Post by Astrid Vess on Jul 16, 2022 18:55:09 GMT -5
Astrid, having concluded her business, more accurately known as a slaughter, in Karakura was finally going to return to the realm she’d been avoiding for a long time now. She was going to Hell, more specifically she was going to the Suicide Forest. In her mind it was time. She needed to return to her roots, irony aside, and needed to figure out what her next move was going to be. She’d garnered the rally of a few hollows and had even managed to foster a few of them to ensure that the shinigami filth weren’t going to take them down as easily. Or at all if she had it her way. Still that would be dependent on the hollows in question. Sonadora would be likely the hardest of them all to fell given how cunning and far thinking she was.
Akando was likely going to be. . . hard to manage but he was bestial. His form was strong but his mind and cunning . . . well not so much. Still if the fact he casually ripped limbs off of shinigami was any indication then he’d likely be capable of doing the same to anyone else that came to him. Marik had already displayed that he’d be fine on his own given he felled Menos “trees” on a whim. And had subsequently blasted his way through the canopy and to the desert top of Hueco Mundo. Though truthfully Astrid was more concerned for how he’d handle their next meeting as opposed to his capability in defending himself. She had effectively run off almost immediately once he’d changed.
She shook her head as she began creating the sigil that would take her home. Or the closest thing she could call a home anyway. That brought her to the newest possible pack member she’d met. Odalis. Another thinker yet a beast. Somewhat similar to her but far more in control of her faculties. It was. . . an experience to say the least. Though they’d originally gotten a mixed review from Astrid over the higher mental capabilities their form and actual power set more than made up for it. If anything Odalis was strangely closer to being a hollow that she could hold kinship with given she seemed to have weaponized the hunger within. Something that Astrid admittedly hadn’t considered until then.
In truth she wasn’t even certain she could do such. It just seemed too far out of her reach at the current moment. Even if she was steadily growing in her knowledge of sigils. Which begged the question of how did she manage to have such skill in them? Even as she wondered this some Astrid was placing the finishing touches on her transportation sigil with the reiatsu slowly turning into a deep dark red. Crimson more specifically. She wasn’t taught how sigils worked. Alastor didn’t even truly understand how to use sigils and thankfully she very rarely saw Orobas so it never mattered if they knew or not. She had a sneaking suspicion that he did in fact know that she was getting better at them. The fucking psychopathic piece of shit. The things she wanted to do to Orobas were definitely not uncommon for Hell but she had a special sort of hatred for one who’d decided that she needed to chained to them personally and unable to have a will of their own.
It drove her insane thinking about it. So much so that she almost didn’t realize the transition she’d had from Karakura to Hell. What brought her back was the smell of the bodies, those in the trees as well as what was falling off the trees. The various flora of deadly variety, the smell of bark and blood, and even the light moist feeling of the ground beneath her feet. This was her home, of sorts. Namely her “hunting grounds” given she’d rarely ever left it. And why would she? She had more than enough here to occupy her, including those who “claimed” the forest entirely as their own. Another hellion that thought they owned everything around. In truth they did technically “own” it by sheer strength as any who’d tried to hunt them had been slain outright. And most of them didn’t come back given they were consumed.
So now that Astrid was here what would she do? Her hunger was sated “enough” for the time being. She’d eaten well in both the human world and Hueco Mundo. Let alone consuming spirits in the Soul Society. In truth hunting was strictly not necessary for the time being. That’s when something caught her attention. The bushes nearby were rustling and it sounded like the hell beasts, specifically the hell hounds, were chasing something again. This would prove to be correct as Astrid would nearly be jumped by a lizard-esque hason that jumped out of the bushes and slammed head first into a nearby tree. The hounds quickly followed in a far more dramatic affair as they set fire to the bush in question before immediately taking note of their currently stationary prey and Astrid.
The pack was six strong with one of them, likely their alpha, slowly walking towards the lizard. The alpha like its siblings was notably made of magma. Cracks covered its form with light glowing from the cracks. Occasionally the molten substance dripped through, specifically at the maws of the beasts but it could be seen to come off at their tails and underbellies as well. For once Astrid found herself highly unconcerned about the beasts in question. Hellhounds were by far the lower end of the hell beasts and though they’d killed her several times in the past, given she had Samson and her Infernus? She couldn’t consider a way they’d kill her. The lizard hason on the other hand was out cold in the meantime which spoke volumes to Astrid.
Not only was he weak but he was the fresh blood kind of weak. He’d only just recently arrived in Hell. The poor bastard likely had little idea of what was going on around them and even worse likely was getting used to their new form. Still his form was clutching something and more interestingly it was held in something. A sack of some kind, which only made things that much more confusing as Hell very rarely had such things unless you were near or involved with the Sanctus base. Which likely meant Astrid could take whatever was in there for herself and aggravate Orobas if she was lucky. She started smiling widely, letting her teeth shift as she began her childish plotting for how to inconvenience Orobas. However, the first thing was first, she needed to deal with these pests. . . And collect them for herself now that she thought about it.
It didn’t take but a moment as Astrid was now very used to how to call forth the spirits from within. With a mental order she quickly found the spirits she usually called for, a few chicks, her trusty hound, and a few wisps. The sakura flowers on her tree blossomed and blew away into a wind that wasn’t present. Moments later the pack of hellhounds would notice their group was surrounded by Astrid’s pack. Four wisps, five hollow chicks, and a single and notably large canine hollow. The chicks immediately began charging bala’s while the wisps ran towards the non-alpha hellhounds. The canine hollow and the alpha hellhound however were sizing up one another and for a short while just looked at one another.
This was likely due to the fact that even IF they were killed, the beasts of Hell knew they’d respawn under normal circumstances. Foolish of them to assume that this was a normal circumstance as Astrid was anything but normal. The other hellhounds were quickly starting to figure this out as the chicks continued to hover above them by a few feet while pelting them with bala’s. One after another. Meanwhile the wisps were doing everything in their power to either hold them down by wrapping their bodies around them or by fighting with their fists, legs, and even the grotesque mouths that formed as they screeched at the beasts.
Sad to say though, the beasts of hell were not completely or easily taken over. They were made of sentient molten rock after all. And thus a couple of the pack took to firing back globules of magma at the chicks. A couple hitting their marks and melting the chicks out of their current existence and returning them to Astrid. That however didn’t save one of the hounds as it took three separate balas to the face, ultimately shattering it’s head and causing it’s body to fall to the ground. Worse for the pack yet was that while a couple wisps were also melted down and burnt to death they also took down yet another hound by smashing its legs apart. Repeated hits on the sides caused further cracks which ultimately ended up shattering them and causing the hound to go limp. From there two more wisps tackled it into the ground and stomped it into chunks of rock.
Astrid in the meanwhile watched, certain that her spirits were more than enough to take this small pack out. Though with about half having been killed off she did have to reach inside and summon forth more wisps and chicks. Allowing those that were previously killed a moment of respite. She had enough spirits wriggling and wailing within her inner world that it didn’t matter if she kept picking new spirits. Besides, the hellhounds couldn’t permanently kill them anyway. They were weak after all, as far as hell beasts are concerned. This had Astrid bring her attention to the alpha and her canine companion. . . she was not pleased to see the results. Turns out the alpha was in charge for a reason. It’d managed to shatter portions of the hollow’s mask, break a couple legs, and was currently about to finish the job with a magma globule. Astrid decided that she’d have to step in. She did not need to use Infernus to deal with this group but she could manage with a couple new abilities she’d learned. Specifically Form:Obsidian.
