Culling the Unfortunate, Open / "JT" / R

[Deleted]

Thread Type: JT mechanically, more of a hollow rampage in reality.

Location: Karakura as a whole.

Thread Rating: NDE / R

Individuals that can be involved: Anyone though the preference is for lower class folk (Class 4 and under) for reasons described in Special Conditions. I especially encourage hollows of all classes to join in as we may be able to push for a thread type change to Rampage if enough are present. (Should that interest the hollow players.)

Thread availability: Open

Current Individuals involved: This will be updated as/if others join in.

Gael Hendrickson - Class 6

Ren Akasawa - Class 6


Special Conditions: 

This thread is scene focused and thus the perpetrator of the mass hollows that are currently flooding into Karakura won't be revealing themselves until a predetermined number of hollows are killed. Additionally, there will be a handful of Menos with sentience prior to the revealing of the instigator. The hard numbers are 65 base and weak menos (Class 8 - 6) and 5 high tier menos / Adjuchas (Class 5 and 4 respectively). The boss is a secret I'll reveal later once all 70 hollows are killed.


Setting:

It was a peaceful spring day in Karakura, the sun was shining, the city was busy, and for the past week or so no incidents had occurred. Well, none caused by hollows anyway. That is until the day struck 1pm and the spiritually aware would be able to see the garganta's opening up and several packs of hollows jumping out and into the city below. Those same few who realized what was about to happen quickly become the first responders while organizations such as Xcution, Soul Society, and U.E. have their various alarms or sensors begin to blare revealing not only a high collection of hollow reiatsu but also a strange reiatsu signature that is emitting from various points in the city. 

[Deleted]

Gael had just gotten down from the fourth floor of a building that was currently being built. Somewhere in the middle of Karakura. Generally, a nice place to be since he could be high up enough to get a view of the city around him and enjoy the cool breeze from high up. The day was already long but he was finally getting his break from welding various metal instruments together. A well-deserved break given he was finally going to eat his lunch. He just had to go find the temporary building where they had small refrigerators for the workers to use. A small blessing as he had cold tea from a local godsend he'd only recently found. Reggie's, Ragna's, maybe Regina's? Something to that effect. It started with an R and had literally any kind of tea one could hope to find there. All of his immediate plans would be washed to the side once he stepped out the front "double doors" of the building.


When he stepped outside, he paused as the back of his neck started to tingle. The feeling then crawling up his spine and into his brain before he just "felt" something shift in the sky above. When he looked up, he couldn't see anything of note. Simply a few clouds here and there along with the sun shining bright. While he wasn't certain what he was feeling he knew it couldn't be good. With this in mind he walked more slowly to the temp building all the while keeping his eyes narrowed, ears open, and his spirit(?) receptive to yet more distinct changes in the world around him. He managed to go into the building, grab his lunch, and even leave the building before he caught a glimpse of something. It moved quickly, far too quickly for someone of his caliber to track.


And yet he was able to feel the general shape of the beast. It was strange to say as they were at least larger than most men, surprisingly agile, and worst of all was a gnawing sense of hunger that kept eating at his core. His blood start to grow cold as it slowly dawned on him just what the beast could be. And that's when he both heard and felt others. Far away he could almost "sense" the spiritual energy of several groups of individuals appearing out of nowhere. Like radar detecting foreign objects that were nearby. He heard the ever-iconic screams and roars that followed when Hollows made themselves present. "Shit shit shit shit shit! I KNEW this past week was too good to be true! Fuck, I don't have a bow and even if I did, I couldn't kill them. . . But I also can't just leave. . . Or I guess I could but . . . it's my lunch break . . . Damnit but there's so many!"


He bit his lip and let his mind furious think over the various different things he could do. All of which boiled down to "Try your best to help the city." He may be just one man and maybe the shinigami were better equipped for this but surely, he could do something right? He did have a few ginto tubes on him just in case for situations like this. He ran back into the building and stuffed his lunch into the refrigerator before running back out and towards his foreman's office in another temp building. As he got close to the entrance, he took a breather and entered quickly finding the man in question in the middle of eating his own lunch. They raised an eyebrow and Gael spoke quickly and tried to reign in any fear he had back inside his mind. "Sir I'm just letting you know I'm going out for lunch. I should be back in time but just in case you need me for anything please have someone give me call."


The man in question nodded and waved him off before returning to his phone and sandwich. Gael smiled, walked out, then all but ran around the building and out the back entrance as he started running towards the business district. While there were many groups of hollows, this group was nearest towards him and if nothing else, hopefully hollows he could handle so long as he could lead them into the alleyways. . . Assuming that other creature wasn't following him. Gael felt his blood run cold again as he thought to the large flying bat creature that had been stalking him for days now. It never came close to him, and it never threatened him directly, but it watched him. Day or night if he wasn't keeping an eye out, it'd just suddenly appear. If that thing was the cause of this mess, he wouldn't know what in any world he could do. So, he just patted his leg pouch and the ginto tubes inside and continued running to one of several sources.



MEANWHILE . . . .

As more hollows poured into the city varied in shapes and sizes there was a single entity watching from the other side of the garganta. It didn't enter the world of the living and it wasn't stopping others from moving past it. With a smile on their face, they stood with their arms crossed and their smile ravenous. "These whelps aren't ready for Hell. . . Not yet. Get a few humans and maybe even some shinigami in them and they might survive. . . If not, I'll just eat them all the same. But those that survive. . . They'll be worth something. But first, let's see if they can handle the filth here. It'll be easy if they're worth their salt as fucking hollows. Grrr. . . I fucking HATE waiting. But we'll try Marik's way and see if waiting will do anything. If not, I'm going to throw this idiotic idea in his face."


As the garganta closed, the last thing they saw were the various other garganta opening and many more hollows entering the city. A horde over the university. A horde over the business district. Another few were close to U.E while yet more opened near Xcutions hidden southern entrance. The last few were scattered in the shopping district, apartment complexes, and even the park. The entity in question had no doubt that there was enough hollows and souls that at least something would happen. Death would spread throughout the city. Souls would be lost to fuel possible transformations of the hollows they'd unleashed. And before the spiritual world would realize it, they'd be leaving with hopefully a few more menos and maybe even a few adjuchas. They hoped that some shinigami would show up however, more for themselves so they could rip them limb from limb. But that was for later. For now, they needed to go find other hollows that were worth a damn and didn't need a buffet to try and be something worthwhile. The garganta closed behind them as they opened a portal of their own back to Hueco Mundo and started their search.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Gael Stats and Skills}

Strength: 100 (150)

Speed: 75

RS: 40 (27)

SPPR: 100

Instinct: 50 (27)

Senses: 50

ES: 100 (150)

HE: 25 (17)



DA: 25

LA: 75



Skills:

Intimidation: 1

Weapons - Polearms: 1

War Strategy: 1

Pain tolerance: 1

Bleeding Tolerance: 1

Utility - Ginto Alchemy: 1

Battle Analysis: 1

Martial Art - Mounted Combatant: 1
8/15 Skill Points

SPOILER: Click to show

{Items on Gaels Person} Ginto Tube - Class 7 (x2) and Class 6 (x3)
Description: A small, opaque silver tube about four inches in length, a Ginto tube contains a small amount of a glowing white liquid that is actually raw Reiatsu concentrated into a physical form. These tubes are used as a base to power Quincy Ginto, techniques that are similar to a Shinigami’s Kido in general practice.
Type of Item: Tool
Class: 7-1
Item Power (IP): N/A
Offense Type: N/A
Durability: 200 + 200/Class (Max Durability: 1400)
Bonuses: A Ginto Tube is able to be recharged after use, unlike most consumable items. By paying 100 Reiatsu, a Quincy can refill a Ginto tube to full potency. This allows for a limited number of Ginto Tubes to be used to great effect, rather than requiring the user to bring a score or more for their technique use. Ginto Tubes are assumed to be fully filled at the start of a thread or after a significant rest period within a longer thread. Additionally, any Class of Ginto Tube can be used to cast any Ginto spell; an increase in Class only increases the durability of the tube itself.
Drawbacks: If a Ginto Tube is broken, rather than used up, it is destroyed and cannot be salvaged, regardless of what thread type it is destroyed in.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollow Counter}65/65 Hollows remaining. Currently invading Karakura in groups.

5/5 Mini boss hollows remaining. Not Currently in Karakura.

1/1 Main Boss remaining. Not currently in Karakura.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollow starting locations}Karakura University, Xcution Southern Secret Entrance, Near U.E. headquarters, Market District, Apartment District, and Business District.

