Guardian Angel II:

War of the Seven Sins

Chapter 14

Battle Royal part 3

Toshiro vs. Gula

Disclaimer: ...No

Sorry it took so long for an update, trying to juggle two popular stories is kinda hard. I'm here though, and we're going to jump into the third volume of the four part Battle Royal mini-arc. Today we have Toshiro fighting his way past Gula, the avatar of Gluttony. After this, all we have left is Koshino and her bout against Luxuria. Then we have a chapter devoted the the rest of the group outside fighting against the army of Hellspawn Hollows, then finally its the fight between Astaroth and Matt/Ira. Then of course the epilogue.

As I've stated before, we won't be seeing a third installment for a while. I'll be focusing on finally finishing Fateful XIII and it's prequel. Not that I'll have forgotten you guys though; I'll be working on the third story in my free time in between. Who knows, depending on how fast/slow I get this story done, I might even throw in a Halloween special just for the hell of it.

WARNING: Before you guys go any further, you should know there are (technically) references of cannibalism in this chapter. Just thought I'd give you a heads up.

For now though, just enjoy more of the violent Bleach goodness.

Gula wasn't a fast fighter, nor was he agile; in fact he was pretty much everything Toshiro wasn't. What Gula was though, was strong, and durable. No matter how many attacks he threw at him, he didn't seem to be able to inflict more than shallow wounds that wouldn't even faze a common Hollow.

He learned early on that Hyōrinmaru wasn't much more effective in its shikai than in its sealed form. In fact it was less effective. Whenever he shot the ice-dragon at him, he actually enlarged his mouth and bit through the ice like candy. It was quite a unique ability, he not only seemed to be able to enlarge it to nearly any size, but he was strong enough to bite through his zanpakuto ice, rock, pretty much anything.

So as of the present, Toshiro was forced to resort to his bankai. Daiguren Hyōrinmaru was more effective; he was able to actually inflict injury on the hulk of a man now, but it was still difficult.

Toshiro was currently on the offensive, flying straight down at the large man, aiming to stab him. He thrust his blade forward, only to have it blocked as Gula clasped his palms down on either side of the sword, stopping it inches from his face. He shifted his grip and held the zanpakuto in his now balled hands, and swung the young Soul Reaper around and around until finally letting go and throwing him into a wall.

The wings on his back took most of the force of the blow, but the recoil was still painful. As he recovered, Gula leaped at him, his mouth in its enlarged form. Toshiro used shunpo to flee to the ground as Gula bite hard into the stone wall. He merely began chewing the hard rock as he turned to face the silver haired captain.

The titan of a man took in a deep breath. Toshiro began using shunpo wildly as Gula spat out the small rock fragments like one would shoot out watermelon seeds. The stone projectiles kicked up small plumes of dirt, resembling that of a trail of machine-gun rounds. Toshiro gave up his attempts at dodging them and instead, encased himself in his wings, deflecting the small flying rocks.

The impacts of the shots, however, began to erode the ice of his wings and crystallized fragments flew in every direction. When Gula finally ran out of "ammo", Toshiro's wings had dozens of small but gaping holes across its surface. He removed his wings from their shield position, and he regained his field of vision.

At the same time, Gula was coming down at the Soul Reaper, his fists raised. Toshiro leaped back, letting Gula's fists slam into the ground and shatter the stone he'd been standing on. Toshiro flew through the room and came around for a run at his opponent. As he closed in, Gula threw up his hands and caught Toshiro's wings, stopping him in mid-air.

With his enlarged jaw, he snapped at Toshiro in an attempt to crush his skull with his teeth. The silver haired captain avoided the attack though by bringing up his tail and blocking his teeth with it. The ice was all but crushed, but at least he was still alive.

He slashed upward with his blade, slicing at Gula's face. The man reeled back at the gash that started at his upper nose and ended at his forehead, and dribbled blood down his face. Toshiro meanwhile, jumped back to gain distance, and looked up to see how many more petals were left. He sighed when he was that he had just above half his total amount.

