By the time Torin and Rida reached the gate, all hell had broken lose. Jidambo, the massive gorilla like man who usually guarded this gate, had somehow been defeated and hurled over the wall. Now he was unconscious on top of some buildings, his condition was bad, but not immediately life threatening. Shinigami were fighting outside the walls to take up the defense of the gate now, but it was clear that wasn't the main issue.
An explosion roared in Torin's ears and the ground shook. Small fragments of rock brok off from the wall and fell to the ground, barely even pebbles, but very concerning nonetheless
"Captain!" A shinigami said "thank goodness you're here! We can't hold out much longer!"
"Status report, now" Torin commanded, he knew if the walls of the sereitei were chipping then the situation was critical. The walks were made of pure sekiseki rock, a rare stone that completely repulsed spirit particles, in a world where literally everything was made of spirit particles, the wall was virtually indestructible.
"They have a firing line of hollows outside, they're firing simultaneous ceros at the gate, we've tried to eliminate them, but they also have a front line of arrancar defending the back line. There are too many, we can't even get close!" the shinigami replied
"Have you tried returning fire with kido?" Torin asked as he began to run to the wall, where most of his squad had gathered, with the exception of those already fighting outside. Another explosion, and more pieces of the wall broke off.
"Yes captain, but there are so many arrancar they have no problem intercepting the attacks" the shinigami said, struggling to keep up with Torin.
Torin reached the squad at the wall and took a position at the front of the group.
"Me and Rida are going in, all seated officers are with us, our objective is to do as much damage as we can and try to punch a hole in the enemy line, we don't need to destroy every enemy and push their line back, we just need to try and break through to the firing line, if we take that out we can hold until reinforcements arrive!" Torin said "everyone else, you're job is to back us up, secure any progress we make, and try your best to stop the enemy from surrounding anybody, make sure they have somewhere to retreat too! If you're not on the frontline, try and use kido to reinforce the wall and slow them down! Does everyone understand their orders?"
There was a unified cheer of confirmation, followed by yet another explosion. This time a slightly larger piece of wall broke off. The wall would still hold for a while yet, but time was running out fast.
"Then go!" Torin commanded, then him, Rida, and hundreds of shinigami from squad 3 sprung into the air and over the wall.
Torin drew his zanpakto in midair and released shikai without a word. Rida followed suit, "Erupt! Kazan no Ken!" he said.
"Rida, you and seats 3 through 10 take the left!" Torin commanded
Rida nodded, then formed a reiatsu platform and sprun towards the enemy line, his fist blazing with flame. He used a dual flame wave attack as an enormous drill, driving deep into enemy territory with a single blow.
Torin didn't watch Rida's fight any more, he had his own moments after he landed. Immediately the arrancar on the ground sprung at Torin, some had releases suited to group combat and used the, others just stuck to swords.
Torin swung his sword down "Kurisutarubimu" he said, releasing his signature move at the oncoming assault. The attack cleaved through countless foes, leaving a hole for Torin and the other seated officers to enter.
So far the assault had gone as planned, but then things started to go wrong. While initially Torin and Rida's holes had been connected, arrancar soon got between them and split the two attack forces apart. Then they managed to surround each individual fighter, separating them into small groups and limiting a co-ordinated attack.
Arrancar charged from all sides, Torin parried a slash from the right and knocked the foe away, then cut down an enemy who tried to come from the left while Torin was busy with the right. Two more came from the front, but both were reduced to dust by an unspoken Kurisutarubimu
Torin sensed something behind him and jumped, barely avoiding the large blue cero that engulfed where he had been standing moments before. As Torin's leap continued, more enemies descended on him from above. Torin knocked two away, then spun to block a third attack from below, but this knocked him even higher. Torin fired a byakurai spell at the enemy, piercing its heart and slaying it, at the same time, Torin cut down three more enemies using his sword arm.
Still more and more enemies came, now coming from all angles. Torin had to use shunpo near constantly to avoid being completely overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. Hundreds of corpses dropped from the sky, turning to crystal as they fell and shattering on the ground, but every time Torin killed one arrancar two more took its place.
"tch…" Torin said as an arrancar scored a lucky cut on his shoulder, he cut the enemy down, but two more were on him. Torin ended those with a kurisutarubimu, but they bought enough time for the rest of the arrancar to completely surround Torin and charge from all sides at once.
"Damn" Torin thought "I can't block this many at once!"
Torin disappeared in a cluster of attacking arrancar, just as the sphere closed itself off, Torin shouted "bankai!" and the sphere exploded, each enemy falling away with some fatal wound
Torin landed on the ground, now clad in the crystal armor of his bankai, his fist blazing with light, he threw a straight punch. "Kurisutarubimu!" he said as a spear shaped wave of energy erupted from his fist and plowed through the enemy
Torin took a moment to catch his breath and observe the battle, despite his efforts to crush every fore he saw, the battle as a whole was going poorly at best. There were still countless enemies left for the others to fight. He saw two arrancar get cut down by the twin cleaver shaped swords of his 11th seat's shikai. Then he saw a woman who didn't hold a seat get nailed with a cero, only for her to struggle to her feet and fight on.
