The Hunter and The Prize [Open]

Sensing that the core of Yuu's body was beginning to respond to his treatment, there was a wave of relief that oozed throughout The Yuudeshi's body. A smile could be seen coming into view across his face despite the circumstances they were under and the threat Karakura was now posed against with a Demon Overlord in it's vicinity. For in the mind of The Beast of Karakura? Everything else around him was but nothing a mindless blur in the wake of being able to save a life. It felt -- good -- to be able to not only take a life, but have the ability to save one from the clutches of death. This was the primary motivation for the male not going straight for Eric Zarathos's neck upon his arrival to the battlefield. Instead of tainting himself with blood first, Shadin would do his damndest to use his powers for something worthy.

Whats more, there appeared to be a bizarre side effect being forged due to his powers connecting so heavily with Yuu Doragonraion's soul at this time. A notice popped up within his cyberbrain and The Yuudeshi became fully aware that he was now able to pear into the thoughts of his comrade. It caused a slight chuckle to ooze out of his mouth as the wonders of Imaginary Computation was still generating mysteries not even he understood. It's one thing to achieve a sense of telepathic communication, but The Beast felt like this was phenomenon entirely different from that. It was as if his very mind was being drawn inwards within the central most part of The Demon Slayer's spirit.

In these moments of introspection into the very depths of Yuu, Shadin was able to experience all of her frantic moments in this fight. To the billions of blades she suffered in Eric's illusion, to gathering intelligence on the attributes of Eric's attacks and the sensations she felt through all of this. Gathering a much clearer picture from all of the strife his beloved friend had endured through her battle with The Demon Lord, The Beast of Karakura felt it was commendable and impressive she was able to fight him off for as long as she did. Through the colossal difference in power between the two spirits, she pulled her own weight and certainly gave him the hell he envisioned for The Mad One. However -- there wouldn't be much time to indulge in these passing thoughts.

Looking upwards, Shadin started to pay attention to a phantom-like figure beginning to materialize itself before his eyes. Not being able to detect any hostile intent from this creature, The Yuudeshi simply allowed himself to remain calm throughout all of this as he started working on clearing out all of the toxins within Yuu's body on a physical and metaphysical level. Seeing this entity get closer inward towards him, an partially surprised expression came across the silver haired male's face as he felt the caressing of his cheeks by this figure. It is in that frame of time that he estimated this was a projection of her spirit coming into the physical realm.

Turning his eyes back to Yuu, though, a reassured look eased into Shadin's face as she seemed to be able to respond to him still. There had been enough fight left within the competitor to endure this hell that devoured the life of The Beast and all those associated with the strings leading to his spirit. Listening to the words of his companion echo out further, he'd definitely understand the in's and out's of Eric's gimmick. After all, he was Karakura Central's top ranked mind. In the perception of The Beast? Then nobody but God could decipher these notes to The Mad One's plague. And with the leftover reserves of his pseudo awakening still in effect? Shadin certainly felt as if he had a connection to one.

"The path for those whom have killed is certainly a long one, Yuu. You and me are both on a one-way road to hell, there is no mistaking that. Yet and still, when one encounters another spirit who has went into the darkest pits of hell and survived? Then both can say each of their personal hell's are not as bad as once imagined, and that through their unity, they can break the cycle of torment and suffering together in order come through it stronger than before." Now standing up on his own two feet with a hardened gaze across his eyes, he'd set his sights towards the battlefield that awaited him. Turning an eye back to Yuu, he'd nod his head her request to rest and clench his fist in response to his blood beginning to come over to a boil.

"I'll be sure to relay that message to the smug bastard. You've earned that rest. Let me handle it from here on out and dare to endure the weight of both of our cursed souls." Lingering on that last note to Yuu, Shadin would have the energy already enveloping The Dragonne Queen begin to come to an acceleration. Should she accept this alteration? The energies would latch on to Shadin's mental commands and teleport her to the underground portion of Karakura Hospital. Once there? He would have his own team of medical personnel be waiting and call for Heaven's Canceler to oversee Yuu's recovery from this. If there is one man who was equipped to handle her prognosis -- it was that doctor -- the man capable of healing even The Beast of Karakura.

