The Dried River isn't always empty[JT, R, Valentin Acciai]

[Valentin Acciai]

Whatever it was Victor did it worked wonders for Valentin as the arrancar woman had not at all expected the attack by the amorphous blob that Valentin wore, not that he could blame her as this Victor didn't have any limbs to predict an attack from and black was a colour hard to discern movements in. In the span of just a moment the arrancar seemed to have lost function over her arm and Victor just up and took her sword, having the Adjuchas let go of the blade that had thrust into him he decided to act before her sister could provide aid and once more thrust his clawed hand into another's body, tearing out her heart with one quick motion as her sister powerless to reach her other part in time screamed in a mixture of despair and wrath.

Valentin feared this burst of emotion and as such fled once more into an ulcera to gain distance and appeared once more a good thirty meters back to see the remaining of the sisters, the elder and previously seen more wise of the two huddled over her dying counterpart in a full out sob as her face dug into the other's chest, partially smearing her black hair with the dark red shade of blood spilled. Tense as he always was in battle Valentin had expected an immediate attack but it did not come, despite awaiting it the arrancar saw perfectly fit to bawl out in the middle of combat and it angered him. Partly because she was draining away the burst of adrenaline that had filled him but more so the growing guilt within him about being responsible for the death one one that was grieved over pulled at what heartstrings he had.

Usually Valentin swatted away any thoughts of compassion when it came to all beings of Hueco Mundo as most he killed within this realm were hollow of animal intellect or cruel scumbags but with the battle not quite progressing as it should with both sides going full at it until one side no longer breathed he was unprepared to face one who seemingly lost her will to fight. ''I know they were trying to kill us and all...'' Valentin said as he took a bite of the heart in his hand as if it were a fruit before continuing ''But i am feeling like the biggest dick right now'' he said without even paying attention to the fact that he was technically insulting the arrancar by even saying such a thing while still choosing to eat the heart.

But such was the nature of hollow, even though Valentin was sentient enough to know compassion for another he didn't grieve the dead. The dead were a means to get stronger, their purpose fulfilled and what they were now only memories. But he still felt the live woman's pain, she had been left behind in a scenario she never wanted when just wanting to bully some lowlife hollows. Hell, he wouldn't hesitate to eat Victor for a second if he went and died somehow, not that it was any good as an example when the two had only known each other for one single day. Question was if there was any reliable way to eat Victor in the first place without finding some container to drink him from.

Regardless of that though Valentin took a step closer to the arrancar in a mixture of curiosity and pity which did not go unanswered by the arrancar woman who had begun to quiet down. The Adjuchas didn't need any special abilities to feel a rage seething within her, an absolute hatred for the creature that had robbed her of her second half. Without so much as a comment or even an insult to hurl at them the woman stood up with eyes still looking down at the corpse beneath her as she almost whispered the words ''
destrozar, rayas de tigres...'' and a flash of Reiatsu burst out, temporarily blinding any who were near with it's radiance. 

When the Reiatsu settled the woman had clearly changed, digitigrade legs with paws of pure white with lines of black was the first obvious change morphing her lower body with striped fur up to her midriff. The second were her arms, also covered with a white fur with similar stripes it now came with massive 1 foot claws that easily dwarfed the little toothpicks Valentin dared to call natural weapons by comparison rather than back scratchers. While the Adjuchas still had the time to act his jaw unhinged as what appeared to be the handle of a sword although made of bone extended. Dropping the remains of the heart he grabbed on to the handle and pulled, soon seeing a blade extend and exit taking the shape of an ivory longsword if it were made of spines.

''You know, i really wish i hadn't gone about firing that cero earlier. I really, really, reeeally hate fighting Arrancar...'' the Adjuchas said truthfully, whenever an Arrancar used it's Resurreccion it always ended up with Valentin significantly injured. He had never been killed by one though so that was a bright sign, not that anything had ever killed him this far and perhaps it would be best to keep the trend of not dying horribly. On edge the Adjuchas remained still as the woman stared him down with spite until her caution gave way to fury, in one short motion she dashed towards the two in a savage charge as she roared for all she had whilst Valentin not having much of a plan whipped his tail in her direction sending the whole load of spikes on his tail bolting at her.

