A swampy encounter (DarkMaster)

Vikaz looked around at the environment he had been living and hunting in for a few weeks now. The trees were closely positioned all over the place and he was on the only dry piece of land around, all around him was at least a few feet of swampy water and some moss over the top of it so it looked like solid ground, and everything was completely drenched, he hadn't been dry in weeks. At first the area had completely frustrated him, but over time he had grown used to it and had even managed to adapt to the area, he had even started setting bone traps in the water and in trees and such to wound people and let him hunt more, an idea he got from one of the indigenous tribes of the area. Over the few weeks that he had been here he had eaten an consumed probably over 100 people, he had even managed to surprise and eat the few shinigami that had been in the area.

He heard a scream of pain off in the distance and dashed over using the trees as solid ground bounding from one to another and grabbing on with his tail as he got to the source, a tribesman had ran into one of his traps and had gotten impaled into his shin by a bone spike, not only infected with his venom but all the germs and viruses in the water he was screaming in agony at the pain, he started to stumble away and fell into a few more spikes and tried to scream but one had punctured his lung so instead it came out as a bloody gurgle as he spewed blood from his lips. Vikaz watches as the man slowly died, flicking his tail back and forth in satisfaction, once the man died he quickly consumed the soul and left the body behind.

Vikaz's head whipped around as he suddenly felt a large spiritual presence appear a ways away. He quickly ran towards the new arrival and stopped a ways away near a few of his traps, and hunkered down in the water, waiting to see what this new arrival would do.

Tatsuya had been in this godforsaken swamp for a couple of days already, searching. Zamoreus had requested he investigate the possible disappearance of a research team that went missing just over a week ago. Researching what? Tatsuya didn't know and more importantly, he didn't care. For Tatsuya, if it wasn't beneficial to him, he didn't need to hear about it. The research team had apparently missed a couple of check ins. Not completely uncommon in this part of the world, considering the area was practically one giant dead zone. The suspicion for their disappearance was that they were kidnapped and being held ransom, but Zamoreus was a shrewd businessman and had paid off local threats so that they could conduct their research. Not to mention that they hadn't received any type of ransom demand. There was a possibility that their equipment simply malfunctioned, but there were other ways to check in.

Rather then having to pay an entire team to search for them, Zamoreus decided to send Tatsuya. He felt Tatsuya would be able to find them faster then a whole team. Tatsuya agreed, he could move much faster by himself then a whole team could. Tatsuya met with some local inhabitants, accompanied by a translator. They told stories of a invisible monster that was killing people from their tribe and neighboring tribes. Tatsuya was quickly realizing that this monster was a hollow. Tatsuya left into the swamp on his own, much to the dismay of the translator. He had traveled through the area for a day before removing his gigai. He left most of the supplies he had with the gikon now inhabiting his gigai, only taking with him a few rations should he not be able to gather food on his own. In his shinigami form he could move faster through the forest at least until he arrived at the coordinates he had for where the research team should be. The forest slowly turned into a swamp and he found himself soggy from his knees down. Luckily he was tall, he didn't mind his legs being in that muck. Dry land was few and far between. He managed to find the camp site for the team relatively quickly, but no one was there. He found tracks on the dry floor but couldn't track them through the water. He jumped into the water and headed in their last direction.

Tatsuya walked through the water, dragging his feet along the ground to remain silent. He made no effort to conceal his presence though. He knew he was at a slight disadvantage, so drawing out the hollow was better than moving through the swamp. A scream in the distance could be heard causing Tatsuya to stop in the swamp. As he heard the scream he felt the presence of the hollow moving. Tatsuya took a minute to think about the situation. He heard the scream and then he felt the hollow moving towards the person. He doubted that the human would have seen the hollow. And then the scream itself sounded as if they were in pain. Tatsuya unsheathed his zanpakuto and stuck it into the water, dragging it back and forth, in front of him as he continued moving. His suspicions were correct when he set off a spiked trap in the water. "Clever." He whispered to himself as he reached down to pick up the spike and examined it. Nothing really stood out as he examined it. He paid more attention to his surroundings, he didn't feel like taking a spike in his leg, but the overhead was too dense to be able to move freely. He soon felt the hollow moving closer to him. "This should be interesting."

