Chapter 8: FUBAR
Isabella struggled fiercely to maintain her hold on her sword, trembling more and more with each passing second as she started to give ground. She gritted her teeth and pushed forward, but that only served to move her farther back. Meanwhile, her opponent showed no sign of struggle. Kenpachi grinned manically as he leaned into the locked blades. "What's the matter? You were so confident when you charged right in. Where's that fighting spirit?" he taunted.
"I'll show you fighting spirit!" Isabella roared, temper flaring. She spun out of the way, letting Kenpachis blade smash into the rocky ground beneath them, splitting it. Quickly she lunged, blade flashing in what little moonlight made it down to the underground cavern. It plunged into the ragged clothes of the former captain, but suddenly stopped dead in its tracks. Isabella's face transformed from an overconfident smile, to confusion, to horrified realization.
"Couldn't cut me? I'm not surprised." Kenpachi growled, reaching down and grabbing her arm at the wrist, pulling it and the sword away. The rip in his clothes showed that there was no wound, not even a scratch on the skin. "You can't hurt something that's stronger than you. It's just a fundamental law of nature." He raised his sword, tightening his grip on Isabellas arm, preventing her escape despite her desperate attempts to wrench it free. "I'll admit, you peaked my interest at first. But I'm bored now. So let's see if we can coax out some of your little friends, eh? See how they stack up." He brought the sword down, intending to cleave the young woman in two.
David felt the gun barrel leave the back of his neck as Joshua turned, firing rapidly at something moving fast across the clearing. The shape pulled back, avoiding the lethal shots. David noticed a faint whistling noise as well as a strange wetness on his knee. He shrugged the last one off, figuring that it was only fresh blood. He was more interested in the weapon, and the target of the shots. "Anthony?" he asked as a loud roar drew his attention away from the second in command.
Ewart was there as well, and the large man had somehow snuck up on the equally large Kenpachi, bodily tackling the man in order to prevent him from harming Isabella. Joshua was busy laying suppressing fire on Anthony, as well as trying to keep David from escaping. Kenpachi, it seemed, was far more interested in the blonde currently trying to wrestle him to the ground.
"Hahahahaha! Now, this is someone I can get a good fight out of!" the blood hungry captain boasted, twisting to slash at the other man. Ewart was forced to release his opponent, backing off and drawing his claymore. The weapon crashed to the ground, its weight to much for even Ewart himself to wield easily with one hand. Kenpachi raised his sword, gesturing with his free hand. "Come on. Entertain me for a bit." he challenged.
"Entertain?" Ewart asked. "Is combat some sort of game to you?"
"Game? No, nothing that complicated." Kenpachi answered. "Fighting is the greatest form of living. No one is more alive than when they are seconds away from death. Don't you feel that rush, that flow of adrenaline when you fight a strong opponent?"
Ewart was silent. "Battle is not a game." he replied finally. "It is a terrible thing that should be avoided. But in the event that it cannot," he gripped his sword tight, "then it should be done as quickly, and as thoroughly as possible."
Kenpachi's grin spread, if possible, even wider. "That's more like it!" he bellowed. "Let's go!" He charged forward, arms spread wide, leaving himself open on purpose. He was trying to test his opponent, figure out how Ewart would react, gauge his fighting level. Ewart did not disappoint. He swung up the claymore in a mighty cleave. Kenpachi shifted his position to the left slightly, letting the blade slice into his shoulder instead of his neck and body. This allowed him to bear down on his opponent, slashing across Ewarts exposed chest. The blonde man was caught off guard by the others savagery, backing away again and clutching his shallow, but large wound.
"You are not the kind of opponent to take it easy with." Ewart muttered, inspecting the blood on his hand.
"Finally figuring that out? You're not as dumb as you look." Kenpachi snarked. "So why don't you stop holding back? I thought you said a fight isn't something to drag out?" He charged again, grin splitting his face as he hacked and slashed with his sword. Ewart managed to avoid most of the blows, blocking the ones that he couldn't with his sword. Since he couldn't lift it fast enough, he simply moved it into the path of his opponents blade, tip still buried into the ground. Kenpachi seemed to notice this, moving in to force Ewart away from his weapon. The large man suddenly counterattacked, letting Kenpachi get a slight hit in on one of his arms before grabbing his own sword with both hands and lunging forward savagely.
