Finally something that makes sense! Astrid / Teresa JT

[Astrid Vess]

For the first time in a long time Astrid was going to visit somewhere. Somewhere that wasn't in Hell and somewhere that actually made sense for her to go. Hueco Mundo. Having met Alastor in the not so distant past and, unfortunately, garnered his attention for some unholy reason meant that now Astrid was subject to events happening in her life that she was not at any point going to have a say over. This occasionally included where she was spawned from in Hell and in addition meant that she was going to be slowly but surely known by the sanctus and it's members more and more as time went on. Especially considering it wasn't JUST Alastor but Orobas who also had some sort of twisted desire in Astrid's development. In truth Astrid wasn't willing or accepting of the events that were going on around her. She just knew that even with her vain attempts at wriggling away she was going to have to deal with them. And thus here she was, in Hueco Mundo's surface layer of sand, sand, and oh wait more sand.



Alastor had decided to take note on her "constant hunger" and thus sent her where others like her were present. Initially Astrid was furious. She was taken away from her home in the Suicide Forest, denied the flesh, viscera, and internal organs that the tree's bore down everyone once in awhile, and instead she was brought to this dead place. Barren, colorless unless it was white, black, or some shade of grey, and worst of all EMPTY. However the longer that Astrid was here she slowly but surely felt a sense of peace that Hell didn't have. She felt something within her drawn to this realm and comforted in this realm. And eventually she simply laid on the sand and watched the empty sky and it's bright moon glow. It was peaceful. She hadn't know peaceful as far as she could remember. And even if this place was "dangerous" she didn't feel concerned. She'd seen hell, literally. And this wasn't it. Closest thing to a single layer of it sure but not the same thing.



Thus Astrid took her time in enjoying the quiet breeze and the feel of sand that didn't inherently burn at you. The peace of reiatsu that wasn't clawing at your mind and sanity every instance of existing. And most importantly the gentle glow of the moon. But eventually her hunger grew. And it was back with a fury that reminded her just why she was here. She needed to eat. She needed to find food and eat it. And that meant she'd be consuming the hollows that were present here. Truthfully, she'd known that she'd have to do such while here. It was a simple rule of "survival", granted she had a minor edge being she couldn't be added into the hollows spiritual collection. Hell wouldn't allow it afterall. So she could die, lose, be consumed and hopefully she'd be in the forest again.



As Astrid stood up on her "legs" and glanced around she wondered where she should go. Certainly not the castle in the distance. She was warned VERY explicitly not to go there. But anywhere else? Well there wasn't a specific direction so she just started "walking", really shambling to her left. She did however keep her senses open for anything. And given there wasn't a sandstorm and it was peacefully silent Astrid felt confident she'd figure out if someone or something would eventually come after her. Assuming she didn't see them first.

[Teresa]

Moving along the infinite beach the white hollow continued her senseless marathon of desperation. It’d only been a few hours, minutes, no it’d definitely been hours. At least she thought so when in reality the young girl who’d been devoured nearly a century ago had escaped from the confines of her prison several days ago. Her mental state, fragile to say the least, was handling itself well given the situation. Her limited knowledge of her surroundings, body and fate only kept her from going over the deep end while still standing on the edge.

The thing that she’d been pleading for, praying to happen for so long had actually occurred. The decades trapped inside the essence of a Hollow was something that for whatever reason Teresa had been conscious of, the majority of her memories now filled with nothing more than a prisoner looking through the bars of their cell at the life of a guard. She’d watched the Hollow that devoured her fight for decades striving to obtain power. Turning on others in order to guarantee his own survival yet only a week ago he’d been slain and all his prisoners released.

Teresa among them was now free although her thin fragile body as a human girl was gone. She’s been transformed into something else. Something just like her guard. The knowledge of what she’d seen him doing for so long was like instructions for the fresh Hollow yet she was running across one problem so far. It wasn’t that she hated her new body nor that she was appalled by her circumstances. She had accepted more than a dozen years after her death that if she ever got another chance she’d make the most of it.

No, the problem happened to be that she couldn’t find anything to eat. Everything on the damn beach was gone. “No crabs, no fish, not even a bird.” Teresa remarked to herself angry at the emptiness of everything the white sand was ever expanding while the sound was nonexistent, a fact which rang through her skull. She didn’t have the power to leave this place though and she’d have to find food soon otherwise the hunger in her gut was going to build until she eventually would fall feral like so many others she’d seen.

Little did Teresa know though there was someone else nearby with the same goal.

[Astrid Vess]

Astrid's hunger grew ever more as time went on. Unfortunately because of her decided to simply enjoy a moment of peace her hunger decided to strike back twice as hard. Actually, it was likely more than that. But it was nigh indescribable given just how hungry she was in general. It never left. It never got sated. It got dulled momentarily sure. But it was always there. Only when she was heavily involved in other matters did it seem to dull just enough to let her deal with the situation at hand. Otherwise she was in constant hunger pangs. Pangs that she wasn't certain wouldn't consume her if she didn't eat. And soon.

Thus came Astrid in this very odd predicament. She was alone. No hollows around. And aimlessly walking. She heard nothing. Saw nothing. And felt only the, admittedly nice, grains beneath her vine like appendages. Really tendrils if we're being honest. She did however spot a tree of some sort around. And just because she was beyond starving she decided to go to it. Upon closer inspection the tree itself seemed withered and stone like. Still if it abated her hunger for a time she'd take it. And that's when she realized how much of a pain in the ass it was to actually get a damn branch to break. The fucking thing wouldn't move. Hell it wouldn't even budge. And that just pissed off Astrid further thus she actively went after the tree like it had offended her. Which it sort of had if one had asked her.

