The crawl to greatness (Part 2)

New chapter!

-Barragan's hideout, 5 days later-

Five days had passed since Barragan had arrived in the Forest of Menos, or so he guessed, as the time of day in the forest, or even Hueco Mundo at all was hard to tell. Since Barragan's first fiasco with the Gillian hordes, he had been extra careful to not attract another horde to him, and focused on picking off stray packs of Gillians. He almost died a few times, after biting off more than he could chew and trying to take on too many Gillians, each time cursing his arrogance.

He had managed to consume quite a few Gillians, due to his higher intelligence he could learn to move his body better and use better tactics than to stand in one spot and shoot Ceros wildly, and even discovered that a fraction of his original power remained. He realized, by concentrating deeply and charging up a cero, he could actually infuse it with his Respira, if only to a small degree. Barragan was overjoyed at the realization that he still had some of his old power again, and trained it as much as possible, to the point were he could shoot a Respira cero, which Barragan named, a Cero Decaimiento (Cero Decay) almost as fast as a normal Cero. Barragan's Cero Decaimiento, although infused with Barragan's Respira, wasn't incredibly powerful, the decay effect needing minutes to fully decay a body part to the bone, but was a good attack in longer fights, as even being grazed with his Cero Decaimiento would start the chain reaction of decay, albeit slower.

Barragan was training on concentrating his Reiatsu in order to shoot Ceros faster, which was difficult doing in the body of a Gillian, which had quite poor Reiatsu control. He suddenly heard the roar of some Gillians nearby, and peaked out of the entrance to see if it was a horde. Luckily for Barragan, it was only a group of ten or so Gillians scattered about, so he took his chance to devour some more Gillians. Barragan snuck out of his hideout of quietly as his clumsy body could, and shuffled behind a tree to think of a plan. Barragan hit the tree, causing a crash sound which alerted the Gillians, who lumbered over to where the sound came from. While they were going towards the sound Barragan carefully looped around them, and hid until the Gillians had bunched up into a group. Barragan then began charging a Cero Decaimiento, sprung out from his hiding spot and fired the Cero at them. He took out five of the Gillians with the Cero, and grazing the rest, causing the decay effect to start spreading. The Gillians roared, and shuffled after Barragan, who had already moved to another spot, slowly charging up another Cero Decaimiento while moving, and then blasted it at the rest of the Gillians, blasting their heads off. Barragan then moved over to the Gillians he had killed first, and quickly consumed them, making sure to not eat the parts of the corpses that were decaying, not wanting to die from his own Respira twice.

After eating all of them he felt strange, like he was full and about to burst, but walked over to the over Gillians and ate them. After Barragan had eaten the last Gillian, he suddenly felt an aching pain in the Hollow Hole in his chest, which quickly turned into a burning pain which spread over his body. Barragan roared in pain, and fell to his knees, clutching his chest, but the pain continued, getting worse and worse. Barragan roared again, and completely fell over, and started banging his head on the ground, trying to get the pain to stop. Barragan roared once more, wondering when the pain would stop, and blacked out from the pain.

-Barragan's Inner World-

Barragan continued screaming in pain, but shortly realized that he wasn't in pain. He looked around the place again, looking up and seeing the full glory of Hueco Mundos crescent moon before him. He looked down, and realized that he was floating far above the sand of Hueco Mundo, which were kilometres below him. He continued looking around, and laid his eyes on his bastard of a zanpakuto, Arrogante.

"You..." Barragan scowled.

"Yes... I am me..." Arrogante chuckled, while Barragan growled. "Did you have fun as a Gillian for a while? I'm actually impressed, that you were able to draw upon the small amount of power that i couldn't seal, and combine it with your Cero in a way you never could before. i wonder why that is?"

"Yes, yes, I know where you're going, me learning new things after starting from the bottom." Barragan muttered.

"Bingo!" Arrogante chuckled again. "But anyways Barragan, now you know the struggle of the weak, and you have gone from demanding random Gillians to bow before you, to a Gillian almost at an Adjuchas fighting level. I have been watching you, and even though you haven't completely reformed, you have improved, and are starting to understand things other than your own arrogance." Arrogante said. "Didn't Edvairn say to you once? That a true king is still above his peasants and soldiers, but understands them, and by doing that, can rule and lead them to the best possible future?"

"Yes he did, but I hardly remember any of his lessons on kingship anymore." Barragan said. "It's been so long since I have even visited his tomb." Barragan recalled sadly.