No longer being able to view what was behind him, Shadin would gaze forward to the task at hand. The first thing he was greeted with? The self-proclaimed victory of Eric Zarathos as he once again started letting his mouth do the fighting for him. It made him do nothing but shake his head. It was as if this guy was filled with nothing but horrible cliches even for a villain. Just hearing him talk on and on made The Yuudeshi roll his eyes out of sickness for the rubbish that uttered out of his mouth. Therefore, he wouldn't waste any words on him as they would go in one ear and out of the other. The only thing a brute like The Mad Demon would understand is action.



Thus, The Beast's eyes came to life with a reddened glow behind them. Through the assistance of The Yuudeshi Network's presence in Karakura Central, Shadin utilized the memories of Yuu alongside the series of nano-machines that were all present within Karakura Central to begin his work. With these two factors coming into play, the processes within The Mind of God started revving up in order to begin inducing an aerial vaccine to be injected into the likes of himself, Cero and Touma. By understanding the fundamental mechanics of the poisons Eric utilized, the bases of spells he used to curse his opponents and locking on to the frequency of his spiritual pattern; he intermixed all of this data Eric forfeited by fighting for so long to build up an immunity to them for all parties on the field.

In other words, Imaginary Computation was able to produce a metaphysical antibiotic that blocked out the effects of Void Howling, The Curse of the Dahlia and yielded GREAT resistance to any future toxin or curse implemented by the likes of The Mad Demon. Playing into Shadin's hand to a T, the intent behind having Yuu ward off The Demon for so long was to gather data on the abilities, strengths and powers that Eric utilized to have a better chance at defeating him by the time The Beast of Karakura was able to get the clearance from his hospital stay.

More than that, feeding into information from The Yuudeshi Network, The Beast of Karakura had further knowledge of Eric's offensive capacities from his battle against it in the fires of Golden Coast during the Australian Conflict. All during that brawl, The Yuudeshi Network was recording and saving his techniques, understanding his biological structure and watching his progression to have built up this resistance against his attacks. However, it goes back even further than that. All throughout the male's escapades in Karkaura Central, The Network had enough knowledge of Eric's exploits from his brawls with Hanako to increase The Yuudeshi's understanding of The Mad One's powers. Did he honestly take him, the one who wields god's mind, for an outright amateur? It was a foolish mistake on his end and one he'd pay for dearly as Shadin went to work furthering his chances at victory.

Therefore, even with the threat of The Black Dahlia being so boldly announced by Eric, he'd do nothing but seal his own fate as Shadin's body was already working at blocking out all internal and external influence from it to nearly negate a good deal of it's effects before it even began. And to boot, by the time that Cero started his attack, Shadin already started inputting commands into Heaven's Walkers energy particles scattering the range. Feeling a slight strain on his head, he'd bare with this cluster headache in order to morph the reality around them by executing a negation technique. Observing that a particular set of Yuu's attacks were weakening upon contact with Eric's body, The Yuudeshi was able to deduce that the male may have been intending to somehow decrease the effectiveness of their assaults with his magic and cursing. Much to his chagrin, with Karakura Central being his domain, The Beast of this city was able to lock out the values of space around a five thousand meter range to prevent any sort of capacity from Eric to null their attacks.

This was made possible as Shadin was able to access the files associated with Eric's former resistance against Iramasha based attacks he so proclaimed on the field of battle in Australia with his destructive brawl against Moonie Iramasha. Understanding that he was more than likely going to resort to that, it wasn't particularly difficult for Shadin to spread the influence of Imaginary Computation to his nanobots scattering the city. From there, they were able to induce a chain of commands meant to block out that function of Eric's power and render that defense incapacitated. And with the help of Imagine Breaker? The Network was able to increase the likelihood of these endurance Eric had shattering under the weight of Imaginary Computation's grip.

