Post by Rainier Rucio on Dec 9, 2017 23:06:40 GMT -5
Sand floated in the perpetual, nighttime air around Rainier. His breath came in haggard, shallow gasps. All around him stretched and twisted the leathery flesh of Hollow monsters as they stampeded away from a far more powerful, much smaller, Hollow behind them. Rainier counted himself among the group and stuck his spear into the back of one of the Hollows in the crowd while it sprinted across the rolling dunes of Hueco Mundo. In the distance, he could see Anastasia further back while she worked to avoid another creature trampling her.
Everything went horribly wrong almost immediately, Rainier thought. The Hollow they tracked down seemed much weaker than it proved to be. The moment they ambushed it, the full breadth of its Spiritual Pressure bore down on them and caused a panicked frenzy of nearby, hidden Hollows to emerge and begin a retreat. In the face of the creature’s power, Rainier and Anastasia joined in the marathon and began to fall back from their battle before they took any wounds they might not be able to walk away from. The monster remained in hot pursuit, which left them in their current predicament.
Ahead of him, a litany of Garganta began to open. Other Hollows slowly faded from existence mid-stride as they used Komon to shift between here and a preferred location on Earth. Anastasia fell further and further behind, her head of white hair being the only feature that Rainier could make out.
With a great leap that nearly broke the spine of the Hollow he rode, Rainier lifted into the air. He came down onto the back of another, rather large Hollow, and once again anchored himself with a thrust of his spear into the creature’s flesh. He repeated the process again, and yet again, and moved closer to Anastasia’s white hair each time.
The herd thinned dramatically as each precious second passed. Before Rainier could leap off his latest, roaring, wounded horse, darkness swallowed him. His hair whipped around and in front of his face, and he quickly found himself riding a Hollow through the currents of the Garganta while the gaping maw of the portal snapped shut behind him. Another gust of wind pushed his hair back over his shoulders and left him, abruptly, alone with the monster.
It roared again and shook from side to side. This specific Hollow took the form of an oversized rhino with longer hind and front legs alike. The front, specifically, looked like they could double as large, Neanderthal hands. It still charged forward through the Garganta, and in the distance Rainier saw the light of the other end of the portal as Earthly sunlight poured into the void between worlds.
Just seconds later they emerged into the bright, blue sky of Earth. Fluffy, white clouds surrounded them as the Hollow skidded to a stop in the sky and, at the very end, dropped into a roll. With no actual soil to roll on, Rainier himself hung onto his spear while the barrel roll spun him through the air.
Only after the Hollow returned to its feet did he rip his spear out and cause a shower of flesh and blood. The Hollow roared even more, its voice animalistic and distorted, while Rainier landed in the sky next to it, already in a deep crouch with his spear pointed forward, at the ready.
For a moment, the wounded animal and the Arrancar simply stared at each other. Rainier took a moment to digest that it looked to be nearly seven or eight times his height. It towered over him like a monolith, an obstacle grand in scale and challenging in nature. Of course, Rainier immediately scoffed at the idea as it entered his mind and dismissed it like the foolish notion it was.
The class of Huge Hollows could never compare to what Rainier had it store. Unfortunate for Rainier, the beast seemed beyond reason.
So, with one more wild bellow from the not-quite-rhino, the two Hollows hurled themselves at each other, face-first.
*****
672 Words
Everything went horribly wrong almost immediately, Rainier thought. The Hollow they tracked down seemed much weaker than it proved to be. The moment they ambushed it, the full breadth of its Spiritual Pressure bore down on them and caused a panicked frenzy of nearby, hidden Hollows to emerge and begin a retreat. In the face of the creature’s power, Rainier and Anastasia joined in the marathon and began to fall back from their battle before they took any wounds they might not be able to walk away from. The monster remained in hot pursuit, which left them in their current predicament.
Ahead of him, a litany of Garganta began to open. Other Hollows slowly faded from existence mid-stride as they used Komon to shift between here and a preferred location on Earth. Anastasia fell further and further behind, her head of white hair being the only feature that Rainier could make out.
With a great leap that nearly broke the spine of the Hollow he rode, Rainier lifted into the air. He came down onto the back of another, rather large Hollow, and once again anchored himself with a thrust of his spear into the creature’s flesh. He repeated the process again, and yet again, and moved closer to Anastasia’s white hair each time.
The herd thinned dramatically as each precious second passed. Before Rainier could leap off his latest, roaring, wounded horse, darkness swallowed him. His hair whipped around and in front of his face, and he quickly found himself riding a Hollow through the currents of the Garganta while the gaping maw of the portal snapped shut behind him. Another gust of wind pushed his hair back over his shoulders and left him, abruptly, alone with the monster.
It roared again and shook from side to side. This specific Hollow took the form of an oversized rhino with longer hind and front legs alike. The front, specifically, looked like they could double as large, Neanderthal hands. It still charged forward through the Garganta, and in the distance Rainier saw the light of the other end of the portal as Earthly sunlight poured into the void between worlds.
Just seconds later they emerged into the bright, blue sky of Earth. Fluffy, white clouds surrounded them as the Hollow skidded to a stop in the sky and, at the very end, dropped into a roll. With no actual soil to roll on, Rainier himself hung onto his spear while the barrel roll spun him through the air.
Only after the Hollow returned to its feet did he rip his spear out and cause a shower of flesh and blood. The Hollow roared even more, its voice animalistic and distorted, while Rainier landed in the sky next to it, already in a deep crouch with his spear pointed forward, at the ready.
For a moment, the wounded animal and the Arrancar simply stared at each other. Rainier took a moment to digest that it looked to be nearly seven or eight times his height. It towered over him like a monolith, an obstacle grand in scale and challenging in nature. Of course, Rainier immediately scoffed at the idea as it entered his mind and dismissed it like the foolish notion it was.
The class of Huge Hollows could never compare to what Rainier had it store. Unfortunate for Rainier, the beast seemed beyond reason.
So, with one more wild bellow from the not-quite-rhino, the two Hollows hurled themselves at each other, face-first.
*****
672 Words