A Lesson In Humility [Escorpión, Mura]

Whacky things occurred after his meeting with Akira. In all honesty, those events paved the way for greater strength, and while it was a detour from his original path, Mura… currently felt like having no path. A wanted man would find no peace in China, and the Head Master’s friends in Tibet couldn’t be burdened with his sentenced soul in their care. Instead, a wandering stranger visited the smaller towns and villages in Tibet, missing the last time he could visit a damn arcade after a long day of practice.


Back in those days before the fateful meeting with Akira, Mura traversed the rocky hills – nay, mountains of huge strength – in the eastern chunk of Himalaya, mainly training his breathing up on these high altitudes. When one searched greater strength or skill, it was always a good idea to rehearse the basics and expajnd them. Bigger basics laid a bigger foundation for an even greater power to take root. That was what Kyūken taught him.

And he continued like that, until words of a black monster reached his ears, and he went to investigate. If it was another damn oni akin to the one who took his arm back at the Xaolin temple, then he’d get his revenge and take both of its arms with the increased number of skills he’d accumulated. Kyūken, however, suggested that he turn back and leave the mountains for now, but…

Mura had a score to settle with demons. One-armed or not, with Niten Muryū on his side, how could he possibly lose?

In the world of hollows, that is to say NOT Heuco Mundo, but the living world where hollows of lesser power cut up the world into various hunting grounds, no go zones, and various other distinctions and non-distinctions their kind settled for. Admist these, there was always the worst of the worst, the fringes, the country sides, the wilderness. These were places that not only had Hollows spawn only in the rarest of times from a truly pitiful soul which died in these isolated corners through accident or some other tragedy. They were where the weakest were pushed, for the Cities were the best hunting grounds, and thus the most hotly contested. In a world where the humans have more often awakened their powers, the soul reapers, quincies, let alone other hollows hunt down the weaker hollows to keep their powers in check, and it just lead to the cities being heavily fought over.

None were more susceptive to this than the, titled by his living life's homeland of Mexico, 'Escorpión'. Scorpion.

For a hollow, he was not very strong, he was dreadfully slow, and his ability to fight was almost nonexistent. His only remarkable traits as a hollow were his durability and the toughness of his mask, alongside his ability to hide from almost anyone. His ability to ambush prey and hide from hunters were honestly the only thing which allowed him to survive as long as he had. Now, pushed out of yet another hunting ground, this being the 86th this year, he was forced into the countryside.

Already, some locals were aware a hollow was around, for he had made the mistake of being far too hungry and rampaging across a house or two and eating some people.

So the Scorpion hid... Awaiting his prey... Not at all cowering in the basement of one of hte destroyed houses... No, never that...!

He hid, eating the three souls he murdered. He savored them, ate them, cut them into bits and eat them piece meal.

His hunger growled, but he was far more scared of retribution... Than starving for the hearts of man.

There it went off again… ill omens were almost tangible for Mura, waves of unknown energy hitting him in the face like a bat. It felt far more natural than tracking something down by smell, but at the same time, he had only a slight clue as to how this Reishi stuff worked… his Head Master only managed to teach him so much next to his swordsmanship.

But the locals… their expressions, their pleads in languages he didn’t understand, and the nastiness in the air… he was close to a monster. Many people were fleeing a nearby settlement in scattered lines, and that brought him enough direction towards the desolate, destroyed houses… and the air grew thicker.

“Keep your eyes open. It mustn’t end like last time,” Kyūken warned him. Their last encounter with a beast ended with him losing his left arm, and were he to lose his right arm, then he could kiss his life’s passion goodbye – along with the life itself… it mustn’t happen.

…

To think that something like that would seek refuge in a basement. In spite of its appearance… a giant arachnid with a stinger, like a gigantic scorpion… from the perspective of its darkened place, were it to glare towards the entrance to the basement, it would clearly see glowing eyes. Whitened, furious eyes aching to tear it to shreds and end its rampage, with the dim light of the outside pushing his back.

“Smaller than the last one… don’t think for a second that I’ll let you get away.”

His presence was known, revealed to the beast in hiding, suppressing his disgust at the sight around him – limbs missing the majority of their original owners, and blood splattered here and there.

There were several reactions things Escorpion could do once he was ousted from his hidey holes. The first is obviously escape, it was his first and foremost reaction. The second was hide, his ability to hide in plain sight was second to none! The third was run, Garganta was but a pull away if he was full enough to be able to succeed in the attempt to summon the portal, not always the case. The fourth was only ever useful when it helped him achieve one through three.

Fight.

Quickly stuffing the souls into his maw, cracking bone and muscle with ease, he quickly swallowed his ill gotten gains. The scorpion did his very best to avoid even gazing at the enemy. "L-look, Essay, I need you t-t-t-ta leave! Comprehende?!"

It was of course at that moment, a red orb at the scorpion's mouth.

Escorpion, for all that he was a hollow which has survive over a hundred years at the newborn stage of hollows, was far from even barely capable with a Cero. Far too much time spent running, hiding, ambushing prey rather than fighting it out with the great blast of energy.

But even Escorpion knew how destructive it could be when applied to a ceiling.

Thus the blast was unleashed- Directly into the cellar ceiling above them!

In the same moment, Escorpion wrapped himself into Emboscada al Acecho!

The hunt had truly begun.

A new sight… a new sound… a talking scorpion the size of a horse, more or less. It simply begged him to leave- why the fuck did it beg him to leave, you may ask? Who on earth knew… maybe it feared his wrath. Maybe it wanted to trick him. Either way, Mura was fully intent on killing what he was looking at.

But a red orb emerged from its maw, and Mura recognized that whistling change in air pressure. Reiatsu. Mura’s first decision was to run up toward it, feinting his attempt to close the distance and await the orb to do whatever it was meant to do, so that he could change trajectory with Fa Jin. Beyond his calculations, it used the orb as a cannon to blast the ceiling down around him, burying Mura in wood, dirt, stone and debris of a once warm house filled with a family…

…

As if brought forth by an air pressure, Mura punched his way out of the debris – now covered in dirt, tar and other remains of the cellar, he immediately tried to track the beast down, removing debris in all directions with the force of his hand and unsheathed sword alone. “I’m not leaving until you’re dead, beast! Now come out and face me!!!”

It couldn’t hide forever… where was that scorpion?!