Darth Void Sage of the Force: This fanfiction is is no way based off of Planet Hulk.
Sephirotx: In order of your questions, Naruto will not be paired with anyone. Naruto is pretty much at the strength of a normal Adjuchas at this point in time, maybe somewhat weaker due to his recent evolution. And actually, the Adjuchas class of Menos is roughly equivalent with Shinigami Vice-Captains, not 4th to 8th seat Shinigami like you thought.
Malefan: Naruto isn't the highest class. The Vasto Lordes are above him.
Tianna M.V.A.: Well, I'm personally not going to do an offshoot of the Shinigami winning, but a few months ago GameDemonKing asked me if he could write a story on where the Shinigami was saved from the Hollow. However, I don't know if he still has plans for that or when it will come out. As for Kakashi, he'll be meeting lots of canon characters, but not until much later in the story.
Attention all Readers! I have a very important announcement to make! I NEED someone to translate Japanese for me! I know this may seem unprofessional of me to ask, but I don't know much Japanese and there will come a point in this story where I won't be able to advance it if I don't have a translator. If you are interested in being my translator, please PM me as soon as possible. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT talk about being a translator in your reviews. That is not what I want reviews to be. I will also post a note at the top of my profile telling everyone I've found a translator. (Also, if you could translate for One Twentieth of a Whole or any more of my stories, that would be fantastic!)
Thank you,
Alban55
On with the Chapter then! And Happy New Year!
Chapter 10: Bloqueo de Las Noches
Naruto watched as the mole Hollow dug his way through Las Noche's underground, a rabid grin on his face while he continued to slave drive the abused Hollow. Fuermos was crawling right behind him and the mole. He hadn't said anything since their escape from the arena, and seemed to only dumbly follow him with an unreadable expression on his face. He was being an enigma; that was for sure. Before any of this, before the arena, he always liked to talk. Even when they were trapped in that prison Naruto spent much of his time talking to Fuermos. But now... there was nothing.
The mole slowed a bit, prompting Naruto to sink his claws into his hostage's back to force him to dig faster. The mole Hollow grunted, any resistance or snarky comments would lead to constant claws in the back. His only chance of survival was to dig these bastards out and swiftly slit their throats as soon as they breached the surface. He was still yearning to finish the fight, to put down that fox Hollow in the name of Las Noches.
How stupid of him, he realized. The fox was an Adjuchas now, and the only way he could hope to kill him was to catch him off-guard. So, the mole Hollow continued to dig their way out, clods of sand and dirt being spread in a sporadic pattern.
The earth parted as the group of three reached the surface, and a messy hole meant to accommodate the three Hollows appeared as a small dot on the Las Noches' landscape. The mole Hollow pushed his way out first, collapsing on the ground from exhaustion. He had been digging for almost five hours straight, and that slave driver of a Hollow had worked him to exhaustion.
Naruto came up immediately behind him, using his sharp claws to push himself out of the hole. As he looked around, he noticed they had surfaced in a wide, particularly flat area. Large crimson pillars rose up hundreds of feet above the landscape, towering over their miniscule frames like a powerful god ready to invoke judgement on them. There was a collapsed building some distance away, but the rest of the area around here seemed to be nothing but sand. The Hueco Mundo night sky loomed straight above them; the artificial sky that would be put here in later years was not in existence yet.
The mole Hollow was staring at him intensely, but Naruto ignored him as he helped Fuermos out of the hole. The insect Hollow gave a grunt of acknowledgement, but otherwise said nothing.
Fuermos let go of his claws as soon as he was out, and then began to brush off the sand that coated his body.
"You okay?" asked Naruto. The mole was still staring on him.
"Y-Yeah..." Fuermos said quietly, turning his eyes to the right to stare at the ground. The mole Hollow began to rustle.
"Good. But, we can't stay here forever. All of Las Noches is bound to be looking for us considering I attacked their precious king. Fortunately, there seems to be no guards or soldiers around that would hinder our progress, but we're not out of the woods yet."
Fuermos nodded, deciding to speak for the first time to preserve his life.
"That's right, and we have no idea of our location within Las Noches. It could take hours or even days to reach one of the gates out of here, and for the time being we're sitting ducks. To get out, we'll have to avoid any large congregation of Hollows. But, there's also sentries placed at many points around Las Noches. Even if we avoid the highly populated areas, the chances that we will be found are very high."
