So, second major fight of the fic, and Ichigo's quincy training with Bazz B. I do apologize if it feels like I Worf'd Hallibel here, I'm doing my best to not do that. Overall I do hope you enjoy.
Ichigo was surrounded by flames. As far as he could tell he had been 'sparring' with Bazz B for the better part of the day. While he was sure he could beat him even without Zangetsu, that wasn't the point of the exercise. He would only stop the training for a rest once Ichigo could hit him with a quincy technique.
The problem was he didn't know how to use them. He had heard his lecture and understood that the information was already in his soul. It already knew how to use those abilities, but it hadn't given that information to his subconscious mind yet, let alone his conscious mind. So for now he was stuck dodging gouts of fire as the training grounds became saturated with Bazz B's reiatsu.
"Come on, hit me!" The fiery quincy all but dared him to attack. Ichigo obliged.
With a quick shunpo he was in front of Bazz B and delivered a devastating blut enhanced gut punch. Problem was, Bazz B was expecting that and had already hardened his body to take the hit.
While blut had the disadvantage of being an active ability, as a defense technique it outperformed even arrancar hierro in capability. While hierro and the shinigami equivalent put a barrier of reiatsu between the blow and the skin, if it failed it may as well have never existed. Blut instead hardened the flesh, increasing the physical resistance of the body.
So when Ichigo saw his hand was bleeding he wasn't surprised.
"Good hit kid, almost felt that," it was clear the quincy had more than just felt it, but his ability to harden more than just his external flesh allowed him to survive the blow.
Bazz B then quickly used his shrift to create space again between him and Ichigo.
"Glad to know that you can fight efficiently, but that's not gonna help you, go crazy, come at me with everything you have!" Bazz B was liking this. Sure, if this were an actual fight he knew he was out-classed, but with the power disparity between them this was actually kinda fun.
"You sure about that?" Ichigo asked with a cocky grin. He knew a few things that could chew through his reiyoku, though the question was if the training grounds could survive.
"Hell yeah, we need you exhausted for this to work," The Flame had a manic grin on his face, but he didn't forget why he was doing this.
A red ball started to form in Ichigo's right hand.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," and with that, a massive cero was loosed.
The clang of steel could be heard echoing across the empty sands of Hueco Mundo. At the center of the cacophony of clanging soulsteel and the bassy sounds of sonido was the Shark Queen of Hueco Mundo, and her androgynous challenger.
Hallibel largely had the advantage for now, but she could feel that she was the weaker of the two of them. Hikone's smaller stature and inexperience were the only things holding them back.
The smaller combatant struck with a thunderous blow, obviously backed by blut as she sensed the telltale stench of quincy reiatsu on this child.
Hallibel was able to dodge the blow, but the space was all the child needed to change tactics.
"Orbit the stars, Ikomikidomoe!" Suddenly the white and black mottled broadsword became a large bone white arm.
If Hallibel had not seen worse she would have been disturbed. No, she was only alarmed as seemingly without any input from its wielder the arm swung at her. Fortunately this was when Grimmjow took his shot to sonido behind the child and delivered a swift kick to the back of his head sending him flying.
"If you want to keep that throne of yours, this isn't how you do it," Grimmjow had long positioned himself as a competitor to Hallibel, his only reason for playing along was that she was, for now, the strongest, and if he was going to serve anyone, it would be the strongest.
Hikone had quickly regained his footing however, and came at the blue-haired arrancar, only momentarily forgetting the other opponents on the field.
Nelliel took the opportunity to grab them but the leg and again throw them away, however instead of wasting time talking, Nell kept up the pressure.
She used a combination of swordsmanship and sonido to keep herself inside of the arm's unpredictable striking zone, limiting damage should the arm manage to strike her. With Hikone entirely focused on Nell, Hallibel took her opportunity to land a crushing backhand blow, once again sending the child flying like a ragdoll. She then aimed her zanpakuto at the crater in the sand where her foe landed.
"Ola Azul," a golden burst of reiatsu flew at the location. She didn't expect it to kill them, she just wanted to keep up the pressure so as to allow Grimmjow and Nelliel to continue the three-part assault they were doing upon the stronger foe.
She charged up another Ola Azul, this time however she kept the charged attack in her blade, waiting for an opportunity to capitalize upon.
What she wasn't expecting was for Hikone to charge directly at her in a burst of sonido.