"If you had remembered anything from Edvairn's lessons, we would have never been in this situation at all to begin with." Arrogante mocked Barragan. "But we've prattled for long enough, continue your crawl to become a Vasto Lorde, and become king once more." Arrogante said. "Also. since you have grown in power, you are as of now an Adjucha. Make sure that you don't regress, and have to start over again." Arrogante disappeared, leaving Barragan alone in his inner world.

"An Adjucha?" Barragan said, confused, and looked down at his hands and body.

Barragan had completely changed in appearance from his old Gillian form. His skin was now a bleached white, like bone. He looked down at his chest, feeling his Hollow hole, and then looked at the rest of his body. On top of his bone white skin, he also had bone like armor on parts of his body, most noticably around his ribs, which had armor around his chest and stomach area, in the form of rib-like bone armor. Barragan felt the armor and felt hard and sturdy, almost like chitin, and noticed that the top ribs continued upwards, bending around his Hollow Hole and going up and around his shoulders, almost like pauldrons, which aĺso continued down his arms, stopping at the elbow. The pauldrons also went down to his back, and joined and connected to his head, making a thin layer over his head, and blended with his mask, which closely resembled his face in his old ressurecion. His legs didn't have much armor, besides having some thin bone armor on his shins and thighs. He then looked at his arms, shocked at what he saw. Instead of hands, Barragan now had two large single-bladed axes, which were a stalwart black, the 'hilt' being the underside of his hand, and the axe extending mostly downwards resembling a reverse-grip, covering the right and left sides of his forearms respectivley. On his wrists, around where the 'hilt' began were golden bracelets, fastened to each of his wrists. The black and gold axes contrasted heavily with his completely white body, but Barragan felt warm sense of familiarity with his axe-hands, which resembled his old weapons Gran Caida.

"What is this?" Barragan spoke again. He touched his jaw with the non-bladed side of his hands, shocked, finally realizing that he could speak again.

Suddenly everything disappeared, and he realized that he had woken up. He was in the same spot as where he had first blacked out, but laying on his back, similar to how he had first woken up in the Forest of Menos. Barragan got up, and felt that he was much more nimble than before, and looked over his body again. He was now an Adjucha, just like Arrogante had said. Barragan chuckled, then started to cackle and laugh in joy.

"Finally!" He yelled. "Finally, I'm no longer a lowly Gillian! I can speak! I don't lumber around like an idoit! My power is back!"

Barragan could feel his newly unsealed Reiatsu pulsing throughout his body, merging with his soul once again. He then gave his axe-arms a couple of test swings, getting a feel for his new weapons. He tried making a normal Cero, it now being much bigger and powerful, and shot it at a tree, with carved out a large chunk of the enormous tree. Barragan tried running around, taking a while to get used to being able to run and jump again. Barragan let out another laugh, drunk with joy and power.

"Now I don't need to hide!" Barragan thought. "I no longer need to pick off lowly Gillians, and I can get out of this accursed forest!" Barragan paused. "I need to actually find the exit first."

Barragan then wandered around for a while, looking for a clue as on how to get out. As Barragan was walking around, he suddenly felt a great hunger. He realized that he hasn't eaten in a while, and going too long without consuming another Hollow will lead to him regressing back to a Gillian, which Barragan definitely didn't want to happen. He then had an idea.

"I could capture another Adjucha and force them to either tell me or show me the exit, and then consume him and the rest of their horde." Barragan thought, making a plan. "I could definitely defeat an Adjucha and their Gillian horde at my current power, but how to find one? Barragan then had another idea. "When I first came here I roared a few times and a horde came running, so if I do the same, I'll get the horde to come to me!"

Barragan then roared again and again, echoing far through the forest. He then waited, and waited, until finally he heard something roar back. Then came another roar, then another, and another, and then large lumbering footsteps which headed his way. When the horde of Gillians arrived they stopped, seemingly at the orders of the leading Adjucha. The horde of Gillians was large compared to what Barragan had fought before, numbering to around one hundred Gillian soldiers.

Barragan roared in challenge. "Bring it small fry!" He shouted. "You're no match for me, you lowly Gillians or your leader!"

Barragan then heard an outraged voice yelling.

"Lowly!?" The voice roared, which was probably the leader Adjucha. "Big words for a newly evolved Adjucha! You're the one who's small fry, ant!"

"ANT?!" Barragan yelled back in outrage. "A puny Adjucha dares to call me an ant?! Fine, I'll grant you one chance for mercy. Barragan said Tell me the way out of this damned Forest." The Adjucha roared with laughter when Barragan finished his sentence. The Adjucha revealed himself.