[Ren Akasawa]

Lit by the dark red of a dripping halo, the way he shambled around in a ragged white cloak made Ren seem more dead than most ghosts that lingered in Karakura. A violent wraith who'd grown bored of the business district that he'd wandered for days in search of something worth cutting down. There was little pleasure in being a knight stranded at the bottom of a flood without so much as a single dragon to slay. Frustration had set in over the past few days of isolation, as his aspirations to reach Silbern through violence required a great number of enemies worth fighting. So upon the arrival of a devouring swarm of hollows, he felt relief rather than fear, soothed by knowing that the drought of battle had finally ended.

The first hollow to approach him was shaped in the image of a centipede, and it began to circle him even as he drew the nameless steel uchigatana from his belt. Coils teeming with legs that dripped with venom surged upwards into a spiral to cut off all escape. Alas, even though it was much faster than the would-be knight, the insectoid horror hesitated to strike at the moment Ren threw back his hood and lunged directly into a twisting thrust that left his cloak open, revealing the distorted form of a body reshaped to suit the flood it hosted. Even if the cause of such hesitation had been perfectly reasonable, it was still hesitation, and this battlefield would accept no justifications. That hollow died for its unwillingness to bite into a failure.

A faint pulse of disappointment sent ripples throughout the depths of Ren's flood-wracked soul when he rammed his store-bought blade through the soul's mask and head. Blood Drive couldn't get what it wanted from a hollow; such went against the jagged bit of quincy reiryoku that acted as the flood's essential core, but starved and desperate as the flood was, it was unable to tell what type of soul it was reaching for until it made contact and thus made its attempts regardless of how many hollows it encountered. The would-have-been knight simply hissed through his teeth and began approaching the next hollow with his eastern-style sword held in a western-style guard position.

Reluctantly aware that, as he was now, this throng of hollows was something he could not defeat singlehandedly, he called out for any others who may be gathering to combat this invasion of a land that was rightfully the emperor's. "Gather, oh warriors, battle awaits us! For the glory of the quincy empire!" Ren had no way of knowing if anyone would respond to that call, but the identity of any temporary allies mattered little so long as they shared an interest in ending these masked souls. Besides, he had never actually seen an actual quincy in Karakura and was starting to doubt even the poor wandering stars who rejected the empire's pure pentacle for the impure cross of commoners lived here.

SPOILER: Click to show

{The May-Have-Been Knight}Class > 6

Strength > 112

Speed > 42

Spiritual Pressure > 30

Reiatsu Strength > 150

Light Aura > 30

Dark Aura > 70

Instinct > 50

Senses > 30

Energy sensory > 0

Healing Expertise > 0



Pain Tolerance > 1

Weapon: Swords > 1

Anti-Stealth > 1

Battle Focus > 1

Lack of Fear > 1

Alcohol Tolerance > 1

Rei Points> 300/300

SPOILER: Click to show

{Just A Sword}Class 6 Spiritual Steel Uchigatana
IP — 250
Durability — 500/500

[Deleted]

Gael continued to run down the streets like a crazy man. His mind or maybe soul picking up more and more energy signatures that continued to appear out of nowhere. Some stronger than others. These pings were followed shortly by more screams from the wild hollows. Gael even started to see a couple as he made his way well and truly into the business district. He knew he'd look weird if he did what he was going to do out in the open, but the alley ways were small and not useful. He groaned and stood still, sweat dripping down his face and his breathing heavy as he hadn't run for so long in a while. He really needed to get back into stamina training if he survived this. He shook his head and simply ran into the nearest alley way and once he was twenty feet or so into it, he pulled out his Ginto tubes and started channeling what reiatsu he could grab a hold of into the tubes.


The tubes in question started to glow a soft blue light, starting softly and quickly becoming bright. Once he was certain he had "activated" the ginto tubes reiatsu he opened the top of them and spilled all the liquid reiatsu out onto the ground. The first thing Gael could think of, even if he was bound into such tight quarters as this alley was to create a poleaxe. If he had one of these, he could very easily defend himself. Thus, with the picture in his mind, he made a six-foot-long pole axe. The last two feet being the axe, hammer, and spear tip with the remainder being a "wooden" shaft for him to use. As he opened his eyes, he saw the very same weapon he desired standing upright before him and not a moment too soon as he had a couple of "friends" to deal with. One hollow on either side of him. He cursed under his breath and grabbed the weapon before facing down the one in front of him.


It was a simple canine hollow, thin and emaciated as though it hadn't eaten in a while. While the one behind him was an ominously beautiful butterfly that had spider legs. Creepy and ultimately definitely something he wished he could learn about prior to now. Maybe he could have convinced them to go away, they are functionally wild animals as far as he was concerned. Still, he had to focus and right now the beast before him was rushing him down, jumping from the ground to the walls and running across them. Gael stepped back before yelling out and running forward. He couldn't swing the weapon horizontally, so he had to make sure he used it vertically and hope it didn't get stuck. Thankfully the canine leaped out at him, and he only had to bring the head of the poleaxe down to the ground, flip the blade up, and then swing up and over his head. The hollow was cut cleanly in half, and he saw its eyes dim as it fell at either side of him and started to break apart.


He couldn't help but feel sad about its death and he hoped the reiatsu he was using wasn't the same as his arrows. Given he couldn't form a bow even, he had to wonder if it mattered but that was a subject for another time. As he turned around, he saw the moth charging up a small red orb. Gael's eyes widened and he immediately looked around him and grabbed a lid for a trashcan. The creature was blessedly still in the middle of charging whatever the orb was and managed to get interrupted due to the same lid being thrown at it as a frisbee. The orb dissipated and Gael ran forward to make sure he killed this hollow before it started that again. Certain that he couldn't dodge whatever the fuck it was trying to ready. The hollow fluttered backwards some as a couple legs tapped its mask to make sure it hadn't gotten a crack or scratch on it. Ultimately making it vulnerable to another attack, a literal piercing attack that was aimed just underneath it's head.


The beast screeched out and flailed around almost hitting Gael a couple times before Gael pulled the spear tip out and then brought the hammer portion between its eyes. The creature quieted and fell to the ground, bleeding out as it started to disintegrate. He huffed and took a few deep breathes before running back the direction he'd been walking but now with his new weapon in hand. As he managed to get into a little opening in between the buildings he heard someone yelling out for quincies. Or at least he thought he did give he heard something about an empire. It sounded weird but he knew that quincies weren't known to many, if any normal folk. He ran towards the voice and found himself running into a nearby parking garage. Blessedly not filled with anything but cars but also filled with a lot of cars and hollows. He frowned as he continued running to where he thought the voice was coming from. "Fuck me this place is packed. Ughhh I can finally use my poleaxe but it's going to damage everything around. Damnit!"


As Gael ran up, he saw a disintegrating corpse and another corpse? But moving? He . . . didn't really understand what he was looking at, but it certainly wasn't normal. And it had a weapon, a katana to be specific. If this was a shinigami, it was certainly the strangest one he'd found. But fuck it he needed to get all the help he could get. So, he ran up to them and called out as he did. "Hey! Glad you killed that one, but we've got a fuck ton more around the city! Any chance you can help me with the business district? I know shinigami aren't . . ." As he spoke his soul got a different sense a much more troubling sense. This wasn't a shinigami despite the looks. It was more condensed with swelling energy and an ominous feel to its reiatsu. He stopped several feet away and held up his poleaxe in a defensive pose as he spoke again. "What are you? You aren't a shinigami . . . though you look like a messed up one, but you don't . . . feel right. Are you here to help with the hollows? If so, can we work together? For now, anyway?"

SPOILER: Click to show

{Technique used}Viele Waffen (Many Weapons)
Technique Class: Variable - Class 6 (atm)

Technique Type: Spiritual / Ginto

Usable By: Quincy

Technique Element: Reiatsu

Description: Viele Waffen is a simple technique to be learned by almost any and every fledgling quincy. It takes a ginto tube and allows the quincy to reshape the liquid reiatsu inside it into a weapon. Sparing the tube for later use far as refilling is concerned. As for what weapons can be conjured from the liquid reiatsu it depends on the class used. No ranged weapons, sans throwable weapons like a javelin, can be created using this technique until class 5. So long as it's melee and within 6 feet length and 1 foot in width you can make it. Axes, Polearms, Spears, Swords, etc. You name it, it's yours. It should be noted that larger melee weapons can be created so long as an additional ginto tube is used. This will allow for a maximum of 10 feet long and 3 feet thick.


Upon class 5 being reached the user can create ranged weapons of their choice. Upon using this technique the ranged weapon creates 10 pieces of ammunition to go along with the ranged weapon. Ranged weapons cannot be explosive in nature but can be large so long as the weapon fits within the size limitations. Ranged weapons also do not gain the curving or explosive features of quincy arrows. The range of all ranged weapons created is 120 feet after which the reiatsu evaporates. The ammunition along with the weapon all have the same duration. The speed of these weapons attacks are 300 at class 8-5, 450 at class 4-3, 600 at class 2 and 1.


