A Desert Duel (Open, no death)

Raizen ran, leaving the twin white rocks and the bodies of the Hollows he had killed and then devoured. What was left of their bodies, anyways. He moved as fast as he could, not feeling like he wanted to be around once Hollows that were stronger than he arrived at the rocks. That could be disastrous for him, since he didn't feel like dying anytime soon. He moved quickly, eating up miles at a fairly fast pace. Which was good, considering that other Hollows heading in the direction of the white rocks probably wouldn't be able to keep up with him. Up ahead, he saw a single tree and a large circle of rocks around it, and made his way towards it, trying to make it to cover to decrease his chances of being seen by another Hollow even more. He reached the rocks and slid into hiding, allowing himself a grin of victory.

"The only way I could be better hidden is if I were invisible!" he whispered triumphantly, and then he turned around and stared at the tree in front of him. Dead and bare of anything, it was starkly white. Just like anything else in Hueco Mundo. Raizen had managed to escape from his battle with the other Hollows unscathed, but had drawn the attention of those stronger than him, something he had been trying to avoid. Even though he was no longer weakened because of hunger, if he was spotted, he could still be killed in his recovering state. So, Raizen waited, ready to face anything and anyone who came across him. Ready to feed even more than he had before.

Spoiler:

As he waited, he didn't realize he was already surrounded. It was a hunt. Stratus, Moldale, Rei, and Roun worked together to feed upon the many hollows that wandered the sands. Usually the other two would burrow under the ground while Stratus lured out whatever though him an easy target. Of late he was the spotter, he would expand his senses and pick up on any weaker powers he might find. When you can't find quality prey, it was best to look for quantity. Rei and Roun ate alot more since their recent evolution. The large size might require more energy or just made him more greedy. Stratus didn't bother to ask. They had sense Raizen as he moved within their hunting area. The gray hollow snickered. He remembered the spiritual pressure.
"We meet again, eh?" he muttered. He let his energy flare three times, then a fourth time. That was their signal, he ran across the sands in the Raizen's direction then stopped. He was well outside of visual range. He let his energy flare twice more, that was the signal for the other two hollows to advance. Moldale always tested the hollows before deciding if they were really just food for their bellies. If Raizen was lucky, he might survive the encounter. Stratus snickered again, and expanded his senses. He was too far to watch, but he could still "listen"

Further south

The ground erupted some twelve feet from Raizen. As the sand flew into the air making a dust cloud a small shape landed on the ground.
"Phew, so hot down there." spoke the short hollow, and gave a laugh. He began to dust himself off; which proved to be quite useless as there was sand all over him. He looked up from his task as if he just saw Raizen. "Ello there boy, what brings ya to these parts?"

Raizen was naturally large, even though he wasn't a Giant Hollow, and as the ground just over ten feet away from him erupted and a small Hollow came out and began to demand for him to answer some questions, he almost erupted into laughter. Another easy meal for him, then! Raizen pushed himself to his full height. When he had slain the Hollow gathered not too far from where he was now, he hadn't eaten in quite awhile. Now, he was fully fed and ready for battle. His arrow-tipped tail lashed back and forth, and his tongue ran along his sneering mouth. Now that he realized it, Raizen was still a bit hungry...

"I'm here because I just devoured several Hollow not too far from here, and I sensed other Hollow coming in that direction, some stronger than I am. I saw this place, and had to hide. Then, you just went and showed up, giving me another meal for the day. Thank you for doing that, because I was still kind of hungry," replied Raizen casually, but as he did, he began charging Reiatsu into his blade-arm and in his teeth. Suddenly, he lashed out with his tail, wrapping it around the other Hollow's neck and yanking him closer, but as he brought him closer to try and slice him in half, the other Hollow smiled and blasted Raizen back with a powerful kick in the chest. Surprised at the strength of the smaller Hollow, Raizen stumbled back and fell back against a rock, resulting in banging his foot against it. He let out a howl of pain and finally felt the full Reiatsu of the other Hollow. Despite his smaller size, he was much stronger in Spirit Pressure than Raizen. He growled darkly, and continued charging Reiatsu into his blade-arm, knowing he'd need an extremely powerful direct hit to be able to even hope and end this.

