Pho
Member
Evergloam as Ren Tegishahara
Reshin as Reshin Izukawa
Pho as Tabawara Udo
Reshin as Reshin Izukawa
Pho as Tabawara Udo
“Where would we even find them anyhow?”
The question was proposed by the Mystic vampire, Ren Tegishahara, mostly about the topic of hollow annihilation. Across from her was fellow unseated shinigami, Reshin Izukawa. The two managed to begin a discussion about the senseless - at least it felt like it - destruction of hollows and who could kill more.
It felt stupid. Where would they get the needed amount of hollows? Were they supposed to just go to Hueco Mundo? Or was there some slumberparty of hollows they didn’t know about? The vampire queen propped herself against the trunk of a nearby tree, looking at Reshin. With a questioning eyebrow raised, she asked her question once again.
It had been a pretty uneventful day that point in time when Reshin just so happened to be sitting along the walls of his own barracks meditating when Ren passed him by. Not one to be rude he decided to speak to her and it all somehow ended up dragging out into a full fledged conversation about hollows.
As of that moment he stood pondering what Ren had asked of him with a look of intrigue. Unfortunately he didn’t have an answer for it as he himself was not anymore sure than Ren was on the matter.
“I wish I knew that, but since were still technically on duty we should probably be more focused on bringing in our report to Seireitei regarding the strange mishaps that have been going on in Rukongai lately,” he responded half-heartedly.
In all honesty their only task now was to file their report which afterwards would leave the pair with nothing to do. Really that was about as boring of an outcome to this day as could be and the prospect of doing something more radical was very tempting to Reshin indeed. Honestly he could care less about what they had to do so long as there was something interesting to experience in the meantime.
A biting wind threw up flakes of snow and spread them around Seireitei, thwarting everyone's plans to keep their paths in order. This same zephyr happened to bring Ren's words to Udo's ears as he walked nearby, and he couldn't help but be curious about the "them" they were speaking about. The lime-haired reaper adjusted his course slightly and headed over to where the mystic was, and noticed one of his subordinates there as well.
Keeping his hands warm in his pockets, the sword-mage said, "Good afternoon Tegishahara-san, Izukawa-san. Some words on the breeze told me that you are looking for someone. Do you need any help?"
The vampire turned her head to Udo, slipping her gloved hands from her pockets to bow to the officer, only to let her hands find warmth once again. “Good afternoon, Udo-san.”
She looked to Reshin, raising an eyebrow. “Well, we started a discussion. A contest between the two of us on who can eliminate the most hollows. They would be low-level hollows that the captains send unseated members like us after, but ones we could handle possibly. The two of us have fought hollows together, so we aren’t unprepared. But the only issue is finding the hollows. There’s been no reports as far as I know about a huge gathering of hollows or anything of the kind.”
“Originally we were thinking about if we could go on another mission, but every time we do we get dispatched to handle more trivial matters such as studying strange phenomenon and then reporting them back like we are now,” Reshin clarified as he stood up to greet his superior officer.
“I don’t doubt the authority of the Gotei at all, but I do kind of find the whole idea of reducing ourselves to deal with such minor issues is irritating at times,” he added as his face for once displayed his displeasure.
The officer hummed and said, "I think by now I've taught enough shinigami to pick out the ones that are likely to rise through the ranks, and I think you two have the potential for that. Consequently, there is the possibly that you're not getting missions of your level of ability because you do not yet possess ranks that reflect your level of ability. The thing is, I have noticed that promotions don't happen when a captain is away or busy. So until then, I suppose I'll just do what I can to keep you guys occupied."
Udo gave the two reapers a pause to wrap their heads around his somewhat non-committal answer, and then returned to the original point. He said, "So, we're looking for hollows, right? I could try asking a higher-ranked officer to deploy me to the living world, and I could bring you two along. From that point, we could take advantage of the Hollow Early Detection System that's connected to everyone's soul phones."
The lime-haired spell-blade pulled out his soul phone and called the division's receptionist, who put him through to the required authority, who then formally initiated the mission and authorized Senkaimon use for it. It would have been nice if Udo could open the gate himself, but as he said, lack of a captain meant lack of promotions. Just one seat higher would make a hell of a difference.