There’s also a unique aspect to this technique that makes it particularly useful for those of the non-spiritual variety. The OS for this weapon can be static depending on how many additional ginto are used. Where creating a single weapon has a reiatsu cost and the tube’s liquid reiatsu alone while giving the user’s RS as the weapons OS, an additional ginto tube can be used to allow for a static 100 OS to be the weapons OS. Regardless of the user’s RS. Additionally at higher levels this static OS can go up by 100 for an additional ginto tube. Allowing for higher levels to still be beneficial to physical quincy even while their peers create weapons of greater power for cheaper.



How to Use:

Simply flood the ginto tube(s) with your reiatsu and will the weapon in mind to form. Make sure to have an image in your head about the exact kind of weapon you want as it cannot be changed once made.


Drawbacks:

Costs 50 reiatsu at class 8 and increases in reiatsu cost by 50 for every 2 classes above class 7. Maxing out at 200 reiatsu at class 1. To gain static OS ginto tubes of equivalent or greater level to the technique’s class must be used. I.E. to get 200 OS at class 7 you need two class 7 additional ginto tubes. Whereas at class 1 you need an additional 8 class 1 ginto tubes to gain 800 static OS.

All weapons have a post duration. 8-5 is 3 posts. 4-3 is 4 posts. And 2-1 is 5 posts. Durability is equal to the OS used. Static or RS depending on what the user decides to do. Can be both spiritually and physically flexed away if opponents' stats are high enough to do so.


TTP costs are staggered and increasing. Initial TTP cost is class 8 and allows access to class 5 assuming the quincy has the class to use it. Proficient TTP cost is class 4 and allows access to class 3 assuming the user is the appropriate class. Mastered TTP cost is class 2 and allows complete access to technique. Ranged weapons are locked from the user until class 5. Range limited to 120 feet. No explosive weapons can be created. Limited amount of ammunition.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu used}-50 for Viele Waffen (Many Weapons)

1,000 - 50 = 950 reiatsu remaining

SPOILER: Click to show

{Poleaxe Stats / Form}Class: 6
OS: 300
Durability: 300
Duration: 1/3 posts used

Form:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollows killed so far}3/65 base hollows dead

0/5 mini bosses

0/1 Boss

[Ren Akasawa]

Gael would almost certainly feel the sudden anger directed at them. A truly inhuman moment of rage arrived in a crashing wave and departed just as quickly. That comparison of Ren to a shinigami had earned a particularly severe glare from the failure. Not that anything was visibly different, as he lacked visible eyes beyond two particularly bright points of light within the "bangs" of a wild mane of seething rust-red reishi which broke off in droplets to replenish his seemingly liquid halo, which in turn dripped reishi to the street below. That hadn't stopped him from making his feelings obvious. "Don't compare me to them. Shinigami are the enemies of the living, you should never forget that."

While Ren had been angered, the flood that swam in his reiatsu viewed the quincy no differently than it did the hollows that drew near. Unable to tell what type of soul it observed even as it frantically searched for some unknown quality, it was somehow sluggish in its attentions, almost as if it struggled to accomplish its sole function in some capacity that took a period of concentrated effort to overcome. It paid equal attention to a hollow that lunged towards the may-have-been knight, a headless humanoid bearing its mask on its stomach. It struck with six arms, each ending in perfectly spherical hands that burned with a green flame and caused the asphalt to melt at a touch. Ren had narrowly evaded with a jump and landed blade-first in a diving thrust that sank deep into the hollow's neck and drew out a pained wail.

"I am Akasawa Ren, and I stand with the Quincy Empire! Every hollow I slay here is another offering on the altar of the saint emperor that I may someday ascend to the seat of Vandenreich captain supervisor." He shouted his intent to the heavens from his perch upon the hollow and twisted his weapon free before jumping again, avoiding the second attack it had aimed at him and achieving a single swing of his sword that cleaved three arms from the strange hollow's body. From there, he landed in a low crouch and sprung back to his feet as part of a vicious upward crescent of a slash that removed the remaining three arms as the hollow tried to turn and retaliate. A simple thrust through the center of its mask marked the end of the second hollow.

The failure exhaled heavily; he needed to recover his breath after pushing the limits of his sword skill. Relying on strength and momentum to make up for a lack of speed was something he could only get away with a few times, so it was important that he saved it for the stronger hollows. Even so, the extra exertion fighting required against that one in particular had been a necessity to prove a point. For all that he was a dead soul whose head and hands were slowly reshaping towards the inhuman, Ren still identified solely as a quincy. That was one of the stable pillars he clung to, even as the flood's mental influence rose with time. "We can work together for now. Saving the living is part of my role as a quincy."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Shallow Depths Untouched}Rei Points> 300/300

SPOILER: Click to show

{Flood Warning}Blood Drive charging posts—Gael (1/6)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollows Sacrified Upon the Altar of the Emperor}1 base hollow

[Deleted]

Gael's worries grew as he felt a sudden tone shift. Words didn't need to be spoken for the others rieatsu to shift into something far darker and far more menacing. It caught Gael so off-key that he actually stepped back a couple paces and almost wished he was dealing with hollows instead. . . Even that thing which stalked him had always kept its distance and yet here was something before him that was more than capable of killing. And it was staring directly into him. Still despite Gael feeling like the moment was several minutes it was just that, a brief stint. He breathed a deep breath of air once the anger subsided and the other made it VERY clear they were anything but a Shinigami. He nodded outwardly and kept quiet as he let the other manage a nearby hollow.

Note to self. The man in rags is NOT a shinigami and will likely kill me if I say so. Still, he's dangerous so let's not give him an opportunity to kill us. . . though what is this quincy empire he's talking about? You'd think my dad would have mentioned this if such a thing existed. I'll look into this later. Gael made certain to commit the name of this individual to memory, certain that he'd need to figure out what exactly they were as most beings didn't feel nearly this intense as a standard. Most had to be actively doing something to make their reiatsu feel so swollen and prominent. Again, something he'd look into later if he survived. He took another moment to look at the hollow that Ren was actively attack and almost lost himself in it before realizing that another spider-like hollow was crawling through the parking garage and coming up to him.

His eyes widened as he turned around and saw the creature. It held a few smaller spiders on it, making it likely a mother of sorts to them. With the group's total coming out to five it made him take a couple steps back as the spider hollow threw three of her kin towards him with long humanoid hands. Gael shuddered and really wished he wasn't going to keep finding more insectoid hollows. There was nothing inherently wrong with them, but the forms were mixed with humanoid aspects were always just creepy. Even if he knew what they were on the inside. His heart grieved a bit at what he was going to do but he with two of the children coming closer he didn't have a choice. He took a step forward, brought up the axe head and swung to the left in front of him. He cut cleanly through one of the spider children.

The other jumped and tried to reach the ceiling but found its legs not strong enough to do that and thus shifted and fell on its backside. Struggling to shift itself back to its legs while leaving itself open and available to Gael. Another moment later and it was thankfully dead-on arrival as Gael used the hammer side to slam into its chest cavity and subsequently splatter its internals. His poleaxe was starting to turn red and purple at some points given the red blood mixing with the light blue energy. Gael almost had a moment to look over his own weapon when he realized the mother had come almost directly upon him and was jumping down from the ceiling. Gael unapologetically ran from the hollow and managed to get a whole ten feet away before finding himself blocked by the other two children spiders. Gael backed up a couple paces only to damn near feel the breath of the hollow.

Fuck fuck fuck FUCK! Without realizing it Gael accidentally dodged a leg swipe from the mother by running forward and into the first spider his poleaxe could find. The one on his right managed to jump back while the remaining wasn't so fortunate and had tried to run backwards. Only find a spear point into its skull for its efforts. Gael wasn't done though, he needed to have at least some space he wasn't going to get attacked from. So, he flexed his muscles, lifting the spider hollows body and spun around to fling it at the other spider child. The other had tried sending out webbing but managed to only hit the corpse flying at it and then found itself slammed into a vehicle before dying. The sickening crunch of carapace didn't help Gael's stomach.

Thus, it was only Gael and the big fuck off spider hollow. And she looked pissed as could be at Gael's actions. He gulped and yelled out to the quincy outside the garage. "Ren, I don't suppose I can convince you to help me with this one? She's uhhh a mite pissed that I killed her kids . . . and she's a biggie if I had to guess." Said hollow started to charge up a cero only for Gael's eyes to go wide. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK NOT THIS AGAIN!" Gael let himself pick a direction and ran towards a stairwell so that he could maybe avoid the blast and found himself lucky as the spider chose to spread out the cero not just towards Gael but also towards Ran. Gael's saving grace was that having run between cars and pillars meant the beam wasn't accurately aimed and thus it cleaved over his head as it cut through a nearby pillar. He froze for a moment and then continued running towards the stairwell and making his way to the next floor above.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollow Kill Count}
8/65 hollows killed

0/5 mini-boss hollows killed

0/1 boss killed.

