Snakes Without Sin
Ageha, Jinzo, Shion, Jingorō - Human World
The journeymen continued working hastily while moving, oblivious to the intense battle they were leaving in their wake. The insect hollow got as low as possible and scattered forward, while the bat hollow remained in the air flapping its wings. Suddenly, once the insect got close, with unnatural intelligence the bat shot forward with one claw out. Jin, prepared to defend himself from the claw attack, would soon be accompanied by a red-haired Shinigami crashing down from the sky. A thick, red, fist made of spiritual energy slammed directly into the Bat mask causing him to drop to the ground with a resounding THUD! Rio would send spirit energy into the punch, and not a second later would the hollow expand and then BURST! Not violently, or enough to harm anyone, but loud enough to draw attention from the emerging hollow.
Rio pivoted to look at Jin, who would almost begin getting constricted by the centipede-like hollow if it weren’t for his already prepared defense. As the insect swirled around Jin quickly on the ground, and began to rise, Jin would
just be able to catch several of the legs in a single slash as he jumped out of the way. Just as Jin landed, Rio would leapfrog over him and then land behind the insect still writhing in pain. “BATTER UP!” He would yell with a smile as he spun around and slammed two fists into the back of the hollow, literally sending it
flying towards Jin. Though, with proper timing and the right angle, Jin would be able to slice right through the mask with a single attack if he so chose to. Rio would turn around, ready to face the emerging hollow from the ground, as well as from a set of boxes. Twelve altogether, while another set of humans now began walking in their direction once more.
“Looks like we’re the ground unit Jin,” he grinned once more,
“Just back me up once I move in, okay? Remember, human safety comes first, not mine!” He would begin charging forward, once Jin was prepared.
Meanwhile, charging downwards like a torpedo, Ageha would connect perfectly with the mask of the larger hollow. The increased strength from her sudden release, as well as the momentum from the full-speed plummet, would have made up for the limiter restricting her strength. In any other case, she would have completely obliterated this hollow. As Ageha connected
hard with the downward strike, her blade would slice halfway through the mask before she would feel a large fist slam into her stomach and send her skidding backwards through the air. A perfectly-timed counter-attack that would take a sharp breath out the woman, as her ribs might have been bruised from the assault.
The hollow clearly had a deeper sense of intelligence to pull off a counter-attack that softened its blow, and even more so seemed desperate to get to the operator at the top. The mask was halfway split, crumbling, while dark ash began emerging from it. It was dying, slowly, but quickly making its way up the crane. Ageha had a choice, leave it to die and help her team
now or finish it off before it reaches the top and then proceed forward. She had a good view of everything around her, except for Shion and the human behind the boxes.
The human, a young man no more than nineteen or twenty years old, quickly lowered his head as his shaggy hair fell forward. One fist was clenched around a cross necklace while the other hung to his side. He stood, visibly shaking.
”P-P-Please….” His voice remained low,
”I promise I didn’t see anything. Please just don’t kill me! Shion would notice his spirit energy was unusually high, yet what would feel foreign to most Shinigami Shion would feel more familiar with. Yet, she couldn’t put her finger on
why. Shion would also notice the hollow creeping up on the boxes scattered off after a loud explosion. It opened up the opportunity to have a conversation, yet she had no idea what caused the explosion. The choice was in her hands.
Mei remained at the same height the entire time, analyzing everyone and the decisions they made. Her eyes lingered on Jinzo the entire time he was frozen, but something told her it was more than cold feet. The thought was further supported when he snapped out of it and rushed in, immediately releasing his Shikai just like Ageha. It was adorable, trying to play the hero, but he’d only get himself killed. Although many of the hollow were in pain by the release, they were relentless in their attack and Mei was inclined to let him learn. The range of Jinzo’s scythe as well as his footwork allowed him to pivot and misdirect many of the lunges and attacks thrown at him. However, they seemed to be learning as they began lunging in tandem with each other. Once he’d parry one hollow, two would attack with at least one attack connecting. A slash, right across his ribs. Blood began soaking his shirt, the copper and iron-like smell infesting his nose. The wound was by no means fatal or even enough to slow him, but it stung enough for him to know that too many of them meant trouble. If it wasn’t for the absorption of the hollow literal bodies keeping them relatively at bay, all twenty would have swarmed him.
