Aftermath of the Espada [Anti-Rampage | DP]

[Deleted]

The night sky of Karakura was a sight that Caballero never thought they would live to see, ever again. A fresh breeze moved against their body, now without their trademark rags or their purification blade. What few things they owned had been completely and utterly destroyed in the battle against Arcadus, the Segunda Espada. Their trusty notepad to communicate, the pen that they had been gifted by Yui, all had been lost within the explosion. The only thing they had managed to retain was their life... and by every single rule the world revolved around--if such things existed--they should not be standing right now. No, they should be dead, their ashes scattered to the winds after the Gran Rey Cero that had vaporized their body, save for their mask, which had been sent flying kilometers away by the ungodly powerful blast.

Only after a while they had unearthed themselves from the dunes, lost and wounded, weakened as they had never been in their life. They could feel their body, usually brimming with powerful Reiatsu, being barely above how what it was usually capable of producing. Caballero may not have had an ordinary body, but such were the wounds they would be carrying from the confrontation with an opponent that was superior to them in every single way. Somehow, the tiny knight had managed to open a Kumon, and had returned to Karakura. Not well, but alive.

How had they survived? How they were still alive? How much time had passed since they had been blasted to oblivion by that terrifying Arrancar? They did not know. For some reason, they stubbornly hung on to life, refusing to die, even to the point of coming back from a state of near death. In that manner, the little knight almost crawled back to the central part of Karakura, trusting in that nobody other than those spiritually aware would be able to see them. Their weakened Reiatsu barely gave away any signals to most, so very few people bat an eye at them.

All the creature could do after reaching their resting spot was let themselves fall against the wall in one of the dirty, dingy alleyways. Normally, they would be soaring through the sky, patrolling the city, ensuring that no monster would be getting the drop on an unsuspecting Plus or human. They would be saving lives, being a hero, getting a headpat or two from the more grateful Pluses, maybe even visit the Regina along their way. In short, doing what they loved doing the most: help people without any other care in the world.

But not this time. This time, Caballero attempted to remain concealed in the shadows, taking one or two quick looks at both sides of the alleyway every few seconds. They were paranoid. Afraid. Somehow, they had the feeling that the towering Arrancar would emerge from a portal right next to them to finish the job that he had started. That "USELESS, USELESS, USELESS!" was engraved in the tiny knight's brain, causing them shake as they remembered the words, and the searing pain that had come just a second later in the form of Gran Rey Cero. The mere memory of the attack made them grab their 'shoulders' with their own stubby little arms, and make themselves smaller on that alleyway.

Right now, their confidence, their desire to get up and continue fighting was not strong enough. Their hunger poked at their brain, but they had no strength of will to push it down. That was yet another reason to keep themselves there, hidden in that smelly spot, away from anyone that might get hurt. At the end of the day, they were nothing more than a lowly Hollow, no matter how much they wanted to play hero, right? Arcadus had been pretty clear on his stance regarding their 'strange' behavior. All in all, Caballero waited, brooding a bit, taking some time for themselves to recover. It was not like they would need to step up and defend the city now, right? The Shinigami had their patrols going around, after all. And if someone like Arcadus invaded the city, well, there was absolutely nothing they could do against him.

Why bother?


OOC:

Caballero will be without type boosts for the time being, due to their loss against Arcadus.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats and skills}

Stat	SP	Type
Strength	75	45
Speed	400	400
Reiatsu Strength	400	700400
Spiritual Pressure	400	400
Senses	100	100
Instinct	125	125
Energy Sensory	0	0
Healing Expertise	0	0
Light Aura	100
Dark Aura	0

• Saber Filo: 2
• Strength of Will: 2
• Pain Tolerance: 2
• Learning: 1
• Lack of fear: 1
• Battle Focus: 1

Saber Filo [Edge Lore]: Being created from their very being, Caballero has an affinity toward Filo that they just can't achieve for any other weapons, and they have incorporated aspects of the Shinigami they've so far trained with into their technique. This skill dictates Caballero's level of weapon mastery when wielding Filo, how refined their style is. 1 point means they can use Filo adequately, as if trained for a year. 2 means 5 years of experience. 3 means their mastery is unheard of, with the equivalent of decades under their belt. 4 means they go far beyond, and can reliably implement almost impossible maneuvers into their combat style with great success. Being incredibly specialized in this particular weapon, Saber Filo would give them a superior level of mastery than someone with a general Weapons: Sword skill would have, even if both are at 4 SkP. In the event Caballero becomes an Arrancar, Saber Filo applies to their sealed Zanpakuto as well.

[Kitai Yoru]

Weakness. It's something that predators can smell inherently. They seek it out, looking for those who have it, those who make for an easier meal. Fighting a fair battle is a mark of shame for predators. Honor and nobility? Foolish ideals for foolish targets. One such thing they love more than an easy meal, however, is watching a difficult meal become easy. Like two powerful beings fighting to the death. Things like that catch the attention of predators, who wait around the edge of the combatants senses, waiting to see who wins, and who loses.