[Hanako Nozawa]

The world of the living was so... so different from what she was used to! Everything was so nice, and shiny, and smooth, and... It was difficult to keep her thoughts together! The buildings themselves towered easily over anything she had seen in even the Seireitei, let alone the Rukongai! The people, too! The people were dressed in so many different, wonderful ways that she had never imagined for herself before!

On this day, a rare day indeed for a student of the Shin'ō Academy, Hanako had been given passage to a town in the World of the Living called Karakura. She was told this place was a hot spot of spiritual activity, unique within the World of the Living, but that it had been relatively quiet in the last few days. So, she was told to spend the day watching, observing, and absorbing all that she could about the world so different from what she had known. After all, if she were going to be a Shinigami and accept a position to patrol here, then she would need to make herself familiar with the intricacies of this world.

She had spent the morning doing just that, too. After arriving through a Senkaimon and bidding the jigokuchō which had given her safe passage farewell back to its home, Hanako had spent several hours simply wandering around. There were many things that were familiar enough to her, of course; such as the concepts that made up the rules of a city (roads, layout, ect.). However, the presence of metal cars had thrown her for a real loop at first. They were so noisy! Once she had gotten over the cacophony of new sounds, however, it became quite easy to follow her nose and eyes from one point of interest to the other.

That brings us to her current location: a park adjacent to the market district.

After hours of wandering and pining after the tastiest smelling of foods to no avail, Hanako had resigned herself to eat her packed lunch in a nearby park, where it would be much more quiet than in the busier parts of the city itself. Here, she had chosen a decorative rock on which to sit, laid out the small cloth containing a few treats and rice balls, and carefully watched the living come and go as she ate. They were a curious sort, indeed. Differences in fashion were the first things to jump out to her, of course, but after sitting and observing for just a little while, she had caught on to the many nuances of human life; multiple languages, various habits and rules for interacting that would get one punished in a heart beat in the Seireitei, and even kinds of music she had never heard before! Sure, many of these things existed in the Rukongai, as souls brought them from their previous lives, but now was her first chance to really experience them in their native habit, so it were!

Now, in particular, Hanako found herself watching a couple seated on a bench a distance away. They were too far to be heard over the voices of others and the sound of wind through the trees, but she could very well see them making out as though they were the only ones still in the park. As she finished off her lunch, her eyes rested on the image of the couple, and she thought how cute they were. Surely, that was all that she was thinking, and not of how creepy it was that she was sitting here, all but invisible to the world around her, watching two strangers kissing. Nope, that wasn't weird at all.

However, her thoughts would ultimately be interrupted by a peculiar sense of dread that washed over the park. A dark, malicious energy seemed to rain down from the sky above, and almost wishing she wouldn't, the student craned her neck to glance upward at the sight which made her heart drop down into her stomach. A great tear had appeared, a hole black and foreboding in the otherwise calming blue sky, and from it, countless figures fell to the earth below. Hanako wiped the rice from her cheek with the back of her hand, and reached out of reflex for the security of the zanpakutō still slumbering quiet as the stone it rested upon.

"Oh no..." She muttered weakly, her mind far too overwhelmed with the feeling of so many Hollow appearing all at once. She raced to stand, and her attention was pulled everywhere all at once! There were too many! What should she do, she frantically thought! She was given direct orders not to engage with anything -Hollow or otherwise- that appeared, but rather to return to the Seireitei immediately and let a seasoned Shinigami handle any danger, but...

A loud bellow of a roar drowned out her thoughts, and sent her knees shaking underneath her. She felt a cold chill reach down to her very bones, and her eyes swiveled quickly towards its source as they widened in abject fear. There, a monstrous creature of unfathomable dread raced across the park! Two imposing tusks jutted from its mask, propelled forward by something a mix between a muscular ape and a wild boar! Its forelegs bore grasping hands which dug into the ground and shook the earth, kept stable by cloven hooves on the back and a thin tail which swept wildly from its energetic stampede!

Hanako's grip tightened around her sheathed weapon, as though the inert piece of metal would somehow protect her from this beast. However, its path wasn't directed at herself! Quickly, her eyes followed its own gaze across the field, through a few trees, and settled on a family with young children playing innocently with a ball. They were only beginning to recognize the quaking earth, but by all accounts, didn't seem to know of the true terror bearing down on them!

She moved without thinking, and acted upon training that had been drilled into her over and over again over her years in the academy! With nary a sound, the would-be Shinigami leapt from her stone perch and raced, seeming to glide upon the air itself rather than let her feet reach solid ground below! Deft hands secured her zanpakutō to her waist, just before one steadied the scabbard as she reached for the hilt! The monster bellowed again, unawares of the foe fast approaching it from the side! Steel flashed in the sunlight, and the earth shook again!

Hanako stood still as death, except for the rapid rise and fall of her chest and shoulders as she caught her breath. One hand remained on her scabbard, and the other arm extended out to the side. Her weapon drawn, held fast and steady as blood dripped slowly from the inside curve. Behind her, the great and terrifying creature fell to the ground with a deep laceration cut into the back of its neck; its spine severed. Around her, the living were fast reacting and beginning to panic for what unknown calamity was beginning to befall them. Some cried out about monsters, undoubtedly having some sense of spiritual awareness about them, but she doubted how many could truly defend themselves. She was supposed to have remained an observer and report back in just this situation, but...

But how could she?

Hanako looked to the family, and a truly cheerful grin spread across her face. The parents gathered up their children and began to flee, but at least they were safe. She was glad for that. With another breath to steady her racing heart and the hand that had now begun to tremble, she turned her attention to the defeated Hollow with a dour expression. It grunted and wheezed weakly for a moment before ultimately succumbing to its wounds, and the body began to disintegrate.

"How do you expect me to just leave now?" Hanako asked of no one around, carefully cleaning the blood from her weapon with the red hakama of her uniform. As the chaos began to build up to full impact around her, she opened up her senses to find the nearest source of dread reiatsu and concealed her own. Then she ran...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats & Skills}Strength - 50 (-50%) = 25
Speed - 50 (+50%) = 75
Reiatsu Strength - 30 (+30%) = 39
Spiritual Pressure - 25 (-40%) = 15

Instinct - 34 (-25%) = 25
Senses - 67 (-25%) = 50
Energy sensory - 34 (+50%) = 51

Healing Expertise - 0

Light Aura - 75
Dark Aura - 25

Analyzing - 1
Weapons (Sakabatō) - 1
Martial Arts (Drunken Style Kung Fu) - 1
Mental Incantation - 1
Acrobatics - 1
Focused Eye - 1
Stealth - 1
Anti-Stealth - 1

[Ren Akasawa]

The hollow Ren had been fighting when he heard the call for aid resembled a horse-sized bird whose wingbeats sent forth waves of white sand and small shards of razored glass that had already left the failure's white cloak in worse shape than it already was after years of constant use. He'd barely avoided the last two spears of spiritual glass, and while he deeply wished he could parry them, he didn't exactly trust the uchigatana's durability to be up to that task. Oh well, he'd been deprived of his cross and the bow it once constructed for so long that it would be ridiculous to complain now. He'd only get those blessings back when he earned them by fighting his way back to the icy gates of Silbern, and these hollows were the stones pathing his road there.

A swift upward stroke of his sword chipped the avian hollow's mask and knocked them back by a meter or two, nowhere near a fatal wound but more than enough to let Ren shift focus and take off towards the parking garage proper, air-walking above cars and concrete barriers to cross the distance much faster than earthbound travel would have. He'd needed the time that the direct route had saved, as it turned out that it had given him enough to take shelter behind one of the cars once he'd realized the hollow was charging something he had even less hope of blocking with the common sword he'd been relying on. No, not even his bow form of ten years ago would have stopped that.

Ren grinned with a mouth that rested at the border between ashen skin and liquid light as he put the pieces together in his mind. Glowing hands tightened around the hilt of his nameless, mundane sword as he shifted back into a properly guarded stance. If that beam had really been the Cero he'd heard so much about, wouldn't that mean? Right, if this spider had that kind of attack, then it had to be one of those rare upper menos—a target like that would have been assigned to a vandenreich lieutenant. This was a chance to show how he'd improved—maybe even a chance to attract the gaze of even one of the emperor's many eyes. "Heh— Maybe this is the one?"

