Northern lights (open)

Anchorage, Alaska

Spoiler:

The northernmost city of the United States was seeing it's mildest of winters. Not that the people were complaining. They didn't mind the lack of rain, but the dive in temperature they were used to. Living this far north you had to able to handle such cold. Without the rain there wasn't blinding snow, just the arctic bite that the wind carried by itself. The season also saw the fewer hours of light. The sun barely broke through the thick carpet of clouds. The city on the edge of the world rivaled any other city. Despite it's location it was bristling with life and energy. Maybe too much energy.
None of the people noticed as the wind died down and the sky started to ripple. A rumble filled the air like a storm was brewing. The dark clouds look threatening to unleash their heavy burden. But it's wasn't rain coming it was something else, another type of fury the city could go without. There air bulged and bubbled as if boiling from some unseen flame. Something pushed and the sky stretched until the object pierced through. Five white nails rip through the rippling sky and then five more joined it from the other side. The people on the streets mad no sign of seeing the strange sight happening right above their heads. The fingers tore a massive rift and sky opened like a curtain. The owner of the massive hands stepped through the large tear in reality and landed on the edge of the city. The gilian gave a howl. Even those without spiritual awareness felt a sudden chill down their spine. But they all wrote it off as part of the weather and pulled their coats closer about them. Stratus towered over the half frozen city. It had no thoughts other than hunger. If wished to feed, it didn't care about anything else. The rift it had entered through still hung open in the air. Now that he had pushed through the other hollow started to pour out after him. They proved to be a nice distraction, their energy being closer than the city's populace. With a snarl he turned and grabbed some of them in his fist. Without hesitation he shoveled the still wiggling forms into his mouth. His powerful jaws crushed the unfortunately creatures with easy, his mouth flooded with their lifeblood. More hollow pushed through the still open gate. Stratus turned away. For some reason the taste of hollow flesh didn't 'feel' right. It took a step towards the unsuspecting city.

Tatsu watched the snow drift down the clouds as he stood there silent, he had been warned that something big was coming this way, and apparently he was the only one with enough guts to stand up against it, no wonder he was part of the eleventh division. Red Haori drifting through the air as his Zanpakuto remained in his hand unsheathed. The snow kept falling up until a ripple in the clouds could actually be seen, dumb human's shrugged off the overwhelming energy from the garganta like it was part of a cold while Tatsu himself felt overwhelmed by the rushing energy coming out of this. At one point he even wondered if he should even enter this fight. Huge arm's shot to the ground leaving only destruction in their wake, as the huge gillian stepped out of the garganta with an armada on lesser hollows who already had seem to notice the samurai.

Tatsu took a deep breath and started dashing at his usual blinding speed it wouldn't be long before the shinigami met blade's with a lesser hollow. Red Haori flapping with the shinigami's spiritual energy going against the gillians.

Already the number of hollow's was dimming thanks to Tatsu overwhelming swordplay, but thing's would keep going well for too long he was sure.

HUNGER The word screamed in the gillian's mind. It couldn't even feel the cold air about it the only thing on it's mind was the collective souls in the city before it. The hollows the had sneaked through the portal with it moved as well. Yet the creature care not for them. Some not fast enough to move were crushed under foot. Another unfortunate hollow kept buzzing around the towering creature's head. The while mask opened at it's mouth and bit into the buzzard hollow. It clawed frantically to free itself, but the menos' jaws bit down hard ripping through it's body with ease. Blood poured into it's mouth and he chewed the rough flesh. It felt good to eat, and yet it wasn't as satisfying as the energy he felt from the humans. It turned it's head and spat out the remainder of dead hollow to the ground. The bloody mess hit the ground with a sickening splat. The heat from the dead body made seam in the cold climate. Suddenly the body dissolved like the snow on sunny day. Stratus continued his advancement on the city totally unaware of the battle going on at his feet.

While the large hollow had not noticed the shinigami the other hollow had. Within in a matter of minutes he has slain many of their numbers. Bolstered by the sight of the gillian moving towards the city the other hollow rushed the lone shinigami. The one to lead the charge was a hollow with a round body that doubled as it head as well, instead of arms it had only two long scythe blades. Trailing behind this grotesque horror was a tail the looked like the bones of a human spine. The end of said tail ending in a rather axe blade. It hissed as it spun around and swung it's tail at the shinigami trying to cut him in half. As the the axe tailed beast advanced another moved in from the side. The next to challenge the lone warrior had a football shaped head with a toothy smile, it had very large ears on the narrow ends of it's head. Too big to be exact. They made it's head seem even smaller. It's body didn't help matters. The form this hollow had was that of a sumo wrestler which made it's head seem even smaller. Coupled with everything else it's toothy grin almost made it look stupid. Still any thoughts of calling it on such idiocy was lost at the sight of the large crab pincers where the hands of fat rotund sumo should be. It charged forward giving a high pitched yell.

