Natural Born Killers (Kao)

It hurt like Hell... But Kaoseu took both hits as Sal's larger frame disappeared discreetly, only to have the leg smash into his chin. As he was reeling, his legs were swept from underneath him, sending him into a pinwheel.

He used the disorientation and the drunken fist together to his advantage, planting both hands on the ground and using the balance and momentum as he spread his legs straight.

As he did so, he put one hand in front of the other, one after another, spinning his body and legs in as lethal a manner as he could as he shoved off the ground and at Sal, legs up and spinning like a copter.

If he connected, his intention was to wrap around and throw the man once more, but this time latch on and go with him- over the edge. It was risky, but he needed his blades in order to go use his Shikai, which he'd also need, as he felt Heiwa bucking and kicking internally, trying to get at the big man. Or at something else... muttered Heiwa in his head.

The strikes connected and Sal was only marginally feeling better about the odds in this fight but he had learned the hard way that an injured enemy was infinitely more dangerous. He took three quick steps forward as Kaoseu spun in the air, his intention was to literally kick the man when he was down but the whirling appendages but the kibosh forceing Sal to make a hasty leap back.

It was at this exact moment Kaoseu launched himself like a human windmill toward Sal and being mid-jump Sal could do little when the dexterous legs coiled around his upper body pinning his arms to his side with the finality of a vice.

They toppled over from the momentum of the collision and Sal felt his stomach lurch as they fell over the edge into the blackness beyond, the castle whizzing by in a blur and the sharp rocks of the hill mere inches from caving their skulls in.

Sal struggled furiously against Kaoseu's hold, the wind howling in his ears erasing all other sounds, and brought his legs up and then throwing them down again and simultaneously tossing his upper body forwards. The momentum of the maneuver tipped the balance and Sal was now rotating them both anti-clockwise so that Sal was now on top and with enough drive behind his upper body to launch a headbutt at his captor.

Sal was struggling with Kaoseu's grip, and trying to turn them, so naturally, Kaoseu was trying to struggle back. Not much could be seen in the darkening light, and Kaoseu couldn't quite place himself in terms of whether or not he was on top or not. Whilst in the effort to determine this, he turned his head backwards to see the dark mass of ground looming up at them, and at the same time, several things happened at once.

Sal pulled a bit of a brawler move and headbutted Kaoseu in the left temple. Everything below his knees went numb for the fraction of a second, but it was just long enough for the wind to snatch Sal from his grip.

As the man was loosed, Kaoseu also caught sight of three silvery glints, two of them smaller than the other, which was about 10 yards away from the other two. He grinned, as he realized he was falling in relatively the same place his blades were, but it didn't last long as Sal, who weighed more than he, sped past him, closer to his blade than Kaoseu was to his. He cursed loudly and Flash Stepped, attempting to get ahead of Sal before he reached his blades and was already muttering the cadence to release his Shikai.

"Shine in the shadows..."

Sal was suddenly free, which he was happy about until his diverted trajectory crashed him against the sharp rocks beside him. Blood soared away in the wind as a gash the size of his index finger opened on his forehead.

He shook it off and saw the twinkle of his weapon, twisting in the air he soared toward the rocks again and somersaulted, planting both feet and shot himself forward resorting to a series of Flash Steps as he noted Kaoseu vanish and reappear at his own Zan's,

They reached them at the same time and Sal snatched up the Katana, they spoke almost in unison to the source of their preternatural powers.

"Sound the Funeral Bell!" Sal began while Kaoseu said "Shine in the shadows...".

The Katana in his hands began to radiate its tremendous power, waiting like an attack dog on the leash for him to complete the unsealing chant. "Claidheamh Mor!"

The surface of the blades metal began to glow, cracks and hairline fissures snaking across the bland steel, spurts of fire erupting from these miniature lava veins and then the entire blade shattered outwards. A new blade rose from the ashes of the old, 5ft 5inches in length and 8inches in width, the Claymores blade hissing as it cooled.

Sal turned to face Kaoseu and hefted the sword onto his right shoulder. "I guess we start the real fight."

