An Empty Street After the Parade Has Gone [Vicente/Sabriel] [Open to 2]

His eyes widened as the creature he knocked down suddenly stamped on his foot, only for it to suddenly land an uppercut under his chin, forcing him to stumble backward. An arm planted one of his swords into the ground, before rubbing the afflicted area curiously. a spider-web design having appeared and now was slowly fading as he looked at Alastor for a moment.

Then, he gave a wide grin, revealing a maw of razor-sharp teeth, with all six eyes wide and alert. He had underestimated this one. Even from just one hit, he could tell that there was far greater strength than he had initially realized, and that fact was both elating and infuriating. There was the potential for a challenge, yet the idea of an insect being possibly greater than himself drove him mad.

Sounds akin to clicking or crackling, a type of growl echoed from his throat, as if the sounds coming from his throat were, by nature, distorted, creating something that was akin to neither man nor beast. Taking up his sword, another loud buzzing sound erupted as Vicente rapidly surged forward to try and take Alastor by surprise again, thrusting forward with two swords, one aimed for each shoulder.

A roll of the eyes was Sabriel’s only real response to the redheaded Shinigami’s insulting way with words. He was clearly lacking in creativity when it came to wordplay and the dark haired woman wondered if there was much of a personality at all within his frame. In truth, it was difficult to differentiate his characteristics from Vicente’s and Sabriel mused that they were the perfect combatants for each other. Maybe it was best if she just let them butcher each other and be done with it? Alas, that was not truly an option. She gave her word to Akira, after all.

With her chains having a hold on the more powerful Shinigami, Sabriel would grip hold of them and attempt to channel her spiritual energy through them, again trying to force her will upon the mind of the experienced warrior. There was only so much she could do against a hardened resolve and he was no simple minded fool but perhaps she could mess with him enough to allow her partner to score a strike of his own? It was all that Sabriel offered at that point.

Again, her attention would be diverted by the other Shinigami, who seemed to be rather intent on harming her. Her patience was wearing more thin by the moment, having given the girl more than one chance to know when to leave. She was clearly not taking the hint and so Sabriel would have no real option but avoid the spell through Sonido rather than block it, having to stop her attempt at manipulating her partner and instead focusing on the kido user herself.

Trying to get around to attack the weaker of the Shinigami, Sabriel would begin to sing, releasing a cone of her spiritual energy that would head towards the spellcaster. She was becoming rather tired of the girl and the sooner she was out of the picture, the better at this stage.

Damn, rushing him like that? Whatever. He was so pissed right now that his blood was on fire and the woman's wicked charms were lost to the inferno. Two swords could bury themselves into his shoulders but it just brought his opponent close enough for him to bring a leg up and kick the freak in the chest with all his strength while he had to choose between letting go of these swords or carrying them away for as far as he was kicked.

"Let's go, Shōkyakutenri!"

Flames spewed out around the chains, taking advantage of the fact Mika had drew the aggro and might make them easier to break. If that happened, this guy was getting cooked by a wave of fire to follow him into whatever wall was in his path, or maybe if she was holding onto those chains he could just throw her at him too.

He was working on instinct, will, and freestyle right now. No strategy.

The battle raged on nearby, and Mika continued to find herself further and further outclassed. The mere singing of the woman Arrancar send chills down her spine and caused her to grow dizzy, her limbs not responding as swiftly as she tried forcing them to. Though her hands were sluggish, they moved without her telling them. Mika's sword fell to the root at her feet as she pointed at her ears with both hands and shouted out "Hadō #1: Shō!"

A boom overwhelmed Mika's senses, her head suddenly feeling as if she had been plunged underwater. She had altered the strength of the spell that she struck her own ears with to not pop her skull like a grape, allowing only enough force to burst her eardrums. The result was as she hoped: No longer did that song of Sabriel's affect her. Yet as she reached down to pick up her Asauchi, Mika nearly fell from the roof as her balance was thrown off from the damage she did to herself. Despite this setback, she grasped her weapon and stood back up. Her face strained into a pained grimace and blood dripped from her ears, proving the effectiveness of her ill-advised gambit.

With her head on fire, her sense of hearing lost to her, and growing fatigue encroaching upon her extremities, Mika was unsteady on her feet. Despite all these things, she did not waver; something had been awoken inside her. In the face of insurmountable odds and pain the likes of which she had never before experienced, a fire had been lit within her very soul that had been absent for as long as she could remember. The young Morikawa prodigy wanted to win, to fulfill the destiny her family had set for her.

