Battle 8: (participants only)

Participants:

Zanmato Jishaku
Shuhei Hisagi
Syoura
VS
James White
Avery Dunn

Posting Order:

1. James White
2. Zanmato Jishaku
3. Shuhei
4. Avery
5. Syoura

Posting may begin immediately

The sky was empty of arrancar, none of them had reached yet. At least until a the sky was torn open with a garganta larger than the one during the attack on the fake karakura town attack. Out of this stepped James, running his large hands through his stark white hair. He was wearing a long black cloak, partially open and showing off his left side. Underneath this was a white dress shirt, hanging open and black dress pants. His other hand was occupied with holding Null Excalibur over his shoulder. Large heavy tinted sunglasses, aviators to be exact, half way down his nose.

He sighed, looking behind him and saw Avery. Sighing again, he disliked this. This whole working aspect. He did not mind mindless slaughter, but organize it into a job and it gets annoying. Especially since he had to babysit. He sighed as a cancer stick formed in his mouth, pre-lit. Damn this. He supressed his power to 0 and moved forward.

" Keep up you brat. "

Zanmato Jishaku walked down the streets of Karakura alone and thinking to himself about many different subjects, such as the growing number of Bounts, and the fact that he actually had a group to lead now, just as his late master Kariya had predicted he would. In fact, he knew that at least one of them was probably walking around in Karakura Town somewhere doing something...and that something was probably more interesting than what he was doing now, which was simply wandering around doing nothing with his power at absolute zero with a thoughtful expression on his face.

If one were to look at him however, it would have appeared that the Bount Leader was either going to or was just arriving from a meeting, or a party, or another gathering of the sort: he was wearing an all black ensemble that included a black suit with eight silver circles that reflected the lights in and around Karakura, a white dress shirt underneath that was supporting a black tie with a white stripe down the middle, black slacks fastened to Zan's waist by a dark belt that ended upon equally black socks, and leather gloves and shoes that were both jet black and shined whatever light was not absorbed by their color.

Suddenly, and to Zans' slight surprise, a black rip opened in the sky and a being holding an immense sword began to step out of it. Zan lifted up his sunglasses to make sure that he was seeing things correctly then put them back over his crimson eyes and rubbed a hand through his silver-white hair before placing both into his pockets and stepping forward...

"Well Stolz, looks like we just found something to occupy some of our free time."

His foot reached the earth and he leaned slightly forward...only to completely disappear into the shadows.

It was within minutes of the first siting of a Garganta in Karakura town that a bright light appeared above a skyscraper near the center of the town. It then slowly turned into a pair of doors that slid open, out of which a lone figure stepped out of and lightly stepped onto the roof of the building. A relatively tall man with short, spikey black hair was left on the rooftop, wearing a sleeveless haori and a black kimono, the uniform of a Shinigami. The doors disappeared behind him and Shuhei Hisagi, Captain of th 9th Division was left alone on the roof. He looked around quickly and could see several Garganta opening across the sky over Karakura. However the closest one, was also the biggest, and he felt a large but quickly suppressed reiatsu emerge from it. Shuhei wasted no time and begun to head in the direction of the Garganta before it closed and its residents left the area. For now he was alone, but he could feel powerful reiatsu's popping up all over the place, and he was hoping that a couple would come to help him out.

As he got closer he tried to reduce his reiatsu as much as possible but he expected he might have already been spotted. When his shunpo had gotten him close enough to see the enemy, he quickly hid behind a ventilation system on a nearby building, still hoping that he hadn't been seen, and slowly drew his zanpakuto, while peering around the side of the building. he got a quick glimpse of the arrancar. He was quite tall, wielding an extremely large sword as well. 'Huh this guy looks like trouble.' He let out a small sigh and leaned back on the wall. 'Just my luck.' He whispered quietly to himself. He made sure that the explosives he wore on his arms were on tight and adjusted his captains haori slightly. He wasn't exactly looking forward to wearing it in battle as he expected it might get in the way,

Avery headed out of the Garganta and heard James call her a brat. Dressed in her usual dress of a cleavage showing bodice, and a short mini skirt that puffed out, along with boots that when clear up to her knees, she moved a head of him and bit, and gave him a flirty glance over her shoulder as she flipped her skirt up just a bit. "You know you want it."