With his sword raised level to his own waist and pointed back in a somewhat flawed tail guard, the failure knight advanced on the spider even as it moved towards him in an unnatural, many-stepped stride of its own. Before he could get close enough to strike, the arachnid hollow spewed forth a spherical mass of webbing that rapidly extended fine threads in random directions and latched to several cars at speeds Ren wasn't even able to perceive. The web was slower to retract, pulling eight vehicles together to converge in a devastating wreck. The crash of screeching metal would send a faint rumble through the entire parking structure and set off more than a fair amount of car alarms in the process.

Without the reaction speed to process what directions were or weren't safe to evade, all he could do was follow through with the attack he'd already been planning, a passing slash that sent his blade carving into the rear door of a sedan, through the tail light, and ultimately piercing the spider's upper arm on the frontmost right-side limb, which was promptly torn from the masked beast's body when the failure twisted his weapon upwards and let his momentum carry him over. The wail of pain and uncomfortable amounts of hollow blood that followed couldn't hold his attention, as Ren noticed he'd been wounded for the first time in a while. A shallow cut where a piece of automotive shrapnel had caught his right leg. It was only a minor wound, but it still "bled", or at least approximated it with a stream of luminous reishi that sprayed out in a high-pressure jet.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Shallow Depths Undisturbed}Rei Points> 300/300

SPOILER: Click to show

{Flood Warning}Blood Drive charging posts
—Gael (2/6)
—Spider hollow (1/6)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollows Sacrified Upon the Altar of the Emperor}No base hollows for this post.

[Hanako Nozawa]

This was crazy! What she was doing was crazy! Absolutely insane! Her teachers would surely have her head for this!

Hanako's mind raced as quickly as her feet. She knew there would be repercussions for what she was doing, but she just couldn't stop herself. All around her, screams could be heard as invisible monsters attacked the living! The ground shook with every lunge, every pounce of one supernatural predator after another. She wished she could be everywhere at once, but what was she to do? She was only one woman, and with only one sword! Her thoughts came to the art of Hohō, but were stopped by the reality that she may have shown promise in class, but she still lacked the stamina to use such a thing carelessly. Instead, she would just have to make her way from one creature to the next the old fashioned way.

"Hah!" With a burst of speed and a yell of exasperation, she leapt into the air after a buzzard-like Hollow bearing down on a fleeing human! In two hands, her zanpakutō cut through air and flesh cleanly, cleaving one wing from the beast's side and sending it crashing to the ground below! In its pain and its confusion, likely due to not sensing her approach, the Hollow failed to stop Hanako from turning on the ball of her foot and bringing her weapon to bear against its throat, slicing through the windpipe and spine before severing the head altogether! There, she stayed her blade over the corpse, one hand on her chest as she tried to steady her breathing.

"This is nothing like class." She breathed, then a faint giggle escaped her throat as though to relieve some of her tension and fears. Her body was screaming at her to rest, and she had only dealt with two of the ghastly invaders! It was one thing to train in peace and quiet, she supposed, but another altogether to be in the middle of the chaos with her attention being pulled in every which direction all at once. She took another breath, and tried to find the nearest Hollow again. By now, she had come to the edge of the park, and was making her way inadvertently into the market district proper. She thought momentarily about how that would mean less open space, and more obstacles around which she would have to climb.

However, her thoughts were quickly interrupted by an air-quaking bellow from the side! Her head turned, and her eyes opened wide as they could at the sight of another impossibly monstrous Hollow with its sights settled on her! The creature was large, about the size of an adult rhinoceros, with horns like grasping hands outstretched forward from its mask! On six legs, it began to charge after her; its weight shook the earth underneath her feet!

"AAAHH!" A loud, shrill squeak escaped her as her body again moved to avoid this incoming danger! Without having time to think about it, and relying solely on skills of improvisation pressed into her by her sensei, Hanako ran several swift steps forward until the Hollow was upon her, and with a quick leap, planted one foot atop the center of its mask! The next found its shoulder, then its back, and before she could process what was happening, she had fallen off its hind end and rolled to a safe position on one knee behind the creature. She struggled to control her breathing, as shallow and quick as each one was in her panic.

However, the Hollow was already turning itself around to charge again! So, zanpakutō in hand, she charged at it in kind before it could completely rotate its much larger body! Pressing the advantage of her greater speed as well as she could, Hanako pressed the sharpened tip of her sakabatō into the creature's side with as much pressure as she could muster, and kept running! However, this Hollow proved much more durable than the last. When she passed it just in time to avoid a misplaced kick from its hind leg, she had only left the most shallow of a scratch on its hide.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Hanako rolled her eyes and pouted, and held her weapon in front of her defensively. Her eyes turned and darted swiftly around the environment, but the creature was charging after her again before she could devise a proper plan of attack! With another shrill squeak escaping her throat, she turned and ran in the opposite direction in the most brave of fashions! The monster bellowed again behind her, a constant reminder that if she didn't think of something quickly, then she might not get to live long enough to regret her decision to stay!

Coming to the street, Hanako bound up upon the top of a car, then leapt again just in time for the Hollow's large head to crash into the heavy obstacle! With her free hand, she reached up for the street lamp overhead, pulled herself up, and perched herself in relative safety for a moment to look down upon her attacker. It had left a large dent in the human vehicle, but the impact had definitely appeared to throat it off and stall it for a moment. However, with a bellow of rage, it then struck the car again, and climbed on top to begin smashing the metal down underneath its body!

A smile of faint amusement crossed her face, but the Shinigami-to-be couldn't take a breather now. It was only a matter of time until the Hollow looked up -if it even could turn its head that far- so she needed to make her moment count. After taking a deep breath, Hanako leapt down from her perch and landed atop the trashing monster's back! Before it could recognize the weight and throw her off, she brought her zanpakutō up with both hands and thrust it down into the space between its mask and neck! Her attack met resistance, but the piercing motion surely had more luck than her earlier slash against its side! The beast shuddered, bellowed again, then stopped. Hanako moved as she felt gravity taking its toll, and withdrew her weapon just in time to leap free of the falling titan which fell onto the car like a misshapen steel bed.

She breathed once, twice, three times, and just kept going for the way her heart raced with fright and strain. One hand rest on her chest while she watched the Hollow's body break apart into reishi, returning to wherever bodies go after death, but she did not clean the blood from her sword just yet. Instead, she watched and listened carefully for anything else that the scuffle might have attracted.

After a few seconds, she decided that no more Hollow were coming after her, wiped her sword clean on her hakama again, and carefully crossed the street in search of the next nearest source of overwhelming dread. At least now, she might be able to make use of the market district to hide and better ambush her next foe...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollow Successfully Dispatched}2 this post.
3 total.

[Deleted]

Gael managed to run to the next floor of the parking garage and took a second to breathe. The fucking beam that thing had released was something he never wanted to see at point blank ever again. He had enough trouble even putting his mind in gear with his body to run away. Let alone figure out what to do. And that fucking thing had the audacity to be stronger than anything else he'd dealt with so far. To say Gael was scared shitless would be an understatement. Honestly, he was just thankful he'd survived due to shit aim on the spider hollow's part. It probably helped that Ren actually came to his aide and was dealing with the spider himself. Still having only heard a scream followed by the sounds of crashing metal, he could take a solid guess that the other couldn't kill them alone.

He sighed to himself and tried to think for a second about what he could do. Ok so I've a strong weapon. Great. Exceptional. It may even be able to cut the beast in question . . . can it do anything else? Smash it or pierce it. But nothing more. I can't move too fast and I'm definitely not as spiritually capable as this thing or Ren. . . Surely, I can do something right? I could throw it but then it might hit Ren and the beast could grab a car. . . .mmmm c'mon brain think think! He thought more as he let himself lean on the wall of the stairwell. He knew there had to be something especially when he looked down at his cross. He really didn't want to use the damn thing. Sincerely, wanted any other option but to use the arrows. It may be a monster, but it was made up of human souls and he needed to figure out a means to deal with it that didn't rely on arrows.

Or at least that was the goal but then there was Ren fighting and his energy had just gotten a little more unstable. Which frankly wasn't a good sign. Meanwhile the energy of the hollow was angry but not showing signs of weakening. With no small amount of fear, he looked back at his cross again and frantically started to speak to it, like the inanimate object could speak back. "You've got to have something up your sleeve, right? I. . . I remember dad did something to his . . . Made it look different. Never found out how or why. But it didn't look like a simple longbow like how me or my brothers did. Now's not really the time to figure out the secrets of quincy powers but I don't have a choice. Fuck! Think about what dad did!"

Gael then let his mind rewind and replay the scene. Him, his sibling, and his father were out of the city, driving close to the shoreline but in a secluded area. A valley with trees. His sibling was practicing conjuring arrows and aiming with them. Apparently quincy could manipulate their aim even after shooting them. His sibling was still working on that. Meanwhile Gael was too young for training and thus he was learning by watching. Admittedly, Gael was more interested in other things like seeing the bugs nearby and watching animals like squirrels and birds roam around. That was when his dad had gotten his attention and produced his bow with a simple reflex and a smile on his face. "Want to see something cool?" Gael had nodded furiously as he never got to see his dad use his powers. And then with a bit of effort on his dad's part his bow changed substantially. Reiatsu condensing and hardening, changing color into black with the bow itself looking like a pair of spider legs that were charred black and had glowing cracks underneath.