Caballero would find his fears would come true, in a manner of speaking. The sound of crunching metal would be what would alert the hollow, followed by screaming. A large hollow had crashed down onto a truck, caving in the hood of the vehicle. The hollow was fifteen feet tall, and was covered in a red carapace-like armor. It stood on stubby legs that ended in points. On its head was a darker mask, with grey insect pincers for horns. Its arms looked very similar to the horns, and were currently peeling open the car like a big metal lunchbox.

More sounds of screaming could be heard in the distance, nearby, yet just of of sight. Three predators smelled picked up the scent of blood that lingered in the air, and were hunting down Caballero. And if they ate a few humans along the way, well, every soul mattered in the end, right? A man screamed as he thrashed about, trying desperately to open his car door, but the ruined metal refused to bend for him. The large hollow reached past the shattered windshield, preparing to grab the man for an easy snack.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats and Skills}



Strength: 400+50%= 600
Speed: 400
Reiatsu Strength: 100-30%= 70
Spiritual Pressure: 200+25%= 250
Senses: 100-25%=75
Instinct: 125
Energy Sensory: 175
Healing Expertise: 0
Light Aura: 0
Dark Aura: 100

Street Fighting: 2
Battle Analysis: 2
Strength of Will: 1

Technique Name: Armored Shell

Description: This hollow is covered in a durable shell, based off of its strength. Each area of its body will reduce incoming attacks by its strength, these areas being the head, torso, each arm, and each leg.

Weakness: Each area takes damage based on the OS of the attack, and will break upon taking more than 800 damage.

[Deleted]

The paranoid Caballero kept to the shadows, feeling safer by the blanket of darkness around him. The fact that the townsfolk would continue their lives, blissfully unaware of them no longer being protected, was soothing in a way. Karakura had been perfectly fine before them, and would most likely remain after they had left. It would not matter if they stopped defending it, or keeping Hollows at bay. It wasn't like they had been able to do much in the first place, so why bother? Perhaps they could just... what, go back to Hueco Mundo and find a place to die? Wander around the world, not really caring about anything?

Part of it sounded liberating, perhaps because they were only running away; another part of his being rejected that notion completely. For the time being, the more cowardly one was winning. Leave everything behind, run away, nobody would chastize them for it. Hollows shouldn't even be near human populations in the first place. Everyone would be safer if they just left, specially given that they had become stronger than your average masked monster. While the depressed bean continued to mope around, however, panic would stir in town once again, ready to remind them exactly what was in danger of happening every single day.

An unpleasant metallic echo ran along the alleyway, a grinding, unpleasant sound that momentarily snapped Caballero out of their state. Not enough to revive the spark in them, far from it, but they did become alert and peeked from the alleyway to see what was going on. Screams followed immediately after, and not because someone had seen the very small Adjuchas that looked arguably cute rather than scary. No, it was because a fifteen foot tall monstrosity had just crashed on top of one of those stranged, wheeled things that humans usually got inside of to move around the city. It looked like the type of Hollow to say "Doma, doma, doma doma doma!" while throwing compressed spheres of a questionable, incredibly odorous substance around the place. The creature was tearing through the truck's frame as if it were butter, no doubt seeking for the tasty prize hidden inside the container, like a cat fishing for canned sardines.

The sounds of screaming began to fill the air, breaking the peace and quiet Karakura had been enjoying so far. The little bean began shaking, just a little bit. What should they do? Should they jump in? But there were more people screaming! Where were the Shinigami? Surely, they had someone patrolling around? Yes, that had to be it. Caballero tried to remain in place, ignoring the screams, blanketed by shadow. Perhaps due to an instinct of their past life, they brought their stubby little arms to the sides of their helmet-like mask, trying to silence not just the poor humans and Pluses' bloodcurdling screams. Had they had a set of actual eyes, they would've squeezed them shut, trying to forget everything about the scene, to let it pass.

But alas, old habits died hard. Quaking in fear as they may have been, Caballero still could not let the Hollows just do whatever they pleased. Instead of jumping at the defense of the innocent, summoning Filo and immediately hacking through the creature, they simply walked out of the alleyway with hesitant steps, hoping to flare their Reiatsu enough to at least draw the monster's attention. They were too startled by the many screams to realize that they had 3 smaller Hollows close by, eating their way through to them. Lacking energy sensory abilities, there was just no way Caballero could tell that they were approaching.

Just in case, Caballero acted by firing a rather timid Bala at the creature, wanting to at least let the humans escape, but also very afraid of drawing its attention. They did not know that it would most likely bounce off of that hard shell like a pellet from a fake gun, but even so, they were already wondering: what if they could not beat it? What if it was just as strong as Arcadus? It was big, too, much bigger than they were. Size had never been an intimidating factor, but... Arcadus towering over them, preparing his Gran Rey Cero...

