AfriCatastrophe: Letterboxer

Not a lot of time. Not enough to go through a full plan with either of them, or to smack Lukas. There wasn't much he could do aside from knock him out, and frankly, he was more useful when he was conscious. Instead, he just gave a quick nod to Mizu, an irritated glance at Lukas, before launching off the building. Orange flames erupted from behind him to push him upward and into the air. He kept himself a decent distance away from where Lukas was aiming, but was ready to move in whenever he was able.

Watching as Lukas fired off his attack, he noted the difference between it and the bigger attack he used against Ichigo. As the dust cleared and the light faded, Kokuto took in a deep breath, unleashing a load cry, reaffirming himself and channeling his own will. His strength surged, and he wasted no time in suddenly launching toward the giant Hollow from above.

Stacking his War Cry alongside the passive, gradual augmentation of his strength with the Eris Seal would provide a decent boost in power as he rocketed downward with the boost of movement from his flames. Without mercy or hesitation, Kokuto slammed down on the Hollow's head with every intention of either trying to break it or starting to send it to the ground.

Launching himself into the air again after he slammed down, Kokuto held a hand out, charging a cyan blue flame in his hand, before unleashing a colossal wave of blue fire that surged toward Letterboxer in attempt to cover as much of it as it could. A wave of heat could likely be felt from where Lukas and Mizu stood, and Kokuto could feel his body beginning to overheat.

Steam rose from his body, he could feel his temperature to rise, the roots of his hair were beginning to turn white, and patches of his skin were turning red. He started moving back, trying to give himself some breathing room before attacking again. Right now, the main goal was to try and bring it down, with whatever means he had.

Despite her heightened emotional state from witnessing these monsters continue to lay waste to what must have been an awe-inspiring city, Mizu shrugged off the Quincy's taunts as she refused to allow infighting to harm their cooperation. "I apologize if my actions upset you, Quincy-san. I only wish to defeat this creature and I know we can do it if we work together!" With her golden eyes burning with determination Mizu observed as her newfound allies leapt into action.

With Lukas unleashing a torrent of electricity and Kokuto hitting the Hollow with an inferno of fire, Mizu was grateful for their power. They would need everything at their disposal to defeat a monster like this. [i]Can't let up, I have to do what I can as well![i]

With a strategy in mind Mizu Flash Stepped a moderate distance away from Lukas so as to not make them an easy target for the Hollow's next attack. Upon landing on a large boulder jutting from the ground, no doubt a remnant of what was once a populated building now entirely unrecognizable, Mizu gathered spiritual energy in both hands and held them out in opposite directions. In her left hand an orange blaze enveloped her fingers, and in her right a blue sphere of fiery power with a tinge of red quickly did the same.

As Kokuto's last attack finished Mizu unleashed her own, allowing no time to recover for the Hollow if it needed it. "Bakudō #9: Hōrin! Hadō #4: Byakurai! Go!" The Shinigami woman simultaneously unleashed two spells, causing an orange tendril of energy to burst forth from her left hand as a blaze of blue energy did the same from her right. Her plan was for these spells to strike at the same location underneath the Hollow's great skull. She doubted her Byakurai would manage to do much damage, but that wasn't her objective anyway; upon the two spells hitting Letterboxer, a great red Kidō net would suddenly spring from the blue energy and wrap around the beast's head. Hōrin's chain would then connect to the net and provide a direct connection to the Hollow for Mizu.

Hōrin would provide much slack for it's caster so as to not force her into a contest of strength with a monster surely many, many times stronger than her. Instead it's purpose would be made clear as she then cast yet another spell "Hadō #63! Raikōhō!" With both hands firmly latched onto the tendril she'd created, a sudden swelling of yellow energy would surround them as bolts of lightning shot out harmlessly in every direction. After a moment of powering up this energy would be discharged and channeled through the tendril as it raced toward Letterboxer, before finally spreading through the Kidō net and sending a huge, at least for Mizu, burst of lightning across and through it's entire head.

Immediately after her latest spell would finish dissipating both the net and tendril she created would do the same. Sweat formed at her brow as Mizu found herself panting, somewhat exhausted from her rapid successive usage of Shinigami magic. Though only one of her spells had been of a high number, the sheer scale to which she stretched the others had done a number on her Reishi reserves. She hoped, for all their sake, her strategy had helped in some way.

As the arrows shot across the sky and over the land, Letterboxer shook herself once more, violently this time to release more of her dust upward. But as she looked upward to meet the rain of arrows with a blast of her own, the net that had been shot toward her caused that effort to be cut short, and both the flames and the swath of arrows landed powerfully against her as she let out a deafening wail, sounding for all the world like a woman weeping.

Yet, as it cried, its body shook, writhed through the air, and sent all the more of its dust flying while she attempted to whip into her assailants. So much of her dust filled the air that one could almost miss the grievous wounds she had already suffered, the skull-like face cracking as one of her tremendous horns snapped off and fell to the earth below. With another cry, a weak cero fired out from her mouth, and yet the power of it was almost inconsequential. The moment it struck the air, the dust surrounding her went alight, and while the power of her cero meant the explosion was not nearly so catastrophic as it otherwise would have been, one facet of it had not been lessened in the slightest--

It was nothing short of blinding, as if the whole world had been engulfed in pure white, and Letterboxer's thrashing only intensified to take advantage of hopefully blinding her attackers.

