A Human, Quincy, Shinigami, and Hollow Walk Into A Bar.

The dragon had decided to take a small trip away from his usual haunts, he left Hueco Mundo’s darkness, the cool embrace of the moon lit desert. The garganta led him to Japan, it had been a short time since his last visit. He picked up faintly a few other hollows, some tempting as dinner to the strange gillian. Yet that wasn’t what he had left his desert realm for, he reached out further his senses reaching into the electrical grid and spreading through the city. His eyes snapped open as he found what he was searching for, his wings spread as he took to the skies heading right to the strongest source of electric energy. It landed near a old nuclear reactor, the building looking as if it had been damaged in a earthquake yet was still online. With a bellow lightning rippled around the dragon, a clash of green and blue bolts that spiraled out around him, the surge flooded through Cazador as he pulled heavy on the electricity that the reactor was creating. The lightning built together into a powerful pillar of lightning that connected Cazador to the reactor, the shielding on the core slowly being stripped by the extreme surge of power. Slowly sending the core into meltdown as the dragon felt fully charged. Once more the beast took to the skies, he spent the next few days hunting hollows at his leisure as he moved through Japan, spreading his rein of fire and destruction across different parts of the country. Never spending enough time in one place to get tracked down before he escaped. The few shinigami he encountered that had managed to catch up to him quickly defeated and devoured by the beast.

In the background during this visit to earth he had sensed something always nearby, it was faint yet it came on the wind like the scent of prey. Cazador always seemed to find interesting prey when he caught those kind of smells. Yet he always seemed to come away still smelling it in the distance. This time however the smell was much stronger, something new was added to it but it was very enticing. The scent lead him to a old village, it was out of the way and very empty.. Or would be if it wasn’t for the multiple openings within the village drawing in hordes of the lesser hollow. The dragon bellowed his call to the lesser beasts, so caught up in the feeding frenzy they ignored the desert king as his features grew furious. Electrical energy surged around him as it reached towards the skies, several rapid bolts reaching up into the sky as it grew dark. Thunder rang through the village, it was then that the dragon finally saw the man who Cazador had been drawn to over the last few days. He declared himself a quincy, he faintly remembered that the bitch queen of Las Noches wanted quincy.

The dragon laughed as he slowly lowered himself to the ground swarming with lesser hollow as he pointed to Rick. “You wish to bring death to us?” He reached his hands upwards as the lesser beasts tried to attack him in their drive to eat, their fangs to weak to break through the hierro of the dragon. Twin bolts of lightning came down from the skies spinning and twisting around each other as they connected into Cazador’s palms. He crushed the bolts in his palms as lightning swirled around him blasting all of the lesser hollow around Cazador into a fine sand. “As long as the sands of Hueco Mundo stand so shall I!” He reared up to bellow his charge to the quincy, a eerie green light building in the dragon’s mouth as he readied a cero. The destructive force slowly building as lightning crackled around the muzzle of the beast


WC 644

It’d started as a small tickle amidst everything else that clamored for his attention. Somewhere, someone was starting something. With his perception spread across the Karakura, he couldn’t see anything too far outside the norm. That meant it had to be outside the city. If it weren’t for the sinking feeling in his gut and the rumors about a hollow that’d been terrorizing the better part of Japan for the last few weeks, he’d have let it go. He wasn’t all that strong, someone else could take care of it, but he felt like he couldn’t let this one go. How could he ever amount to anything more than what he was if he kept letting other people pick up the slack?

He’d taken to wearing an all black hoodie lately, it helped him blend in with the shadows as he moved. Bounding from rooftop to rooftop, he was grateful for the pseudo camouflage and for the fact that his light wasn’t as showy as Alex’s. The dull grey light that came from his use of the rooftop’s soul was much less noticeable than her bright green. Honing in on the disturbance, if one could call it that initially, it was a couple towns over. He’d been to the neighboring cities but he couldn’t recall going that far out.

As he grew closer to the ruckus, he began to see why he’d never come out that far. Housing became more scarce and shops all but vanished until he found himself on the outskirts of an abandoned village. It’d already been close to him but before he even set foot inside the village he pulled his soul closer to him until he was certain he’d vanish from perception.

As he walked the empty streets he could hear commotion on the other side of the village. He’d heard it from a ways off but now it was deafening. Various roars, sqwaks and guttural shouts that could only come from hollow filled the otherwise silent night air. Sensing a rather large presence coming toward the village, Marshal dived under an awning that was little more than driftwood while it passed overhead. He heard the beast land and judging from that alone he knew it had to weigh at least several hundred pounds, if not tons.

Using his sense like a second sight, he was able to see that the beast was indeed a hollow. It was the largest of the ones gathered and amidst them all was a quincy. He seemed determined, for what Marshal was unsure, but he didn’t seem surprised in the least to have all of the hollow around him. While he wasn’t sure how the quincy would have gone about doing so, Marshal guessed that he’d called the beasts there.