The vampire nodded in silence, listening to the officer suggest going on a mission to simply hunt hollows. Now that seemed easy. As the authority to use a Senkaimon was given, Ren turned to face Reshin, smiling a smile that would’ve been reminiscent of her Cheshire mask that hung on her left hip. “Udo-san, will you be the referee for us since you are coming along?”
Reshin felt a bit jittery about what was about to happen. He had been forced to endure a series of boring ass tasks from the Eighth Division and now he was finally getting the chance to just let loose on a few hollows. Excited about the prospect of killing off these soul sucking beasts he looked to Udo to gauge his response. A contest to see who could kill off the most hollows may have actually been moments away.
Now all that was needed was that Udo come along and keep track of their kills.
“I think if you were the ref that would help to avoid any controversy on who killed how many hollows,” Reshin commented, trying to take the angle of someone who needed to make sure there was no funny business going on. But really it was just to goad him into witnessing what his pupil had been doing since they last met.
Udo said, "That's fine by me. I don't think there's any other preparation to be done, so let's go. Here's hoping the weather down there is better than this!"
On that note, the middle-aged man turned head first into the frozen wind and headed over to the Eight Division Senkaimon with the other two not far behind.
Mere moments later, the three shinigami stepped out in Kyoto, and as if the weather knew what Udo had said, it was worse over here. Gusts of wind tossed twigs and dead leaves up into the air, with snow underfoot, and black, billowing clouds rolling over the sky. The rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance as winter's might drew closer. The space-mage pulled out his soul phone and fiddled around with the buttons, adjusting his view on the screen. While doing this, his yelled through the wind to his charges, "By the way, did anyone ever teach you how to scroll or zoom out on these things? You might find it useful."
After a few minutes of zooming, scrolling, clicking and wiping off snow, Udo found the answer he wanted. He said, "If you look here, you'll see there's a bunch of weaker hollows in the east. If we head into that valley over there and draw their attention, they'll come in from two sides. You guys got it?"
The Mystic nodded, turning her head to look at Udo’s phone and memorize the coordinates. A bunch of hollows, all ripe for the contest between a vampire and a shadow demon. Sounded like fun.
“If you think we need help, Udo-san, don’t hesitate to join in. Our lives come before the contest.” With those words spoken, Ren began to take her trek towards the destination Udo stated the hollows would emerge from their sickly home of Hueco Mundo. A flash step carried her away from the two men and all that remained was her footprints in the heavy snow.
Not one to skip a beat the shadow demon in question made his way towards the same coordinations eager to start the competition. He wasn’t really worried about how it would turn out though. He was only worried about how much carnage he was getting ready to cause.
When the pair had reached the location described to them it was officially on. Not too far from them were a large horde of hollows just waiting to be exterminated. Eager to get started Reshin dived straight into the action as he caught the attention of about five weak hollows.
“Perfect,” he said smiling as he unsheathed his sword in anticipation of what was about to happen.
Not wanting to be left behind, Udo made his way in the desired direction as well, finding himself an outcrop on the side of the valley to situate himself as the competition began. Ren to his north, Reshin to his south, and streams of weak hollows beyond them. While Reshin's first wave contained five of the beasts, there were three headed towards Ren.
The first of the younger spell-blade's opponents was a dog-like hollow, with an alligator's mouth and the tail of a peacock, tipped with bone blades. This beast launched at its prey, spinning through the air as its mouth spun around to clamp down on his throat. The other four followed behind at more of a jogging pace, perhaps avoiding the crossfire.
The mystic, on the other hand, found two monsters attacking her at once. A humanoid creature with tentacles coming from its face and hands reached out to grab her, while its black unicorn companion charged at her horn first.
Reshin instinctively dodged the first attack by flash stepping backwards a few meters allowing the first hollow to miss its intended target as it crashed to the ground. Then when the other four had caught up to the first hollow Reshin took his chance to destroy them all at once.