Seeing the chains connecting Sabriel to Alastor, Mika leaped into action by suddenly breaking the paradigm that had been established so far for this fight and Flash Stepped from the roof to directly in front of the woman Arrancar. Then, with all her might, she swung her Asauchi with both hands from Sabriel's shoulder to hip.

The spider-web pattern manifested at where the creature kicked him. Even from a simple action, it made Vicente feel like his Hierro was physical armor in conjunction with his Hierro thread-woven clothes, his body shaking and at the result of such an impact. His hands released the two swords that impaled Alastor out of instinct. However, while he didn't dare employ a gambit to retrieve them, it did not mean that he was entirely helpless.

This creature was more durable and powerful than he had initially thought, as well as above all those he had slaughtered beforehand. Part of him wanted to test just by how much. Digging two of his remaining four swords into the ground to slow and stop his momentum, Vicente corrected himself, planting his feet on the ground.

That spider-web pattern coiled around his body as his Hierro responded to the following wave of heat, but, now, he was feeling the heat far more intensely on the exposed parts of his body, and his Hierro-woven clothes were beginning to melt and split, creating holes. He wanted to test to see how far this creature's durability could go, so, Vicente's thumb quickly cut open a finger, enough to draw blood as energy gathered into one of his free hands, a purple orb forming as it crackled with a sinister amount of violet lightning.

As he opened his palm wide, a blast erupted from it, a purple Gran Rey Cero tore through the air and surged toward Alastor, seeking to envelop himwith a blast strong enough to level a building. But, as he did, he heard the smaller creature shout out some kind of name and number, two of his eyes shifting to look at her just as she blew out her own eardrums to avoid the siren song of his companion.

It seemed that he was out of range, for nothing seemed to happen to him. Nevertheless, it was curious to see the smaller, inferior creature go to such lengths. Perhaps, were it not such an infuriating insect, he would have held an iota more respect. But, as it went in to try and attack Sabriel, Vicente's head turned away, more interested in seeing how the stronger one would handle an attack like that.

It had to be said that while the girl appeared to be considerably weaker than Sabriel, it did not seem to stop her from giving it all. Such inner strength was admirable and left the Arrancar with a slight dilemma. The dark haired woman knew that she should try and finish the girl but it was not truly in her nature to do such a thing. When an aspect such a desire was the core of your being, it gave a rather different perspective to things. Sabriel did not desire the young woman’s death and instead was beginning to feel a different sensation towards the sweet little cherub.

All of a sudden the clearly wounded girl would appear before her and all Sabriel could do in that moment was bring the chains around in order for them to take the blow, causing the attack to slice through the bindings and causing them to disappear. An annoying state of affairs but honestly, it did not appear that her attacks were doing much to the more powerful Shinigami anyway. He seemed so single minded that no one could divert his concentration.

She was at a disadvantage with her whip when the young Shinigami was so close, resulting in Sabriel having to surround her fist instead and firing her form of bala towards the girl from close range. There was no point in holding back so the lavender eyed woman put considerably more spiritual power behind her attack. Her bala was rather effective when it came to knocking an opponent back too and should the stubborn girl not avoid it then she might receive a rather nasty blow.

Unsure if her opponent could even hear her due to the girl’s rather dangerous defence against her previous attack, Sabriel would utter. “I think I might just take you back to Hueco Mundo with me when this is all said and done. You are an intriguing little minx.”

The clash between the creepy spider-eyed Arrancar and her companion was a world away as Mika's full attention was on the other enemy. She couldn't hear anything coming from that side of the street anyway because of the state of her eardrums, everything sounded like she was underwater. Sweat covered her brow, pain filled her skull, and the heat from the other Shinigami sapped what little endurance she still had. Yet she fought on.

In another situation Mika might have at least tried to dodge the sudden surge of Reishi coming from the Arrancar, but between the pain and dizziness dulling her senses and reactions all she managed to do was raise her Asauchi and left hand in front of her before the Bala slammed into her like a boulder. The resulting explosion sent her flying through the air before she slammed into a nearby stack of crates and the stone wall behind them.

Beneath a cloud of dust and atop a pile of rubble, Mika found herself unable to get a breath as all air had been knocked from her lungs. Instead of feeling underwater, a terrible ringing sounded in her ears, and even her vision had become blurry from the knock to her skull colliding with the wall. There was immense pain coming from her back and head, but even worse was the pain enveloping her left arm; and when she raised her now-blacked hand in front of her eyes, she could see why. Badly burnt and missing its pinky, Mika's left hand was in a sorry state, and any attempt at getting it to stop shaking was in vain.