A brilliant flash of light forced Torin to shield his eyes as another volley of ceros soared over his head and smashed into the wall. The wall was in realy bad shape now, the relentless assault overpowering its ability to repulse spiritual particles bit by bit.
"Dang it! We'll never make it in time!" Torin cursed as another wave of enemies charged him.
Torin met the wave head on, moving at full speed now, he dispatched 30 arrancar in about 3 seconds, but even now their numbers began to overwhelm him.
Torin fought tirelessly, but his movements began to slow down. Individually he could easily beat any of these arrancar a hundred over, but now he was being forced to beath them a thousand times, two thousand, and still more. Torin was getting tired, no matter how much damage he did, the enemy army never let up and allowed him to rest, it had been a half hour since his first charge, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could last.
A powerful blue cero connected with Torin and exploded. As he recoveredn an arrancar with two huge hammer like arms descended on him. "I can't get my guard back up!" Torin thought in a panic as the deathblow fell.
Suddenly Rida was there, a punch later and the arrancar found himself missing the top half of his body missing.
"Thanks for the save" Torin said as he stood
"No problem, you'd do the same for me" Rida replied as he turned to face the army.
Torin turned and stood back to back with Rida, also staring at the army around them. "We appear to be surrounded" he said
"So it seems" Rida replied
"Now would be a good time for one of those fire wave things" Torin said, cutting down an arrancar that got too close.
"Too tired, a kurisutarubimu would be nice though" Rida said, grabbing two arrancar heads and smashing them together, making both enemies crumple.
"I'm in no better shape than you" Torin said as he ripped as he fired a few shards of crystal from his armor to kill some arrancar that tried to descend on him from above.
"So what's the plan?' Rida asked, turning and flipping over Torin to deliver an axe kick to crush an arrancar as Torin slid under him and cut down three more and switched positions with him.
"Last until reinforcements show up or die trying" Torin answered grimly.
The two fought for what seemed like hours, but no help came, a new wave of enemies was keeping the rest of the squad at bay, and the other squads had yet to arrive.
Rida sank to one knee as his shikai resealed itself "that's it… I can't… fight anymore" he panted. Torin was back in shikai now, having been forced to seal his bankai to conserve what little reiatsu he had left. He fought for a bit longer, but now that he was back to dealing with enemies from all sides he soon had to lean on his sword to stay standing.
The arrancar army sensed their opponents were done, and they began to close in. One of them got too eager and darted in to strike down Torin, but was met with 6 feet of steel as Torin pushed himself up and countered. Torin sank to one knee after this, completely drained.
"Well that's… the end of it… never thought it'd end like this…" Rida panted
"me either…" Torin said as the enemy began to close in again.
"Torin... I'm glad we met" Rida said as he stood and picked up his sword
Torin stood as well, preparing for a last hurrah, if he was going down, he was taking a few more enemies with him. "Me too, you've been a good friend Rida, I'm glad you were with me in the end"
"So you wanted me to die too?" Rida joked
"Shut up dumbass" Torin chuckled "now let's go!"
Torin and Rida were about to charge when they heard a familiar voice.
"Hado 55! Senutekidangan (a thousand rainfrop bullets)" Aurora said
Suddenly hundreds of spheres of blue fire fell from the sky, obliterating the enemies surrounding Torin and Rida.
Aurora appeared next to her friends "looks like you both could use some help" she said
"Thank goodness! I've never been so happy to see you in my life!" Rida said "I thought we were goners!"
Torin was too tired to thank Aurora, but he tried to lift his sword when he saw an arrancar about to stab Aurora in the back.
"Light em up, Lux Tractus" Hikari said, suddenly part of a blade stabbed the arrancar through the heart, instantly killing it.
Hikari appeared shortly afterwards, her sword in hand, "I told you not to let your guard down Aurora" she scolded
"Sorry Captain" Aurora said
Another volley of ceros sailed overhead, and this time a truly massive piece of the wall broke off, it fell slowly, sliding out of position inch by inch, and then it crashed to the ground.
"This can't continue" Torin said "another volley like that and the wall is finished!"
In the distance the sound of the firing line charging the final volley could be heard even over the din of battle
"If the wall falls there will be nothing to stop this army from entering the ciry, the other squads won't be here in time to stop them, the war will be as good as over!" Aurora said with concern as she beheaded an arrancar.
"Then we'll have to hold them off ourselves" hikari said "can you still fight, Captain Izanki, Rida Itazura?"
Torin shook his head "I don't even have enough reiatsu left to form a reiatsu platform, let alone fight"
"I'm no better off, but I can fight with hakuda" Rida said
Hikari shook her head and raised her hand "leave this to us then, I'm sending you two for medical treatment, if you get cleared to return then do so."