After mentoring the principles of Imagine Breaker, The Yuudeshi Network was able to replicate it's functions. This was made possible by further observation of Touma's constant use of this particular ability. Although it was still unable to understand the origins of this mysterious power, The Nano-machines being fed this data were attempting to induce the conditions needed for the negation to take place. So having Imagine Breaker's influence already inflicting Eric's body from that punch, the Nano-machines would lock on to that and become miniature Imagine Breakers; multiplying and reproducing inside of Eric in an attempt to negate his very existence.

In this moment? Every fiber of The Mad One's being could be felt as if it were on fire. The pain associated with the negation of his body could bring him to his knees; as they were outright attempting to null the very energy within his core and take away a great deal of his power in this move. That means, within the time span they were working in, these machines were doing their best to have a projected outcome of erasing twenty to seventy percent of Eric's very energy to heavily cripple him; depending on how effective this method actual was in practice. The very same effects would be applied to Vanitas; most likely being more effective on him due to the major gap in strength between Shadin and the ex-Shinigami. There is the potential, when combined with Cero's attack, that he'd be outright be put out of commission for the fight.

And, in case Eric or Vanitas were somehow able to counter against the nanobots from the inside, Shadin would have another series of these machines engulfing Karakura reproduce these effects externally; doubling the effect of his attacks in an effort to strike them both down where they stood in a swift motion. Meanwhile, to ease himself from using too much of Imaginary Computation, Shadin implemented commands remotely from his cyberbrain into the Yuudeshi Network. These instructions would be to have a pin--pointed and concreted dose of the barrier erected across Karakura Central to slam into the range where Eric Zarathos would be.

Unlike the shield around the metropolis, this would be set to a high density with the energy from The Yuudeshi Network. Being that a ten meter space around The Mad Demon was far more simplistic to advance the effects of said barrier, the reactions from this barrier would be enough to compound the pain of The Demon Lord and further cripple him. This was geared specifically towards Demon Blood and was intended to outright vaporize him. As the strength of the dome around Eric would be comparable to a Demonic Spell being launched by the likes of Mana Asthavon. So he'd notice his powers beginning to greatly weaken, the functions of his regenerative powers coming to a halt and eventually he would suffer potential death if he were to stay too long in the barrier due to the harsh frequency the barrier was amplified to. As the standard shield around Karakura Central was set to a normal level, where this was cranked to be nearly twenty times stronger due to it being focused on a precise location of where The Mad Demon was.

All the while, The Yuudeshi Network itself started to awaken; as the very same sentient being that fought against Eric on the day of the Australian Conflict could detect a presence within it's core. Sighing with the utmost of irritation, The Will of The Yuudeshi Network started to isolate the infected sectors and then outright cleanse and purge them from being associated with the connection. In this way, The Monster that Eric implemented was rejected before it's time to reign havoc could even come. The Will Of The Network would attempt to send the creature into an isolated dimension underneath Karakura Central and the Imaginary District; reproducing the effects of the city's barrier to an unimaginable degree to vaporize it and destroy the virus within this pocket realm. If nothing else, The Network would try and lock the cretin within this isolated dimension and null it's influence down to zero.

Flashing back to Shadin himself, he'd have a tired sigh escape his lips as he'd spit blood out of his mouth from constantly working his powers in such a way. Tapping the electrode on his collar, he was amazed of what his body could do just by feeding off the energy of Heaven's Walker and utilizing the functions of his cyberbrain with the defenses already set in place by Karakura Central. Having only the energy of a powerless human at the moment by himself, Shadin's body was merely feasting off the reserves of his own energy stored within the cane prior to his surgeries, experimentation, fine-tuning and recovery in Karakura Hospital. The abilities that lay within him were all active, but they simply needed a source of fuel to work with and the activation of Shadin's cyberbrain to understand where to go.

To this end, he'd enforce one final command. Being more simplistic in nature to ease the pressure on his skull, Shadin would start amplifying the kinetic energy around his right arm that was freed from holding Heaven's Walker. By doing this, he'd seek to use a form of telekinetic combat to dramatically bolster the force around his hand to be on par with a Grand Master strength in Hakuda to pierce the armor of Eric's durability. Remembering a flashback of his fight against the Ex-Espada, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, in the outskirts of Karkaura Central in the summer of 2413; he knew he wanted to finish this battle with his bare hands in remembrance of that fight.