She deflected the blow from the large arm, and then with a flick of her blade created a ribbon of razor-sharp reiatsu from the stored Ola Azul, causing the arm to be ripped to pieces. However, Hikone was able to back off before the golden ribbon could lacerate him.
"Three-on-one is hardly fair," Hikone sounded dejected, like a child who was being ganged up on. "Oh, I have an idea, I'll call a friend."
Hallibel didn't like the sound of that, and neither did Nell or Grimmjow.
"Hatch out and bring ruin, Ikomikidomoe!"
The release kicked up the sand beneath them, creating a smoke screen the three arrancar had to back off from.
When the dust settled, the sight was disconcerting. Behind Hikone stood a large frog-like hollow that was the size of a large house, obviously an adjudcas. However, his power was far far greater. Greater than even Hallibel herself, only dwarfed by its master.
"Finally, I walk the sands of this desolate world again, now tell me, where is Barrigan?"
The mock battle between Ichigo and Bazz B was intense. While Rukia could tell Ichigo was still in his first wind Bazz B was reaching his limit. This was a problem she had foreseen but didn't have an answer for. How did you tire someone who's almost a juggernaut?
This led to Bazz B taking a break while he had Ichigo do an exertive exercise.
"Holy shit… Kid's insane…" The former sternritter was exhausted, but he had a grin on his face. "Most fun I had in a while. Not going to lie. You have any ideas on how to tire him out?"
Rukia looked at her former enemy and now partner in training Ichigo.
"I have one," Rukia walked over to Zangetsu and picked up the nodachi. The fact it felt light in her hands and didn't try to resist her was surprising but currently unimportant. "Rest, I'll try to tire him out some more."
"I don't want him to fall back on his shinigami powers, they'll override what we're trying to do," Bazz needed Ichigo to not have his shinigami powers to ensure the effectiveness of the training.
"It's clear that he's not exhausted enough for that to be an issue. Once he's there, or you're ready to continue I'll have him relinquish his zanpakuto," Rukia then moved toward the edge of the cliff she was observing things from. "There should be some hot springs towards the back of the grounds, they'll help you recover your energy," and with a slight flicker she was gone to continue to train Ichigo.
Ichigo was hardly gassed at all. Hell, he felt like he just finished warming up. Then Bazz B hit his limit and now he's doing jumping jacks. Or at least was until he heard a very familiar voice.
"Catch!"
Ichigo instinctively caught Zangetsu out of the air. He already knew who had thrown it.
"Thought using Zangetsu undermined the entire point of the training," Ichigo smirked at Rukia as he said this.
"I'm not Quincy, I'm simply aiming to exhaust you further," Rukia drew Sode no Shirayuki, the blade turning stark white without so much as a word. Ichigo did the same, the saya and nodachi becoming the two blades of Zangetsu. "And don't think of holding back, I'm not made of porcelain."
Ichigo probably would still hold back against her, but he'll try not to, for her sake.
"I find it hard to believe you deposed Barrigan," the nameless beast spoke once more.
"I didn't," Hallibel believed the monster before her would believe the one who actually killed the former king even less believable than her, but she was too pissed off to care at the moment.
"Then who did, and why are you claiming the throne?" The monster was not amused. He woke up millenia after being sealed away into that blasted sword to find himself the servant of a damned child! The only thing redeemable to him about the child was his strength, and now he found that the throne of his once rival was filled by someone barely worthy of being one of his concubines!
"I have claimed the throne as is my right as the strongest remaining Espada," Hallibel could see the disdain in her opponent's eye and feel it roiling in his reiatsu.
"Then prove it."
She had nothing to prove to him, but if he insisted on thinking she was unworthy of her station, then she would strike him down for his insolence.
"Hunt," she pointed her zanpakuto at him.
"Tiberon,"
Water erupted from nowhere and engulfed her. Her reiatsu spiked massively, reaching beyond that of even most captains and beyond what she had been when she had fought for Aizen.
"So this is the power of the queen of Hueco Mundo," the beast smirked. "It's almost impressive."
Hallibel had no time for this creature's arrogance. She sonidoed to right in front of him before slashing the air in Infront of him.
"Cero."
A deluge of golden reiatsu consumed the world before her, devastating the dunes where the golden beam touched them.
The frog-like hollow was still standing there as the beam dissipated, burn marks on his bone-white flesh, but were dissipating rapidly.
"Fast too, you actually might be some fun," the monster with the name Ikomikidomoe grinned.
Grimmjow was pissed.
This brat thinks they can claim the throne as theirs!
That throne belongs to him! Not some upstart shinigami!