"And hide in the light, Shirokuro!" he finished as he touched down on his blades, and his Shikai burst into life, a shaft of white light, speckled with black, bursting forth from Kaoseu's location at the same moment Sal's blade erupted to life and became marginally larger. As the light faded, Kaoseu's blades could be seen, the one in his right hand, Kuromeru, held in a normal grip, the white blade in his left, dubbed Shiroi, held in a reverse grip.

"I guess you're ri-" he began to respond, but at that moment, before he could reign in his control over his Reiatsu, that split second's worth of time, Heiwa battered his way up to the surface. Kaoseu screamed, having not been used to the force, since he generally had control over Heiwa, or caught him before he could burst forth, and dropped to one knee, whilst at the same time, he used his Shikai ability to bend the light around his mask so as to make it invisible and changed his eyes back to normal color by reflecting the light as well.

"Shit..." he thought as he used Shiroi to stand back up, grinning. "Sorry about that..." said the Shinigami as he rushed forward, too fast at first, and cursed as he slowed down to have a seemingly normal speed, and spun on the ball of his right foot, driving the left blade up, in an attempt to get the much larger, and longer sword out of the way, and brought his right blade down in a sweeping, diagonal arc to Sal's left side as he completed his circle. However, Kaoseu had lacked in his focus, and did several things wrong;

Firstly, he had unintentionally left a portion of his mask on the right side of his face, though it was only a sliver about 3 inches long and thinner than a pencil. Secondly, he had yet to reign in his new, marginally different, Reiatsu. Lastly, he held back on speed, but went all out in the use of his Spiritual Power, and paid the bi-vocal his voice had taken on no heed. At this point, it was all downhill...

Sal brought his blade down from its resting place on his shoulder and held it before himself, elbow bent, just below chest level in one hand and smiled as Kaoseu's swords were unsealed. Gratuitous violence, how he loved thee.

The adrenalin pumping, heart exploding, bloody battle didn't quite get off to the start Sal was hoping for however. His opponent screamed for a start. He didnt yell, or unleash a bloody battle cry or forswore an oath of hideous vengeance against Sal and his family but...screamed.

Sal watched, mildly perplexed. Normally such dramatics occurred after the fight 'Curse you Norongachi!, 'You're an animal, a psychopath!' ect ect.

Sal's eyes narrowed and all confusion left him when he caught the scent of Hollow, the foul energy pulsing into the air and catching in his senses.Normally he would have been on the look out for a high level Arrancar but no, at its epicenter was Kaoseu.

He had heard rumors of the Vizard. He'd met people who had first hand accounts of Soul Reapers who exhibited traits of a Hollow while being simultaneously stronger than both. He had filed them under, possible but unlikely. Now he was reopening the case...

His eyes took in every detail they could his mind switching from fun to business. He needed to know everything he could before the first blow was struck. Kaoseu stood back up, apparently over his ailment.

"Don't worry about it..." Sal said but his voice was like ice, he had never been good at camouflaging his feelings.

The initial assault was much faster than he had anticipated so much so that he wasn't quite sure if he would be able to keep up and then this new speed dropped away and Kaoseu was back at the speed he had been previously.

Sal took the upward strike upon his blade and then with a thought a lash of flame ripped from his Claymore and coiled round the second. He held both weapons there and leaned in close to Kaoseu as they struggled against one another for supremacy. He noticed then, the small section of bone white upon his face....

"Vizard..." Sal said, he had little in the way of evidence but from what he had heard he was just as well throwing the word out there. If it got a reaction he was on the money, if it didn't he was back to square one.

He thrust his Claymore aside and knocked away one of Kaoseu's Zan's and then with a flick of his eyes the coil of fire expanded into a controlled, small, explosion that sent the other away as well. He leaped backwards and landed a few feet from his opponent. Nothing was as it seemed here, for once he would have to be cautious.

It was rather frustrating, having to hide himself in plain sight, and he hadn't exactly mastered covering his own features without making himself completely invisible. Sal seemed to have plenty of powerful influence in his Shikai state, and Kaoseu was quivering with adrenaline mixed with his Hollow-esque tendencies.

As his strikes came into contact with what he thought was Sal's blade, he grinned as he saw he was wrong. Tongues of flame had wrapped themselves around Kuromeru and Shiroi was locked in a stalemate with Sal's actual blade.

