My wrist is starting to kill me. I was taking notes, and now I'm working on this. My wrist hates me for it. :( Anyway, I hope I do good in this fight. Enjoy!


31

Ichigo moved to help any surviving Arrancar, but more quincies surrounded them and began attacking. Ichigo pulled his Zanpakuto from his waist and blocked all incoming attacks. He saw Shiro fire Getsuga Tensho and cero at his opponents, and Uryu and Chad were able to reach the injured Arrancar.

Ichigo quickly knocked out the two quincies he was fighting, which surprised him since he knew how strong Uryu was and could only imagine how much stronger he had gotten throughout the year.

Once the quincies were down, Ichigo made his way over to his friends to help them carry the Arrancar away from the battle between Tenebris and the lead Quincy, Quilge Opie.

The Arrancar he picked up was one of the three beasts. She had dark skin and thick, brown hair. She opened her eyes to glare at him. "I don't need help," she growled.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "The blood leaking from those wounds of yours say otherwise. Now shut up before Shiro decides to eat you all." He pointed with his eyes toward Shiro, who was also carrying Arrancar, who looked to be dying. Ichigo could see the hunger in the hollow zanpakuto's eyes as he looked down at the dying creature. The dark-skinned Arrancar saw the same expression and clicked her jaw shut. Ichigo nodded and began to move away from his soul sister's fight. He had zero plans of getting caught in the crossfire.

()()()

Tenebris fired a cero at her opponent, causing an explosion of sand to reach for the sky. She couldn't see Quilge due to the dust, but she saw a blue glow coming from her left. She flapped her wings to dodge the arrow and turned toward her enemy. She used her spirit energy to control the floating sand and made the grains attack every part of Quincy's body, but the eyes were her main target.

She was unsure if she had succeeded in her task, but she shrugged her shoulders uncaringly. She opened her mouth and aimed for the spot where she felt the man's presence. A red glow appeared deep in her throat, and soon fire shot out. Another explosion was seen and heard by everyone within a mile.

'I had to have gotten him that time, yet I still feel his reiatsu,' Tenebris thought with narrowed eyes. She cleared the dust and sand, allowing her visual of her opponent, who stood there as if her efforts were in vain. Tenebris felt her eyes widen and her jaw slack. She examined her enemy, checking if he was faking it. She saw burns on the man's clothes and some forming marks on his skin, but nothing else. 'How is he still standing? Sure, I didn't hit him with everything I have but come on, humans can't get out of attacks like that with only bruises.'

Quilge smirked. "I know you can do better than that, Dark Dragon," he said. "Why don't you show me why his majesty sees you as a powerful enemy?"

Tenebris rolled her blood-red eyes. "I don't need my full power to get rid of you."

Quilge smirked wider. "Normally, I agree, but you were locked in crystal for a year. Maybe you're rusty."

Tenebris kept her muzzle shut, hating that she agreed with the man. She allowed Ichigo or Shiro to do most of the fighting while she observed and prevented them from getting killed. The lack of any real action was beginning to affect her.

Tenebris closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew she could beat this guy without using her full power, and she was going to prove it here!

She dove down and flew around Quilge till a sand tornado formed and engulfed him. Once the tornado fully formed, she used blue fire on the sand, causing it to melt and turn into lava. Temerbris heard Quilge's screams over the roar of the tornado. She smirked, knowing she had him this time.

She kept the tornado for ten seconds before letting it die. The blackened form of the Quincy lay on the ground for a few seconds before slowly getting back up. Tenebris was not as surprised to see him getting up or the dark look he was giving her. The whole scene made her grin smugly.

"What were you saying about me being rusty?" she asked innocently.

Quilge stood as straight as he could, but Tenebris could see his skin stretching painfully. He sighed, doing his best not to show any pain, but Dark Dragon could see it in his eyes.

"I'll admit, you certainly are creative," he said and looked around at all the damage she had caused. "Destructive too. Ah, I see that all the Arrancar are out of the way. It seems Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends were able to move them out of the way on time. Or did they? Maybe you killed them with a stray attack?"

Tenebris rolled her eyes. "If you expect me to fall for that, you are a thousand years too late. I've heard that one so many times it's not funny. Besides, I have a bird's eye view from up here. I see Ichigo's glorious orange locks behind one of those boulders, including Uryu and Chad. As for the madman that came with us, I have no idea, but I know how hard it is to kill him."

"Uryu Ishida?" Quilge questioned. "What is he doing here?"

"Was Uryu's name the only thing that stuck out to you? How do you even know him? No offense, Uryu!"

"None taken!" She heard him reply.

'Although, this guy might know due to him being a Quincy who hangs around Ichigo,' she thought.

"It's impossible not to know when I've seen him before," the enemy Quincy answered.

"You've seen him before? When and how?"

"Oops, I've already said too much."

"Okay, so you're not going to answer me. That's fine, I'll just ask someone else. Hey Uryu! Do you know what this guy is talking about?"

Uryu poked his head out for her to see his unimpressed face. "I was approached by the quincies a while ago, asking me to join them. I was in the process of thinking about it, but you already know the answer."

"So you've decided not to join, then. His Majesty will be most disappointed," said Tenebris' adversary.

"Like any of us care!" Shiro put in his comment, annoying Tenebris in the process.

'I was just about to say that…' she thought.

Tenebris returned her focus to Quincy, only to see an irritated look on his face. "You know what, I've had about enough of you. You seem to not be taking this fight seriously," he said while pushing up his glasses.

Tenebris smirked. "Oh, you're just figuring that out?"

"Do you know about Letzt Stil?"

"Yeah, Uryu had done it before. It almost resulted in him losing his powers for good."

"That was a weak and failed version of what a real Quincy can do. Let me show you the power of Quincy Vollestandig!" he called out as his body released an explosion of spirit energy. When the sand settled again, allowing Tenebris to see what had happened, Quincy stood there with a new appearance.

Tenebris' expression went from curiosity to disgust. "Ew! What the heck am I looking at?!" she questioned as she stared at the deformed angel-looking Quincy. She can see it was more stable than what Uryu did back when they went to see Rukia. (She had left while Ichigo was training to check on everyone else back then.) However, she preferred it over this thing, whose eyes had changed to something other than human. Still, though, she couldn't help but laugh as well. "You look like God's rejected son!"

Due to her laughing, she didn't have time to react to the incoming attack. She was hit in the gut by something and sent tumbling out of the sky. She felt little regret, but as soon as her blood-red eyes met Quilge's illusion-looking ones, she felt that feeling vanish and made room for mirth.

Tenebris got back up onto her four feet and smirked widely. She still thought his form was hilarious - even if it was ugly - she also knew that this guy could help her get rid of whatever rust she had on her claws and fangs.

"If that's how you want to play, then let's play!" she roared, feeling excitement for the battle to come.

TBC


Hopefully, this won't be too much longer. I want to get to the part when Ichigo is trying to get to the Soul Society.

Ichi: I'm starting to get worried about what she's planning.

Shiro: It must be good. :)

Enj/Dark: Think hamster.

Ichi: What does a hamster have to do with anything?

Enj/Dark: Not my fault if you can't figure it out. Please review!