บท 21: Grandstanding
[ Giant Stronghold Takeoff- One piece]
" AHHH! Get back!"
" What's happening?!"
" Lord Barragan's on a rampage!"
" Where's Szayelapporro?!"
Barragan's army of Hollows scrambled away from his throne room as Barragan and Bikou's spiritual pressures shot through the roof.
" Ho? Looks like your men are running away."
" They're a lousy bunch of loud mouths!"
" That's too bad. Looks like they're gonna miss the show."
" I'll cut you to ribbons."
" Now, that I'd like to see."
Barragan raised his giant axe overhead, while Bikou readied his staff. Then, at the same time, they brought their weapons forward, with a deadly shockwave emanating from their point of impact.
" Whoa! What power! Gaaaah!"
The unfortunate hollows still within the area found themselves suddenly being crushed by the sheer density of the spiritual pressure coming from Barragan and Bikou.
" Hahaha! You got some real power there, Old man." Bikou muttered.
Barragan grunted and pushed his axe harder down on Bikou's staff.
" Heh!" Bikou sneered and suddenly an amber flash of light emerged from the point of contact. between Bikou and Barragan.
" Damn you." Barragan cursed. He jumped backwards just as the cero emerged from the staff, narrowly avoiding being blasted right in the face by the powerful energy bomb.
As he was moving backwards, Barragan looked up as Bikou appeared above him, his finger extended ready to fire another cero.
Bikou launched his Cero and Barragan raised his axe. The pressure from the swing of his axe cut the cero in half down the middle.
The air slash continued, forcing Bikou to move from in front of it, unless he wanted to be cut.
" Damn!" Bikou cursed as the axe's pressure managed to slice his upper arm a little bit before soaring past him. " Alright, then!" Bikou began channeling another cero at the tip of his staff and flew straight towards Barragan. " YAHAAA!"
Bikou slammed the staff on the ground just as Barragan moved out of the way, blowing up the ground beneath him.
" Grrr! This is getting annoying!" Barragan howled.
An amber light of energy came shooting out of the smoke in the form of a straight javelin.
Barragan moved his head slightly to the left, allowing the javelin to soar on by without being touched by it.
The Javelin exploded behind Barragan. But for some reason the blast, which should have reached him, veered off.
*Bzzt!
" Got ya." Bikou exclaimed. He swung his staff at the back of Barragan's head, and suddenly it felt like his entire body began moving slower and slower. As if it was being dragged down by a weight unknown. " What the hell?!"
Bikou's eyes widened as one of Barragan's hands began reaching back for him. Realizing something was wrong, he tried to move away, but even as he retreated Bikou's body felt as though it were moving in slow motion.
Barragan managed to grab ahold of Bikou's left arm.
Bikou felt a strange sensation coming from Barragan's grip and knew immediately he had to get his distance. He opened his mouth and fired a cero right in Barragan's face, forcing the man to let go of his arm. Bikou used this moment to quickly distance himself from Barragan and quickly attended to his arm.
" It's broken?! How the hell?"
" Hahaha! What did you expect, from the King of Hueco Mundo?!"
" That's some scary power there. You broke my arm with a touch. I didn't even feel any pressure or force." Bikou spoke. He was still smiling on the outside, but on the inside, he knew he was in trouble.
Letting Barragan get even one touch on him? A bad mistake.
' I can't get close to him to touch him. When I do, it's like my body begins moving in slow motion. And my attacks... He repelled my cero earlier. It should have exploded behind him, but it was pushed away, by some invisible force. Which means I can't attack him in conventional ways. I gotta get tricky. But what will work? If he can push my attacks away, and break my bones with a mere touch, how do I get past his defenses?'
" You can try to hide behind that, arrogance all you want. But I can see it in your eyes. You're beginning to understand. Now..." Barragan extended a hand towards Bikou. " Rot and die! Respira."
[Bleach- Vasto Lorde]
A purple mist came from Barragan's hands. Bikou's eyes widened, and he quickly jumped backwards to avoid the mist.
Bikou began firing multiple Cero at Barragan, watching as they exploded in the mist earlier than he had intended.
He didn't know what that mist was, but he knew it was important to avoid it.
He continued firing blast after blast, before jumping into the air above Barragan.
" Cero Tormenta!" Bikou swiped his fingers at the ground beneath him and a line of consecutive explosions erupted from the ground.
Bikou watched as the smoke cloud gathering around Barragan dispersed and the man emerged unharmed from his consecutive barrage.
' Nothing. Not even a scratch?' Bikou thought.
It appeared as though nothing had happened at all. But then he saw it.
' Huh? What's that?!'
Bikou's eyes drifted to the area around Barragan. He noticed that the ground around him had been burned heavily.
' The ground is burned. But the moment, it gets close to him, it's as if the attack is curved at least a few inches from his body. Which means that there has to be a limit to what he can push away, or at the very least, it's a start.'
" Why are you just sitting up there?" Barragan asked as he watched Bikou stare in silence.
" Heh? I wonder? You know, I'm pretty bored, maybe I just feel like sitting here, huh? Did you think about that?"
" You're annoying me."
" That sounds like you a problem."
" Stop wasting time!"
Barragan jumped and began chasing Bikou through the air.
Bikou did his best to outmaneuver Barragan's attack as it chased after him. He landed back on the sandy ground and dodged at the last moment as a wave of the purple mist rushed by him.
Bikou looked behind him, and watched the mist devour the stone ground, turning it into dust with a mere touch.
" That's bad." Bikou muttered. Now realizing how dangerous that mist truly is.
*Bzzt!
Barragan appeared close to Bikou, with his hand outstretched. Bikou halted in his movements and quickly began retreating in a different direction.
