Clash of Beasts [R, NDE]

[Beast]

Thread Title: Clash of Beasts [R, NDE]
Participants: Chiku, Grodd
World: Soul Society
Death Setting: Non Death Enabled
Rating: R
Location: Out in the wilderness. There be trees.
Special Conditions: None
Circumstances: Grodd goes to wilderness, finds giant scorpion, freaks out. He's already fought two beast clan and has put them in a "attack on sight" category in his mind... Probly will not go well for him.

[Beast]

Qaletaqa and Zeferoth both were beast clan loose in the Wilderness and considered dangerous due to Grodd's report. He hadn't named them, of course, but an otter and a badger of sorts were pretty hard to spot. After healing in Squad 4s Barracks, the Shinigai grabbed his Zanpakutou and headed out into the forest beyond the rukongai to track those known as Beast Clansmen. He had an idea of what he was looking for, like large footprints or torn down trees, but he wasn't quite sure what he was going to come across. After all, he had only seen Yaseishin once and had only met two Beast Clan, both mammalian.

His scouting took him to the edge of a clearing that was formed unnaturally. The smell of burning reiatsu filled the air, still, even though it had been weeks since the Kidou Corps Commander was abducted from here. However, no one had missed him just yet. The scout made note of the crater formed in the ground that was filled with water and the trees that had been uprooted and flung away. And he noted the shrapnel and the blood spatters as well... Someone had been hurt here.

After having sketched out the area and written down some notes, he slipped the paper into his loincloth and continued forwards. Who knows what he would find out there next...

[Chiku Unoji]

Scruffscruffscruff...

The wilderness was usually fairly.... quiet. The wildlife was more oft than not fairly sparse save for the more densely forested areas, or the mountains. At least so far as the area so close to the soul society. Sure you did find yyourself around the occassional individual, but for the most part the wilderness was...... wilderness. The sheer loneliness one felt while in the place was....strange. Almost eerie espacially when you came close to the desolate area that was saturated with spirit particles. At least more than the soul society was usually saturated.

With Chiku it was.... an annoyance. She was a strong individual, certainly strong enough to have developed a considerable panchant for roughing it alone. Of course nowadays, she WASN'T alone. She had a small family to take care of. The remnants of the Unoji brothel. And after a long time of looking around, they had finally found a home. And she had made sure that it was not a place that would easily be taken from them. In fact, Grodd was just quite so unlucky as to tresspass on the land she had sectioned off for her use.

As she rested in that confined space, it was the gentle thu-thump of motion that caught her attention. A set of vibrations that weren't from the den she had built underground. And those big, sightless eyes suddenly opened up, even in the darkness they glowed eerily as her bodys hifted, and she began digging, seamlessly seeming to glide through the dirt as she began excavating her tunnel in the direction of the intruder. Her senses lately had been....slipping. Ever since the fight at the tunnels, Chiku had been having difficulty with her senses. They just weren't quite as... sharp as they had used to be. With explosions, injuries, and all sorts of mental trauma. She was... changing. She felt like her senses weren't as sharp as they had been before. More than that though, she had felt..... different.

She had never really considered any sort of trouble when it came to how she fought. But it was clear that..... she just wasn't strong enough at the time. She wasn't satisfied with where she was. She had met powerful beings, and now that she had come to realize this, she could almost feel her body developing in reaction to the need. She had grown considerably in height, and annoyingly had also busted the old binding she used for her rather sizeable chest, forced to use an old cloak instead. But it was more than that. She wanted to be.... stronger. And the first part of that was defending her territory.

The ground shifted noislessly behind Grodd as scorpion slowly came to the surface. Or at least, part of her did. A single,clawed hand emerged from the ground, those five 'fingers' dragging silently along the ground as the little hair along Chiku's carapace acted like her ears, and she 'saw' Grodd. And she saw that he was armed. The noise a sword made was unmistakable. He was here.... near her den. And he was armed. That clawed hand clenched angrily before slowly sliding back into the earth. She chittered angrily underground, her mandibles clacking together whilst under the sound-muffling dirt. She sank just a little bit lower into the ground and then resumed closing in on the intruder, shifting effortlessly through the dirt, eyes narrowed as he closed in from under the ground.

But perhaps most importantly, after so many times having had to deal with the errant shinigami in the area... of all things, the scorpion even suppressed her spiritual pressure.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Chiku's Stats}


Strength: 180 Points
Speed: 225 Points

Spiritual Pressure: 150 Points
Reiatsu Strength: 200 Points

Light Aura: 90
Dark Aura: 10

Instinct: 200 Points
Senses: 95 Points (285 Points)
Energy Senses: 50 Points

Healing Expertise: 0 Points

1100 SP (800 from Class, 300 from Training)

Calm Mind 2
Strength of Will 1
Stealth 2
Charisma 1
Damage Recovery 2
Anti-Stealth 2
Learning 1

[Beast]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Grodd's Stats}
Whoops, forgot these.