Naruto frowned, allowing his rational side to do the thinking for once. But, it wouldn't think for long because he the whooshing noise of the mole Hollow trying to sneak over to him with his claws at the ready.
Naruto ignored the mole Hollow, instead focusing all his attention on his companion in front of him. He didn't even flinch when the mole tried to bury his sharp claws deep inside Naruto's jugular vein.
The key word here is tried. The mole Hollow tried to sink his claws in Naruto's throat, but they were stopped when the claws hit the tough exterior of Naruto's body armor, and did not penetrate the Hollow's skin.
Sparks flew and the mole Hollow roared in pain as his precious claws snapped in half as easily as a brittle piece of driftwood. The mole brought back his right paw, hiding it so it wouldn't get even more injured.
Naruto finally blinked, before his face split into a grin, and then finally rude, raucous laughter. He sauntered slowly on over to where the mole Hollow was sitting, ignoring Fuermos' questioning gaze.
Before the mole Hollow could even react, Naruto had already picked up the helpless creature. Holding him at arm's length for about a second, he slammed the poor Hollow into the dirt, creating a miniature crater as he did.
The mole Hollow felt his ribs crack, and blood rose into his throat until he couldn't take it anymore, and coughed it out. Was it really useless all this time? He really couldn't kill the fox Hollow now that he was an Adjuchas, could he?
"Satisfied? You just had to go and try your luck against something that you couldn't beat. And look where you are now, grovelling in the dirt over some claws that you lost by merely attacking me. Even before this you couldn't match me, so what made you think you could now?"
His speech over, Naruto picked up the mole Hollow yet again, dug his claws into the Hollow's arms, and using careful precision, made sure his victim was in as much pain as possible.
Fuermos couldn't look at this. He couldn't look at the closest thing he had to a friend, and see him do this. He hadn't had any friends during those days, and after spending so much time with Naruto, he was about to see his hopes and dreams crushed under the unbearable truth.
He cursed himself... he knew he was more like a human than a Hollow. But, as much as he cursed his own pathetic emotions, he cursed the world around him more than anything. Why would it let him be such a being of compassion and idealism when it was so disadvantageous to be so?
He finally closed his eyes after he heard a thick scream from the mole Hollow, followed by more laughter. He opened them after the screaming subsided, and to no great surprise, nothing but intense brutality awaited his vision. He didn't know how Naruto could have such a blatant disregard for his own species. Though, Fuermos supposed he could blame his own silly expectations again. Of course he was capable of something like that.
Naruto had used his shoulder spikes in a manner he didn't believe the fox Hollow capable of thinking of. The mole Hollow's entire body was hanging from Naruto's right shoulder, hanging like a limp rag doll down to Naruto's feet, where a red puddle of blood painted the sand.
Impalement... that's what is was. Naruto's shoulder spike had appeared on the other end, through the mole's backside, while the barely breathing Hollow had slid down the spike to hit Naruto's body. This in turn drove more spikes into the suffering Hollows torso.
Fortunately, Fuermos' life as a Hollow and the atrocities he had seen numbed him to the pain, so he avoided vomiting at the sight or even becoming enraged at it. But, as he saw the small mole Hollow impaled by his friend's spikes, horribly clinging on to life while suffering extreme agony, he knew he couldn't deny it anymore.
A part of him still wished it to be true, but the sneaking sensation that this little fox Hollow would be the savior of their species was dead wrong. What a fool he was. It was a simple hunch in the first place, and even with the decisiveness he had never seen in another Hollow, Naruto wouldn't save anyone.
If anything, he would lead Hueco Mundo into ruination.
He had to be stopped.
Naruto wasn't paying any attention to him; he was much too busy relishing in the mole Hollow's pain. He didn't even hear the rustling of the sand as he got up.
But, he knew he was too late to save the unfortunate Hollow now. He had hesitated too much, and as soon as the firefly Adjuchas was fully standing, Naruto finally got bored of his victim, and promptly slit its throat without a second thought.
Naruto then thrust his right shoulder outwards, and with a sickening tearing noise, the carcass of the mole Hollow was released from its cruel impalement spike, and was thrown forward a distance away.
That was when Fuermos struck, and Naruto never expected it. The insect Hollow was fast, and his motivation seemed to do nothing but increase his speed and strength. His vicious, curved pincer caught Naruto straight in the cheek, and Naruto was sent flying backwards into the dirt, a small cut present where Fuermos had hit him.
