Pursuit [Closed,Lent]

It had taken some time, but eventually life amongst the humans felt normal once more. Since Levi's claim to the throne Lent dedicated most of her time managing the Desenmascardo in his place. Strengthening their Yakuza ties, and spreading their influence. Unfortunately, due to their heightened spiritual energies, Hollow tend to wander in to get a snack. Usually without incident, but every so often one of the members gets cocky and goes off on their own and ends up chow for mindless beasts. This is why Lent was here, to hunt down the small surge of Hollow in the area.

Why would a leader choose to enter themselves into a dangerous situation? First of all, She wasn't limited to the fleshy confines of a body. Secondly, It is how she keeps her hunger in check, the last thing she needed was to give into the primal urge to hunt in the middle of her hard won underlings. Then there was the added bonus of her becoming more effective on silently taking down her quarry without attracting the attentions of the Soul Society or rival Human factions.

Now the why of here, atop the skeletal structure of this building project. The easiest way to lure the likes of the Beasts was to provide bait, plus a few of the humans lost in the little incident were impeding some business. With their deaths things would continue on smoothly, except for this lone Shinigami. The issue with bait is that sometimes they attract the wrong prey, Fortunately this also meant there were two predators here, decreasing the likelihood of a Hollow emerging.

Hiding herself amongst the shadows cast of the long stretched out beams of the building, Lent kept herself still and silent. Quietly watching the Shinigami 'purify' a soul into the afterlife. Poor guy didn't realize he was going somewhere just as corrupt as here. Eventually he'll be dragged into a battle he wants nothing to do with, or volunteer to fight only to die horribly.  Her face twisted as she remembered the invasion that left her alone in the fire, pounced upon by three separate beasts that rendered her flesh. Wondering why no Shinigami came to save her, why they'd let these beasts invade their home and left thousands of innocents to die by the enemies hands.

Oh how easy it would be to send down a hailstorm of Bala onto the unsuspecting little warrior, but attention is not what she needs right now. This is the time to try and study this little specimen from afar, try to learn how a Shinigami acts in the moral realm to one day adopt the façade as her own. To be able to mimic the enemy well enough to pose as them and walk in their home, that is the long term goal of this little steak out. Well at least since no Hollow seemed to show up.

WC-485

While Arteran's stance remained relaxed, he didn't bother re-sheathing his blade. Having had to actually focus his senses to find the plus that he had just sent on he hadn't been left unaware of the hollow presence within the city, of both the base and arrancar variety, and speaking of Arrancar, it certainly didn't escape his notice that there was one watching him now. Arteran began to walk along the streets between the various structures in the industrial park, weighting his options as he rested his blade on his shoulder, in truth he hated carrying his weapon so obviously ready, but he wasn't about to allow himself to be caught flat footed. 

While it was possible that the Arrancar was simply curious, the odds of that being the case  were obscenely low, especially considering the tensions between Shinigami and Arrancar. The fact that they were as close as they were and hadn't attacked was also suspicious in and of itself since if they weren't attempting to either set up an ambush or perform some kind of espionage they would have attacked already, or they would have gotten as far away as they could in order to avoid drawing attention, so that likely meant that the individual was attempting to gather data of some sort. Of course the person's motivations were still unknown, but it was incredibly unlikely that they had any kind of altruistic aims motivating them.

With a sigh Arteran made a decision, and in a split second he was gone from where he had been standing with an application of shunpo, and then reappeared right behind the nosy Arrancar. The person was clearly female, and also clearly was fastidious when it came to her appearance. Her raven hair was obviously well cared for, and what he could see of her skin was equally obviously well cared for. A light sweet scent caught the air, mixing with Arteran's own lavender scent to make a not entirely displeasing aroma, though while Arteran's choice in scent was very deliberate, he didn't know if the Arrancar's scent was equally deliberate. 

Arteran took all of this in in an instant, and as such there was no noticeable pause between his appearance and his voice breaking the relative silence. 

"Now what exactly do you think that you're up to?"


Word Count/total count:383/1241
GP Gain/Total Gain:7/24

Careful, methodical, and anticipating anything, Lent kept herself in the shadows. Even when the Shinigami started to walk away, the still exposed blade gave off a terrible feeling. Was she detected? Visually and audibly, there had been nothing to trace. So what kept this man on guard? Did the stench of her kind linger just a tad too long? It was difficult to tell, but regardless she kept her face covered. Risking further detection by placing a fake façade upon her own.

Wearing the likeness of an underling, she moved much like her old hollow form. Slow and deliberately, devouring every twitch and detail in hopes of predicting her subject. In an instant the man seemed to vanish, soon followed by the startling voice of someone behind her. It felt impossible to her that someone could move with such precision and speed, but only for a moment. Instinct kicked in as her body turned to face the Shinigami, Reiatsu poured into the tips of her fingers as they spread. Swing her arm out, five premature Bala flung from her digits as she kicked off the roof.