Strength - [200 x1.25 (250)] Points

Speed - [200] Points

Spiritual Pressure - [200 x.75 (150)] Points

Reiatsu Strength - [200 x1.25 (250)] Points

Light Aura - [35] Points

Dark Aura - [65] Points

Instinct - [200 x.75 (150)] Points

Senses - [100] Points

Energy sensory - [100 x1.25 (125)] Points

Healing Expertise - [0] Points


Total SP: [1100] Points

Abilities



[Boxing] {2}

[Hakuda] {2}

[Pain Tolerance] {2}

[Strength of Will] {2}

Damage Recovery] {2}

[Cold Tolerance] {1}

[Mental Incantation] {1}

The Shinigami continued to scout through the wilderness, unaware of the danger that was behind him. His energy sensory was good, but not good enough to sense someone hiding their energy from him. Oblivious to the scorpion burying their way through the dirt, Grodd stopped and contemplated a piece of paper in front of him. He was trying to draw a map, with his usual terrible art skills, and it wasn't going well. So far he had the giant crater with the unnatural pond and he had a few other landmarks, but his cartography was awful. His map didn't show direction, elevation, or anything useful for anyone who was trying to use it.

In fact... Grodd wasn't quite sure what direction it was supposed to be in anymore... He spun it around a few times, settled on the crater being south of him, and prepared to keep going. He was getting much better at his job, but he wasn't the best at it yet. In fact, you could say he was pretty bad at it. But he was physically strong and had a powerful Shikai to hold his Third Seat position. If it weren't for the power of Oerwould Hart... Grodd would still be at the bottom of the barrel, scrambling for scraps of respect that no one ever gave to him in whole pieces. Alas, he was about to get a rude awakening to mind his surroundings better, as he had no way of noticing the giant scorpion sneaking up on him.

[Chiku Unoji]

Around and around in a slowly closing spiral Chiku began closing in on the shinigami, digging slowly upward from the depth of the tunnel she was making. The man seemed lost or something. His footsteps unsure, full of pauses and halts. She didn't have any idea that the shinigami was actually trying to find something. What WAS there to find in a place like this anyway? There honestly wasn't much out in the wilderness, so her only deduction was that he was hunting. Which was bad news for this shiniweenie right here.

As she finally came almost to the surface, having tunneled in a wide circle underneath Grodd, she paused, briefly slowing down, tracking him, continuing to dig in little circles until at long last she noticed another one of his pauses. For just that brief instant of a second, there was a sudden massive gush of excitement as it roiled through her body. The sudden thrill that she was about to pounce on the man and make her attack. That sliver of uncertainty as suddenly, for just a moment, her senses were just as sharp as t hey had ever been. Suddenly, she was on her game.

The ground exploded as two sets of clawed hands suddenly burst through the ground and aimed to immediately latch onto the man's calves and ankles. Her lower body THRASHED as she destroyed a good ammount of tunnel, and suddenly the walls all came caving in, and suddenly a large sinkhole dipped down around Grodd, dropping him into her clutches even if he did somehow manage to evade the grab. The sudden unstable ground crackling under the both of them as they would both drop down. Almost immediately after, her third set of arms, or rather appendages came into play, as rather than clawed hands, two massive sets of pincers suddenly shoved in, seeking to stab those pointed claws into the man's shoulders.

This sudden mad rush of aggression was territorial, and like any territorial animal, she had no interest in eating him. So that massive tail of hers burst out of the ground behind her before it lanced downward in an attempt to lodge her stinger into his face. Of course in that mad rush of motion, and no doubt some struggling on grodd's part as he suddenly was being swallowed up by loose earth, chances were she wasn't going to hit her mark, even WITH all of her senses and accuracy, it was far more likely that she would jab into his shoulders, or his chest, or perhaps a flailing arm.

IF she managed to sink that stinger of hers into something, her inner muscles would contract immediately as her tail would gush a thick spurt of venom into the shinigami's body. That sudden injection would VERY likely become instantly apparent to Grodd as if it succeeded, he would suddenly feel whatever portion of his body that was stung suddenly start to necrose. Of course WHILE this was happening, there were three sets of arms trying not only to keep a hold on him (or establish one if he had managed to evade her thus far in the midst of the both of them sinking) and claw frantically at him.

Was this a little...incredibly violent? Absolutely! But then again she was defending her family, her territory, and her stomping grounds from this smelly man. This tiny smelly man. With messy hair. Of course, mildly, off to the side, she was judging him as well. YEARS of having worked in a brothel, she had something of a high standard for males. He was dressed in uniform, not much one could do about that, but for god's sake man, learn to moisturize! At the very least he was quite muscular. In fact, were she not trying desperately to protect her family she would probably be wondering if he was single, as he certainly looked like the kind of man she could hook up with Ajora...

But sadly she was in protective Momma mode, and instead of her attacking him and dragging him ff to her den to try and get him to mate with one of her family, he was getting attacked and dragged underground to be murdered. Or well, crippled and then left in a little tunnel for her to deal with him later. She was a busy lady these days. And if Grodd was here, so too were probably others. If she won this little exchange, it was very likely that she'd have to patrol the borders of her den territory to make sure he didn't have any nearby friends.

Conditional Reiatsu use: -400. If successful stinger stab, then Reiatsu: 1100/1500 Reiatsu

Halt Sting Class 3 Used
Necessary Spiritual Defense Stat for Immunity: 500 (No Poison Resist Modifier)
Necessary Spiritual Defense Stat for Resistance:400 (No Poison Resist Modifier)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Halt Sting Tech}
Technique Name: Zogsookh Gashuun (Halt Sting)

Class: 6, 3

Technique Type: Ferality

Usable By: Beast Clan, Insect types only.

Technique Element: Poison

Technique Description and Effects:
Many types of Insect Beast Clan have very dangerous stingers often armed with paralyzing or even necrotic venom.