“Halt! Confine to these bars, Bakudou number twenty seven, Keeji!” he shouted as a large steel cage started to ensnare all of the beasts inside of its confines. Already things seemed to be going well on his end as he managed to trap each of his targets, but that was no reason to get carried away because at any moment a number of hollows could show up and attack.
“I normally wouldn’t waste this on hollows of this level, but since the competition is on who can kill the most hollows than I guess it would only be appropriate to get the upperhand from the start with a release,” he murmured to himself. Raising his sword he then began to call forth his calling card.
“Devour thine enemies light of hope, Shuryou Onikage!” he shouted as his reiatsu became shrouded in darkness. Then out of that darkness appeared a brand new sword which held the insignia of shadow demon embedded on the side of the white blade with the black and white checkered pattern handle.
Then in an instant a pack of ten wolves rose from the darkness that originated from Reshin’s zanpakutou. And as if it was naturally instilled in them the wolves immediately stormed the trapped hollows and attached themselves to the cage before detonating as Reshin simply laid back and let the magic happen.
There was a force of reiatsu that overwhelmed Reshin’s own reiatsu that came forth from Ren. Arcane energies spun around the battlefield and gathered at Ren’s palm. At the center of her hand, yellow embers coalesced to form the newest of the trio of fire Kidou she recently memorized and took to learning. “Oukasen!”
A gout of arcane gold flames erupted from Ren’s hand, engulfing the black unicorn and the hollow with the tentacles for a face. The third one, a serpentine hollow, was crushed under the inhuman strength of Ren’s fist. She stood in wait as the next small wave of the deceased’s kin came for her and Reshin.
So far the plan was working, as the beasts streamed into the valley. After the first wave, the score sat at 5-3. Udo was impressed with how well these two were handling, but how long could they keep this up?
This time three cat-like hollows approached Reshin, but were not clustered like their predecessors. One charged head-on while the other two moved to flank on each side. These ones were fast - far too fast to evade.
On Ren's end, five dog-like hollows approached her in a pack, with a slightly larger one at the front. There was no telling what these ones would do.
Reshin was clearly cornered at this point and these new hollows were clearly smarter than the ones that had fallen before them. They were very well coordinated cutting off his path of escape as well as isolating him in one spot for the alpha to get a clean strike. This was probably the first time Reshin had seen a hollow that had the capacity for formulating strategies other than the Bink.
In one motion of his sword his shadow, influenced by his reiatsu, expanded and solidified in a spiral pattern as it rose skyward forming the serpent like body of the dragon that when the first hollow had made contact it was almost instantly caught by the eight meter behemoth who then coiled itself around the trapped beast.
Once in this state it would be incapable of utilizing its sonido leaving it vulnerable to Reshin’s next attack. By channeling the dark energy his sword produced when he swung his blade a pillar rose out of its shadow passing through the dragon’s body to penetrate the mask of the hollow thus destroying it.
“That’s six,” Reshin noted as he himself kept count of the hollows he eliminated. What gave him the advantage in his opinion was that his shikai was capable of dealing with multiple adversaries at once while Ren’s was purely meant for close combat. Because of this he felt that he should be able to maintain a slight lead despite the power difference because of this fact.
Turning back to face the remaining two hollows the same wolves from before had raised themselves from the darkness and surrounded their prey before detonating, and leaving nothing but destruction behind.
“And that’s eight,” he counted as he went along.
The vampire watched as the pack of canine hollows were set on her, the larger one circling Ren as the other four began to follow suit. They watched her carefully as she released her zanpakutou, drawing the blade from its sheath. “Drink...”
“Kyuketsuki.” The powerful winds of change kicked up, destroying the alabaster mask resting on her face and the zanpakutou in her hand. Extravagant gloves of reishi formed, humming powerfully. Reshin’s zanpakutou was strong, as was his reiatsu, but Ren had the advantage in strength. A battle of who could last longer would’ve went in her favour if it came to it.