There was no way the Bala would kill, only provide a distraction for her to regain distance. The explosions kicked up quite the cloud obscuring the vicinity for just a moment, letting her find purchase and balance upon a new perch several buildings over. With an eerily cheerful tone she spoke out her answer. "I was waiting for some takeout, but someone swiped my meal ticket." The face of a stereotypical goth student adding to the part an extra kick of strangeness.

Now ready for a chase, her hands remained encased with the silvery hues of her Reiatsu. She needed to be ready to launch more attacks at a moments notice. "What's wrong? You a Vegetarian or something? Have a problem with us carnivores?" The jabs crackled off her tongue, though amusing in her own mind, the little warrior might just try to take her head for it.

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Arteran turned to the side and dodged a the two bala that were shot at the widest angle and quickly swiped his blade through the remaining bala, blocking them before they could hit them. The small orbs lacked any real punch, likely because of how quickly they were launched.

"Problem? No, not particularly. While I may dislike your kind eating the souls that can't fight back, I somehow doubt one in your position actually enjoys such souls, however you did make a mistake by attacking me, now there's no peaceful solution available to you. Too bad.

The signature of the hollow had made a quick movement in an attempt to put distance between them while the cloud of debris caused by the bala that hit the ground obscured them, but unfortunately for them Arteran could still clearly detect their presence, and immediately used flash step again to appear behind them. It didn't escape Arteran's notice that something was off about the Hollow's head, but without looking at her face he couldn't quite tell what it was.

"While she moved quickly, she certainly didn't move with the speed of a flash step, which likely means that she hasn't yet learned how to use, what was it, Sonido? Right, Sonido, so that's an advantage on my part."

"Fall, Umbrum."

In an instant Arteran's reiatsu intensified as the shadows around his feet deepened, and three bright lights shot out of the shadows and began to spin around his head while his blade flashed and took on it's shikai form.

Without wasting any more time Arteran stepped into a two handed battle stance and swung his blade towards the Hollow's waist while he sent one star to dart around and attack her head from the front, mentally commanding the other two to float above his shoulders in case of emergancy.

Word Count/Total Word Count:306/1547
GP gain/Total GP gain:6/30

Action Summary:
Lent shot off 5 premature bala
Arteran dodged 2, Arteran's Speed+Zanjutsu(since he's currently fighting with his weapon) v.s. Lent's Bala+Speed: 20+Expert v.s. 20+Journeyman No damage
Blocked 3 with blade, Arteran's Zanjutsu+Strength v.s. Lent's Bala+Spirit: 17+Expert vs 20+Journeyman No damage
Arteran activated Shikai, currently swinging with Zanjutsu and strength in a two handed sword swing at Lent's waist, sent one star around to possibly blind Lent and attack Lent's face.

"Attacking you? When a strange man wielding a sword is suddenly behind you is striking out not your first instinct? I, a simple observer, am at fault for being startled?" She spat afterwards to emphasis her next bit. "No wonder everyone hates your kind."

Watching the mans blade shift from a Katana, to a Bastard sword was unexpected. Of course she'd heard of this, a release of some sort the Shinigami use to get an extra surge of power to oppress the masses, but never had she seen one.  Here is where it would get interesting, A larger Bala formed into each hand, bringing one up to meet the swinging blade. Knowing the impact would cause it to explode, While the other Bala was forced into the rooftop. Blasting a hole down as she used the explosion from the first one to send her into the new exit, not before feeling the bite of the blade in her side. The man's swing pushed through enough to cut a few inches into her hip, Pushing herself to continue moving she ran through the building throwing more Bala out windows. Hoping that the multi directional movement of hollow energy would confuse the mans senses a bit.

Why did she not learn to sense it the same way most of her kind had? Maybe it was due to her disgust at what she was before her metamorphosis. Whatever the reason it left her blind to where the man was coming from. For now she'd keep up the chase, hope for a mistake, or an opening to escape.

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*contended the blade strike with a Bala, using its explosion to force her out of the way of the star and down into the hole made from the other bala, starting the chase through the building.*

When the dust cleared Arteran was already moving. He ignored the arrancar's verbal jab, having no reason to car about her opinion of him or his kind. Arteran quickly followed the arrancar into the building, mentally commanding his stars to rapidly spin around him, quickly melting through anything that got in his way, unfortunately he could cut through the various obstacles around him fast enough to use flash step, so he was limited in maneuverability, though as far as he was concerned this was a waiting game on his part. He could chase this arrancar for however long she wanted to play this game, but eventually she'd have to leave the building, and then he'd have the upper hand. Not that keeping track of her as it was was to difficult, the constant red flashes of her firing bala allowed him to keep visual contact with her without needing to rely completely on his ability to sense her, and even if he couldn't use flash step safely he did have quite a bit of reach, and as such he put on another burst of speed to get within fifteen feet of his quarry, dodging around equipment as she ran. As soon as got closer he sent a mental command and one of this stars shot out at her, aiming to hit her right between the shoulder blades.