There was a flash of green light, and Torin and Rida vanished.
Hikari and Aurora turned to the army still facing them
"Ready?" Hikari asked "this is your first time using it in battle, can you control it yet?"
Aurora shook her head "not completely, I can aim it, and I can hold it back until I fire it, but if I unleash it…"
"Good, I was going to tell you not to restrain it anyway, I'll focus on making sure no allies get caught in your attacks" Hikari said
Aurora nodded, then stepped forward and held her zanpakto horizontally in front of her, the flat side facing the sky.
"Descend! Tayo kamujin!" Aurora said "shine and banish the darkness!"
As Aurora said this she ran her hand along the blade, causing it to glow where her hand passed, as Aurora reached the end of the blade it shattered into a thousand fragments, even the hilt broke apart for a moment. Then all the fragments fused into a hilt of a longsword with no blade.
The hilt rested in Aurora's palm for an instant, then radiant flames too bright to even look at erupted from it and formed the rough shape of a blade several sizes too large for the hilt, a few moments later the flames compressed into a correctly sized blade made of searing light.
Hikari looked at the blade with approval "Lux Tractus, the strongest light type zanpakto, and Taiyo Kamujin, the most destructive light type zanpakto" she mused, "I pity any fool who fights us"
Aurora smiled weakly, sweat pouring from her face like water from a fountain. Unlike her friends, she found that using her shikai took a massive toll on her, as the raging fire that made up her blade was produced by her reiatsu, and the only thing keeping it in check was her willpower.
"Go get em" Hikari said, and Aurora charged, swinging her sword at the closest arrancar
The arrancar brought up its blade to block the slash, it knew its comrades would come in from the sides and kill the girl while he held back her attack. As the blades connected though there was an explosion of light, and the arrancar was ended before he even realized something had gone wrong.
As Aurora had slashed she had left behind a trail of light, and that trail had grown streadily larger until it became a wave of burning light, in addition to that, Aurora's blade sliced cleanly through the arrancar's sword, the compressed flames of her blade being too hot for a weak zanpakto to handle. The result was that the only barrier between the arrancar and the army behind it and the wave of fiery death was the air. Many enemies died in the ensuing destruction.
The army surged forward as the attack faded out at last, they were determined to kill this girl before she could unleash another wave of light. Many of them struck at Aurora with their swords, but they all broke on contact with her blade. Aurora slashed again, and another wave of death rolled forward.
Aurora was drenched in sweat now, it took everything she had to avoid releasing her power every time she moved her sword, the compressed energy was too much for her to control it any better than that.
The final volley of ceros crashed into the wall, and the remainder of the once invincible barrier crumbled to the ground. There was a roar of triumph from the army as they charged the breach. The 3rd squad, now being led by Lieutenant Kira, set up a defensive line in the breach, forcing the army to face them with equal numbers. This tactic allowed them to hold the walls despite the size of the enemy army, but it couldn't last forever. Even with the number disadvantage temporarily nullified, every so often a shinigami would fall or become too tired to fight, they were always replaced quickly, but they were locked into a war of attrition with an army that had vastly superior numbers. It was only a matter of time before they lost.
Aurora stood tall, she knew she had to reduce the enemy's numbers as much as possible using everything she had. She used shunpo to move in front of the defensive line and placed both hands on her blade, focusing all of her energy into it, as she poured more and more reiatsu into the blade it began to grow larger, despite her best efforts to keep compressing it
"Haaaaaaa!" She shouted as her blade shone like a miniature sun, with a wide slash, Aurora released the entirety of her reiatsu in a single wave of light
The army was devastated, while Aurora did not have nearly as much reiatsu as Torin did, she did far more damage than he had with any of his attacks. This was because while she did not have as much reiatsu, she had put every drop she had into this one attack, and it covered such a wide area that there was nowhere to dodge. Many tried to block, but the light simply surged around their blades and burnt them to ash regardless.
The light faded, and Aurora fell unconscious, her shikai reverting to its sealed state. Hikari appeared by her side and caught her as she fell. "Good job Aurora, your efforts probably just saved the seireitei"
Hikari raised her hand, and Aurora was sent to the 4th squad.
"Now to handle you" Hikari said as she turned to the single surviving arrancar standing in the scorched battlefield. It was a tall woman in her mid 20s. She had long blood red hair and green eyes with blood red eye shadow. She was well toned and stunningly beautiful, and wore a heavily customized uniform. It was white, as was typical of the uniforms worn by arrancar, and had long baggy sleeves and a top that showed so much cleavage it looked like the two sides of the top would simply rip apart. Her top was cut off so as to reveal her stomach, and her pants were skintight, again emphasizing her womanly features.
More notable than her flirtatious appearance though, above all else, was the number 2 tattooed on her stomach.