As Gael returned his mind to the present he thought on the memory. His dad had clearly focused on the bow after producing it. Didn't need to worry about the arrows. Despite being a show of effort on his part, he could recall the way the cross glowed brighter before dulling again. It was all in the cross, the means to conjure and manipulate the bow as well as arrows. Gael couldn't produce the bow but that didn't mean he couldn't control his reiatsu. Maybe he could force it? It was a long shot honestly. Probably wouldn't work but fuck it, he needed to try it. Ren and himself depended on it. Gael took a deep breath and did his best to focus on his spirit, then the energy of his soul, then started shifting it to his cross. If it was anything like the ginto tubes he had, he could flood them until he was able to manipulate the form of the reiatsu within.

So that's what Gael did. Flood and flood and flood reiatsu into his cross. Slowly but surely, it began to glow brighter and brighter, shifting from a dull white glow to a white blue, to a bright blue, to finally an overwhelming dark blue. Nothing was happening but Gael swore he could sense the means to manipulate his cross's form. Just a bit. As he thought on it and focused further on his reiatsu he tried to form a weapon, but he realized quickly that he just couldn't make his bow act like the ginto tubes. Instead, he had shifted its focus from something distant to something he could easily imagine. Something that was bigger given he had so much more reiatsu to work with. Thus, Gael did the only stupid thing he could, and he tried to picture the strange creature that he'd seen stalking him from time to time. Large, bat-like, with black fur and scales along with a long tail. It was honestly like a mix of a lizard, rat, bat, and something else. Yet somehow, he could almost picture it in his mind and his reiatsu was shifting and bending in the same manner.

Then with a sharp popping sound the cross he had on his bracelet had literally snapped off and created a bright white orb that fired out into the parking garage. The orb grew rapidly and then started to break down upon reaching 6 feet tall as the shape distorted. Upon its dissolution Gaels eyes went wide as he saw the same bat creature before him and it huffed in his direction, head pointing at him despite being very clearly blind. He walked over to it and felt in his soul a sense of peace wash over him. This thing, despite its form and its previous distance, was never an enemy of his. It was an ally in waiting that had been trying to show him just what he could do if he tried to use his cross. Assuming he could ever get over his fear of using it that is. And here it was, huffing at him but otherwise calm and patiently waiting for him to do . . . well anything.

Another shake of the parking garage broke Gael from his trance and he let his mind focus on the battle below him. The two were still making exchanges between one another. He had to get down there. With a rapid nod to himself he walked over to his newly summoned companion and spoke to it. "Can you help me fight the hollow? I need help and so does my friend down there." The beast tilted its head before huffing at him again and then lowering itself for Gael to easily seat himself on its back. He looked at it for a moment before quickly getting himself situated. Before he could say anything, the beast started to run towards the edge of the parking garage and subsequently spiking Gael's heartrate through the roof when it jumped out the ledge, flew up, and then dived until it was level with the floor where Ren and the spider were fighting.

It then immediately dove in, and Gael had to squint his eyes to realize what it was doing. This thing was speeding him along to directly attack the hollow and quickly. By the time he entered the garage he'd only have a moment to speak to Ren before he would be upon the hollow. "REN GET OUT THE WAY! I CAN'T STOP!" Then with one hand wrapped around the beast's neck and another squeezing his poleaxe, he made it parallel with the ground and swiftly flew past Ren and directly into the hollow's face. His steed body checked the hollow into several cars as it landed and then ran up to it and started biting at its head. Meanwhile Gael managed to stab into a leg upon the body check before tearing it off accidentally and finally getting a chance to attack the mask directly. With the hollow distracted Gael used both hands and pulled back the poleaxe before using the spear tip to puncture through the mask, brain, and out the head of the beast. The screams of its death intense before it finally lost the strength to stand and ultimately began to disintegrate along with the poleaxe into residual reishi.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reiatsu}-300 for Form Propery: Night Terror

900 - 300 = 600 reiatsu

SPOILER: Click to show

{Form Property: Night Terror}Upon activating this property Gael gains the means to spawn a single creature, said creature is a steed for him. However, it is not a standard steed one would expect a Knight to get. This is a wyrm/bat monster. Standing 4 feet tall, with a wingspan of 8 feet, and a length of 7 feet. (3 feet of which is its tail. The beast as expected is blind as it has no eyes to speak of but instead has several openings on its snout for smell and has large ears to use echolocation with. This creature is friendly with Gael and will heed any commands given but they must be verbally given as it cannot see. The Night Terror is capable of what you’d expect. Flight, biting, slamming its tail into objects, and slashing with claws on its wings. It can at a maximum have two individuals riding it before it cannot fly, and it can have a maximum of 3 on while its speed is halved as it runs on the ground.



Night Terror Stat Block:

Strength: 50 (+50 per class above 6, 300 max)

Speed: 125 (+75 per class above 6, 500 max)

RS: 0

SPPR: 0 (Immune to cutback)

Instinct: 25 (+125 if power property is active)

Senses: 150 (for the purposes of hearing/smelling things)

ES: 0

HE: 0

Durability: Equal to Gael’s OS

Class: Equal to Gael’s current class


Drawbacks: Costs 300 reiatsu to summon. Nullifies Gael’s ability to create arrows while active with the exception of mass property. Has a 3-post duration. Will not do anything if Gael cannot speak out a command or isn’t saddled on it. Sound based attacks deal 1.5x durability damage as well as disorient it.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollows killed:}10/65 base hollows killed

1/5 mini-boss hollows killed

0/1 bosses killed

[Ren Akasawa]

The failure knight transitioned into a broad slash as he stepped back to a relatively safe distance, leaving a shallow cut along two legs. All he had to do now was evade until he could land another blow like his first. Then he'd heard Gael shouting and backed even further away from the spider to watch his temporary ally come crashing in on the back of... was that? —! A dragon!? After a moment to process the event, he'd have called it a cavalry charge. A very successful one, even if there hadn't been much skill behind it, showed that the stranger had potential to be more. Shame that he couldn't tell what type of soul the beast and the man upon it had, but so long as they weren't a mod soul hiding in one of those meat doll bodies that the shinigami were so fond of wearing, there was a chance at salvation for them.

Blood Drive pulsed with disappointment once more as the hollow disappeared. The flood had been paying full attention to Gael for a while now, and now it paid equally full attention to their mount as well. It always used its full attention, as if it grew new eyes for each subject it watched, never needing to take any of its gaze away from the souls it searched. Whatever it was that the flood was so ravenous to have, there was no doubting the desperation it showed in the search. For once, Ren wondered if the flood might actually find what it was looking for; surely a dragon must have what commoners and hollows lacked? But then again, that pair could simply be a bount and his doll.

"And where were you hiding that?" Ren leveled his sword at the strange beast that wore no mask. The failure fancied himself a "knight," not in comparison to any historical calvary units but in comparison to Saint George, in comparison to the Sternritter who served the Saint Emperor's personal knights. At least he believed that was the reason he'd started doing that; any actual memory of his short time in Silbern had become so muddy and smudged that it was hard to tell which parts were real. It didn't matter right now; the man was an ally for now, and the failure's aspirations towards being a dragonslayer had to wait for another day. But the question still stood: what breed of humanoid soul was this stranger, and would they accept the path that led towards ever-distant Silbern?

A swift and sudden wind carried both the white sand of Heuco Mundo and shards of glass forged from it at high speeds and likely interrupted any reply to the prior question. The birdlike hollow from before had followed Ren and now circled the parking garage from outside while it summoned up a sandstorm to try and strike at two potential meals sheltered within. Those attacks weren't particularly accurate, but they were growing progressively more intense with each wave of windblown sand. It wasn't just the sand and glass projectiles either; four small hollows were being thrown into the garage by the winds, none as threatening as that spider had been, but threats nonetheless.

One of those four had been a limbless, perfectly spherical hollow resembling a furred balloon with a square mask on one side. It crackled with electricity as it slowly floated through the air, hurling thunderbolts directly up and down to sear the concrete where it passed. Another was closer in form to an exaggeratedly long weasel with a wedge-shaped mask, jaws snapping as it lunged for the Night Terror and attempted to bite into the living bow's tail. The third, an ape with several bone-like spikes jutting from its back, roared as it began to lift a motorbike from a nearby parking space and gave it a few swings to confirm the vehicle's viability as a makeshift club.