The Class 6 Version of this Technique is Paralytic. By focusing a bit of reiatsu into their poison glans in their stinger, the user can sting, and then inject the venom into their target, delivering a local paralytic. This will only effect the part of the body that is struck, except in the case where the head or heart is struck, in which case the effects spread to the entire body. This poison lasts for a single post, locking the opponent in place unless they forcing themselves to move. This can be accomplished by having at least 25% superiority to the offensive stat of the user(user cannot use strength). This requirement is reduced by 25 per point in Poison Resist.

At Class 3, this ability becomes far deadlier. Rather than simply applying paralysis, this toxin rapidly causes necrosis of the skin, destroying the blood vessels and causing the flesh to blacken, die, and then slough off. For the first post, the part of the body struck will simply lose function. The second post it will turn black as the cells die. And On the third post, flesh begins falling off the body in chunks. On the Fourth post it spreads to adjacent parts of the body. In this case, only a 150% superiority to the user's offensive stat(user cannot use strength) will protect the target, allowing them to completely ignore the poison. Each point in poison resist reduces this requirement by 25% (125% suprtiority with 1 point, 100% at 2 points, 75% at three points). The effects of the poison however, CAN be resisted if not completely ignored, by a 100% superiority to the user. (Again, this is reduced by 25% per point in poison resist), doubling the time it takes for the symptoms to progress. Poison lasts a total of 8 posts if unmitigated.

How to use technique:
Focus reiatsu into the poison glands of the stinger. Then Strike and inject.

Technique Drawbacks:
Reiatsu Cost. Additionally at class 6, a Healing Expertise of 150 will allow the target to identify the problem, and 200 will allow an ally to purge them, 300 if using it on themselves.

At Class 3, a Healing Expertise of 300 is required to understand what is happening, and at least 300 for an ally to remove the effects, or 500 in the case of self-curing.

Incantation and Effect: None

Made By: Chiku

Reserved?: No

[Beast]

All of a sudden, Grodd felt something grab his calves -and- ankles at the same time. Four pincers locked around his legs as he was pulled backwards into the sinkhole that was just formed. He was being attacked... While he tried to get a look at what was attacking him, two more pincers grabbed his shoulders and locked him forwards. Whatever this was, it didn't matter any more. It was an enemy that had to be defeated or weakened so the scout could bring back a bigger force. That was another part of his job as Third Seat of the Scouting Squad. If he couldn't handle something, he brought in a Squad 10 or 11 force to help him do so.

In all honesty, it made him feel weak when he was constantly beat up by these powerful figures. Zeferoth had just destroyed him and laughed off any attacks he made. He had put up a fight against Qaletaqa, but it had still ended in a draw as the Shinigami could not finish him off. And now here was Chiku, another beast clanswoman, who was acting very territorial (Grodd wouldn't know this) and aiming to destroy him in a matter of moments. Thankfully, though, the man was armed with a Zanpakutou and a few helpful Kidou.

As the scorpion's tail shot out at his face, Grodd reacted with a glowing yellow shield cast mentally. Enkosen would protect him from the stinger to the face, which would thankfully avoid necrotic venom being injected into his head. Following that, Grodd swung his Zanpakutou around to the best of his ability despite having access to only his elbow joint. He managed to sloppily write some kanji in the air which resulted in an explosion of reiatsu as he released his Shikai. This assault on the third seat was serious and he needed to treat it as such by using his power immediately.

The Shinigami would now be wearing bone gauntlets, but that wasn't the biggest transformation of the man. His hair had also grown two feet longer and his body was starting to grow taller and larger with every second. If the burst of reiatsu had dislodged Grodd from the scorpion Beast Clanswoman, then all would be alright with the world as he would push off of whatever was within reach and try and jump up out of the sinkhole to get a better view of the surroundings. However, if she was still holding on, she'd find that his hair would ball up and punch her stomach repeatedly to make her let go... And his hair was capable of punching her at 600 stat strength. It would not be pleasant to hold onto Shikai Grodd for long.

Remaining Reiatsu: 1,100/1,500 (-300 Shikai, -100 Enkosen)
Shikai 1/10

Grodd's current height: 6'8"
Grodd's hair length: ~3 feet
Grodd's fingernails length: 1 inch

+1 inch/+1 foot/+1 inch per post after this one

[Chiku Unoji]

CRACK!
Her stinger slammed into that kido barrier, and suddenly Chiku felt a chill running up her spine as she SENSED it. The FEEL of that barrier against her stinger as she was suddenly reminded of the shinigami she'd run into before. The one from the Kido Corps. And almost instantly she felt a ripple of fear in her heart, her chest suddenly tightening as the realization hit her like a brick to her armored face. This was one of those spell casters. Her mind raced, processing faster than Grodd's did. She was faster, she thought faster. Even if he was technically physically stronger, she was still considerably strong, AND large.

Her mind immediately refocused, not even thinking about the lack of an incantation. She had run into a lot of shinigami in her days as a brothel bouncer. She had learned that the triggers to kido were varied. She'd even run into a shinigami whose kido had been triggered by his own blood being spilled, and she wondered. What had triggered this one? She didn't know, but when she could FEEL his sword beginning to shape a character, she knew that she had to stop him. And fast.