The shinigami was keeping his defensive sending out counter attacks most of the time making sure not to give too many openings. Many hollows were easy work for the lead enforcer of the eleventh division, but an enemy that seemed to be worth while appeared in front of him seemingly ready to pick up the challenge, the samurai was more than ready for a skilled opponent. His sword was almost whistling it way through the air almost like making a song of death, but these lesser hollow's were keeping him from the much bigger one that needed to be taken care of. The scythe carrying hollow went in for an easy strike, straight and horizontal. The samurai was skilled and he just knew how he would deal with this, his blue eyes locked on the hollow that was in front of him while he stepped back to narrowly dodge the scythe strike straight to his stomach. Right after the strike was gone, the samurai had already taken a step forward getting in sword range giving it a clean slash at one of the arm junction's hoping to chop it off.

Tatsu's eye's shot backwards already another one..a really bad looking one was on him, those pincers and that voice was all he could hear or see, thing's were getting bad if the hollow's weren't even staggered by the shinigami's reiatsu. Very few words escaped the shinigami's mouth.

''Awaken...Mizu Megami'' All of a sudden the shinigami's reiatsu spiked, as if he had become stronger, and the spiritual energy in the air already started to work its way slowly but surely towards his sword. The shinigami would use his overwhelming speed to try and get out of the way of the sumo hollow, attempting to shunpo straight over him and make a wild attempt at clipping its head straight off.

This had become a danger zone, the samurai knew that when he would be surrounded it would be over very quickly with his person, so he attempted a Shunpo out of the zone, and checked to see if the massive gillian had seen him, this was definetly not going well for the shinigami, where was his damn support!

The black shrouded hollow had come to a stop several hundred feet from Tatsu's fight. A bus filled with people had been stopped by it's foot. Slowly the creature leaned down as the humans inside the public transit wondered why it had suddenly stopped. The engine whined as the tires screeched on the pavement. Try as he might the bus driver couldn't get the bus to move another inch. Something was wrong, but whatever it was it defied logic. Frustrated he told the passengers to remain calm as he checked the outside. As he took the first step off the bus the menos' hand grabbed the metal frame and lifted it off the ground. The man fell from the still open door to the ground and watched as the vehicle flew mysteriously into the air. While he gaped at the strange sight his passengers screamed in absolute terror. No one screamed louder than a young woman sitting in the middle row. She could see it; the large hand. Moreover she could see the huge face eying them through the bus' front window. Holding the bus like a watermelon Stratus opened his mouth and bit into it. There was a loud crunch. Metal and glass were broken those not torn by the monster's fangs, were torn shreds by the twisted steel. In seconds the screams and the bus were gone.

Tatsu's blade dug into the scythe creature's arm. It was bone like in appearance and texture, but the shinigami's weapon was able to slice into it. Still the strike wasn't enough to completely severe the arm. The hollow recoiled after the strike, hissing it's displeasure. It took to the air. It's wingless flight gave it space to rethink it's next attack. The sumo shaped hollow was none too pleased as well. The shinigami's attack had cut into it's monstrous ear. Having a small head had worked to it's advantage in this case. A little more to the left and it's twisted existence would have been over. Of course it didn't know that. Instead there was only anger as the pain it now felt. With a roar the 9 ft creature's stomach started to quiver. Suddenly it's fat belly split open as horizontal gap opened. It was a second mouth directly on it stomach. The lower mouth opened wide and inhaled. The sumo hollow seemed to inflate like a balloon. The mouth closed suddenly and then opened again with a roar. As it roared a spherical distortion with a faint green color could be seen flying from it's mouth. The green ball flew at the retreating shinigami. The orb missed and hit a building off to Tatsu's left. The sphere shattered like a water balloon on contact with the brick building. The stones that were hit suddenly started to melt as if bathed in a strong acid. The sumo hollow's second mouth was already open again sucking in air.

Tatsu's concentration from battle was snapped away as he heard echoing screaming in the distance, he could see the gillian picking up something that looked like a bus, and the scream's were definitely coming from it. At one point it disturbed him, the feeling of helplessness towards the screaming voices, all he could hope was that the bigger half of the group within the bus would've died from the twisted metal crushing on them instead of being swallowed by the menos.

