Kaz vs the Hollow (Stratus)

It was the weekend, and Kaz was glad. The weekends gave him more time to train, meditate, and relax. Today, he decided to go to the park and meditate by the lake there. The lake was alittle off from the main area of the park, and the area he was meditating in was even more secluded, trees and large bushes blocking the view from the closest walkway. It was still chilly out this morning, but even if it wasn't, he would have worn his hoodie anyways.

He sat with his legs crossed, his hands opened, but relaxed, and palms facing upwards. His hoodie and gloves were off now, as was his shirt. They sat a few feet away, neatly folded and resting under a tree. His mind was clear, and he was completely focused on his powers. Around him the air seems to shimmer and swirl. Then, without warning, dark blue stands of 'electricity' began to arc across his body. Some of these. He was drawing in the energy around him as he meditated, causing dark blue strands of energy to swirl around him like storm clouds. The number of energy strands continued to grow, and combine, giving the appearance of a small hurricane, barely an inch off the ground. Kaz sat in the center of this energy maelstrom's 'eye', unaware of his appearance, as he focused solely on gaining more control of his powers.

The streets flew beneath him as Stratus jumped from building to building. There was very little tasty prey that night. The dawn had already broken over the city. He had found a few wondering souls, but hardly enough to fill him. The quantity wasn't the issue, it was the quality. The stronger the signal he sensed usually guaranteed better taste. He recalled fondly the first shinigami he devoured. It was a something he couldn't forget. But the risk was too high, if he killed too many, they would send more and he could get overwhelmed. He opened his senses further, seeking more prey for his belly.
There was a sudden surge; a large signal. It felt human, but the signal it emitted didn't almost like a shinigami. He grinned, "Feels interesting."

He moved toward the source while suppressing his own signal. Soon he could see trees. It was some kind of park in the middle of the city. Stratus was used to living in a forest, so it was a welcome sight. He leap clear of the building and landed in a tree. The signal was very close now. He hopped from branch to branch slowly. He had seen a small lake not far into the park grounds. There were the occasional jogger on the path, but he let them go. He wanted to see what was making the signal he was sensing. The trees thinned slightly and he saw the lake. Not much unlike the one he used in his forest territory. At the lake's edge he saw a figure sitting, but something was strange. The person's body was glowing blue. At first the sight alarmed him, but for some reason it made the person seem all the more tasty. He was behind the person were they sat. If he was quick enough he could surprise them and have a fine meal. Stratus jumped to a tree closer to his new found target. Whatever that light was something told him to be wary of it. It wasn't natural for people to glow that was common knowledge. It was instinct, and Stratus was starting to trust his instincts.

Kaz's eyes opened slowly, and a smile crept onto his face. This was the highest he had ever taken his energy, and it wasn't hurting him. He stood up slowly, and confidently. He was at his peak right now and he knew it. He looked down at the energy storming around him and his smile grew. "Finaly," he thought outloud, "Finaly I'm getting better control. Now then lets see what i can do." He closed his fists and took a fightning stance. As soon as he was in position he said, "Jimmu". The moment he said that word the energy around him flashed a blinding white, and in that instance, it all dissappeared. In its place, around his legs (from the knee down) and arms (From the elbow down), a Dark blue energy 'armor' appeared, pulsing with power.

He began preforming his katas, punching and kicking the air in front of him. Then he stopped and turned around. He began to walk towards his stuff under the tree when he happened to glance upwards. "OH! crap Hollow!!!!" he said shocked at what he saw. the shock only lasted a second though, as he quickly jumped back several feet.

Stratus growled at his own stupidity. While he had masked his own signal, he had forgotten that shinigami and souls could in fact see him. He has been so accustomed to hunting the regular humans that couldn't see him at all. The person before him spotted him easy enough, so he must be on par with the black clad warriors. Another possible threat before him, he knew he could flee, or work for his meal. The young man jumped backwards ready to fight. Curiosity got the better of him; he wanted to see what all he could do. And he wanted to see if he was strong enough to handle it. Running away would only lead to more running. It was best to confront this one head on.
"Well that's a shame boyo," He speaks, his voice a deep snarl. "I thought to make it nice and quick. Shame that."

He catapults off the tree branch to the ground. "If you want make it easy on yourself, just lie down and get eaten like a good boy." Stratus only talks to make the man drop his guard. And to also shift the attention away from his hands. In a fluid motion he fires a strand of sticky fluid and whips it at the man's legs hoping to entangle them.

"Never let your guard down. Don't let yourself be easily distracted by words or flashy movements. Stay focused on your enemy, always be prepared for an attack." His grandfathers words echoed in his head as the hollow talked. He watched the hollow's every movement. Watched as the hollow secreted a strange substance from its hands. Kaz grinned, his training had taught him not to be distracted easily, and he saw the attack coming. Jumping and rolling to the side, he dodged the attack. As soon as his feet hit the ground after the roll, he charged his opponent. He leaped into the air in a flying kick aimed at the hollows head.