The Adjucha resembled a humanoid crab, with a slightly dark orange exoskeleton. Its entire head had the standard white of a Hollow mask, and looked like a crabs head, with two beady yellow eyes sticking out of its head. The Adjuchas legs were odd, having two legs but looking like normal crab legs that were fused together into two stumps which were its legs and feet, with sharp clawed feet that looked like crab legs. The Adjuchas weapons were similar to Barragan's, but instead of axes it instead had two claws for hands, one being smaller but incredibly sharp, and one that was oversized and blunter, which looked like it could crush bones like twigs. The Adjuchas eyes looked at him condescendingly.

"A way out?" It said, amused, making a high pitched screeching noise which resembled a laugh. "A way out you say? You'll never get close, you'll have to defeat the Guardian of the Forest and his army to get out." The Adjucha said mockingly. "You're even weaker than me at the moment, and I'm not even close to the Guardian and his army, so dream on."

"Then regret your folly in hell." Barragan said, brandishing his axe-hands.

"Deal with him Gillians, he isn't worth my time." The Adjucha said, waving a claw and walking back into the horde.

Barragan ran forward towards the horde of Gillians, who were all charging their Ceros at the same time, with no regard for the other Gillians safety. Suddenly they all fired, turning Barragan's vision bright red. Barragan tried to dodge to the side, but was still not fully used to moving in the new body, and multiple Ceros grazed him. He cursed in anger, and charged his own Cero, which was only a normal in order to charge up faster. Barragan shot the Cero at the Gillians, which did take out a few of the Gillians, but barely thinned the horde. Barragan froze in shock, thinking that he had at least taken out half of the horde, but had only taken out around a tenth of the horde. Barragan, hoping that by taking out the commander the Gillians would disperse, dashed towards the Adjucha, who had his back turned. Barragan weaved between the large and clumsy Gillians, who fired Ceros in random directions, but never hit their target.

Barragan finally reached the Adjucha, who was at the back of the horde, still with its back turned. Barragan jumped, axes ready to dice the Adjucha into pieces, when the axes suddenly stopped as they hit the skin, as if hitting an iron wall. Shocked, Barragan tried chopping again and again, at different angles and locations, but not a single slice drew blood. Suddenly the Adjucha turned, and gave Barragan a bored look and caught both of Barragan's axes in its claws, stopping them in their tracks. Barragan looked on in disbelief and horror at the fact that all of his attacks hadn't even bothered the Adjucha.

"Give up, ant, you can't even cut through my Hierro." the Adjucha said, and kicked Barragan to the side, Barragan flying hundreds of metres away until he hit a tree.

- A short time later-

Barragan could still see, albeit barely, with the horde not even in sight anymore. Barragan could barely move, but could still hear the horde shuffling away, along with the familiar roars of Gillians. Barragan groaned and moved his body to get out of the tree, which he was now embedded in. After a long while he finally got himself out, and checked the damage that he had sustained. The right side of Barragan's rib armor had completely shattered from the Adjuchas kick, and cracks were visible on the left side and his pauldrons from the crash. His axes were still in one piece, but heavily chipped from trying to trying to cut the Adjuchas Hierro. Barragan felt his mask with the non-bladed side of his hands, and felt that his mask hadn't taken much damage, only scratches and dings from the battle. His legs were in bad condition, although he could still walk and run, they had multiple burns and injuries from the Gillians Ceros, which had only managed to hit his legs. Barragan started to feel the pain from his injuries everywhere, and once again cursed his overconfidence of taking on a horde and Adjucha not even an hour after becoming an Adjucha.

After checking to see that he could move well enough, Barragan slowly made his way towards where the battle had been, cursing in pain and at his foolishness. When he had arrived he still saw the Gillians that he had killed on the ground, strangely not eaten.

"Why wouldn't they consume their dead Gillians?" Barragan thought. "I guess that I'll eat them then."

Barragan then consumed the Gillians, ripping and tearing apart their flesh and eating it. Consuming a Gillian took longer time as an Adjucha, due to having to take smaller bites, but he would rather deal with that than compared to being a Gillian again. After he hade consumed all of the corpses, he felt pain of his injuries and the gnawing hunger that he had ignored earlier starting to disappear, and also saw the damage to his armor and weapons starting to heal.

Once his legs had healed to the point where he could run without feeling like his legs were on fire, Barragan slowly made his way back to his hideout, which was now much easier to access due to his now much smaller size. He then laid down on a piece of stone that he had slept on as a Gillian, and waited for his wounds to heal as he drifted off into unconsciousness.