The ground trembled as something massive rose up out of it, like a sea-snake rising up out of the waters. At first, it was so large and strangely shaped that I couldn't take in all of it at once. It was scaled and furred at the same time with massive limbs, and enormous torso, claws, spikes, glowing beady eyes and more teeth than any self-respecting creature should have. Hoo boy, could she pick 'em or what? I found a happy, feral smile stretch across my face. Finally! A real fight!
With a warrior's whoop of excitement I called up Zabimaru and went at it. It felt just like fighting a Hollow, the size and strength in the beast was enormous but that only added on an extra filip of excitement as I sliced, slashed, stabbed and cut away at it, rolling, ducking and dodging around its ponderous, heavy swings with the familiarity of long practice. The new Zabimaru was a feather in my hand, but a long sharp pointed one, as I sliced away. The thing howled with rage as my cuts struck home again and again. I neatly dodged a swipe by one of its massive forearms and brought my sword up to block a snap from its jaws when it finally managed to land a hit on me with its backswing and i went rolling top over teakettle in a tight crouch.
"Renji!" Isana cried out in dismay, starting forward, presumably to help.
"Stay back!" I snapped at her in annoyance. See, this is why I hadn't wanted her coming along in the first place, the first sign of a minor little scuffle and she starts getting all nervous and concerned. The last thing I needed was to have her getting in the way of my fight. Fortunately, she had the good sense to follow my orders an' stay the hell out of it.
Undeterred in the least I leapt enthusiastically back into the fray. The beast by now was bleeding from several long cuts and swipes in many areas of its body, and while angered, still showed no signs of slowing down. That suited me fine, I wasn't wanting it to end there either. He planted a fist into the earth and a great trench with sharpened spikes of rock jutting up at it shot my way. That was a bit of a surprise, some Hollows came with spirit attacks, but not manny of them. Still I'd fought enough of those types to be familiar with how to counter on this new type of enemy. I just leapt up into the air and flashed over next to him, swiping at his left arm that I was currently in the process of trying to hack off. The thing was as thick as a tree trunk! I got a stab to the back of its knee as it beat the ground with its other fist to summon up more rock spikes where I was standing and that was when I flashed around to the other side and finally managed in a nice two-handed swing, to hack through the rest of the arm I'd been working on. The beast screamed its rage and defiance and swung, one armed, to hit me. I darted in and used it's swing against it to add power to my own swing and cut halfway through its other arm. There was blood everywhere. The beast bit at me again and I smashed its snout with the flat of my blade. I swung around and down, with a two-handed slice, and managed to sever its other arm. It snapped at me with its teeth, unwilling to give up. I flashed back a few paces and took a running leap, slashing neatly downward in a diagonal across its chest, Zabimaru cutting through its body like a hot knife through butter. In my experience (with Hollow's) this thing was beat. It gave out one last lingering howl of pain as it sank to its knees, then turned into a crumbling heap of stone and didn't move anymore.
:That's how it's done.: I thought smugly, resting Zabimaru on my shoulder as I surveryed the last trace of it turning into sand.
"Heh," I grunted in satisfaction.
That'd teach it ta mess with a Lieutenant of the Court Guard Squads. I turned and walked back towards Isana, ready to get on with our quest, when she, pale-faced, raised a tembling hand and pointed at me.
What?
No, wait, she was pointing behind me.
"Uh, Renji..." she started.
I looked back.
There seemed to be a small red bead slowly hovering up from the ground. The stone that the beast had turned to after I'd beaten it turned to a sandy gravel and spiraled up and around the red bead. The dust-spiral resolved itself into the form of the creature I'd just gotten done fighting. Oh, so it was back for more eh? I pulled Zabimaru in front of me and rushed at it just as though it were any other Hollow. Before it could even finish reforming itself and start an attack, I nailed it with a long downward slash across its torso. The half finished monster sank right back down where it had come from.
Now stay there.
I was about to turn around and head back to Miss Isana again when that damn bead popped up out of the rubble and started floating up again, the rocks around it started to quiver. So it was the bead. I smacked it with my sword but instead of cutting it or smashing it, a red barrier-field snapped up around the bead and it continued to rise, undeterred. I stood back on my heels and considrered it as the rocks began to melt into sand and started moving again. It was pretty clear to me that I was going to be fighting the same creature over and over again unless I destroyed the heart of the beast. It was somewhat the same for Hollows, unless a Reaper destroyed the mask the damn thing would just keep regenerating over time. Unfortunately that damn barrier feild kept me from getting to the bead...
"Renji, Keep it distracted!" Isana said suddenly.
I looked back at her in a sort of non-plussed confusion. Distracting it wasn't a problem, but what the hell did she think she was going to do?
"Solid Firmament. Growing life," she chanted as her body assumed a posture of a ki-dope concentrating on working a Hado. Oh, so she thought she'd try that binding spell huh? Well, I guessed that it couldn't hurt.
I charged at the creature as it formed hacking and slashing away at it as it swung and snapped at me. Good times. It put up a fight, but I wouldn't have been satisfied if it hadn't. I kept one ear cocked to Miss Isana chanting in the background, the strange feeling of energy of her odd mortal power buzzing in the air about her and the scent of moist growing things saturating the back of my tongue as she worked on that spell of hers. The stone-golem thing kept swinging, its attention focused securely on me as the nearest threat, and I made sure to keep it there as I nipped in and out, taking out limbs that promptly reattached themselves. This would have been frustrating as an ordinary battle, but since I was just excersizing and getting a feel for working with Zabimaru's new form, it was more entertaining than anything else.
"...Stone and glass take steps to the north. Bind!" Miss Isana shouted.
The beast was suddenly bound and shackled. I cut off it's head and the rest of its limbs. Zabimaru was really good for that.
The beast fell back to the earth. Miss Isana stepped forward and picked up the metal thing she'd messed with earlier, it looked like the setting for a necklace.
"Wandering path, sword of the warrior. Metal that finds it source in the earth," she chanted.
A greenish aura surrounded her, not unlike a lighter version of the one that had surrounded the Mountain Spirit. It felt different from ordinary reiatsu though, like it found its source somewhere elese. Strangely, as she chanted the words, a circle of light flared up around her, quickly writing itself into a complex design with lines and sigils in a circle on the ground around her feet.
"...Bind!" she commanded pointing at the bead.
The red bead, halfway up into the air, shook for a long moment and flared as if it were stuggling against something, then flew straight at Miss Isana and the metal talisman she was holding. The empty metal prongs in front of the talisman wrapped around the bead like a cage. There was a final flare of green light from the circle around Isana and then the bead went dark. I looked around and listened cautiously. Nothing. Part of me was a little disappointed that there was no more fun monster to fight but it wasn't fun if it was so easy to beat and the same type of creature all the time.
"This is why you shouldn't just go around picking stuff up off the ground," I said into the silence, sheathing Zabimaru.
Miss Isana made a face at me and said
"Let's just go."
I just realized tonight that Thursday had passed me by without an update but i do have an excuse, I had a Spanish composition due that morning and then I had work in the afternoon and evening so I was simply too busy. I don't think I even got on the computer, which is rare for me. Anyway, here's your chapter. Its abit of a short one... but some good stuff is coming up in the future. Hey... I just realized, is it thirty chapters already? Wow... I want to thank my loyal reveiwers; BloodyRoses, War 90, Kuro-okami, Crazy Ace, Angel Ire. You guys are the reason I keep posting this monster. So you keep lovin' it and I'll keep making sure you get your fix. Until Next time!
Nightheart