Kaoseu should have taken the hint in Sal's voice, something he would have noticed had he not been in his Vizard form. As he and Sal struggled for dominance, Sal's eyes searched him. Kaoseu felt he knew something, and narrowed his eyes, but before he could react, Sal's lips pulled apart and he breathed a single word that reeled Kaoseu's mind for a moment, causing him to go stiff;

"Vizard..."

As his body stiffened, Sal rather easily knocked Shiroi from his hand and an explosion from the tongue of flame wrapped around Kuromeru sent him from his hands as well. Sal leaped back quickly as Kaoseu regained his composure. He launched himself into a backflip, landing between both his blades, a grin on his face as he released the light being bent around his mask, revealing it in all it's simplistic glory.

"Well, looks like the cat's outta the bag, huh? Sorry about all the secrecy- there'd be a pretty penny on my head if someone knew, even a Renegade looking to gain back favor with the Gotei, but from the looks of ya, I think I'll fare okay in that department. But I still gotta kick yer ass to win that wager, mate." Kaoseu said.

Without any warning, and as he was speaking, Kaoseu was building up several shafts of shadow, solidifying them as much as possible, and keeping the light reflecting around them, so as to make them invisible, basically creating a cage above Sal.

As he finished speaking, he blew off all holding back, and Flash Stepped forward, whilst at the same time using two unreflective threads of Shadow to grab hold of his blades, yanking them with him at the same time he dropped the cage, which he had left open backed and open on the top, the direction he appeared from being in between both of those as he yanked his trailing blades, which were still in front of Sal, towards himself, and all became visible.

If he chose to jump back, Kaoseu was hoping to introduce the back of his head to the inside heel of his right foot, but then again, not all things go according to plan...

Game on Sal thought when he saw Kaoseu's reaction to those two tiny syllables. Then Sal saw a Vizard fro himself, the white mask with strips of black on its sides and a horn of sorts on the forehead.

Sal gazed into those animal like eyes and felt a grin split his face. It was beautiful, a amalgamation of the raw animal instincts of the Hollow and the skill and power of the Shinigami. Why would the Gotei punish a man for striving for such greatness?

"You can try," Sal responded noting the odd timbre to his voice for the first time. Sal prepared himself for the onslaught to come, he was eager to see if the Mth of the Vizard lived up to the reality.

Kaoseu lunged forward his speed had more than doubled and within a heart beat he was within striking distance and then Sal saw the shafts of black all around him. "Bars?" He thought and noted that his means of escape had been considerably lessened, he was like a rat in a maze forced to dance to Kaoseu's tune.

"In for a penny, in for a pound..." He said and spun on the spot as Kaoseu appeared and drove himself straight at the Vizard as his blades slapped into the palms of his hands, drawn it seemed on invisible strings.

He'd penned Sal as a lot of things, and stupid wasn't among them, as he proved as he whirled around and jumped almost completely simultaneously. His blade was quick and true, but Kaoseu's was just as fast.

He slashed down as fiercely as possible with his left blade, and brought his right blade over it in a downwards stab at Sal's chest, using the left blade as a distraction of sorts.

Not one to play fair, he manipulated a flash of light as bright as possible directly in front of Sal, like a small explosion from nowhere, hoping to throw his vision off as he made his maneuver.

"Fuck me, he's fast!" Was all Sal could think as he marginally defelcted the slash, receiving a wound upon his chest, just below the collarbone. It was due to fortune, if you could call it that, that the momentum from the initial hit turned his upper body slightly and the secondary stab punched into his shoulder.

Sal gritted his teeth against the pain and made to strike again but the world went white. He stumbled backwards, his vision annihilated by the burst, he leaped backwards and as quickly as he could turned his senses fully upon the Vizard, who was easy to find.

"Cheap but effective, my kind of attack." Sal said trying to blink away the spots that were dancing across his eyeballs.

The last of the purple flecks left of his vision and he heard a growl in the dark dank subbasement of his subconscious. He felt the dark shadow wings unfurl and rattle against the mental cage. The message was clear: Give me blood.