Angry. . . tree. . rock. . . hard to . . . break. . . GRRRAHHH!! Astrid continued this stupid struggle between her and the tree. Actively doing anything in her power to break off SOME part of it. Including using her teeth, clawing at it, full body tackling a branch, even headbutting a branch. By the time she finally stopped she'd nothing to show for her efforts and was only that much hungrier for having tried to do something. Pissed off and without even a snack on her she let out a roar into the void that called itself this beach. Anyone nearby would be able to hear it and anyone with a minor level of sentience would be able to tell that it was anything but a hollow's roar. Astrid being from Hell sounded far more twisted albeit young like a cub. And it didn't help that while she was using every ounce of her being to scream out she was still created via plant life or something remiscient of it. So she had a wierd wet gurgling sound added to her roar that was anything but normal even by hell's standards.

She continued this for a minute at most before she curled up some arm tendrils around her open chest cavity. A couple deep breaths and a new determination to actively seek out something, anything of the flesh variety she pushed herself up and started prowling. She was letting the beast take over. Higher functions weren't super relavant right now when she had no one around that would make them relevant. Thus she was a beast from hell again. A weak one. A strange one. But a beast nonetheless and she was actively hunting now. Whatever she'd find first was going to be her meal regardless of the consequences.

[Teresa]

Moving through this endless sea of sand had grown old by now, the very thing that Teresa had been in since she had gained her freedom hadn’t granted her anything beyond the ability to love as herself once again. This place wasn’t somewhere she wanted to be even if she had been ecstatic about it when she’d first felt the sand on her feet. It’s been a couple days since then. . . at least she thought that sounded right. Finding something to eat was a struggle or perhaps an impossibility as she had yet to come across anything even a different Hollow. Her starvation continued to grow while her mind fell.

Everything was new at the moment, but even everything different that Teresa had been experiencing as a Hollow was changing, she was losing strength. Her gullet was empty while she began to think of nothing more than food. She’d been pondering over other topics yet right now it was almost like the doorway to those thoughts was being shut. Several days without food would have been enough while she had been a human to drop her. Although she had grown up in a poor family they hadn’t suffered to the extent that could match what she was experiencing at the moment.

As she felt the world around her becoming blurred and her mind began to truly sink as her instinctual drive for sustenance overwhelmed her consciousness, well she heard noise from a short distance away. On the edge of falling down to the status of a truly basic Hollow, Teresa is saved by this new sound. Similar to an individual being shocked awake while on the cuspid of sleep. Unknowingly for the first several steps Teresa began to rush off towards the noise and continued to do so once she realized that her body was heading in that direction. It would take her about two minutes at her sluggish speed to actually find the source of the noise.

A strange looking Hollow from what Teresa could tell was gnawing on one of the fragile looking white trees. If this other Hollow looked over and awe Teresa she might have a hard time distinguishing her apart from the tree as Teresa’s appearance looked starkly similar. What Teresa could see though was something similar to herself at the moment that seemed to be starving. On the edge just like her with nothing but one another around them. Now though she was faced with the most important decision she'd have too make since obtaining her freedom, would she approach this other entity?

[Astrid Vess]

Astrid didn't feel any better from her scream. She felt a bit more tired sure but she didn't feel any better. If anything it almost pissed her off more. Almost but just because she was pissed didn't mean that between the hunger was making her more tired than usual. Thus she had to sit back down on the sand and look at the tree. . . if you could call it that. Honestly Astrid wouldn't she'd never met a tree that was so fucking hard, not even in hell. If anything those in hell were easy to break open and they bled! Red thick viscious sap so that even if you were thirsty you had something you could drink from! Mind you sometimes it was poisonous and it would kill you within seconds or days. But still. This thing was for all intents and purposes dead.



Astrid felt eerily similar to this tree in that regard. Still despite her wounded sense of self preservation she couldn't waste anymore time on it. Instead she needed to move on, find SOMETHING that wasn't rock solid and was capable of being torn apart. Thus when Astrid turned around she swore she spotted something. Another tree perhaps? Astrid was fairly certain there hadn't been another tree this close by. But if she were honest she hadn't paid much attention to the surroundings when she'd noticed the first rock tree. Thus despite Teresa being before her Astrid wasn't certain what exactly she was looking at. And from as far away as she was she couldn't even tell if it was breathing assuming it was something other than a tree.



Astrid tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. Wind wasn't a thing here so she couldn't possibly get a "scent" off of it to confirm it was a rock. There was only one thing to do then and that was walk over to the wierd tree and inspect it. She did however make certain to draw small sigils into the sand before placing one on each tendril hand. She did this as carefully as possible and since the sigils were white in color it'd be hard to see against the background that was the sands of Hueco Mundo. From there Astrid simply stalked her way over to the tree intent on finding out just what the thing was. And given her current predicament she focused her entire being on this tree in the off chance that maybe just maybe it was a more normal tree and could be eaten to take the edge off her hunger.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats}
Current Stats:

Strength: 50 (35)

Speed: 70 (49)

RS: 50 (35)

SPPR: 80 (3x) = 240

Instinct: 50 (35)

Senses: 50 (35)

ES: 0

HE: 0


LA: 0

DA: 100



Current Skills: (7/15)

Sigil - 1

Strength of Will - 1

Pain Tolerance - 1

Stealth - 1

Poison Tolerance - 1

Lack of Fear - 1

Damage Recovery - 1

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu}
-50 (x2) for sigils created

2,400 - 100 = 2,300 reiatsu remaining

[Teresa]

The sluggish, almost drunk-like movements that Teresa could manage at the moment were the only thing that kept her going towards the strange looking Hollow. Although she was certain that others could say the same about her, the one that was in her view at the moment, it wasn’t like anything she’d seen through the lens of her captor. This one didn’t even look like something she could eat. It looked more like a tree than the actual white tree of this desert. Almost like a snap went off in her head though Teresa had a thought. “Can’t bark be eaten?” She remarked to herself remembering such a little rumor that’d circled through her village while she’d been human. Although she’d never tried it as a girl, as a Hollow anything was possible right now.

