spira_rp | If he wants a fight, well now he's got one

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If he wants a fight, well now he's got one

The Palace felt quiet. A number of the Arrancar were out on a mission with Aizen; only the weak, or the unpredictable, had been made to stay behind, but that number had not, apparently, included Grimmjow. Kadaj and Tayuya had been left to their own devices without him and Yylfordt around.

Three days ago, they'd had a quiet conversation. Kadaj hadn't done much talking, just nodded, and then later in the day had crept into the laboratories down the wing of the Palace that Orochimaru had made his own. Kadaj used to go down there a lot, three years ago. He'd stopped just after the Arrancar arrived. He'd fallen out with Orochimaru once and for all shortly after that.

He emerged from the labs a couple of hours later, showered, and then went into the underground training facility. He didn't come up again for a couple of days, although there weren't really people around to notice, except Tayuya, who went down to check on him a few times.

He'd slept when he came back up, and then went to look for Nnoitra, one of the Arrancar who had been judged too unpredictable to head off to a freshly made Necrohol. He found him in the kitchen.

Kadaj made his way over; an unusual intent certainty in his expression, and spoke quietly. "Want to let off some steam?" His manner was all wrong to be an invitation to spar, but that was what it sounded like, at first.

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Orochimaru's thought process was right -- it did annoy him when enemies evaded his attacks rather than hit back. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't supposed to strike too much in this battle. Playing stupid and slow was the idea. Wear him down. Don't make him break out the powerful attacks. Don't make it look like he needs to step it up.

It wasn't difficult.

Unfortunately for Orochimaru, it was just an act. He was in his element on the field of battle. He enjoyed every aspect of it, whether that involved dealing damage to the enemy or getting hurt himself. Sadistic and near-masochistic when it came to bloodshed, he knew how to fight and he did it well. Keeping himself alert was one of the things, other than a monstrous amount of strength and a relentlessly aggressive nature, that had kept him alive until now.

"Hah!" He laughed, the sound sudden and mocking. "Have you never considered that I might wanna savour this?"

He didn't miss the hand-seals that Orochimaru performed. He didn't know what they were for -- he didn't know a great deal of Jutsu -- but he knew that if Orochimaru was making them, it was going to be something debilitating. He couldn't have that.

The low static buzz of high-speed Arrancar movement sounded at the onset of that flurry of motion. He drew back a couple of steps, putting himself out of striking range. He smirked at him from a safe distance and held out his own hand. He, unlike Orochimaru, didn't need to touch him for the attack to hit its mark.

The low thrum of a bala blast filled the air.

A quick harrumph of irritation was Orochimaru's only reaction as Nnoitra darted away. Sonido was a mild vexation at worst, however.

He avoided the bala blast deftly. It came from a distance, and he'd seen Nnoitra move to use it, which made it significantly easier. He had to admit, it was a useful little technique for someone who hadn't been disciplined enough to learn ninja skills.

A check on Kadaj's position revealed the boy had finished with the snakes, too, and was already on his way to occupy the opening left by Nnoitra.

How intriguing. There was some degree of teamwork nearly at play. He readied himself to avoid the incoming sword, and land the prepared seal on Kadaj instead.

The blood of the last snake lingered on souba's edge as Kadaj moved in, and struck at Orochimaru. He was slowing, and it showed; even though he'd been ready, the twin blades still snagged at clothing, slicing it neatly.

Kadaj had to block with his off hand, keeping Orochimaru's outstretched fingers from making contact. He saw and felt the glow of gathered chakra at the tips, but didn't recognise the technique. He didn't need to in order to know he didn't want to find out what it did.

With an effort, he ducked Orochimaru, making the other man move as he aimed a couple of fast kicks and swung for the offending hand with his sword, hoping to remove it.

He failed, but pulled away sharply, landing near Nnoitra and telling him, "He's getting slower."

"Yeah," Nnoitra replied, looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

Kadaj's initial attack was certainly having an effect on Orochimaru. His speed was decreasing, even if his accuracy and tenacity remained unaffected. Even so, Nnoitra knew that he couldn't get complacent. Even half immobilised Orochimaru would be a formidable opponent and he was nowhere near that point yet. Nevertheless...

"My turn," he growled, keeping his voice low.

He moved in, augmenting his speed to give him an edge, and swung his weapon at him.