Even still, this was a lot of hollow to deal with. Peeling himself from against the wall he moved along what would have been the village side streets, avoiding the mayhem at what he assumed was the village’s square at all costs.

As he came around the corner of a house, he caught sight of a lion. Perfect. Reaching out he could feel the souls all around him. To his left were the hollow and the quincy, to the right were those of the trees, beneath him was the Earth, and before him was the stone lion. As he focused, he began to feel the inkling of the memories within the lion. The man painstakingly carving the detail, the workers transporting it, and the passersby in the village admiring it in its glory days.

Pulling on those memories, Marshal began to work his will on the lion. The stone shimmered a grey not much brighter than the stone’s own hue. Shaking its head as though warding off a pest, the lion stepped off its pedestal before letting out a roar. It quickly joined the thick frey of hollow, tearing its way through the weak on its way to the quincy’s aid at the bidding of its master.

[WC: 668][TWC: 668]

It had been about a month since Junko was re-assigned to patrolling Karakura town, it had been quiet for two weeks and she was getting rathered bored and began to watch the humans live out their lives day to day. Ever since her encounter with the Quincy know as Rick, Junko had been more interested in understand how humans lived. Giving that Junko was born and raised in a district so far out in the Rukongai that it didn't even have a number associated with it, she began to draw conclusions about how Humans have lived and how she has lived. Drawing on her useless human history knowledge she concluded that humans have it rather easy where she herself lived in what humans would call the age of the roman empire.

It was only when Junko fell asleep and relive her recurring nightmare of the aftermath of widespread destruction. However something was different, several senses began to tingle, several hollows and one big one, a familiarly Quincy, and something else that she could not really figure out or pinpoint all began to converge at a location in the outskirts of the city.

Junko bolted up right in the tree she was sleeping in as she noticed she had started sensing the area, this had surprised her as she was not normally able to focus enough to sense other souls. She just shook her head and began to jumping from tree to tree, roof top to roof top, slowly making her way there by her new found enjoyment of using her flash step, it wasn't fast or well performed, but it was adequate enough for simple travel in non-combat situations.

It took her awhile to eventually see an old ramshackle town on the horizon. She forcefully calmed with several deep breaths reeling her aura in an attempt to mask herself. This sudden calm came when she noticed Rick was not too far away make a wicked smile form on her face as she muttered. “Well, it seems we cross paths again Rick.”

anyone actively more skilled and actively searching would be able to find her, but Junko wanted to buy as much time as she could in scouting the area out while she attempted to mask her overall power levels to seem weaker.

It was during this preparation she saw the massive hollow and the swarm of smaller hollows show up effectively stamping Rick's death ticket in that all Shinigami had orders to eliminates all Quincy who are seen engaging and killing hollows, Junko was pleased to oblige this order.

As she moved closer to the conflict that odd energy reading began to show itself after disappearing earlier snapping Junko’s attention to some odd looking lion that seemed to be assisting Rick. Was it some Quincy toy that Rick constructed, she didn't know and decided to keep her distance and observe the battle longer looking for the opportune moment to strike.

490/490

Rick took his time blowing apart a few hollows, serving as a bit of a warm up for the bitter creatures. It was convenient for him that they would come to him instead of him having to look for them, keeping the residential areas a lot safer and clear of hollow activity. A weakling could still kill a grown adult or two, so getting rid of them still served a purpose. However, Rick paused when he felt the overwhelming spiritual energy of something heading to the abandoned village. Whatever it was, it was big, and it was strong. It felt familiar too, Rick knew that this was the creature he was looking for. The satellite surveillance that he received from using the vigilance technology gave him a good image of the target. On top of that, Rick’s Reiatsu Perception dowsing technique allowed to sense the lingering imprints of Reishi that’s been left over by a spiritual being or individual that’s been in an area before. It was like tracking footprints, and it was the easiest way to get familiar with notable threats. “Notable threats like this one…..or maybe that’s an understatement?” This was one humongous motherfucker, and Rick wasn’t sure if this hollow breed was compromising in any kind of way. On top of that, this creature definitely had a mouth on him. “Oh, thanks for the suggestion. Your legs first? Maybe your wings?” Rick was ready for anything, but something else happened. A rock like a creature, a little similar to the one that Rick saw earlier, had shown up.

“What the?” Tapping into his Reiatsu Perception, he could tell that there were some traces of spiritual energy being emitted from the animated creature. Thankfully, it seemed to Rick that whoever was in involved with the creature walking around in the way that it was, it felt human. “ Sup, glad you can going the party! better make tracks if you don’t want to get smashed out here. “ Rick would say as he took off running, in another direction throughout the village, aiming his Quincy weapon at the hollow creature. “Rapid Round!” Rick shot out one shell casing at the hollow that split apart into a barrage of blasts, aiming solely at the face and mouth of the hollow breed. To be honest, Rick was hoping that the hollow would get an eye damage or even choke on the cero it was about to fire. Either way, Rick was using it as a distraction to inflict some damage and be a bit mobile. His movement might seem random, but Rick was setting up something. As Rick continued his sprint, he made sure to give a good swing at the masks of a few hollows that came in his way.