Fuermos waited for the Adjuchas to get up. The area was silent, and Fuermos stood there watching ahead, like a stone statue, his pained gaze patiently waiting for Naruto's rebuttal. He knew right now; that this would not be an easy fight.
"What are you doing, Fuermos?" asked Naruto tersely, his voice creating a suffocating tension in the air. There was rage, there was a deep sadness; there was a great confusion, but there was no trace of the psychotically happy Naruto that had been traveling with him the past three years. Fuermos couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The Hollow's voice, Fuermos didn't know why he hadn't noticed it before. Every word he spoke was tinged with anger and hatred, years and years of emotional turmoil spilling out into the monster that stood before him now. The Hollowification must've just been the trigger for him to become this...
There was too much hate... too much rage, for it to just exist because of his life as a Hollow. But, Fuermos didn't know if he was imagining it or not, but he thought he could see a faint, faint bit of caring, of compassion, deep within Naruto's existence. Even if that were the case, it was being completely swallowed up by his hatred.
The Hollow's gaze was no longer friendly, no longer amiable. It was just pure hostility. Like the Hollow can sever his previous friendships and bonds within a split second. Fuermos didn't reply, and opted to do nothing more than glare in Naruto's direction.
"Do you have a problem with me, Fuermos? All that wonton killing getting to your head?" Naruto asked. Even when angry, he always found a way to mock someone. Though this time, it was neither teasing nor happy. It was serious.
Fuermos still said nothing, but he was seething on the inside. He brought his pincers to the forefront, and his bio-luminescent parts shone even brighter.
It was a good thing that he did defend, because Naruto had already disappeared from his spot, and had reappeared adjacently to the other Adjuchas. He spread his claws wider, but Fuermos was ready. He caught each of Naruto's front paws with his pincers, and the two of them stood there in a tug-of-war like fashion.
Naruto pulled his paws back, and using careful balance on one of his back legs, swung all nine of his tails around in a circular motion. This may look ridiculous and ineffective at first, but the sturdy armor that completely covered the tails managed to pummel the opponent. Fuermos was hit several times with the flying appendages, and the hard armor he was being hit with managed to draw up some blood.
Fuermos managed to push away the offending tails, but Naruto soon retaliated by using his forefront tail to put Fuermos into a chokehold. He stood there quietly for a little while, making sure his choke attack was starting to take effect.
"I'm still waiting for my answer, Fuermos. What problem do you have with me? Is it the killing? Or is it something entirely different?" asked Naruto. He loosened his tail's grip on Fuermos' neck, before bringing it back fully to join the spiral of tails.
Fuermos stumbled slightly, leaning down to catch his breath. He never stopped glaring at Naruto, his anger for him only increasing after Naruto's assault.
"Do you know why I even joined you in the first place, Naruto?" he asked rhetorically.
Naruto had the decency to look slightly confused, wondering why Fuermos would start his explanation with another question.
He looked up at the Hueco Mundo moon; the only universal thing capable of calming all Hollows.
"I joined you... because the moment I saw you, I believed that you would bring universal betterment to all Hollows. That quick decisiveness coupled with a dogmatic view against the Shinigami is exactly what we need to overcome them. At the very least, I hoped you would become the personal adviser to Baraggan, and influence his actions on the world of Hueco Mundo. I... never knew Baraggan to be so hot-headed."
Naruto sneered, looking thoroughly unpleased with Fuermos' speech. His stance was rigid, his eyes cold, and he was irritably hoping that Fuermos continued.
"But, now I see that all is ever was... was a blind hope. A hunch, and nothing more. I can see now that was being a fool. I can see now... how black your removed heart is. All the killing, all the brutality, all the unspeakable acts; they are the reason I have decided to stop you here. You will not be the savior of our race. You will be our destruction if you're allowed to roam free."
The world was near silent, and only the slight running wind overturning the sand echoed throughout Las Noches. Then, as Fuermos was staring Naruto down, there was a slight clapping noise. The clapped escalated, then there was the sound of a cold, cruel laugh echoing in the area.
"What a brilliant speech, Fuermos, but I'm afraid your disgusting idealism ruined it for me. You, of all people, are telling me that all the killing I've done is bad. You're a Hollow, and you have no right to hold any moralism or idealism. Looking at you now, you're more suited for being a Shinigami, despite how much you seem to hate them. So save bullshit like that for the Shinigami, you little chickenshit."
