coming from one of the hounds before it slammed right into the side of his body. Jinzo would be sent rolling across the warehouse rooftop. Zanpakuto still in hand, he would slam the blade into the roof bringing himself to a skidding halt. The hound flying past him, however, would dissolve into the shadows.
There was a large, hulking, hollow stomping towards Jinzo. He would then notice the remaining hollow begin to dissipate, turning into white ash and gathering into a single point. Slowly, but surely, creating another hulking hollow that wasn’t quite finished yet. This was completely foreign to Jinzo, as the academy said nothing of hollow merging with one another. He would ready his blade as the hollow charged, however, the remaining four hounds would attack first. Emerging from the shadows, two hounds darted in and out from the side, launching quick and precise attacks. The other hound remained in the middle of the hollow and Jinzo, firing its lasers from a distance, though it had little effectiveness. The last hound would appear above the hollow, striking downwards with its claws creating scratch marks across the hollow mask. Enraged, the hollow roared and reached up to grab the hound and rip it in two with ease. The dogs were no longer a factor, but were doing enough to buy time until reinforcements came.
Tower Of The North
Asami, Yuto, Kobe, Tatsui - Hueco Mundo
The sudden lack of resistance completely unbalanced the hollow as it began falling forward, creating the perfect opening for Yuto to send an open-palm straight into its mask. Several cracks split across the mask and it pulled back and began to attack rapidly, however, Yuto would counter-attack by meeting the limbs head on with punches. The two were constantly going blow for blow, but Yuto’s strength was overbearing to the tiring hollow. Yuto swung hard with an uppercut, interrupting a straight attack aimed at his face, and sending the arm flying through the air. Yuto then came down hard with an overhand right, slamming into the hollow head and shattering half of the mask. He then sent a straight left into the torso of the spider-hollow, sending it skidding backwards. Yuto would charge forward, still seeing an opening, and slam both fists into the hollow, sending it flying upwards into the force-field above them. It exploded completely on impact, however, instead of dissipating it would explode into a green acid that began to drip downward near Tatsui.
Tatsui would grit his teeth as droplets of acid hit his shoulder, however it didn’t halt his charge as he rushed in and struck downward with his right. The spider would block with two legs raised, still receiving a nasty slash across one. Another leg struck forward, but Tatsui wasn’t fast enough to parry as it struck into his lower abdomen and twisted creating a nasty wound. With his left blade Tatsui struck downward and severed the spiky leg embedded into him. He jumped back with both blades at the ready, breathing becoming shallow as he recovered from the attack. Blood trickled from the wound.
Aya shattered the mask of one of the spider-hollow, and continued to dodge the rapid leg attacks from the second one behind her. She spun with her leg out, kicking the hollow causing it to spin. Aya ran behind it and grabbed two of its spiky legs, snatching them off with a single tug and piercing them into the mask of the hollow. She jumped back, awaiting the acidic explosion, but it seemed to only go off if the body was destroyed. She looked up at the massive hollow-drider, which was good to note. The drider stared down at them all, continuing to feed on the spirit energy of its captive. Two large spiky legs continued smacking down onto the forcefield to no avail. Aya glanced around, noting that everyone aside from Tatsui was free from their assailants. Asami had attacked cleverly, as the dark flames arose from her blade. Her kitsune tails flared and provided a dim light to the dark scenery as she dashed around, effectively aiming at the legs of the creature and finishing it off quickly as it was immobilized. That speed would be needed.
“Make sure whenever you attack, you go for the mask! If not, be fast enough to run!” Aya shouted, the Shinigami hearing her voice stern and serious for the first time since meeting her at the ceremony.
“Drop it Dei!”In an instant Deimos removed his hands and jumped back, creating space between the drider that dropped gracefully in the middle of everyone. Any other creature would have fallen to their deaths from that height. Aya showed no hesitation as she flash-steps forward, throwing a strike that was caught by the unnatural human-like hands of the human side of the drider. A glowing green orb emerged from its free palm and struck out towards Aya’s face but made no contact as Deimos intercepted the attack with a red Kido blast of his own. The collision caused a small explosion that spread dust across the room, effectively blinding the three momentarily. Yuto would have a choice between helping Tatsui or attacking the drider, however, Asami would see her chance as she had her mind made up already.
With incredible speed Asami shot upwards, slashing at the cobweb-tail that entrapped Kobe. Her blade would have gotten stuck normally, but the speed boost from her Shikai allowed her to slice through enough to free a weakened Kobe. Asami landed gracefully, noting the webs still attached to her blade that may cause problems with slicing. Kobe, however, landed less gracefully and stumbled almost to a fall. He gripped the table nearby, to keep himself upright as he took in a sharp breath. He gives a nod in thanks to Asami as he grips the hilt of his Zanpakuto.