As the first of the four canines went towards Ren with deadly intent, she brought her fist fiercely onto its skull, shattering the bone mask immediately. Her glove hummed with crimson life as she grinned, hearing the sultry voice of Kyuketsuki sound off in her head. “Oh, that is good~ Smells like wet dog, but the taste is... unf!~”
Ren watched the hollows surround her, slowly closing in closer and closer. she readied her body, waiting patiently to show the fruits of her labour from training with the Fourth Division captain.
Udo carefully watched these two slay the beasts one after another, and noticed that they were actually doing a good job. A shadow prowled behind Udo, but it hadn't escaped his notice. As the three-headed octopus beast lunged at his back, the reaper drew his blade and spun on his feet, cleaving all three heads at once. Hopefully not too many would have the same idea, because he needed to keep the score, which currently sat at 8-4.
The remaining four dog-hollows lunged straight at Ren, one per limb. If a single one latched its teeth on to her flesh, she would have a problem worth worrying about. Meanwhile, a single snake slithered across the ground towards Reshin, in a serpentine motion that made its movement difficult to track.
In one powerful set of kicks that left her body turning mid-air briefly, Ren destroyed the two hollows that were set on her lower body, their masks turning into nothing save for white powder. The two aiming for her torso were dealt with in a single gout of fire, though different in colour from the previous one. “Soukatsui!”
Arcane cerulean flames erupted, destroying the canine hollows and roaring violently towards Reshin. In a strange twist of fate, it also wiped the serpentine hollow from existence, leaving nothing but charred remains that soon faded from existence. In her mind, Kyuketsuki was in an uproar, calling out cheating, but nonetheless laughing soon after at the underhanded play by Ren.
“Alright whose ne.....” Reshin started until a random burst of Soukatsui ended up incinerating one of his targets. Turning back Reshin gave Ren a cross stare as if to say that he might just start hogging targets in a moment.
“Alright then you wanna play dirty than we can play dirty,” he said to himself as he waited for the next wave to come his way.
The hordes flowed, and the soldiers fought valiantly. Udo swiftly disposed of those that tried to be extra sneaky, while Ren and Reshin skillfully disposed of any beast that dare tread along the bottom of the valley. As time went on, the two contestants would get ever closer to their limits. This was the time when things would get interesting.
A buffalo-like hollow, with three tails and large fangs kicked up a massive amount of dust as it charged towards Reshin, a beast clearly stronger than the rest, It would take more than one hit to deal with this one.
On the other side, a frog-like hollow with a hundred eyes hopped and leapt towards Ren, and this hollow looked about as tough as the one Reshin faced.
As the amphibian hollow leapt towards the vampire, she let out a grunt of pain, but continued on. Her hands, burned slightly from the use of a completely augmented Sanjukageki, tightened as she waited for the moment to strike. The loud croaking felt ominous, if a bit funny.
“Ribbit, fucker!” the two-toned voice of Ren called out, though it seemed obvious Kyuketsuki was in charge of speaking. A single fist empowered by Goraikou sent the toad flying into the air, knocking every single one of its eyes in various directions. As it remained in the air, Ren held her position, waiting for it to descend. Over the battle, she had accumulated enough charges to last her a length of time. But sadly, five was the limit.
Oh well, she would make due.
The moment the toad came close enough to punch, the vampire let loose. Kidouryouku flooded her arm as she felt her fist impact against the skin of the toad. Her hand went clean through with the inhuman strength she demonstrated throughout the entire war going between hollows and two shinigami. It went even further considering the Strength of the Vampire tore through it like a bad burrito.
Within a second, its dying croak echoed through the air as it faded away, washing over Ren in soul particles. She panted heavily, shaking slightly at the reiatsu exerted to destroy the hollow.
“Not sure you wanna do that pal,” Reshin said as he leapt off to the side a few meters causing the gargantuan to run into a nearby wall that crumbled over the top of it. Using the opportunity to take it before it had the chance to stand up again Reshin continued his assault. the wolf pack had been resurrected again to cause more destruction as they surrounded the monster and detonated just like before.
Unfortunately though this would not be the end of that hollow as it somehow stood right back up. It had suffered some nasty injuries, but it still had quite a bit of fight left in it. Amazed by the hollow’s resolve Reshin looked on with awe as the soul eating cannibal charged him again.