Almost instantly she shifted, lifting her feet up from the ground and curling up into a ball, twisting as suddenly, all of grodd's weight, AND all of her weight was being pushed down by gravity as Chiku twisted, and SLAMMED Grodd arm-first into the collapsed pit beneath them, suddelny dropping every single ounce of her weight onto his sword, and then his forearm as she attempted to snap it in half. She had no idea if it was already too late, but she had to try. Immediately, the massive pincers in Grodd's shoulders twisted and sank deeper, pushing those pointed claws deeper into his flesh, twisting as she attempted to do as much damage to his arms as possible.

Meanwhile, one set of her arms that had been latched onto him suddenly shifted, leaving the pincer set buried in his shoulders, the other set held a firm grip on his elbows. This final set of claws moved and began digging. Digging and flinging away the newly-loosed dirt, and suddenly Grodd would see the light of day vanish as Chiku found the entrance to her tunnel and hurried into it. Whether Grodd had managed to release or not wouldn't change the fact that she was speeding down the tunnel, kicking the walls as she descended, aiming to collapse the earth behind them as she sought to bury the both of them at her incredible speed.

Of course, there was also another thing that Chiku was attempting. She had noticed that Grodd hadn't sensed her before. It was really a touch and go sort of thing. Some shinigami were icredibly easy to sneak up on. And in all of her aggressive attacks, all of her vicious assaults, she HAD learned something. Shinigami were NOT usually used to fighting something with so many limbs. And even more, sometimes they didn't even have the ability to KEEP TRACK of everything that was going on. And after some experimentation, she had found an INCREDIBLY simple, but effective, tactic.

Sneaking.

Even the shinigami with incredible senses, and those who specialized in finding a hidden assailaint had one thing in common. They had a much harder time when they were busy. So while Chiku was dragging Grodd underground, potentially a released grodd, whom she would now be trapped with, she also slithered her tail up, forcing it through the earth she was excavating. The tunnels were freshly dug, the earth was not hard enough to resist her strength, and if anything, her tail tunneling adjacent to her and Grodd helped her sneak it out and around, and then back into the tunnel she was sharing with the shinigami. And from behind, through the tunnel wall, that stinger would once again attack, but slowly. That stinger would slither until it was just about to press into Grodd's flesh before it suddenly JABBED.

She didn't know how good he was. She wasn't actually sure if she was faster then him, or how good his reflexes were to hers, as with shinigami it tended to fluctuate. But she was betting on the fact that Grodd had not seemed to sense her initial attack. If he lacked the ability to sense her stealthed actions, then there would hopefully be no way to sense that stinger until it was already buried into his back and injecting that powerful toxin into his body. If there was any saving grace, it was her own powerful senses, and the fact that her species heard through those special little hairs on their carapace. Otherwise there would be no way to distinguish the firm of Grodd's flesh to the firm of the earth she dug into, and she would be forced to inject that poison and just hope she was inside Grodd when she did.

Of course, from this angle, she had to admit that it was a good thing she was blind. Even though she didn't see, she knew where she was going. That stinger went right for the hard bendy bone thingy. Ok, Chiku wasn't ENTIRELY sure what exactly a spine was, or even what it did. She herself certainly had one, but it ws buried under hefty chitinous plates. So she had never actually run into one other than when hunting prey. and if there was one thing she knew it was that if she broke it, at least half of her prey would stop moving. So in that tight space, she would aim to slide that stinger right against Grodd's hardridge, right where she felt the little space, she could only imagine that they were ears, similar to her own auditory pits in her chitin. So it only made sense that maybe deafening Grodd would help her, and she planted it in.

But there was now another danger. Chiku was now in a VERY enclosed space with Grodd. First off, IF that dropping slam had failed to break his arm fast enough, OR if that swinging wasn't actually necessary for shikai, then she was now buried a good twelve feet deep inside the tunnel, and probably about twenty feet from the surface as there was another 8-10 feet of pit she had created beyond the entrance of the tunnel. If so, then she could only HOPE that the tight space would prevent that hair from wailing on her. But not only that, but she certainly would have to hope that Grodd was not the 'take you with me' kind of man. In spaces like this, there was NO way to dodge a kido if he decided to use one.

She had DEFINITELY hit gold when she had decided to grapple him. She was aware of shinigami shunpo and the irritation that came with trying to catch someone who used it. But the fact that he was a kido user complicated things. Even though she'd successfully grappled him, making it easy to drag him underground, she now had to wish and hope that the panic of suffocation and 300 pounds of scorpion woman would be enough to keep him from utilizing this closeness.

Which is why her plan had one more trick. Well... not a plan. Honestly she had no idea if it was a good idea. Nor had she premeditated it. As a matter of fact, it was simply a habit. Without even thinking, she released her yaseishin. She had actually never even done so underground. She didn't even know how effective it was in the dirt. But whenever she had come into close combat and managed to get a good hold, usually she used yaseishin and that ended the fight fairly quickly. It had become her official panic button. And now that she was realizing that she was underground with the shinigami equivalent of a wizard, she slammed that panic button with both fists, and yelled the one thing that apparently, shinigami didn't like hearing. Something she had actually learned to emulate by mimicery. The thing that perhaps the scariest man she'd ever met had once yelled.

"BAN! KAI!"

That hair and carapace all over her body suddenly blackened. And immediately Chiku grew even LARGER, and grodd would FEEl it because suddenly that little tunnel would feel a LOT smaller. And her tail grew longer, and if she had managed to sneak that stinger into his spine, he would suddenly FEEL it growing larger inside of him. And he would feel what was suddenly gushing out of the tip. Out of her claws and into his shoulders. And oozing from seemingly every pore in her body. Suddenly the air was full of it, in that enclosed space, there was nowhere for the lactic acid to go. Except all over grod. All over his skin. Up his nose. In his eyes. His ears. Into his mouth, into his throat, and into his lungs. That acid would envelop the both of them as chiku's "Bankai" began filling the tunnel. And began eating away at grodd's body.

