Fighting for No Reason. Unusual? Yes. (Open)

The dragon Hollow had vanished from both view and reiatsu-sensing the moment his kido spell had hit the ground. Masaru, however, wasn't convinced. He gestured with his hand to cancel his current Hado spell, and listened carefully for any sign of what had occurred. One good thing about Masaru's bestial shape was that it greatly improved two of his senses, namely hearing and scent. Now he was trying to detect anything unusual without the distraction of the drops of rain.

Masaru thought he heard the dragon Hollow's voice, but it spoke so softly, and with such a sibilant hiss of a whisper that he could not detect exactly what direction it was coming from. The fur on the back of his neck began to rise; he was growing uneasy. In a moment, though, his fears seemed unfounded, as the dragon Hollow appeared out of the shadows. Masaru's eyes squinted in quiet assessment of the dragon Hollow's words.

"I don't think so," said Masaru equally mildly. "After all, I managed to turn a disadvantageous situation around in a novel way, didn't I?" Masaru paused for a moment, running through what had already happened in the battle. And then he thought of something. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat!" The incantation was one he had used already, but this was an incantation that worked with two different spells- this one would be the other instead of the first. Masaru hoped to catch the dragon Hollow off-guard in this way. As he spoke the words, he drew nearer to the dragon, his shield and sword held at the ready in case it decided to spew more of that acid. When he judged the distance between him and the dragon Hollow satisfactory, he uttered, "Bakudo#9: Geki!"

A pillar of red light came down from the sky to cover the dragon Hollow. It was a spell that paralyzed the thing inside the pillar; Masaru thought it should work extremely well, especially since he had recited the full incantation. Hopefully it would buy him the less than 3 seconds of time he needed. Even as he uttered the spell, he leaped into the air. "Bakudo#6: Totte" he said as he struck down at the dragon Hollow's mask, to ensure that the blow would not tear his sword from his grasp.

“Hence why I said great improvisation.” Masaru paused for a second formulating a plan, at least Holland thought so. Taking the time to build up his Maguma no Kemuri in the back of his throat. It was always useful to have an attack ready at a moments notice. Masaru said the incantation to another spell, Holland remembered it to be the shield, said shield appearing on his arm. His Maguma no Kemuri was no starting to build up in his mouth, thankfully hallows didn’t have a gag reflex because his entire throat was filled with his lava like attack. Masaru continued his charge, his mouth was about to over flow with the built up liquid poison.

Masaru started to say another spell and Holland shot out his large amount of liquid poison. Holland had coughed it out making it spread over a wider surface area, some landing in front of him and some being sent far out. At the same time a red light engulfed him and paralyzed him.

Masaru had the shield to protect him from the main effects of the poison, but the fumes might get to him. Holland also felt the other hallow come out of it’s hiding place. It was charging full speed, but would take at least 8 seconds to arrive.

Masaru grunted in relief as the acid struck his shield, spraying away from him; the fumes made him gag, seemed to make the world spin a little. But it was too late, he was in the air, his sword raised high, his lips already having formed the words of his kido spell and uttered them. He could only try to fight through the fact that he kept seeing double and triple images of the dragon Hollow's head as he fell toward it. This was dangerous. He closed his eyes to blot out the unhelpful sight they granted, focused on the source of the vile Hollow reiatsu and slashed down with his sword, seeing in his mind's eye his blade splitting his intended target.

He thought he felt his sword bite into flesh, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he hit the ground again. Relief that was shortlived, as the moment he hit the ground, another force, another spiritual pressure struck him from the side, sending the pair rolling across the ground, narrowly missing piles of acid as they rolled. They finally came to a halt with the cat-like Hollow attempting to slash at Masaru while he struggled to keep its claws at bay. "Hado#1: Sho!" His spell launched the cat Hollow into the air. Quick as lightning, Masaru stood and slashed out. The cat Hollow stood no chance against his mighty nodachi; he bifurcated it in single stroke as it fell helplessly from the air.

Masaru turned his gaze back to the dragon Hollow. He couldn't tell if he had done damage- the blood on his blade might very well be a mixture of his own and the cat Hollow's. The fumes from the pools of acid around the dragon Hollow produced a heat mirage ish effect, blurring view of the dragon Hollow, even if Masaru wasn't directly smelling it.

Seeing the acid hit Masaru’s shield was a small comfort to Holland. Masaru was already within a decent striking distance and would continue on his decent towards his unprotected self. The distance closed and Masaru was still bearing down on him, then he slashed and he felt nothing for a second. The other hallow he had manipulated into helping him tackled Masaru aside, but he didn’t watch. His attention was on the line that went down his mask.

His yellow eyes raged back and forth in their sockets as they traced the line clear from top to bottom of his mask right along his right eye. He still felt no pain. Then the lesser part of his mask shifted and then disappeared in a flash. The pain only lasted for a second along with the flash, but it was a pain like no other. The spell keeping him immobile had faded and he reared up in the air like a wild horse and let loose a deafening roar.

Landing back down on all fours he starred at Masaru in contempt. “If we meet each other again, be prepared for payback.” Holland’s gravely voice was quiet, but each word spoken could be practically felt in the air. Holland knew that Masaru wouldn’t attack him through the fumes of noxious gas for if he did he’d be wide open to any number of attacks made by Holland. So he waited for the aggravating shinigami’s response.

As the dragon Hollow reared up into the air and roared, Masaru caught a glimpse of the relatively small wound he had managed to inflict on the dragon Hollow. It was by no means fatal, but it certainly sounded painful. The dragon Hollow's next words were quiet, but Masaru took them in gravely. "You speak as if our battle is over, Hollow," Masaru said. "But I was not under the impression that you were quite dead yet. Allow me to rectify that problem."

Masaru definitely wasn't going to go charging into those fumes- that was suicide. Instead, he would have to force the dragon Hollow out. "Hado#4: Byakurai!" He fired several shots of lightning at the dragon Hollow, the majority of them aimed low in an attempt to get the dragon Hollow to take flight and engage Masaru on his own terms.

“I am quite through with our fight shinigami.” Holland’s voice held an angry sneer in it. Taking flight into the air he shot straight up and backed away from Masaru. Once he thought that he was a significant distance away he stopped and looked back towards Masaru. The lightning like attack having torn up the ground where he was a moment ago.

“I have learned more about the shinigami than I have ever before and I thank you Arata, but I am leaving.” His voice held no joke. “You can chase me as long as you want I don’t care, but you will eventually give up. Do not fret though, I predict we will both meet again some time soon.” Holland’s voice now held something akin to forced humor.

Masaru gritted his teeth in anger. He knew that if the Hollow took off, there was no way he could catch it. He also realized that he did not know any kido spells capable of preventing the Hollow from leaving. "Yes, Hollow, we will meet again, that I am sure of. I will not chase you- it would only be a waste of time and effort. Before we part ways, I would like to request something from you. Do you have a name? I would like to know the name of the first Hollow I have ever encountered of intelligence."

Masaru had to admit, he had a grudging respect for this Hollow. It was smart, and certainly knew how to hold its own in a fight. And also...Masaru couldn't shake the feeling of, not quite kinship, but something similar to what he imagined Hollow existence must be like.

Smirking “Holland is my name Masaru.” This shinigami would be interesting to meet again when they both got stronger, if they survived.

“Fare well shinigami.” With that Holland turned around beat his dark wings once to rise into the air and then shot at a down and away angle to pick up speed. Houses came up to meet his rapid decent and he leveled out house streets a mere blur only feet below him.