Orochimaru moved, but too slowly to get away. As Nnoitra struck, Santa Teresa made contact....

There was a small cloud of smoke as it was revealed to be nothing more than a small log, which bore an explosive tag which activated as soon as it was revealed.

The substitution jutsu was an extremely basic technique, but effective. As the tag exploded, Orochimaru took the opportunity to attack unseen, extending his neck and snaking in to land a bite on Nnoitra.

Ordinarily, such a technique would allow him to place a seal on the victim, but he ran into a snag when he couldn't pierce Nnoitra's skin.

Arrancar hide, he thought. Only one thing would get through that.

He retreated quickly.

Kadaj saw it was nothing more than a jutsu and cursed, quietly. The last thing they needed was to lose sight of Orochimaru for a moment, and he scanned the area to locate him again as quickly as possible.

When he saw him, he raced in, sword ready, but Orochimaru was faster, pulling away and evading Kadaj's attack before he'd even reeled his neck in.

Kadaj hoped Nnoitra wasn't going to lose it after having Orochimaru try and bite him. It might bring back memories. It sure as hell made Kadaj uncomfortable.

He struck with sword and foot, and then backed off sharply after Orochimaru successfully blocked, not wanting to be within easy range of a counter attack.

Nnoitra's eye went wider when he realised what Orochimaru had done. In his shock he didn't have time to locate his real position before he felt his mouth touch his skin.

Cold fury flooded through him as a wave of nausea made his stomach lurch. It almost completely destroyed the relative calm and concentration that he was using towards the intended outcome of the battle. Years of hatred, resentment and the desire for revenge hit him at once with the resurgence of memories he'd hoped to forget. He snarled wordlessly, swinging for him with his usual unrestrained speed as Orochimaru retreated.

He swore as he evaded the attack.

Nnoitra didn't move as Kadaj swept in after him to take advantage of the opening he'd left. Instead he stood there, almost doubled over and panting, his teeth gritted and his weapon clutched so tightly in his hands that his knuckles were white. He had to struggle to come to his senses and not give in to the anger. That's what he wanted.

Bastard.

Kadaj backed off to nearer Nnoitra and glanced at him. He didn't comment; it would probably only make things worse. Kadaj knew how Nnoitra probably felt, and only ripping Orochimaru's head off was going to make that feel better.

He gathered himself, taking a moment and adjusting his grip on souba. He really hoped geostigma wouldn't take too much longer to wear him down enough.

"Did he break the skin?" He asked, checking. He knew Grimmjow was pretty tough where that was concerned, but he wasn't sure where Nnoitra stood on that scale of things. Kadaj knew what that bite was designed to do, anyway, aside from aggravate.

Orochimaru didn't waste any time. With Kadaj backed off, he used a jutsu, and opened his mouth.

A sword came up, and Orochimaru reached in and took it, removing it completely. Kusanagi would make short work of even Nnoitra's defences. A sword wasn't his preferred method of battle, ordinarily, but it was a useful thing to have.

"Like hell did he," Nnoitra spat, revulsion evident in his voice.

There was no way that Orochimaru's teeth would have been able to penetrate his skin. It wasn't compared to iron for nothing. He took a few deep breaths to compose himself after that bout of unpleasantness and kept his eye on Orochimaru. He struggled to resist the urge to wipe where Orochimaru had tried to bite him.

In the seconds they had spent on their exchange, Nnoitra saw Orochimaru perform his jutsu and regurgitate a sword. He didn't know what the sword was. He'd never seen him perform that and draw it before. The only thought he had was that it was a good thing if it kept Orochimaru at a blade's distance from them.

"Kusanagi," Kadaj muttered, eyeing Orochimaru and the sword he'd produced unhappily. "I wondered how long it'd take him." Against someone like Nnoitra, it was only a matter of time.

The really fortunate thing about pushing him to use Kusanagi was that Kadaj was probably a better swordsman than Orochimaru. He hoped so, anyway, because Kusanagi was dangerous enough on its own.

Geostigma, hopefully, would help.

Kadaj darted to Orochimaru's right, and used sparkstrike to boost its effect. He wasn't too interested in hitting hard, yet, but it would help wear Orochimaru down.

Orochimaru huffed slightly as Kadaj came at him again. The brat really was determined to get his point across, in both the literal and the figurative sense.