WC 459
Total WC- 1258

Cazador could sense more and more signatures appearing and not all of them were hollow, though two of them appeared and just as quickly disappeared. The dragon didn't have time to focus on the two that vanished, he had a quincy before himself and dozens of lesser hollows. He showed a fang filled mouth to Rick as a mock smile, “Legs or wings it matters not they will regrow. Though I somehow doubt your limbs would.” The quincy shouted his attack as he moved away from the dragon, even with his Hierro he could feel the sting of those blows. The anger within the dragon built and the weather grew worse to match the dragons rolling temper. Thunder sounded throughout the village the powerful vibrations breaking a few of the nearby windows, With a growing bellow the eerie light of the cero within the dragon's mouth grew much larger as other orbs of sickly green light appeared around the dragon. The cero was blasted upwards into the darkening clouds as lightning shot between the cero and clouds.

As the blast contacted the clouds they seemed to swallow the blast and took on the green colour of the cero, the dragon thrashed against other hollows swooping smaller ones right into his mouth as he consumed them on the run, he spotted a stone lion nearby and with a backwards flick of his wrist two bala streamed off towards the creation. Cazador rotated his arms parallel to the ground tracking Rick rapid firing cero after the quincy. “It's only a matter of time before I catch you with one of these.” The sound of the explosions filled the air covering the din of the other hollows.

As if the sickly green sky could hold it's stomach no longer a rumble echoed across the sky as sheet lightning leaped along the clouds, just a few drops of rain fell at first from the clouds overhead and it almost seemed like the rain was over before heavy green rain started to fall along with the regular rain and where the green rain contacted something it exploded as if it was a small cero. “I do hope you don't mind a hail of cero's.” The dragon laughed as the hollow around him were caught in the blast of the rain. Giving up firing the cero's for a moment he used his sonido to move toward the edge of the village to avoid the worst of the rain that was soon to come.

WC 417/ 1061

Marshal instantly recognized what the largest of the hollow was charging, he'd seen too many of that specific kind of attack fly past him in the Seireitei to not know what it was. Luckily his natural finesse with souls let him seek for cover and still maintain control of the lion he'd put into his service.

He kept his footsteps silent, using the soul of the ground beneath him to smother any echoes, as he made his way inside one of the decrepit shell of a once beautiful building. Despite the relative darkness of his hiding place shadows danced as the hollow finally let loose the attack that it had been harboring. Through the broken beams of the roof's supports he could see light make its way into the clouds and the resulting chaos that, literally, rained down because of it.

Small scale explosions began to rock what remained of the village's buildings around the mortal as he watched the scene unfold with his second sight. His lion tore through various smaller hollows, doing its best to protect the other human in the midst of the fighting, while the hollows fought not only the quincy but themselves as well. He could feel some of them turn on each other, their hunger driving them to lose their focus. The other, bigger one likely didn't help their situation as it could probably have eaten them all in a matter of moments.

An anomaly caught his attention as he watched everything around him. Another entity had appeared at some point. This one was smart, they were hiding themselves from perception. Or, rather, they were trying to. It wasn't so much that he'd noticed /them/ as he'd noticed an absence or disturbance. A ripple in the surroundings, if you will. Still, they tried. He knew he could probably unmask them but he thought better of it, considering how thin he was already stretching himself with still controlling the lion.

Turning his attention back to his lion, he pulled more of its soul. Like a soft putty in his hands, he found it more malleable now that he'd worked with it some. Constructing a framework in his mind he moved the soul so that it fit around his ideas, careful not to break it. The result was his creature growing in size and its fangs, as well as its claws, becoming sharp as blades. Now, he reasoned, if the quincy so chose he could remove himself from the midst of the hollows and ride the beast.

[WC: 421][TWC: 1089]

Junko remained observant of the actions of the larger Hollow, seeing its cero taint the sky and make green cero rain. She was impressed by the creativity of this as she watched the beast unload several smaller moments prior to the cero hail that would be carpet bombing the inner area of the village.

It seemed to her that the outer edges were safe and thus attempted to maneuver closer to the larger hollow when it suddenly flashes to the outer edges to avoid its storm. The fighting style of this beast started to become clear to Junko “a ranged fighter” she thought to herself.

With the beast now closer to herself, she made her move sprinting at a fast past toward the beast before flash stepping behind the creature to attempt to grab it by its tail and flip it over in an effort to smash it into the ground with her surprising strength and skill. Her flash step would have announced her presence, but the real question was how quick could the larger hollow react?

177/667

"Ya, I’m pretty sure they don’t. So how about you keep your distance there big guy? “

Of course, Rick wasn’t the most conventional Quincy. He didn’t use a sword, and he definitely used a firearm, but his game wasn’t anything like a keep away contest. Rick would bait the monstrosity of a hollow if he could order to get it close enough. If it wanted to take its chances by cornering Rick, it would soon figure out his damage is at its heightened potential when the hollow crosses the line of personal space. However, that green cero was something else, the mere sight of its devastating potential was something that made Rick second guess his plan. Is it possible that he managed to be underprepared for this creature?