The two opposing forces moved towards one another both weakened by hunger like two junkyard canine’s fighting off a feline that had wandered in. Getting closer to one another though meant neither was likely to pay much attention to what was around them. She hadn’t thought about it since she hadn’t seen anything else, but if she heard the screaming, didn’t that mean others could have as well. The two are close enough now that a fight was almost destined to break out between them yet before even a word could be spoken the sands around them would burst upwards. A dozen different pops from all around in a circle as small avian looking lizards with white masks station themselves around the two.

A hunting party? Teresa, having grown up in a village where hunting was a necessity, knew that surrounding prey was a valid option and one she had just found herself trapped in. These little lizards were around the size of a house cat, nothing to fear yet all of them together were different. Teresa looked to the other Hollow making sure it recognized what had just happened and then afterwards would turn and rush the closest lizard trying to grab it out of the air. If she managed to snatch it her mask would crack open like an egg shell revealing her mouth layered with fangs that she would immediately shove the lizard into like a meat grinder.

[Astrid Vess]

Astrid wasn't paying attention to literally anything that wasn't the tree moving before her. The fact it was moving hadn't exactly registered in her mind given her thoughts were utterly consumed by the hunger pangs she was dealing with. And with each and every passing moment she was getting deeper and deeper into that hunger. Still despite all mental capcity being rapidly worn away a stray thought did happen to pass her mind. Almost an instinct if she were honest. Something hadn't seemed right.



If this was akin to the vaguely reminscient white masks of her memory then shouldn't this thing attack on sight? It was a long forgotten memory so the details that were drawn up were fuzzy to say the least. Still things weren't right and Astrid wasn't one for "letting things be" especially when it was kill or be killed as far as she was concerned so when the two finally stopped with only a few feet of distance between them Astrid finally made up her mind. She needed it dead. And sooner than later. However right as she was about to summon a few minions she noticed the various clouds of sand get generated. Astrid immediately growled loudly in a semi-circle behind her and took note of what had dared tried to trick her.



White masked avians. Smaller than her but in a pack. Aggravated as Astrid was she had to admit this was a curious idea. Setting up a trap and then appearing from the ground. If she could remember this idea past the inevitable fight she'd be in it'd likely aid her in her attempts to kill things in the Forest of Suicide. Astrid had almost forgotten about the walking masked tree behind her when she heard it run away towards a beast. Astrid would have chuckled if she could given she finally got confirmation on what it was. Perhaps it was wary of Astrid due to her strange appearance. Whatever the reason Astrid had space from her and now had a dinner served to her on a golden platter. It was time to feast. And feast she would.



Astrid immediatley summoned forth 5 spirits from her tree on her back. 5 flowers shined and broke apart with the petals flying off and collecting in small piles next to her 2 on either side and one behind her. She'd chosen the current crew she knew of, 4 wispy humanoids and one canine hollow. With a loud growl she gave a very bestial order to attack the first thing in sight. She was not willing to let them get away nor attempt to not be dinner. Her humanoids immediately dashed out towards the nearest 4 avians with the intent of grabbing them by the neck and choking them until they inevitably died or their necks snapped. Whichever came first.



Astrid on the other hand was aided by her canine companion who grabbed her by the back of her neck and threw her on it's shoulders. A quick wrap around it's neck with her tendrils and they were off at a MUCH faster speed than Astrid alone could have managed. Astrid's salivary glands were generously producing the sickly sweet sap from her jaw. Much of it was dripping on her companion but he didn't seem to mind and she hardly noticed. She simply wanted to feast and eat the small things whole. And she wasn't about to let them run away either. Once she was within jumping distance she vaulted off of her companions back and immediately full body tackled one of the avians.



From there she wrapped her tendrils and by extension her body around it before finally staring it dead in the . . . eyes? Eye holes? Mask holes. That was it. Without further delay however she simply unhinged her jaw and immediately consumed it's head in its entirety whole. From there she'd continue to eat the body away in large chunks. Unconcerned with what the other hollows were doing let alone what Teresa was doing.



However her canine companion was a bit more concerned about the ongoing events and thus stood guard for Astrid being not even a foot away from her balled up self as she consumed. It's eyes moving from avian to avian to wisp and ending on Teresa. That's what concerned it the most but since she was on the other side of this "surprise buffet" it simply let her be. Hell she wasn't even near the wisps who at closest were 15 feet away as they had to chase the avians a little before inevitably catching them. Within a few moments the numbers of said avians would be reduced to half from Astrid and her wisps. The remainder would be on Teresa if she were quick enough. If not well. . . more food for Astrid.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Astrids summons stats}
Strength: 200

Speed: 150

Reiatsu Strength: 0

Spiritual Pressure: 0 (immune to cutback)

Instinct: 100

Senses: 100

Energy Sensory: 50

Healing Expertise: 0

Durability: 300

SPOILER: Click to show

{Astrids summons refrences}
Wispy humanoids




Canine Hollow

[Teresa]

The prospect of food now right in her face seemed to awake Teresa’s mind or rather push her instincts as a Hollow into overdrive. The sluggish almost crippled like movements that she had been limited to only a moment ago were now gone. Moving almost like a completely different entity the thin tree looking Hollow managed to snatch one of the little avian’s right from the air almost like turning the image of a bird landing on a branch in the opposite direction. Wasting no time with no real conscious thought directing her the avian was shoved right into her mouth. Gaining sustenance for a moment wasn’t enough though as Teresa’s mind continued to be ruled by her hunger.

While the other thing that Teresa had been walking towards dealt with these avian’s in their own way Teresa did the same. Finishing off the first in a flash Teresa wastes no time finding the next in her field of vision before rushing it although finding that the second wouldn’t be caught so easily. Flapping its wings and vanishing from Teresa’s sight in a burst of speed. In the moment that followed Teresa would feel the intense pain of a bite. One followed after another these little lizards flew into Teresa biting her thighs, biceps and left forearm. The wounds weren’t exceedingly deep yet painful all the same causing Teresa to howl in a painful rage.

