Secret Underground Lab (Ryouta only) but non-vizard training thread

Capt. Ayame Ryouta stepped out into the massive underground chamber that was his favorite place in all of Soul Society. Here was where he was truly free to do all the research that his intrepid spirit longed to do, but was sometimes forbidden from doing by the law. Today however, he was using his lab as a training ground, as well as eliminating the last few traces of his Hollowfication experiments from the lab. How? Why, by doing battle with the applicable Hollow-creatures he had created throughout his research process!

Ryouta entered the area of his lab that was essentially a giant kido shield. "Please insert specimen 1," he said aloud.

"Affirmative," said a female computerized voice.

A mechanical arm descended from the ceiling and plucked one of the floating chambers of fluid from its stand before lowering it into the force field, which closed fully after the arm left. Ryouta looked at the being within the tube apprehensively. It was vaguely humanoid, but very...tentacley. It's Hollow mask covered its face, but had tentacles coming out from the sides of it. Its arms were muscular, but instead of hands it had tentacles that had suckers on each one. Technically, it was dangerous to fight such a thing, especially since Ryouta had no idea what its powers were. Still...no time like the present. He pressed his hand to the tube, unlocking it and spilling fluid and the creature onto the floor.

An impressive spiritual pressure emanated from the beast as it stood to glare at him and roar unintelligibly. Ryouta attacked by aiming a vertical slash directly at the creature's head. Its hand-tentacles moved up impossibly fast, seeming to stretch out as they did so. They wrapped around Ryouta's blade easily, as if impervious to the sharpness. Try as he might, Ryouta could not tug his blade loose. And then, the tentacles hanging from the creature's mask reached out for Ryouta's face. He had to act quickly. "Weep, Reifujin Arashi!" His blade quickly dissolved to water, and Ryouta was able to flash step backward to avoid the creature's deadly tentacles.

Ryouta of course had no intention of allowing this creature to get its tentacles on him. It might be interesting to find out...but he did have so many other experiments to hack his way through...and curiosity did kill the cat. Instead, Ryouta directed blades of pressurized water towards the creature. It roared and flung its tentacles out. Some of them took the pressurized blades head on, and seemed to take no damage at all, others appeared to gather Balas at their tips with which to counter the blades. The water just split into droplets harmlessly to the sides of the monster. Undeterred, Ryouta tried a heat-based approach and sent clouds of superheated steam towards the beast, obscuring it for a few instants- Ryouta only just managed to dodge as a Cero ripped through the opaque mist.

Even given his skill at flash stepping, Ryouta noted with displeasure that the Cero had burned through a bit of his haori and Shinigami's robe, specifically the left sleeve. The steam appeared to have done a little more than the water had, as the creature was now an angry red color and covered with burns, but it still appeared more than willing to fight. This time, it charged him, flailing its tentacles at him. Ryouta responded by hurling icy daggers at the beast, some of which penetrated a little, but many more simply bounced off its rubbery skin. Obviously, this thing could not be beaten by his conventional fighting style.

Still, Ryouta had a couple more things to try before he did anything drastic like Bankai. But first, he would have to avoid the tentacles that were coming at him from every conceivable angle. It was only through skillful use of flash stepping that he managed to dodge every tentacle that aimed at him. "Bakudo no Rokujuichi: Rikujukoro!" From his left hand six beams of light took the creature in its midriff, forcibly restraining it. "Aisu Kan'oke," Ryouta said. Even though his previous attacks had failed, they had left a good deal of moisture on the floor...which the creature happened to be stepping in. Now, the liquid rose in claw- and fang-like shapes around the squirming monster until it was completely covered, and then it froze.

Ryouta flash stepped forward, a blade of ice forming in his hand as he did so. With a mighty slash, he shattered the ice and the beast within it. "Whew...that was a workout. I'm surprised my experiments are so strong..." he congratulated himself. "I can't wait to fight the next few."

"Please insert specimen 2," Ryouta commanded.