After what felt like an hour but couldn't have been more than a dozen seconds, Mika placed her hands on the charred wood around her and pushed up, dragging herself to her feet where she remained hunched over and in a daze. After another short time passed Mika slowly reached down and picked her weapon back up, though she could barely keep it within her shaking grasp. The one bit of luck she was grateful for was the Bala burning her hand bad enough to prevent bleeding from where her finger had been. Not wanting to drop her Asauchi again, Mika tore a shred of cloth from her right sleeve and wrapped then tied it around her sword hand.

Earlier Mika had sensed her older sister somewhere in the Seireitei amongst the many different Reiatsus populating it. Her Reikaku wasn't what it was, and so she couldn't be sure if Mizu was still fighting somewhere, but she knew Alastor was still fighting and that losing would mean more lives lost. That was important, right? Her dulled brain couldn't remember exactly what brought her into this fight, but surely she couldn't just lose. Holding her weapon in front of her, Mika shot forward in a Flash Step that ended prematurely as she tripped and collapsed to the ground about halfway to Sabriel. After a couple seconds of once more dragging herself up, she Flash Stepped again, this time reaching her enemy who she swung her sword at with a fraction of her previous attack's strength.

Vicente's eyes widened in sadistic glee as he watched it become engulfed by the blast. He could sense the ongoing conflict nearby, but, his senses still remained sharp on the off-chance that it spilled over. Or, in the tremendously unlikely scenario, the little ant would overpower Sabriel. He was more concerned about what was in front of him.

His eyes narrowed slightly, trying to see through the smoke and rubble. Two aspects of himself clashed in what he wanted to see. Part of him wanted to see it walk out, to see just how strong it was to eventually relish in the joy of breaking it. Yet, the other part wanted to relish in superiority, to drag the thing's corpse to the smaller one and show how little its protection meant, to show how much stronger he was. But, there was one thing he knew for sure, whichever happened, he would return home sated either way.

'Get up, hormiga.'

It was clear that her young foe was in dire straits and as Mika eventually managed to get into range of Sabriel in order to deliver another sword blow. There did not seem to be an awful lot of strength behind it though and the dark haired Arrancar used her Sonido in order to try and get around the woman and appear behind her rather than block the attack. She mused that in the girl’s state, her awareness and reactions were bound to be slow.

Making sure she had enough space, Sabriel would crack her whip towards the girl attempting to either strike her firmly or bind her. She had no intention of underestimating her opponent at this stage but judging from the damage her Bala had done, the Arrancar felt that the fight may be coming close to a conclusion. As annoyed as she was at the kid, the idea of killing the Shinigami was still somewhat of a last resort in the woman’s mind. Her previous words held a certain amount of truth in regards to what she wished to do if she had the chance.

Get up, Nojukubi.

He fumbled from the rubble and used the sword to rise. The heat reached its zenith and started fires in the area that were only visible to the group by the smoke. What a situation to lose to. He glanced at the arm which had taken the brunt of the attack, crispy. He wasn't smart enough to solve this, always bashing through problems with his head and it working out fine. It served him so well before, so why wasn't it working now?

Would you like a hand? Just this once, since you'll probably die anyway even if you do.

He glanced up at the silhouette in the haze, a familiar face only he could see as she took a drag from her kiseru and exhaled some smoke.

A focused strike will decide it, just swing me with everything you've got. If we are to die, you will burn out like an inferno and not a pathetic spark, fufufu.

He listened along with ragged breaths, taking a moment to slow it down and settle his racing heart. With one large inhale in preparation for swinging his blade, the entire area became cold. The scorching temperature had disappeared and his blade glowed like it had just come out of a furnace. Were he a weaker man, the sudden pain of being in a blast furnace might've caused him to pass out from shock if not for his own boiling blood making him familiar with the superhot temperatures.

With one fumbling shunpo he launched towards Vicente with the intention of cleaving him from above.

"Shōkyakutenri - Gouka [焼却天理劫火, Incinerated Heaven's Law - All Ends in Flames]!"

The two acting as one. All of the heat of his shikai was swung in that cleave, it felt more natural to him like this, it wasn't like he could accomplish any of her other abilities now that the haze was condensed and fired but that served him just fine.

If he cut through the man, it would be like a hot knife through butter, if he missed, the attack was going to fire as a wave of condensed heat anyway and explode outwards in all directions. There was nothing to parry here, there was no physical form to this attack, it was just pure heat that aimed to evaporate every bit of liquid from his opponent's body in one focused attack and protect what could be protected even as it caused the hand holding his sword to become blackened and lose sensation from holding it.