“Let's hope this works. “

At the very most, Rick had to believe in himself, as well as his instincts for battle. He was too far in to turn back, that hollow was quite the nuisance to the people of the area and had to be taken care of. The rain of cero like lighting further supported Rick’s point.

” Guard!”

A small roof of soul synthesized silver formed over Rick’s head, as it took the brunt of the raining barrage of Cero’s. However, it continued to chip away after every hit. “The fuck, this thing is unbelievable. “ Rick had to act fast, the hollow might not use that attack again.

“ Connect……”

Spreading out his Reiatsu perception in order to connect with his custom made Seele Schneider, he tested the limitations of his creative mind and a powerful Quincy technique that’s used through the use of Seele Schneider.

“ Triple Anhäufer!!!”

The result was something to behold, it seemed as if quite a bit of the rain of lightning cero was starting to break down into its base form of reishi, add then gathering somewhere else to be absorbed. There were three points in general, and Rick would hope that the result of the attacks being broken down like that would seem too odd to the hollow. I hope it’s not smart enough to fuck with my spirit cutters. I’m going to need those. “Not only as it gathering the energy being expended by the hollow, it was also protecting the area from the reckless and damage that the attack might have potentially cause. Any sort of stray lightning strike would be fatal for any regular human, or the amateur spiritualist that seemed to be giving Rick a hand. It would protect them to a degree, but Rick knew that the end result of defeating this creature wouldn’t be safe for anyone.

“Please…don't notice.”

While praying to the nonexistent god in the universe for the Hollow to not notice after running out of cover, Rick’s reiatsu perception would, in fact, notice something else. It was someone he met before, someone that caused him quite a bit of trouble.

" She’s here?! Why? How? "

How did she avoid Rick’s reiatsu perception and sneak up on him like that? He wanted this to be a quick bout, but it seemed to be getting more and more complicated. As a matter of fact, the footsteps of some huge beast was an offsetting the flow of Rick’s thinking process a bit.

“Badum, Badum…”

What could that possibly be? Another hollow?

” No….. it’s the same as before. “

Looking a bit in the distance, Rick some kind of rock lion that was heading over to the group. He stared at the strange scene for a few seconds, wondering who this person was. However, he felt like the shinigami deserved more attention as he headed her way.

You weren't invited to this party Junko!”

He didn’t attack as of yet, Rick had too much on his plate at the moment. The Hollow was his main concern, he didn’t want to waste his energy on another firefight with Junko and her spiritual guardian bullshit. That caught him off guard, and simply thinking about their encounter made his shoulder sting a little.

WC 668
Total WC 1926

As lightning flashed the hollow turned to grab another nearby hollow picking them up and dropping them into his mouth, his stormcaller cero had begun to smash the village. More than one fire had been started and was slowly spreading through the village, however Cazador noticed when the storm should have been hitting it’s peak it was falling a little flat. Pausing for a moment to think on what could be causing it was just the time needed for a female shinigami to appear and quickly trip up the dragon, while he might have been to heavy to toss doesn’t mean she didn’t throw him off balance sending him to the dirt. A huge cloud of dirt and dust rose up into the air blotting out the dragon for a moment.

In the cloud the Dragon reached out with his senses, he wasn’t very good at doing anything other than finding food sources, yet his favourite food was shinigami. Locking onto the nearby female shinigami, he could hear the quincy shouting at her and he chuckled to himself. With a powerful flap of his wings he blew the cloud of dust away, revealing the beast standing once more, only built within the mouth of the dragon was a huge black cero.

Taking aim for Junko he formed a lightning bolt within his hands tossing it towards her hoping to force her closer to rick before following up the attack with his cero oscuras. The jet black beam was pencil thin as it fired, Cazador turning his head to increase where the beam hit, once it touched something it exploded outwards and upwards creating a huge shockwave. “Touch me again shinigami and I’ll show you the true power of my lightning.” He raised the voltage of the electric current within his body bringing it to the surface, touching him would be a double dose of acid touch and lightning.

WC 318/1379

The situation was bad and it was only getting worse. His lion was tearing through most of the smaller hollow, sustaining only minor damage here and there. The quincy had, foolishly, chosen to stay grounded instead of riding it but that wound up being for the better. Through his second sight the fullbringer could feel the large draconic hollow charging another spiritual attack. A cero, probably, if his past attacks were any indication but this one didn’t seem to be a run of the mill type either. It felt stronger. More dangerous. The quincy was going to be in trouble and so would the shinigami that’d come into the fray. There was no ‘good’ way to go about the situation, he was going to lose something one way or another. Either it was his lion, or the lives of the other two combatants.

