Chapter 3: To be Hunted

He had to admit, they almost caught him off guard. When the creature made his way back across the void after his latest kill he immediately took off at a mad sprint. He knew that they were watching him, but they were always watching him. So he paid them no mind. He simply continued running till he would feel hungry again. He hadn't expected them to attack like that. He almost didn't see it coming. He was almost hit. And the other bastard almost got away with it at that.

He could barely describe just how thrilling it was to tear into an opponent like he did. Twisting his arm about and slashing across his victim's throat, he could feel the life force slipping out of his enemy. It was even more thrilling than what he had done to that Death God all those hours ago. It was intoxicating. He noted that he might soon get used to it though as more hollows were coming after him.

The numbers were ridiculous. There were at least a dozen enemies coming down on him and he knew that there were thousands more eyes looking at him from all about. If he stood his ground he would be overwhelmed in seconds, so he did not stand. He grabbed the first limb that came at him and took off into the air.

Hollows do not fight like other creatures do. Most creatures fight to kill and to escape. Hollows kill to eat. That is all they care about, that is all that motivates them. So when they fight they don't try to cut up their foes or crush them like they try to do to the Death Gods that hunt them. They always try to grapple, they try to strangle, and they try to eat. Hollows intend to preserve their foes as much as possible so that they gain the most reward when they do make the kill. Or at least they try to do this when they are the ones hunting and not the ones being hunted. When on the receiving end, all that matters is survival, by any means necessary.

The hunting hollows know this of course. They know that their prey will lash about as wildly as possible and try to cut, tare and bite at them to kill them. Therefore they move very carefully, and always in great numbers. So when their prey grabbed one of them and tore off into the trees none of them moved to help it. Doing so would endanger their lives and they weren't about to do something that stupid.

The hunted hollow dropped its victim but held onto its foot with his tail. As he moved about he turned harshly from side to side smashing it into trees. Before long he heard a satisfying snap and let go. Now he moved far faster and took off into higher trees. Only a few hollows could keep up with him but they all stayed close together to that he couldn't pick them off one at a time. He had expected as much. But he still had an advantage over them; he was the one who decided where they went.

The hollow made his way over towards a large, broad tree that dominated the area around it. He leapt up to it, but grabbed on to the side and swung around it. When the hollow group passed him he lunged into the back of one of the larger, slower ones and dug his claws in deep while he smashed its legs with his tail. It wasn't quite dead yet but it was close enough, he kicked off of it and sent the monster careening into the group of forerunners while he launched back at the main group far behind him.

They were still a fair distance off as he approached them so he had plenty of time to take the group into consideration. There were eight in front of him and five healthy ones behind him, but he had at least half a minute lead on them, so they weren't important. There were three large slow hollows amongst that group surrounded by five smaller ones. Either group of potential targets could be a trap. The large ones were either so slow that he could rush right over them, or they expert grapplers who could hold him down while the nimble ones went in for a kill. The small ones were either easy targets or they were a kind of mine ready to grab his limbs till their dyeing breath and slow him down while the larger ones smashed him down. More than likely though, they were all dangerous.

He focused on one of them, the one that would require the least amount of course correction to hit. It was one of the larger ones, with four arms and a rather impressive set of tusks extending from its mask. There was no doubt in the hollow's mind that it would pin him down in an extended wrestling match if given the chance, he couldn't afford such a battle of attrition. Pain would be his ally here, and he used it to his fullest. Moments before meeting his target head one he reached out to grab those massive tusks before it. It immediately grabbed his hands trying to hold him in place while the others closed in around him. While it did, the hunted hollow swung his legs forward and kicked his foe in the mask itself, cracking it and tearing the tusks off of its face. It reared back, screaming in pain, losing its grip and releasing its prey.

The hollow leapt away from the group but the rest were closing in, ignoring their fallen comrade and moving in for the kill. He grabbed the face of one of the smaller ones with his clawed feet, twisted away and snapped its neck and while kicking a second one into the tree. This only gave him an instant of breathing space, but that was more than enough to leap away.

"Curious." A voice deep within the hunted hollow commented into the mental ear of the instincts that drove and guided the beast itself. "If this were us: fighting as a pack of ravenous hollow looking for a quick meal out of a brother of ours, and several of our group were injured like that we would take down the weaker prey. Why do they hunt us like this?"

"They fear us." The instincts responded, in their ever erratic, slightly high-pitched voice. "They seek to destroy what they fear no matter the costs."