Fuermos looked highly offended as his beliefs were put into question. He was about to retort, but Naruto was already closing the distance and attacking them. The Adjuchas blocked both of Naruto's front paws yet again.
"You'll find yourself a minority here in Hueco Mundo, Fuermos. Part of a minority of those fucking moralistic shitrag Hollows that rarely inhabit this land. Trying to purge Hueco Mundo of those Hollows and creating a better society is something that is near-impossible."
Fuermos looked worried as Naruto began to get the advance on him. The insect almost tried to let go of the claws and avoid, but the other Adjuchas was not about to let that happen. Using his superior agility, the Hollow flipped skyward using his hind legs, so that his tails and back paws were facing the sky. Using the momentum he had build up, the Hollow grasped the pincers with the paws, and as he fell he flipped Fuermos above his head so he would go crashing into the ground.
The awkward attack paid off somewhat, as the force was against Fuermos, and he did in fact go crashing into the ground. Naruto, on the other hand, had landed on his feet quite easily. Fuermos grunted as he hit the floor, even if the sand broke his fall somewhat.
Naruto looked back and grinned as Fuermos rose to his feet. He looked disgruntled, and the green material on his back was glowing brighter now. Naruto showed his serrated teeth, before opening his maw. His signature orange Cero formed inside.
Fuermos watched the ball of light warily, careful about it but not looking too concerned.
"He's too quick for me to get him with hand-to-hand combat. The only way for me to win is to use my abilities carefully and rely on quick thinking. I wonder... is there anything around here that I can use to my advantage? It's a wide open plain, so resources and stealth are out of the question."
"His will and strength are too great for me to manipulate with my light, but it's worth a shot at least." The green light glowed brighter.
The point-blank Cero was fired from Naruto's mouth, but Fuermos side-stepped to the left to avoid. Naruto himself seemed to predict this, and he disappeared in a flash to reappear near his opponent.
Fuermos' eyes widened.
"Damn, looks like he figured out how to use Sonido. I don't have time to-"
A thrust with Naruto's right hand with gone through his head, but Fuermos managed to block it with a swipe of his hand. Fuermos stumbled backwards, but Naruto held his ground to press the attack further.
He feigned another thrust of the claws, which Fuermos tried to guard on impulse. He didn't realize his mistake until it was too late. Naruto pulled his right arm out quickly, then put both his front paws out there in a cup formation.
Before Fuermos could react further, a Cero had already been formed in the crevice of Naruto's paws.
Fuermos charged up his own Cero, which was the light green of the crystals that coated his body.
The two beams of light hit each other after fired, neither one of them able to gain any ground each other. They actually began to merge at one point, but after a few seconds, Fuermos was forced to withdraw as the beam overwhelmed him.
Naruto was still on guard when the light dissipated. Indeed, Fuermos was about twenty feet away from him at this point, and was still quite alive and kicking, despite all the serious burns that covered his frame.
He was bending over on the ground, coughing up blood and smoke. Even then, the green bio-luminescence hadn't dissipated at all, nor did Fuermos look like he was ready to give up. The firefly struggled to his feet shakily.
He didn't say anything again, and only flared his pincers out again as Naruto seemed to come in for yet another attack. He looked at the green bio-luminescence on his arm, before it rapidly changed to a foggy, grey light.
"Influencia," he muttered, and a bright flash of green light blinded the oncoming Hollow.
"Desconcierto!"
Naruto reared back, blinded for a short time. Shortly before, he was attacking with the full intent of thrusting his spiked arm straight through Fuermo's abdomen. As he stopped, his mind become numb. Almost like he was in a daze. The world became silent, and he could hear nothing but a slight whirring in his ears.
And then... it happened. There was a faint voice, deep within his mind. Prodding... pinching. Trying to get him to do a certain thing. It was telling him that he was Fuermos, and that he should attack himself. He knew such a thing was ridiculous, and despite that notion, his confused mind seemed to believe it.
His arm was raising against his will; it was struggling, but it was in fact raising. Once fully stretched outwards, Naruto sent a blank look at it through half-lidded eyes. Gravity wasn't against it anymore, so it would be far easier to be manipulated.