He reached out, reinforcing the stone creature to withstand as much damage as possible before directing it at the largest hollow. Really, it was the only one around with any sort of sentience. The lion leapt into the air, catching the lightning bolt in its right rear flank. The force of the bolt sent it flying and crashing into one of the burning buildings. Marshal felt the soul of the creature giving way, too strained to continue being used as it was. He silently thanked it for its service before carefully unwinding its soul so it could be put to rest.

Placing his hand on the soft soil amidst the broken foundation of the building he was hiding in, the fullbringer found the steadily beating soul of the Earth. He no longer needed to plea with the soul for it to bend to his whim, instead it simply gave to his will. One by one his fingers sank beneath the surface to let the soul wind itself around them. After feeling sufficiently anchored, he allowed himself a small test. A tiny hand appeared next to his wrist, grabbing on with more strength than he’d intended.
Despite the relative pain, he smiled. It’d work. Pushing himself, he reached out and extended his will to the ground just beside the dragon. With a little rumbling and brief, localized quakes a hand the height of two grown men rose from the ground and began to swipe at the beast.

[WC: 389][TWC: 1,478]

Junko was able to toss the dragon of balance and into a big kick up of dirt as it landed with a thud. The voice of rick could be heard and her only reply would be with her large raspy voice, “ONLY A CHILD THINKS THIS IS A PARTY!”

Then dust filled her face and she activated her barrier which burn the rest away. The large dragon like Hollow had used its wings to clear the dust, and within its mouth was a huge black cero followed by a lighting strike of some sort aimed right at her.

Only a strange lion like creature had intercepted the bolt shield her from the blow before being tossed into the buildings behind them. The parts that broke of disintegrated as it struck her protective barrier which was now reinforced.

The black Cero would arc toward Junko and strike her barrier, she used her full force and even direction the barrier fully into the front. It was too much and Junko had to escape she left her barrier to fail and explode outward by the cero overloading it, and in the mists of the explosion she barely managed to use shunpo to escape the blast.

Her clothes were tattered and she had burn marks all over her body she was lucky. Her choice now was what should she do, go after Rick whom has killed many souls, or go after this large hollow?

This hollow mostly likely has absorbed more souls and power then rick has ever killed, thus she could not let Rick double his kill count.


This explosion masked her use of shunpo, she would appear right behind rick in an attempt to get his spine as her reward. She would start with a right hook to his right kidney as her knowledge told her, “bodyshots slow the fast ones down”

310/977

Rick didn’t necessarily care about the interference of the lion. The person that had control of the construct probably had their own reasons for being there. But right now, Rick had his own troubles with the Shinigami being present. He didn’t think that this hollow was a minor influence that he could pass up on, the crimes against humanity that it committed had exceeded any warranted interference from a Shinigami, this was a job that he wanted to do on his own. Rick believed that the dragon had to obtain its conclusion by the manpower of a Quincy, it was the only means he was going to rest easy at night. This continuous struggle of recycling foes was tiresome to hear the Shinigami preach about, and his previous tussle with Junko didn’t warrant any kind of good will. Of course, Rick made a small joke with their encounter, but they sure as hell weren’t friends.

It was really funny to see Junko get worked up by the hollow, this giant lizard really had some accomplishments. The first thing that it did was to bring about some lightning in order to force some movement from Junko, bringing her closer to Rick.

“I don’t like where this is leading. “

It really did seem that the black cero was supposedly a two-person deal, dragging Junko closest to him and potentially taking both of them out. Even if it wasn’t directed at Rick, the collateral damage of the shockwave that the cero produced can still be capable of killing someone. Rick wasn’t about to underestimate this dragon.

For the sake of setting up a proper guard, Rick created a dense layer of soul synthesized granite. The jagged spiritual constructs rose up as if it was a moving ridge of water that came to protect the Quincy at his command. With it stabilizing, even if the cero did hit the construct head on, Rick would at least be able to manage the full brunt of the blast. It was a bit comical to see Junko still acting like an amateur from the way she handled the brunt of the assault, but Rick changed his tune after he realized that she was coming after him.

“Trying to take out the competition huh? Alright, I’ll take you both out then. “

He wasn’t surprised, of course, she would set her sights on Rick. That kill order was still up, and with an indication of it going away anytime soon, Rick had to be prepared to fight if he made any sort of contact with a Shinigami. Junko would attempt to appear behind Rick in a blink of an eye with the use of a higher focal ratio, but his reiatsu perception and control over his spirit weapon were basically second nature at this point. Her punch would be fitted with the quick draw of the master marksman, basically inhuman at this stage when it gets to his aim and the twist of a trigger. The shotgun was also one handed and light, suffering no material effect on his capabilities.

Boasting the mobility of his spirit weapon, a quick aim with his left hand was followed by a Quincy bullet made of reishi. It was fired at Junko’s right wrist in order to attempt a clash with her. He was confident that his shots were as strong as Junko’s punches to a degree, maybe even stronger if he wanted it to be.