Therefore, even if he posed the risk of shattering his own bones with this intensification of strength, he was more than willing to put that on the line to bash Eric's face in for everything that he has caused in his stay within Karakura Central. So to make this upcoming punch even more dangerous, he'd infuse the proprieties of the cities barrier into his arm to the same level of strength capable of bringing a Demon Overlord down at the risk of igniting his own arm in flames; as the skin around Shadin's right arm seemed to be filled with many pulsating veins, static electricity and turning beet red as he prepared for this assault.

"Don't believe for a second that just being a rampaging bastard qualifies you to be a villain. Avenging the death of a family? Obtaining revenge for the supposed torment you suffered? Fighting a monster like myself to redeem yourself and your people? DON'T GIVE ME THAT SHIT!" Taking off like a wild banshee, even in his weakened state, Shadin's speed was enough to nearly instantly reach the vicinity where Eric stood. In this way, he'd let out an angry yell in order to direct this otherworldly punch in The Mad One's face. It would let loose a devastating quake throughout the radius of Karakura City; giving a slight 4.0 Earthquake throughout the rage. It shattered windows all around them, made car alarms scream in the distance and the unleashing of The Beast's energy released a great deal of heat in the range.

However, in spite of all these adverse reactions to the area, the damage factor of this attack, if not controlled by Shadin, yielded the potential to outright destroy the face of this portion of Karakura Central rather easily. Instead? Shadin was focusing and directing all of his power into the body of Eric. Compiled with all the other assaults made on The Mad One's body up until this point, this was meant to be a one hit KO if possible. As this punch would seek to break the bones within The Mad One's body, inflict significant damage upon Engra's very conscious and potentially send Eric straight out of Karakura Central with this blow with how much impact it had.

And in conjunction with the effects of the Replicated Imagine Breaker and Karakura Central Barrier infused into this punch? Eric may very well feel the brink of his body being pushed by how much force was attempting to knock him down, break the demon down systemically and bring forth a punishing defeat. By outright sealing his powers and making him powerless for the duration of this fight, this singular punched had the fury of The Beast contained within it as Shadin infused the art of Senka to break the core of Eric's energy and Soul Chain with this heinous shunpo technique being added into the factors for his rampage's end.

Meanwhile, a hardened replica of Shadin's after-image would emerge behind Vanitas. Being comprised of the kinetic energy associated with The Beast's daunting speed, this creature would pack roughly seventy five percent of the same blow given to the original Shadin against Eric's body. However, the Senka part would be more perfected on it as it was designed to take out a Shinigami's soul chain. So as the duplicate of Shadin would feast upon Vanitas's flank, he'd hope to outright yank him out of this battle with this move as well.

However, no matter what results would occur in between or afterward, Shadin would grit his teeth and shake his head due to the path Eric was taking. Even though he was a miserable pile of demonic filth, Shadin still felt some form of empathy despite his great loathing for the demon race in general. The reason for this was due to the fact that Shadin understood how it was to lose everything you cared, to have the very family you protect be taken away due to bullshit circumstances out of your control and to go on the path of vengeance. It's why he was here facing Eric and fighting yet another spawn of the accursed demon race. Ever since the dawn of World War Three so many years ago, Shadin had done his part to avenge those whom he has lost and attempt to revert the world back to the way it was during the era of peace. So -- rather he wants to admit it or not -- it pained Shadin to realize that they were both men under very similar circumstance on two separate sides of the spectrum.

"Damn bastard, didn't you realize that those actions you took were slowly closing in around your neck like a noose!?" Echoing out that holler throughout everything else, Shadin would deliver those final words to Eric as he sought to understand why he was doing these absurd actions that would lead to his demise to begin with. What would turn a person to step into the lion's den with the beast to face certain suicide? It made no sense as he yielded no chance of success in his mind, yet he still proceeded to face down The Mind of God in his own domain. All that The Beast of Karakura could do now was await the response from Eric to find out his motives and observe rather or not the collective efforts of this three man team had any effect.