Caballero instantly regretted having fired that attack in the first place.


OOC:
Reiatsu: 4000-50[Bala] = 3950

[Kitai Yoru]

Right before the hollow could touch the man, it felt an impact against its outer shell, knocking it to the side. The hollow stumbled to the side, as its arm tore through the left side of the truck, giving the human just enough room to escape the vehicle, and the hollow. Its head swiveled on its shoulders, as it looked to see just what had interupted its easy snack. And as it turned out, it was the hollow that it had came here to find. The hollow was gazing upon the wounded predator. It hopped on its stubby legs to face Caballero, and began beating its chest, vibrating the air around it.

It spun around, grabbing and tossing the truck ten feet into the air, arcing it in such a way that it would land atop the vertically challenged hollow, should he fail to move. The armored hollow would put its hands together, hopping into the air, diving and burrowing through the earth as if it were made of water. The streets trembled as it moved, shaking everything with the force of a small earthquake. Should Caba move and dodge the thrown truck, the armored hollow will erupt from the ground, and spike the torn-up truck towards him like a volleyball.

If he decides to destroy the truck, the hollow will leap from the ground, spinning like a drill, launching balsts of dirt and concrete everywhere within ten feet of its exit. "Doma doma! Ha ha ha!" It yells, laughing as any person remaining in the immediate area flees the sudden explosion. The hollow seemed to be favoring its left arm, as the right one looks to be moving just a little slower. The bala that Caba fired at it seemed to be hindering movement. A scorch mark could be clearly seen on its exoskeleton.

[Deleted]

Caballero's Bala, against all odds, did actually more to stop the Hollow than they would've thought at a glance. The 300 Reiatsu Strength projectile managed to move the gigantic Hollow's arm, so instead of tearing through vehicle and human all at once, it only tore through the vehicle instead, leaving enough space for the human to quickly scramble and leave. The beast did not follow in pursuit, instead turning toward the one who had dared interrupt its meal. The size difference between the two made this a grotesque parody of David against Goliath, if only because right now, 'David' was not feeling that confident that he could take on this giant. The beetle-like Hollow landed on its stubby legs, and then began pounding on its chest in an apparent attempt to intimidate Caballero.

Of course, the thrumming of the creature's arms booming against its outer shell startled Caballero, as they were a connosieur of fine low sounds and finer silences. However, what would've normally only set their anger off, rendering them annoyed and even more willing to kill the Hollow that had just invaded Karakura, would freeze them in place instead. Again, they were transported back to that helpless position, to the screaming Espada that was charging a devastating attack to fry them with, like a bug. The memories brought forth the entire experience, making Caballero's body remember the pain it had suffered.

Such was their shock that they were barely able to return to reality by the time the enemy Hollow literally picked up the truck, ironies and wordplay aside, and chucked it at Caballero in a rather precise arc. The tiny knight was barely able to react with a muted gasp--as they had no lungs--, and just like the human, scrambled to run away from it, even if their body was not that susceptible to physical attacks. What they hadn't predicted was the enormous Hollow diving into the earth, taking the chance to capitalize on their haphazard dodge by quickly resurfacing a little later, ready to spike the whole truck onto them as if it was a damned volleyball.

Caballero looked up, unable to react in time yet again due to their awful mental state. Normally, it would have been simple for them to dodge, using Úlcera or something to that effect to step away from the falling truck and then take the chance to quickly counter-attack, seeing how their opponent was off the ground and in the air. Granted, it may have used air ground to dodge, but Caballero should have more options. This time, however? They simply tried to run away and dodge again, but they were not fast enough to clear the way before the metal frame crashed against their body.

The tiny knight felt pain again. It may have not been nowhere near as potent as Arcadus's blast or Honegumi cutting them in half, but they still felt it. And after all the pain they had been in lately, they were resolute that they did not want to feel that ever again. Caballero's willpower was at its lowest due to their depressive state, and that showed on the pitiful battle they were offering thus far. Under the truck's weight, their body and limbs were crushed and mangled. It was a good thing that their physiology was as bizarre as it was and they didn't have any vital points per se, because otherwise, this fight would've ended right then and there.

Instead, the little bean futilely struggled to get out of that metal truck. As they stood right now, pinned under it, they were at the mercy of the larger Hollow, who seemed to have no trouble picking the truck in the first place. Again, fear began to set in their mind and cloud their judgement, making it impossible for them to discern their options or even draw up a plan. They'd need to go with their instinct if they wanted a chance in hell at winning this. But so far, they were trapped under the metal frame, unaware of the fact that their Bala had indeed slowed down the beast's movements.


OOC: For cinematics I've also disabled Caba's Pain Tolerance and Lack of Fear too!