Still, Rick wasn’t finished with her yet, there was yet more to his counter attack than he let on. By adjusting the aim more to Junko’s midsection, he fired once more. This time, it was Rick’s silver cannon. Wasting no time, he made it known to Junko that he had no intention of holding back by fire a spherical blast of spiritual silver in the form of a giant cannonball. The reinforced alloy of the soul synthesized attack was packing an incredible power and density that specialized in breaking through armor and defenses. Not only that, this attack was fired at point blank range, which led to a few questions. Was Junko’s shunpo skilled enough to extend the length of a giant cannon ball? Was her dragon shield stronger than Rick’s ultimate wrecking ball?

Either way, Junko was an obstacle that Rick had to get rid of. The hollows kept coming because of the amount of hollow bait he used, he couldn’t leave his task unfinished.

WC 737
Total WC 2663

Cazador was surprised that anything was left after his powerful cero let alone that a strange lion statue had charged and took the lightning bolt though somewhere within the beast the destruction brought a base feeling of satisfaction. A hunger rose in the dragon and he seemed free at the moment to consume as the quincy and the shinigami battled, just as his wings extended to beat and take the dragon aloft the ground shook. Emerging from the soil around his legs was a large hand, swatting at the dragon the sound of the rocky ground scraping along the dragon's hierro screeched through the air. The anger of the hollow was pretty infamous in Hueco Mundo and soon it would be on Earth as well, A deep rumbling growl rose in the dragon's throat, twice now something interfered with his hunt. Lightning quick a cero built in the palm of the beast as he fired it at the swiping hand, his wings beating hard to take him airborne. Lightning arcing between himself and the clouds as he flew in a circle over the village, he needed a new plan and he needed it quickly. He spotted a large group of small hollow all sorts of odd appendages and parts each contorted and deformed, taking a fine thread of lightning he mentally built a barrier of lightning caging them in as the dragon swooped down feasting on the land-locked hollows. He could feel his energy reserves swell as his body took advantage of the fresh feeding, he flew upwards quickly the village growing smaller and smaller below him before he stopped, high in the air above the village his vision partly obscured by the rolling thunderheads.

He reached deep within himself recalling the storm, slowly the clouds swirled around the dragon, lightning striking the beast over and over. His hide gleamed bronze in the light, his only chance was to try a experimental attack, a combination of the speed and multiple attacks with the force and explosive power of a cero. Like tiny black flames rising from the body of the dragon, balls of reiryoku forming into cero's and splitting over and over filling the air behind the dragon, lightning leaping from Cazador to the floating orbs causing lightning to arc between them filling the sky with jagged sheet lightning. The effort of such control dragged on Cazador, sweat rising to the surface of his hide making him shimmer and steam. He lifted his right arm above his head as if giving the signal to start the race the blasts leaped into motion, each speeding toward the ground in an effort to exterminate the village completely.

Gliding behind the attack he skimmed low snatching hollow from the ground eating the smaller ones mid-air while dropping larger ones over where he last saw the shinigami and the quincy. He still couldn't find the source of the hand nor the lion but they couldn't be far, his hope was the rampant destruction would bring them out of whatever place they had found to hide

WC 511/ 1890

Marshal felt the hollow crush his earthen hand, the remains falling to the ground in a heap of rubble and a plume of dust. While the other two, annoyingly, bickered between themselves he watched the hollow fly into the air with his sixth sense. No doubt it was planning something but what exactly it was was a mystery.

Dry layers of dirt fell freely from his hand and wrist as the fullbringer pulled his arm from the depths of the ground. The beast was too far to sense with all the commotion around, so he crept to the edge of the building in an attempt to see where it had gone and what it was doing. The shadows hugged him close, hiding him from the sight of any hollows nearby as he crouched beneath what remained of the building’s overhang. Clouds above the city raged indicating a coming storm, just what kind of storm would befall the town would have to be seen though.

He watched as tiny fragments appeared within the clouds, like dancing little stars amidst the sickly black of the clouds. Their numbers grew and every so often he could catch a glimpse of the monster hiding within the storm, seemingly the source of the lights. Energy radiated from inside it, a huge source of power clearly being built up within.

As the energy seemed to reach its peak, jagged bolts of destruction began to rain down on the small village. Looking around, Marshal knew more of the village would be destroyed than left in the wake of the attack. Too many memories had been made here to let them be washed away in the burning hellfires of a senseless attack, something had to be done.

Just as Cazador had raised his arm to send the bolts into motion, the fullbringer raised his own to bring up a sturdy wall of debris to block the incoming assault. Try as he might though, he was exhausted. He could feel himself just barely hanging onto the structure as it was.

“Hey!” he raised his voice, not bothering to draw in reishi to amplify or translate his words. He was more concerned about surviving than he was communicating fluently. The Quincy and Shinigami simply needed to know urgency was needed and tone would be more than enough for that. “If you two wouldn’t mind helping out, maybe all of us can get out of here alive.”

Just for added effect he let his reiatsu slip out into the open, effectively revealing himself. He bore his intentions down on the other mortal and his grappling partner, making sure they knew full well that he may not have been stronger but it was in their best interest to listen to him.