He parried Kadaj's attempt, and quirked an eyebrow at the fact he'd used sparkstrike. "Using your intelligence," he commented, "it's about time." He swung as Kadaj pulled back again, but failed to make contact. He always had been a speedy little thing.

Nnoitra moved in on Orochimaru's left, weapon raised. He swung and he swung hard, aiming for Orochimaru's neck. He snarled wordlessly as he made the strike, his cry fair warning for Kadaj to get out of the way.

He was ... fairly confident that Kadaj would move or duck when he attacked. He was fast and Nnoitra didn't doubt that he had taken to sparring with Grimmjow. Sure, Grimmjow was inferior to him, but that was besides the point. If Kadaj could stand up against him in a sparring match, he should have it in him to at least avoid something the size of Santa Teresa's blades coming at him at a fair speed.

His strike wasn't like those before. Nnoitra didn't go at him unrestrained, but he actually put an injection of strength behind the swing. Rage had tainted his control so thoroughly that it would be more of a struggle than it was worth to fight as he had been. His false hacks and choreographed slashes were no longer designed simply to wear down his shared opponent. He had far from pulled out all of the stops, but it was a small step forward towards his usual brutality.

Edited 2012-08-13 15:22 (UTC)

Kadaj did train with Grimmjow on a fairly regular basis, so when Nnoitra moved in to swing, he was aware enough of the risk to back off out of the way. That was the hazard of teaming up with Nnoitra; he didn't play well with others.

Normally, neither did Kadaj.

Nnoitra was holding back less, Kadaj could see it. It was probably for the best, with Orochimaru having drawn Kusanagi. It meant Orochimaru was actually out to hurt them now, which meant they had to rise to the challenge.

He took a moment to breathe, and charge another spark strike, letting Nnoitra have at Orochimaru for a moment.

Orochimaru noticed the change in Nnoitra's demeanour. Unfortunately for Nnoitra, warning Kadaj also gave warning to Orochimaru, and he avoided the incoming swing gracefully.

He retaliated with a swing of his own, bringing Kusanagi around to slice through whatever lay in its path....

Whether that happened to be Santa Teresa, or Nnoitra himself.

Nnoitra, above almost all else, prided himself on his defensive capability. It wasn't the speed of his block that had given him cause for egotism, but the raw shielding afforded to him by his hierro, or iron skin. It was a trait common to Arrancar and was, in reality, little more than a defensive condensing of their Chakra. Nevertheless, he had honed that to perfection. He was nigh-impossible to cut, even beyond the abilities of other Arrancar. It would take a lot of fighting for an opponent to attune and adapt themselves to his spiritual energy enough to cut through it.

Ordinarily, a sword wouldn't even mark his skin. Ordinarily, Santa Teresa would withstand any blow from a rival sword. Ordinarily, he wouldn't so much as flinch.

This time was ... different.

Kusanagi sliced through the dual tips of Santa Teresa's upper crescent. He felt the slight reduction in weight and an involuntary jerk as the friction of resistance gave out. Shock impaired his reaction speed. Half numb, he pulled himself back and away from Orochimaru and his blade.

He dimly recalled an unpleasant, distant memory as he felt the all-too-familiar sensation of blood running down his face. That hit even before the sting managed to tear through his haze of disbelief. The gash on his face -- a clean cut carved horizontally across the bridge of his nose -- felt hot. The blood, however, quickly turned cold. It dripped from his jaw and chin, staining his clothes. It ran down his lips and between his teeth, teeth that were bared with disbelief and hatred in equal measure.

He touched the new wound with steady fingertips, tracing it to its end on his cheek. He narrowed his eye. Shock gave way to resolve. He began building his reiatsu.

"We won't fucking lose to you!"

It was time to up the game.

Kadaj cursed under his breath as he saw Nnoitra get sliced. A part of him was listening to Souba the whole time, waiting for her to give him the go ahead to bring this all to a close, but they weren't ready. Orochimaru was pushing Nnoitra, pushing Nnoitra in particular....

Probably figured the Arrancar was the greater threat, and if he saw Nnoitra off, he could take his time with Kadaj afterwards. The idea made Kadaj feel sick.