"Affirmative," replied the female computerized voice.

A mechanical arm again descended from the ceiling and plucked one of the floating chambers of fluid from its stand before lowering it into the force field, which closed fully after the arm left. Ryouta examined the creature within critically. This one was also humanoid, but was much more burly than the last creature had been. It was covered in a shaggy fur, and its mask did not cover all of its face- only the top half. The rest was an oversized square jaw that had enormous tusks jutting from it that looked sharp and strong enough to split steel. With arguably reckless abandon, Ryouta pressed his hand to the capsule, releasing the creature within.

It stood up, towering over Ryouta by a good three feet, dripping with capsule fluid. It roared aggressively and reached out a massive clawed hand to grab Ryouta. Ryouta's ice blade flicked up, and the tip sliced across the creature's giant palm a grand total of six times as Ryouta sidestepped the attack. The creature's palm continued toward the ground and struck it, seemingly oblivious to the pain of the six deep gashes in its enormous hand. As its hand struck the ground, Ryouta felt the earth tremble beneath him; he stumbled for an instant.

In that instant, the creature's other arm lashed out and struck Ryouta in the midriff, sending him flying across the chamber and into the kido force field. The pain of hitting it was excruciating, but somehow Ryouta gritted his teeth and pulled himself off it. He looked up to see the creature barreling toward him in an attempt to gore him with its huge tusks. Ryouta brought his left hand palm up, creating a wall of ice in front of the creature in a split second. The creature smashed through it like it was no problem. Astounded, Ryouta created a wall twice as thick, and again, the creature smashed right through it. Dumbfounded, Ryouta was forced to flash step behind the running beast, striking it across the chest as he did so. However, as the length of his blade hit the creature, the hilt was nearly torn from his hand as the blade bit in slightly, but then shattered.

Incredible...nothing has ever broken my ice blade before, thought Ryouta. With a gesture, he reformed the ice blade. "Aisu Kan'oke," Ryouta said again. Once more, water rose from the ground, and then covered the beast, freezing it in a block of ice. Ryouta flash stepped again, intent on shattering this foe as he had the previous one.

As his blade hit the ice, the ice shattered as it gave way. However, as soon as Ryouta's blade hit the creature, it again broke. Not only that, but it seemed to provide a stimulus enough to cause the beast to break free of its frozen prison. It turned to strike at Ryouta with its tusks as Ryouta flew past. Ryouta desperately tried to reform his blade to block the strike, and was successfully able to form it in time- for the tusk to cut through it as if it were butter and slice across Ryouta's chest, again sending him flying, though not into the kido force field this time.

He stood with some difficulty; something was wrong. Perhaps there was venom in those tusks, something like a neurotoxin that was affecting his peripheral nervous system. Ryouta would have to end this quickly, or he might die. "Hado no Sanjuichi: Shakkaho!" He sent a ball of red fire the size of a three wrecking balls right at the monster. The fireball struck hard, sending the creature reeling back. It roared in pain. So fire was its weakness, or perhaps heat. Well, it was like a Hollow it pretty much all respects, except it had started life as a creature from Soul Society. Perhaps that Hollow-tailored kido spell would be effective.

"Hado#71: Sunburst!" From Ryouta's outstretched hand, a wave of intense light shot out, enveloping the beast and everything behind it. Ryouta felt it begin to disintegrate under the power of the spell; yes, it was working. In 5 seconds, the creature was nothing but a pile of smoldering ash. He breathed a sigh of relief. That creature had been very powerful. He was almost dreading fighting the next. Perhaps he should rest before the next.

"Computer, please deactivate the kido force field and provide me with medical attention..." Ryouta said.

"Affirmative."

The previous specimen's neurotoxin had been more potent than Ryouta had initially thought; it had taken an hour for his body to be completely flushed of it. He could only imagine how powerful the next one might be. "Insert Specimen 3," Ryouta commanded.