Her attention turned to the two men in front of her, and her eyes immediately glued on Hisagi. "Hey James.....Can I keep him?" She asked over her shoulder at James, her head tilted to the side as she gave her cute face at Hisagi. She would take him with her whether he wanted to or not.

Syuora was rather bored at the moment. He had nothing to do, and he was almost out of cigarettes! He brushed his bangs out of his face as he brought a cigarette to his lips, using his reishi on his finger to light it. holding it in between his fingers, he exhaled smoke slowly, watching it gently wisp away. Syuora sat on a fire escape as he laid he zanpakuto next to him, sighing. As he closed his eyes, something familiar peaked his interest. He knew this feeling, yet it was almost if it was new to him. He started feeling other reiatsu signatures spike across the town. But the biggest, was only a walk away. Whoever thought that the gift of battle would be bestowed upon him today. Syuora stood up, the fire escape creaking and moaning under his feet as he jumped off, his boots echoing off of the gravel. Syuora brushed off his black cargo pants as he stood up. He was keeping it casual today, as he only wore the said pant, a black tank top with a black vest, and with his unusual cross on the end of his hair. Not to mention he carried his long Zanpakuto on his back. Syuora sighed, a small smile forming on his face, as he dissappeared with a shunpo.

Syuora arrived at the gathering of this massive amount of spiritual energy only to see what appeared to be an arrancar with a rather large sword. Syuora then spotted the female behind him. They had to be together. But they weren't the only ones here. Syuora noticed someone who was on par with him. It was a familiar person, someone he knew briefly in his time as a Gotei captain. But he could not name him at this moment. There was also another person, one he could not identify. Syuora chuckled a little to himself

" This guy looks tough, maybe he'll give me a run for my money!"

Syuora stood on the edge of an apartment complex, as he leaned on his zanpakuto blade, about as tall as him, in a thin, ninjato style. He was excited to see what these arrancar were made of..

James looked around, it seemed people of... challenge worthy power were approaching. The one with the most potential seemed to be a bount. Even then, a workout at best. Still, best to start off a battle with a flash. He raised a hand as a ball of black energy formed in front of it, veins of seemingly blood withering inside of it. It pumped for a few seconds before exploding out. The blast was large enough to hit every opponent he had and powerful enough to deal lots of damage if it hit. The pure pressure behind him from the blast was powerful enough to blast houses flying.

After this he looked back at Avery, she was, interesting. If she was not his fraccion he would pounce on her. Alas. " Avery, take him and do what ever you want with him. The other two are my play toys. " His gaze moved over the town, which would be very much damaged from the cero, no doubt considering the pure range of it, but he was unsure about the enemy. He lifted his sword off his shoulder and ran his hand down the blade in front of him.

OOC: I'm assuming that the cero is a normal one or a Gran Rey, but please tell me if I'm wrong (in a PM or something) and I'll change this post. Also, I'm not entirely sure how large the blast radius is, because I'm not sure exactly how far apart Zan is from the Vizard and Shinigami, or rather how far he was at the time of the blast.

Zanmato reemerged from the shadows standing somewhat far from the Shinigami and the Vizard who were apparently to be his allies for this battle. He began to spread out his shadows to get a better perspective and to increase his 'power' in an abstract sense of the word. He was after a few seconds had passed able to see both of his allies and his opposition quite clearly, as the shadows had spread to encompass a moderately large area rather quickly. Analyzing his situation for a few seconds, Zan quickly realized that the Vizard and Shinigami would be the closest thing that he would have to allies in this battle, for a battle was probably inevitable, just to judge by the beings assembled, being a Bount, a Shinigami, a Vizard, and two Arrancar. The irony of this moment was not lost on the Bount Leader by any means, and he slowly shook his head for a moment before giving off a long, defeated sigh. Then, he began to speak, and his voice whispered through the shadows to the Vizard and Shinigami.

