Work is pwning my ass right now, and I'm having a little trouble with what I'm trying to do with this story (it's several chapters ahead - don't worry. The overall plot is intact, I'm just having difficulties banging out the specifics. Both this story and its sequel - that's right... sequel - are pretty well planned out. Anyone wanna beta the second go round?). I'm also working on a new story - a one shot of a variety that I never thought of writing before. It kind of arrived at 3 am last night, waking me up. Boom, special delivery, story! Try sleeping now, ha ha. I need to get that out of my system before I lose any more sleep to it.

Chapter 18

Surrounding the figure of her opponent in an ever-moving coil was a… huge bone worm? Snake? Fanged jaws opened, reptilian eyes glared at her balefully, and it shrieked.

Was that his sword?! She didn't have too much time to wonder, because the thing was flying towards her a lot faster than she liked. She crossed her swords in front of her and braced for the hit she knew would suck, grunting when the head hit her. She slid several yards straight back before losing her footing and falling backwards, her helmet sailing clear off her head at the impact. The huge head of the thing kept on going, but the massive, undulating body crushed against her, slamming her into the hard ground. Her weapons went flying. She briefly considered a weapon chain. This was becoming a habit.

The huge… thing… kept going, lifting from her body and sailing up into the sky. Gasping, she rolled to her feet, reaching into her pack for her axe. Those swords would be useless against this thing. Goddamn it, that stung a bit! Good thing she was already dead or that might actually be an impediment. Hoshithereitcomesagain!

With a strangled roar, she swung the blade of her massive axe with all her strength at the oncoming head. As it struck, she released the frost runes. A shrieking boom echoed through the night at the sudden change in temperature, frost immediately riming her, the bone head, freezing the red mane around it, and travelling down a significant portion of its segmented body. The head whipped back, away from her.

Bone cracked, flaking from the intense cold of her attack. The vertebrae crumbled, separating from each other and falling to the ground, so many hollow rings. The great head crashed with a thundering sound, coming to a rest with jaws open and eyes unlit. There was billowing dust and fog from her ice everywhere, obscuring her sight. It would be a few moments before it would clear. She found and sheathed her swords, plonked her helmet back on, and made her way through the thick clouds, axe over her shoulder.

"Shid! Say 'libid 'elease' al'eady!" It was easy to find him in the thick cloud with him shouting like that. As the smoke cleared, he caught sight of her coming towards him. "Shid!" he shouted again. She raised her axe.

"Captain, Renji, the limit release has been approved!" she heard a woman's voice, tinny and distorted, issuing from some device in his possession.

"Aboud dime!" her opponent snarled. A glowing flower appeared on his chest. A glowing flower?!

He looked up at her, grinning. The ground rumbled, a sudden breeze blowing the smoke away. Or was that from him? The bones of his strange weapon rose of their own volition, threading back together with bonds of reddish energy. Realizing that this was about to get bad again, she lashed out. It was a premature attack – what should have severed his torso from his body instead just produced a superficial slash across his chest. Then those huge coils knocked her aside as the reformed snake curled around him, head rearing up with a roar.

At least his sword-whip appeared to have to follow some kind of physical rules. This enormous thing was entirely free of such annoying constraints as 'gravity.' and 'reasonable size,' or even 'speed and agility in keeping with its ridiculous size.' Vellena didn't have time enough to roll completely out of its path, and she was knocked from the feet she was only beginning to regain. Then it was around again for another pass at her, and she didn't manage to dodge at all.

It struck with the force of a magnataur in full rampage, and before she knew it, Vellena was trying to keep herself from being crushed in its massive jaws. Sharp teeth crunched down on her, deforming titansteel plate and even punching clean through in places. She could feel it when the thing changed direction, shooting straight up. The great jaws opened again, and she flailed, not really rationally thinking about what would happen if she got free. The jaws started to close around her and she tucked, making herself as small as she could.