Her right hand moving over to the little lizard on her left forearm touching its head almost like petting a cat. Guided by her instincts the little lizard would have one order forced into its mind. “Protect me!” Once done Teresa would feel the fangs of the lizard detach as it flew off her arm. She’d repeat this action on the lizards that had bitten her biceps while the lizard that had been on her forearm flew into the one of her left thigh biting into its throat in order to kill it right away.

She could feel the struggle on her wounds yet her hunger allowed her to keep going forward. After a couple more moments Teresa would be standing there bleeding yes, but shoving the two lizards that had bitten her thighs into her mouth while the other three hovered around her like guard dogs. Getting the two others into her was a struggle not from the size, but the fact once enough flesh had been shoved into her gullet Teresa’s mind returned to her. Immediately with the sensation of gagging, Teresa tasted the ungodliness of warm shit throughout her mouth.

Dropping down she felt the pain from the five wounds across her body while she forced herself to keep the putrid flesh inside her. It wouldn’t be until after she succeeded that she was able to reconcile what was happening in the area. The other lizards were facing down the strange creature that looked like a tree. How other things were in the area now as well which she could only assume were from the tree as they helped her. Finally she’d see the three lizards staying close to her yet not attacking. Confused, the thin Hollow couldn’t even voice a question as she tries to figure out what could have happened for these things to suddenly be on her side.

As for the little lizards that were being chased around by the human sized sprites they would be harder to catch then likely assumed due to their speed, but it wouldn’t take much to end them. What had been a successful trap didn’t last more than a minute yet as the last little avain was killed the ground would begin to shake. Something else was coming, something else had planned this and whatever it was happened to be a lot bigger than these little things. Teresa getting back on to her feet would start moving away unsure if the ground around her was even stable now.

Little Dragons
Strength: 55
Speed: 300
Instinct: 50
Senses: 50

Remaining Reiatsu: 330/630
Influencia Voluntad: (-300)

SPOILER: Click to show

Strength: 50
Speed: 50
Spiritual Pressure: 50 (63)
Reiatsu Strength: 50 (63)
Light Aura: 15
Dark Aura: 85
Instincts: 75 (56)
Senses: 75 (56)
Energy Sensory: 0
Healing Expertise: 0

Anti-Stealth: 1
Battle Focus: 1
Illusion Resist:1
Pain Tolerance: 1
Battle Analysis: 1
Strength of Will: 1

[Astrid Vess]

Astrid quickly devoured her first snack, a morself if you wanted her honest opinion. Granted the hollows had a good bit more meat than she had originally expected that didn't mean that she was satisfied nor did it mean that one was simply enough. Thus when she finally uncurled herself and looked around she quickly realized that both sides had been decimated. . . in some capcity. Teresa had 3 around her still that were watching her. Meanwhile her humanoid wisps had broken the necks of the hollows in their hands and were patiently waiting for her to eat them.

Astrid glared back at the hollows around Teresa and specifically gave her a particularily nasty glare. However with a small nod to her canine companion she looked towards the other humanoids and quickly rounded up the hollows. Each taking only 3 bites each before they were utterly consumed. Assuming Teresa watched she'd witness something akin to a snake eating except that the entities being consumed were literally ripped apart with each bite. It'd start with the heads, then move to the torso after ripping the wings off first. Then she'd finish with the legs, wings, and tail. This took a couple of minutes but with half her summons watching Teresa and her "pets" Astrid felt she was safe enough to consume them. Not that she had much a choice either.

The hunger that spurned her on was intense after having not eaten for so long. Especially once she'd attempted and failed to eat that rock tree. Which she quickly glared at it too. Fuck that tree. Still now the two were in an awkward staring contest. Teresa and Astrid. Both had their minions at present and Astrid was finished eating the remains of the 5 hollows. Which admittedly did do a number on her inner hunger. It was, of course, still present but far more manageable. Hell it even allowed Astrid to have a semi-coherent thought process now. Which made her wonder just what in the hell Teresa was. A glance over made Astrid certain she was a white mask. Hell her body was white so there was no question about that.

The issue however was that the two still had a showdown that they were going to have to deal with. One that ensured that the other was likely to get consumed. Astrid's eyes narrowed though she wasn't concerned but she wasn't certain how invested she was now. She'd probably taste great but she'd managed to gain minions of her own. Minions that she'd spawned up. That made Astrid's eyes widen as she realized the tree mask had willing decided to place a trap down earlier! She was trying to surround Astrid and ensure she was consumed and ripped apart. Astrid's vines and tendrils began to wriggle dangerously as a low growl slowly but surely made its way out of her throat. She'd kill her and rip her internals out from her fucking chest cavity!

Or at least that was what Astrid wanted to do. Instead however the ground quickly started shaking and shifting. Astrid hadn't felt the sand do this since she'd gotten here so this couldn't be normal. . . well it likely wasn't. . . ok she was horribly assuming that this wasn't given she barely had a concept of what sand was at this point. And something like a sink hole was not that uncommon. However thought and reason be damned she was not about to fall for yet another of Teresa's traps and thust she quickly mounted on her canine hollow and growled out at the humanoids. They all made haste about 7 feet away from the immediately shifting sands to sands that shifted and moved a lot less. Likely due to the shaking and movement of the sands prior.

Astrid narrowed her eyes again and tried to wrap her primitive mind around what Teresa was doing. Because obviously it was her fault. She'd spawned the hollow chicks to fight her. She'd clearly commanded a few now that she had the group present. However she was down a bit more than half. . . or Astrid assumed she'd lost a lot of them. She only saw 3 around her and the other 5 were eaten by her now. Still between the other two that had spawned Teresa must have been doing something with them. . . maybe she even had something else up her sleeve. Astrid couldn't know but she was growing steadily more frustrated as the sands shook more violently. For now all she could do was wait and see what happened. A quick look at her canine companion ensured that it understood to move at the first sign of anyting else strange. No questions asked.