Turns out even Astrid could create things with her reiatsu that were potent and not a part of her release. She’d gotten the idea from a couple hollows she’d seen fighting, specifically one that condensed their reiatsu into rocks and fired them out of vents on their body. Now Astrid couldn’t do that but what she could do was draw up a small sigil in front of her and then overload it with her reiatsu. The sigil then immediately turned black and slowly but surely a spike of pitch black obsidian formed, large enough to be akin to a battering ram. The alpha who wasn’t paying attention given it was in the middle of vomiting magma on her canine spirit was all but asking to be speared through. And with such a generous offer before her, how could Astrid say no? Thus without hesitation she fired off the obsidian chunk, really more of a pointed boulder, and within a second it utterly pierced through the alpha hound. Its body had a massive hole from where the spike had gone through and it was doing everything it could to say on its four feet.
With the alpha dealt with Astrid turned back to its packmates to see how her pack was handling the lessers. Turns out the remaining spirits, a wisp and a couple chicks, were effectively kicking down the last hellhound as it attempted to do anything. Its siblings in the meantime were now simply bodies on the ground with the magma they had for blood cooling down. Astrid let her smile grow wide and let out a roar that told her spirits it was feeding time. And what better way to eat than with some friends? Without even thinking about it, Astrid summoned out the spirits that had been killed by the hounds and let them have their well earned meal. Thankfully the spirits were made of stronger stuff than Astrid as even she had to admit she’d find it hard to eat the remaining rocks and magma that made the hellhounds' remains.
With the pack dealt with now Astrid decided it was finally time to check out what the lizard hason had on their person. Thankfully it was only just starting to come to, which meant that she had all the means in the world to forcefully take what it had. Without a moment's delay she then created five more spikes, though notably less dense in her reiatsu. She immediately fired them at each limb, including this thing’s tail. The scream that came after was like music to her ears. . . if she had any. Which she didn’t. . . and that alone would bring up a lot of questions on “how” if she cared enough to look into it. She did not. Thus with her the new hason on the block pinned to the ground and the tree she walked over to them and grabbed its head. She let her vines dig into its skin and brought the head towards her before she growled out at it. ”. . . Speak. . . that. . . what is?”
The hason in question was in agony and unable to move. Worse yet it was able to see the spirits that were finishing off the pack chasing them. A few of the chicks for one thing were already making their way over towards Astrid and itself. If it could have begun sweating it would have, but the bleeding was likely enough to get the point across that it was in a deep DEEP fear for its life. ” L-look I just got here! L-leave me be! I’m only trying to go back to being a hollow!” Astrid's eyes widened as she took note of the word hollow. What it had in the sack allowed it to become a hollow? Impossible. There was no way that something this important would be in the hands of this new trash. She got very close and growled at the lizard’s head. “. . HOW. . . Hollow. . . Hueco. . . Mun. . .do. . . No Hell. . SPEAK!”
The lizard cried out a bit as her vines dug deeper into its skin and actually hit the skull beneath. Its fear was rising quickly as it could feel the vines wriggling around making the wound on its head grow in pain and size. ”I. . I heard of a hag in this forest! She has the means of making . . . things I don’t know what they’re called! She gave me one though for being new to Hell and was the only nice thing I’ve met since I’ve been here! T-take it if you really want but please let me go, I’ve already died eight times today!” Without hesitation Astrid took the sack from it. She’d actually heard long, long ago of this “Hag” that was hidden away in the forest. Unironically she was the one that claimed to “own” the suicide forest. Which is why most didn’t bother fighting here. . . Not that one could easily do so anyway. She hid herself very well with even the Sanctus members having difficulty reaching her.
Looking at the sack in her grip Astrid could feel something inside. Small but weighty. Dense even. Her eyes narrowed as she immediately tore the sack apart to find what was within. Loe and behold it was a sigil carved into an obsidian rock. The sigil itself was something Astrid had never seen prior but she did recognize what it was given her own understanding of sigils had her produce similar signs. However. . . even looking at this and then reproducing the sigils she knew for basic fleshcrafting. . . these didn’t look to be the same. Well specifically the same branch of sigil craft. Sure this “Hag” could know enough about sigils to have knowledge about a new branch that is currently unknown. But that still required the use of fleshcraft. This made Astrid concerned, mildly, as to what this thing was supposed to do then. Especially in the hands of a fresh whelp of a hason.
Astrid decided then that it was time to test it out. After all . . . The sigil in her hand would allow her to place the sigil on someone namely the lizard to see just what the effects of this thing were. And she wouldn’t suffer any consequences for it. She smiled wide and immediately slammed it into the forehead of the lizard hason and flooded the sigil with reiatsu. It glowed brighter and brighter, starting with a blue-white color and transitioning into a blue-black reiatsu that was incredibly inky in color. The lizard's eyes widened in surprise but then changed to relief as it was going to be changed into a hollow again. . . so it thought. It almost said thank you to Astrid except it suddenly was losing itself deeper and deeper into its mind. And once it was present in the black mindscape it was immediately swallowed up by something else. This started to reflect on the body of the lizard as the reiatsu started to sink into its flesh and grow heavier and heavier in its density.
Astrid immediately jumped backwards and ran a few feet extra just to be safe given the form of the being in question was now entirely consumed in an inky sphere. That’s when she heard an older yet lighthearted laugh from somewhere around. “Well well well! A hason that actually realized my sigil was a trap, you dearie are quite the curious little plant. My I wish you had used the sigil instead of this whelp. You’d have made a fine pet to add to my collection. Sadly however you’ll have to deal with him and perhaps make him a pet of your own! Just be careful now, he’s going to be very hungry after his transformation Ahahahahahahahaha!!” Astrid as usual didn’t catch most of the voice’s words. However, the intent behind the words? Very obvious. Demeaning. Mocking her. Also threatening her via whatever was going to come out of this orb once it was finished altering the lizard from before. Something that just so happened to be nearing its end.
What stepped out from the spherical void was not what had been within. The only thing that made it clear that it was the aforementioned hason but altered was the fact it was still reptilian. That’s it. Its size was double and it had far more muscle mass than previously. There were even horns on the sides of its head along with more spikes akin to dark granite stone with vicious edges jutting out at various angles. Worse yet was that any sign of its own mental capacity was long since gone and the eyes showed this best as they were solid lavender in color. No iris or pupil to speak of. Yet all the same Astrid immediately knew that this thing could see her. And true to the warning the voice had said, it was hungry, the bellowing sound from its stomach only informed Astrid that she would be lunch if she wasn’t careful. Which meant she’d have to bring out Samson. That would be required without a doubt. The question was, if she’d have the time to do such. Her infernus did take a moment and Samson was going to be the first being that came forth.
That meant she only had one option. She had to use the other spirits as sacrifices and find herself a space where she could use her release. She wouldn’t have long to figure it out though given the beast before her let out a bellowing roar that she’d only heard once prior. The draconic hollow she’d fought with Teresa over. Thankfully she was far more capable now, or at least one would hope she was more capable now. With a roar of her own, she ordered her spirits to dive head first towards the reptile. They weren’t going to last for more than half a minute at most, which as far as Astrid was concerned would be if she were lucky. Astrid, at no point in time however, considered herself lucky and thus immediately started producing teleportation sigils. With her mastery and near constant use of them though she was able to nearly will them into existence at the front and the back of her hands along with a singular one inside her chest cavity.
That however is about as far as she got given her spirits were decimated as she’d finished creating the sigil in her chest cavity. The reptile in question had started off by cleaving through the midsections of her wisps with ease. So much so that Astrid swore she heard something say “That was easy.” The chicks in the meantime had started pelting it with bala and before it could look at Astrid, who at that moment was mid creating sigils, it decided to deal with the flying pests. This however was done just as easily given it spun itself around and used its tail to generate a shockwave large enough to smack all of the chicks in one fell swoop. From there it was just Astrid and the reptile, though thankfully he was momentarily blinded by the numerous petals returning to Astrid. That alone was her only saving grace for how she started moving away. Using the sigil inside her chest cavity she threw it back, which thankfully, took her along with it at 600 speed. She gained a whole 13 feet before coming into contact with a tree, thankfully one that was horribly bloated with blood.