Grimmjow dove for the insolent brat, aiming to deliver a beatdown the likes of which would only be rivaled by the first pummeling he gave Ichigo three years ago.
However, when he landed the punch he hit something he wasn't expecting.
"Damnit, the kid has hierro," Grimmjow sent Hikone flying back, but the hierro would prevent any serious damage.
"His reiatsu is oddly familiar," Nell spoke under her breath as she stood near her more boisterous peer. Hikone had an odd scent about him. There was the obvious mix of shinigami and hollow, but the final, third scent was more subtle, one that she really only recognized from one other individual, Ichigo.
"Yeah, it's giving me a sense of deja vu," Grimmjow found himself remembering his fights against Ichigo again. How he had a clear mix of shinigami and hollow scents, but there was always this third unknown scent that he couldn't quite parse.
And this kid had that same third scent.
"You're fun, too bad you have to die," Hikone showed up in front of them with the deafening boom of sonido. Their blade dug into the sand after being dodged by the two arrancar.
Before he could reorient himself Nell quickly went about leveraging her speed and swordsmanship. She popped up attacking at an odd angle for the smaller fighter with a thrust.
Hikone bearly deflected the attack, but Nell was quickly able to turn the momentum from the deflection into a quick slash that Hikone only barely dodged. Hikone may be the stronger of the fighters here, but they were also the least experienced, and while their hierro made it tough to actually damage him, both she and Grimmjow could still feasibly damage them.
A fact Grimmjow exploited by kidney-punching them from behind after they had zoned in on Nell, and when they turned to counterattack their ambusher, Nell punished him with a deft slash across their back.
Hikone screamed in pain, the gash wasn't serious, but it was painful.
Grimmjow took advantage of the distraction to grab them by the face and chuck them into a dune.
"You hurt me?" Hikone was confused. They were supposed to be Master Tokkinada's invincible champion. They were meant to become king! What was this searing pain? They would pay.
Hikone's reiatsu flared up as they screamed in bloodied rage. Except where a normal shinigami their apparent age would top out, Hikone's reiatsu kept growing in power. Soon they had surpassed both of their opponent's power, prompting them to escalate.
"Declare, Gamuza."
"Grind, Pantera."
Hikone suddenly found themselves under assault by two very powerful arrancar.
Grimmjow and Nelliel had already increased their power to the point of being the equivalents of lesser vasto lorde, this being the primary benefit of becoming an arrancar, the ability to grow in power without consuming souls.
The two of them pressured Hikone, Grimmjow hitting him with blow after blow, and when Hikone pushes him back Nell comes in with her lance, keeping the smaller hybrid off balance, never giving him a moment to breathe.
Or that was the case until they had to doge a literal Tsunami.
The Shark Empress looked down upon the dry sands of Hueco Mundo. She had exchanged blows with the beast before her for long enough to understand its strength.
"Is that all the queen of Hueco Mundo has to offer? Because while impressive, it still won't be enough," the beast began charging a cero from its eye, but Hallibel didn't give it the time to fire before she answered the insult the only way a monarch should.
She drew the massive bone-white blade of her resurreccion above her head before it and she started glowing gold.
"Cascada."
The torrent flooded the local area, washing away anything that didn't dodge it, and the white monster didn't have a chance to even dodge it as he was directly in the path of the massive wrathful column.
This was actually beginning to be fun!
He jumped through the water until he reached the surface, laughing all the way.
"It seems I was mistaken, you are worthy of being on top, not even Barrigan gave me this much trouble," the beast was clearly enjoying himself.
"La Gota," Hallibel however cared little for his enjoyment. The blast of high-pressure water slammed into the beast, knocking him back into the ground as follow-up shots pummeled him.
However, no matter how much damage the Shark Queen could do, the beast simply regenerated too quickly for it to mean anything.
So she motioned for another Cascada. Before the torrent of water could be formed however, the beast had sonidoed in front of her and delivered a crippling blow, ripping her sword arm clean off.
"Unfortunately I'm here on business." before the beast could close in and attempt a coup de grace, however, the voice of a woman yelling could be heard.
"Licht Spurfeuer!"
Suddenly the beast could hear nothing and see less.
So I did pull that last part from the next chapter, so potential warning of a delay for next week as I now need to replace that part, but I do hope it helped the overall flow. also yes, that was Bambi, and I cooked that up as a unique variant of Licht Regen, mainly because there's no way she wouldn't have the ability to tell that general direction to go away.