Third Degree Burns

Fighting Alexandria and Legend at the same time was extremely more difficult: she was always in my face, moving at speeds that were scarcely believable, delivering blows that managed to throw me off my feet when they landed. Her companion, on the other hand, was a harassing force of terrifying might: when my better hand-to-hand skills brought me on the point of beginning to choke her, he fired with staggering precision. His lasers offered a multitude of different effects, and each was chosen with the skill of the truly experienced warrior that Legend was.

Spin, kick, duck, punch, weave, headbutt, sprint across the air to get near to Legend only to stop to deal with Alexandria once more.

Again and again, I tried to break their pattern, but Alexandria had more than earned her title as one of the greatest Thinkers of the world: as I began each of my tactics, her strategy changed. When I took one hand off the hilt of my Soul Cutter, she kept herself on the side where I held my sword, arguably the more dangerous, only to avoid the risk of being trapped again in my Kido. When I managed to kick her away with the purpose of rushing Legend to deal with him quickly, he scattered as a beam of light to give time to his companion to return into the fray.

It was easy to see how the underlying trust in Alexandria's 'invincible' status against blunt force trauma defined much of my opponent's overall strategy, and my own reluctance when it came to killing ineffective people who had nevertheless tried to be more than thugs taking from those that couldn't fight back.

Reiatsu rippled through me as I blurred through the incoming barrage of attacks: Alexandria's attempts were commendable, but ultimately unable to push me back, not without exposing herself unnecessarily. As the fight dragged on, she accumulated several minor wounds, but even with her skin split, she did not bleed.

Time lost meaning as I was starting to be pushed back despite Yamamoto's immense well of experience guiding my hand: the Kido that I could use without killing the extremely frail Legend when he wasn't in his breaker state were limited, and when I tried to align my arm to strike him, Alexandria targeted my arm just enough to send my distance attacks out of target.

I had fallen into a lull during which my body moved without conscious thought, while my entire focus was dedicated to finding chinks in my opponents' armors: and out of nowhere, it came.

The solution, the strategy that perfectly struck the center of my purpose, revealed itself in a single moment of perfect clarity: I would pay for it, my opponents were just too able for it to be otherwise, but this fight was beginning to drag on, and I was gaining nothing from it. I made clear that I'm above them? Not yet.

Fire surged in my heart once more as the never forgotten rage churned brightly once more, and I felt tongues of flame dance across my palms: I hadn't truly proven myself above them, not yet.

Alexandria led with a punch to my head, forcing me to tilt it back while my knee sharply impacted under her ribs, and as she tried to deliver a descending elbow strike on my exposed breastbone, I described a simple half-circle with my blade, forcing her back.

While her momentum once more changed without any of the inertia that should have accompanied it, my left arm pointed straight at Legend, and I breathed in, ready to resort to the Demon Arts once more.

Predictably, Alexandria shifted to my bladed side, attempting to overwhelm my defense while my focus was split, but once again, I caught her unaware. The hand closed around the hilt of my blade let go while I pointed an open palm against the Brute who had caused the birth of the term 'Alexandria Package': "Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō." the Six Rods Prison of Light snapped closed around the midriff of my opponent, forcing her hands to her sides, and leaving her neck completely exposed.

Legend's laser struck my unprotected side like a battering ram, and I spun to bleed off the kinetic energy they delivered without losing sight of my main worry: still bound in my Kido, she couldn't avoid the following attack. I completed my spin with my heel crushing in her jaw with a strength that she had been capable of avoiding up to that point.

She was flung from her position, her arms still bound, only for me to move, and in a matter that couldn't be measured in anything more than split seconds, I retrieved my still falling sword and rocketed behind the Brute. I grimaced when she started to kick madly, my shins thrumming with pain as the impact reverberated in my bones, but I had enough experience with grappling that I couldn't be so easily tossed away: my left arm circled her neck, while I swung with my right strongly enough to shatter the following battery of lasers that Legend had tried to intercept me with.