Otherwise she’d have broken her spine by just coming in contact with it. Instead it just felt like getting smacked with hard rubber. Painful but not deadly or otherwise harmful. Still she wasn’t going to get much time to pull herself together as the reptile was already moving at around the same speed she could throw around her sigils. However, unlike her sigils, this thing couldn’t do much more than jump in the air. So with Astrid placing two sigils in 50 foot increments from one another until she reached 100 feet in the air she wasn’t terribly concerned about it being able to follow her. . . easily. With the sigils in place and the beast right in front of her, she immediately teleported to the first sigil and then subsequently did such once again to be placed on the sigil hovering 100 feet in the air. She looked down as the tree that she had previously had her back to fell and forced a couple more trees to collapse onto the ground. There was no chance in any universe she’d have survived that attack. Still the thing was looking for her and would likely quickly realize where she was given she had made arm motions to throw her sigils into the air.
But until then she could finally release and actually start fighting this thing for real. She looked deep within herself for Samson and quickly found his soul. Grabbing onto it she let her will command him to manifest and with it a flood of her own hellish reiatsu started to pour out. She could feel the physical transformation of her own starting to take place as her vines got flooded with amber colored reiatsu. Her height started to grow as did her arms, with the vines she used as fingers growing so much that they actually started to hang off the edge of her sigil that she was standing on. Her jaw got merged with her face and she noticed that the bones that littered her body were merged together and formed a hardened exterior before changing color and giving a more bark-like appearance. From there she could feel something she’d not been able to enjoy for a while. Hair. Well the closest thing she could get to hair. She had a bunch of vines tied themselves together before falling to her backside in something akin to a ponytail. It’d get split by the shrubby tree growing out her back but even still. At least she had it.
She almost wanted to enjoy the feeling of having “hair” but was immediately drawn back to the current issue at hand, I.E. the reptilian monster below who had so kindly reminded her that it was coming for her ass specifically. And given it was climbing the trees below to get closer before what she could only assume would be jumping towards her she needed to act quickly. Thus she immediately dragged Samson from her inner world and placed him on the other 3 sigils side by side one another. Given the sigils were only 2 feet in diameter now, she really couldn’t manage him standing on anything less given he was a 9 foot beast. And the last thing she needed was him not in the correct place, especially when this thing came for them both again. Still he was here and he was next to her so she had an ample means of defense against whatever this thing could throw their way now. But she needed more spirits, which meant she needed more time and the only way to buy that was by throwing Samson head first into the brawl to be. Still she had confidence in his capabilities given he was by far her strongest spirit alone. With another loud roar in defiance of the beast that was now at the top of the trees she pointed at him and growled out her order to Samson. ”KILL!”
Samson let out his own roar and promptly dived down towards the reptilian beast. The reptile looked like it was happy to finally have a monster to fight, a fight which Samson was only all too willing to commit to. And speaking of committing, the both of them were going to commit to falling all the way back to the ground, 50 feet below the canopy where the reptile was standing. This was entirely due to the fact that Samson was a fucking heavy ass monster and the reptile was no slouch in the weight department either. With Samson coming to body slam the reptile from above meant that no tree in this section of the forest could bear the weight or impact of these two heavy weight beasts. Crashing and cracking could easily be heard for a long distance until an even louder “thud” ended the cacophony. Neither monster really looked worse for wear, namely because both were more than capable of dealing with the tree branches, bodies in the trees, and whatever else had made themselves present in the trees due to their sheer physical strength. The ground itself was still moist with blood from every sinner that died and thus the ground was akin to a big wet sponge. Sure it was much more dense but in terms of actually hurting either, it wasn’t going to happen, just like the broken tree wasn’t going to injure either of them.
Still that didn’t mean either could get up immediately. It was a fifty foot fall after all and that meant each was mildly dazed and needed a moment to get their bearings of the world around them. Sadly, it was the reptile who managed to get their bearings first and immediately tackled Samson. This sort of worked as it did manage to get Samson on the ground again, however the reptile didn’t consider that Samson had a chest cavity with several bones protruding towards the center. This meant the arm that was used was caught within the jagged mess of bones. And what parts weren’t had cuts and lacerations across the appendage, the only thing that had managed to get away scot free was its. This made it yell out in anger as it began to bleed again, now dark purple in color and tried tugging it’s arm out to no avail. However what it lacked in an arm, it made up for with its large and thick tail. And as one can imagine it wasn’t going to be a slouch in this fight either given it was tooth, claw, and everything around them that could be used as a weapon. Thus the tail of the reptile was brought up above its head and quickly brought down to slam on Samson’s three left arms. The lowest arm was immediately broken as it took the brunt of the tail first.
Samson wailed out in agony at one of his six arms being broken near immediately in this fight. But that only served to make him angry, something even Astrid hadn’t seen prior. Though Samson had no eyes to speak of in his deer skull, for a moment it almost looked like there were fireflies of dull gold that were present and pointedly aimed at the reptile. From there it immediately dug two claws into the side of the reptile, pushing as deep at his strength would let him. The last one grabbed the head of the reptile and brought it down to his own for a headbutt. The reptile was all too willing to oblige but quickly came to regret it when it was cut in the process and subsequently stabbed in an eye from Samson’s crown of sharpened horns. The scream that was let out was the loudest yet and it gave Samson an opening to try and impale the reptile's neck, specifically its jugular. However it quickly caught onto what Samson intended to do and flexed its neck to prevent Samson from doing much beyond scratching a couple scales in the nearby area. From there it did something that confused Samson, it hopped in the air for a moment, just a couple feet up. This made the claws Samson had already dug into its side dig down and make a pretty deep wound on its side that started to leak more blood onto himself, however that didn’t mean this was without reason. No, the reptile had an idea in mind. And it was going to make Samson permanently forced to be on the ground if it worked. Spoiler alert, it did.
When the beast came back down onto Samson, its knees were bent and it jutted out a couple of spikes from its kneecaps. These spikes immediately impaled Samsons own kneecaps, shattering the initial bone and nearly splitting them off from him. Samson was in utter agony and screamed out before taking his only free hand and trying to pierce through its jugular again. Only for the same thing to happen once more, though the cut was not bleeding lightly thanks to having hit around the same area twice now. But that didn’t faze the reptile, instead it decided to dive in yet again to attack Samson however instead of aiming for the head it aimed directly for the shoulder of the free arm. And against the odds and Samson’s flailing around it managed to strike true and got its powerful jaws around the entire shoulder. Initially it simply intended to crush it into a bloody mess but decided almost immediately once it was there that it’d prefer to just rip off the offending limb. And so with great difficulty it started to tear off the limb in question. Flesh tearing slowly as Samson was doing his absolute best to flex the limb in question while also trying to do anything with the arm but all it could do was slam into the back of the reptile. A few tense and utterly painful moments passed and despite Samson’s best attempts to prevent it, the limb was torn from him and thrown into a nearby tree.
Taking a moment to step back to Astrid in all this she watched as the two titans fought for their lives. Trying feverishly to think up something that would aid Samson in his current fight against this thing. But she was coming up with blanks initially. She could summon a multitude of spirits and try to pelt the reptile with projectiles . . . yet from how it was deflecting Samson’s attacks she figured it wasn’t going to amount to much. Hell, given it had scales she wasn’t even certain vomit or the magma from the hounds the spirits had consumed would really do the trick. She needed something else, something with a lot more firepower than her spirits were typically capable of giving. That’s when she considered detonating them. . .until she realized she’d injure Samson in the process. Which could shut off her Infernus as a whole if she wasn’t careful. Even if he was shielded by the body of this thing if she threw enough spirits at them she’d kill them both.