Conditional Reiatsu use: -400. If successful stinger stab, then Reiatsu: 1100/1500 Reiatsu
Halt Sting Calss 3 used. See previous post for strengths.

-200 Reiatsu for Yaseishin class 6 "Bankai" Release
1300/1500 or 900/1500 reiatsu remaining

SPOILER: Click to show

{Yaseishin}
Tsutsashgui's overal ability is the ejection of Lactic acid from her body in large ammounts, an acid produced by muscles during anaerobic respiration as a result of oxygen deficiency. By Channeling this acid from her muscles to her exoskeleton and ejecting it from her body in the form of a fine mist, she all but eliminates the effects of stamina drain on herself while it is active. If she is in a state of fatigue as a result of combat prior to the release, releasing will immediately alleviate her and keep her from feeling such effects for the duration of the release. Additionally, when released her body produces a much larger quantity of this acid, resulting in producing enough to constantly keep a thick fog of acid around her at all times. Direct exposure will typically eat away layers of skin up to the muscle in the span of one post. If it is left alone then the mist will typically have begun eating midway into the muscle layer by the second post, and completely eaten into the flesh down to the bone by the third post. Chiku's surroundings also will be effected by the mist, eating into several inches of wood, about an inch of stone or similar materials, and a quarter inch of steel or other metals per post.

However, this lactic acid does not simply evaporate and dissolve into nothing in the air, it is forcibly ejected from her body, where it settles to the ground, or lands on objects around her, eating away at her surroundings with an intensity of around 200. Also, due to the positions of these ejection sites, namely from the tip of her stinger and her claws, this lactic acid can be injected into her opponents by method of piercing their skin with either of these natural weapons, or subjecting an opponent's wound to the gas. Indirect exposure (breathing in, wound contact with the mist, through the skin) result in burns as previously stated, typically able to eat through an individual's skin at initial exposure, and eroding skin down to the bone by the second post. However, by direct injection, not only will this burn intensity increase to 400 and will typically eat away at the surrounding muscle within the first post, but additionally the target will immediately begin feeling Chiku's fatigue in her stead as the lactic acid begins eating into their muscle and tissue as though through strenuous activity. This effect, as it is physical rather than the effects of reiatsu, can be reversed with a Healing Efficiency of 200 or higher. The Mist itself permeates an area of about 5 meters around her when in her released state and is generally obstructive to vision, in that it is slightly concealing (translucent rather than completely opaque), and the fact that at a certain distance it will start eating into your eyes.

The Drawback of this ability comes as rather large, and does not wait for the Yaseishin release itself to end. After every three posts of continuous combat that Chikusho overcomes, the strain of pumping so much lactic acid from her muscles weakens the muscle itself, reducing her strength and Speed stats by 10%, compounding for every three posts that this occurs. Once the effect ends, or Chiku takes rest, this debuff begins to decay, regaining 10% of her stats every post until they are completely regained. Healing has no effect on this stat reduction.

Posts until refresh: 1/3
Continuous Combat since Release: 1

[Beast]

Despite the burst of reiatsu that came from releasing, Chiku still managed to stay latched on and squirmed, breaking the ground beneath her and sending the two of them hurtling downwards as she dug new tunnels and pulled them deeper into the ground. Grodd's release was wordless and didn't require much movement save for his wrist, so he'd have no problem writing the kanji and activating Shikai. He did have a problem with his shoulders being torn apart by the pincers, though, and his elbows being held tight. It was time for him to fight back. But first, he had to protect himself from all of the potential damage that came from hitting the sides of tunnel walls repeatedly.

Hair grew over his entire body, tightly woven as to provide a short term armor over everything. He then began to pummel Chiku and punish her for grappling with him. He didn't need to use his locked down arms, he had his hair which was capable of delivering fast blows of 400 speed that were devastatingly powerful at 600 strength. The way she was holding him from behind, her head would be receiving the brunt of the blows. As he punched and punched with his head hair, he felt something slam into him from the side.

Chiku's stinger slammed into the side of his woven hair armor, too stealthy for him to detect but wouldn't be able to pierce the armor and inject the venom. Maybe if she attacked a few more times it would be weakened, but Grodd's reiatsu strength was a bit more powerful than hers and held fast for the first blow. He responded to the stinger by lashing out with his hair, attempting to grab it and crush it with the 600 strength grip. Everything was so enclosed, but his hair was like an extension of his body, moving like his arm would, but better than his arm could.

All of a sudden, the blind scorpion yelled out a phrase that Grodd had never heard called out. He was vaguely aware of Bankai and the fact that he didn't have it, but he had never experienced anyone else with it, and she didn't even have a sword, much less a Zanpakutou. He was skeptical of her having a Shinigami release, but he couldn't even begin to doubt that something was going on. He felt her grow larger and the ground around them started to melt as acid oozed from her body. That was something he didn't want to hit him, no sir.