Kenpachi merely sidestepped the attack and pushed forward, clothes-lining Ewart in a surprising move. The blonde was knocked off of his feet, something that doesn't happen to a man his size every day. Collapsed on the ground, he quickly rolled away to avoid Kenpachis follow up attack, grabbing his sword in the process. Both men stayed still for a moment, catching their breath.
"A better fight than I've had in a while." Kenpachi complimented. "Guess your little group isn't the bunch of useless weaklings I thought you were."
Ewart remained silent, merely readying his claymore. He sidestepped to his right, and Kenpachi did the same. They circled each other, waiting for the other to make a mistake, leave an opening. Finally, Ewart struck, spinning around and putting as much force into his swing as he could. Kenpachi knew instinctively that he couldn't afford to block a blow like that, so he did the next best thing. He jumped, leaping into the air and allowing the sword to swish by under him harmlessly. "Though you could get me with something like that?" Kenpachi asked, clearly annoyed.
That's when he noticed that Ewart hadn't stopped spinning. As gravity took over, Kenpachi fell down towards the earth, into the path of the blade once again. Only this time, there was no way to avoid it. "Shit." he growled, readying his sword in order to block at least some of the blow. With a mighty clang, the swords collided, and a sonic crash echoed throughout the clearing. Kenpachi was thrown back, sailing across the field of battle from the destructive force put behind Ewarts blow. Despite the block, the sheer strength of it had mangled Kenpachis sword arm, leaving it broken.
Ewart skid to a stop, still tightly gripping his sword. He glanced through his golden locks at his opponent. "That would have killed most men." he stated. "But you are not most men." The giant straightened, facing Kenpachi. "As I have said, I have no love for battle. I wish to see it end, and end it shall." He raised his sword, so that the blade was pointed to the sky, hiding his face. "Rumble! Stoirmaoiseanna!"
Isabella sat on the cold hard ground, her machete laying a few feet away. Her face was frozen in shock, and she was still recovering from the utter terror she had undergone at the mercy of Kenpachi Zaraki. She had never felt so weak, so utterly useless. The man could have killed her at any time he wanted, and there was absolutely nothing she could have done to prevent it. Only Ewarts intervention had stopped her execution, and the thought terrified her even more.
No, stop it she snapped at herself mentally. You have to pull yourself together. You still have something to do, and I will be damned if I'm going to let some muscle-bound, long-haired, one-eyed freak prevent me from doing it! She reached out shakily and grabbed her weapon. The familiar shape of the cold steel in her hand seemed to comfort her, and she rose to her feet steadily. She didn't have to look over to see that Kenpachi and Ewarts fight was about to get brutal, as the rumbling sound confirmed that her blonde comrade was using his shikai. That bastard doesn't have long to live now she smirked.
Choosing to continue on with her mission, she decided to head into the enemy stronghold. After all, rescuing that poor sap that got himself captured was the entire reason they were here in the first place. She took a few steps towards the rocky outcropping before she jumped back, her instincts saving her a sharp bump on the head. A pink blur had flown at her, and swung, missing her and burying the weapon into the ground where Isabella had been. Readying her machete, the hispanic woman glared at the young girl the pink blur had turned out to be. "And who the hell are you?" she hissed.
The girl smiled happily. "I'm Yachiru! And as much as I'd like to play with Nel-chan some more, I'm afraid I can't let you inside. So I guess I can play with you instead." She wrenched her weapon out of the ground, a katana that was still sheathed in a pink scabbard. Isabella eyed the weapon suspiciously. This girl almost caved my head in with that, and it wasn't even drawn? She's not a normal little girl.
Joshua kept a hold onto David, keeping the Quincy from moving. It was difficult to do, since he had to keep shooting at the other man who had attempted to attack Kenpachi. And now, in his peripheral vision, he could see another man fighting the berserker. So that makes a grand total of four combatants, for three on my side he thought. And Nel is a wild card, probably won't fight either side at all. He broke that train of thought, sending another string of shots at his acrobatic target. Better end this quickly, I can't let any of them into the base.
He dropped David, kneeing him roughly in the back to knock the wind out of him. Feeling that the young man was sufficiently incapacitated, he put both hands on his rifle, quickly drawing a bead on Anthony. He waited, leading his target and making sure that the next shot would hit its mark. Anthony, moved closer and closer, zig-zagging and constantly running in random directions in order to throw him off. Finally, he simply charged forward, confident that he was close enough for the gunman to be unable to counterattack. Joshua released his held breath and fired.
