Dragon's Ascension, the power of acceptance [solo thread, bankai training]

[tinaSeasoned Member]

It was an open meadow in which the being sat, her legs crossed with a sheathed blade atop her lap. Vibrant red hair sat atop her head, spiked in order to hide the small draconic horns that adorned her head. Red, bat like wings were attached to her back just beneath the female’s shoulder blades, a scale covered red tail swished slightly in the grass behind her. Her outfit was that of a shinigami, though a dragon emblem had been stitched atop her left breast. This was Tessa Morrowend, the half dragon shinigami in service of squad seven.

It was as her red eyes began to slowly open that another form appeared before her. The male had long, gray hair and golden eyes. He stood at a tall six feet four inches, dwarfing over the five foot seven inch inch shinigami that sat before him. His skin was slightly tanned, and in his hands he carried two tomes that looked somewhat worn. A black trench coat trimmed with gold lining was situated over his white silk shirt and black pants, the outfit finishing off with a pair of black dress shoes. A smile danced across his face as he looked down at the shinigami who had called him forth, it was finally time that she was taught to deal with herself as a whole. He spoke, his voice soft but filled with ancient knowledge and power.

“Tessa Morrowend, it is good that you have drawn me out today, for not only will you be attempting to achieve bankai today, but first I will have you learn something else first. I understand you reluctance to accept your draconic heritage due to the actions of your father, but I cannot hand over the knowledge of bankai while you still reject who you are. No, you are not a full dragon, but you have the blood of a dragon coursing through your veins. You are only restricting your potential and holding yourself back by doing this. Accept that you have the blood of a dragon, and show the people around you how a true dragon acts: not as a medium of pain and destruction, but that of power and wisdom, knowledge and strength. Once you can do that, you will be ready to achieve bankai, but not before. If you are ready to learn to accept yourself, close your eyes once more and search inside yourself, search for the core of your draconic powers, the very essence of your flames. Once you find them, pull them in to your, accept them as a part of you, and cherish them with your very essence.”

[tinaSeasoned Member]

Tessa looked up at the man before her, listening to the words of her zanpakto spirit. What did it mean by accept her draconic heritage? Hadn’t she already accepted it? No, she hadn’t. Thinking back on it, she had only ever viewed her draconic powers as a means to an end. She had never before really accepted them as a part of herself. If so, could she truly only be weakening herself by doing this? Taking a deep breath, the red headed shinigami steadied her emotions. She was not a full dragon, no, but she was a half dragon. Her zanpakto spirit was right, she needed to show the world what a true descendant of the dragons acted like. Closing her eyes, she began to meditate, focusing inward. She searched within her, finding her center, and from there she went outwards in search of the essence of her draconic powers. Finding them, the flickering warmth of her heritage, she slowly pulled it towards her center, smiling as she accepted it as a part of her, putting her very essence of caring for herself out to it.

As her eyes slowly opened, flames surrounded her body, completely covering the half dragon shinigami. However, they did not bother her in any way. Instead, they felt peaceful, comforting even. She could feel the energy coursing through her as her body began to change. Her eyes went from a deep red color to a bright yellow, her horn growing quite larger as they now towered above her hair. Her hair was still the same red color, but had grown so that it ended just below where her tail began. Her hands went from fully human to obviously clawed and covered with bright red dragon scales, the scales only stopping with it reached three quarters of the way to her elbows. The flames died down, eyes blinking as they took in the new appearance of her body. A feral smile formed upon her face as she bowed before her zanpakto spirit. Her voice was soft and melodic, but still it carried an undertone of power.

“Thank you, Gladius Scientia, for teaching me this knowledge. Now, shall we return to why we are here, to achieve bankai? I need to progress further, these recent events have taught me that. Please, teach me so that I may achieve the strength I need to protect that which I cherish.”

[tinaSeasoned Member]

The gray haired man smiled at Tessa’s question, clapping his hands together. As he did bookshelves rose from the ground, stacked full of books.

“Of course Tessa Morrowend, we will begin immediately. Fight me with all you have, use everything you have. You will either achieve bankai or die trying today.”

