In an attempt to update and possibly finish this story, I present this new chapter. I've added more humor, and tried to tone back what college has tought me about fleshing out severe details. Hopefully this chapter is very appealing, I tried hard to make it so. My husband read over this and corrected some errors, but since i'm still without any kind of beta, its sadly prolly still going to be riddled here and there with the usual errors. Sorry
With the stoic brown-haired arrancar leading the way, Orihime realized they would soon be out and away from Las Noches. She wasn't sure if she should escape first and then try and find Ulquiorra. Or wander off through Las Noches on her own looking for her lover, and hope she didn't run into trouble along the way. She decided escape with a kinda sorta almost, probably didn't care if she died body guard was better then no body guard.
"What's your name?" The bubbly teen ran up next to her new friend, her chest bouncing up and down with each step.
The arrancar just fixed her with a neutral look, and continued in silence as if her presence were nothing more then a buzzing bee. He kept his hands stuffed into his pockets much like Grimmjow, but instead of hunching over this arrancar held himself up straight. He must possess pride.
"Will you tell me your name, Mr. Frumpy-pants."
Her response was a slightly irritated sigh. And Orihime watched as "Mr. Frumpy-pants" picked up the pace. Corridor after corridor they wandered, up one flight and down another of cold grey stairs. Every once in awhile passing a window of sorts that looked out onto the desert.
Are exits to the outside really that scarce in this place? Orihime sported a troubled expression for several moments. Then her squirrel brain dissolved back onto her earlier dilemma.
"It's polite to tell people your name." She fluttered her long black eyelashes at the handsome arrancar.
"...I'm Frederick Chopan." Grumbled her companion. "Does that satisfy your curiosity?"
She fell silent for several minutes, seemingly thinking from the arrancars point of view.
"Wrong!" She chirped happily. "Frederick Chopan was a musicy playing guy." She poked his shoulder. "And you can't be him."
"Clever little harpy." The stoic arrancar let a tiny smirk escape, but it disappeared very quickly. "Okay, so my name is Pablo Panchizi. What's your name."
"Wrong again, Mr. Arrancar Man!" She shook her finger at him aggressively. And made a disapproving face. "All you grumpy hollow people have really funny names. Pablo Parcheesy is not an arrancar name. So try again."
"You aren't going to give up until I tell you my real name?"
She crossed her arms in response, and tried her best to look down her nose intimidatingly.
Her grumpy companion angled his face so that it would be shadowed from the light, then spoke in a deep husky voice. "Alright, I consent... I'm Batman."
"Arg! are you ever gonna tell me your name?!"
"Ahhh.. that would be a no." Batman smiled wide knowing he had won.
"So why are we running away. Don't you know that Las Noches has been invaded by something bad? Isn't there anyone you care about here?"
"You talk too much, woman." A grim look fell over his features, and his eyes became full of severe heart wrenching sorrow. "I've lost her. There's no reason for me to stick around." As if ashamed for speaking too much he used sonido to skip ahead of her about twenty feet.
"Batman! I can't keep up, slow down!"
"Go annoy some other victim, you insufferable nuisance. Let me deset in peace and QUIET."
"If you help me find Ulquiorra, i'll leave you alone." She promised.
The stoic brown haired arrancar sighed in resignation. I cannot win. Without giving her any verbal consent, he held up his pace and waited for her to catch up. When she finally caught up, she was out of breath and bent over gasping. "You are very out of shape. Ulquiorra should take you out on walks more often." He ignored her gasping, and started off down a hall in the opposite direction they had been headed before.
I will come back to you Orihime.
Arturo and Ulquiorra had wasted no time in escalating their battle. The interloping arrancar let his power flow free, decimating his restraints. His flaming green spirit pressure wings looked as if they spewed and belched out exhaust, then screamed back to life as raging black and royal purple flames, larger and more menacing then ever. It was as if they were consuming light. Instead of one demon black blade encompassing just his right arm, he manifested one on his left as well.
Ulquiorra had responded by going feral. He let out the beasty inside of him, and became a blood thirsty nightmare from the deepest pits of hell. His eyes became hollow and unforgiving as his sword Murcielago manifested his body into a vicious monster with wings spread wide. I would scare her like this. She mustn't see me like this. As a monster.