The fourth, a particularly large hollow that took the form of a walrus with sword-like tusks, had lunged at Ren and suffered a counter-stroke down its flank as the failure slipped to the side and retaliated. When it turned sharply in pursuit, he slipped in past the tusks and launched into an upward vertical slash that split cleanly through both mask and head. The manuver had been at a cost; however, another shallow cut now marred the failure, reishi spraying from a line across his upper arm. He didn't care much; being wounded was part of the ongoing battle. The real question was a more painful one: had he really lost so much of his spiritual power that this was the best he could do? 

What little spiritual capacity Ren had left was only devoted to existing; there was no secret that his current spirit-body was quite literally held together with quincy crosses and conviction. He told himself that this was all his version of the glove of suffering, a trial he had to overcome on his own in order to refine his soul and return to his quincy flesh with increased purity. But to get to that promised ending, he needed to do something that proved he'd earned it. Until then, the commandment forced upon him was clear: "survive." He glanced to see which hollow the other warrior had busied themselves with before moving on to his next opponent for the day. Just a few more hollows— there were always a few more.

SPOILER: Click to show

{A Frozen Lake}Rei Points> 300/300

SPOILER: Click to show

{A Flood of Nothing}Blood Drive charging posts—
—Gael (3/6)
—Night Terror (1/6)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Just One More}Only one hollow, for this post.

[Deleted]

Gael took a breath of fresh air to help calm himself as he leaned onto his new companion and pet its head. He heard a soft rumbling coming from Terror as it enjoyed the attention. However, that stopped quickly as its ears flicked and it heard Ren's weapon moving as well as his change in posture. It growled softly in Ren's direction causing Gael to sit back up and start waving his hands frantically. "Wait wait! This is my bow? I think? I'm still figuring it out because I only jus-" Gael's explanation got cut off as the vibrations, wind, and sand were blown into the parking garage. Once the gusts stopped and Gael was able to look towards the ledge where the hollows were more or less thrown in, he spoke quickly as the pack made their way over.

"It's new and I think it's my bow. It's not going to harm you now let's focus on these guys!" Gael took out his last two filled ginto tubes and started flooding them with reiatsu. Then once he was sure they were sufficiently filled he opened the caps of both and started willing the form of another poleaxe. Similar in shape and form to the last one but clearly duller on the bladed side. Once the weapon was formed, he placed the ginto tubes into his pocket with the other tubes. He was all out now but he knew he could refill them, but it'd be . . . taxing. Though in truth he was starting to get tired from just having his new helper out and about. It was likely a side effect of having forced out a new form with his bow when he was clearly not familiar with it. Still, it was here now, and he was going to have a significantly easier time fighting the hollows so he'd take what he could get.

While the walrus hollow went after Ren, the weasel was already starting to attack Terror. Gael realized the other wasn't moving yet and quickly commanded it to move backwards. Terror opened its wings and flew backwards before then following the next order, to charge. The weasel annoyed that it hadn't gotten Terror on the initial bite redoubled its efforts to go after Terror and Gael. However, in its blind fury it found itself literally glided over by Terror who was a few feet above it and making Gael be eerily close to the ceiling above. So much so that he had to bend over on his side and use both hands on his poleaxe to wield it even half properly. Thankfully what Gael needed it to do was fairly simple as he had it wind back up and more less guillotine its way through the mask of the weasel. The hollow died almost instantly as its body fell to the ground with its head split in two.

Gael sensed yet more energy coming from Ren and was starting to grow a good deal more worried about how they were going to hold up if their energy continued to become wilder. Let alone the act that this shit had to come to an end at some point. There were many hollows but fuck these sections had to end right? He hoped as much but until he cleared out this group there wasn't anything else he could do. Thankfully however the walrus he'd been fighting was dead which left just two more. The ape and the fluff ball. Gael went with the most immediate looking threat, the ape and decided a two on one with the beast picking up cars was likely the better strategy. "I've got the ape!" Gael commanded his steed to fly over as quick as possible.

Unfortunately, it noticed his approach and the beast started running their way. Gael had Terror shift his direction towards another row. The beast followed with both parties making their way to the other ledge of the parking garage. This gave both fighters enough space to have their individual fights something that was going to be sorely needed as the other hollow could spawn out lightning which was deeply concerning. The lightning however was the least of his concerns as said motorbike was thrown past Terror and Gael. Gael looked behind himself only to see the ape starting to grab, crush, and ready more vehicles to throw. Gael gulped. Why can't you all be easy to deal with?! He sighed and urged his beast to fly to the ledge still. Thankfully managing to avoid several more cars and motorcycles in the process of being forcefully displaced in their general direction. At least the ape was steadily moving closer. The question now was what to do next?

SPOILER: Click to show

{Form Property:}2/3 posts used

150 durability

Class: 6

SPOILER: Click to show

{reiatsu}-50 for Viele Waffen

600 - 50 = 550 reiatsu remaining

SPOILER: Click to show

{Poleaxe info}Class: 7
OS: 200
1/3 posts used

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollows Killed}12/65 base hollows killed

1/5 intermediate hollows killed

0/1 boss killed

[Ren Akasawa]

Ren flourished with his sword as he stood over the dissolving walrus. "Hadn't known you were a fellow quincy. Feels better knowing your bow 'n ginto will give these souls the peace of Letzt Stil, 'stead of forcing them to suffer all over again." He had brightened quite a bit and spoke in a much more natural, informal way as his knightly persona slipped for a beat. The may-have-been knight was clearly comforted by knowing that the stranger who hadn't shared their name with him was at least one of his people. More than that, they were the only quincy he'd found in all of Karakura. Based on their interactions thus far, they must have been raised among commoners in ignorance of the saint-emperor. That was disappointing, but easily corrected if they were willing to listen.

The flood continued its usual ritual, scanning Gael's soul as best it could. Two-thirds already; that was usually where the failure considered leaving and coming back just to stop it from activating. That wouldn't work out in this situation; for one thing, it wouldn't have been right to abandon another quincy to these hollows, especially if they were struggling with an unfamiliar bow property. Best to let the flood win this time and deal with the fallout of its ineffectual frenzy after the hollows were dealt with. And hey, maybe the blood of a quincy would be what it took to satisfy that thing? Maybe the whole point of this long ordeal had been to find just one more of the quincy bloodline and be reminded just how rare their kind really were.

With even the most temporary form of escape off the table, he left the ape to the other quincy and took off towards the baloon hollow. With a mask on one side and its home vertically through an otherwise spherical form, it was on the stranger side of common hollows. That strangeness was reflected in how it fought, moving so slowly that it seemed non-threatening while retaliating every time he attempted to get close. More than once, the failure stepped within three meters of it and was immediately targeted by a thunderbolt that forced him to back away. This was going to be one of those opponents, wasn't it? One whose entire method of fighting was built around something he'd long lost his ability to do.

Resigned to the creature's fighting style, Ren sighed and pointed his bloody and nameless sword at the round hollow. "I get it. You want a ranged battle. If I had my bow, I'd've given you that." Then he sheathed the uchigatana and bent down to pick up a piece of car wreckage. Then, after a few seconds to experiment with the object's weight, he hurled it at the hollow... and missed by quite a bit. The hollow rotated to watch the would-be projectile. His second thrown chunk of car stabbed into its back and knocked the hollow mask-first into a concrete pillar. The next two throws he attempted had both missed. Carefully, he gathered up one of the larger shards of Heuco Mundo glass and treated it as a makeshift throwing knife; that one scored a glancing hit. He may not have had the finesse to land his throws consistently, but he had the sheer strength to deal meaningful damage when he did. Here I am, throwing things like a squire. Like a serf.

It was around then that a small, ratlike hollow attempted to jump directly at the increasingly vulnerable would-be knight, but he reached down once more and left it sailing over his head without even trying to evade. He simply grabbed the dazed hollow by the tail and lobbed it at the electrical hollow that had caused him so much difficulty. The balloon-like beast simply incinerated the smaller hollow's head and drifted to the floor to eat what remained. Ren mostly tuned out the disgusting sounds that followed. Drawing his sword once more, he carved open space itself and slipped into the shallows of the valley of screams. For a moment, there was no failure in the garage; in another, he was directly behind the hollow that had so frustrated him. He bisected it in a single swing before it could turn to face him.

That step left him feeling more worn down than anything he'd done up to that point. That only supernatural ability he hadn't started to lose yet, and it made him feel miserable with each use. Something in him made it very clear that he wouldn't be able to get away with the world-tearing step forever. He felt like he could get one more use out of it today without collapsing entirely, but honestly, even that may have been unrealistically optimistic about his condition. He had to endure. Suffering so that one may become purified was at the core of so many quincy practices—the glove of suffering that must never be removed, the conversion rite that pierced the supplicant's chest. This was no different.