-100 La Mia Spada

375/1450 

[Victor Karnes]

For the most part, Victor was exhausted. Ever since his existence, he had only been able to use his spiritual energy in order to merge his body with another, and he would usually stay merged for so long that his reiatsu would regenerate by the time his host was removed from him. In contrast, today he had already merged with two hosts and utilized his reiatsu to shape his body into weaponry. For the first time since his existence as a "Hunter" began, he felt waves of exhaustion. On top of that, his mind was stretched thin trying to process all the information he had gathered from this point. His nature called for him to be more eloquent, rather than strong.  However, he was seeing the downsides of that. If he were alone, this monster before him in the shape of a human would have long torn him to shreds.

Upon seeing the other party charge over like a wild animal, Victor felt an oppressive feeling, as if that opponent could crush the world before even arriving at him. His ooze form quivered instinctively and a thought occurred to him. No matter how strong a striding animal was, it had a major flaw. That was two legs. Victor ejected himself from Valentin quickly and made a pool of ooze about a foot in front of Valentin, right when the Lioness was about two feet further away. Fortunately or unfortunately, Victor was a slow being and thus, he only moved onto the ground in front of her by the time she was right on top of him. A small amount of ooze was stretched out before the lioness as she got near Victor and she stepped into the puddle. The puddle, however, was only in front of one foot, causing that foot to sink 6 inches deeper than it should have while the other foot landed squarely on solid ground.

Victor quickly seized the initiative and extended his hand "Take my hand, and we will conquer." Very quickly, Victor was told to screw off by the tigress and his mask turned upside down, as if a large smile was all over his face as his ooze wrapped around her waist. Despite his efforts, as he expanded his ooze, the arrancar quickly let out a burst of reiatsu as she fell to one knee from the earlier trip. This burst knocked Victor back off the arrancar, his attempt at taking a host failing miserably as the tigress stared at the hollow behind her with rage. The only reason a hollow would normally wrap around a target was to eat them, and the idea of being eaten enraged this arrancar even more.

Victor's mask turned over and over as various voices came out, one after the other. "You really should have just walked away." Victor laughed in dozen's of voices as Valentin was completely open to attack the arrancar's back while it was giving a death glare to Victor and attempting to stand up due to being tripped by falling one foot in the ooze. This was probably Valetnin's best shot, and if he didn't take it, Victor was likely going to need to escape by fleeing or using Valentin as bait. However, from what the ooze hollow had seen, Valentin should have plenty of experience in battle, capitalizing on the enemies weaknesses.

Reiatsu: 10 (60 - 50 [Form: Armor])

SPOILER: Click to show

{Techniques}
Techniques:

Technique Name: Form: Armor [Base Ability]

Class: Class 8-1 (Scaling with Victor's class)

Technique Type: Hollow

Usable By: Hollow

Technique Element: Flesh

Technique Description and Effects : The basic ability of Victor, this technique allows him to wrap an ally in his ooze, pulling them to the center of his body. His body takes on a darker, more opaque look and looks more like a jet black suit rather than a blob of ooze. This form is required before Victor can utilize most of his higher level Form: techniques.

How to use technique : Victor says the incantation and the soon to be host holds out their hand. Afterwards, Victor's body will turn into a long ooze similar in appearance to a snake. He will coil around their arm and then spread from their arm to the rest of their body.

If the host doesn't agree [Only possible with NPCs or by OOC agreement (THIS CANNOT BE DONE WITHOUT A PLAYER CHARACTER'S CONSENT, Therefore there is no struggle for PCs and there is no "body control" on PCs.], Victor once again turns into the snake form, but this time attempts to wrap around the neck or waist, depending on which he can reach.

It then becomes a match of Reiatsu Strength vs. Reiatsu Strength. If they win, Victor is blown away by their spiritual power, if Victor wins, he suppresses their spiritual power and takes over controlling the bodies motion. This can be avoided by attacking Victor's mask [which usually appears on the back of the host in Hostile Takeovers], causing him to recoil away. Any attack on his body seems ineffective during this Hostile Takeover, though attacks from outside sources [not the would be host] still damage Victor.