The flames around Sal's body flickered oddly, like the light of a petrol lights that was running out of gas it began to retract and then expand. Sal's eyes started to glow, first the iris took on a green tinge, spreading from the pupil of each eye and seeping through the dark brown and then into the white like dye in water.

A light began to shine from Sal's face as a from the skin a neon substance began to rise, taking on the form of a ragged Omega symbol and then the most unnerving thing about his transformation occurred. The shimmering black liquid metal seemed to spray in all directions from the mask, like a bizarre splash painting and then just as quickly contracted itself, twisting and turning in the air it covered every inch of Sal's body casting shock waves of spiritual energies into the ether.

The once human face had taken on a startling change, gone was the smug features of Norongachi and instead they were replaced by the violent green, pupiless, eyes of Abaddon and the lipless silver fanged smile akin to that of a skull. The next thing that happened was that the oranges, reds and yellows of the vibrant fire that surrounded Sal's body were invaded by the blacks and whites of the creature that had came fourth, driving the colours away and leaving a flickering black fire.

Sal gazed down upon the sharp black talons that resided at the end of each of his fingers and at the living metal that seemed to shift and change under his gaze and then finally back at Kaoseu.

"Can you hear me Hollow? I've never tried this on a Vizard before so you'll have to indulge my curiosity." The words weren't spoken, the silver fangs never moved, instead Sal's thoughts were sent from his mind on a wave of energy, unseen and unfelt, and implanted in the recipients mind like a parasite.

From what he had learned of Vizards, the actual entity, the inner Hollow, resided within the person...almost like Abaddon did with himself. If that were the case then he could, theoretically, be able to commune with the creature as well as Kaoseu.

"The real battle starts here, lets see which is the more powerful entity...."

Kaoseu grinned, and was just about to launch into another attack when the steady flames around Sal flickered, as if blown by some ghostly whisper of wind, and began to fade, only to burst forth even further.

Several things began happening at once; Sal's eyes began looking much like Kaoseu's own yellow eyes, and his face began to exude a dark light, as a liquid to match began seep from his skin, forming what Kaoseu could only describe as a shoddy, jagged Omega symbol. Without any form of warning, the liquid erupted, as if forcing it's way out of Sal's body, and covered the entirety of the man, clinging to him like liquid metal.

Silver teeth, devoid of lips to cover them, matched with a rather cruel shade of green, added with the steadily shifting metallic substance gave Kaoseu a firsthand look at just what it was about Sal that seemed so eerily similar and disconcerting, all at the same time. He was, in as many senses of the word as possible, though still not quite, a Vizard.

With a chuckle, Kaoseu's Inner Hollow received the message as if it had been spoken directly to him.

"Loud 'n' clear, but I don' feel like playin' much longer right now, but I'll be sure ta pay ya back a visit in a lil, aright?" His inner Hollow, Heiwa, replied, knowing Kaoseu couldn't channel him much longer.

In a blur of single motion, Kaoseu was off, Flash Stepping forward consecutively as fast as he could muster the speed. Upon the first of the four Flash Steps betwixt he and Sal, Kaoseu turned himself in a violent spin, slashing with his blades, and sent off three sickles of highly concentrated ultra-violet light, hot to the touch, at Sal's left side. In the second it took to fire them off, he was already in his second Flash Step, still spinning like a top, but now on the right of Sal, and slashed out three razor thin, highly solidified crescents of Shadow, disappearing in the third Flash Step. He reappeared, this time in the air about 10 feet in front of Sal, and was milking the use of his Vizard mask for as much as it was worth, amassing a circle of ultraviolet rays that set the ground ablaze in a perfect circle, with Sal at the middle, flames licking 30 feet in the air from the sudden burst to life, and at the same time, Kaoseu used every last shadow cast by the flames to create about twenty small, flat discs, each about as big around as the opening of a small cup, and sent ten flying from above and and ten from the back.

With the last of the energy from his Vizard mask, he kicked his speed into overdrive, and made one last Flash Step, closing the distance between himself and Sal and leaving Sal no other place to go except towards Kaoseu as he spun like a Texas Tornado, ready to puree whatever came in his path that was incapable of defending itself. Kaoseu let the momentum carry him as he felt Heiwa's influence fading and his mask crumbled to dust in the extreme wind. He was now, basically, defenseless, until he could bring back up the energy to use his Vizard mask once more, unless he used his Bankai, which he currently did not want to divulge, though with Sal's obvious change, Kaoseu may be forced into divulging more than he deemed necessary.