[Teresa]

Although she felt a decent amount of pain across her body at the moment Teresa was able to move backwards by constantly hopping. Although she wasn’t aware of it, the method of her retreat was most likely influenced by the child who’d died in the past. It mattered very little though as the sand continued to move yet now going upwards. Although it had happened too fast for either of the entities to notice last time this was the same way the sand had moved before the little avian lizards had popped out. Something was coming up from the sand, something big!

Teresa had no clue what was coming up from the sand but from that moment where she had been able to see this strange tree. It was aggressive that much was for certain. Although she had gained her consciousness back from the grasp of insanity, the knowledge that this other entity had done the same thing was not bestowed on Teresa. At the moment it was truly a situation where everything seemed out to get everyone. Everything that this other entity saw looked out to get her while the very same thing was seen by Teresa.

The little lizards with wings were staying close to her constantly keeping themselves up around her head height while focusing on this other thing. Teresa didn’t know why they were staying by her nor what they wanted, but at least for the moment they weren’t attacking her. Something else was taking most of her attention now leaving her with no time to address either other situation. Getting back fifteen feet only took about five seconds and thankfully it was enough for both to get enough distance.

Riding up from the sand a massive Hollow that looked almost similar to the flying lizards yet almost incomparably bigger with tiny little wings on its back that seemed almost pointless. It’d take a few moments to get out from the sand, completely showing it’s white mask and dark green body, massive white claws on four legs and short tail that had a club-like end. It didn’t need to waste any time looking at either of its prey as it opened its large mouth releasing ten more of the little lizard avians.

The large lizard would wait watching both entities deal with ten lizards and the moment one of them proved to eliminate them they’d find a wave of flames hurtling towards them from this monstrosity. Fifteen feet in height at least with a body that must weight over a thousand pounds Teresa was just certain that this thing could devour her in a single bite. Both of them together would perhaps give it enough to chew, again something she didn’t want to find out.

[Astrid Vess]

Astrid very quickly realized that moving away was a VERY good idea as from where they'd been spawned up an even larger chicken dragon. Except this thing was anything but small and it appeared to be able to spawn others. Astrid's vines wriggled angrily as this thing had to be the weapon of Teresa. There was no way it wasn't. Still she had to admit a part of her was curious and bedrugdingly concerned given she'd seen beasts akin to this in hell. But they were far less merciful. If anything it would be spawning way mroe than simply 10 more chicks. Not that Astrid was complaining.



Still how in the actual hell was she supposed to deal with this. . . THING? This was like the standard demons in the Forest of Suicide. Not something she could take on. She'd have to, and gods help her, think her way through this one. But given she'd only had so long before her hunger stole her sentience again that was only going to be for the initial period this thing was being fought. Still between the chicks this thing had Teresa being the puppeteer she didn't have a lot of openings. Astrid growled to herself as her anger got the best of her again. She'd need the full pack to even attempt to take this thing down.



Thus within a moment Astrid had several flowers bloom, break apart, and then reform the fallen petals into several more bodies for her to use. Namely 4 shinigami she'd consumed. Each of them held a dark purple sheen to their overall body complexion. They had bright purple eyes and were ethereal in nature despite being very clearly physical. To make matters a little better they had their zanpakuto on their or mimicries of them. Astrid didn't know but whatever the case they had weapons. Astrid immediately sent her summoned shinigami minions towards the horde while the remainder of her group circled around back.



The shinigami were shock troops. Hopefully they ended up killing off most if not all the chicks but frankly? Astrid couldn't care less she just wanted big, scaly, white mask to not look her dead in the eye and think "Ah yes more food." Though Astrid did have to wonder, deep down inside, if it really mattered. She died and came back constantly. Being eaten by anything, barring a very limited number of creatures didn't really matter. Which meant this likely wasn't one of those creatures she needed to care about. . . which meant maybe she could take more directly aggressive assualts. Her brain was already hurting and her stomach aching loudly from the sheer energy it took to think this much. Genuinely she didn't like it.



With a quick shake of her head she stopped the attempt at higher level thinking. Take out the legs and it can't move. Easy. It'd been done on her a LOT. So this thing should have the same issue. Especially since it's so large anyway. Astrid growled at the 4 wisps and her canine hollow to attack its right leg. They all needed to find the tendon for it and rip it to shreds. It would have a hard time using that leg then. Never in this entire process however did Astrid consider that perhaps her summons couldn't pierce it's skin or flesh for that matter. But truthfully? It didn't matter. Astrid would keep assaulting it until it finally caved or she was sent back to hell. So who cared? All that would happen is she'd die. Not like that even mattered.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Number of summons}
4 wisps humanoid
4 shinigami spirits
1 canine hollow

9/10 spirits summoned

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu}
75(x4) - for the additional spirits summoned

3,000 - 300 = 2,700 reiatsu remaining

SPOILER: Click to show

{Durability for each summon}
Shinigami - 300/300
Canine Hollow - 300/300
Humanoid Wisps - 300/300

[Teresa]

Standing where she was, Teresa visually witnessed the massive lizard crawling right from the sand and then spitting out what almost seemed like another dozen of these small lizards. Although she wasn’t really certain how she had managed to sway the ones currently flying around her one thing was more than apparent for the fresh Hollow. She didn’t have the energy to turn anymore of them over to her side, especially not all of them ones that had just been born? She wasn’t afforded much time to ponder over such things though as just like prior five of the lizards came at her.

This time though playing out quite differently as Teresa now had the aid of the three that had been ordered to protect her. The five flew over at the speed that she honestly couldn’t follow. During the last exchange she had suffered four different wounds from the lizards biting her, this time the three lizards that turned sides were able to intercept an equal number. Colliding with one another in the air only to scratch, bite and thrash against one another as they continued to fly through the air constantly staying less than fifteen feet off the sand. As for the other two, Teresa not having the perception to see them attack nor the speed of thought to anticipate them ultimately suffered once more.