SPOILER: Click to show

{In Everything There is No Energy}Rei Points> –75 Ulcera
225/300

SPOILER: Click to show

{In Everything No Energy is Wasted}Blood Drive charging posts—
—Gael (4/6)
—Night Terror (2/6)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Yet Another}One post, one hollow.

[Deleted]

With vehicle after vehicle being flung towards Gael and his beast, the two realized they were going to get nowhere at this rate. Gael while strong couldn't just attack a vehicle or better yet, grab it and throw it back. Terror couldn't simply fly by all the vehicles being thrown at them. He was too large and surprisingly, too slow for the sheer volley. Especially in this smaller space. This meant that the two would need to split up. It made Gael fearful for his and Terror's life given he wasn't certain how this would turn out. But he didn't have any other ideas. After moving past another motorcycle that was thrown their way Gael jumped off his steed and quickly spoke to it. "Keep its attention and fly around. I'll be back soon." His steed huffed but turned its head to screech at the hollow.

The hollow took the bait and continue to throw yet more vehicles at Terror. Meanwhile Gael took his poleaxe and ran on the other side of the row of cars. All of which hadn't been thrown yet. Stopping only occasionally when the ape was grabbing a nearby car as it was slowly making its way forward while Gael was slowly closing the distance. Eventually his opening came as the ape grabbed the car before his, slammed it into the concrete beneath it and then flung the poor thing towards Terror. Gael all but ran past the car he was hiding behind and then went behind the hollow a couple feet before turning quickly. "TAKE THIS YOU DAMN DIRTY APE!"

Stopping on his left foot, Gael forced his entire body to shift on his left foot's pad. His grip tightened until his knuckles were white and his weapon was held in both hands as he spun the bladed portion towards the calves of the ape. As the ape turned around it realized it had no object to throw and found itself slow to respond as its legs were cut into with blood flowing out while the tendons were cut. Forcing the beast to kneel prior to falling on its head as the body slumped forward. Wasting no time Gael ran onto the beast and turned his poleaxe to the hammer side before he swung it onto the exposed neck of the hollow. He was coated in blood as the bones fractured and the beast twitched while it cried out in pain. Not enough to actually kill the beast but certainly enough to stun it. Possibly paralyze it given it was struggling to move its arms by this point.

"Quick attack its head!" Gael called out to Terror. His steed roared in response and flew overusing its legs to grip onto the ape's shoulders before using its powerful jaws to crush its mask and skull. It didn't work right the first time, but Terror was anything but deterred and thus continued with renewed vigor to bite and tear through the mask and skull until it finally shattered, coated its neck, jaw, and upper torso with blood. Meanwhile Gael had jumped off and was taking a moment to use his extra sensory abilities to see how his ally faired. Considering the other not only disappeared, then reappeared, and the energy of not one but two hollows was fading he took a stab in the dark and figured Ren was alright. Gael sighed and turned to Terror who had finally finished consuming the head of the hollow that was now disintegrating. Much as he wanted to praise it, they still had that fucking bird to deal with. Thus, Gael ran over and pat its head before speaking to it.

"One more hollow and then we can rest for a moment. We gotta go back where we came alright?" The beast roared its affirmation then lowered its neck and head again. Gael hopped on it and the beast ran forward only to quickly transition to flying. It took only a moment to fly out the parking garage and another to find the beast in question. It stared at Gael and Terror in equal measure before starting to flap its wings aggressively while crying out a roar of aggression. Gael rolled his eyes a bit, already tired of this things bullshit. He had Terror fly around the initial burst of sand and glass, catching several scraps and cuts in the process while he got ever closer. The beast propelled itself backwards as Gael got closer and the same song and dance began to repeat a few times. Gael and Terror would fly around most of the attacks but find themselves skimming the edges of it and getting further cuts and gashes. Meanwhile getting closer only for the bird to shift back some.

Eventually however the two got close enough that Terror and the bird were damn near face to face. Which meant one thing. Gael was now within range of this fucking bird. To which he took every opportunity to slam his hammer side of his poleaxe into its right wing. It punctured the flesh and fractured bones causing the beast to fall to the ground. It was a shame that it slammed into further vehicles but given it had already been rapidly eroding the buildings around it, this was just par for the course at this point. With a final command Gael had Terror dive down directly onto the beast, more or less body checking the already fallen bird that was still recovering from falling at least two stories if not more. From there Gael jumped off and let his poleaxe slam into the other wing in the process and just let himself begin flailing the damn thing.

He could admit that he was tired. Much more than he thought he would be for the moment, but that tiredness was also being filled with frustration at the situation at hand. And thus, he took it out on the bird. Not even realizing that his beast was fading away and returning into the form of an orb that shrunk and reattached itself onto his bracelet. Instead, Gael found himself getting coated in more blood as he slowly but surely smashed his way from the right wing, up to the shoulder, then the torso, and finally proceeded to stab and slam the hollow's neck until it was finally fucking dead. By the time he was finally noticing the bird was disintegrating he was gasping and barely standing up on his own.

It would be at this point that he took his poleaxe and walked off the disintegrating beast. Finding a nice car that wasn't too damaged and simply letting himself sit down on the warm concrete. With a quick use of his extra sensory abilities, he found himself momentarily happy that no further hollows were in the business district. Make no mistake there were still cries, smoke, screams (human and non-human) but for the moment his slice of Karakura was safe as could be expected. Meaning he could sit down for a few and just let his breath and stamina come back to him. That and maybe finally get a second to actually talk to his ally. Assuming they followed him outside the parking garage. It was a temporary alliance after all. Though now that he had a second to think, his words about Gael's new companion were strange. Fellow quincy? He feels nothing like me. Let alone any quincy I've known. But fuck, maybe quincy feel different when they come from the other side of the world? Fuck me if I know, but that's not what's important. . . . what is . . . is if my beast . . . still destroyed the souls of the hollows. . . as well as my weapon. . . Oh god, I think I'm going to be sick.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Poleaxe info}
Class: 7
OS: 200
1/3 posts used

SPOILER: Click to show

{Hollows killed:}
16/65 base hollows killed

1/5 mini boss hollows killed

0/1 bosses killed

[Ren Akasawa]

Oblivious to the mental assault he'd just inflicted on Gael, Ren focused on only two things: catching his breath after being forced to rely on the valley of screams, and the situation with the hollows, of which he could only see one remaining. One that he had already been less interested in fighting for similar reasons to his last opponent. And while his temporary comrade seemed similarly disinclined to a ranged battle, they were still closer to outmaneuvering that feathery bastard than he had managed earlier. Though he found it strange how said comrade hadn't fired even one heilig pfeil during the exchange, surely they would have had some method for firing from the dragon? Perhaps a breath of arrows? It must have been that they were unfamiliar with the form property they were using. Or at least, that's how the Vandenreich exile saw things.

As the sandstorm faded away amidst the pained cries of the hollow that had caused it, Ren stepped outside the parking garage, so used to air-walking that he hadn't bothered checking what floor he was on before stepping out and beginning his trek towards ground level. The situation down there seemed more than a bit brutal, but that's how these fights got now and then. “You okay?" He called to the quincy whose name he really should have asked by now, speaking with genuine concern as he approached. “Really shouldn't be getting that stuff on you if ‘ya want to keep your soul intact.” Sure, it was fading, but hollow blood was especially hazardous, and the failure knew he wasn't in a position to help if it came down to that.

He looked around, taking in the destruction that the hollows' brief rampage had left behind. Sure, it was a day of fire and screams, but honestly, that wasn't the worst condition he'd seen Karakura in. Nearly all of the buildings were still standing, and the whole frenzy couldn't have taken more than an hour or so to get to this state of calm after the sandstorm that they now enjoyed. Sadly, one entity was much less calm; the may-have-been knight could feel the flood that haunted him getting dangerously close to completing its activation ritual, but this just wasn't the time to walk away and circle back. He needed more time to recover his energy, and he just couldn't abandon this strange quincy he'd met.

The stranger seemed confused by their own bow property, so they were clearly in need of guidance. A kind of guidance he couldn't personally provide, but the teachers back at Silbern would have no difficulty dispensing. This was his chance to spread the saint emperor's message to someone who already carried some thinner version of the holy blood in their veins, instead of trying to convert outsiders. Though unlike one of the sternritter he barely remembered, he had no interest in reciting scripture verbatim. This had to be something more personal. “Thank you, I couldn't have handled that many on my own. Least I can't fight like that until I earn my bow back. We did the right thing here, delivering those hollows into the last silence before any shinigami could force their unnatural cycle on them.”

SPOILER: Click to show

{Not since last time}Rei Points> 225/300

SPOILER: Click to show

{Next time}Blood Drive charging posts—
—Gael (5/6)
—Night Terror (3/6)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Not this time}No hollows were harmed in the making of this post.