C18 - Battle with the Adjuchas
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
"Roar!"
A thunderous chorus erupted from hundreds of Gillians, all howling in unison as they followed behind Hubert Allen.
The synchronized howls reverberated through the desolate Hueco Mundo sky, and Ye Chuan felt a jarring tremor in his own spiritual pressure. It felt as though his reiryoku was being disrupted.
"A harmonized Cero formation?" Ye Chuan frowned.
He hadn't anticipated that an Adjuchas like this one could exert such sophisticated control over a Gillian horde. Coordinated techniques like this weren't common below the Vasto Lorde level. His brow twitched.
"You reek of Ian Gray's residual reiryoku. That imbecile must've drawn you here by broadcasting my spiritual pressure," a voice hissed.
From the dense nest of gnarled trees and bone-like trunks, a sinuous figure slithered out half-human, half-serpent. The creature perched on a raised branch, its glowing eyes bearing down on Ye Chuan with serpentine malice.
"As a fellow Hollow, and one with such audacity, did you think you could kill me? You overestimate yourself! I sensed the reiryoku I implanted in Ian Gray flare up when you killed him. So I've been waiting."
Ye Chuan studied the figure.
The commanding spiritual pressure leaking from the serpent-Hollow's form revealed that he was the leader of these Gillians. The strange spiritual signature Ye Chuan had detected embedded within Ian Gray and the surrounding Gillians now made sense it belonged to this Adjuchas, Hubert Allen.
This was Ye Chuan's first direct confrontation with a true Adjuchas. He stared back with careful curiosity.
"I'll give you one chance," Hubert Allen declared, his voice echoing across the white sands. "Swear fealty to me, mutilate yourself, and let me plant my venom into your core. Serve me, Hubert Allen, and I'll let you live."
Ye Chuan almost laughed.
The Adjuchas mistook him for a lower-ranked Hollow perhaps another fledgling Adjuchas like the scorpion-form one from before. What Allen didn't know was that Ye Chuan had skipped the normal evolutionary steps. He wasn't even a Gillian; he was an anomaly a Vast-level consciousness in a base form.
Hubert Allen snapped his fingers.
Hundreds of Gillians dispersed in eerie unison, aiming their Cero charges at Ye Chuan.
Ye Chuan sighed in irritation.
Then, in a shocking move, he drew his Zanpakutō and severed his own left arm. A geyser of red spiritual fluid burst from the stump.
"With this, I present… my loyalty, Lord Hubert Allen," Ye Chuan murmured mockingly.
He dropped his Zanpakutō and raised his severed arm like a tribute offering, aiming it toward Allen's perch.
Allen blinked, stunned by the abrupt submission. Then he erupted in delighted laughter.
"Haha! Excellent! I love decisive recruits!"
With another snap, the Gillians ceased charging their Cero blasts. The battlefield went still.
Allen slithered down to claim Ye Chuan's severed arm but something was wrong.
The stump of Ye Chuan's arm twitched. Regenerative granulation tissue spiraled out rapidly. Within seconds, a brand new arm emerged no, not just an arm, but one wielding a thunder-wreathed, pitch-black whip.
"Super-speed regeneration?!"
"Zzzzzak!"
Before Allen could react, the dark golden thunder whip lashed out like a viper, cleaving through the air with a high-pitched whine. It struck him directly across his Hollow mask, fracturing it!
"ROARRR!"
Allen shrieked in rage and shock. A long crack ran down the center of his mask. Crimson blood trickled from the exposed flesh underneath.
"You dare scar me?!"
The horror in his voice wasn't pain it was despair. His cracked mask meant that his body was no longer fit to ascend to Vasto Lorde. It also meant he would have to constantly consume Gillians just to maintain his rank and avoid degeneration.
And the Hollow in front of him this cunning bastard not only had speed regeneration, a rare trait even among Adjuchas, but had now ruined his evolutionary future.
"I'LL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!"
Enraged, Hubert Allen tried to rally his Gillian forces again. But Ye Chuan was already moving.
He summoned his dropped Zanpakutō with a flick of his fingers and launched forward in a blur, unleashing several precise slashes toward Allen.
The serpent-form Adjuchas twisted his torso and retreated rapidly. Long claws extended from both his hands ten black-red nails glowing with compressed spiritual pressure.
They shot forward like baleful missiles, clashing mid-air with Ye Chuan's sword strikes and creating a blinding explosion of dust and reiryoku.
"Despicable sneak attacker!" Allen howled.
"Too noisy," Ye Chuan muttered coldly.
He lifted his left palm and charged a crimson-black Cero. The energy condensed almost instantly and fired straight at Allen's face.
Allen retaliated with his own flickering Cero, emitted from his snake-tail, and their twin blasts met mid-air.
"BOOM!"
The detonation engulfed the battlefield.
Smoke billowed. But Allen's flicker had pierced through Ye Chuan's defense, drilling a blood-filled hole in his waist.
"Ugh…"
Ye Chuan coughed. "Two ranks higher… it's still a push."
If this were a pure reiryoku contest, Ye Chuan might be above Gillian-tier but still below a seasoned Adjuchas. His earlier blow had landed due to surprise, not superior power.
Though his whip had cracked Allen's mask, spiritual degeneration took time. Right now, Allen was still a full-powered Adjuchas.
Ye Chuan's abdomen wriggled. Flesh knit together rapidly super-speed regeneration kicked in again.
He couldn't afford a drawn-out battle. Continuous healing would tax his reiryoku, and eventually the Gillians would complete their formation and overwhelm him.
This needed to end now.
He tightened his grip on his blade and gathered every ounce of spiritual pressure.
"Roaring Thunder Slash!"
This was his strongest attack a fusion of combat insight from devoured Itokai memories and his own innate thunder-flash ability.
The air trembled. The sky itself flickered with electricity as Ye Chuan's Zanpakutō split the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Hubert Allen's eyes burned with green envy.
"If only I had super-speed regeneration…!"
As jealousy consumed him, he ordered the Gillians to fire all Cero at once an attempt to erase Ye Chuan in a single blast.
But Ye Chuan moved faster.
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