However....
" Too slow!" Barragan exclaimed.
The purple mist of death, Respira, quickly caught up to Bikou and began spreading over his broken hand.
" DAMN!" Bikou acted quickly and used his staff to cut his own arm off. He then kicked what remained of the arm towards Barragan. " HAH!" With a shout, Bikou exploded his severed arm right in Barragan's face.
Bikou landed on the ground, breathing heavily. Blood began pooling from the missing part of his arm.
" Not bad. You removed the source of the problem, before it could spread to the rest of your body. There aren't many warriors, that can do such a thing so easily." Barragan muttered. " But surely you realize that this battle is over. There is nothing left for you to do but crumble away."
Bikou looked at Barragan with a smirk on his face. " Over?" He said. " RAAAAH!" He applied great pressure on his wound and from the gaping hole, another arm sprouted from where the last one had been removed, surprising Barragan.
" Instant regeneration."
" Well, it's not so much instant as it is, regeneration. I have to focus on it. And it's not easy." Bikou muttered. Bikou let out a breath of relief as the pain from removing his own arm vanished. " Okay, old man. I've got to admit, you are the trickiest bastard I've ever faced. That mist you create is deadly. It eats away at anything it touches. And somehow, you have an ability that lets you push away attacks in front of you. Damn." Bikou cursed.
" An attack that keeps opponents from getting close, and a shield that prevents attacks from afar. Can't get at you from the front. Can't get you from behind."
" That's right. What will you do now?"
Bikou smirked and pointed his finger down.
Suddenly an amber ball of energy fell from the sky.
Barragan's looked to the sky and raised his hand to block the attack.
However...
[ Bleach-Senna]
The moment Barragan took his attention off of Bikou, Bikou raised his left pointer finger upwards, and then another Cero appeared from directly below Barragan's feet.
Bikou smiled wide as Barragan realized the position he was in.
" You Bastard!" Barragan cursed.
Bikou figured if he couldn't hit Barragan from the front or from behind, then he'd have to try hitting him from below.
His cero exploded right in Barragan's face, consuming him within the ball of explosive fire.
" Damn... I'm hurting. I'm actually hurting pretty bad. Restoring an arm, took a lot out of me." Bikou complained. He grabbed his arm once again. Though most of the pain had gone away, the stinging feeling of his arm being torn off still lingered.
As much as he might not like to admit it.... Barragan was strong. And with no real way of getting at him with the mist around, Bikou wasn't really left with a lot of ways at actually hurting the man.
So, when Barragan finally appeared from the smoke, missing a chunk of his right arm, Bikou was surprised.
" Damn. He's still alive." Bikou muttered under his breath. He wasn't so much surprised, but more disappointed. Then again, hoping that something like that would kill the king of Hueco Mundo might have been wishful thinking.
" Damn you. Damn you!" Barragan cursed.
Bikou took a deep breath and stood straight up. " If this keeps going, we'd probably kill each other. I'd say we hold off on this little bout of ours. At least for now." Bikou told Barragan.
He needed to retreat. At least for now. Fighting Barragan to the death seemed like a fun idea. But Bikou knew that if things continued the way they were now, neither of them would be able to win.
And there was another strong spiritual pressure getting close to wIhere they were fighting.
" You think this is over? Nothing is over until you're dead. Do you understand me?"
" Don't be mad, old man. I hate leaving a good fight unfinished myself. But unfortunately, for you, I'm not an idiot. So, I'll leave you with this parting gift. TAKE IT!" Bikou raised his staff over his head and swung it towards Barragan, shooting a cero from his staff right towards Barragan.
Barragan raised his hand and blocked the attack coming at him, blowing it up before it reached him. However, the moment he did, the smoke from the cero obscured his vision for just a moment.
When the smoke cleared, he could see Bikou in the distance, running.
" You're not going anywhere!" Barragan gave chase, hunting Bikou down like a predator chasing after its prey. " You're mine!"
As Barragan got close, he reached out for Bikou. And when he was close enough, he wrapped his boney fingers around the man's throat.
However, instead of crumbling away at a touch, Bikou looked back at Barragan and smiled before suddenly turning into a giant amber ball of energy.
" It's a cero!" Barragan shouted in surprise. The Cero clone, then blew up right in Barragan's face once again.
Bikou watched in the distance as the explosion shot up to the sky.
" Wow, I can't believe he fell for that." Bikou joked. He laughed to himself quietly and then stopped for a moment.
' That spiritual energy I felt getting close to us.' He thought. ' It was as strong... No... It might have been stronger than mine.'
Bikou sighed in annoyance. " Damn. I hate that I had to end that. But I'm not stupid to think I can take them both on. Not carelessly anyway. If I used that, I probably could have done it. But... Ah well.... It's whatever."
Meanwhile Barragan sat in a crater, his cloak in tattered ruins, and his golden crown shattered.
" My, my. I can't believe it. Lord Barragan, are you alright?"
" I am not in the mood for your dulcet tones, Szayelapporro." Barragan muttered.
" My apologies, sir. I couldn't help myself."
Barragan scoffed and waved the man off. " Szayelapporro, I want you to find him. Find that monkey and kill him. Do you understand?"
" But of course... Though Hueco Mundo is vast and finding a particular person in such a large area, will be hard. It may be years before I find him again."
" Don't play games with me, Szayelapporro."
" Oh, alright." Szayelapporro muttered. " But for now, let's get you back to the castle. I'd love to hear all about your experience."
Barragan groaned in annoyance. He stood up, glaring daggers at the Hollow known as Szayelapporro.
His pride had been stained this day, but he would most definitely make up for it. Or else he'd die trying.
.............
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