As he tried to cool down before making another attack, he looked toward the Shinigami girl, casting spells from afar. She was throwing out some pretty decently powerful stuff, chaining it all together for a big, flashy finish. But, it was short-lived. He wasn't entirely surprised that the big thing wasn't gonna just sit there and take it. So, as it started to writhe and shake in the air, Kokuto brought his arms up to protect himself, suddenly being smacked backwards as a result.

The damage they had dealt however, was no small achievement. A horn broken and cracked skull -- they could do this. Keeping himself airborne with flame jets from his feet, Kokuto began to gather energy into his hands, a silver-white flame flickering to life. But, before he had a chance to finish and fire it off, Letterboxer unleashed another Cero, weaker than before, but enough to cause a reaction to the dust on the ground and in the air around them.

In an instant, his vision went white. He squeezed his eyes shut, covering them as he tried to back up more. Spotted colors blinked in and out of his darkened vision, and despite the lacking in overall destruction, the blinding effect was still very effective. But, he could hear it thrashing still, even stronger than before. Normally, he would have broken off and tried to think of a new strategy, but, instead, he just charged forward. The scarlet and orange flames at his feet turned white as he fired himself forward with even greater power and speed.

He tried to stay away from it's lower body, but he heard a crack and felt something crash into him. Knocked away and his defenses breaking, Kokuto didn't give up. He righted himself, flew upward, before surged downward. The sound of the two beings colliding would echo through the crater of what used to be Vastime with a sickening thud. Even while blinded, Kokuto had every intention of continuing to attack. He was going to bring this big bitch down, even if it mean breaking every bone in his body.

AFRICA
A tinge of success tainted Lukas' vision as he watched the hollow attempt to dodge, only to be met with the combined force of the three. Almost sweet, if it had actually worked out to do more. The movement of his 'team' escaped notice, his eyes locked onto the shuffling mountains of dust pouring off the hollow. Recoil pounded in his arm as he moved, a shaky hirenyaku forming underneath his heel as he turned to run from it.

Even then, the light was blinding.

Searing dots flooded the edges of Lukas' vision as shadows stretched into extremes once again. The shockwave blowing strands of silver around him, dirt and rubble smearing the edges of sight. Heat pounded against his back as he shouted into the piece on his ear, noticeable hope infecting his tone. "Hollow has been hit! Retaliation attempted but largely avoided, retain positions away from the dust at all costs! Unknown how much damage sustained, still skybound!!" Static filling his ear again as he turned, vision starting to return in order.

Thoughts churning on what to do next.

Yes! Yes! Yes! We're doing it...! Considering the great heft of the creature called Letterboxer, as well as it's awesome destructive power, Mizu was surprised at how successful this makeshift team was so far. Their latest attacks had managed to cause significant damage to the Hollow, or at least that was her impression of things. Both the demon and Quincy seemed to be able to hold their own, and while Mizu knew she was outgunned on this battlefield at least her spells had prevented Kokuto from being struck by another attack. "This could work!"

When the broken horn crashed into the ground it's incredible mass caused tremors noticeable enough to distract Mizu as she lost her balance. Letterboxer's wails were deafening, and if it wasn't for an entire city being reduced to smoking rubble Mizu almost would have felt sorry for the distressed beast. That is, until she sensed energy gathering once again at it's mouth, foretelling another mighty Cero coming from the beast. At this moment Mizu looked around and observed the entire battlefield covered in the white ash it had been igniting with Ceros and realization of what was to come contorted her face into a look of great alarm.

As quick as she could Mizu surrounded herself in a hastily summoned Kidō barrier. In a flash the entire area was draped in a blinding white light, and it's accompanying blast rattled and cracked her barrier. Sweat covered her as she felt a terrible heat emanating from the explosion which her Kidō barrier could do little about. Knowing she could not remain still in such a serious fight Mizu, with eyes closed and body rattling from force of the blast Letterboxer's Cero triggered, she came up with another strategy. It was evident, at least so far, even with the three hitting the beast simultaneously they likely lacked the firepower to defeat it in a single strike. In that case, wearing it down and doing as much damage as possible was the best path forward.

Even as Mizu could feel the earth and air around her shaking from Letterboxer's mighty thrashing she rushed forward the instant she would no longer be blinded by opening her eyes. She hopped from rubble pile to rubble pile, Flash Stepping where she could, and gripped her trusty Shousenmaru tightly to maintain her focus. Mizu didn't notice the feelings she felt as she narrowly dodged the repeated swinging and shaking of the Hollow's body. She did not feel fear, as she might have expected herself to. No, she felt determined. Confident. She knew things would work out because they must work out. And because for maybe the first time ever, she felt strong. Or, at least, strong enough to make a difference.