This time two additional bites located on the same piece of her body. Each of her thighs and biceps had already been bitten with her left forearm also suffering the same fate while this time both of the little lizards attacked her right side specifically going for the waist down onto her hip. The sharp yet small teeth of the lizards puncturing through her white bone-like body into the flesh beneath. A sensation that Teresa obviously didn’t enjoy nor one that she could prevent. All she could do was end both of them by shoving the claw-like nails she had on her right hand through the eyes of each lizard one after another.

It’d take a moment to end them both by doing this, but it was successful and afterwards Teresa wasted no time shoving both into her mouth as if they were finger food. Chewing them angrily with such agitation one could assume her layered fang interior was more unpleasant than a blender. As she chewed and swallowed Teresa would rush over to the lizards that fought one another grabbing at both and watching. After a moment she’d see one of them acting aggressive towards her and one not, thus the one showing her aggression would find itself another snack.

A simple process that seemed to work for her after a minute passed and she was left still standing with her three winged avian lizards although all of them were now injured. The little lizards weren’t in bad condition although two of the three were bleeding and one of those two was having trouble flying. Holding out her right arm the one having difficulties perched itself on her bicep. One thing was clear from everything else going on. She had to be careful. “The strange tree can summon those . . .things and the lizard can probably just keep making more of you guys. If only I knew something else.”

As for what was happening over with the strange tree creature, well it had summoned additional soldiers for itself. The soldiers, although outnumbered by the little lizards, had weapons and would manage to eliminate them without much issue for one reason alone. Despite having weapons against these little things the soldiers, if they would have been normal flesh and bone would have found themselves in much worse conditions as the lizards flew to evade and attack moving at a speed they couldn’t achieve.

Luckily for the creature though her soldiers negated the raw speed of the little lizards with the simple fact that the lizards couldn’t harm the soldiers. The small teeth are not sharp enough nor the muscles of the jaw being tough enough. Despite scoring multiple hits nothing amounted from it and after a little bit of time each lizard was cut down. The wisps and dog fought with the creature itself though something Teresa wasn’t sure she should do now that she was watching. The wisps and dog going to the back leg to attack would find blood spray from any attack they unleashed.

Deafening was the only word that could describe the roar that this lizard unleashed from the pain it had been inflicted as its back right leg was attacked. Turning slightly the hammer like club tail would be flung around to strike all of the summons near its right leg. Coming in horizontally meant that it was going to knock them away while inflicting quite a bit of damage if it managed to hit. Although it was already dealing with the pain attacking it from behind this lizard it seemed wasn’t completely lacking a brain. Focusing on the tree creature and opening its mouth like it had done before. Teresa thought it was going to birth more of the lizards like it had done before only for a small green orb to be seen and then shot off like a bullet at the creature. An attack she had only seen through the guise of imprisonment Teresa now had confirmation that this lizard was definitely a more evolved Hollow than herself.

Devoured: 7x Little Dragons

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Large Lizard Stats & Skills
550 SP Soldier V1
Strength: 300 (450)
Speed: 50
Spiritual Pressure: 50 (35)
Reiatsu Strength: 50
Instincts: 50
Senses: 50

Pain Tolerance: 2
Battle Focus: 2
Lack of Fear: 2
Bleeding Tolerance: 2
Damage Recovery: 2

[Astrid Vess]

Things went surprisingly better for Astrid than she had originally, if only briefly, thought possible. For one thing she'd managed to have her spirits, wisps and canine, actually tear through the dragons back right tendon. With a large volume of blood coating those present. Astrid licked her lips in delight and grew a good bit hungrier already given she'd had just a taster of something FAR superior to the little chicks she'd consumed earlier. However the real issue at hand was that unsurprisingly she'd gone ahead and drawn far too much attention. The dragon had watched it's chicks get killed pretty evenly by both sides and then Astrid was directly aggressive towards it. When it finally roared out in pain Astrid finally had a "click" moment of what would happen next.



With a quick thought followed by a growl she immediately ordered her canine to jump. It was confused up until it noticed the tail of said beast raising up. In the meantime Astrid did the only thing she could think of, create her sigils, two of them given she didn't have time for a third. One of which she threw into her chest and the other she held onto it. Thankfully for her the canine was far more agile than her wisps as was it more than capable of jumping up and over the tail. Her wisps though capable did not do such and were subsequently smacked out of existence by the tail which literally tore off their gaseous upper body. Still this wasn't the end because Astrid upon looking around realized that she was STILL being targetted and saw a green orb forming. Her steed was going to have to take the hit for her because there was nothing she could do. And in fact did the only thing she could concievably do.



She lashed out the sigil onto this things back and immediately teleported onto the dragons backside while her summon was immediately attacked. While it would survive it was launched a good distance away, likely 20 feet and here was Astrid on this things backside. Meanwhile her minions had since finished slaughtering the chicks it'd spawned and proceeded to attack the front side of it's right leg. Completely intent upon doing literally as much damage to it as was possibly with their zanpakuto. Considering the number of them and the fact the dragon was, at least for the moment, distracted they'd manage pretty easily to get up close and start wailing at it from all sides. Astrid hoped that the shock troops managed to hit another tendon because that would mean this thing would have immense difficulty standing up by that point. And that meant she just needed to get into it's chest cavity and she could kill it outright.



How likely this was to occur though? It was anyones guess. And right now Astrid didn't have time for guessing. She needed this fucker dead, preferably dead on arrival. Thus she immediately spawn 4 dragon chick spirits, almost all the spirits she'd just recently consumed actually. from 4 white sakura blossoms. Immediately sending them to the dragons head to distract it and hopefully, plop out an eye. Anything and everything was going to be useful in this case as long as the wounds against this thing continued to grow in number. Hell she didn't even expect the chicks to do anything given how small they were. If anything she expected them to die immediately. The true goal she had though was something far more useful. She was going to summon her own flying beast and see if it could put in the work that her other spirits couldn't.