"Affirmative." A mechanical arm again descended from the ceiling and plucked one of the floating chambers of fluid from its stand before lowering it into the force field, which closed fully after the arm left. Inside was a humanoid creature, fairly slim, and actually of very similar body type to Ryouta. Its face was the strangest part, completely blank; which isn't to say it had no facial features, merely, its face was completely composed and without emotion.That is to say, the Hollow mask was like a human face. The rest of its body was relatively human, except for strange knobs that ran down its arms, legs, and back, as well as a pair on its forehead.

The tube opened, and the creature stepped out. It looked at Ryouta for a good minute. Strangely, though Ryouta could feel a sort of Hollow-esque reiatsu from it, it did not seem as impressive as either of the two specimens he had just fought. Still..."Weep, Reifujin Arashi." It didn't hurt to be cautious. Ryouta carelessly formed the ice blade and had a curtain of protective water surround him as he approached this strange specimen.

As he approached, the creature merely stared at him. When he got within five feet of it, its mouth opened, as if to speak, but no sound escaped. Instead it also lifted a hand and extended it toward Ryouta; where its hand touched the water, the water turned dense and flexed, not allowing it through. Ryouta could feel the creature pressing harder, and he continued to not allow it entry. Then, from the knobs in its body, spikes protruded, and all of a sudden, Ryouta could feel the power of this monster. It drew back its hand to pierce Ryouta's bubble. In an instant, Ryouta could tell that it would be able to, and so flash stepped away in time to see his bubble of water pierced as if it was nothing.

"Kyuugeki Kasumi," said Ryouta. Instantly, the entire area was filled with a cold mist that basically was composed of Ryouta's reiatsu. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to tell exactly where he was. However, Ryouta could tell wherever this creature was easily. Then he felt danger- Ryouta flash stepped away just in time to avoid getting speared by one of the creatures spines. Simple as the attack may have been, Ryouta did notice one thing that seriously worried him; the spine, and others now, he could sense, were sticking in the kido barrier. Sticking in. That meant they were extremely dangerous, as no other attacks, not even Ryouta's own, had ever been capable of doing that.

This was going to be a very dangerous fight. Ryouta could now feel more spines coming at him, he was forced to flash step away again. This time more spines had headed toward him than in any other direction; in fact, he was fairly certain they had all come for him. How was the creature detecting his position? And then Ryouta noticed that the spines had formed trails through his mist, trails of empty space that, try as he might, Ryouta could not refill with mist. This was not good. Perhaps he could try for a Senka maneuver.

Ryouta did precisely that, appearing behind the creature and lashing out with his frozen blade. His blade cut two thin lines of red across the creatures back. The positioning of the knobs, and perhaps something about their glossy quality had caused his blade to slip and inflict superficial damage. Not only that, but in response, the knobs touched fired out spines. Ryouta twisted his body as fast as he could to avoid the spines, but failed. Two pierced his sides and ripped completely through, and another pierced his left shoulder and remained lodged between his shoulder and clavicle.

Ryouta cursed and flash stepped away. His left arm was now almost entirely useless. With an angry gesture, he sent a torrent of pure water toward the creature, enveloping it in dense liquid, splattering the ground all over. In a previous fight, Ryouta had used this exact same technique to restrain his opponent. He could feel the creature straining against it- then, SPLOOSH! It ripped through the binding with brute strength, splashing water everywhere.

"Aisu Kan'oke!" shouted Ryouta. This was no time for subtlety. This thing was the strongest thing yet, and so far, had proved itself to be deceptively powerful. Ice began to wrap itself around the creature, which slowly and methodically began to break it apart. That was fine, so long as it stayed in one place. "Senpuku no Tategami!" A lion's mouth appeared around Ryouta's foe and opened; lethally sharp fangs of ice formed, and then slammed shut, piercing through the creatures torso a dozen times. Its body hung there grotesquely for a few moments before it bled too much to remain alive, and dissolved away.

Ryouta fell to his knees. "Computer... ... ... medical... ... attention." He blacked out.