"Well done boy." This was genuine praise, he would think anyone facing a monster would balk. At the same time he felt some annoyance that the ploy didn't work. The human was quick on his feet. As the man came flying at him he dodged just enough for the kick to send him flying past. The person's feet and hands still had that glow about them. He could have blocked the kick with his hands, but he was unsure of this man's power. Was it protective or destructive? How was he going to defeat an enemy he was afraid to touch? He put on a strong front. "Sloppy work boyo." Stratus curled his claws upon is hand, and launched two softball sized balls of sticky green slime at the young man, followed by two more.

Kaz's foot impacted with the tree behind the hollow when it dodged the attack. A kick like that would normally just break off some of the tree's bark. But when kaz's kick landed a large chunk exploded outwards from the side of the tree. Kaz used what was left of his momentum to turn in the air and land faceing his opponent. Just in time to see the first attack, he ducked under the balls of goo, and dodged one from the second attack. The one he didn't dodge, he punched with his left fist. The 'goo' engulfed his left hand to the wrist. Kaz looked down at his hand, a puzzled look on his face. "What the hell..." he asked as he tried to shake the goo off his hand, to no avail.

He looked back up at his opponent, "Whats the matter, can't fight like a man? You have to rely on childish tactics to get your prey?" he said in a light tone. "Or are you just that much of a coward that you can't fight me straight up? How about you try hitting me with that again?" he asked the hollow, his eyes narrowing, his voice serious now, as he stood back in his fighting stance.

Kaz's stance was slightly different this time, his feet were positioned different, his arms and hands were further apart. His 'goo' has a high concentration of energy in it, I wonder if i could use that to my advantage he thought as he began to gather in a massive amount of energy from not only the goo, but the area around him as well. Good thing there is no one around here that I could hurt with this attack he thought. The energy around him began to flow directly to his hands.

"As you can see I'm not a man." The hollow chuckled, he flexed his claws menacingly. "But you speak of tricks. What about yours?" He gestured to the shattered tree trunk. "You call me a coward, but I'm no fool. I nothing like those little hollows you might have faced, boyo." Stratus felt a change in the man's signal, it was getting stronger. Does that mean the person is getting stronger as well? "But I'll take you on your offer, let's do this 'straight up' as you say." He opens his hands wide before him and releases a wide spray of goo. The sheet of slime is big enough to cover the human. Stratus readies himself, if the man dodges he'll intercept him on either side.

"Idiot" he said and smiled. He had all the energy he needed and he was going to show this hollow, that he was like nothing its ever faced before. He moved fast, not dodging, but instead charging in towards the attack. The energy he was gathering formed two basketball sized spheres in each hand, dispersing the goo from his left hand. He stopped just a foot short of intercepting the attack and brought his hands, and the spheres, together. "KIYOSHI IKARI" He shouted as he released the attack.

A cone shape blast of searing dark blue energy erupted from his hands. It collided with the strange goo and vaporized it, the ground and anything that got in its path, and continued towards the hollow at lightning fast speeds.

OOC: Figured you might do that, too bad Stratus didn't

The burst of energy comes straight at Stratus. The sudden light makes him stumble back and fall into the water as the beam vaporizes the area. The wave hits the water and releases steaming vapor into the air, and heats the rest of the lake. Dead water creatures float to the lake's surface. From beneath the water Stratus is amazed the human can produce such a powerful attack. He swims a bit of a distance from where he entered the waters and climbs out. Sudden pain spreads across his body. The wave had scorched him after all, but the waters had soothed the pain. He looks at the burn like patterns upon his body in surprise. Rage overpowers the shock and pain, a roar rips through the hollow and the air trembles with spiritual power unknown to him.

He jumps to the forest's edge, and with a single hand rips a tree off it's roots. He tosses it the young man. His other hand grabs another tree and does the same. Even as the two tree missiles fly at the target of his fury, another one follows. He tosses tree after tree at him.

Kaz didn't move for a few seconds after his attack. His body was sore, his hands and chest were burnt and scorched. But, his attack had worked the hollow was gone. His arms dropped to his side, a small stream of blood dripping from each, as he turned to walk away. He knew he should be more careful when using that attack, but it needed to be done, so he was satisfied with himself.

The Hollow's roar shook him to the very bone. He spun around quickly, just to see the hollow ripping trees from the ground and hurling them at him. He ducked under the first one. But, just as he came up, the second hit him in the chest, sending him flying back. The tree behind him stopped his flight, sending the air from his lungs, as he fell to his knees. He rolled under the first, but the second of the next volley pinned his right arm to the ground. Stunned for a brief second, Kaz struggled to get his arm out from under the tree, but to no avail. "DAMMIT!!" he cursed, trying harder to get his hand free, as panic started to set in.