His mind was telling him to thrust backwards, and he did. The spikes that were present on his arm penetrated through the bony, red armor on his body, and delivered a painful wound to his stomach.
The pain jolted Naruto back to his senses, and he gasped and coughed up blood. He ripped the spikes from his body, before glancing at the blood covered weapons. There were four large holes throughout his abdomen, right where the spikes had penetrated.
He looked around; Fuermos was gone. Where could...
He stopped thinking when he saw a large shadow coming down on him from behind. A shockwave exploded when pincer met with claw. A sneak aerial attack from behind; Fuermos was getting more and more tricky to fight. He steeled himself for another light attack, and was not disappointed when Fuermos' light changed to green.
"Influencia-" said Fuermos again, as the green light flashed again.
Naruto tensed, closing his eyes in an attempt to avoid the deadly light. He opened his eyes when he felt Fuermos take his pincer off his claw.
"Oh shit! A feint attack!" he thought.
Naruto gasped and flew backwards when a powerful kick caught him straight in the ribs. He skidded through the sand, the dirty substance and friction causing more problems for the already wounded Hollow.
He climbed to his feet, but Fuermos was already on his way.
"It seems my Influencia is working at least slightly. I managed to confuse him with the grey light, but it took some effort on my part. If he strengthens his willpower, I'll be hard-pressed to be able to manipulate him. All the colors of my light induce a certain effect on an individual's mind, but anyone with conscious thought can throw it off easily. For now, I'll try..."
"Influencia." The light changed to yellow.
"Apacigua!"
The yellow light hit Naruto full on this time, and he had no chance to close his eyes and avoid the attack. When the light subsided, Naruto felt no change, unlike what had happened the last time. There was no prodding voice, nor numbness of the mind.
He shook himself around to test it, before he laughed suddenly, and then reappeared at Fuermos' side again.
"Your little trick didn't work on me, Fuermos! That will cost you big time!" he shrieked, as he whipped his tail out to attack.
He stopped. At the last moment. He didn't know why, but as soon as the attacking appendage was about to hit Fuermos, his mind was telling him that he couldn't go through with it. He just froze in mid strike, but when he looked up at Fuermos' face; he knew the trick had worked after all.
"And now to finish you off with..." Fuermos' changed his light to purple.
"Influencia."
"Parálisis!"
Naruto's eye's dilated as the purple light washed over him. His mind was screaming at his body to move, yet it wasn't responding. The entirety of his being stood still, only slight shakes visible to the trained eye. His eyes were darting to and fro, searching for an escape in vain. He noticed that Fuermos' light had turned to red after the fact.
"Influencia."
"Ataque Rojo Mortal!"
Fuermos' only attack light thrusted forward and impaled Naruto's straight through the right lung in a narrow line of blood red light similar to a laser. The fox Hollow grunted in pain, and collapsed heavily onto the ground, blood rapidly flowing from his wound.
Fuermos looked frustrated; Naruto had broken out of his paralysis at the last second, and moved in order to prevent the attack from being fatal. It was made even worse because of his taunt.
"That stupid light could never hold me for very long, idiot. And the red light attack was about as damaging as a bee sting," Naruto croaked, lying through his teeth to make Fuermos feel bad.
That sardonic smile, that infuriating EVIL smile was on his face, and it remained on his face even as Fuermos walked up to him and kicked him right in the head viciously.
"You-." Kick. "You-" Kick. "You-" Kick. Kick. Kick. That word was all that Fuermos could say as he repeatedly kicked Naruto in the head, desperately attempting to wipe the smile off Naruto's face. Fuermos' usual look of composure was replaced with a distraught, panicking expression.
"How could you be so vile? So heartless? Even for a Hollow you have no redeeming qualities. What motivates you to do that? What could you achieve by acting in such a manner? Tell me! Tell me, Naruto!"
Naruto laughed loopily, cheering and whooping to the sky. He turned to Fuermos, his smile growing even more vile.
"You want to know?" he asked dangerously.
Fuermos growled at the Hollow, and kicked him one more time. He was certain that the answer he received would either make no sense or actually worsen his opinion of Naruto.
"Well... I'll tell you Fuermos. The reason I act this way is a-" he paused for dramatic effect.
"Combination of Hollow behavior and personal satisfaction."
Fuermos paused, a look of morbid curiosity on his face.
