The Audacity [CRIELLA]

"Are you so deluded that you think humanity is the cause of our hunger? That they enable it?" The Beast roared in fury. This woman was so deranged that she had forgotten her nature, on top of having regressed in form. That was grounds for utter annihilation. The woman only brought it upon herself.

While the beast was looking around for the prey that had suddenly vanished, it suddenly smelled the bitch in the air and looked straight up to find the bala coming towards her. There was no time to dodge, but it wouldn't matter too much. For as powerful as they were and as hard as they hit the Dragon's body, it didn't actually do much damage. The impact was rough enough to send her skidding back a few dozen meters and with each hit came an explosion of miasma from beneath hard, durable scales. That was enough to help dampen the impact, leaving her naturally high durability to defend her from the rest of the damage. All that was left was an utterly livid Dragon that stood with wings flared out and maw wide open to roar its dismay up at its opponent.

And even while said effluvial miasma was drifting to the ground, it slowly rose back up with rapidly increasing speed, until suddenly Criella was being set upon by a torrent of the miasma that the beast had sent out previously. A spiraling tornado of pale gray effluvia flew towards her like a speeding car and wouldn't stop until the rotted monstrosity had something else to focus on.

"Where do you think it all begins, beast? Has your mind rotted from your own miasma? We are all but products of a failed humanity!"

Sneering, she moved not as she was surrounded by a tirade of miasma, a storm of rot and disease eating away at her very being. For some reason, she found it soothing. A situation so bizarre and hopeless; thrusted upon her by the worthlessness of these so called Hollow this creature dared think supreme. Ah. The beauty of filth when its thrown away.

"Conquer, Hielo."

Her body's captured in a sudden fluctuation of ice and energy as the miasma closed in around her body. The dragon's attack ate at the frozen shell, melting its surface second by second until it began to crack and splinter. But, then it exploded, energy and frigid winds blowing the miasma away revealing the frozen woman left behind in the wake of the storm, her body blue and covered in frozen armor. The eyes that held nothing but disdain now gone, a helmet over her visage.

"Now, deary. You may prostrate yourself before me."

It had been centuries since the Dragon had heard the sound of a Shinigami's release, but this was not a Shinigami. And yet still, the storm of ice that came forth, the release of energy, it was all so familiar. The Dragon pressed the attack, pressed her miasma against that frozen exterior with a furious roar until the shell broke outwards and blew the Dragon's effluvia away in a spectacular show of frozen power.

"What is this madness?" She growled through her razorlike teeth. "You are a Hollow, are you not? I do not understand." And it seemed like she wouldn't get much time to before she was told to prostrate like some kind of mongrel. The sounds of The Dragon's rage bellowed from her now open maw, exposing rows of teeth and the rotted insides of her ancient body. "I will not kneel unless you make me, and even then I'll tear off my limbs to make sure I'm incapable. All to spite you."

The beast withdrew its effluvia, the rotted gas swirling back towards its host and into her wide open maw. A pale gray light started to form in her mouth that rapidly turned into the small ball of concentrated reishi that was a still-forming Cero. A few moments would pass, and the Beast would fire it. A grew, gaseous looking Cero filled with her Effluvia that would barrel through anything that it met.

"Which came first? The Arrancar or the Shinigami? Who knows? Who cares? All that matters is the fact that my power will leave this world my frozen wonderland."

Raising her hand, Criella could care less about the specifics or details about her existence. This power she wields is a simple tool for her indomitable desires. If this creature wish to spit venom her way, she will snap freeze its maw, muzzle it, berate it, and conqueror it until it is nothing more than another tool in her conquest of realms.

Energy built into her hand, a cero of her own forming, its blackened core outlined by blue. Criella has no fear of this creature now as they both fired upon one another, miasma and ice intertwined as their clash broke the baren wasteland around them, melting and freezing the sands at impact. At the end of it all, a wondrous creation of green ice was left, its structure melting as quickly as it formed, proving that their powers have now becoming somewhat similar in strength.

"You dare call me a mockery, but what I am is but a natural disaster, and what you are is nothing more than a misguided buzzard!"

The collision of powers had the beast squinting to at least somewhat shield its eyes from the burst of color that followed their clash. What was left was an incompatible mixture of ice and miasma that melted as soon as it came, proving still that one touch was all it took for the transient ice queen to melt away.

"Your type of guidance is suitable for nothing more than mere insects. A queen bee, just as intimidating as one, and just as weak." The Dragon spat. With a low growl, she flared her rotted, hole-filled wings and began to focus. For as much stronger as The Dragon was confident she was, getting close could potentially be a death sentence. Her body was resilient, but her ability to heal off any real damage was poor. As a result, she decided to keep her distance and slowly gather up her reishi to mold it into more and more effluvia.

"I will digest the very contents of your soul. Your strength will go to nourish my own, foolish little pest." She snarled out. All it took was a few moments, and with a flap of her wings and a conscious control of her digestive effluvia, she whipped the very winds at Criella in a typhoon of widespread destruction. Winds that were packed full of grey, almost mistlike gas that was aimed to cover as wide of an area as physically possible.

"You speak but lies. A queen bee? No. I am more. I am a matriarch of raw undaunted strength and magnificence."

The malignant winds came to berate her, but this beastly dragon is not the only one who controls the atmosphere. Using herself as the center, she waved her hands, winds brought to life around her own body in the opposite direction of opponent's winds. The frigid icy cold wings came into contact with the miasma, intimacy between the two energies canceling one another out as their similar power levels clashed.