It was strange, to smile and yet not smile. Sal's mouth moved under the grotesque skin but it did not, it remained as unreadable as ever when Kaoseu's inner Hollow responded as clear as day.

That was all the pleasantries that were given between the pair as Sal's deadly opponent made his move, a blistering flurry that Sal would have little hope of following without the power of Abaddon.

The blades ripped towards him and Sal flicked his Claymore vertically to ping them aside and just as quickly lashed a talon of Fire up wards to cancel the deadly rays. He flipped backwards and secured himself in time to meet the remainder of the onslaught.

The three shadow blades were difficult to follow, the moons rays casting shadows of its own on the broken land scape and so Sal managed to deflect just one while the other two cut deeply into his side forcing a grunt from his lungs. He had to remain focused however and rode the wave of pain, allowing his senses to follow his Vizard Foe as he vanished once again.

The ground around Sal suddenly burst into flames, the heat reaching an unbearable level as the focused halo of light fried the air and sent a torrent of fire roaring up around him.

Sal saw the shadows shift unnaturally as they were bent to Kaoseu's will, he prepared himself focused his energies and whether Kaoseu realized it or not he had in fact given Sal a slight advantage.

The void discs came thick and fast and Sal let a roar puncture the air, throwing his hands above his head and then bringing them back down as he tilted his upper body. The flames around his body reacted, snaking out across the ground they quickly infected those around him and the circle rose up and closed into the dome of fire. Sal compacted the make up of the flames, pushing each atom closer and closer until it were almost like a wall, a literal shell of fire.

The discs pinged off into the distance and Sal released his hold, panting from the exertion, such extreme use of his powers was still a challenge that he had yet to master and it was to be his undoing it seemed.

One momentary slip of concentration allowed Kaoseu to get inside his guard as the fires dissipated, his blades sparked as they met the hard metal skin of Abaddon and Sal found himself juddering backwards from the continuous impact until finally with the last rotation the Vizard struck true and slipped through the black metal cutting a wound across Sal's chest that just as quickly vanished as his unnatural armor sealed itself closed.

The green eyes set within the blazing white mask seemed to pour every ounce of agony into Kaoseu with its stare. Sal worked better with pain, pain drove him, it had defined him and eventually it would destroy him. Not today.

Sal lunged forward like an animal, throwing his Claymore in the air he sped forward on all fours, his talons ripping up the scorched ground and pounced like a lion, the Flaming Claymore caught in his spell fired down from the sky like a missile toward the now unmasked opponent.

Sal spun in the air, the talons ripping outwards like a crazed demon trying desperately to claw Kaoseu asunder. The living metal moved to his commands, two thick coils firing outwards and stabbing into the ground as he flipped head over heels and catapulted him forwards, retracting and planting themselves again and again as Sal spun through the air sending slashes and kicks with blinding speed at the head and chest of his enemy like a hell born arachnid.

All of this happened in the span of time it took his sword to reach the impact zone and with one final flurry Sal commanded the metal to vault him into the air. With a somersault he caught the Claymore in its descent and plummeted towards the ground before plunging the blade into the ruined earth and unleashing a monstrous explosion of fire that blew out from him like a shock wave of destruction.

If Kaoseu had thought his onslaught was impressive, he would have been in awe at the primal fury unleashed by Sal in his backlash. As if they were butterflies, he batted aside the crescents of ultraviolet light, and even canceled the heat each produced with his own flames. The sickles of shadow were a different story, as he only managed to get at one of them, the other two cutting into his side. Kaoseu watched all of this progress as he was in his cyclonic rage, and even managed a grin at Sal's use of his flames to cancel out the last two of Kaoseu's attacks, making his plan at least partially successful, occupying the claymore-wielding super-demon just long enough for Kaoseu to get inside his guard.