Spying a flat surface, possibly the remains of a building's floor, directly underneath Letterboxer's midsection, Mizu Flash Stepped as quickly as she could to it before dropping and sliding so that she now lay on her back, her Zanpakuto pointed directly up at the mighty beast. As she had been running Mizu had used the opportunity to channel Reishi onto the tip of her weapon in preparation to cast another spell. "Hadō #4: Byakurai!" she roared, immediately firing the energy from Shousenmaru in the form of a dozen separate casts of the same spell. These twelve bolts of blue lightning were aimed at different points on the bottom side of Letterboxer's from her chin to tail. Importantly, they would all strike simultaneously and, Mizu hoped, would cause widespread pain and burns on it's skin.

Lashing out without rhyme or reason was effective enough, but it did not give Letterboxer a true response to the offensive she was facing. The weight that slammed into her did not push her toward the gound, but the velocity and weight were still immense, and Kokuto's body smashed into her flesh catastrophically, viscera and blood shooting up like a geyser from the wound.

At the same time, the multiple Byakurai that struck her underside all made contact, piercing upward through her flesh and out the other side. Blood spilled form every wound like rain, coating the ground below as the Hollow let out a melancholic, baleful wail.

In spite of her fury, Letterboxer's eyes were unfocused, and as her thrashing slowed, she floated almost gently toward the ground below, a faint cloud of dust rising up as she touched down with quite little impact. She made no further noise, no further motion, as her body simply lay limp on the ground.

While the sound of Letterboxer landing wasn't loud, it was enough for him to hear and Kokuto quickly backed off. Rubbing his eyes and opening them, letting them get adjusted to the light again, he followed the giant Hollow to the ground. As he landed, he stumbled, feeling a sense of dizziness hit him like a train as the adrenaline wore off, the sticky blood of the Hollow steaming and evaporating as it touched his body. Maybe he went a bit overboard with it all.

Nevertheless, they had managed to bring it down. But, Kokuto wasn't convinced. Unless either Lukas or the Gotei Girl came down and finished the job, he wasn't confident that it was going to stay dead. Heat erupted from his body again, white flames igniting around his hands and causing even more steam to rise from his body. He turned to look over at Mizu, gesturing for her to come over and doing the same for Lukas.

"One of you two, finish this thing off! I don't care which one of you does it, but I don't wanna risk this thing getting back up and takin' us by surprise!"

The moment he finished speaking, he turned back to face the Hollow, keeping an eye on it as he kept himself ready. If it really was just about over, then one of them finishing the job shouldn't take too long, and they could make their reports. Frankly, it was only a small lie. He wasn't sure how the Soul Cycle would take to something like this being suddenly purified and sent to the Soul Society. He wasn't an expert on the matter, but, from the experience he had, maybe it was better for this thing to be totally wiped out.

AFRICA
The exhaustive use of reishi had already taken noticeable wear on Lukas as he careened off the sputtering hirenyaku, turning to face the collapsing hollow as the Shinigami and Demon both continued to attack. Feet touching the rubble, left arm heavy as the man gathered himself. Kokuto's words rang out as vision swam back into focus, conviction coursing up his spine. A deep breath as his knees contracted, silver hair swaying into place - breaking out into a full sprint towards the hollow.

There wasn't any need for a second wind in the moment. In that split second of the creature falling limp, danger, concern, fear; all fell by the wayside. In its place an electricity, bared fangs in a rabid smile.

Nothing but raw excitement.

"Understood!" Lukas shouted in reply, his left arm raising skywards as the gap between himself and the hollow slipped further. The remaining energy he had focusing closely, single-minded ignorance of the falling dust that whipped by. Eyes darting across the mass of flesh, he'd dart towards the creature's mask with a fervor, built reishi trembling underneath his skin. If he managed, he'd plunge forward, knuckles tapping into the surface.

Uninterrupted, the man's blade would materialize inside the beast, a bright blue shower of light.

Mizu's flaxen eyes widened as she realized being positioned directly below the whale-sized Hollow she was trying to take down was not exactly wise. Dark blood rained down upon her as Mizu stood up and began sprinting away. She looked back in acknowledgement of the Hollow's mighty and melancholy wail, it's deeply pained howl sending shivers up her spine even as she Flash Stepped away from it's slowly falling body. "What a creature..." Mizu said only loud enough for herself to hear.

For the briefest of moments Mizu felt a bit of sorrow for the seemingly-mindless beast they had managed to bring down. But she knew things weren't over yet. Like an ancient hunter putting downed prey out of it's misery Mizu agreed with Kokuto's assessment that they must finish Letterboxer off. She Flash Stepped again, this time to wrap around the Hollow and position herself a dozen yards or so in front of it's head where she could watch one of her Quincy allies finish the job once and for all. It appeared Lukas would be the one to do so, having already reached Letterboxer's mask where he was now attempting to kill it.

As she considered the situation, grateful the trio managed to take down one of the monsters roaming the burning remains of the city, Mizu spoke loud enough for Lukas and Kokuto to hear "I am glad we were able to work together to beat the Hollow. I'm afraid it's just one of many! If we are all done here, perhaps we should help everyone else defeat the rest of these monsters!" Mizu was entirely confident there was no possible way anything else bad could happen here and that Letterboxer was definitely defeated for good. Definitely.