Chapter 29
I own nothing
How to describe a goliath? Simply saying it crawled from the 9th circle of hell might work, but it doesn't capture the sheer terror and twisted nature of this powerful beast. It was easily 40 feet tall, but nowhere near balanced. Its left arm was gigantic; looking like it was a stone pillar in the shape of as elephant foot and could easily make a crater with every miss-matched step the monster took. The other 'hand', if that loose a term applies, was a gigantic barb that it was using to spear solider and civilians on the ground. The two legs were pitifully small, the right slightly longer than the left, and the body was nothing but pure muscle and bone, flexing and pulsing across the muscles. The head was like a brawlers head, but the skin was gone to show something closer to pure bone. It was truly from hell.
And this is what they were looking in shock for a few seconds. At least until Heller shook of his shock and let the solider in him take over. He shouted "THAT THING'LL BE HEADING FOR THE WHITE LIGHT DEPOT, SLOW IT DOWN!"
"HOW?!" Ichigo shouted. Even the Gillian he had fought before he had unlocked his sword was easier to take down then this. He knew this thing wouldn't go down easily.
Heller shifted to claws and sword as he tried to think up something. As he was watching, he saw a tank round hit the head, knocking the goliath backwards and forcing it onto one leg, the stone arm waving forward to try and regain balance, but the stress on its leg was causing it to begin breaking slightly, the crack barely heard over the explosions.
Heller noticed this and his eyes widened as he thought "of course!"
He then flash stepped while charging his sword. He appeared by the leg and slashed upwards while shouting "GETSUGA TENSHO!" sending the shockwave to cut through the knee cap. The beast roared in pain as it fell backwards and hit the ground with enough force to shake the earth and send up several pieces as the ground cracked.
"RED CROWN RED CROWN, WE HAVE JAMES HELLER FIGHTING THE GOLAITH AT THE WHITE LIGHT FACILITAY."
Heller ignored Blackwatch as he looked back at the others and shouted "ALL OUT! REFLECT IN DESPAIR, SHADOW SHIFTER!"
Heller's aura shot out and the area was blasted with air as Heller wen to Shikai. Ichigo followed his example and flash stepped to the ground before shouting "BANKAI!" instantly increasing the spirit energy pressure in the area. The other two joined the on the street. Kisuke unsealed his sword while Byakuya unleashed his Bankai. The goliath got back up and was greeted to the four of them in an island of petals, all looking determined and fierce, but the goliath, too stupid to care, just roared and kept towards the white light facility.
"NO YOU DON'T, YOU BASTARD!" Heller yelled as he flash stepped forward. Kisuke and Ichigo were on his side while Byakuya played distraction, using his petals to try and slow the thing down while dealing millions of small cuts to its body. Heller rushed in along with the other 2 at his side and got in close to being using his sword and claws to slice up pieces of its flesh. Kisuke used his energy bullets to shoot through it's body, but they were too small to deal much damage and the goliaths body could heal the minor injuries. And Ichigo was using kido and sword strikes charged with Getsuga Tensho to deal some damage.
The goliath roared and swung its stone arm to blow away the petals before taking it's barb arm and using it to try and spear Byakuya. He simply dodged but the barb was then embedded in the ground, making it impossible to extract, though the goliath tried it's hardest.
Kisuke saw this and said "Kamisori (Razor), Benihime," swinging his sword to unleash the red screaming wave of energy. It flew to the joint in the arm and sliced clean through it, sending blood spewing out while the goliath roared in pain again. It slammed its stone arm into the ground, causing a shockwave and enough sound to send the 4 of them flying backwards, the sound making it so they were too disoriented to do anything as they hit the street with enough force to knock the breath out of their bodies. By the time they got enough back that they could sit up groaning, they saw the goliath jumping upwards, using its last stone arm to jump easily 50 feet into the air before falling straight towards them.
"MOVE!" Heller shouted at the same time Blackwatch were yelling "GET BACK GET BACK!" Ichigo's group cleared with an inch to spare as the goliath hit the ground arm first with the force of a meteor.
What happened next, no one could remember or piece together, but the group found themselves scattered in the crater, all of them knocked out, or near it in Ichigo's and Heller's case. But they were both wounded, Heller missing his legs while his arms were broken. He was regenerating okay, but the goliath was making its way to the whitelight facility too fast for him to heal in time. Ichigo had all his limbs broken, but thanks to his Hierro, they were still attached, but he couldn't perform medical kido without being able to move.
Ichigo's P.O.V
I felt like I had just been pommelled into the ground by Ulquiorra again, the only difference being I didn't have a hole blown in my chest. I tried to move, only to feel like my limbs were on fire. I couldn't open my eyes, I was too weak, but I could feel the goliath moving away from us, towards the whitelight facility.
"NO!" I thought. If that thing reached the facility, then all of NYZ would be infected. Orihime would become infected.
"MOVE DAMN IT!" I yelled at myself. I needed to protect them. I needed to fight. I needed more power.
Then I felt something shift inside me. It was subtle at first, a slight sense of movement, like sticking your finger in a river, but the feeling grew rapidly as Ichigo felt his body start pulsing and through his eye lids, he saw a white light. Then he felt power simply explode from the center of his being.
General P.O.V during Ichigo's change
Heller managed to heal himself and stand up; moving his arms and legs to make sure everything was in order. He quickly looked at the others. Kisuke and Byakuya were knocked out and had some cuts to their bodies from debris, but nothing serious. Ichigo on the other hand had his limbs pointing in directions that they shouldn't point and he seemed knocked out as well.