Once merged, the Host can break free by having a strength score 1.5x Victors or by initiating a Reiatsu Strength Clash. The RS Clash can only be attempted once every 2 posts. If the hosts succeeds at either, they can forcibly remove Victor.

Any Binding Technique of equal class to this technique specifically targeted at Victor can cause him to be forced off the target. If Victor's assimilation is over 75%, the technique requires a 1 class advantage, and at 100% assimilation, Binding will no longer separate Victor, instead binding both the host and Victor.

Victor can willingly allow the host to maintain control of their limbs if desired. If this occurs, the infected can not tell Victor can control their limbs until he tries to do so.

Technique Drawbacks: Can be broken free; Requirement for other techniques; Requires Consent for RPCs; Requires an Incantation;. No one which removes Victor forcibly can be affected by this technique for 5 posts.

Reiatsu Cost: 50 per rank.

Assimilation Meter: No effect.

Incantation and Effect: "Take my hand, and we will triumph." Required for the technique.

Made By: Victor Karnes

Reserved?: Yes

[Valentin Acciai]

Guessed rightly by Victor Valentin did indeed seize the initiative when he was provided the opportunity, her charge halted by the Slime's odd tricks distracting her the Adjuchas was able to recover from his earlier mistake, pointing the index finger of his left hand at the Arrancar a Cero began to form at the tip of his finger, the smallest thing really. But it quickly grew to maturity within the span of just a few seconds, quick enough for Victor to have made all the difference as with a deep boom the dark red ray of certain death burst forth it's destructive power over the woman who had failed to react on the earlier buzz of the Cero charging thanks to Victor and was now hopelessly trying to dart out of the Cero's path.

But she failed despite the strength of her legs, the Cero was simply too big with Valentin having shot off nearly all of his reserves into this attack which had the poor woman incinerated where she stood. The attack passing by Victor harmlessly by just a few feet there was a warmth to it but it wasn't harmful as it passed and eventually faded. ''She's dead, right?'' a slightly worried Valentin asked the Slime before reaffirming that she was indeed slain by spotting the remains of her upper body, her legs and much of her lower half clearly missing in a gory mess but he saw the slightest movement in her left however she was harmless now, dying even. 

''To challenge us was the greatest mistake they could have made.'' the pride bloated hollow stated ''Urhg.. not- n'' the slowly dying Arrancar was trying to speak still, whatever it was about he wouldn't let it spoil his mood. With his handy sword in hand, heh, he walked up to the woman and finished her off, severing her head and kicking it down a dune to be with it's sister before leaning down to dismember her arm, snacking on it as he moved on to the other and did the same. Looking about the area he realized he was in what was now quite clearly the remains of a battlefield, charred corpses and dismembered piles left and right all around him. With a toothy smile he decided to keep to a cheery mood as the last of his wounds healed up and mused to the fellow hollow''I think this qualifies as my biggest harvest yet, you're a damn good luck charm you know that?''

Whether or not the slimy Victor was even capable of the same sensations of touch was irrelevant as the Adjuchas had the hollow flow over him again as he extended his hand towards him and later patted his own shoulder and by extension Victor's in genuine appreciation to his efforts. ''Keep this up and you'll be a Menos Grande in no time, wonder what shape you will take though seeing as you don't really have much of a shape to start out with when you're not coating me that is.'' While talking the Adjuchas was making busy, dragging corpses and checking for survivors among the dead as he dragged them all to a central point atop a decently large rock which was flatter than the alternatives, his dinner table as it were.

''If i had a napkin... i probably still wouldn't bother, no matter how i go about this both you and i are going to be stained red with this much food.'' he kid as he picked up the closest limb to him and dug his teeth in deep, tearing through skin, flesh and bone, consuming all with the bottomless hunger known only by those who are hollow. But despite the hunger and the feeding he didn't forget the deal they made, pushing every other hollow on the makeshift table into the black skin of his body that was the symbiote hollow. ''Eat up! you've never had a meal quite like this i bet. So much to eat an otherwise pleasant activity becomes tedious''


-200 Cero

175/1450

2 Class 4 Arrancar Consumed

5 Class 8 Hollows Consumed

[Victor Karnes]