He tossed the books he was carrying up in to the air. At the height of the toss, they changed, becoming a brilliant, ornate golden rapier. Holding it in one hand, the spirit rushed forward towards Tessa, his rapier rushing forward in a speedy, destructive stab. Tessa, having realized what was going on only seconds earlier, pushed herself to the side, rolling away from the attack before coming out of the roll standing in a low crouch. A snarl ripped from the dragons lips as it let loose a cone of azure flames, but this did not phase the spirit at all. He twirled the rapier in a circle, watching as the flames met a ice blue circle in the air, and vanished completely.

“tsk, tsk, Tessa, not thinking clearly are we? Ice beats fire, as you should well know.”

With another swirl of his rapier, a giant rush of snow was sent heading towards Tessa morrowend. Eyes widening in recognition, her wings beat downward furiously, carrying her in to the sky as the snow passed beneath her. Letting loose another blast of flames from her mouth, hiding behind this mass of flames she spoke quietly.

“Hadō #4, Byakurai.”

Seeing only the flames heading his way, the spirit once again twirled his rapier in a circle, setting up his ice barrier to put out the flames. At the last second though, the bolt of kido lightning pierced the through flames, slamming in to the ice barrier. Lightning and ice fought, kido versus magic forged from forbidden knowledge. For a few moments things seemed even, but then the ice cracked, then shattered, flames and lightning heading unprotected towards the spirit. Eyes wide, the spirit dashed away, wincing as his retreating foot was caught in the flames. It was only a small burn, but seeing as how the female had started to improve, it was time to step himself up as well.

“Wrath, Vengeance, Gluttony, Lust, upon your sins I call! Great providence, Land of Darkness, from whence you were banished I now call you! Come forth and smite my foes, Arkhnat Praz!”

Worried though he was at using the Atlantean prayer for the summoning of their god of darkness, it was time to see if this individual was truly strong enough. Swishing his sword in Tessa’s direction, a bubbling mass of blackness erupted from the tip. Pure hatred and desire made up this beast, as it formed in to a long, snake like head that shot forward, its fanged maw opened wide in its desire for a sacrifice. A deep snarl ripped through the sky form the half dragon’s mouth, wings pushing it towards the foul beast he had summoned forth from the abyss. As beast of darkness went to strike forth with its deadly fangs, her hand snapped forward with insane force. Closing around the head of the beast, a loud roar ripped through the clearing as she crushed the darkness within in. A loud wailing noise ripped through the area, the black creature dissipating in to nothingness.

[tinaSeasoned Member]

"No way... it can't be..."

Eyes wide, for the moment the spirit stood transfixed by the site. She had somehow completely decimated the summoned portion of a god like being! Sure, these prayers couldn't summon the full power of Arkhnat Praz, but even a fraction of the darkness was immense. Clenching his jaw he prepared himself in preparation for the continued battle, it seemed he could not slack off one bit if he wanted her to truly discover their bond. She was relying too much on her draconic powers, and against him it would be her downfall. It seemed Tessa had not yet found her equilibrium, her balance between draconic and human heritage.

As the draconic shinigami beat her wings in to a furious dive, the zanpakto spirit rushed forward, words spilling from his lips.

"Glacial expanse! Freezing lance! Endless snow burial!"

Watching as the ground around them froze under his first casting, lush green grass withering and dying beneath the layer of freezing ice. Thus with a thrust of his rapier a spear of sharpened ice shot off towards Tessa as thousands of razor sharp shards of ice began to fall en masse from the sky. If Tessa wasn't capable of finding the balance between her draconic and human heritage, she did not deserve to weild him, and thus she had to die. Weakness would not be tolerated with what she might become if she succeeded in this task.