"You're pretty strong, for a frail little thing as you are..." hissed Raizen, and in return the other Hollow grinned at him and raced at Raizen again. It was obvious he was testing him, to try and see whether or not he was strong enough to bother with. That usually meant that there were others, and so while defending himself, Raizen reached his conscious mind out across the desert, trying to sense any other Reiatsu. Of course, the first one he noticed was one he remembered well. It belonged to Stratus, a Hollow Raizen had a bit of a grudge against for being able to defeat him in the Real World, and then leaving him to fight another day. If he lost, Raizen didn't want to have the dishonor of being allowed to live. He'd repay that by defeating Stratus and then allowing him to survive too, someday. However, that day was most likely not this one, because at the moment, Raizen wasn't fighting for his life against one of his sort-of-rival's weaker partner. Growing tired of being pushed back, and having built up an extremely massive amount of Reiatsu in his blade-arm, he brought it flying towards his enemy.

"Rīpingu Kyōda!" yelled Raizen, and then he looked away, so that if he hit the other Hollow, nothing would splatter across his mask. However, he had no idea if it would hit, or if it would miss. It would be a matter of the enemy's skills.

It had been a long few days in the desert for Satoshi, and largely fruitless. In the past few days, he had been only able to find small Hollows, the ones that were really more critters than actual Hollows, appetizers insufficient to sustain him. That was why that at this very moment, his normally somewhat intelligent mind was being overwhelmed by the sensation of hunger. In response to his imminent starvation, Satoshi's body was putting aside all nonessential functions (i.e. cognizant thought) and putting all energy into hunting functions - i.e. powers, muscle, and the like.

Just as a big cat would in the wild of the Real World, Satoshi lifted his feline face to the night sky and took a deep breath. Though they were relatively far from him, Satoshi's hunger-heightened sense of smell managed to detect Hollows actually worth eating nearby. Without hesitating, Satoshi took off for what he sensed to be meals of extreme potential. His hunger metaphorically gave his six legs wings, and he covered distance at an incredible pace.

Soon, the two Hollows he had scented came into view, and what's more, they were fighting. If he had been in a state of cognizant thought, Satoshi might've approached more cautiously, perhaps waiting for the ideal opportunity to launch a fireball at an exposed combatant. Not so now. Instead, he charged recklessly forward at the two who were still engaged in close combat. Dimly, he recognized one of them, but at this point, he was too far gone in hunger to care. As it was, his approach would be easily noticed, as he wasn't exactly taking any precautions to avoid attention.

From ten feet away, Satoshi leaped, his lithe feline body propelling him between the two, though closer to the one he had dimly recognized. In that instant, between them, his whole body burst into black flame which swept outward in a radius three times the length of his body. His leap carried him well past the two, where he landed gracefully and whirled around, drool dripping from his jaws, fully expecting two meals, both well-done.

Moldale grinned at the bigger hollow's advance. As the blade swung he expanded the bone shell across his body shielding him from the blow.A while bubble made of hexagonal plates took shape. He was too slow in forming his defense, the blade cracked he bone shell and sent him flying into the dirt several feet away. Before he could dispelled the shell a sudden rush of flames engulfed the area. The fire licked at the damaged shell but did little more than char the outside while making the inside increasingly hot. With time the flames died down and Moldale release the shell. Another hollow had joined in, and this one looked like he really didn't want to talk. A large spike, making his arm into a long lance. The length of the long spear started to spin, creating a high pitched sound. "Let's get to it boyos."

Further away

The gray hollow say lazily on the ground feeling the fluctuation of the spiritual pressure. There was no doubt they were fighting, but not being able to see it made waiting very boring. Perhaps since they were fighting moving closer wouldn't be a problem. It was then he sensed the new addition to the field.
"DAMN!" he said jumping to his feet and going into a run. The sands flew beneath his feet as he made his mad dash to their location. "How they hell did that guy get in there!?" It didn't take long to see the smoke rising into the sky, something was burning. He kept running and shapes could be seen. The signal he felt quiet strong. He was unsure if Moldale would be able to handle both the creatures at once. Opening his senses, he couldn't feel Rei and Roun moving. What was that bastard's problem? Nearly out of breath he arrived at the scene. Gasping for breath he created a crystal sword in each hand. His eyes locked on the strange cat shape. It looked familiar, but now wasn't the time to figure it out. "Thought you could use some back up, little guy." Moldale snorted.

