"This plan is ridiculous Rida, there is NO way they are EVER going to fall for this" Torin said as he walked alongside Rida towards the enemy camp
"Hey at least I had a plan, I came prepared, how bout you?" Rida retorted
Torin scowled and was silent for a moment "fine, but what I wanna know is... where exactly did you even GET these?"
Torin and Rida were both wearing hollow mask fragments and the white robes that made up the uniforms of the enemy army, the plan was to infiltrate using the disguises.
"Took em off some enemies I beat before they faded, then had em molded and remade to be my size" Rida explained "they're pretty generic, so we won't look like any particular arrancar, at the very least it should get us inside, then all three of us can fight our way out."
Torin sighed, Rida never ceased to amaze him, he acted like a total clown, but there were times like these where he was actually pretty resourceful, even if his ideas weren't that great.
"I just hope that I'm wrong and this works..." Torin said "we're almost there"
They walked out into the open and made their way towards the main cave, two large hollows stood guard. One was quite obviously based on a snake, it had a long tail and no legs, and it had two fangs dripping with venom sticking out of it's mouth. The other was like a huge stone golem.
"Halt! who are you two?" the stone hollow said, his voice was low and powerful, just as one would expect from something made of stone.
"Sssssssstrangersss are not allowed inssside thisss cave" the other hollow said
"We;re newly made arrancar being assigned our first post, we were hollows until just a few days ago and we need to report in to whoever is in charge here, isn't that right my friend?" Rida said
Torin shot a withering glare at the hollows in their path and spoke in a low growl "of course! these hollows should learn their place, trying to stop us from following our orders! I should report them to the higher-ups for this!"
The hollows exchanged nervous looks, the prospects of having to face their leader's wrath was not very appealing to them.
"Our apologiesss" the snake hollow said "we have to be sssstricter than normal becausssse of the ssssspiess"
"spies?" Torin asked "you mean the shinigami trash have found us already? You captured them I hope?"
"Yes, a young girl was captured not too long ago, but has not yet awakened for interrogation, we suspect she has friends nearby, so we are on our guard and are ready for a rescue attempt from them any time now."
Torin smiled evilly "where is this foolish girl being kept? i would like to laugh at our pitiful enemy who thought she could spy on us and escape, such things bring me great amusement." he said with a chuckle
"ssshe isss being held deep inssside the cave, if you continue passt the fire and enter the 3rd opening on your left you will find her, but you'll need permisssion" the snake said
"We'll be sure to get it, thank you" Rida said "now let us be off."
Torin nodded "agreed, the sooner we get permission from the leader the happier I'll be."
"You and me both my friend, as you were men" Rida said with a slight bow to the hollows, then both Torin and Rida walked inside the cave
"Told ya it would work!" Rida said with a smirk
"Shut up, your acting was terrible! If I hadn't stepped in they would have eaten you alive!" Torin said indignantly
"and you said there was no way this would work" Rida continued, enjoying his chance to gloat.
Rida's mirth was short-lived, as Torin and Rida progressed through the cave they saw an astounding number of arrancar, far too many to fight.
"What are we gonna do now?" Rida asked "those hollows said Aurora was still knocked out, and even with her help there's no way we can fight this many enemies! how the heck are we gonna get out of here?"
Torin was silent, he was observing his surroundings, looking for something he could use to his advantage, Rida was right about the number of enemies, if he didn't think of something they were royally screwed... and then he saw it.
"I have a plan, but first we need to get to Aurora and bring her back to this part of the cave." Torin said
"And what is this plan of yours?" Rida asked
"You'll see once we get here, but we're gonna wipe out this whole army in one go." Torin said
It wasn't long before Torin and Rida reached the place where Aurora was being held, she was chained to the wall behind the bars of a cell, and it appeared she was still unconscious just as the hollows had said.
"Aurora!" Torin cried out as he ran to the cell door "don't worry, we'll get you out in no time!"
Drawing his sword Torin slashed at the bars with all his might, and was repelled backwards as if he were a rubber ball hitting a wall. "Damn it! The bars are made of Sekiseki rock! It's impossible for us to break in!" he groaned
"Ahem" Rida coughed as he reached for the doorknob, turned it, and calmly opened the door "brute force isn't the solution to everything Torin"
Torin scowled "shut up" he muttered
Rida chuckled as he undid Aurora's shackled and carried her out of the cell. Aurora began to stir, but she was still out like a light.
"HEY! This place is off limits!" an arrancar said as he ran in, he was a large man with 8 arms, each of them holding a zanpakto in the shape of an 8-bladed sword. As he saw Torin and Rida trying to awaken Aurora he paused, as if his mind couldn't quite process the information his eyes were giving him. The moment of dumbness didn't last long though, "shinigami!? INTRUDERS!" he yelled to the rest of the camp, the sounds of an alarm spreading soon echoed back.
"Damn it! So much for stealth! How the hell are we gonna get Aurora outta here now?" Rida cursed
"That's the least of your worries shinigami scum!" the arrancar spat "Strangle! Pulpo!"
At the release command the arrancar was engulfed in smoke, when it cleared it revealed the arrancar in a much different shape. It now had 16 long tentacle like arms all covered in white skin. Eight of the arms ended in blade like spikes, and eight were covered in tiny hooks that would latch onto anything they touched.
"Now DIE!" the arrancar roared as two of the hooked tentacles shot towards Torin.