He felt the reiatsu spike from Nnoitra, and hissed with irritation before he dove for Orochimaru, using two hands with Souba as he made a determined effort to keep Orochimaru busy, while staying clear of Kusanagi. He didn't even want to risk parrying that thing too much; he couldn't be sure what effect it might have if Souba got damaged. One inconvenient slash, and the whole thing could become a lost cause if it left him unable to use geostigma properly.

Orochimaru huffed with amusement at Nnoitra's proclamation, but even through the haze of his nephew's building reiatsu, he still felt Kadaj coming up on him from behind.

He turned, and swung with Kusanagi at the same time, tutting softly when Kadaj evaded it. He struck again, and again, avoiding Kadaj's own thunder-laced slashes while trying to land one of his own. "Your determination," he commented, with a note of irritation, "while admirable, grows wearing, Kadaj."

He activated a jutsu, and flung out one arm as chakra-snakes erupted from his sleeve, impossible to avoid at this close range. It only took one to catch Kadaj for him to become entangled as the rest quickly followed suit, and there were too many for Kadaj to try and cut through them all.

"Pray, Santa Teresa!"

With that command, Nnoitra raised his weapon into the air. His reiatsu didn't simply increase, it became more tangible, even visible. It burst out from the hollow space between the two sides of the upper crescent blade. Chakra swirled in shades of bright gold, mimicking fire. Dust rose into the air, agitated by the discharge of energy. Together they obscured him from sight.

The pressure was immense. There was no doubt that it would be felt by those upstairs, not that it mattered at all. Such disturbances were to be expected in a training area. It was unlikely that anybody would come running.

If they did, Nnoitra certainly didn't care.

The visible manifestation of Chakra brought about by Nnoitra's Resurrección ebbed away as fast as it came. The dust dropped in the absence of it, leaving him in view once more.

Nnoitra's appearance had, as expected, been altered by the process. His mask fragment covered almost the entire left side of his face and was now too big to be completely concealed by the patch over his eye. He had horns, two of them, of differing lengths. The main difference, however, lay in his arms -- he now had four and, in each of his hands, he gripped a scythe-like weapon. Lastly, the gash that Orochimaru had given him had healed over, leaving little more than a faint scar.

Kadaj, in the time it had taken Nnoitra to Release, had clearly found himself in some difficulty concerning Orochimaru's snakes. Nnoitra looked from one to the other and gritted his teeth. If Kadaj fell at this stage ... well, he wasn't sure how he'd fare against that weapon of his uncle's. It was something else. He didn't want to risk getting close enough to him without some degree of backup, so he approached the situation differently.

He surged forward in a feint, raising each pole-mounted blade at once. If Orochimaru had any sense, he would try and keep his eyes on those. So, halfway confident that they would be sufficient to distract him, Nnoitra forced out his last set of arms with a snarl, bringing the total to six. Contrary to usual, he didn't arm them. Instead, he used them to direct a vicious and high-powered bolt of raw lightning at them both.

Nnoitra had no doubt that Orochimaru knew that they shared Aero-Elemental Chakra. It was a familial trait. As far as Nnoitra was aware, however, Orochimaru had no idea that, following the implantation of his Hollow, he was Dual-type. Aero and Thunder. The former had a well-documented weakness to the latter and Nnoitra put it to use.

Though hardly a master tactician, he had already figured out what Kadaj's Elemental affinity was and knew that the fulmination wouldn't affect him.

His uncle and the snakes formed from his Chakra, however, were another story entirely.

The change in the air was palpable, but Orochimaru ignored Nnoitra in the process in releasing to his Resurrección state. He hadn't seen Nnoitra released before, and Aizen had not been forthcoming with data, understandably, but he expected it to be big, and unpleasant, and showy.

He was, however, more usefully occupied with winding one snake around Kadaj's throat, and squeezing the air out of his lungs than with watching the show.

That didn't, however, mean that he wasn't watching for an incoming attack. He knew that one would be likely once the display was over, so when Nnoitra feinted, he reacted to defend, raising Kusanagi in a strike which would have split weapons, and severed hands.

Instead he was hit with a powerful thunderbolt, which knocked him backwards and away from Kadaj. The snakes dissipated. He almost dropped the sword, and for a moment, for too long a moment from his view, between that and whatever Kadaj had struck him with to sap his strength with the black effluvia that pulsed from him still, he struggled to stand back up, panting.