But Criella is more than just capable of that. Flexing her fingers, bala formed at their tips, firing wildly into the howling winds. The orbs of destruction were swept up, carried by the typhoon before they were sent flying out at high speeds at everything around Criella. The dragon would have no clear flight pattern to dodge, the erratic nature of this attack unpredictable. Taking even one hit would have the creature feeling the icy properties of her opponent try and invade her body, freezing whatever limb in a slow icy decrepit state.

There she went, insisting she was more than a Hollow should be. Their kind wasn't meant to be more than hungry, murderous beasts. Even if they did come from humans, what they would become was supposed to be so much more. Creatures of myth, exaggerated beasts of nature, monsters of unnatural shape- anything but human. And yet here this woman was. The Dragon could smell the Hollow woman on the cold, rotted air and had known instantly what her nature was. Yet she also smelled distinctly human. It was preposterous, asinine, it was-

The Beast had to leap to the left to avoid an incoming homing attack, then up to avoid another, until she was rocketing herself through the skies at a moment's notice to avoid Criella's frozen onslaught. Wings adjusting left and right, body twisting and curling to maneuver every which way she could, even going so far as to literally bounce off of reishi platforms like some sort of ping-ponging lizard just to try and lose those icy orbs. But they were gaining on her, and even as she managed to lead two of them into colliding with each other, lead a few others into the ground, there was still the one that hit one of her hind legs. The sheer impact was enough to startle her, causing her to lose all focus and send her crashing into the ground.

From the impact of her massive figure striking the ground came an eruption of white sand and gray effluvial mist. The Beast was furious beyond words. No amount of arguing would solve anything. And thus it became clear to the Dragon. In the guise of the sand slowly settling, she struggled upright with her one leg still frozen and basically defunct. The piercing ice cut to her very core like a chill so cold it struck her from the inside out. That wouldn't stop her, and so she flared her massive wings and silently began to gather reishi in five of the various holes of her wings. Five effluvial cero began to light up the slowly dispersing sand like grey stars on a white night sky, and after several moments of charging, the sand would violently disperse as five massive cero were fired up in a wide, cone shaped arc aimed to simply hit Criella and as much space around her with rotten, effluvial reishi that would rot through defenses, barrel through bodies, and turn her and the air around her into nothing but empty space.

A creature that respects nothing but carnage, and the backbone to backup its own tirade, this dragon must be taught to understand that its rancid spittle is nothing compared to the glorious charades of Criella. It could barely even move its giant body in a suiting manner. Foolish thing. The bigger you are, the harder you fall.

"Allow me to show you the futility of your actions," Criella spoke, bringing her arms together as the dragon began to charge its own Cero.

Ice grew from her blue skin, covering her body in a solid layer of her energy, growing larger and thicker by the second until Criella hovered entombed in a giant formation of ice. Pouring her energy outwards, that ice hardened into a nigh impenetrable wall, taking the full extent of the beast's attack.

The toxic nature of it ate away at Criella's defenses, devouring one layer and another, leaving but one wall up that slowly melted as Criella became aware of her surroundings one more. She made not mocking remark, instead only giving the beast a superior glare with a knowing smirk. She will not admit that she had to focus to avoid letting her defenses fall, but her Tumba Congelada did its job of protecting her from the rotting beams of energy. Now, what will the beast doing after such an attack proved fruitless? Run? Fight harder? Criella welcomes anything in order to prove herself better.

Her bravado is endless.

"Oh, good. You made yourself a tomb to die in."

The Dragon's tone was suddenly much calmer. Whatever anger that had in her voice had subsided in favor of pure, smug malice. Her cero had done its job, impacted that icy wall with enough force to cause a rather violent explosion, and left Criella utterly untouched.

For now.

Where the effluvial cero had hit formed a thick layer of effluvial grime that would continue eating away, corroding at Criella's protections growing closer and closer with every passing second. The beast simply watched and waited while the ice encasing her leg slowly corroded away as well from the latent effluvia the Dragon held beneath her every scale. A second layer of defense that formed naturally on its own. By the time Criella would find herself faced with the inevitability of the Dragon's effluvia slowly melting closer to her, her scaly adversary would be kicking off the ice from her prior attack.

"I tire of this game, little one." The Dragon announced casually. "Die."

And with a roar and a flap of her wings, another tornado of effluvia would fly forth towards Criella. This time the intention was to barrel straight forth and smash through the rest of her now even weaker defenses. If she was going to immobilize herself, the Dragon was going to make her pay for that. Thinking that to herself though, she still didn't let the idea of victory distract her. A weak opponent would have died already. A strong opponent like this could definitely keep going. And so the Dragon stared, waiting, eyes like slits as she waited for this woman to pull another trick out of her ass to escape death.

Trickery.

Her ice only slowed the trickling corrosion that neared her person. This dragon's mindless fury did have some tact to it after all, but tact isn't enough to overcome superlative force. Her moment of being unable to move only lasted for as long as her defenses were maxed. Now with her person bear of its protection, she's not some lame dog with a broken leg.

Ice shot down from her person, crashing into the ground. It splintered outward coating the sands with ice. That corrosive tornado then came, sweeping through the sky in a filthy manner, but the Dragon would find its prey missing from its torrential destruction.

Ice crackled and popped below the dragon. Criella had covered enough of the area to reach the beast, even as it'd melt, but that'd leave plenty of time for her to simply rise from her creation. Her hand already outstretched, fingers glowing with the dark blackness of a Cero, a smirk twisted her features as she aimed right for the beast's chest.

'Ceros Oscuras'

Pitch black energy exploded from her palm, the strongest of Cero's scorching the atmosphere with its icy fury, dotting the sky black and blue.