"Do they really fear our growth that much? Were they human we would call this jealousy, not fear."

"We are not human."

"We were; they were. Do instincts make that much difference?"

"See for yourself. Besides, what do you think is happening, is there some malevolent force out there manipulating them into killing us?"

"Is that so impossible?"

"Admittedly not, but it changes nothing. We will kill them, and if something greater is behind this, we will kill it to."

"So be it. By the way, there's one above us now."

"We see him, it really isn't a problem, we just swing our tail out above us, catch this branch here, spin off of it into him and dig our claws into his lungs like so."

"That also puts us well above the rest of them too. Nicely done." The voice concluded, as the other trapped voices were forced to look on at the shear destruction that they were wrecking.

Skip

"That's the sixth one in less than three minutes." The bird like hollow commented to the Grand Fisher, in a way that was really starting to grate his nerves.

"Acceptable losses." The Grand Fisher retorted.

"I see, so at what point does it become an unacceptable loss?"

"Every hollow that falls only serves to prove how valuable this kill will be."

"And how narrow minded and dangerous this idea of yours is."

"I don't see the danger."

"That thing is tearing through your servants effortlessly. You waited too long, it has become too powerful. Call this off before we lose any more."

"Servants exist to further their master, they should be grateful to die for the likes of me." The Fisher said swelling with pride.

"They aren't really your servants, they're his, and he won't be so happy about this."

"When he sees how powerful I have become, he won't care how many common hollow I sacrificed to gain this power. He will welcome me amongst his elite."

"Assuming you kill it."

"Of course I will kill it! How can you possibly doubt me?"

"I've never seen you do anything like that." The bird hollow said pointing at how the hunted hollow had found hole in the side of a tree. It had leapt down the hole, and came out a bit above the first one, by which point all the hollow had gathered around the hole it had vanished down and struggling to follow. The hunted hollow sized up the largest hollow of the group and lunged at it. It grabbed its prey by the head pulling out into the air. As they fell, the hunted hollow planted its feet on its victim's shoulders and jerked upward, ripping the head off its shoulders. The bird hollow almost heard its friend try to gulp down raw terror.

"How many times do I have to tell you," The Grand Fisher declared, almost more to himself that to his partner, "it's not power that matters but the mind. I have survived Death Gods hunting me for fifty years because I am smart. It will fall to my clever traps."

"That thing has killed more humans in just two days than you typically kill in a year or more. Unless you have one hell of a good trick up your sleeve you should back down now."

"And admit defeat to the likes of a mindless brute?" The fisher shouted at his partner, shocked at the thought of such a thing.

"It's a damn sight better than becoming a headless corpse."

"That's it! I have had it up to here with your negative attitude. You have opposed my every decision since we joined up with-" Their argument was interrupted as the hunted hollow tore past them through the air while wrestling with the last of the large hollow hunting it. It then slammed into a tree behind the arguing pair but it wasn't stunned. The hollow kicked upwards and threw its foe up into the air while it flipped around. As the hunting hollow began to fall, the hunted touched the side of the tree for the briefest instant with its foot and shot upwards, impaling it's target through the chest as it went.

The smaller hollow surrounded him, but they hesitated for a while. This prey that they had been sent to coral had now wiped out the largest and the strongest of the group and all but halved their numbers. They couldn't really consider themselves the hunters at this point. Besides that, their boss was here and surely he would put an end to all of this. After all, he was a chosen servant.

The Grand Fisher soon realized that this was his cue to take center stage and he was not one to disappoint. He descended into the midst of his hunting party and boldly starred down his intended prey. Refusing to so much as bat an eye, he held himself tall and proud, leering at his foe through his ever-smiling mask. The hunted hollow didn't even notice him, he was more focused on the hollow who had been hunting him up till then. Refusing to be ignored the Grand Fisher decided to call his enemy out.

"So boy, you think that just because you have withstood a few small fries you're ready to take on the likes of me? Don't you know who I am? I am the king of this forest and every hollow that dwells with in it! Ever since you took that kid…" He went on, the hollow to be honest wasn't listening to him. He couldn't, voices with in him were shouting.

"Its him!" The first voice shouted so loud that everything within him heard it.

"Who is it?" A lesser voice asked speaking out for those who were trapped.

"Him! We have to kill him! He must die! Now!" The first voice demanded.