So what else could she do? She could teleport him out to another spot. That was an answer. However she’d have to produce the sigil and either send it over or place it on him. Neither of which she was terribly keen on doing given this thing produced shockwaves that shattered her minions. Her sigils. . . were unnaturally weaker by comparison. Also considering Samson had just had his legs impaled she wasn’t certain he was going to be able to move and do much. Which brought her to another issue. She could heal him via sacrificing other spirits. And in truth she wouldn’t think much of it but she’d have to feed him it. Which involved going down there. AND it involved her summoning a horde of spirits only for them to be sacrificed for that one purpose making them largely useless. . . And still be targets in the first place. In fact Astrid was certain the only reason she wasn’t being targeted at the moment was due to this thing dealing with Samson. And that wouldn’t last much longer given the state Samson was in as this thing was now gunning for his arm.
”GRRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! WHAT. . . DO?!?! SAM. . .SON. . . HELP. . . NOW!! She growled loudly as she grabbed her head and started letting her reiatsu loose again. Her anger was overwhelming her and she wasn’t certain what, if anything she could do. BUT she knew she needed to do something. SOMETHING to help him. Otherwise he’d be killed by this THING. That’s when it finally dawned on her. She’d learned the means to produce obsidian. She’d learned the means of firing them quickly AND she’d learned the means to fracture them afterwards. She knew what she’d do but first she needed a moment to get there and set up the attack. With a few quick gestures of her hands she motioned the teleportation sigils to move towards the top of both Samson and the reptile. From there she made another sigil, bigger and a bit rushed, and started condensing her reiatsu into it. The sigil quickly became pitch black and started forming an absolutely massive shard of obsidian, one that could certainly pierce through the beast's hide, especially at this height. The only thing she needed to decide was where she’d fire it at once it was ready. And that’s when she saw her opening. . .
The reptile was letting loose a loud and smugly satisfied roar. Considering Samson was struggling far more weakly than he had been up until this point and even his other limbs had been forced out of the reptile's side, it seemed like he was going to be torn limb from limb by this thing. All the while Astrid nor any other spirits were around. Admittedly Samson didn’t much consider this but had noted that there was a distinct lack of other beings around. That’s when he saw Astrid, directly above them with a shard that was at least half his total height nearly completely formed. And more concerning was how utterly livid Astrid was. Samson had shit tier abilities to read energy but he at least could. This thing must not have been able to do such at all because if it had, it’d be able to sense the sheer volume of hatred that she was radiating off. However instead it was simply letting out its roar for the whole forest to hear. A victory screech if you will. It wouldn’t last.
As Astrid finished making the large shard of obsidian she noticed that it had its head held high and its mouth wide open. What better way to shut something up than to pierce its throat as a whole and separate it from its body? So that is exactly what Astrid did. Once produced she launched this shard (read: boulder) from the sigil that was producing it at speeds equivalent to a cero. It didn’t take long for the roar to be silenced, instead what replaced it were quiet and fearful pleas from what portion of it’s throat wasn’t wholly torn asunder. Sadly given this thing had a large degree of strength while the front of its throat was torn wide open and bleeding on Samson the neck as a whole and the upper half of its skull were fine. Though it was noticeably heavier as the shard had embedded itself in the reptile. Astrid however was furious. This THING. This FILTH. This ABOMINATION. Yet lived. Defied her will to be brought low like the waste of fucking space it was. And whether Astrid was just seeing things due to her EXTREME anger or not, she swore she saw it look at her in defiance. Utter. Sheer. Defiance of her. And that’s when she screamed as loud as possible and started producing yet another shard, except this time in the shape of a sphere. ”You. . . live. . . what. . .about. . . another?!”
Not even a moment later she threw down the spherical obsidian at the reptilian beast below her. And within a moment it slammed onto the other crystal shard, pushed it completely through the beast's body and proceeded to slam into the remainder itself. However Astrid was anything but merciful, ESPECIALLY to this thing that had injured Samson. She’d kill it. Again. And again. AND AGAIN. As many times as she wanted. And without meaning to she shattered both the shared and directed their tidal wave of shards at the reptile’s corpse. Flesh was immediately stripped from bone. Scales were flung around, and any organs that used to exist? Blended. Within seconds there was naught but a mound of flesh and other bodily fluids. And surprisingly this happened without any harm to Samson given no shards had managed to go beyond the mass of flesh. Speaking of Samson even he had a look of concern on his face for what had just happened before his “eyes”. Not to mention Astrid herself was still radiating hatred beyond what she normally radiated. Which was further demonstrated when she let out another scream that made her throat as raw as plant matter could be. A bestial, primal, and utterly hate filled scream.
When Astrid was finally done with the scream she looked around herself and down into the forest. Yet again there was silence in the world around her. Yet unlike most, this silence seemed to be because she’d shocked and produced real fear in the world around her. The tree’s seemed like they were tilting away from her. There were no beasts moving, no enemies she could see, and even the human bodies that were in the trees were attempting to hide from her as much as was possible. Her fury was known and it was not to be trifled with at this point in time. Much to immediate pleasure, even that fucking voice from earlier stayed shut the fuck up. It took Astrid a solid five minutes before she could finally bring herself to move and consider more than just killing everything around her and Samson. But eventually she finally did start motioning her hands again. This time bring the sigils down towards Samson. Once set up she teleported her way down and as she appeared next to him she started to look him over trying to see what the damage was.
He’d lost an arm on his right side, had his bottom most arm on his left shattered while the other two were heavily bruised and the central one looked warped. His horns were broken in a couple places and he seemed battered, cracked, and nearly breaking in several other places. His knees were nearly separated from his legs and smashed in. Astrid could feel her anger rising up again however at least for the moment she had an answer to this that could fix things. The answer was simple and it was to produce a fruit that would heal the injuries. First thing though she needed to spawn enough spirits to complete the task. And to do that she decided it was time to summon the adult draconic hollow that she’d eaten in Hueco Mundo. That thing alone spawned more chicks for her and would be able to spawn as many as needed. Thus without looking from Samson and his injuries she dragged out its soul with an order already willed into its summoning. Thus when the flower on her tree bloomed, blew away, and reformed into the dragon it already knew what to do. It simply opened its maw wide and let loose a spew of new hollow chicks until the total spirit count was twenty.
Once the count was enough Astrid looked at them all and made a motion with her right hand, creating a half fist with enough space for a baseball to be held in. The spirits broke apart into petals but unlike most times the spirits were used or destroyed they left a small golden sphere. These spheres quickly came to Astrid’s hand and merged with one another while the petals from their bodies moved to her tree. The petals formed into small flowers of their own and quietly closed themselves off once made. The golden orbs on the other hand once all the orbs were merged together coalesced into a small golden fruit. This time an apple that shined like the morning sun and gave off a highly vibrant energy. Without further delay she force fed it to Samson and made certain he ate the fruit in its entirety. Once he did the effects were almost immediate. The arm that was torn off grew anew. From the socket the flesh and bark exterior grew like a tree branch until it formed into an arm and ended with its branches becoming the hand and fingers. His knees grew to fill the space between the sections of leg. As for his horns they simply had the broken off portions grow from the stumps until they were back to their normal form. The remainder of his body had its dimensions fixed, bones were replaced into their correct positions, and any cracks or bruising that had been present was filled in or quickly disappeared.
Barely a minute after eating the apple Samson was able to get up and move around again. Looking as though he was just freshly summoned. After another couple moments of him looking himself over and checking his body he quickly realized he was fine. Once certain of his form he let out his own unnatural roar. Once down though he immediately looked at Astrid and then the mound of flesh before them, his head then tilted in an obvious ask. Astrid simply nodded. She was tired as well. Exhausted even and that fucking hunger was coming back far more quickly than she’d like to admit. And there was nothing that was going to satisfy her quite like the body of an enemy that had been thoroughly made into fresh viscera. Thus she and Samson immediately dug into the veritable mound of flesh and consumed it at their leisure. At some point during it though Astrid started smiling wickedly and the reason for this was simple. She could hear the spirit of the hason, now turned into a reptilian beast, screaming in agony and confusion. His power and soul was now fueling her own. She hoped that he suffered in a special place within her inner world. And with that thought she simply returned to her meal, intent on completing it before deciding what to do next.