Arturo decided to strike the first blow, strechting his ebony blade and slicing into the bat like beast before him. This succeeded only in causeing Ulquiorra to jump away, which left an opening for Arturo to sonido to his side, stab a blade into his gut, and grip the Espada's stomach flesh with his fingers while his black blade protruded from the middle of his back.
To escape the burning agonizing pain of the blade, Ulquiorra gripped Arturo's shoulder and pulled himself forward, sliding his bleeding flesh over the other arrancar's arm. Instead of fighting to get away from Arturo, he instead buried his claws into the offenders chest and sent ten needle sized green ceros from his finger tips. This caused blood to spray from the arrancar's back and he screamed in pain as several of his inner organs became punctured.
In order to preserve his innards, Arturo knew he had to put some distance between them. Using his free arm, and swinging his other, he dislodged Ulquiorra and sent him flying down the hall farther away from the point where the battle had started. Foot by minuscule foot, he would take this battle away from Rukia, and into the heart of Las Noches.
The two arrancar clashed, ripping and slicing into the other. Arturo would gouge holes into Ulquiorra's body, but Ulquiorra managed to regenerate the damage and inflict wounds twice as severe upon Arturo. Blood smeared all over the halls, tendons and torn muscle painted the surfaces of their surrounding. The brawl was causing the building to collapse around them, pieces of ceiling would break off and come crashing down. Walls were growing cracks and fissures as the confines of Las Noches began to lose its integrity.
"Why do you fight against me, pathetic hollow?" Asked Arturo, his voice was laced with amusement. "Is it that the hollows have really become so loyal as to serve a soul reaper?"
"My reasons to terminate you are none of your concern. Orders are orders, There is no point in questioning them." The pale, bone colored arrancar had no fervor behind his words, and it almost sounded like he was lying even to himself.
"You are a worm, only here to test my strength. It will not take long to overcome you, and after I have devoured you, your energy will feed my own. " Arturo released a laugh. "How ironic, that you shall serve in assisting the overthrow of your precious Soul Reaper Master, with your death." A massive cero-like beam erupted from Arturo's chest, it was so powerful it lit the air on fire, and even made Arturo's own flesh boil. As the beam split the air, and severed the ground below them, it came after Ulquiorra.
Normally such an attack took charging and it was easy to dodge. This one however was different. It happened almost instantaneously, and even though Ulquiorra had simply shifted himself out of the path, the searing laser danced and split apart in a swirling tornado of smaller beams. it was like the blades of a mixer cutting into his flesh, and Ulquiorra felt only white hot iron pouring into his veins. Piece by piece, his fingers, then his hand, one of his knee caps, some toes, then along went his arm, and part of a leg, he almost missed seeing his wing torn to oblivion.
When the beam faded into a vortex of residue energy, Ulquiorra was left on the ground nearby bleeding out onto the cold stone floor, dust all over his pitch black fur. Around the weakened arrancar were the remains of his left side. Bits of bone and flesh, fingers, all were littering the ground like some sick party confetti.
Then slowly, slowly everything seemed to start closing in, and becoming black. The beast that had once been the 4th espada cried out in agony. His mind reached out for Orihime's reiatsu. He wanted to feel her one last time before Arturo consumed his flesh. I need to feel you once more. Please just once more, PLEASE! His senses never made it to her. In fact he was only able to reach out for a few seconds before he sensed a reiatsu he hadn't felt before manifested in Orihime's old cell. Before he had never been able feel it because Arturo's energy had overwhelmed and masked it. Hidden it from his senses. But after that massive cero had been released, there was just enough lapse in Arturo's energy for him to sense the other presence.
Ulquiorra took one last chance. Putting the strange instance together in his mind. The entire battle Arturo had been trying to herd him away from that room, he'd been flaunting his pressure to hide that other presence. So whoever was in that room must have some significance.
With every ounce of energy the 4th had left he sent his most powerful cero from his hand into the darkness of Orihime's former cell, he let the beam slice through the room from one wall to the other. Then before the beam could even finish, he felt the life drain from him, and his mind faded to muddy gray mass. Nothing. I'm destined to fade...
And that's the end of Ch. 19. I hope it's a winner, I'm not so talented with the fight scenes but i wanted to make this one very serious. Life or Death. R&R I'd like to hear your feelings about this one. Here's a thank from your humble author, Saij-Spellhart.