Post by Sozen Kuchiki on Aug 9, 2013 22:27:50 GMT -5
As Walter spoke, Sozen held up his sword. Somewhere along the way, during the Shunpo away, he had grabbed a hold of it and collected it back into his hand. As Walter challenged Sozen's statement, Sozen's Zanpakuto blade began to turn red. "Raze..." he murmured. "Akai Birido..." It was his Shikai. At long last, deep into the battle, Sozen had unleashed it. Its destructive powers would finally bring pain to Walter unlike anything he had experienced thus far in the battle. Reiatsu began to accumulate into Walter's mask, indicating that once again, he was drawing on reiatsu.
However, before Walter could finish charging, Sozen interrupted him. Charging took a few seconds, which was why Sozen had distracted the Stern Ritter with a technique before he himself decided to power himself up. He had also done it so that Walter would not be able to charge or power up simultaneously to his own, and would be delayed. Walter, as a result, would be charging after Sozen already had already powered up. This meant that Sozen would get his opportunity to do even more damage to the Vandenreich General. As Walter's reiatsu began to accumulate, Sozen attacked.
Blades penetrated Walter's arms, both of them, instantly. They were instant, and therefore unavoidable. It was instantaneous to Sozen releasing his Zanpakuto, even before Walter activated Gate, a mere second before, in fact. They were from seemingly out of nowhere, and therefore their trajectory was incalculable. Where had they come from? Far earlier, Sozen had grabbed Walter's arm. Not during the last exchange, with Yamihara #1: Kuro. At the very beginning of the fight, Sozen had touched Walter's right arm after cutting his own hand during his test attack on Walter's Blut. He had prepared even back then, and touching Walter had left a big red splotch mark on the Stern Ritter's white sleeve. Sozen's blade used Walter's blood, and emitted from the inside of the sleeve, piercing through.
Blood began to stain the sleeve, and more blades began to pop out, stabbing into Walter's bow arm. It was being destroyed completely, turned into mush that could neither move nor even rise. However, this was not the only arm to suffer. During that last exchange, the reason that Sozen had grabbed Walter's left arm with his hand had been for that as well. At that time, not only was Sozen's hand still bleeding from his own earlier self-inflicted cut, but his use of Destructive Hana #3: Shinssui, had caused incredibly profuse bleeding across Sozen's entire left arm, causing it to leave a big fat hand print of red on Walter's white sleeve.
Several blades penetrated Walter's left arm all at once, which began to stain his sleeve with more blood, which in turn created more blades to penetrate Walter's left arm. Both arms would be completely torn apart by the two rounds of blades before Walter even finished. The process took a second or two at most. Of course, there came a point when the blades could no longer penetrate Walter's skin, indicating that he had powered up Blut. They weren't reduced to mush because of Blut Vein, but they were stabbed so repeatedly and thoroughly as to leave both dangling uselessly. Walter would no longer be able to raise either one to aim his bow, and would have to point his body toward Sozen, fire arrows, and hope that they had good aim. With his senses and instinct, he could, but losing arms was crippling damage, not to mention blood loss. Also, in addition to the arms, one droplet had earlier landed on Walter's shoe, and this stabbed into his foot. The sock soaked up the blood so there was no stain to take advantage of in the shoe, but even so, just one stab to the foot through the center was enough to cause damage that would make it hard to move. Walter would be hobbling and stumbling around the rest of the fight, and Hirenkyaku had just gotten a lot harder.
Speaking of blood loss, Sozen himself was losing quite a bit through his left arm. He had been impaled there by twelve arrows, plus he had already been bleeding from every pore. Still, Sozen managed himself. In an instant, he disappeared using a Shunpo, escaping once again all of Walter's arrows by moving to the side. He was fast. It was easy. Those arrows were too slow to capture him. He was strong, very strong. Sozen was an excellent combatant and strategist, and his ability to fight was top notch. While still, he was nearing his limits, he was powerful, and Walter was probably having a lot of trouble with taking him down.
Sozen exited from his Shunpo into a stumble, falling onto all fours with a gasp. He looked up at Walter, who was clearly not fairing much better. However, Sozen had not expected to be so tired. He shifted himself onto one knee, panting. He saw blood dripping onto the ground again, but he could no longer feel it. Sozen could no longer feel his left arm at all, and he wasn't even sure that he could move it again, either. His whole body was in pain, and he winced because of it. Aches and sores in his joints and muscles plagued him, they shot through him like sparks of electricity. Each one was a scalpel digging into his arteries.
Sozen gritted his teeth, pushing past the pain. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was Law. That phrase shooting through Sozen's wasn't from Walter's ability. It was Sozen's own, subconscious thought, and he heard it in his own voice. All twelve arrows had already paid their dues when they hit him, and had overlapped at each other and resonated until his head pounded and all noise was drowned out for their speech. He had in total heard the phrase a hundred and forty four times, and from it, his head was pounding in pain. He heard a dull ringing in his ears, and the world's sound was distorted, as if heard through earmuffs and a cone over his head.
Sozen was tired, and his body was creaking and it was in pain. Those phrases had not been very good for him either. He'd even heard the phrase repeat subconsciously in his mind. It wasn't because he believed in it at all. He simply had heard it so many times that he had memorized it, and it would pass through his mind once in a while. Sozen opened his closed, wincing eye, and regarded Walter, who had used Hirenkyaku to move away and rest himself up. Even far away, Sozen could tell that Walter must be thinking the same thing. The fight was difficult. There were a lot of injuries and stamina drains.
The Squad 6 Captain was trying to think. How would he take Walter next? That Blut Vein was now stronger than ever. Not even Sozen's new reiatsu strength would be able to manage it. His calm aura was still keeping him level and from panicking, and with it he was able to assess the situation as well as he could, to the best of his ability. What happened next was dependent on Walter's next move. Sozen had burned approximately half of his own reiatsu, and he reasoned that he probably would exhaust all of it if he wanted to survive this encounter.
Sozen's next gambits, his next attacks, would take everything that he had. If he had Bankai, this would be a different game. Unfortunately, Sozen had read Hokori's reports. The Squad 6 Captain dare not use Bankai. The fight would only become even more difficult for him if he did, and it would be dangerous to let the enemy have such a powerful weapon of his. Keeping himself on one knee and observing, Sozen quietly touched his blade to his robe and his Haori. They both turned red, even the pants and sash. Sozen's eyes narrowed, and he spoke with a confident smile.
"Are you certain that continuing is within your best interest? After all, I think that we can both see this has cost you more than your fair share of pain. It must certainly hurt. If you surrender now, I'll take care not to injure you any further."
Sozen's Remaining Reiatsu: 1425/1580 Reiatsu
Shikai Post Count: 1/10