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Akando was likely going to be. . . hard to manage but he was bestial. His form was strong but his mind and cunning . . . well not so much. Still if the fact he casually ripped limbs off of shinigami was any indication then he’d likely be capable of doing the same to anyone else that came to him. Marik had already displayed that he’d be fine on his own given he felled Menos “trees” on a whim. And had subsequently blasted his way through the canopy and to the desert top of Hueco Mundo. Though truthfully Astrid was more concerned for how he’d handle their next meeting as opposed to his capability in defending himself. She had effectively run off almost immediately once he’d changed.
She shook her head as she began creating the sigil that would take her home. Or the closest thing she could call a home anyway. That brought her to the newest possible pack member she’d met. Odalis. Another thinker yet a beast. Somewhat similar to her but far more in control of her faculties. It was. . . an experience to say the least. Though they’d originally gotten a mixed review from Astrid over the higher mental capabilities their form and actual power set more than made up for it. If anything Odalis was strangely closer to being a hollow that she could hold kinship with given she seemed to have weaponized the hunger within. Something that Astrid admittedly hadn’t considered until then.
In truth she wasn’t even certain she could do such. It just seemed too far out of her reach at the current moment. Even if she was steadily growing in her knowledge of sigils. Which begged the question of how did she manage to have such skill in them? Even as she wondered this some Astrid was placing the finishing touches on her transportation sigil with the reiatsu slowly turning into a deep dark red. Crimson more specifically. She wasn’t taught how sigils worked. Alastor didn’t even truly understand how to use sigils and thankfully she very rarely saw Orobas so it never mattered if they knew or not. She had a sneaking suspicion that he did in fact know that she was getting better at them. The fucking psychopathic piece of shit. The things she wanted to do to Orobas were definitely not uncommon for Hell but she had a special sort of hatred for one who’d decided that she needed to chained to them personally and unable to have a will of their own.
It drove her insane thinking about it. So much so that she almost didn’t realize the transition she’d had from Karakura to Hell. What brought her back was the smell of the bodies, those in the trees as well as what was falling off the trees. The various flora of deadly variety, the smell of bark and blood, and even the light moist feeling of the ground beneath her feet. This was her home, of sorts. Namely her “hunting grounds” given she’d rarely ever left it. And why would she? She had more than enough here to occupy her, including those who “claimed” the forest entirely as their own. Another hellion that thought they owned everything around. In truth they did technically “own” it by sheer strength as any who’d tried to hunt them had been slain outright. And most of them didn’t come back given they were consumed.
So now that Astrid was here what would she do? Her hunger was sated “enough” for the time being. She’d eaten well in both the human world and Hueco Mundo. Let alone consuming spirits in the Soul Society. In truth hunting was strictly not necessary for the time being. That’s when something caught her attention. The bushes nearby were rustling and it sounded like the hell beasts, specifically the hell hounds, were chasing something again. This would prove to be correct as Astrid would nearly be jumped by a lizard-esque hason that jumped out of the bushes and slammed head first into a nearby tree. The hounds quickly followed in a far more dramatic affair as they set fire to the bush in question before immediately taking note of their currently stationary prey and Astrid.
The pack was six strong with one of them, likely their alpha, slowly walking towards the lizard. The alpha like its siblings was notably made of magma. Cracks covered its form with light glowing from the cracks. Occasionally the molten substance dripped through, specifically at the maws of the beasts but it could be seen to come off at their tails and underbellies as well. For once Astrid found herself highly unconcerned about the beasts in question. Hellhounds were by far the lower end of the hell beasts and though they’d killed her several times in the past, given she had Samson and her Infernus? She couldn’t consider a way they’d kill her. The lizard hason on the other hand was out cold in the meantime which spoke volumes to Astrid.
Not only was he weak but he was the fresh blood kind of weak. He’d only just recently arrived in Hell. The poor bastard likely had little idea of what was going on around them and even worse likely was getting used to their new form. Still his form was clutching something and more interestingly it was held in something. A sack of some kind, which only made things that much more confusing as Hell very rarely had such things unless you were near or involved with the Sanctus base. Which likely meant Astrid could take whatever was in there for herself and aggravate Orobas if she was lucky. She started smiling widely, letting her teeth shift as she began her childish plotting for how to inconvenience Orobas. However, the first thing was first, she needed to deal with these pests. . . And collect them for herself now that she thought about it.
It didn’t take but a moment as Astrid was now very used to how to call forth the spirits from within. With a mental order she quickly found the spirits she usually called for, a few chicks, her trusty hound, and a few wisps. The sakura flowers on her tree blossomed and blew away into a wind that wasn’t present. Moments later the pack of hellhounds would notice their group was surrounded by Astrid’s pack. Four wisps, five hollow chicks, and a single and notably large canine hollow. The chicks immediately began charging bala’s while the wisps ran towards the non-alpha hellhounds. The canine hollow and the alpha hellhound however were sizing up one another and for a short while just looked at one another.
This was likely due to the fact that even IF they were killed, the beasts of Hell knew they’d respawn under normal circumstances. Foolish of them to assume that this was a normal circumstance as Astrid was anything but normal. The other hellhounds were quickly starting to figure this out as the chicks continued to hover above them by a few feet while pelting them with bala’s. One after another. Meanwhile the wisps were doing everything in their power to either hold them down by wrapping their bodies around them or by fighting with their fists, legs, and even the grotesque mouths that formed as they screeched at the beasts.
Sad to say though, the beasts of hell were not completely or easily taken over. They were made of sentient molten rock after all. And thus a couple of the pack took to firing back globules of magma at the chicks. A couple hitting their marks and melting the chicks out of their current existence and returning them to Astrid. That however didn’t save one of the hounds as it took three separate balas to the face, ultimately shattering it’s head and causing it’s body to fall to the ground. Worse for the pack yet was that while a couple wisps were also melted down and burnt to death they also took down yet another hound by smashing its legs apart. Repeated hits on the sides caused further cracks which ultimately ended up shattering them and causing the hound to go limp. From there two more wisps tackled it into the ground and stomped it into chunks of rock.
Astrid in the meanwhile watched, certain that her spirits were more than enough to take this small pack out. Though with about half having been killed off she did have to reach inside and summon forth more wisps and chicks. Allowing those that were previously killed a moment of respite. She had enough spirits wriggling and wailing within her inner world that it didn’t matter if she kept picking new spirits. Besides, the hellhounds couldn’t permanently kill them anyway. They were weak after all, as far as hell beasts are concerned. This had Astrid bring her attention to the alpha and her canine companion. . . she was not pleased to see the results. Turns out the alpha was in charge for a reason. It’d managed to shatter portions of the hollow’s mask, break a couple legs, and was currently about to finish the job with a magma globule. Astrid decided that she’d have to step in. She did not need to use Infernus to deal with this group but she could manage with a couple new abilities she’d learned. Specifically Form:Obsidian.
Turns out even Astrid could create things with her reiatsu that were potent and not a part of her release. She’d gotten the idea from a couple hollows she’d seen fighting, specifically one that condensed their reiatsu into rocks and fired them out of vents on their body. Now Astrid couldn’t do that but what she could do was draw up a small sigil in front of her and then overload it with her reiatsu. The sigil then immediately turned black and slowly but surely a spike of pitch black obsidian formed, large enough to be akin to a battering ram. The alpha who wasn’t paying attention given it was in the middle of vomiting magma on her canine spirit was all but asking to be speared through. And with such a generous offer before her, how could Astrid say no? Thus without hesitation she fired off the obsidian chunk, really more of a pointed boulder, and within a second it utterly pierced through the alpha hound. Its body had a massive hole from where the spike had gone through and it was doing everything it could to say on its four feet.