Teeth barely missed her as her view of the world outside was cut off the closure of scissoring jaws. Ok, enough of this! She thought angrily, considering how she might get out of this situation. She'd lost her axe somewhere and had nothing to use to deliver any of her nasty runic tricks just yet. She'd have to do something else— with a quick hope that the thing didn't change direction suddenly, she rearranged herself and pushed mightily against its jaws, resolutely marshalling her unrelenting undead strength. Inch by labourious inch, she began to force those jaws apart. She was able to stand for a brief interlude.

Movement out of the corner eye had her turning her attention for just a moment, just in time to catch a glimpse of Grimmjow skidding to a halt in the sky nearby, looking a little worse for wear than when she'd last seen him. He flashed a slightly puzzled look her direction, as though surprised to see her where she was, then they both had to turn back towards their respective battles.

She was waaay too high up. She didn't have a lot of time to think about that before the thing was attempting once more to bite down on her. She endured the sudden crushing pressure, letting it push her down. She waited for the exact moment when it stopped biting and started opening, and forced back with a sudden burst of strength. The jaws went whipping apart, and she nearly went tumbling straight out of its mouth and headfirst for the ground hundreds of feet below. It bucked most disconcertingly at her attack, and she did fall out. She was fast enough to grab hold of the red mane before she fell to her death.

Not a much better position than before! Ok, think Vellena! The only way she was going to get down was if the snake let her dow… Grinning, she swung herself closer to the huge bone body of the thing, and then took a chance. She was dead either way if she didn't try it.

How convenient for the thing to come with its very own ladder rungs, in the form of those spikes running all the way down to the ground!

For the next moments, her attention was focused entirely on making sure she was able to grab the next rung, and the next, and the next, in what was really more like a barely controlled plummet than an orderly descent. And the thing kept moving, which made things a little more difficult, but somehow she managed. The shinigami looked a more than a little surprised to see her hurtling down the back of his minion. She spotted her axe on the ground and judged the distance safe enough to jump.

Vellena hit the pavement feet first, with an 'oof'. Scooping up the weapon, she regained her stance. She was still farther away from the guy than she'd prefer – her axe had somehow ended up a couple hundred yards' dash away from him. She started running across the distance between them. The huge snake whirled up.

"Hikōdsu-daihō!" she heard the shinigami yell. Booming crimson power rippled through the body of the snake, separating each segment as it rolled through its body, making its way to the head that was pointed straight at her! The echoing energy was as destructive as Nnoitra's yellow beam. She raised her axe in front of her like a makeshift shield, pouring the residual power she had accumulated throughout the battle into a magic-negating sphere around her. It flew into place just as the huge red ball erupted from the snake's mouth, shock wave visibly dogging it.

The power of it seared the air around her and kept on going, crashing through trees, houses, who knew what else. When it had passed, she lowered her axe, looking up, feeling slightly surprised that she still existed. Apparently the red-headed shinigami shared her shock, because he was giving her a gape-mouthed look of sheer dismay.

And it seemed that his weapon (if such a thing was a weapon rather than some kind of minion) wasn't able to recover from that incredible attack, at least not that quickly. It was being held shakily together with glowing red tendrils of power, but it was clear that it wasn't going to be coming at her any time soon. Realizing that she had a chance, she tore towards her opponent.

She was yards from striking range when the unmistakable feel of a garganta opening nearby had her freezing in her tracks. Both she and the shinigami looked up. She heard his sharp intake of breath (in recognition?) at the sight of Tōsen standing in the air. The visored ex-captain turned his face towards her.

"Enough." Even though he was still pretty distant, she heard his voice as though he was right beside her.

She turned briefly to the red-haired man. "I'm sorry, but it seems that I must leave. It looks like you get a reprieve, shinigami." She stated flatly. When she looked back, Tōsen had collected Grimmjow, who looked more than a little frustrated, and quite bloody. She turned and walked towards Tōsen, slinging the axe across her back as she accepted the dark-skinned man's offered hand. As they rose in the sky, she saw the red-head's snake come apart, thudding to the ground as he slumped, exhausted. There was an empty feeling that told her that she and Grimmjow were the only survivors of this expedition. Her last glimpse of the world of the living was the orange-haired boy making his way to the shinigami girl, who was shifting slightly. The garganta closed.