Watching as the ground froze in the meadow below, Tessa's eyes narrowed. Was this a challenge, to see whether she would dare approach such a frozen place? Letting loose a roar at the thought, she simply continued the plunge, claws ready to maul her zanpakto spirit to pieces. However, it was the spear of ice that stopped her descent as it came soaring towards her, forcing her to pull up early or be devastated by the attack. As it was the attack clipped her shoulder, causing a painful hiss to escape the draconic female. However, the sudden cold in the air caught her attention before she could continue her dive. Looking upwards her eyes widened in fright. Fragments of ice were falling from the sky, each would cause her pain even if they were simply harmless, something she highly doubted.

"Bakudo 39, Enkosen!"

Spinning around, the words left her mouth as the kido shield appeared in front of her, hoping to gain some protection from the falling ice. Her instincts told her to stand to the challenge while simultaneously fearing the pain that would befall her if her shield wouldn't hold. Blending her instincts with her humanity's screaming that they could figure a logical way around this, she again raised her hand to cry out.

"Bakudo 8, Seki!"

The second sheild formed behind the first just as the ice hit, battering at her shields consistently. Safely under the shields, Tessa was not injured as the ice tried to get at her. However, she realized this fight couldn't go on for so long like this. Beneath her shields, she looked down at the white haired male with narrowed eyes, raising her hand to point at him.

"Bakudo 9, Horin."

A tendril of energy burst forth from her hand, with as much strength as if she had spoken the full incantation. Heading straight for her zanpakto spirit, a smirk formed on her face as her shields broke as the finally shard of ice drifted passed her. Unfortunately for her, milliseconds from when her binding spell would have ensnared the white haired spirit, he simply disappeared. Vanishing in to thin air, only to reappear further from her, his breath coming in soft pants. Growling softly, she watched for his next move, wondering how he would attack now.

[tinaSeasoned Member]

Eyes on the one who had called him forth, a soft sigh escaped the lips of the zanpakto spirit. It seemed that he had underestimated the one who wielded him, but it would not matter. With a soft sigh, he dropped the rapier he wielded to the ground where it turned in to a tome again. Clapping his hands together in front of his chest, the soft sound carried for miles around.

“Endless winter.”

The words, reverberating with power, echoed throughout the surroundings as the wind began to swirl around the two, the trees shifting and swaying while weaker branches were torn from them. Slowly but surely the temperature began to drop as the spirit lowered his arms and closed his eyes. Spreading his feet, he spoke once more.

“This is it my wielder, the cold will continue to increase until one of us is no longer within this realm. Either defeat me or die trying, those are your only two options.”

This times the spells flew without spoken incantations, eyes blazing with the flames of raw determination. Lightning crackled as it swirled around a lance of ice, two boulders shooting upwards from the ground towards the airborne half dragon as four more bolts of lightning shot up to attack Tessa from each direction. This time there would be escape, she would be truly hard pressed to surpass this strength.

“Bakudo #9, Horin!”

The kido rope snaked out from Tessa’s hand, wrapping around one boulder and ripping it from its path, forcing it to take the blast of ice and lightning. Shattered shards flew in every directions as the two elemental conjurations met, the explosion hiding Tessa from the zanpakto spirit’s view for a moment. As the second boulder barreled towards her form the shinigami merely used shunpo to jump on top of the earthen substance, using it to launch herself high in to the air. Below her four bolts of electrical energy smashed in to the rock, destroying it before meeting each other in the center. After seeming to fight against each other for a moment they seemed to fuse together, combining to become a thicker bolt of electrical energy before shooting up towards the red head. Wearing a smirk on her face, She let loose a burst of flames before using her ability to control flames to wrap them around herself. Hiddden within the ball of flames, a simple shunpo burst her in to the personal space of her zanpakto spirit, offhand drawn back. With a bellowing roar, the half dragon barreled her fist forward, smashing in to the spirits center. Wings lifting her inches off the ground, she then planted her foot in to his chest and pushed, causing him to stumble back. With one more flash step, she appeared behind him, thrusting her blade straight in to him.

A smile on his face, the zanpakto faded slowly as he returned to the place where he had been summoned from, the effects of his spells vanishing with him. Waves of energy washed over the being known as Tessa Morrowend, and within her mind the knowledge of her bankai opened itself to her, the spirit implanting the knowledge and ability directly in to her.