With the alpha dealt with Astrid turned back to its packmates to see how her pack was handling the lessers. Turns out the remaining spirits, a wisp and a couple chicks, were effectively kicking down the last hellhound as it attempted to do anything. Its siblings in the meantime were now simply bodies on the ground with the magma they had for blood cooling down. Astrid let her smile grow wide and let out a roar that told her spirits it was feeding time. And what better way to eat than with some friends? Without even thinking about it, Astrid summoned out the spirits that had been killed by the hounds and let them have their well earned meal. Thankfully the spirits were made of stronger stuff than Astrid as even she had to admit she’d find it hard to eat the remaining rocks and magma that made the hellhounds' remains.
With the pack dealt with now Astrid decided it was finally time to check out what the lizard hason had on their person. Thankfully it was only just starting to come to, which meant that she had all the means in the world to forcefully take what it had. Without a moment's delay she then created five more spikes, though notably less dense in her reiatsu. She immediately fired them at each limb, including this thing’s tail. The scream that came after was like music to her ears. . . if she had any. Which she didn’t. . . and that alone would bring up a lot of questions on “how” if she cared enough to look into it. She did not. Thus with her the new hason on the block pinned to the ground and the tree she walked over to them and grabbed its head. She let her vines dig into its skin and brought the head towards her before she growled out at it. ”. . . Speak. . . that. . . what is?”
The hason in question was in agony and unable to move. Worse yet it was able to see the spirits that were finishing off the pack chasing them. A few of the chicks for one thing were already making their way over towards Astrid and itself. If it could have begun sweating it would have, but the bleeding was likely enough to get the point across that it was in a deep DEEP fear for its life. ” L-look I just got here! L-leave me be! I’m only trying to go back to being a hollow!” Astrid's eyes widened as she took note of the word hollow. What it had in the sack allowed it to become a hollow? Impossible. There was no way that something this important would be in the hands of this new trash. She got very close and growled at the lizard’s head. “. . HOW. . . Hollow. . . Hueco. . . Mun. . .do. . . No Hell. . SPEAK!”
The lizard cried out a bit as her vines dug deeper into its skin and actually hit the skull beneath. Its fear was rising quickly as it could feel the vines wriggling around making the wound on its head grow in pain and size. ”I. . I heard of a hag in this forest! She has the means of making . . . things I don’t know what they’re called! She gave me one though for being new to Hell and was the only nice thing I’ve met since I’ve been here! T-take it if you really want but please let me go, I’ve already died eight times today!” Without hesitation Astrid took the sack from it. She’d actually heard long, long ago of this “Hag” that was hidden away in the forest. Unironically she was the one that claimed to “own” the suicide forest. Which is why most didn’t bother fighting here. . . Not that one could easily do so anyway. She hid herself very well with even the Sanctus members having difficulty reaching her.
Looking at the sack in her grip Astrid could feel something inside. Small but weighty. Dense even. Her eyes narrowed as she immediately tore the sack apart to find what was within. Loe and behold it was a sigil carved into an obsidian rock. The sigil itself was something Astrid had never seen prior but she did recognize what it was given her own understanding of sigils had her produce similar signs. However. . . even looking at this and then reproducing the sigils she knew for basic fleshcrafting. . . these didn’t look to be the same. Well specifically the same branch of sigil craft. Sure this “Hag” could know enough about sigils to have knowledge about a new branch that is currently unknown. But that still required the use of fleshcraft. This made Astrid concerned, mildly, as to what this thing was supposed to do then. Especially in the hands of a fresh whelp of a hason.
Astrid decided then that it was time to test it out. After all . . . The sigil in her hand would allow her to place the sigil on someone namely the lizard to see just what the effects of this thing were. And she wouldn’t suffer any consequences for it. She smiled wide and immediately slammed it into the forehead of the lizard hason and flooded the sigil with reiatsu. It glowed brighter and brighter, starting with a blue-white color and transitioning into a blue-black reiatsu that was incredibly inky in color. The lizard's eyes widened in surprise but then changed to relief as it was going to be changed into a hollow again. . . so it thought. It almost said thank you to Astrid except it suddenly was losing itself deeper and deeper into its mind. And once it was present in the black mindscape it was immediately swallowed up by something else. This started to reflect on the body of the lizard as the reiatsu started to sink into its flesh and grow heavier and heavier in its density.
Astrid immediately jumped backwards and ran a few feet extra just to be safe given the form of the being in question was now entirely consumed in an inky sphere. That’s when she heard an older yet lighthearted laugh from somewhere around. “Well well well! A hason that actually realized my sigil was a trap, you dearie are quite the curious little plant. My I wish you had used the sigil instead of this whelp. You’d have made a fine pet to add to my collection. Sadly however you’ll have to deal with him and perhaps make him a pet of your own! Just be careful now, he’s going to be very hungry after his transformation Ahahahahahahahaha!!” Astrid as usual didn’t catch most of the voice’s words. However, the intent behind the words? Very obvious. Demeaning. Mocking her. Also threatening her via whatever was going to come out of this orb once it was finished altering the lizard from before. Something that just so happened to be nearing its end.
What stepped out from the spherical void was not what had been within. The only thing that made it clear that it was the aforementioned hason but altered was the fact it was still reptilian. That’s it. Its size was double and it had far more muscle mass than previously. There were even horns on the sides of its head along with more spikes akin to dark granite stone with vicious edges jutting out at various angles. Worse yet was that any sign of its own mental capacity was long since gone and the eyes showed this best as they were solid lavender in color. No iris or pupil to speak of. Yet all the same Astrid immediately knew that this thing could see her. And true to the warning the voice had said, it was hungry, the bellowing sound from its stomach only informed Astrid that she would be lunch if she wasn’t careful. Which meant she’d have to bring out Samson. That would be required without a doubt. The question was, if she’d have the time to do such. Her infernus did take a moment and Samson was going to be the first being that came forth.
That meant she only had one option. She had to use the other spirits as sacrifices and find herself a space where she could use her release. She wouldn’t have long to figure it out though given the beast before her let out a bellowing roar that she’d only heard once prior. The draconic hollow she’d fought with Teresa over. Thankfully she was far more capable now, or at least one would hope she was more capable now. With a roar of her own, she ordered her spirits to dive head first towards the reptile. They weren’t going to last for more than half a minute at most, which as far as Astrid was concerned would be if she were lucky. Astrid, at no point in time however, considered herself lucky and thus immediately started producing teleportation sigils. With her mastery and near constant use of them though she was able to nearly will them into existence at the front and the back of her hands along with a singular one inside her chest cavity.
That however is about as far as she got given her spirits were decimated as she’d finished creating the sigil in her chest cavity. The reptile in question had started off by cleaving through the midsections of her wisps with ease. So much so that Astrid swore she heard something say “That was easy.” The chicks in the meantime had started pelting it with bala and before it could look at Astrid, who at that moment was mid creating sigils, it decided to deal with the flying pests. This however was done just as easily given it spun itself around and used its tail to generate a shockwave large enough to smack all of the chicks in one fell swoop. From there it was just Astrid and the reptile, though thankfully he was momentarily blinded by the numerous petals returning to Astrid. That alone was her only saving grace for how she started moving away. Using the sigil inside her chest cavity she threw it back, which thankfully, took her along with it at 600 speed. She gained a whole 13 feet before coming into contact with a tree, thankfully one that was horribly bloated with blood.