While the thought of Jinzo’s Zanpakuto being the savior of his life was nice, Mei saw it as trouble. Normally they wouldn’t care about pain and would just attack regardless. These were by no means high level hollow, but they seemed to be in sync and have a higher level of intelligence. She frowned as she drew her Zanpakuto, holding it vertically in front of her face.
“Howl to the heavens, Shadows!” A silver spiritual energy unleashed from the woman as her blade grew gradually smaller, smaller, and smaller until the size of a dagger. She flipped it in her hands before flicking her wrist and sending the blade straight at Jinzo! However, it flew right past him, leaving a minor cut on his cheek. The blade impaled the ground before five
hounds made of shadow appeared, surrounding Jinzo and barring their fangs at the hollow. Their eyes glowed red, and Jinzo could sense it was Kido. The shadows themselves seemed unaffected by the draining of Gouyokuou, while wisps from the eyes drifted towards Jinzo. Two of the hounds charged forward, sinking their teeth and tackling various hollow leaving many openings. The other three, however, remained and seemed to be protecting Jinzo. They opened their mouths and fired lasers of Kido, striking through various masks turning hollow to ash. Jinzo was free to continue defending or take advantage of the ensuing chaos in front of him. Mei, however, remained in the air to watch over everyone.
Tower Of The North
Asami, Yuto, Kobe, Tatsui - Hueco Mundo
The senior Shinigami listened to their reasoning and as it stood, taking care of the threat in front of them, found to be the majority vote. That was their priority then. They approached the door as Deimos pushed it open. A small
creek accompanied the opening as dust flew into the air, almost enough to make them cough if they weren’t on a stealth mission. Cautiously making their way down a dusty, spiral staircase they would finally reach their destination. What one would think might be a dungeon or basement, was actually a large dining hall. Though the wooden tables and chairs long since eroded by rot, they could possibly be used as impromptu weaponry if one so desired. Deimos swiped away at the cobwebs that were undisturbed for possibly centuries, while Aya rapidly shook cobwebs from her face resisting the urge to
scream,
Deimos' eyes were searching for their target as they continued to walk forward. The room was completely empty, before the realization hit him. Spiders live
up. That’s when he looked up, and to his surprise, he could see the ceiling up to twenty feet before it cascaded into darkness. His eyes widened, he knew they took a while to get down there, but how far were they really? That’s when suddenly a spiderweb shot down from the darkness, hardening mere seconds before impaling Deimos’ shoulder and sending him to one knee. He grit his teeth, refusing to scream regardless of the blown cover.
“Everyone get-” Aya wouldn’t be able to finish her sentence as she could barely make out white in the darkness up top. Another attack. With great speed she dropped her dome and pushed Tatsui out of the way, the hardened spiderweb spike aiming for his head instead slicing Aya in the forearm though she gave no reaction. Two regular spiderwebs shot downwards, one instantly entrapping Kobe and pulling him upwards into the ceiling. Asami, however, was able to jump cleanly out of the way thanks to her good speed.
Soon after, however, a hollow would drop from the ceiling bearing eight legs resembling a spider. Two legs raised into the sky and dropped down, aiming to impale Yuto. However, barely in enough time would he be able to draw his Zanpakuto and block the attack. The hollow continued pressing down, however, Yuto’s physical strength was more than enough to hold off the attack. It was a battle of strength, and Yuto was winning.
Four more spider-like hollow would drop from the ceiling. One near Asami, one near Tatsui, and two on either side of Aya. Their legs attacked relentlessly against Aya who was more than fast enough to dodge said attacks, while preoccupied trying to find an opening, using Hakuda to instantly shatter the mask of one.
“No more of them!” Deimos was left alone. He took a breath before pulling the spike out of his shoulder and tossing it on the ground. The tattoos on his arms glowed once more as he slammed his hands on the ground. That same, red, energy flowed through the room before creating a transparent-red, horizontal, force field above them. In perfect timing as a massive, white, spider landed atop of the forcefield. The only difference between it and a regular spider being that it had a torso resembling a woman, with a hollow mask on its face. On the body was attached a singular spiderweb, suspended in the air almost like a scorpion’s tail, hung a wiggling Kobe as he began feeling his spirit energy being drained. An almost human-like laugh emerged from the spider, growing increasingly unhuman as time went on.
Deimos looked back at the group.
“I can’t move while I hold this barrier up! Let me know when I should drop it!” Deimos was prepared to drop the barrier at a moment’s notice to spring up and attack the spider, or save Kobe, depending on the actions of others. Would they prioritize the enemy in front of them, or their teammate?