Shattering his concentration on the Gillian, a ball of green death flew straight by the samurai like lady luck herself decided that it wasn't his turn to die, it smashed against the building behind him, and as normal reaction he looked to see the result which shocked him, it was as if at this moment, he had seen all the danger that his position included, fear started to crawl his way towards him, and he had to start thinking and keep his cool. Turning his attention towards the big fat Hollow it was already swallowing for another one and from what it seemed Tatsu was paralized by fear.

He knew that if he didn't move, luck wouldn't be on his side twice. Quickly regaining his cool he glanced at the injured Scythe hollow, seemed like it would think twice before attacking again, not so lucky with the big fat one. With that thought he knew his priority and quickly charged preparing a shunpo to dodge that ball of green death would it happen before he could land the blow he was aiming at that thing's belly.

''Where's my god damned support..'' The samurai said with a deadly neutral voice, at this point he knew he couldn't over run this whole thing alone, specially not a gillian and a few hundred hollow's.

Before the creature could exhale it's noxious fumes; a blast of energy struck it from behind. Both mouths cried out in unison at the sudden attack. It wasn't alone in it's shock, the other hollows stopped as they took note of the surprise attack. Before they could recover a voice rang out.
"Hado #17: Smite!" A large purple battering ram struck the group of hollows. They had no time to defend and were knocked over by the new assault. The scattered hollows had little time to recover as a tall man wearing shinigami robes landed in their mists and began to hack a way at them. He cut down one hollow and then another before they realized what was happening. His silver blade flashing up to slash a bone mask, and then reversing direction to spin and stab another. Before they could turn on him he vanished. He reappeared several feet above Tatsu's head. "Sorry for the delay." he said with a small grin. "The rest of the squad is trying to surpress the hollows still coming out of the rift the big guy made. He hollows began to howl in fury and delight at the appearance of the second shinigami. It would be easier to divide up two shinigami rather than one. The newly arrived shinigami ran his fingers through his short brown hair. "Sukeno Tenuu Fifth squad at your service." he said quickly as the screams from the hollows seemed to increase, they looked ready to charge. The man raised his blade before him. "Let's finish this quickly then we can deal with that." he gestured towards the Menos grande as it stopped further into the town. There was a roar as large ball of green air came rocketing at them. The sumo hollow had recovered and he wasn't happy with being hit from behind. As if a signal gun the rest pushed forward at the two. A very dragon like hollow was the first to reach them. It's bat wings ending in large blades. It swung one at Sukeno and while trying to bite him. It's tail ready to whip out and strike him at the slightest opening. A rhino faced hollow charged at Tatsu, it had no hands or feet. It's legs and arms resembled an elephant's. Although humanoid looking it's size was that of said pachyderm. It snarled at is lowered it's horn to try and impale the smaller man.

Tatsu was about to dodge as best as he could when the hollow's attack came right at a stop. Someone finally came and help him, right on time with that. The shinigami didn't wait and watch the Hado that was being casted on the mob of Hollows, another one was coming towards the back of that other guy, using his Shikai's ability while uttering two really quick words. ''Mizu Kiritateru'' The shinigami moved at blinding speed followed by a blue line of spiritual energy, one could say that the speed he moved was a little faster than a shunpo, but only cause the thing was actually visible movement.

Raising his sword for the block Tatsu was pushed back about 5 feet backwards almost making them back to back. He smirked back tot he man and presented himself. ''Tatsu Chirako 11th Squad, glad your here!''

Tatsu put both of his hands on his handle and uttered a few words that ressembled. "Reiki Naoru'' And shortly after most people with spiritual energy could feel it slowly going back to Tatsu's sword as if it was slowly absorbing the floating spiritual energy.

The samurai decided that Sumo hollow had lived long enough and dashed towards it while the other shinigami started chopping down other hollows, red Haori flapping behind him the samurai aimed his sword at the thing's neck this time.

Not really knowing if he had succeeded at chopping its head clean off or not, he would look at the other shinigami, knowing his thing about battle, if they were splitted from one another this fight would end even faster then when he was alone.

The sumo hollow was too busy trying to inhale air again to notice Tatsu's sudden movement. It tried to raise it's arms to block the strike. Instead the zanpukto cut through it's hands and into his fat neck. A fount of blood gushed from the cut. The black liquid dribbled down it's chest and into the mouth of it's stomach. The top mouth gurgled in pain, while the bottom one howled in fury. Finally the whole body spasmed and it fell to the ground once more. But this time it did not rise. It's body suddenly started to break into tiny bits and blow away with an unseen wind. Even as he was triumphant over the hollow there were more than enough to take it's place. The scythe armed monster that had taken wing now dove down to cut down the shinigami with it's twin blades. It came from behind Tatsu in a sudden rush.