And pissed off.

Kadaj struggled against the snakes, but every movement only seemed to make them hold tighter, and his breath was stolen when Nnoitra released into the bargain. He grimaced against it, fighting with all he had left to bring souba up and muster another sparkstrike to slice through the damn things....

Nnoitra got there first.

Kadaj was dropped and gulped a breath gratefully before he scrambled back to his feet and back a few paces from Orochimaru. The creepy old snake was... struggling, Kadaj saw, and smirked.

"Thanks," Kadaj said, to Nnoitra, and took a brief moment to get his breath back.

Not yet, but it was getting close, if they could hold on just a little bit longer... And Nnoitra had just put the bastard on the back foot.

Nnoitra grinned as Orochimaru struggled. He couldn't resist. It was nice to see him falter, to see him suffer. It made a change from that cock-sure attitude he'd been wearing since Kadaj had initiated battle.

"Hah!" He hoped that burst of electricity hurt.

He nodded to Kadaj and gripped each of his four weapons more tightly. He could have produced another pair for the newer arms, but he decided to hold back that ability for the moment. He didn't want to put all of his cards on the table, after all. Orochimaru was a fighter made in the same vein as Szayel -- if he knew what you were capable of, he would work out a way to turn the battle in his favour. Keeping things from him was what gave them a chance of victory. Instead, he swept one hand up to his face to pull off his patch and clenched the other into a fist at his side.

"What's your plan?" He asked Kadaj quietly, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. "You know what'll happen if we give the bastard too much space."

But having to deal with that sword too much wasn't something he wanted to risk either.

Kadaj did know what would happen if Orochimaru got too much space. That was one of the drawbacks to the whole killing him thing, even with Geostigma.

"A few more minutes and I have him," he said, although for what he didn't specify. It was pretty clear that the black ichor was doing something to wear Orochimaru down; his chakra levels were dropping, his reactions were slowing, he was, overall, weakening, and much more rapidly than if they were wearing him down through the battle. "We don't have to overpower him," Kadaj said, "we just have to last, and that includes if he uses that. Once the stigma has him, it won't matter what he's doing, or what he looks like; his time is up."

Keep him going, last him out, dodge the worst and weather the rest; so long as Kadaj and Souba stayed in the battle, Orochimaru was going to die today.

Ungrateful little brats.

Orochimaru seethed. He couldn't work out what Kadaj's little zanpakuto trick did, or more importantly, how it did it; it felt like being hit with a lot of nasty status effecting spells at once, but some of them were unfamiliar, but there was one thing he could determine, and that was that it was devouring his chakra at an increasingly fast rate. Without being able to identify them, he couldn't cure them. It was aggravating. Then there was Nnoitra, who, in a combat situation, was the greater concern, especially when he'd displayed a thunder elemental affinity.

That one, Orochimaru put down to Aizen and his meddling.

If he didn't get this back under control, he might actually lose this fight. It was not a happy realisation, but he needed to stay off the front line and incur as little damage as he could.

He raised the sword, and utilised a technique, which left it hovering in the air. Then it was a simple matter of guiding it over towards Nnoitra and Kadaj, using a single finger to guide the swords vicious swings as he made a determined effort disarm Nnoitra.

Literally.

He kept a close eye on Kadaj, however. He was the one likely to come running in up close in response.

Nnoitra, upon seeing the floating sword, swore under his breath.

He raised all four arms to block the blade's swing with the shafts of his scythes. It didn't work. Kusanagi, instead of being fended off by a web of poles, hacked through three of his arms. It sliced through one at the wrist and the other two at different points on his forearms, removing them cleanly. The fourth got away with a small but comparatively insignificant flesh wound.

Three arcs of red painted the ground.

The dismembered hands didn't give up their grip on the scythes even as they landed and scattered on the floor.

He backed off, teeth gritted. He braced his last remaining scythe across the front of him with two of the three arms he had left. Blood dripped freely from the freshly cleaved flesh, but he ignored it. Instead of losing the shreds of calm he was holding on to, he smirked, raising his free hand to fire a bala at the sword. He wasn't sure if it would work to knock it away or even affect its position, but it was worth a shot.

He was hardly going to let a few severed arms stop him retaliating.

Edited 2012-08-20 21:25 (UTC)

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If he wants a fight, well now he's got one

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