Victor was, needless to say, mentally and physically exhausted. His reiatsu was at about as low as it had been since he had become a monster and his body had moved at a speed greatly exceeding all of his previous hosts and himself many times over. So naturally when Victor was done, he was more-or-less surprised he wasn't eaten right then and there. The Valentin, whatever kind of hollow he was, was quite intriguing. Victor's mind and reiatsu was so bottomed out, he didn't even have the energy to climb onto Valentin and wield him as a meat suit. This was dangerous to Victor as, along with being uncomfortable like this, this state was by far his most vulnerable. However, seeing as Valentin didn't seem to desire Victor's innards, or lack there of, he was able to slowly, very slowly, roll over to the table. Along the way, Victor's ooze would stretch out and pull a few hollows with him. By the end of his trail, he had 10 hollows around him, being held by various ooze like protrusions from all over Victor.

"Any of the kills you want are yours to eat. After all, you could probably eat them all before I could even wal...roll over to them." Victor was obviously unused to the life of a hollow. He had never met any higher tier hollow than himself until today, except the one that trampled over his village. As such, Victor didn't even realize how lucky he was. For Valentin to not eat him was already a major benefit, but Victor didn't understand this. He very rarely thought about the cannibalism of still conscious hollows as an option. As he made his way towards the table, the hollows held by the ooze protrusions slowly sunk deeper and deeper into Victor's body, disappearing as he rolled along. By the time he made it to the makeshift table, due to his innately low speed, he was already half-way finished devouring their essences.

Victor looked at Valentin with a curious gaze from behind his mask, though a bit of a tremor flew through his soul every time Valentin's hair moved. "As vast as this land is, I rarely see any other heartless among the vast deserts. And quite often they vanish as quick as you see them. This must have been quite a gathering of them. I imagine I will need quite awhile before I find another host. However, that is a problem for later. For now, we feast. Victor's masked flipped upside down once more in an awkward attempt to smile as he began to much more quickly devour the other hollow that he had dragged to the table. Victor ate and then began to roll off very slowly."If you'd like to find me again, just look through the river. After all, the Dried River isn't always empty. Sometimes dark things lurk within."

Hollows Devoured: 7 Class 8 Hollow.

[Zeich Yajuu]

This thread was pretty nicely done, but at the end we hit a snag with just how many Hollows are suddenly getting eaten at once. Yes, I know we had a mass fight against a large number of Hollows, but there was at least one instance where about eleven of them got annihilated in one hit. Our general rule of thumb is that for every consumption you generally need a paragraph dedicated to the slaying and devouring of that Hollow, not just a mass of one-hit KOs that are just tossed together as a consumption at the end. So I'm going to have to ask that more time is taken to actually slay them - rather than one paragraph to slay 11 - or I will need to adjust the rewards accordingly. This is to prevent an exploit of the system; even 11 Class 8 Hollows is 550 TP, and given our general conversion rate of 1 paragraph = 10 TP, that's a bit much to be done in one paragraph. As it is, even with the one-paragraph-per-consumption rule, you'd still be gaining 50 TP per paragraph, so it's already advanced compared to any other leveling path.

So yeah, sorry for the sudden halt, but I'm going to ask for more time taken in their consumption or reduced rewards based on the paragraphs involved in their slayings. Up to you if you'd like a grading now or would like to add to previous posts.

[Valentin Acciai]

The site really is in need of a proper guide on hollow consumption, everyone you ask has a different story on how it works right now, but yeah, edited.

[Zeich Yajuu]

I do agree with this statement, and I'll push with the staff to get a more solid definition in place. I apologize for the inconvenience and will award a little extra TP to both of you once Victor has made his decision, in exchange for the unlisted hassle. Thank you for your patience.

[Zeich Yajuu]

We had 121 total paragraphs for a gain of +300 SP to each individual.
Victor's Consumptions: 13 Class 8 Hollows (13 x 50) = 650 CTP
Valentin's Consumptions: 5 Class 8 Hollows (5 x 50 = 250) + 1 Class 7 Hollow (50) + 2 Class 4 Arrancar (300 x 2 = 600) = 900 CTP
And a bonus of +100 CTP each for putting up with the confusion.

Final results:
Victor: +750 CTP, +300 Training SP
Valentin: +1000 CTP, +300 Training SP.