Otherwise she’d have broken her spine by just coming in contact with it. Instead it just felt like getting smacked with hard rubber. Painful but not deadly or otherwise harmful. Still she wasn’t going to get much time to pull herself together as the reptile was already moving at around the same speed she could throw around her sigils. However, unlike her sigils, this thing couldn’t do much more than jump in the air. So with Astrid placing two sigils in 50 foot increments from one another until she reached 100 feet in the air she wasn’t terribly concerned about it being able to follow her. . . easily. With the sigils in place and the beast right in front of her, she immediately teleported to the first sigil and then subsequently did such once again to be placed on the sigil hovering 100 feet in the air. She looked down as the tree that she had previously had her back to fell and forced a couple more trees to collapse onto the ground. There was no chance in any universe she’d have survived that attack. Still the thing was looking for her and would likely quickly realize where she was given she had made arm motions to throw her sigils into the air.
But until then she could finally release and actually start fighting this thing for real. She looked deep within herself for Samson and quickly found his soul. Grabbing onto it she let her will command him to manifest and with it a flood of her own hellish reiatsu started to pour out. She could feel the physical transformation of her own starting to take place as her vines got flooded with amber colored reiatsu. Her height started to grow as did her arms, with the vines she used as fingers growing so much that they actually started to hang off the edge of her sigil that she was standing on. Her jaw got merged with her face and she noticed that the bones that littered her body were merged together and formed a hardened exterior before changing color and giving a more bark-like appearance. From there she could feel something she’d not been able to enjoy for a while. Hair. Well the closest thing she could get to hair. She had a bunch of vines tied themselves together before falling to her backside in something akin to a ponytail. It’d get split by the shrubby tree growing out her back but even still. At least she had it.
She almost wanted to enjoy the feeling of having “hair” but was immediately drawn back to the current issue at hand, I.E. the reptilian monster below who had so kindly reminded her that it was coming for her ass specifically. And given it was climbing the trees below to get closer before what she could only assume would be jumping towards her she needed to act quickly. Thus she immediately dragged Samson from her inner world and placed him on the other 3 sigils side by side one another. Given the sigils were only 2 feet in diameter now, she really couldn’t manage him standing on anything less given he was a 9 foot beast. And the last thing she needed was him not in the correct place, especially when this thing came for them both again. Still he was here and he was next to her so she had an ample means of defense against whatever this thing could throw their way now. But she needed more spirits, which meant she needed more time and the only way to buy that was by throwing Samson head first into the brawl to be. Still she had confidence in his capabilities given he was by far her strongest spirit alone. With another loud roar in defiance of the beast that was now at the top of the trees she pointed at him and growled out her order to Samson. ”KILL!”
Samson let out his own roar and promptly dived down towards the reptilian beast. The reptile looked like it was happy to finally have a monster to fight, a fight which Samson was only all too willing to commit to. And speaking of committing, the both of them were going to commit to falling all the way back to the ground, 50 feet below the canopy where the reptile was standing. This was entirely due to the fact that Samson was a fucking heavy ass monster and the reptile was no slouch in the weight department either. With Samson coming to body slam the reptile from above meant that no tree in this section of the forest could bear the weight or impact of these two heavy weight beasts. Crashing and cracking could easily be heard for a long distance until an even louder “thud” ended the cacophony. Neither monster really looked worse for wear, namely because both were more than capable of dealing with the tree branches, bodies in the trees, and whatever else had made themselves present in the trees due to their sheer physical strength. The ground itself was still moist with blood from every sinner that died and thus the ground was akin to a big wet sponge. Sure it was much more dense but in terms of actually hurting either, it wasn’t going to happen, just like the broken tree wasn’t going to injure either of them.
Still that didn’t mean either could get up immediately. It was a fifty foot fall after all and that meant each was mildly dazed and needed a moment to get their bearings of the world around them. Sadly, it was the reptile who managed to get their bearings first and immediately tackled Samson. This sort of worked as it did manage to get Samson on the ground again, however the reptile didn’t consider that Samson had a chest cavity with several bones protruding towards the center. This meant the arm that was used was caught within the jagged mess of bones. And what parts weren’t had cuts and lacerations across the appendage, the only thing that had managed to get away scot free was its. This made it yell out in anger as it began to bleed again, now dark purple in color and tried tugging it’s arm out to no avail. However what it lacked in an arm, it made up for with its large and thick tail. And as one can imagine it wasn’t going to be a slouch in this fight either given it was tooth, claw, and everything around them that could be used as a weapon. Thus the tail of the reptile was brought up above its head and quickly brought down to slam on Samson’s three left arms. The lowest arm was immediately broken as it took the brunt of the tail first.
Samson wailed out in agony at one of his six arms being broken near immediately in this fight. But that only served to make him angry, something even Astrid hadn’t seen prior. Though Samson had no eyes to speak of in his deer skull, for a moment it almost looked like there were fireflies of dull gold that were present and pointedly aimed at the reptile. From there it immediately dug two claws into the side of the reptile, pushing as deep at his strength would let him. The last one grabbed the head of the reptile and brought it down to his own for a headbutt. The reptile was all too willing to oblige but quickly came to regret it when it was cut in the process and subsequently stabbed in an eye from Samson’s crown of sharpened horns. The scream that was let out was the loudest yet and it gave Samson an opening to try and impale the reptile's neck, specifically its jugular. However it quickly caught onto what Samson intended to do and flexed its neck to prevent Samson from doing much beyond scratching a couple scales in the nearby area. From there it did something that confused Samson, it hopped in the air for a moment, just a couple feet up. This made the claws Samson had already dug into its side dig down and make a pretty deep wound on its side that started to leak more blood onto himself, however that didn’t mean this was without reason. No, the reptile had an idea in mind. And it was going to make Samson permanently forced to be on the ground if it worked. Spoiler alert, it did.
When the beast came back down onto Samson, its knees were bent and it jutted out a couple of spikes from its kneecaps. These spikes immediately impaled Samsons own kneecaps, shattering the initial bone and nearly splitting them off from him. Samson was in utter agony and screamed out before taking his only free hand and trying to pierce through its jugular again. Only for the same thing to happen once more, though the cut was not bleeding lightly thanks to having hit around the same area twice now. But that didn’t faze the reptile, instead it decided to dive in yet again to attack Samson however instead of aiming for the head it aimed directly for the shoulder of the free arm. And against the odds and Samson’s flailing around it managed to strike true and got its powerful jaws around the entire shoulder. Initially it simply intended to crush it into a bloody mess but decided almost immediately once it was there that it’d prefer to just rip off the offending limb. And so with great difficulty it started to tear off the limb in question. Flesh tearing slowly as Samson was doing his absolute best to flex the limb in question while also trying to do anything with the arm but all it could do was slam into the back of the reptile. A few tense and utterly painful moments passed and despite Samson’s best attempts to prevent it, the limb was torn from him and thrown into a nearby tree.
Taking a moment to step back to Astrid in all this she watched as the two titans fought for their lives. Trying feverishly to think up something that would aid Samson in his current fight against this thing. But she was coming up with blanks initially. She could summon a multitude of spirits and try to pelt the reptile with projectiles . . . yet from how it was deflecting Samson’s attacks she figured it wasn’t going to amount to much. Hell, given it had scales she wasn’t even certain vomit or the magma from the hounds the spirits had consumed would really do the trick. She needed something else, something with a lot more firepower than her spirits were typically capable of giving. That’s when she considered detonating them. . .until she realized she’d injure Samson in the process. Which could shut off her Infernus as a whole if she wasn’t careful. Even if he was shielded by the body of this thing if she threw enough spirits at them she’d kill them both.
So what else could she do? She could teleport him out to another spot. That was an answer. However she’d have to produce the sigil and either send it over or place it on him. Neither of which she was terribly keen on doing given this thing produced shockwaves that shattered her minions. Her sigils. . . were unnaturally weaker by comparison. Also considering Samson had just had his legs impaled she wasn’t certain he was going to be able to move and do much. Which brought her to another issue. She could heal him via sacrificing other spirits. And in truth she wouldn’t think much of it but she’d have to feed him it. Which involved going down there. AND it involved her summoning a horde of spirits only for them to be sacrificed for that one purpose making them largely useless. . . And still be targets in the first place. In fact Astrid was certain the only reason she wasn’t being targeted at the moment was due to this thing dealing with Samson. And that wouldn’t last much longer given the state Samson was in as this thing was now gunning for his arm.
”GRRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! WHAT. . . DO?!?! SAM. . .SON. . . HELP. . . NOW!! She growled loudly as she grabbed her head and started letting her reiatsu loose again. Her anger was overwhelming her and she wasn’t certain what, if anything she could do. BUT she knew she needed to do something. SOMETHING to help him. Otherwise he’d be killed by this THING. That’s when it finally dawned on her. She’d learned the means to produce obsidian. She’d learned the means of firing them quickly AND she’d learned the means to fracture them afterwards. She knew what she’d do but first she needed a moment to get there and set up the attack. With a few quick gestures of her hands she motioned the teleportation sigils to move towards the top of both Samson and the reptile. From there she made another sigil, bigger and a bit rushed, and started condensing her reiatsu into it. The sigil quickly became pitch black and started forming an absolutely massive shard of obsidian, one that could certainly pierce through the beast's hide, especially at this height. The only thing she needed to decide was where she’d fire it at once it was ready. And that’s when she saw her opening. . .
The reptile was letting loose a loud and smugly satisfied roar. Considering Samson was struggling far more weakly than he had been up until this point and even his other limbs had been forced out of the reptile's side, it seemed like he was going to be torn limb from limb by this thing. All the while Astrid nor any other spirits were around. Admittedly Samson didn’t much consider this but had noted that there was a distinct lack of other beings around. That’s when he saw Astrid, directly above them with a shard that was at least half his total height nearly completely formed. And more concerning was how utterly livid Astrid was. Samson had shit tier abilities to read energy but he at least could. This thing must not have been able to do such at all because if it had, it’d be able to sense the sheer volume of hatred that she was radiating off. However instead it was simply letting out its roar for the whole forest to hear. A victory screech if you will. It wouldn’t last.
As Astrid finished making the large shard of obsidian she noticed that it had its head held high and its mouth wide open. What better way to shut something up than to pierce its throat as a whole and separate it from its body? So that is exactly what Astrid did. Once produced she launched this shard (read: boulder) from the sigil that was producing it at speeds equivalent to a cero. It didn’t take long for the roar to be silenced, instead what replaced it were quiet and fearful pleas from what portion of it’s throat wasn’t wholly torn asunder. Sadly given this thing had a large degree of strength while the front of its throat was torn wide open and bleeding on Samson the neck as a whole and the upper half of its skull were fine. Though it was noticeably heavier as the shard had embedded itself in the reptile. Astrid however was furious. This THING. This FILTH. This ABOMINATION. Yet lived. Defied her will to be brought low like the waste of fucking space it was. And whether Astrid was just seeing things due to her EXTREME anger or not, she swore she saw it look at her in defiance. Utter. Sheer. Defiance of her. And that’s when she screamed as loud as possible and started producing yet another shard, except this time in the shape of a sphere. ”You. . . live. . . what. . .about. . . another?!”
Not even a moment later she threw down the spherical obsidian at the reptilian beast below her. And within a moment it slammed onto the other crystal shard, pushed it completely through the beast's body and proceeded to slam into the remainder itself. However Astrid was anything but merciful, ESPECIALLY to this thing that had injured Samson. She’d kill it. Again. And again. AND AGAIN. As many times as she wanted. And without meaning to she shattered both the shared and directed their tidal wave of shards at the reptile’s corpse. Flesh was immediately stripped from bone. Scales were flung around, and any organs that used to exist? Blended. Within seconds there was naught but a mound of flesh and other bodily fluids. And surprisingly this happened without any harm to Samson given no shards had managed to go beyond the mass of flesh. Speaking of Samson even he had a look of concern on his face for what had just happened before his “eyes”. Not to mention Astrid herself was still radiating hatred beyond what she normally radiated. Which was further demonstrated when she let out another scream that made her throat as raw as plant matter could be. A bestial, primal, and utterly hate filled scream.
When Astrid was finally done with the scream she looked around herself and down into the forest. Yet again there was silence in the world around her. Yet unlike most, this silence seemed to be because she’d shocked and produced real fear in the world around her. The tree’s seemed like they were tilting away from her. There were no beasts moving, no enemies she could see, and even the human bodies that were in the trees were attempting to hide from her as much as was possible. Her fury was known and it was not to be trifled with at this point in time. Much to immediate pleasure, even that fucking voice from earlier stayed shut the fuck up. It took Astrid a solid five minutes before she could finally bring herself to move and consider more than just killing everything around her and Samson. But eventually she finally did start motioning her hands again. This time bring the sigils down towards Samson. Once set up she teleported her way down and as she appeared next to him she started to look him over trying to see what the damage was.
He’d lost an arm on his right side, had his bottom most arm on his left shattered while the other two were heavily bruised and the central one looked warped. His horns were broken in a couple places and he seemed battered, cracked, and nearly breaking in several other places. His knees were nearly separated from his legs and smashed in. Astrid could feel her anger rising up again however at least for the moment she had an answer to this that could fix things. The answer was simple and it was to produce a fruit that would heal the injuries. First thing though she needed to spawn enough spirits to complete the task. And to do that she decided it was time to summon the adult draconic hollow that she’d eaten in Hueco Mundo. That thing alone spawned more chicks for her and would be able to spawn as many as needed. Thus without looking from Samson and his injuries she dragged out its soul with an order already willed into its summoning. Thus when the flower on her tree bloomed, blew away, and reformed into the dragon it already knew what to do. It simply opened its maw wide and let loose a spew of new hollow chicks until the total spirit count was twenty.
Once the count was enough Astrid looked at them all and made a motion with her right hand, creating a half fist with enough space for a baseball to be held in. The spirits broke apart into petals but unlike most times the spirits were used or destroyed they left a small golden sphere. These spheres quickly came to Astrid’s hand and merged with one another while the petals from their bodies moved to her tree. The petals formed into small flowers of their own and quietly closed themselves off once made. The golden orbs on the other hand once all the orbs were merged together coalesced into a small golden fruit. This time an apple that shined like the morning sun and gave off a highly vibrant energy. Without further delay she force fed it to Samson and made certain he ate the fruit in its entirety. Once he did the effects were almost immediate. The arm that was torn off grew anew. From the socket the flesh and bark exterior grew like a tree branch until it formed into an arm and ended with its branches becoming the hand and fingers. His knees grew to fill the space between the sections of leg. As for his horns they simply had the broken off portions grow from the stumps until they were back to their normal form. The remainder of his body had its dimensions fixed, bones were replaced into their correct positions, and any cracks or bruising that had been present was filled in or quickly disappeared.
Barely a minute after eating the apple Samson was able to get up and move around again. Looking as though he was just freshly summoned. After another couple moments of him looking himself over and checking his body he quickly realized he was fine. Once certain of his form he let out his own unnatural roar. Once down though he immediately looked at Astrid and then the mound of flesh before them, his head then tilted in an obvious ask. Astrid simply nodded. She was tired as well. Exhausted even and that fucking hunger was coming back far more quickly than she’d like to admit. And there was nothing that was going to satisfy her quite like the body of an enemy that had been thoroughly made into fresh viscera. Thus she and Samson immediately dug into the veritable mound of flesh and consumed it at their leisure. At some point during it though Astrid started smiling wickedly and the reason for this was simple. She could hear the spirit of the hason, now turned into a reptilian beast, screaming in agony and confusion. His power and soul was now fueling her own. She hoped that he suffered in a special place within her inner world. And with that thought she simply returned to her meal, intent on completing it before deciding what to do next.
{Reptilian Hason (Consumed)}
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