Too bad they were grappling. His armor began to burn early. He knew that it would fade before too long anyways, but the acid was starting to burn through his armor sooner. Acid had melting/burning properties and could easily be argued as to be as potent as fire in dissolving hair protein. As he felt the armor start to fade away, he rotated his wrists towards the beast clanswoman and let six braids of hair burst out his hands. He normally liked to store this ability for later, but this was an emergency. The braids were only two feet long, but that was more than enough in a grappling situation.

The braids would move as his head hair did, touching Chiku before the man activated Tsuzuri Raiden and electrocuted her through his hands and the braids of hair attached to them. Stil Roofdier was a powerful attack, but could only be used once in a release. Tsuzuri Raiden wasn't a particularly powerful attack, but it would force Chiku to decide whether to keep grappling with him and continue to be electrocuted or let go and let him get to the surface where the fight would be more out in the open.

Remaining Reiastu: 775/1,500 (-100, Oerwoud Skild, -200 Stil Roofdier, -25 Tsuzuri Raiden)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Techniques Used}
Technique Name: Oerwoud Skild (Jungle Shield)

Release Levels: Shikai/Bankai

Technique Description and Effect: Oerwoud Skild is a simple defense technique that suddenly causes a mass amount of growth. In Shikai, Grodd’s entire body becomes covered in tightly woven hair, while in Bankai it becomes covered in thick layered bone. This shell of a defense costs 100 reiatsu and lasts for one full post before falling apart. Both of these defenses are as durable as a Zanpakutou, however, the hair version is very vulnerable to fire. Any fire of at least 25% of Grodd’s RS will burn through the hair defense. The bone in the Bankai version is not vulnerable to fire.

Drawback: Reiatsu cost, short duration, weakness to Fire in Shikai.

Technique Name: Stil Roofdier (Silent Predator)

Release Levels: Shikai Only

Technique Description and Effect: Stil Roofdier stands for Silent Predator, which describes the kind of hunter that stalks his prey without noise. This technique is activated passively when the Shikai is released. Hidden in between the skin of his hand and the bone plate over his fingers is very tightly coiled hair. This hair isn’t spiritual, so it cannot be sensed or seen. This hair simply grows, doubling in size for each post that it remains wound. At will, for a cost of 200 reiatsu, Grodd can allow the hair to explode outwards in three braids per hand. These stop growing after being released, and cannot be rewound to increase the growth. He only gets one shot at it per release, and would have to completely seal and re-release his Shikai in order to gain access to it, a very costly choice.

Drawback: Large reiatsu cost, and the inability to perform it again. If used too soon, it can be weak, and if not used at all, it goes wasted. The hair is vulnerable to Fire when released.

Grodd's current height: 6'9"
Grodd's hair length: ~4 feet
Grodd's fingernails length: 2 inches

[Chiku Unoji]

Chiku was baffled as once again, her stinger failed to penetrate. The tip stopped by that gross hair growing everywhere, and the fact that this hair was BEATING HER. She cringed, lowering her head as those bits of fuzz beat her like she was it's trailertrash wife. With every blow causing her to reel back and buckle. SO hard were those blows that her carapace actually cracked and were it not for the fact that they were trapped in a tunnel, she would likely have staggered off of the man from the sheer force that was being applied to her face-area. Immediately after the first blow, she abandoned the grip she had on his arms and instead only kept the set of arms around his torso there, lifting that third set up to protect her head, tenting her arms around it and taking the blows, though EVEN with those arms up, the force was tremendous.

But at the very least, she held solace as she could sense the acid burning it's way through that hair of his. And no doubt, unless he had immediately and instinctively held his breath the moment it activated, he would be inhaling a considerable ammount of that acid, and it would be well on it's way to eating it's way through his lungs. Not to mention it's exposure to his eyes and any other part of him that wasn't covered in hair. Especially since that hair was probably not an air-tight seal. Even with the armor, small wafts of that acid would undoubtedly be making their way through.

Against physical blows, such as her stinger, this armor was an enormous issue. She literally had no idea what to do about it, and not even entirely because it was beating the piss out of her. Her body felt it. And in fact if she were any smaller, she would likely have been snapped in half by the sheer force of the attack. Chiku knew all too well how badly those skinny twigs called humans could take a blow. Though she was really no better off. Were it not for the fact that she had an external skeleton she would likely be unconscious at this point. And indeed she felt VERY close to unsconsciousness.

If she were one to bet, she actually was not entirely sure if he HADN'T knocked her out once or twice, and simply beat her back into consciousness half a second later before she even had time to power down. Wouldn't her yaseishin have deactivated from that? She had no idea. She did feel a sudden surge of fatigue a she STRUGGLED to keep her yaseishin active, continuing to pump out acid. Were it not for the fact that her yaseishin was dumping her fatigue out into the air, she might have simply passed out and given up.

Only her fatigue WAS going somewhere. Her pincers were STILL buried in his shoulders. And unlike the rest of him, there was NO hair between them and his skin, in fact they were in his flesh. And BECAUSE of that, the acid had the chance to collect into quantities far greater than just vapor in the air, DOUBLING it's effectiveness. Seeing as Grodd had failed to remove her pincers from his shoulders, he had INSTEAD focused on beating her when he could have simply focused on the pincers and ripped them out of his shoulders.

Instead those shoulders, because of his negligence to drag the pincers out of them and prevent Chiku from injecting acid through them directly, were now devoid of muscle as the acid ate through it completely, assuming there was not some sort of special quality to them that would resist the erosion. Not ONLY that, but he would immediately be feeling a wave of exhaustion that Chiku WOULD have been feeling. And as the muscle was removed, she began instinctively increasing her grip, pushing those pincers through the void where muscle had once been and sinking the points of her pincers into the flesh of his chest, continuing to inject acid now into the section of his chest where it was attatched to his shoulders.