As it neared him again Reshin began to chant another kidou that if successful should put the thing down for the count.
"Thor's pride springs forth from me. The power of the skies give me strength. Hadou number twenty three, Raigen!” he called as a stream of lightning burst forth to electrocute and incinerate the hollow in front of him. To make sure that it was down for good Reshin took a jab at its mask with his sword causing it to vanish as he did so.
Udo yawned with boredom as he waited for the cruellest part of the exercise to arrive. After a very long five minutes, it appeared in the distance. Thundering into both ends of the valley were two stampedes of hollows of every size and shape, numbering at least twenty each. The officer had a plan for when the two soldiers got overwhelmed, but until then he just watched to see what they would do.
When the vampire saw the wave of beings rush over the valley towards the spiritual gods exerting the reiatsu they were, she felt her body freeze. Only briefly, but still. Did she have the strength to do it? To continue trying to destroy these hollows?
“Sanjukageki!”
Yes, she sure as fuck did. Augmented by the powers of her knowledge of kidou, as well as the strength of Kyuketsuki, the arcane flames bloomed into a fiery display of three different coloured gouts of fire that rushed out dangerously to the hordes. Her arm twisted slightly in annoyance and disdain towards the action, but she was indifferent towards the act. She was better off taking out as many as she could before they came in. Then she could see how well she could fight on her own.
One by one, nearly half of the horde fell to her magical inferno. Charred carcasses fell, hollows stampeded over the remains and continued on. When they neared, Ren panted heavily as she dared her body to try to stop. She went through worse with Lucia training to push her body past her limits. She was trained to do this. “Reshin-san! How are-” she was stopped as a worm-like hollow slithered past her head, dodged only by her reflexes. “How are you doing over there?!” A fist flew, the energies of Goraikou powering her fist through yet another hollow. This time? The mask. Eleven down in two moves. Could the vampire queen keep it up?
Reshin’s body was nearing its limit, but he continued on in spite of all the pain that he may have been enduring at that point in time. The two shinigami had been fighting these gigantic hordes of hollows for quite a while now and as it stood it didn’t seem as if the hordes would be receding any time soon.
His body ached with unbelievable discomfort, and his constant attacks using Shuryou Onikage’s abilities had begun to take their toll, but Reshin refused to admit defeat to anyone hollow and shinigami alike. As the horde pressed forward another set of wolves rose up to eliminate as many targets as possible within a wide spread assault.
They lashed out viciously as all ten wolves locked onto a target and in seconds small explosions were wiping out the intended targets. That was ten more down, but Reshin wasn’t satisfied as he struck the ground with his sword as darkness swelled around his body to a five meter radius before forming into a guillotine around the first hollow to come in range. Then dropping its lethal blade the hollow was then disposed of.
That made eleven kills to match Ren’s recent streak leaving them neck and neck with Reshin only a kill behind.
“I’m doing fine on my end Ren!” he called back as the mass mob of hollows surrounded him. “But don’t feel too bad if I end up stealing the win from out under you!” he poked playfully as he leapt out of the way of a series of claws, jaws, fangs, tusks, and hooves that threatened to kill on the spot.
When a trio of hollow came within distance, Ren’s body almost crumbled. Well, technically, it did. Her body fell to the ground with the intent to dodge, suffering only the claws of a lion-esque hollow raking her back. Crimson painted the valley ground beneath her, but she didn’t stop. One of the hollows was dealt with with a swift punch. “Demon Fist!”
Scarlet life cloaked her fist as she sent it roaring into the hollow’s mask, destroying it with ease. The lion-esque hollow and the worm hollow were set on her, the worm digging its circular range of teeth into her left leg. A sharp cry of pain came from her as she stabbed her zanpakutou into the mask with all the force that she could muster. The lion sunk its teeth into the ground after she moved slightly, barely managing a decapitating chomp.