WC:227

Bala blocked by sword, no damage
Attacked with one star at back

What was the best way to loose a tail? Overstimulation of the situation. The errant Balas that she'd thrown to try and throw off his direction seemed to be of no help, so instead she detonated what was left of them. The turbulence of the concussive blast rocked the building and shifted her feet off balance, anticipating it, she let herself fall into a slide across the floor as the star slashed through her shoulder and cut loose several strands of hair.

The pain? A regrettable inconvenience, the loss of hair? Now any vain woman would lose her shit over that. The Envious beast certainly would if she was not so damn focused on an exit route. Being obviously outclassed by this man, is the only reason she didn't try to level the whole block in a rage.

Twisting around to place her palms on the ground she pushed herself up to run around a corner. The Shinigami would undoubtedly catch her if nothing else was done, so she did the only thing she could think of. With a sharp inhale, her mouth filling with the taste of a honeysuckle like sweetness, a Cero roared from her throat. The Silver beam smashing through the building as she twisted her head around, cutting through walls and floors to make the building unstable.

Ready to come face to face with the Black clad warrior, her hands resonated with energy once more as she Formed more Bala. If he did appear before her, she'd blast them all at once, using the chaos of a collapsing building and explosions to break away and with luck, divert the mans attention. Then she'd only need to get herself away fast.

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Arteran felt the building begin to shake as the numerous bala that the Arrancar had been shooting off all began to detonate at once as she dropped to the ground in a slide that resulted in his star only managing to hit her shoulder, rather than her back. As she continued to run Arteran began to have a somewhat harder time detecting her signature as her reiatsu began to blanket the area. While the concentrated balls had been easy enough to ignore, the fallout from the blasts was much more difficult to sift through, like trying to peer through a thick fog.

Arteran slowed down as he tried to concentrate a bit harder, he could definately feel her signature. In fact now that he had found it again it seemed to be getting stronger, almost as if-

Arteran leaped away, barely managing to avoid taking a major hit, but he wasn't able to get away unscathed. The silver blast of the arrancar's cero easily pierced through his uniform and opened a gash along the side of his rib cage. It wasn't anything immediately debilitating, but it would need treatment once this was over with, and he could feel the blood beginning to ooze down his side, but that was of no concern at the moment, what did concern him was the fact that the cero was the last straw in terms of the building's structural soundness, and with a heaving groan it began to collapse around the two combatants. 

With a thought Aaron redirected his stars to begin spinning rapidly and dart around him, cutting cleanly through any debris that got to close as he escaped the collapsing building. Very quickly Arteran found himself standing outside the ruined building. Luckily the collapse had helped clear the air somewhat in terms of the fog of reiatsu, and Arteran was able to pick up on the girl's signature again. Arteran kept the stars spinning as he watched the ground below.

There!

As soon as he got visual comfirmation of the Arrancar's position through the settling dust Arteran dissapeared in a burst of speed, using flash step to appear directly to the left of the arrancar, swinging Umbrum in a two handed sweep aimed at her abdomen as the disc of rotating stars moved to attack her legs at the knee from behind.

WC:390
TWC:2164

There he was, rounding the corner like the dutiful soldier. She never planned on hitting him with a Cero, but it was no time for her to be picky. Sliding down with the collapsing floor, Her dedication and determination to get away helped her twist and maneuver away from the worse of the debris. Amongst the dust, splintering wood and plaster, the heavy scent of blood filled the wreckage. Along with the singed flesh of the Shinigami, every bit of it left a sense of pride in the young Arrancar.

Nothing was over yet, the building was only a diversion to get away. Even in the unlikely event that the pursuer was caught up within it and temporarily immobilized, wasting time would lead to contact again. So she sprinted out of the rubble, the particulates of the ruined structure whipped from her clothes leaving an ominous like dust trail behind her. Leading down an alley and quickly through the street on the other side. As before, the man in black appeared in the corner of her vision. 

A hard twist forced her body to turn and slide along her heels as the blade cut deeply. The blood flowed from her belly as the flesh behind her knee split open by one of those blasted stars. Her left hand reared back and drew her weapon, swinging with force of her sudden turn to bring the ostentatious cleaver down on the man's hand. Not worried about actually hitting him, her attention was turned to the stirring masses that have come to see what had happened to the nearby building. 

Gripping her more serious wound, Lent ran with the limp leg towards the emerging crowd. If she could make it to them, the pursuit would surely be impeded. Unless this was one of those Shinigami what would kill civilians and just blame it on the Arrancar. 

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