"Normally this would be considered to be against my policy, but it looks like as long as you two are here with me we might as well help each other out."

Apparently he was not going to be given much choice in the matter any way, for at that moment one of the arrancar released a potent feeling black cero that threatened to inflict a great amount of pain and destruction to himself and Karakura if it struck the town, which would annihilate quite a bit of his snacks and entertainment. Of course, even though it was quite unusual, it looked like he'd have to play hero today. Great...

Zan looked up and estimated the blasts' power before lifting up an arm with a thoughtful expression. Five shadow hands arched up from Stolz main form and joined together at the central location of the blasts' targeted area to form one very large hand...a large hand that had a large grin in the center of it that opened itself up and began to swallow the cero whole.

"Just judging by the power of this cero, I'd estimate that this is one of the more powerful arrancar. Not that I know that much on the subject but I believe that you refer to them as Espada? Oh, and the name is Zan by the way, in case anyone's curious".

The Bount looked back to his 'hand' in time to see the last of the blast being drained away, and the hand began to recede back into the shadows from whence it came.

(OOC: Don't worry Zan, your post was fine. Also it was a normal Cero, but I guess my description of a Bleeding Cero could lead to the thought of a Gran Ray. I also just assumed you guys were around a quarter mile away since Shuhei was nearby, and so was Syoura, So I just assumed your were nearby too. Hope you did not mind that.)

It seems his attempt at hiding was in vain, as Shuhei had expected, as it seemed that at least one of them had noticed his movements, so he moved out from his cover to watch the two arrancars in clear visibility. He was still about two buildings away but the visibility was still clear, meaning he was in plain sight, and so were they. Shuhei then noticed another reiatsu appear close by and looked around to see a blonde haired man on a roof not that far away. He appeared quite powerful, around captain level, possibly a vizard. It seemed at least he wouldn't be taking these guys on by himself.

He then heard a strange voice seemingly out of nowhere. He gripped his zanpakuto and took up a fighting stance, ready for a surprise attack however it seemed that the voice had other intentions, and was willing to help them fight the enemy. Whoever he was, Shuhei was still glad as the odds were finally in their favour. He relaxed slightly and he turned his attention back to the two arrancars and was about to say something before he noticed the larger, more powerful one raise his arm and begin to charge a cero. He raised his zanpakuto and was ready to try and dodge the cero however it seemed someone wanted to intervene.

A large hand-like shape appeared inbetween him and the cero, and whatever the hand was seemed to stop the cero in its track. He had a confused look on his face but began calculating ideas of the battle. It was obvious this was one of his allies moves and either cancelled out, or even absorbed the attack. By the looks of things this would be best saved for the larger arrancar. He then heard the voice again, describing the attack this 'hand' had just blocked. Shuhei took another look around searching for the unknown speaker, but to no avail. But in the spur of the moment he said out loud 'I dont know if you can hear this, but what the hell. Yea this guy looks like an Espada, top four as well. But the other one doesnt look too bad, possibly just a normal arrancar, outside of the Espada class. It would be best if we could concentrate our efforts on the one who fired that cero. We take him out and our lives will get a hell of a lot easier!' He watched as the hand receded and he could see the two arrancars once more. 'And the name's Captain Shuhei Hisagi.' He then raised his blade at the two arrancars and narrowed his eyes. 'Lets just get this other with, I've got a lot of paperwork in the office.'

((OOC: sorry if first part of post is a bit rubbish, been a long day :S ))

Syuora knew that he had been spotted. It wasn't like he tried to hid himself anyway. It wasn't his style. Syuora continued to lean on his blade as the male arrancar started to do something. He could feel the spike in spiritual pressure as he knew an attack was to come. Syuora watched with curiosity as the man started to create a cero, ready to attack. Syuora continued to watch, not really phased, as his hair blew to the side. Syuora then felt another energy, as a hand of sorts reached out and absorbed the attack before it could fire. Syuora blinked a little as he heard a voice. It was a friendly one, which was good.