Sunkeno was having no luck with the dragon beast. It would retreat while attacking with it's tail, then advance again from another angle. It's wing blades were used to shield itself and then attack craning it's neck every which way. A crafty fighting style. For the most part the only up side was it's attacks actually thwarted other hollow from getting near it. The tall shinigami was completely on the defensive. He managed to avoid most of the dangerous swipes and bites. Spying his chance he shunpo behind the beast and held his weapon horizontal
"Hado #32: Ōkasen!" A yellow blast of energy spread from his weapon and cut through the monster's wing. The balance lost the creature plummeted from the sky. Six long tentacles reached up to try and grab Sunkeno, he slashed two before they could grasp him, but the others latched onto his right leg and pulled him down. The owner of the tentacles was a slug hollow with a diamond shaped mask. He flailed wildly and managed to cut the other tendrils off before they could slam him to the ground, but now he was in range of the non flying monsters. The slug hollow's tentacles were already reforming as the single winged dragon came into view. Rather battered looking it looked at the hated shinigami that had stolen the sky from it. Too far away to strike out at him it turned it's attention to Tatsu.

Satisfaction spread through the samurai expression as he could feel the blood spread out of the wound of the hollow, a feeling that shrouded his battle abilities long enough to forget about the double scythed hollow that was rushing at him from behind at this point. The hollow was smart enough not to howl in rage, or make many noises at all, the samurai never noticed anything until he turned around to see where his new found ally was, but then it was already too late as Tatsu could feel both the scythe bite into his torso and shoulder and rip straight through. ''Ugh..'' His shikai was working its best to heal the overwhelming wounds but the shinigami was already falling down unable to control his spiritual pressure under such pain.

In the lengthening distance the samurai could see the other shinigami fight for his life, the hollow seemed to be good he thought. Crashing on the top of a building energy was still working its way toward's Tatsu blade, ever so slowly regenerating him. Problem being was that all the non flying Hollow's were already rushing towards him.

For a moment, Tatsu could feel his heart beat, he could clearly see the face of a blond woman smilling at him and the face of his own sword frowning at his ungraceful fall, all the while energy of the samurai's rose to its maximum, pumping itself into the sword regenerating him at a faster rate, slowly raising back to his feet. ''I...am unpleased'' he said with a now-I'm-Mad-Get-Away face. He took his sword two handed and charged at the hollow's that were on the ground. ''Reiki Saiseisen'i!!!'' At this point his wound's stopped regenerating but the samurai started using shunpo at a rate that would tire someone in less than thirty seconds.

The gillian hollow continued it's rampage through the once quiet city. Homes were smashed under foot while it moved to the greatest concentration of spiritual power it could find. The people couldn't understand what was happening. Buildings suddenly collapsing as if by magic and cars exploding. Panic filled them. Should they escape the buildings or stay off the streets? Neither seemed safe. A small office proved to a nice buffet. Looming over the building it opened it's mouth wide and took a bite. Human bodies and stone. Those not taking up into the stinking maw screamed in horror at the invisible devastation that was unfolding before them. Pieces of the ruined building fell injuring those left behind. An unfortunate few suddenly could see the large creature that besieged their town. The fear of death unlocking their six sense ability. But seeing the danger was a cruel fate; they had no way to avoid the monster, nor could they run. It was if their minds suddenly shut down upon seeing the massive creature. It's presence suffocating them paralyzing them in fear. No joy in their ignorance, and only despair in being confronted with the truth. The monster took another bite then stopped. A larger power had just flared up. Still chewing the second helping of human, glass, metal, and stone; it looked up and sniffed the air like a dog. It was close, it could smell it. It was like blood in the water, the large hollow was drawn to the feeling of a greater energy. It was coming from behind it. Slowly it turned around and headed back the way it came.

Tatsu was a flurry of movement as he blinked in and out of existence. Each time he reappeared the hollows tried to lock onto him. The dragon hollow gave a hiss and then released yellow flames from from it's mouth. Rather than a gout of fire, it was like a machine gun. Two foot bolts of yellow flames peppered the battlefield. Everything was caught in the barrage. The scythe hollow took a strike to one of it's blades. The bolt tore through the bone and left a flaming hole. A second shot skinned it's tail. Sukeno barely saw the attack too late as the tentacled hollow hit and sent flying. He quickly shunpo'd as several more bolts of intense fire hit the ground. The bolts exploded in the cold earth. Smoke rose from the scorched ground.
"Bakudo #39: Enkōsen!" A large spinning disk quickly appeared and blocked the next wave of searing flames. The other hollows weren't so fortunate and were slammed by the dragon's fury. Little did it know that there was a greater threat on it's way. The shinigami's burst of energy had attracted the attention of some unwanted company.