Then gravity folded, and my sensing informed me of a third man suddenly appearing in the sky above Brockton Bay.

Eidolon stood imposingly far above the fight, a faint shimmer of fractal-like crystals shifting around him as some sort of shield while he started to employ the apparently endless array of powers that he had under his command.

Time slowed artificially around me while I was jerked back, only for Alexandria to turn on a dime and deliver an elbow strike just under my chin, and another battery of Legend's multicolored laser struck me, bowing me off the sky.

A bolt of lightning almost struck me while I rolled away from Alexandria's ax kick that would have burrowed me into the asphalt, and I swung my blade to divert yet another laser from Legend: were before the Brute/Thinker and the Breaker/Striker fought complementarily, forcing me to fight on their terms, the arrival of Eidolon himself completely pushed me out of my rhythm.

Right became left, the ground became liquid, and the very air suddenly assumed the density of mud while Alexandria became a whirlwind of blows, Legend of course, was a streak of light always positioning himself at the perfect angle to nail a laser under my defense, but with every hit, every time I was forced back, my rage only grew.

"All the Triumvirate for a girl that nobody has ever heard about." I commented dryly as I managed to disengage, and for a moment, the fighting stopped.

"It doesn't have to be this way." Legend, always the spokesperson, tried to approach me with his palms held in a hollow, peaceful gesture, "whatever grievances you might have, this is not the way..."

I scoffed, immediately dismissing his words while my focus remained on Eidolon, the feeling of his presence shifting minutely along ith his changing powers: I would feel when Alexandria approached, but the world's most famous Trump had already proved that he could influence me and my surrounsings with virtually no warning, and it was him the one that made this battle a whole lot more difficult.

I raised my weapon and assumed a standard stance: I would not be pushed back, I couldn't allow it. "The time when I listened to empty promises has ended."

And the battle resumed.

Winds that held the might of the hurricane delivered blows concentrated under the form of fists, Alexandria was a whirlwind of elbows and knees as she tried to come so close that the reach of my sword would be ineffective, and the world around me lit up with an ever-shifting rainbow of absurd effects. Stone came alive under my feet, yellow bolts that appeared under the shape of a collection of bubbles turned the asphalt into a living flame that tried to ensnare me, while my senses were forced to bend to the impossible effects of Eidolon's powers.

My regular breathing pattern broke when Alexandria managed to kick me under the ribs, only for my knuckles to split when some cutting form of telekinesis attempted to rip my blade from my hands, and I was blasted off my feet.

With every hit, however, I learned something more about them, about how they reacted, about how they were used to doing battle. Why do I feel like they fight to not-lose, instead to win?

Eventually however, I found myself panting on the ground, and the endless barrage of blows forced me on one knee: above me, the Triumvirate hovered, untouchable, veterans of hundreds of fights.

Just like Sophia had been. The thought cut into the light haze caused by the repeated blows with the precision of a knife slipping between ribs. I tightened my hold on my weapon: Ywach and Aizen too had been untouchable, hell, once even Yamamoto had been beyond anyone else's ability to fight. That was it, wasn't it? The strong were always beyond reach, until at some point, they were.

I was still on the ground, but my eyes fell on the hand that was holding my weapon, and I knew what to do: I rose to my feet, I would not stay crumpled on the ground when the blade was freed. I took a deep breath, a stirring, powerful certainity making itself known inside me, and words that I felt were just as part of me as my eyes and heart came forth in a shout: "Reduce All Creation to Ash, Ryūjin Jakka!"

I called, and in a rush that surged from deep inside me, and the ocean of fire that I had tamed inside me answered.

AN

A Fucking Big Fight.

It's not exactly easy to balance reasonably well multiple pieces in a fast-paced battle. Let's be honest, Bleach is OP everywhere but in DragonBall, where they casually pop planets as a hobby. Regular Protectorate is nothing of note, but Taylor doesn't want to slaughter them. The same foes for the Triumvirate, which also have Contessa planning their intervention.