[WC: 459][TWC: 1,937]

Junko’s kidney shot on the Quincy was deflected by their quick reaction by use of his gun. Her hand took a direct shell, and the force of her punch and the bullet cancelled each other out. The Shinigami was surprised that he was able to use a gun to defend himself in melee, but her surprise soon turns to shock as a massive cannonball shot from point blank crashed right into her gut. Her barrier buckled and failed as her feet dug into the ground, the force pushing her back fifteen yards and knocking the air out of her lungs. Junko’s hands held onto the cannonball and as she stared at it with watery eyes. Her gut was bruised and her muscles were tendered as if she just did a thousand sit-ups.

A voice in her head would growl lowly from the pain that Junko seemed to have just received. Junko, however, had no time to notice this as black fiery cero landed between them, and exploded. Kicked up tree’s and dirt and reshi would fly at both her and the Quincy, her reaction to bring her barrier back up to withstand the debris and reshi.

Junko’s visibility was reduced but she calmed herself and focused on the reshi belonging to Rick, she would yell out at him, “You forgot your cannonball” as she soccer kicked it back toward him, aiming for his face. She was not stupid enough to let that be her only attacked, and would shunpo after the cannonball punch it into Rick's face.


During the deafening sound of Ricks weapon, and the exploding Cero’s Junko did not hear or notice Marshals presences at all


278/1255

It was certainly impressive with the way that the dragon hollow was calling on the storms, having these dangerous lightning cero’s at its beck and call. Still, for a while today, none of the others knew about the three seele that Rick had set in the fringes of the deserted village, sipping away at the streaks of lightning that plummeted into the land, weakening the effects and increasing the blast capacity of the potential detonation that Rick had in store. If anything, Rick was putting them to autopilot, and the mental connection that maintained was completely connected to the fact that he still remained conscious. If that was to ever change, the Anhäufer gathering for all three Seele would start to fail. For the time being, it was the hidden obstacle that decreased the destruction potential of the storm, as well as standing as Rick’s win condition against the hollow horde. The full bringer was addressing Rick, but the Quincy was unable to harm him. Even if the power of the aoe attacks were not as disruptive as they can potentially be, the sound of the blasts and repetitive crackling of thunder was deafening. Never mind hearing what the other had to say, Rick would be lucky if he was even able to hear at all when this fight is over. If there was anything that caught Rick’s attention, it was the fact that an amateur was struggling to handle the dragon on his own, and Rick had the strangest impression that this mortal was running short to get badly hurt if he didn’t do something. Taking his chances by calling out to the guy, he desired that the newly granted information would encourage the fullbringer to stay clear of the field.

“ I’ll be honest, you shouldn’t be here. This place is rigged-“

His sentence was cut off with the cero landing right in the middle of Rick’s position and far off distance of where Junko was pushed back after Rick went on the offensive. Was this hollow getting stronger? Rick figured that the thunder strikes should be lower and happening less often, but after catching a glimpse of the dragon scooping a mouthful of hollows into its mouth as if it was all you can eat buffet, it left Rick to assume the worst. He had to put some damage on the thing, but the new focus on the hollow wasn’t a great thing for him, only due to the fact that Junko still wouldn’t back off. At the niche of his eye was the vision of the same cannon ball that he shot not too long ago, but this time, it was heading right for Rick.

“Are you kidding me? “

This was new, no one simply picked it up and threw it back at him before, but that was probably because opponents knew better when it came to Quincy constructs. Combining his focus, along with the mastery of reishi manipulation at his disposal, the giant cannonball started to deteriorate before his very eyes. Yet, with every second counting against the unorthodox counterattack, a human body remained in the tails of the vicious assault. It was none other than Junko, heading towards Rick at a high velocity with a closed fist. He didn’t really have the time to provide a proper countermeasure, it was sudden, and Rick couldn’t take the hit without lowering the potential damage that would have been done.

The quickest thing he could conceive of was constructing some kind of soul synthesized concrete hand, but it was effortlessly punched through as Junko’s knuckles connected with Rick’s face. The damage was lowered a bit, only the side of Rick’s mouth was totally flushed with blood. His mind was terribly rattled, the shockwave of the blow was felt all around Rick’s upper body. Junko likely had the aim to obliterate him with that punch as well. Nevertheless, Rick was a resourceful Quincy and held no intention of dying here. If there was a downside, Rick’s head was rattled, making him lose connection the mental link with one of the Seele Schneider. There were only two left that were active.

“That stupid woman is always ruining everything. “

After flying back 20 meters, Rick managed to regain his composure and constructed a Reishi trampoline to interrupt his ragdoll motion. On the peak of that, he used the gesture that was created by the force of Junko’s punch in order to blow up the launching distance of the soul synthesized trampoline, which was positioned straight at the dragon in the sky. After rebounding off the trampoline, Rick was launched at an incredible speed that some would think worth for Carnival tryouts, aiming right at the spine of the dragon as it fled. He decided to test the hierro of the dragon by launching the very same cannonball attack at the left wing of the dragon in an attempt to clip the being and knock it out of the sky. If he was to have any chance at all, he needed the creature to be grounded.