His strikes pinged against the metal skin of Sal's body, and rang through the still night air, each peal like that of a funeral bell, but in a bit more of a rapid succession. Kaoseu felt his rotational speed slowing as friction brought it down, until finally, with a lucky break, the skin did just that; he managed to slash through, and, from what he could tell, wound Sal, though the metallic skin instantaneously sealed itself once more. Kaoseu's primal gaze fixated on the purely agonized eyes of Sal's inner demon counterpart, and the Shinigami's resolve faltered for half a beat, all it had time for as Sal immediately launched into his phase of the attack as soon as Kaoseu touched down.

Roaring across the earth like a true animal of predatory nature, Sal tossed his blade and resorted to all fours. Like something out of a manga, Sal began to rotate midair, and the coils of metal that were sent from him put him in double rotation. Kaoseu looked at the incoming whirlwind with a look that he spoke at the same time.

"...Shit, Ban-...!"

Managing as best he could, Kaoseu repelled strike after strike, taking claw to the chest, a kick to the jaw, followed by another to the abdomen, and a raking double strike, three fingers under his right eye stretching down most of his cheek, and one gash across the bridge of his nose, the expanse from midway between both eyes before he had managed to mutter the next part of the utterance. He had to hurry, or he wasn't likely to make it.

"Ban-!"

Again, he was assaulted by more of Sal's fury, the onslaught showing no sign of ending any time soon. His face was beginning to swell slightly as he took another kick to the left side of his face, and heard a loud crack from his ribs, a sure sign a few were broken. As if answering his unspoken prayers, Sal's movements decreased, and he launched himself into the air. Kaoseu took this opportunity to enact his plan, his last resort.

"Ban...!" he began, watching Sal, and then realizing that the man had not had his blade this entire time, he gaped, seeing the large, flaming thing bearing down on him. His breath caught in his lungs as he began building up his Reiatsu to release his Bankai, and he shook his head, regaining composure, but it was just about to late. It happened simultaneously; Kaoseu managed out the final syllable, and Sal bore down upon him with all the might of Thor when he wakes up in the morning to find he's out of Cornflakes and Beer.

"...-Kai!" an explosion the likes of a small atomic bomb resonated and shook the surrounding area. Kaoseu was lucky and unlucky in two senses. The first, he had managed to escape utter annihilation at the intense burst of flames and raw power put forth by Sal's destructive blade, however, he did not manage to escape all the damage produced by such a tremendous release of power. He could feel his face stinging, raw and red from the heat, and he felt a bad burn up his right arm. However, he was still able to fight, and fight he did.

Not waiting for the smoke to clear, Kaoseu Flash Stepped into the air and sent wave after wave of 10 sickles of shadow into the haze, until the smoke began to part from the sheer number and amount of air disturbance. At this point, He Flash Stepped back to the ground and used his Bankai to the max, creating a dome over the two of them out of Shadow to it's full strength, equal to 5 inch piece of Cast Iron, but reinforced with his own Reiatsu. The dome measured about 50 yards across and roughly 12 feet high, restricting their movements. The only light at all was that given off by Sal's fiery glow, which was cut mildly by the amount of smoke retained in the structure.

"And now we play the waiting game..." Kaoseu thought. He'd be able to see in the darkness using his unique abilities, but Sal would have more trouble... Except that he now realized there was no one else within the dome. Silently, he withdrew the fortress, not wanting to believe it. The entire area had been scorched, a massive crater gaping in the earth, at the center of which he now stood. And that was all. Sal was nowhere to be seen. He knew the man was not dead, it'd be too simple. However, he had never even noticed an escape. Without a word, he released his Bankai, and brought his Spiritual Pressure to a minimum level. He turned to walk away from the scene before too many Hollow or Shinigami showed up, then stopped when he noticed a small bundle on the ground, a torn piece of clothing that had been neatly folded around its contents. Upon unwrapping the parcel, Kaoseu let out a chuckle. Inside were a few coins and some bills, just enough for a few drinks. He got the message loud and clear, and, sheathing his Zanpakutou, a grin slipping onto his bruised and bloodied face, he made way towards the distant lights of town, a few pints sounding more than good at this point. His heart raced, knowing he'd forever remember Sal Norangachi, and with a saddening feel, knowing that he would probably never cross blades with him again. [End]