"He seems powerful, maybe we should avoid him. They aren't attacking us like they were before, perhaps we can escape?" A weak female voice mewed.

"There is no escape from here! We should die and be done with it!" The weakest voice complained.

"NO!" The first voice shouted drowning out all others instantly. "He can't escape! Kill him NOW!"

The instincts nodded, not that they had to be told, but these emotions were delicious! The fear in the voices of their victim, the furry in the voice of his king. It was unbelievable, how could he have spent so much time asleep when things like this were out here to be sampled. Then he roared.

He didn't roar internally. This was a very external roar, the sort of roar which could crack the stone trees around him. A roar that silenced the fisher and scattered his minions. A roar that put the fear of god into everything and anything around him. The roar was so incredible that even his own mask began to crack. Then he leapt.

The fisher had been hovering in the air, and had nothing stable to hold himself to, not that he could've stopped a charge like that if he had. The raging beast before him grabbed his mask and drove him backwards. Reacting quickly he sharpened his fur and twisted a part of it into a spike that he drove at the chest of his foe, but he enemy leapt back at the last moment, avoiding the deadly spear and sending the Fisher flying into a nearby tree.

The stone tree cracked as he struck it, but he refused to be distracted by the pain, the hollow was coming again. He braced against the tree and swung out with his claws at the back of the beast, who took the blow and slammed its shoulder into the fishers chest and sent him back further into the tree. The mighty tree of the hollow forest shook violently beneath the second blow. The Fisher had the wind knocked out of him, but he was still not out of the fight, he grabbed his enemy by the shoulders and threw him away.

The hollow would not give up the offensive, and swiftly returned. This time he kicked at the fisher, who blocked it with his arm. The Fisher tried to grab at the hollow but it pushed off his guard, flipped over, and came back again with another barrage of blows. Under each on the Fisher was driven further and further back into the shaken tree and before long it crack completely beneath the rain of blows and shattered.

As the fisher fell through the air he looked back up at his enemy. He was still being pursued. Even as the giant stone tree collapsed around them, this crazy fool was driving after him. The Fisher gathered energy around his feet and leapt away from what would soon be a crash zone. No more than a hundred feet later, his pursue crashed into his back, digging its white claws into the Fisher's back. The pain felt hotter than any fire or any gash that had ever been given to him by any Death God or any other hollow. It was terrifying. He jumped away from that pain, he had to get away from it even if it meant leaping head first into the sandy floor below. The other Hollow landed a few dozen feet a way panting heavily, for the first time since he had been born he stopped and rested a moment.

"ENOUGH!" The Grand Fisher screamed as he struggled to stand up right. Pure rage and adrenalin, over rode the pain from his nerves, as he gripped his mask. "I will not stand he and be done in by some up start two bit, running hollow! Don't you know who I am! Don't you know what I am! I AM A SERVANT OF THE GOD OF THIS HELL! I AM AN…." He screamed, as the hollow decided that resting and listening were very boring, and attacked.

Skip

A few thousand yards away from the two hollows locked in battle there stood a group of curious creatures. Common Death Gods would call these things Menos Grande, and would fear them, with good reason. The elite of Soul Society would scoff at them and call them Gillian or common Giants. Hollow reacted much the same way to these things. A Gillian, didn't really have a mind, it had thousands. And it took a very long time for anything to realized by those thousands of minds, but once it was it had the power of thousands of souls to get it done. Gillian weren't stupid, they were honest and simple. They lived by simple laws, to which there were no excuses. One of those laws was that hollows did not fight other hollows.

Eventually, they realized that a fight was taking place beyond their sight range. Eventually they started to head towards that fight. Eventually they would arrive. Much sooner than then, every hollow with a mile or more would flee for their lives. Even the Grand Fisher knew, Gillian were stupid; far to stupid to show mercy or hesitation.

However, Gillian did know a few things that other hollow could never dream off. They knew what true power was like. They knew their limits. They knew how to make a cero, or rather, they knew how to unmake everything very quickly. They also knew why it was always dark in a forest with out leaves. They knew that the sky could fall. And they knew that above the second Desert, the real demons prowled, and were to be feared.

They would also have known that when that great tree fell to the hunted hollow's relentless blows, it would not pass unnoticed. They didn't know, because they didn't see it fall. But, high above them all: someone did see it. And that someone was a rather curious individual, especially when it came to anything powerful enough to destroy a hollow's tree.

End.