"So it's just me." Heller thought. Somehow he had to take out the goliath on his own before it reached the white light facility, and he had to somehow move his friends after wards. Then Heller shook his head, trying to get back to the current situation, and turned to where the goliath was making its way to the facility. He was about to leave when he felt Ichigo's spirit energy shift slightly. He paused, unsure what that meant, when he noticed a white light was beginning to grow behind him. He turned and looked at Ichigo. His eyes widened as he saw the glow was coming from him and was steadily increasing, along with his spirit energy, before the light suddenly exploded, blinding Heller and he felt Ichigo's spirit energy sky rocket. The energy sent out a blast of dust, blurring Heller's vision even more.
When the dust cleared, Heller blinked and looked at Ichigo. What he saw shocked him to his core.
"What the hell?" he whispered.
Ichigo was standing with his eyes closed and looked fine, but he had a new wardrobe.
He wore a white undershirt beneath his black shihakushō, which was now open. Held together by three "x"-shaped marks, it ended in a number of coattails. Ichigo now wore black gloves, with white "x"-shaped marks appear on both the gloves and his forearms. Tensa Zangetsu's blade wsas still black, but was much longer niw (roughly the length of his Shikai), and became more curved as it neared the tip, with three protrusions along the blunt end of the sword close to its tip. While retaining its manji-like shape, the guard became more curved and jagged. Tensa Zangetsu's chain was now longer, attaching to both the base of the sword's hilt and to Ichigo's glove, forming a wide loop.
Ichigo opened his eyes to show them now hard and clear, faintly glowing with power. He raised one of his gloved hands and looked at it before clenching it. He looked towards the goliath's direction and narrowed his eyes.
Heller took this moment to speak and say "Ichigo? You all right?"
Ichigo looked at Heller and nodded as he said "I'm fine. Right now we need to take out that goliath."
Heller shook of his shock and the questions bubbling inside him and he nodded and said "let's go."
They both flash stepped to the facility to find the goliath approaching the main gate. They both flash stepped to the entrance and readied their blades.
The goliath spotted them and roared as it leapt upwards, now 100 feet up, to perform its meteor attack again.
Heller said "Ichigo, we need to…"
He was cut off as Ichigo raised his hand with his index finger raised and said without turning around to look at him "I'll deal with this thing. Just wait a minute."
Ichigo brought his left hand down to his side, palm open, and charged up a cero in the center till it was the size of a basketball. Heller thought he would fire it at the goliath, who was now falling towards them, but Ichigo did something unexpected. He took his sword and held it over the cero before the energy was sucked into the blade. Heller was surprised as the blade began glowing red. Ichigo wasn't done as he took the sword in both hands, braced his feet, and swung it back while charging up a Getsuga Tensho in the blade. The mix of energies resulted in a dark red and the spirit energy was skyrocketing and causing Heller's body to feel like it was at the bottom of the ocean as Ichigo looked up and swung his sword at the goliath while shouting "CERO GETSUGA TENSHO!"
The attack was simply enormous. It had a range over 40 feet long from tip to tip, and was easily thick enough to engulf the goliath entirely as it raced upwards to meet it with an explosion of air and a shockwave. The now blue with a red outline attack swallowed the goliath as it roared in pain, looking like it was being blown away inside the energy, until it raced upwards and left behind nothing. The attack raced upwards until it was the height of a 60 story building and then exploded like a gigantic fire work in a mixture of blue and red. You could see the shockwave as it hit, knocking a fair number of people besides Heller and Ichigo to the ground and setting off car alarms as far as 10 blocks away.
As the shockwave dissipated, Ichigo looked back at Heller, whose face was blank as he tried to come to terms at the raw power that had been released. He snapped out of it as Ichigo said "come on. We need to get Kisuke and Byakuya."
Heller swallowed before he nodded. But as they headed back, he had to ask.
"Ichigo what the hell's going on? How the heck did you get such power, and what's with the new get up?"
Ichigo looked over himself as he chuckled and said "I think my Bankai just evolved."
Heller was confused as he said "evolved? Evolved how?"
Ichigo replied as he said "I've only had my Bankai for about a year, and I know for a fact that until you gain complete control over a Bankai, it has the potential to change shape and power over time. I think that just happened now. While we were hurt and I wanted to fight, I felt this power growing until me and… voilà"
Heller and Ichigo got back to the crater and saw that Blackwatch was closing in on their friends, keeping guns and tank pointed at them while they cautiously approached.
Heller snarled and said "we got to grab them quick."
Ichigo nodded and they quickly flash stepped down, shocking Blackwatch as they quickly back up while shouting "GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!"
Ichigo was looking clam, but Heller knew him well enough that he could feel the anger building up in him underneath his clam face. Ichigo raised his sword and said "not a chance."
And he flared his energy to its new max. the aura was a brighter and lighter blue, almost white as Heller feel down to all fours, struggling to keep their and draw breath as Ichigo's power overwhelmed him. Forget an ocean, he felt like he had the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. He adapted fast enough, but he saw that all of Blackwatch was on their backs and clenching their throats, unable to breathe properly and sounding like they were trying to breathe through straws after running nonstop for 5 miles.
Ichigo grabbed Kisuke and swung him onto his shoulder while Heller did the same thing with Byakuya, though slowly and shakily, still feeling Ichigo sprit energy pushing down on him.
Ichigo looked at Heller and nodded as they flash stepped back to the apartments, letting the convoy breath again.
Okay guys, how about that fight. Be honest, who saw Ichigo's Bankai evolution coming? Post a review and let me know what you think. Also take a look at lostsoldierS636 story Dante Price: Multiverse Jumper Chronicles