He turned his attention back to Gula when he saw that he had regained his barings. The monstrous man growled loudly as he grabbed ahold of one of the many stone columns that lined his room, and pulled with all his might. In a matter of seconds the rock gave way to his strength and he hefted it like a hammer ready to beat in a nail. Toshiro's eyes widened as he saw the column coming down on him. He flew off to the side as it crashed into the ground and sent dust and rock fragments everywhere.

It cracked, but amazingly enough, the column was still in one piece after the impact. Seeing this, Gula lifted it again and swung it in a horizontal arc, sweeping nearly the entire room. The virtual bat of stone slammed into Toshiro's back and slammed him into the wall.

As he was pinned there, he thought of the irony of actually being between a rock and a hard place. In fact, if not for his thick wings covering his back, the column probably would have crushed his spine. As it was though, he had his face firmly planted in the wall, even when Gula removed the stone column from his back. He felt a chunk of his wings fall to the ground with the release of the pressure.

Before he could escape from his rock prison, Gula took hold of the back of his head and tossed him like a ragdoll across the room. He crashed into the wall across the way, then hit the floor with a thud. He rose to one knee in a kneeling position, panting heavily, and watched Gula approach him with a victorious grin on his face.

He clapsed both his hands together and made one giant club-like fist and lifted it high above his head. Toshiro rolled to the side as it smashed into the ground where he had been. With his faster reflexes, he rolled onto his feet and leaped onto Gula's thick arm and delivered a swift but deep slash to his left shoulder, slicing straight through his shoulder blade. He then did a front flip, landed behind him and sliced upward, gashing through his lower back.

With that, he jumped back and waited for the lumbering giant to make his next move. Gula turned to face Toshiro, but the only thing on his face was a humorous smile. He laughed out loud, confusing the smaller captain.

"Ha, still have some fight in ya eh small fry?" he laughed.

Toshiro offered no response, but he felt that familiar vein begin to pop out again at being called 'small fry'; it was the same vein that popped with Matt called him Frosty or he heard snickering in the crowd whenever he gave speeches to his division.

"Heh, no matter, I'll still be eatin' ya. Course I love to tenderize meat before I eat it though," he said, practically drooling over himself.

'This guy is sick! Does he actually want to eat me!?' he thought frantically.

Gula began charging him and thrust forward a giant fist. Toshiro nimbly jumped over it, aiming to make another slash on his face, only to have Gula's other first slam into his side. He flew across the room, being propelled by the force of momentum created by the blow, and skidded across the floor until he came to a rocky stop.

He staggered up again, biting back the pain that was erupting from his arms and legs. He wasn't in a good state; his wings were all but shattered, his ice armor was losing stability as well, and his bankai was down to its last few petals. After they were gone, there wouldn't be anything he could do to stop Gula from ripping him limb from limb.

His only option left was to find some sort of weakness. He already knew that he was extremely durable, and exterior wounds didn't seem to faze him in the slightest, so how was he supposed to stop him? There was also the problem with his biting; he could just shatter straight through anything he threw at him, including his spiritually enhanced ice.

There didn't seem to be anyway to stop this juggernaut from where he was standing.

He didn't have much more time to think about it, as Gula was already withen striking distance of him. Toshiro dodged his first strike, which was a strong left hook, but he was too tired and worn out to stop him from taking hold of his head again. Gula raised him into the air -at least four feet- and grinned before tossing him like a child's toy across the room once more.

He ran face first into the wall, breaking his nose and possibly even cracking the front of his skull, then fell to the floor again. He lay there, staring up at the ceiling, his vision blurring both from the disorientation and the fact that blood was not flowing into his eyes and he had to blink the red plasma away. He looked up at Gula, who was now standing over him, not with a smile, but in fact a frown.

"Is this all ya have small fry?" he asked, sounding disappointed.

Toshiro didn't answer, not out of stubbornness, just that he was unable to.

He shook his head and sighed. "Then it looks like this is the end for you."

Toshiro was off somewhere else though, he was looking up at his few remaining petals hanging, almost tauntingly, above his head.

'Two...that's all I have left. I'm dead.'

He offered no resistance as Gula lifted him into the air again, holding him by the back of his head again. He could have sworn that he didn't feel a thing as he was continuously slammed into the wall. All he heard was the sickening thunks as his skull collided with the stone again and again, almost in some sort of cruel rhythm.