They would BOTH be in pain. Taking the blow from the hair, her arms were broken at the forearm, the wrists, and her upper arms were barely intact. The outter exoskeleton cracked, her inner skeleton barely holding up as she focused on keeping them up in that guard. And once that electricity hit her, she noped. She noped incredibly hard. Immediately she KICKED and pushed away from grodd entirely, turned, and immediately started digging away from him, sobbing softly as she felt agony in her body. This was AWFUL. Wether Grodd let her run, or clung on and made her drag him, she immediately beelined for the surface, exploding from there to suck in air, sobbing softly as she would roll out of the ground and collapse in a heap, panting heavily as acid gushed from her body and erupted in a giant plume from her tunnel, still venting out of her rapidly as she refused to stop her yaseishin for fear that she would be stuck against Grodd without it.

She began digging back down, panting a little as she collected herself. And began recovering from all that damage. Slowly as it were. HOPEFULLY, she had left that fucking crazy monkey underground. Buried under several meters of dirt to slowly suffocate to death. Even if he had followed her, hopefully he would have better sense than to try and fucking go after her as she burrowed back down. She wanted away from him.... but.... she wasn't running from the fight. Even with all the damage she'd taken, she felt like she had won the fight. That acid, unless he had some way of washing it off, would continue eating away at him. And all she had to do was get back underground, and get him once that hair armor was burned away. Then.... then she would finish him off.

She did admit one thing though... she was fascinated now. And as much as she wanted him dead.... she knew she couldn't afford to just be an animal anymore. that time was gone. She was going to down him... and then drag him to a portion of the undergound den. Far away from her family of course. She wouldn't risk them. She'd probably have to remove a few of his limbs... maybe get Ajora to heal him. But no... she wsn't going to kill him.

She had gone too long knowing nothing about this fucking crazy world. It was time she got some answers. And he was going to give them to her.

Second set of fingered hands broken at forearms and wrists.
-200 Reiatsu for having to refresh yaseishin after being knocked the fuck out and then knocked the fuck in. 1100/1500 reiatsu remaining.
Continuous Combat Since release: 2 (it went in and out in the same post)
Posts until refreshment: 1/3

[Beast]

If Grodd could scream in pain, he would, but he couldn't, so it would just appear as if he had tanked the acid. Chiku had noped up to the surface, but the Shinigami was still in the pit trying to wrap his brain around the pain of having all of his shoulder muscles turn to liquid and run down his arm. Vision shaking and heart beating ever faster, even with his proficiency at tolerating pain he was still in awful shape. He was pissed, too. Why did they always go for his arms? His hands, his voice, had been robbed from him yet again as his shoulders became unusable and his arms fell limply at his side, for now. He had a zanpakutou technique that could restore it, but first he needed to get out of this hole.

Shunpo mixed with advanced air ground could have gotten him out of the pit no problem, but he needed to conserve energy. Grabbing onto the surviving bits of tunnel with his hair, he pulled himself up out of the hole head first. He crashed to the ground when he made it out, gasping for air and working to get up without use of his arms. He eventually had to roll in the dirt to get any excess acid off of him while his hair armor faded like chaff in the wind. It was a technique with a short duration, after all. After rolling, he struggled to get up, having to push off the ground with his hair to get up to his feet. He was tired from releasing, tired from the short burst of combat, and exhausted from the acid boiling away his stamina inside his body. He had gotten to fresh air, yes, but regardless he was still dealing with the effects, which kept him from attacking just yet...

Meanwhile, something dark inside the shinigami began to stir... Blood...

Remaining Reiatsu: 775/1,500
Shikai: 3/10

Grodd's current height: 6'10"
Grodd's hair length: ~5 feet
Grodd's fingernails length: 3 inches

[Chiku Unoji]

Chiku had to admit, she had fully expected Grodd to still be underground when she got back down to the tunnels. even with one set of arms kinda useless, she was still able to dig perfectly efficiently, recovering from the guarded blows to her head, she paused when she sensed him not that far from where she had come up. In fact he'd come up out of her own hole, and as she vanished back into the ground, she began to circle a little, considering wether or not she was going to be able to do the same thing all over again. But then she realized... she really didn't WANT to go through that again.

So she thought back... thought back to all of those shinigami she had ever really fought as a bouncer. And she realized just how weak they had been. She had been worrying about this sort of thing for ages, worrying about, Of ALL things, that she might lose. But frankly... he was far worse off for wear than she was. Her arms were broken yes, and she was hurting all over from that brief shock, actually she couldn't feel those spots where the hair had hit aside from her arms. that pain was pretty much blocking everything else out. Except the electrical pain. Wow that hurt.

But suddenly she had an idea. Suddenly she had a wonderfully AWFUL idea. which she immediately revised because no way was he going to talk or help her after she did what that first idea was. Nonono, she had to be a little gentler. She had to understand and try to hold back on that viciousness. Instead, she chose a slightly nicer road. Her ORIGINAL intention and idea, was to sneak up beneath grod, and with a sudden shove of her pincers, stab him in the dick, and start pumping acid into the area.