Immediately Anthony vanished. Joshuas eyes widened, and he took a step back, confused and wary. "Where'd you go?" he muttered, scanning the clearing quickly, trying to pick up any sign of his missing enemy. Pain lanced across his mind, blurring his vision and he stumbled forward, hot, searing pain coming from his shoulder. He reached back and gingerly clutched at the wound, noting that it wasn't a sword like the man he was fighting was wielding.
It was an arrow.
Joshua swerved around, bringing his gun up and taking aim. He immediately dropped his stance, dodging out of the way as a mass of blue arrows flew towards him. He ran towards the forests edge, jumping behind the first tree he could. Glancing around it, he confirmed what he had known since the first arrow had pierced his back. David, the quincy, was standing in the clearing, bow at the ready. He didn't appear to be any worse for wear, and was standing evenly on both legs. That can't be right, I know I crippled him Joshua thought, glancing at the knee in question. His eyes widened when he saw that it was not only reformed, but completely healed. What the hell? That's not another weird quincy technique, is it?
David, meanwhile, kept his eyes peeled as he searched the forests edge. He knew the sniper was in there somewhere, and he couldn't count on seeing his scope again before the next shot. So he had to get him now, before he could set up a nest. He ran forward, chasing his prey into the darkness of the forest. Before he did, he spared a quick moment to look back over his shoulder at a certain retreating green shape. Thanks Nel he thought.
Isabella lashed out savagely, trying her best to land even a single blow on the infuriating little brat in front of her. Yachiru didn't seem to be taking anything going on around her seriously, not even the very sharp and very real sword coming straight at her head. No, the little pink haired pixy simply moved out of the way, dodging and giggling happily as her playmates frustration grew and grew.
"Would you just stay still already!?" the older woman roared, swinging her blade so wildly, Yachiru didn't even have to move out of the way as it whisked right by her.
"You know, for a swordsman, you're not very good." Yachiru complained. "All I've done is dodge, and I'm not even using shunpo. Are you sure you're one of the bad guys?"
"Hold still for a moment and I'll show you exactly how good of a swordsman I am." Isabella growled, raising her blade up and moving to chop Yachiru in half. In response, the little shinigami merely leaned forward and punched her in the stomach. Hard. The wind was instantly knocked out of Isabella, forcing her to her knees as she gasped for breath.
"See? You left yourself wide open." Yachiru pointed out with a smile.
"You little bitch." Isabella snarled. "You're going to pay for that."
Yachirus grin faded as she stared at her opponent. "You know, I'm starting to get bored. Maybe I should just finish you off, go play with Nel-chan some more." The former lieutenant reached down, gripping the hilt of her katana and drawing it slightly.
Before she could fully draw the blade, another blur of color, this time green, crashed into her, sending the two of them tumbling away. Isabella could barely believe what just happened, left blinking at empty space. Looking over at where Yachiru had gone, she noticed not one, but two small forms lying in the dust. As they got to their feet, she recognized the newcomer. "Oh, great, the crybaby's back." she muttered.
Yachiru, on the other hand, was shocked. "Nel-chan! Why did you do that! That hurt!" she cried, clutching her head with tears in her eyes. "Your helmet's really hard!"
Nel got to her feet, and quickly moved to stand between Yachiru and Isabella. "Nel is not going to let you hurt any more of Nels friends!" she cried.
Isabella snorted. "Kid, you've got some weird ideas about who your friends are, but if you want to help me out, I'm fine with that." She got to her feet and ran towards the cliff, grabbing her sword along the way.
"Hey, get back here!" Yachiru yelled, running after the woman. She was intercepted by Nel, but this time she blocked the headbutt with her sheathed blade. "Nel-chan! I told you to stop that!" she whined.
"And Nel told you that she won't let you hurt Nels friends anymore!" Nel replied. "If Nel has to fight Yachiru-chan, then Nel will! But Nel would prefer not to!"
Yachiru sighed. "Nel, you're one of the only friends that I have anymore." she said quietly. "I don't want you to get hurt. So," she reached down and drew her sword. "get out of my way, and we can stay friends, okay?"