He continued to struggle, panic gripping his heart like a vice. Suddenly he stopped moving, What the hell am I doing?!, he thought, closing his eyes. He clammed his mind, forcing the panic away. He began to gather and focus energy, His 'Jimmu's' glow beginning to fade.

The object of his rage fell out of sight, but that did little to quell the fury. Instead he started to tear more trees from the ground and toss them about wildly. Those trees he could not uproot he merely slashed to ribbons with his claws. The scent of humans reached him; the rage quieted and gave way to hunger. He sprung from the lake side towards the more populated part of the park. He landed inside a throng of people invisible to the non-spiritually aware humans. There was a scream as a woman saw the man next to her suddenly become a bloody stump. More screams as the invisible predator tore a bloody swath through the crowd. The people panicked, they tried to flee but only hindered the escape of others. He jumped from place to place eating them; a bitten head, a torn off arm, the humans were being mutilated. They didn't know which way the attacks were coming from, nowhere was safe. Several trees were knocked down cutting off the obvious avenues of escape. Some just gave up fleeing and fell to their knees crying in despair.

The screams of the others broke his concentration. "no" He muttered, struggleing to free himself. Somthing inside him began to stir, something that fueled his power, pushing it to new heights. This rage filled him, his concentration and control both breaking under the tidal wave of fury. His heartrate accelerated, as rage fueled adrenalin pumped through his veins.

At first nothing happened, the air around him was deathly still, the screams of the humans flooding his thoughts. The a faint blue aura began to radiate from him, barely visible to the spiritualy touched eyes.

"No....Must defend...must protect....no....No.." He rambled incoherently.
"Must...Stop...Him...No....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" the roar could be heard a good distance away. His aura exploded outward when the roar left his lungs. Pushing everything around him away for several feet.

His aura was like a dark blue flame, blazing out of control. On his skin, glowing blue lines wove their way all over his body. His Jimmu had reformed, its glow more disturbing then before. Dark blue arcs of energy moved about his body light lightning. But something was glowing bright than the lines, the 'armor', and the aura, His eyes. His actual eyes couldn't be seen behind the energy that blazed out of them.

And just like it formed, the aura and energy 'leaking' from his body vanished. All except for the jimmu, and his eyes. He moved fast, stopping only for a fraction of a second to locate the target of his retribution. His fury and rage swelling as seeing the bodied of the innocent strewn about. His rage being fueled even more, his Jimmu began to give off a smoke-like mist of energy. His eyes landed on his target, as it moved to its next victim. Kaz moved quickly, but he moved silently, approaching the hollow from behind. He struck first, forcing his power through his fist, intending to blow another hole through the hollows back to its stomach.



((OOC note: I'll use this post as his first step towards a new technique..))

OOC: Glad I could help I'll keep pushing you then.

The strike lands cleanly on the hollow's back, but rather blow a hole through the creature it knocks him into the air and several feet away. The short flight ends with a crash that takes out afew trees and a park bench. The ambush had come mid-attack of a poor human sending it's blood spraying everywhere. The blow had stunned the creature, it had enjoyed ripping though the weak humans. The hollow hopped back to it's feet, it's back smoldering where it had been hit. It screamed again and it's reiatsu increased. The air became denser around it, those people still alive started to suffer breathing problems or fainted. Stratus dug his hands and pulled the stone sidewalk free from the ground and tossed it like a frisbee.

After his blow landed, and the hollow flew through the air, Kaz stood still for a moment. He stared in the direction of what was left of the young woman that the hollow just attacked. Her body was slumped on the ground, still bleeding. But Kaz wasn't staring at the body. His gaze was locked on a small boy, who was shaking the corpse screaming for her to get up. Kaz's heart stopped for a moment. He walked slowly to the boy, and put his hand on the child's shoulder. "I'm sorry" he said, placing himself between the hollow and the boy.

Kaz charged the creature when it tore the sidewalk from the ground. As the concrete 'frisbee' flew towards him, He channeled a large amount of energy into his fist. At the last second he punched the concrete sending his stored up energy into it, shattering it into dust. He continued his charge, unintimidated. Upon getting within range of the hollow he swung a punch, deliberately leaving himself open.

(OOC: This mindless rage gives me fewer options, but simple is effective)

The beast is taken aback by destruction of the sidewalk slab. A scream of fury rips from it's mouth. It grabs a tree and snaps it in two. Holding the trunk he points the jagged end at the enemy. Now armed it swings the weapon down the charging human.

The attack came so fast that he barely had enough time to react. He rolled, but the sheer impact of the blow was like a small bomb going off, sending him flying several feet into the air. He hit the ground hard, unable to break the fall, and rolling a few times before coming to a stop, face down.