"What-"
"Let me explain. You, Fuermos, are a rare exception to Hollow's. You actually have compassion. I may have gained some semblance of compassion with an unfortunate encounter in the arena, but I'm doing my best to stamp that out. Most Hollows I've seen that exist in this world act without compassion. They kill for food, yes, but they often have fun while doing so. I, however, have a long standing goal that is more than just food. My goals are the top priority in my life, but who the hell says I can't act on my Hollow behavior and have some fun while doing so?"
While Naruto was explaining this, he snuck one of his tails behind Fuermos, who seemed even angrier at that response.
"Why yo-"
Squelch.
With all the force of a bullet, Naruto had directly thrust his hidden tail in the exact same spot where Fuermos had injured Naruto. It penetrated the muscle easily, and Naruto stabbed his tail in as deep as he possibly could, before pulling it out with a squelch of effort.
Fuermos roared in pain, taking two steps back from Naruto, clutching the wound he had gotten.
Naruto was already rising to his feet again. He stood up straight and looked proud, despite the heavy wound on his torso.
Blood ran from Fuermos' mouth as he clutched his wound, and he glared heavily at Naruto.
"Y-You b-bastard. You w-were faking it a-all along?"
Naruto grinned.
"I'm not gonna get caught by your fucking light tricks anymore. I've already figured out how to throw off all of them. And, you should really think things through before you decide to go have a nice conversation with a fallen enemy, duuuuummmmmbbbbassss" he drawled.
Fuermos growled, then screamed at Naruto, his veins bulging and his reiatsu increasing.
"Ataque Rojo Mortal Doble!" he roared. Twin beams of red light flew from Fuermos' body, aiming to put more holes in Naruto. Naruto deftly flipped over the first, before casually spinning over the second, pretending to be afraid all the while.
Naruto charged a Cero and fired it. He whined when it missed its mark and flashed to meet Fuermos, not noticing the orange reiryoku gathering on one of his tails...
Fuermos was still recovering from his last attack, and was unprepared when Naruto appeared at him, wanted to get in a tail strike. Both combatants were surprised when instead of a tail strike, a bright orange crescent of reiatsu flew off of Naruto's tail and struck Fuermos straight in the stomach.
He barreled back a great distance, far more than any of his attacks did to Naruto. Naruto himself just stood there, stunned at what had just happened.
"What was that? It came from my tail, but I didn't know that I could do that. It looks reiatsu-based; does that mean I can manipulate reiatsu with my tails?" Naruto looked giddy at that thought, but it changed to thoughtfulness as Fuermos rose.
"Only one way to find out."
Fuermos stood, mind reeling on what kind of attack that was. The attack seemed kind of like a compressed Cero, but it gave him a nasty gash wound in his abdomen.
"If Naruto learns a new attack here, then I'm in deep trouble now. I had a hard enough time keeping up with him regularly. I'll just have to hope that attack was just a fluke, and then press him with more red light..."
He tried to look at his back, which was the only part of his body completely covered in the crystalline, green substance.
"I'll have to use my strongest light attack for this. It's risky, as I have to take my eyes off my opponent, but it'll be the only thing capable of taking down Naruto at this point. Though more than three shots of that, and I'll tire myself out too much to fight anymore..." he whispered to himself.
Naruto meanwhile was testing out his new attack, and managed to replicate it without too much effort.
"Alright, I think I've figured it out. It's just like a Cero, just manipulated. Heh, reminds me of all the shape manipulation I did back in Konoha. I guess they were good for something, after all. I'm still gonna crush them, though," Naruto giggled.
His happy thoughts were cut off though, as his attention was drawn to little blips of red light that somehow made their way into his vision. He looked up, and noticed that it was Fuermos, standing thirty feet away with his back exposed to him. Indeed, the red blips of light were all over his back. They were perfectly uniform, and there were twelve in all.
"What's he doing? If he takes his eyes off me, he's just asking to be-" his eyes widened as he came to a realization.
"Oh, shi-"
"Rayo Espalda Rojo!" yelled Fuermos. The little blips of light expanding to go forth at about fifty feet, resembling a laser with its red sheen and energy. Naruto barely managed to get out of the rays, but Fuermos was ready for another round.
The second round of beams was when Naruto wasn't so lucky. He managed to mostly avoid the grid of lasers, but one beam clipped his shoulder, while another fully nailed his left legs.
He stood there in agony for a few seconds before the laser dissipated, trying to limp away.