With another sakura blossom opening up and exploding out, the flying serpent hollow finally made an appearance. Being 10 feet long and 3 feet thick it was somewhat comparable to the dragon current, though not nearly as big nor as thick. Hell it's wingspan looked to be about half the dragons current. With a quick growl out to it she had it proceed to start spewing stomach acid all over it's backside, hopeful that it would eat through the scales and skin before finally working to dissolve the muscles present. In the meantime Astrid wrapped herself around her summon and ordered it to fly up and hover around it at about 10 feet in the air. If the breath attack managed to coat it then nearly it's entire upper portion of it's back would be dealing with this acid constantly eating it away, even going so far as to hit the base of the neck.



With all the spirits present Astrid had to admit she was growing steadily more furious at this thing and Teresa by extension. Though frankly with Teresa not doing anything she was a VERY secondary entity that Astrid didn't have the mental capacity to acknowledge at the moment beyond that she started this. But this dragon? Oh it was the main source of her ire by a LONG shot. And she'd ensure she tore out it's fucking heart and ate it in front of it. She would have nothing less than this if she could help it. However given what it'd done to her spirits? She wasn't certain how likely that was but it didn't matter. Death meant nothing to her so she'd keep attacking at it until it died or she did. And god help this thing if it thought SHE would die without taking it down with her.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu}
-75(5x) for 5 more spirits
-50 (2x) for creating sigils
-25 for teleporting via the sigils

2,400 - 500 = 1,900 reiatsu remaining

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{reference image for serpentine hollow}

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{Reference for dragon chicks}

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{Status of summons}
Canine - Smacked away 20 feet and recoving. Durability is 250 (assuming blast was a bala)

Shinigami spirits (4x) - Currently smacking away at this things front right leg at all sides

Dragon chicks (4x) - Attacking the head of the dragon

Serpentine hollow - 10 feet above dragon and being used by Astrid as a mount.

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{Possible constant damage / Environmental hazard}
Stomach acid fired at the dragon's backside. From base of the neck down to the mid section of the back. Some coating on the wings and dripping down the sides of said dragon.

Or all of it on the ground beneath the dragon if it dodges or throws them off. Spreads out to 20 feet.

[Teresa]

Attacking the lizard as a whole was something that Teresa just couldn’t do yet was watching this other entity do at the moment with all of the things that she seemed able to pull out from nowhere. Every time she looked at the creature it was like something else was popping up from what looked like some sort of flower somewhere else. The only thing that Teresa could be certain of as she watched the creature and all it’s companions surround it was that it wouldn’t be enough. Managing to injure the back leg was the only thing that had been accomplished so far, but now it was time to swarm the real threat.

Limited by her physical abilities at the moment Teresa watched and studied how this other creature foguth relying on other things in order to do what she seemed unable to accomplish. Upon that realization Teresa found herself looking at the little flying lizards and came to the conclusion she was doing the same. This was the perfect chance to wait, see and develop before she fell into some sort of bad habits that could result in her failure down the line. The thing that stuck other the most though wasn’t the fact this creature could constantly get more help, but that she vanished and then reappeared on the back of the lizard with the only thing Teresa could see as a sign being some sort of drawing.

As for how the massive lizard was taking the swarming assault against it well thankfully it was ready for combat now that it had really started and having already ruined quite a few of them with its club tail its confidence was booming. Raising the club of its tail high in the air only to strike the ground hard enough that even the sands would shack. Raising enough sand into the air to cause a cloud attacking what was in front of them would now become a bit more difficult as the lizard turns swinging its tail around in a circle with every intention of destroying everything around it. It wouldn’t be until the four little flying lizards were summoned and started to attack the face that this lizard began to run across the sand out from the cloud it had only just made.

Teresa would see the lizard charging forward almost like a boar on the sand with the creature on its back and four of the flying lizards attacking its face. “So she can take them for herself too?” Teresa remarked unsure still if that was actually what she had done to the three guarding her still or not. Suffering attacks to its face and feeling the weight of the creature on its back, the small little wings on the back of the lizard began to grow. Enlarging themselves in the blind of an eye to the point they eclipsed the rest of its body in size. Positioned horizontally outwards the wings would immediately flap upwards with the intention of slamming the creature between them.

Flapping them forwards to send out a stream of sand to obscure vision and then a massive maw biting down as a follow up to devour the four little lizards that had been attacking its face. If everything was successful that the lizard had done then all of the summons with the exception of the canine would be gone while the creature was either dead or severely injured between its wings. Everything almost never went as one plans in combat though, should the creature escape and continue with summoning the large more serpent like dragon to fight for her then the battle would definitely continue.

Both dragons would take notice of one another and release a growl to impose dominance over the other. As the serpent began to spew out stomach acid with the intention to burn the back and wings now of the larger lizard another small orb of power was released from the maw. Rising up at a speed fast enough to collide with the acid only a couple of feet after leaving the serpent’s mouth. The bala would push through the stomach acid splashing it away although burning up before it could cause harm to the serpent.

Teresa, out of place now in a battle between others that seemed to have a hold on what they could do and practice on how to do it. She was fresh only a Hollow for the last couple of days with no real idea of what her ability was or how she had managed to take control of these little lizards. Either way though just standing and giving over every little bit of the large lizard's flesh to this creature didn’t sit right with Teresa. She wanted to taste what this strong beast was like even if the little lizards were putrid. The flesh was horrendous enough that she had to struggle to hold it down, but perhaps something more powerful would be different.

For this reason while the acid and bala faced off against one another Teresa would rush into the thick of things going for the back leg that had been injured. Although physically unimpressive Teresa possessed fingers like claws which she thrust into the open wound while the lizard was preoccupied. The sensation of thick hot blood surrounding her hands was new to Teresaa along with the urge to shove her sharp fingers deep, wiggling them all around. Inflicting as much internal damage as she could in the hopes that she’d prevent this lizard from even using its leg.