Kaz couldn't move, his body was nearing its limit and he knew it. there has to be some way to beat this monster.. he thought trying his best to ignore the pain screaming through his body. Kaz slowly got to his knees, he was facing away from his opponent he realized. But, before he could attempt to turn, sporadic blood filled coughing forced him to curl into a fetal position. Shit...if he attacks me like this I'm a goner, he thought, the coughing subsiding alittle. WAIT...THATS IT!!! the thought burst into his mind like a small atom bomb. He brought his hands infront of his body. Concetrating he focused, and gathered as much energy as he could, channeling it all into his hands. Two small orbs formed, one in each hand, barly the size of a marble, but they let off nearly no light. Perfect, if i keep the energy stored till the last second....maybe i'll have a chance.. he knew he could do this, because he had too.

Kaz stood slowly, his fists clenched at his side. He turned to face the hollow, His jimmu flickering, its energy slowly fading. "Comon, monster. finish me with your bare hands. Unless your too much of a coward." He said putting tremendous emphisis on the last word.


((OOC: Not wanting to die here, just trying to wrap this up lol))

OOC: Fair enough, let's see where the dice shall fall.

The creature didn't know how to retreat, move forward. Strategy and plans were too complex ideas, it only knew to destroy and feed. Most hollows when formed are of a similar state. But for Stratus it was quite like a berserk rage, his latent reiryoku pulsed, but his mind was too primal to do anything other and make utter destruction. For the human to stand up after it's attacks only made the fire burn brighter. The human must die, all humans die, and he would eat the flesh. As he knocked the human back with his makeshift club it howled in glee. Unlike the rock slab the blow had hit, and so he pressed the assault. Stratus rushed forward with the tree branch over it's head to strike the human again.

Kaz was alittle shocked at the hollow's reaction. His plan had worked, only too well. He didn't expect the hollow to use the tree again. So much for my original plan....so plan B.... he thought, standing his ground. He turned to his left, bringing his right arm up, and opening his right fist. He transfered all the stored energy, and the energy in his left hand, to the now raise hand. The small marble sized energy sphere increased in size nearly instantly, getting about the size of a bowling ball. The energy sphere gave off a near blinding light.

He continued to gather any and all the energy he could into this attack. Whether it worked or not, He knew he couldn't continue fighting like this. "KIYOSHI IKARI" he said, the hollow nearly ontop of him. The blast that he unleashed was brighter, and stronger than any he had ever unleashed before, but the backlash was worse as well.
He was knocked back several feet, landing hard, and sliding to a stop next to the boy he was trying to protect. He got up to his hands and knees, slowly, his whole body trembeling from pain and exhaustion. The entire right side of his body was smoking, several fresh and deep burns in his flesh. He stared at the now smoking crater where the hollow was before, waiting to see if his attack had worked.

Waking up in pain is never a good thing. In most cases it leads to regrets of your actions, but when you don't remember your actions it only leads to questions. Stratus woke some feet away from large crater his body smoking flat on his back. He recalled fighting the human and falling into the water, but the rest was a white blank. Stratus raised his head and looked around. There were bodies everywhere blood and destruction all around him. The pain shot through his body again, his face, his arm and his body all hurt. He tried to sit up and the pain in his right hand intensified. Bearing with the pain he got into a sitting position and looked down at his hand. Or for that matter what was left of it. His hand and part of his forearm was completely charred. The skin burned like it had been left over a fire for way too long. As he looked down there were similar burn marks all over his body. Seeing the wounds made them feel worse. He grimaced and there was a sharp pain across his face. With his still working left hand he felt his mask. Although it was bone he could feel the rough texture from the burn that now covered it. The smoke was slowly clearing and he could see the human on the other side of the crater. Not one to tempt fate Stratus jumped to his feet. His lower body had escaped harm it seem, the upper torso and face had sustained the most damage. "We'll call this a draw little man, but I will have my vengeance." he growled. Using his slime he fastened his damaged arm against his body. He then jumped through the trees and away from the park. He would rest in the forest and try to heal up. He didn't expect such a power from a tiny human. He would be more careful in the future, it seemed there were more dangers for hollows than he expected.

Kaz watched as the hollow retreated. Once it was out of sight he collapsed to the ground, the pain overwhelming him. He couldn't move, could barely breath, and his whole body felt like it was burning, not to mention that he had pushed himself beyond his limits. He stay there, not moving for several minutes. It took him tremendous effort to stand, his whole body trembled and shuddered from pain and exhaustion. He could hear sirens approaching, although they were still a ways out, he know he had to get out of this area. But first, he had something to do. He walked over to the small boy, and knelt down. "Don't worry, your safe now." he said softly, patting the boy on the head before standing back up. I will hunt you down, Hollow, and make you pay for all those you slaughtered tonight.... he thought walking slowly back to his apartment.

((OOC: End of this thread))