Torin didn't even flinch, standing back up from where he had fallen in his failed attempt to slash the bars, he calmly swung his sword and severed both tentacles in an instant. The arrancar roared in pain and sent a spiked tentacle at Torin, which was blocked with the flat of his blade. Sparks flew as the arrancar tried to overpower Torin, but Torin's blade didn't even shake with the exertion of holding the attack off.
The arrancar, clearly unnerved, lashed out with all of its remaining arms, all of which slammed into the flat of Torin's blade and tried to overpower him. "Im..impossible!" the arrancar gasped as Torin pushed back all the arms and followed up with a slash that severed all 14 of them.
Torin ran forward towards the now armless arrancar and cut it in two before it could run away. "Rida, pick up Aurora and let's go, we'll carry her out" Torin said as he calmly flicked his sword to get the blood off the blade.
Rida obeyed with a dazed look, "when did he… become this strong?" he wondered.
Torin led the way through the cave, many arrancar stood in the way, each of them charging with their zanpakto to try and cut down the intruders, and each of them being cut down by Torin before they even got close. A few of the faster ones would get a slash in, but it was always blocked and countered.
They made good progress through the cave, but then the arrancar got smarter and formed a wall of troops in defensive stances.
"tch… what a pain" Torin said as he got ready to charge
"Torin! Tag out!" Rida said as he put Aurora down "I'll handle these guys!"
Torin lowered his sword and took a step back "are you sure?" he asked "can you handle this many?"
Rida laughed "heck no! Luckily I don't have too, you have a plan right? All I need to do is punch a hole in the line for us to run through. I can do that, just watch!"
Torin picked up Aurora and slung her over his shoulder so he could still hold onto his sword with one hand. Meanwhile Rida drew his sword and stepped forward
"Are you ready guys! Watch closely, this will be over in a flash!" Rida taunted "Erupt! Kazan no ken!"
Rida's sword turned into lava, then the lava crept over the hilt and up his arms, solidifying into the gauntlets of his shikai. Torin noticed that the gauntlets stretched all the way up Rida's upper arm now, rather than just his forearm like regular gauntlets. Rida's right arm burst into flame, and a jet of flame erupted from the top of his gauntlet like the tail end of a rocket as Rida used his signature move. The wave of flame Rida launched was like a solid wall of fiery death, rather than a mere wave of fire, the arrancar making up the blockade were reduced to ash, the survivors had to leap sideways to avoid being critically injured.
"Well that attack was stronger than last time I used it" Rida said, a little shocked at the devastation himself. Torin was surprised as well, but he recovered quickly and ran through the sizable opening in the blockade, Rida followed shortly afterwards.
Shortly after the blockade Torin stopped and put Aurora down, then hefted his sword onto his shoulder as he walked towards the wall "this is the spot, Grow! Kessho Satsujinsha!" he commanded. At the release command his sword practically exploded with Torin's reiatsu, completely engulfing Torin in white energy. The cloud of energy swirled around Torin as the top of his shikai emerged, then it dispersed entirely, revealing Torin.
Once again it was Rida's turn to stop and stare in amazement at his partner's power. "What the hell was that? There was so much energy there that he could have been a captain entering bankai if I didn't know better, and this was a shikai release! Ukitake said we had potential, but this is fricking ridiculous!" he thought as Torin hefted his shikai with one hand and prepared to stab the wall.
"what are you…?" Rida began as Torin rammed his sword into the wall, quickly turning it to crystal, the crystals continued to spread, only stopping once they had consumed a massive crack in the ceiling.
Rida stared at the crystals as they enveloped the crack and Torin pulled his sword out of the wall. "You.. you aren't! you're insane! Don't you dare!" he exclaimed as realization dawned on him
"Shatter" Torin said, causing his crystals to shatter and elave a massive hole in an already weak section of the cliff. "Time to run!" he said as he resealed his zanpakto and sheathed it. He picked up Aurora and began to run
"YOU'RE AN IDIOT TORIN!" Rida screamed as he began to run as well. It wasn't long before the results of Torin's 'plan' could be heard.
"CRACK!" an ear splitting noise echoed through the cave, causing all of the arrancar that had been moving to stop Torin and Rida to pause and look around in confusion.
Torin and Rida blew past them "You guys might wanna run too!" Torin yelled back, confusing the arrancar forces ever further.
"crack! Crack! Crack! CRACk!" the cracks grew louder and more frequent, then they turned into a deafening roar as the entire cliff began to collapse rapidly
The arrancar saw the collapsing cave moving towards them and began to run, but their hesitation earlier had sealed their fate and they were crushed by thousands of pounds of rock.
Torin and Rida ran past enemy after enemy, each of them getting crushed by the cave-in before they really knew what they were getting crushed by. Finally they burst out of the cave as the whole cliff collapsed behind them.
"Well I didn't expect to do THAT much damage… but who's complaining?" Torin said with a small laugh
"ME!" Rida roared as he slugged Torin in the face and sent him tumbling "what the hell were you thinking!? We could've been crushed!"
Torin was back up in an instant and put himself nose to nose with Rida "but we weren't, so what's your problem?" he said
"That's not the point!" Rida began, but he was cut off by someone pinching both his and Torin's ears and pulling them to their knees
"Honestly, I'm unconscious for less than an hour and you two are already trying to kill each other" Aurora said as she used their ears to pull herself up
"Sorry" Torin and Rida said in unison, grimacing in pain.
"So what'd I miss?" Aurora asked
"Nothing much my little shinigami spy, these two just rescued you and wiped out my whole army, that's all, oh, and you're all about to die, thought I should mention that" a voice said from behind the trio…