What the REVISED version, and what happened to Grodd just as he was starting yo feel that stir, was instead, a clawed fist sneaking out of the ground, making sure that there was no burst of audible soil to alert grodd, she took a moment, letting the sensory hairs on her carapace get a feel of how his body was oriented. Using her stealth skill to stay hidden. And then, with a silent mental apology, she vegan machinegun-punching him in the dick. With her superior speed, she began pounding away at his family pouch as quickly as she could, her arm instantly sinking back into the ground, hopefully the pain of having his junk pulverized would be enough to stun him long enough for her to dip back down as the wealth of acid left behind from her passive venting would begin eating away. But well.. at least it was better than an injection.

Soon after, emerging from the ground behind him, take one look, narrow her eyes, and then aim to SLAM herself into him from behind, hitting him like a freight train as she aimed to plow him into the ground, and then slam her fist into the back of his head in an attempt to knock him out and put him out of BOTH of their misery. With ANY luck the poor man would be knocked out cold as 300 pounds of scorpion behind a punch would hopefully get that hairy mute into a comfortable and painless unconscious state. She wanted this to be OVER after all.

But more than that, she couldn't shake the feeling that he had more tricks up his sleeve, and that if she didn't end this quickly, there was going to not only be more broken parts of her, and more knocking around of her person, but that there was a possibility that she would lose. And UNLIKE her, despite her savageness, she had a feeling that he would execute her. Shinigami were not well known fo r their mercy, and she had been around to know what they did to her kind. It was rare for them to have any sympathy. They didn't even have sympathy for eachother. She didn't want to die.

She HAD to win.

Continuous Combat since release: 3 (-10% strength and speed)
New Strength: 180-18= 162
New Speed: 225-22=203
Stealth in use.
Yaseishin duration: 2/3

[Beast]

As the Shinigami started to recover, he realized that he had no idea where the scorpion had gone. He focused all of his attention on his Energy Sensory, as released beings couldn't hide their spiritual presence. Or at least Grodd hadn't met one who could yet. Because of this, Grodd would have sensed that Chiku was right underneath him, but it would be too late for him. She had already begun her assault on his unprotected nether region, hitting him over and over again with carapace and acid. Bowling over, he gasped in pain more from the physical trauma than from the acid. But that pain would catch up as well.

He had little time to react before she threw her 300 pound body at him in a vicious slam that made him black out for a moment. Or two. Being thrown to the ground hurt, but the punch to the back of the head didn't hurt at all. He was knocked unconscious from the blow to the sensitive part of the body, even with his Shikai active he didn't have the instincts to respond to it. His hair fell loosely around him as his mind slipped away quickly, off into his Inner World where he spent most of his lack of consciousness...

Back to the Beast Within...

Blood....

[Chiku Unoji]

Chiku stared, panting heavily as she stared up at the sky, even with her blind eyes, she could still try to look into the darkness, swallowing softly as she slowly closed those eyes, and relished the feeling that was suddenly pouring through her. Despite all of her pain... all of her anguish. All of her suffering. she was ALIVE. And she felt much more alive than she had for the past few months. She actually smiled, chuckling softly to herself as she slowly looked down.

Gently, she crouched down, inspecting the man for a moment and shrugged, lifting him up and slinging him over her shoulder, beginning to walk off. Carting him out toward where the above-ground portion of the den was. And honestly it didn't take long for them to arrive, making her way to the cavern. Almost immediately she was met with worried looks, but after a grunt from her, the majority of the family moved into the tunnels, and after some explanation, she managed to convince Ajora to stay upstairs with her.

With a hard thump she sat down, grunting as she let Ajora heal the both of them, her eyes slowly closing as she took slow deep breaths to try and relax herself. she finally had someone she could try and use. Admittedly she didn't know much about these sorts of things. And she knew Ajora wouldn't be able ot heal them both up fully. She was god, but the arrancar wasn't THAT good. They would still both be in bad shape. But the fact of the matter was: Grodd probably knew where they could find PROPER healers.

She was going to question him. and hopefully. he would be able to help her. Was that assistance going to be under duress? Probably. But she didn't care. She was probably going to get executed for attacking a shinigami. But who the fuck cared. She.... she couldn't imagine it. even looking to Ajora as the poor woman worked on Grodd. The woman had healed, she was some sort of regenerator. But Subida had told her that Ajora was secretly suffering. Her lungs had been mostly destroyed in the raid. even if she seemed perfectly whole, she had breathing issues constantly, though she did her best to hide them. And Chiku felt that deep, painful guilt deep in her chest. Her eyes slowly clenched shut and she bit back bitter hot tears despite her victory.

It wasn't just Ajora either. almost all of her family... the girls she had cared for for so long. Called whores by the others in soul society. They were almost all maimed in some way. Holding some sort of crippling injury. Not all of them had even survived. And.... she couldn't just sit around anymore... Looking to Grodd, or rather tilting her head a bit so she could hear him better, she narrowed her eyes resolutely.

She was going to have him lead her to the shinigami doctors. And.... yes... probably... maybe... she would be imprisoned. Or put to death. But she didn't care. So long as... so long as those she was caring for got treatment... It would all be worth it. The ones who weren't in bad straight with the shinigami. Ajora and Subida would likely have to stay behind. But once the others were healed, they could start making money again, and they could afford to fix Ajora and Subida. It was.... it was set to work. Of COURSE it would work! It had to work.....

Because honestly....

She didn't know what else to do.

[Amagai Kuchiki]

180 TP Grodd
450 + 100 victory = 550 TP Chiku