When she was able to get a moment's reprieve from the onslaught, she managed to land a powerful jab to its mask. It cracked, and soon after multiple jabs and kicks born of annoyance and fury, the mask was destroyed. But one thing remained. The truth that her strength was slowly depleting. “Oh yeah? Well, I’m still in the lead!”
In his moment of interaction Reshin was unable to see the giant fist of an ape like hollow as it smashed directly into him from his blind side sending the shinigami right through the window of a nearby building. Blood stained his shihakushou as glass shards were stuck all across his body, and to make matters worse he may have had a broken rib or two.
Relentless the remaining nine hollows left of the horde on his end came after him seeking to take devour his soul. He was already feeling so weak, but if he did nothing than he would surely die here and be disgraced by becoming some D-ranked hollow’s fast food item. Unwilling to let himself give into his body’s will to break he forged ahead.
The hollows surrounded him as they all seemed ready to finish him off, but before they could react more wolves appeared from their own shadows. Being in such proximity with their targets the recreated physical constructs of dark hounds caused yet another series of explosions to go off destroying each of the hollows before him.
Blood was now oozing its way from his mouth as he figured there may have been some internal bleeding. Forcing himself to stand up he slowly rose using his sword as support until he was back to a vertical base. Limping out of the building he crept up the rode with his arm favoring his side where his rib was presumably broken.
He had managed to snatch the lead. Now all he had to do was secure the win, but did he even have enough power left to do that. His vision was now starting to become blurry, and his legs wouldn’t stop wobbling, but he continued on. It was now come down to the wire and the stage was being set for the grand finale of this epic contest.
When she heard the echoing boom of an explosion go off just a few dozen meters away, Ren flinched, assuming her comrade perished. Immediately, she pushed past a serpentine hollow to run to the area, dashing past what few, if any, hollow remained for Reshin to defeat.
“Reshin-san!”
When she finally saw him, he was in shambles. Wounds everywhere from the attacks and the explosions of his own zanpakutou, blood poured forth from his mouth and his bones were shattered. The bad part of all of this? He was probably done seeing hollows. It sucked that Ren brought her bunch to him.
When the cacophony of roars, howls and various sounds from the remaining hollows reached them, Ren only looked at Reshin. “I’m willing to give up if you can help me take out what I can’t.”
She grinned a soft grin, Kyuketsuki’s battle gloves humming in anticipation. A sudden change in the competition!
“I would hate to win by default so I’ll tell you what Ren. Forget the score that was being kept from before because whoever kills the most hollows now will be the winner,” he said smiling in a ways to which it was obvious he was agreeing to help her out.
Taking a shaky, but ready stance the two prepare to launch a final attack on the seven remaining hollows that now encircled them waiting for the two injured reapers to make a move against them.
“I think this will be almost as fun as when we killed Bink,” he commented with a childish grin that seemed to brighten up his dark, bloodied up face. Then like two samurai near death they made their last stand as they both charged the remaining hollows.
Udo's eyebrows sat flat above his eyes as he judged their decision. Running off to a side so that they could be surrounded in a one-eighty degree arc with a wall to restrict their movements was definitely not a good idea. Retreating to his position would have been much smarter. The last of the horde encircled his comrades, so the reaper started making his way over there, planning how to resolve this situation.
Reshin was clearly the more injured of the two, so four of the hollows charged towards him while the remaining two leaped at Ren. The last hollow was another serpent, which reared up at the back and opened its mouth wide, unleashing a torrent of flame towards everything in front of it.
Ren watched as Reshin was set on by a group of hollows, holding her hand out towards the small pack of various targets. Yes, targets. “Soukatsui!”
While the vampire Mystic didn’t have the strength to fend off the two off of her while guarding Reshin, she could handle protecting him from death. Arcane waves of cerulean flames danced against the skin of several of the hollows, destroying a single one that attacked her and three of the ones attacking Reshin. Their charred remains hit the ground with a crackle as their ashes dispersed and their bodies wasted away into spiritual particles.
When the last hollow she had to deal with came with full force onto her, her shoulder was the decided target. Thick teeth that were reminiscent of a saber-tooth tiger found home in her flesh, the largest of the teeth piercing straight through. Crimson washed down his teeth as it splashed onto the ground in a colourful display of bloody art.