WC 844
Total WC- 3507

Rising and falling with the storm Cazador had feasted while others battled, his senses almost blocked out by the hollows that had been called to the bait. Yet he had been searching while he hunted for the source of the hands and it felt it, his hunger rising in his throat along with his thirst for vengeance. Turning on the spot in a sharp dive which let the dragon twist around he briefly noticed the shinigami and the quincy now fighting in close range, he wasn't sure how long that would last for the quincy the woman seemed like a hand to hand specialist. He could see the mortal ahead of himself, lightning coursed through Cazador's body as he built a cero powerful enough to level a building and fired it toward's Marshal. The air around the beast seemed to scream in protest against the malevolent energy in the attack, mean while the dragon had not taken notice of the now airborne quincy. The moment danger rang through the beast's senses like a alarm he turned his head to see a cannonball flying towards him to quickly to dodge, the attack catching him in the wing causing a screech first from his hierro then from the beast as he spiraled towards the ground.

Crashing through tree raising dust and debris around his crash site, flesh peeled away from his torso in long gruesome strips, his wing which was hit riddled with holes. The beast slowly rose from it's small chasm, even to someone poor at sensing emotion through energy could feel the anger almost dripping from the dragon. He leaned his torso forward as let let loose a unearthly bellow more thunderous then all the thunder and lightning crashing overhead. His reiatsu flared around sending stray bolts of lightning around the area, steam began to rise from the dragon his wounds closing and the flesh knitting back together. Not only was this monster able to withstand powerful attacks what does make it through is healed by his regeneration. It seemed like the more logical parts of the hollow's persona had taken a backseat to his anger and lust for revenge.

The ground below the hollow shook violently as a massive black ball of reiryoku formed within the mouth of the dragon, his jaws unhinged as it stretched larger and larger. His golden eyes glowing with fury as he watched Rick, this cero oscuras wasn't going to be spread over a area, no this one was made with Rick's name on it as lightning coursed around the growing orb. The lightning seeming to lose it's colour as it moved over the black cero, turning white as the ball reached it's peak. The blast was released the force of the cero exiting the mouth of the beast pushing the dragon backward, claws making furrows in the ground as Cazador resisted the force. Once the blast left the beast sagged from the exertion taking a knee to catch his breath. Wounds still healing his underside was mostly healed his wing no longer was riddled with holes yet still sat at a awkward position, terrible cracking sounds could be heard as the bones were being pushed by muscle fibre into the right place.

WC 539/2429

The Quincy’s words seemed to ring true as the hollow flew at the fullbringer, cero charged and ready. He didn’t belong here. As the orb of destruction flew in his direction, he couldn’t help but believe it. Finally, he accepted he didn’t belong in the foreign nation.

He’d all but accepted his fate as the cero crept ever closer, the air all but announcing its arrival as it screeched in it’s wake. He was a disappointment. He felt sorry for Sekai. He didn’t know what happened to her or where she went. Freylief, too. She’d vanished from the area but he still heard rumors of her movements in the Quincy organization. With a shaky breath, he allowed himself to recall Alex.

From what he’d been able to gather, she was just like him. Someone who was broken. Though she claimed she’d done it herself, at least in part in the form of her latest power. Despite the other two women having encountered him first, she was the one he felt closest to. The only that felt most like family. The most like home.

Something sparked in his mind, then, as he pictured his teacher’s face. His home was going to be wherever he made it, regardless of what may have happened in the past. He either made a stand here, or he was washed away in the face of this attack. The last option was, arguably, worse. If he did live through it, he’d have to walk in shame back to Alex. He’d have to tell her what he’d done. Or, more accurately, what exactly he hadn’t done.

He wouldn’t fall here, this would not be the sight of his grave. He’d show not just the Quincy but everyone else that’d ever looked down on him that they were wrong. No matter what, he’d do what he had to to survive.

The wall of Earth stood tall, sectioning off a part of the village from the surrounding forest and reaching up to the sky. It had done its job in blocking the majority of the hollow’s cero rain but it was far from out of commission. His skin rippled as his natural pale complexion was replaced by an ashy grey. He loathed to use his power but as it stood, his options were limited.

As the Quincy miraculously brought the dragon to the ground, he issued the space beneath it to soften to a quicksand consistency. Not particularly caring whether or not the hollow was stuck, Marshal sprung toward his wall of Earth. As his grey palm met its surface, a filthy oil like substance inked its way across the expanse of the wall.

“Hey, Quincy,” this time he used his reiatsu to carry his words, letting them ring louder than they had before. “Ever played ‘the floor is lava’?”

The fullbringer rose into the sky, his steps into the open air were quick as he dismissed the wall of Earth to wash down the open streets of the village, a tsunami of dirt, soil, and debris from the battle.

[WC: 510 ][TWC: 2,447]