He wasn't even focusing on that though, what he was focusing on was what was about to happen to him after this particular episode was done. He was going to be eaten alive by a gargantuan man who was going to most likely find the rest of his surviving friends who were probably just as weak as he was now.

Even in his dulled state he could feel everyone, in the building at least. Ichigo's was faint but stable, Holly's dipped for a while, but was now back to normal, and Koshino's was taking a beating as well, but she wasn't in his state yet. Matt's though, was unreadable to him, like there was something huge where he was that was overshadowing his power from everyone else.

He mentally shrugged, it wasn't like he was going to be around to see any of it.

He was brought back to reality somewhat when Gula lifted him again, and flipped him around in his giant hand to face him. He saw his mouth widen as his jaw enlarge, increasing in size until it was large enough to swallow a human, or Soul Reaper, whole.

'The sick bastard, he's gonna make me watch.'

He could already imagine sliding down that disgusting throat of his; he hoped he was dead before he reached his stomach.

Then it suddenly dawned on him. 'Wait...exterior wounds don't hurt him...but what about interior damage!'

He had to work fast if he was gonna pull this off. He thanked whoever was up there that he still had the strength to hold onto Hyōrinmaru. He gathered as much reiatsu as he could possibly grab ahold of, using up the power of his last two petals; luckily that was all he'd need.

He raised Hyorinmaru to a stabbing position and grinned behind Gula's massive palm.

"Hey...before you eat me...how about an appetizer," he slipped out before he set his plan into motion.

He thrust his blade into Gula's mouth and used every last bit of power he had left to unleash a Ryūsenka. The ice erupted out of his blade and plunged into the titanic man's gaping mouth. The ice pierced straight through the soft tissue of the back of his mouth, not only stabbing through the back of his head, but shattering his spinal cord and important nerve endings at the base of his skull.

Gula had attempted to shut his mouth before the ice went in, but by the time his jaw slammed shut, the damage was done and his entire body went numb and limp before it completely shut down, which happened all in under a second. He died nearly instantly, but he left on last present for Toshiro before passing.

While his attempt to clamp his jaw shut was unsuccessful, it did succeed at one thing; biting through the young captains arm. The skin, muscle, and most of the bone was completely destroyed when Gula's teeth shut on it, which happened to be just above his elbow. Only a thin link of bone and a few strands of muscles held them together.

With a painful but necessary tug, he ripped the last of the muscle and bone apart, severing his right arm in two. He screamed at the pain, and a few stinging tears escaped as he clutched the wound as blood oozed out at an alarming rate. He sucked in breath through clenched teeth, while at the same time, trying to pry Gula's mouth back open to retrieve Hyorinmaru.

Without his other arm, it was a battle, but Gula's jaw was surprisingly easy to move in its larger state. He reached into the moist cave and tried not to vomit at the smell of a whole rainbow of smells emitting from his bowels. After digging his blade out of its prison of saliva and blood, he tumbled to the ground, grunting at the pain that shot up his back and his stump of an arm.

He staggered up again, using Hyorinmaru as a cane for support, he slowly and painfully stubled down the hallway that had gotten him here in the first place. His vision was blurring again, this time from the pain and the bloodloss, and he knew he'd have to dress the wound soon if he didn't want to die bleeding to death.

He preformed a patch job by ripping off a portion of his captains robe with his goob arm and his teeth, and wrapping it around the bleeding stump, but he knew it wouldn't hold for long. He just had to hope that the others would complete their jobs quickly, or that someone had found medical supplies somewhere. He was sure everyone would need some treatment after all this was over.

Oh yea...you by begin sending your praise/flames...now. Now whether you like this chapter or not, you have to admit that it was pretty epic, eh? Toshiro freakin' lost his arm killing a dude, that's pretty bad-ass if I do say so myself. Don't worry, he won't be a cripple though, Orihime's got that freaky Time Regression ability, remember? (Yes, she'll be showing up to.)

Oh, and you better have liked this chapter, because I wrote the damn thing with a killer migraine pounding in my head. So just remember that I suffered for you, the readers. (LOVE ME DAMN IT!)

Moving on: just remember to give the nice little lavender/blue...skyblue...robins egg blue...whatever color blue button a push and review!