"La Curva!" Naruto gathered reiatsu into his tail, and flung it to form the familiar hook of energy that injured Fuermos earlier. Fuermos was already preparing for the final attack, and couldn't sense the oncoming energy.
The hook of energy wounded his entire back, forcing him to stumble and cough up blood.
"No, I must complete it. He's crippled, and this is the last chance I'll get to take him out!"
The final set of beams was ready for firing, and Naruto knew this. His injured leg made things difficult to move, and there was no way he'd be able to fully avoid this last set of beams. So, he did the best think he could think of; he ran towards Fuermos, gathering reiatsu on three of his tails. That was his limit; he knew he couldn't form any more reiatsu on his tails simultaneously.
The final set was released, and Naruto was hit four times throughout the torso and legs. The lasers disappeared, and Naruto resisted the urge to fall to his knees and admit defeat. Fuermos would be unable to avoid this attack.
"Las Tres Curvas!" Naruto yelled, flinging his first tail at Fuermos. For some reason, his other two tails didn't launch the attack. Maybe he had to wait and start a new motion.
Fuermos sighed in relief. He heard the attacks connect with Naruto, but he hadn't turned around to see the Hollow defeated. He wondered how many holes Naruto was filled with now.
His attacks over, Fuermos decided to turn around and confirm Naruto's situation. Indeed the first thing he saw was his opposing Hollow. There were six holes littering his body. The first from his original red light attack, there were three through his legs, and two through the right side of his torso. Each hole was equal and size, and they were bleeding profusely from all of them. He could also see through the holes, showing that his beams had impaled right through him.
But then he saw the orange curve of light coming right at him. It nailed him right where his first wound from that attack was. The reiatsu whirred and vibrated, cutting into the already wounded flesh and drawing up blood.
The firefly gasped and stumbled backwards to the right, barely managing to keep himself upright after that.
But then, Naruto fired a second curve of orange light. This one caught Fuermos in the legs, and it forced him down to his knees.
He was breathing heavily, blood pouring from his mouth, when Naruto launched his third one. He panicked, his life flashing before his eyes as the orange beam of light quickly approached. He was slashed, diagonally across his Hollow hole. The firefly gasped for breath, his eyes wide and bloodshot, as red blood shot in a stream upwards.
The top half of his body teetered and wobbled, before, when in an instance where time impossibly slowed down... collapsed onto the ground face first.
Fuermos choked on his own blood. He couldn't move, and his entire body felt like it was on fire.
"This can't be happening! I can't... I won't be beat!"
But, as the firefly Hollow gurgled out blood, he knew it. He was beaten.. He was dead... killed at the hands of this Hollow. This vile, unspeakable...
"Wait..."
An unfamiliar thought worked it's way through Fuermos' mind, and he remembered a conversation he had had earlier with Naruto.
"I may have gained some semblance of compassion..."
Fuermos' mind somehow became clearer, and he those words continuously repeated themselves throughout his head.
That's right, Naruto did have some slight semblance of compassion. It was very miniscule, and almost completely overwhelmed by the hatred... the monster. The very same monster that was approaching him right now with a limp in his steps.
He was going to die; his injuries were too deep, but in one last fleeting moment, he hoped to be able to appeal to Naruto. He knew right now that small bit of compassion would not save Naruto's hometown, but he wondered, would it be able to listen to the one being that managed to befriend him in this godforsaken place.
No matter how much he loathed Naruto now, no matter how much he didn't want to do this, he knew he had to. It was the only way... to keep his dream alive.
Holy shit, was this Chapter fun to write!
I just got so immersed in it. There were also a shitload of new techniques that were showcased. As well as the LONGEST fight in the story to date, so please tell me what you think about that in a review.
Also, the first Las Noches arc is drawing to a close. There should be about two more Chapters in it before we can move on to something new. At the very most, it'll be three Chapters.
Translations and Other Features
Influencia: Influence
Desconcierto: Confusion
Apacigua: Pacify (Imperative Form)
Parálisis: Paralysis
Ataque Rojo Mortal: Lethal Red Attack
Ataque Rojo Mortal Doble: Double Lethal Red Attack
Rayo Espalda Rojo: Red Back Beam
La Curva:The Curve
Las Tres Curvas:The Three Curves
After a boatload of translations, that wraps things up for this Chapter, so I'll see ya next time.
Please Review
Happy Trails,
Alban55