[Astrid Vess]

Things were getting pretty dicey pretty quickly. To start the shinigami hadn't managed to do much of anything. Sure a few scratches here and there to irk and continue the "death by a thousand cuts" strategy that just so happened to be what Astrid was doing. But there wasn't nearly enough cuts, slashes, or other damage, aside from the cut tendon in it's right hind leg to really hinder it much. The shinigami would suffer the same fate as the wisps and get slapped out of existence with their upper half being gone enitrely. Shortly after their bodies would turn into petals and all the petals that composed them would return to Astrid's shrubbery. Astrid in the meantime was busy not getting flung off and summoning up her serpent in the meantime.



Thankfully she'd managed to get out the chicks and surprisingly they were doing good work considering they were also fodder. They'd managed to get the beast to run forward and out of the sand cloud allowing for everyone to have eyesight on this beast. And even more they had managed to get some cuts and scratches in, including on the dragons left eye. The thing wasn't super deep but for an eye it didn't need to be deep. It just needed to exist which would mean the thing was definitely suffering from a loss of it's total capability to view the world around it. The real issue came next however as all the chicks she summoned up were killed and her steed barely managed to get away from the dragon's back in the meantime.



This thing had quite the versatile wing anatomy to slap them back and then burst forward an attack against the chicks. And within seconds the chicks were consumed only to be reduced to petals and returned to Astrid's tree on her backside. This meant Astrid now only had two summons out. Her canine and her serpent. Astrid had yet to be put in a spot where so many of her summons had been killed by something and it was incredibly frustrating to say the least. Astrid lived and breathed by these summons but if they kept getting killed or eaten then what was the point? Especially when this thing. . . fired blasts. . . short. Quick. Blasts. That's when it finally dawned on Astrid that she ALSO had hollows. Wouldn't that mean these things could do the same?



A quick growl to her steed confirmed this, it was in fact within their capabilities. Astrid almost threw a fit out of sheer anger and frustration that in all this time she'd had her summons she didn't know they could use bala's. Had she known she'd have had them fire those off instead. Stomach acid was great but a bala was so much faster! With a glance around the area she quickly found her canine hollow up and on it's legs running towards the dragon. Astrid had to consider what to do next. She needed something. And to be honest she was already overclocking her mind. Her bestial side was only just letting her attempt higher level thinking from all the snacks she'd been eating. But this wouldn't last long if she didn't continue to eat. So she had to do something. Sooner than later.



And that's when it hit her. If this thing was eating them then why not let it eat them? She could have something start attacking it from the inside out if that was the case. They returned anyway from what she'd noticed so what did it matter? With a small burst of reiatsu she spawned out the last chick she hadn't yet summoned up and growled out the order to get eaten. Preferably avoiding the teeth since that'd kill it outright. It nodded and sped over towards the beast screaming in it's little chick voice to distract it some. If this would work would remain to be seen given the thing had it's eyes not even on Astrid but the beast she was riding. That alone did not settle well on Astrid and she wasn't certain she wanted to remain on her steed at this point but what was her other option? Return to this things backside?



That's when it also hit her, the sigil was still there. And she was well within the distance to use it. She then ordered her beast to fly direct at this thing and breath out a spray of stomach acid. Meanwhile she growled out a loud order to her canine to fire a couple bala out towards this things wings. If they could tear a hole or two it wasn't going to be flying. And it'd find it much harder to smack her around. Thus her steed flew down and breathed out a constant spray of stomach acid, intent on spraying this things face and it's body as a whole. And if the thing dodged it'd simply fly back up and remain above it at abouot 15 feet. Throwing out an occasional ball of acid at it.



Meanwhile the little chick was 100% there to be a distraction and get eaten. Hopefully it would because the goal for this little thing was to get swallowed wholesale and then start scratching and clawing it's way out of it's throat. Hell maybe ensure that whatever allowed this thing to breathe fire would start hurting itself in the process if it had a bunch of wounds on the inside of it's throat. And last but not least was the canine hound. Unconcerned about Teresa attempt to do literally anything at this point it continued to run up to the dragon while every once in awhile it'd fire a bala out at the beasts wings. Whichever was open and whichever was closer. However when the bala's were fired out they looked drastically different. They fired off with a sound akin to a canon and looked darker. Heavier. It was still a chunk of reiatsu but it wasn't the light and burning energy variant. It was more akin to a small bomb. And the explosive sound it'd made upon hitting any wing would show this. These were by no standards "normal" bala.



Lastly would be Astrid's personal game plan. She wasn't going to be capable of doing a lot. This was a fact. But what she could do was postion herself to where she could. Thus when she was at the closest point possible with the dragon hollow she simply teleported right back to the sigil on it's back again. And from there she started to bring back out the shinigami again. They would start cutting it's back and especially at the base of it's wings. While Astrid unable to do much in the offensive department simply drew out another sigil and placed it on her left tendril hand. Ready to be thrown when needed. Because gods know she wasn't about to let herself get slapped by the wings. And she sure as hell couldn't move fast enough to stop it from trying if it did.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu}
-75 (5x) for 4 shini summons and one chick
-50 for the last sigil
-25 for teleportating

1,900 - 450 = 1,450 reiatsu remaining

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{Sigil duration}
2/3 posts for the sigil inside Astrid and on the dragon hollow

1/3 on Astrid's left hand

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{Actions of Summons}
Chick - Attempting to get eaten. It's taking every chance to fly into the dragon's maw while avoiding the teeth.


Canine - Running up and firing off a bala every few steps (5-6) at the dragon's wings. These use it's strength stat since they are "hardened" reiatsu. Think of them like cannonballs.

Serpent - Breathing acid in a spray on the dragon's face. And otherwise flying around it to avoid any attacks. Maintaining 15 feet away aside from the initial spray.

Shinigami - Attacking without care on the dragons backside and it's wing base.