As the new Hollow leapt into the battle, body aflame, Raizen was nearly burnt to a crisp. He managed to avoid being burned, though, by falling straight out on his back on the sound. As the Hollow landed, Raizen stood once more, only to growl in annoyance when yet another Hollow joined the battle, wielding a crystal sword of some kind. Raizen grinned; sword-arm against crystal sword. Raizen sent a massive burst of Reiatsu into his arm, and then charged at the newest of the Hollow, arm raised to strike at his opponent. With a roar, he brought his arm crashing down towards the other Hollow.

"Rīpingu Kyōda!" he cried, and then his blade-arm met the other Hollow's crystal blade. There was a tremble throughout the bodies of both Hollows, and then Raizen pulled back, seeing that the sword had taken his attack. Annoyed somewhat, he came forward with a fierce combo attack with his sword arm that ended in wrapping the other Hollow's wrists together with his tail and then bringing his fist into the other Hollow's chest. The other stumbled back a bit, surprised at the strength in a Hollow so much weaker than he in Spritual Pressure. Raizen growled and came forward again, blade aimed at the other Hollow's waist. He began charging Reiatsu into his teeth as the sword dance began once more, until finally, he was ready to use his technique.

"Hone Kuranchā!!!" he cried, and his open jaw came down towards the other Hollow's neck.

An angry yowl escaped Satoshi as his flames cleared and revealed that his intended targets were all uninjured. What's more, a new Hollow had arrived, and it seemed to be helping one of the others. The other Hollow with a blade on its arm moved to attack the newcomer, and Satoshi's back arched as he saw an opportunity open up. Just because he was near-feral didn't mean his instincts regarding opportunistic combat weren't still active.

For a start, he fired a couple of Hiendan fireballs at the unoccupied Hollow to keep it out of the way. Then, Satoshi charged forward again, all six of his legs moving at incredible speed, flanking the two blade wielding Hollows. As soon as he was behind the larger one (Raizen) he leaped at its exposed back, activating his Funka technique as he did so, again wreathing himself in black flame.

It seemed fortunate that he was fighting opponents who relied on melee combat to win their fights. His Funka technique would dissuade them from getting too close - at least, that was the theory.

OOC: Posting for two characters at once if fun :3

Moldale laughed as the fire flew at him. He shifted plates on his other arm making a shield. One of the balls of flame hit the shield the other exploded to the ground. He could feel the heat of the speckled fire even through the shield. He shed the dense scales and leaped over the burning sands ignited by the other fireballs. Landing on the other side he lunged at the cat creature that had attacked the tall hollow.

Meanwhile

Stratus was hard pressed to fend off the other hollow's attacks. Each swing of the other's sword swift and had more power than he thought the creature was capable of. Despite the strength he displayed he wasn't able to shatter the crystal weapon. Little by little he saw pieces chip off. Stratus growled he created another sword with his free hand. With each attack the large hollow made with his blade he countered with his other weapon. Every swing was met with an attack of his own. He could feel the energy building up in the other creature's body. Suddenly he shouted and opened his mouth wide. Stratus spit from his mouth, he exhaled a torrent of his sticky slime into the face of Raizen.

Raizen was taken by surprise by the blast of slime in his face, and he was forced to stumble backwards, unable to see his enemy any longer. He roared and reached up to try and wipe the slime from his face, only to have his hand stick to it. He charged a small amount of Reiatsu into his blade-arm, and then reached up and carefully removed the slime from his face. The Reiatsu kept the slime from sticking to his arm, and with a flick of his blade-arm, the slime flew from it and stuck to one of the surrounding rocks. Raizen growled and charged forward again, the Reiatsu building up to massive amounts in his arm now. He brought his blade-arm up and then slamming down.

"Rīpingu Kyōdaaaaa!!!!!!!!" he yelled, prolonging the ending sound in the technique's name as the blade came down to strike at Stratus's shoulder in a slash meant to cut him in half from the shoulder to the hip. As he brought his blade-arm down, he continued to charge even more Reiatsu into it. It would strike like a sword to butter if it managed to strike Stratus, but of course, such a powerful attack was much slower than one with less strength behind it. He silently hoped that Stratus wouldn't die this easily, and he knew he most likely wouldn't. He wasn't worthy of being his rival if he couldn't stand up against this attack in some way. If he couldn't, it would just be pathetic.