"I guess I can work with you guys.. You can just call me Syuora..."

Syuora didn't like the fact that these arrancar were intruding here. Syuora kick his sword out from under him and lifted it up, holding it by his side, as waited to strike..

(skipping avery)

James did not flinch at the display. Now he knew the one that was not a shinigami, was a bount and had a sort of shadow like ability. Smiling he bit his thumb, the blood trickling down into his palm. Another ball of energy formed but this was was exponentially more powerful. James himself did not exert any power it was still at 0%, but the power from the orb in his hand was massive. He took the same position as before and fired off his own Gran ray Cero.

James had to poise and facial expression of a bored man. Wishing to get this over with and get rid of Avery, then fuck her. A war? An invasion? A flicker of what was to come? No. This was none. This was but a flake of what they shall do, this was them spitting the face of their opponents. This was not even a Preliminary strike.

This was a declaration of war.

Zanmato nodded as the shinigami and vizard both affirmed that they were fighting with him and against the Espada whom had just unleash his cero. However, even though his knowledge of the Arrancar was quite limited, he still knew enough to know that just because he had absorbed a cero did not mean that the fight would be easy. In fact, judging purely by the strength of the aforementioned cero, the battle was going to be difficult, quite difficult.

The Bount licked his lips and grinned slightly as his shadow's spread to encompass several dozens if not hundreds of meters worth of area in a circle around him, even winding themselves around buildings in order to give Zan more of an advantage. It was a good thing that he did such a thing in fact, for now the Espada was charging another blast, one that was even more powerful than the previous one. But unlike last time, The Bount would be unable to absorb it. "Shit."

Not wasting any time, Zan quickly sprinted to the nearest building, a dozen and a half story tall office building, and using his shadows to create ledges and footholds, began to make his way to the top extremely quickly; to most it would appear that he was using a mastery level of Shunpo to scale the building, but this was untrue. He was simply fast when he needed to be, and at the moment, he needed quite a bit of speed to escape the blast radius. At one point the Gran Rey sailed past him and he looked at it for that single second, analyzing it as it passed before turning his attention back to the task at hand. When he made it to the top of the building, the Bount looked back down to the ground for a moment, checking for two things: one being if he had truly escaped the unknown blast radius, and the other being the condition of his temporary teammates, whom he had assumed would be able to escape the blast as well.

[Sorry, it's kind of late and I'm quite out of it. ]

((OOC: sorry in advance if the post is a bit short and crap, not been feeling too great recently))

As the the view of the arrancars became clear once again Shuhei prepared himself for the battle ahead, yet before anything happened again, he heard another voice, another ally by the sound of it as well, but different from the one before. 'So, its us three against these arrancars huh?' He thought to himself. He had a quick look around and although he couldn't see anyone yet, he could almost feel their presences around him. But he quickly turned his attention back to the larger arrancar as something caught his attention. It seemed he was charging another cero, but this one seemed more powerful and ominous. He couldn't rely on those hands to save him again.

So taking the initiative he used a shunpo to launch himself into the air before using another couple of shunpo's to get behind the arrancars before the cero was fired. He managed to make it out of the blast radius in time, but it was pretty close, knocking Shuhei off target slightly, so he ended up still behind the arrancars, but just to the right of them. However he quickly regained his composure and began chanting a kido while pointing at the male arrancar. 'Carriage of thunder. Bridge with a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Bakudo 61: Rikujoukourou!' Six beams of light then began to appear around the large male arrancar and without wasting any more time Shuhei pointed his hand once more to the arrancar and said 'Hado 32: Ōkasen!' Firing a wide yellow blast of energy towards the target. It was relatively weak, especially at this range but in combination of the bakudo, it should give the others a chance to attack as well.