A cry of pain came from her as she attempted to throw punch after punch against the mask of the creature. Her strength was leaving, so it was much harder, but she wasn’t giving up. The flames of the third hollow they had to deal with were racing ever closer, to the point where Ren could feel the heat a moment before they even came within range. When the flames bore down on the vampire, her body is what saved her. Instinctive movements that forced her to live. Grabbing the tiger-like hollow on top of her by the throat, she put it in front of her as the flames tore into its skin like a blowtorch. Her body, barely, was shielded from the inferno that threatened to waste her and Reshin.
The vampire waited for the flames to die off - with the hollow on top of her - before turning her head to check on Reshin. Was he as resourceful as she was and managed to find a way to stay alive? “Reshin-san!”
The demon swordsman was caught off guard by the absolute ferocity of the remaining hollows as they each attacked. Before his eyes though he found the last of his worries eliminated as they were destroyed by the flames of Ren’s kidou. Turning back to try and help her out all that could be seen was a great wave of flames sweeping over everything as it headed towards him.
He wasn’t sure if it was a reflex or an instinct, but whatever it was caused him to react in that exact instant as the familiar black reiatsu from his sword that was the source of his power emerged from Shuryou Onikage to form a wall out of solidified darkness to fend off the full brunt of the flames as they attempted to bear down on him.
When they finally died down all that could be seen were the two remaining monsters as they double teamed Ren. With what he had left of his strength he unleashed his final pack of wolves to finish the job. Five wolves went after the farthest hollow and subdued it before destroying it in a small blast.
The last five went after the hollow that was attacking Ren. They managed to wrestle it away from her as they bit and clawed at all available limbs, dragging it as far away from Ren as possible before blowing up. Out of energy Reshin collapsed to the ground having used a great amount of his reiatsu while also having strained his injuries severely.
Udo suddenly appeared out of thin air on a ledge above the embattled pair, spun on his feet and aimed his palm down at the space in front of them where the ravenous beasts just were. Amethyst eyes focused on the chaos below, and then the blade arcanist realized that his intervention was no longer needed. Right at their limits, these two shinigami managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Udo felt for the presence of more hollows nearby, and found none. Thankfully, the feeding frenzy was over.
The contest judge of the day hopped down to the ground and turned to face the competitors. Both were a bloody mess, one still standing, the other not. Udo put a hand on Ren's shoulder and said, "Good work. While you lost the contest to kill the most hollows in the area, it's clear that Reshin has an advantage when fighting against multiple targets. However, you're the one still standing, so if the initial premise was any different, you would have won."
The officer looked down at his subordinate on the ground and said, "Our very, very, very helpful comrades in the Fourth can deal with his internal bleeding problem. Other than that, I think it's more exhaustion than anything else. How are you holding up?"
“Other than my shoulder having a hole it shouldn’t and my body hurting... I’m fine,” Ren remarked casually as her zanpakutou reformed in her sheath, the gloves wilting like a rose past its prime. The Mystic looked to Reshin’s near unconscious form, walking to it with a slight limp. Taking what little strength she had to lift his arm and body over her shoulder, she carried him to Udo. The young man saved her life, and for it, she’d be indebted. Maybe.
“Let’s get back, please. I wouldn’t mind getting my shoulder healed by the Fourth.”
"Of course."
The spell-blade pulled out his soul phone and requested a Senkaimon for return. Not much later, the familiar doors opened before him. He stood to the side and said, "Ladies first."
With Reshin over her shoulder, the vampire walked through the doors with a heavy stumble, groaning without any of the excitedness or joy she started the contest with. She was tired, wounded and sweaty. Reshin was wors off. She was happy to return to the Fourth, for the umpteenth time.
“How gentlemanly of you.”
And with that the Senkaimon closed transporting the trio of shinigami back to the realm of the spirits, and more specifically Seireitei to where the latter would receive treatment for their wounds as the battle had finally drawn to a close with a decisive winner.
[6127 words]