Vikaz flicked his tail as he lowered his spiritual presence and began to swim over towards the new power, quickly noticing it was at least as powerful spiritually as Vikaz was. He started to swim around to the side of the target from where he approached, stopping about 40 feet away, just barely able to see the target through the trees and foliage between them. He slowly raised his tail out of the water trying to keep it quiet and grew a about a dozen spikes on his tail and quietly flicked his tail towards the target, quietly diving underwater and swimming off away from the target towards the forest of traps.

He carefully navigated his way through the sea of traps, pitfall, spikes, falling logs, ankle snares, with both him setting traps and the villagers nearby setting traps to try and kill him there were so many traps that even Vikaz who had been living here for a while had trouble remembering them all, some of them were quite complex, triggering traps when other traps were broken or triggered, he didnt even know what some of them did. Deeper in the forest he had grown his own personal lair around a particular item he had located along with a few others things he had collected that were of interest to him. Over the weeks he had grown so many bone spikes near his lair that the forest basically turned into a sea of bones and spikes everywhere, including traps that would fall on you if you tried to break your way through, only Vikaz knew the way through and it involved himself getting stabbed in order to pass through.

After he had gone into the Forest of traps as he thought of it for about 50 feet he flared off his Energy hoping to draw his target into his traps, growing his bone spikes in such a way that it almost formed armor of bone around him along with a bunch of spikes on his tail for spraying towards the enemy.

Tatsuya slowly moved back along his previous path. He didn't know if he was just lucky that he didn't hit any traps, or if they started around where he tripped the first trap. He just knew that the path he came from was a safer choice. Tatsuya took slow steps back keeping his gaze in the direction he felt the hollow. The hollow's reiatsu dropped quickly and Tatsuya's muscles tensed. He couldn't see the hollow because of the thick swamp trees and foliage. Just then, a dozen or so spikes were flying his way. There was really no way to know if it was safe to dodge in either direction. He swung his zanpakuto out, deflecting some of the spikes and being hit with the remaining five; three on his left pectoral and two in his left arm. "Tch." Tatsuya barely winced when being struck. "Damn hollows." He pulled out the spikes from his body and dropped them to the water. They hadn't pierced deeply, but for some reason the areas where they hit were flaring with pain. "What the hell?" Tatsuya spoke out as he grabbed for his arm and pectoral. Tatsuya soon felt the hollow's presence again, a little further off. He began chanting out loud the spell for a destructive art. "Hado number 4 - Byakurai." He pointed out his fingers letting out a large bolt of white lightning. He moved his hand from 45 degrees to his right to 45 degrees to his left, cutting into trees and branches for at least a hundred yards out. All those trees and branches began to fall over into the swamp water triggering several traps in the process. Tatsuya jumped onto a fallen tree trunk and surveyed the work. He wasn't worried about setting fire to the area, the area was to damp for that to happen. He wondered if the hollow had gotten stuck underneath a fallen tree. Sunlight rained down from the sky at the new clearing.

Vikaz looked around as he heard an odd noise and then a beam came through and sliced up all the trees, causing traps to go off everywhere and Trees started to fall, he was unable to escape and got hit by a falling tree, saved only barely by his bone armor which shattered under the blow, absorbing most of the damage and the little force he took was almost instantly regenerated by his body. He managed to wiggle out from under the tree and took a quick look around. There was a large zone that was cleared with a lot of debris and piles and tilted trees and it was still very uneven and not much visibility if he remained low with all the foliage, on top of that there was still swamp and some of it would still sink if you stepped on it it was still kind of the same, just open above.

His eyes quickly found the shinigami and he decided to use a rather unorthodox yet fun technique that he had developed, he started growing bone spikes out of every bone he had in every direction he could, growing bone spikes out of bone spikes and lept high into the air and kept growing bone spikes midair until he started to resemble a giant spikey ball floating in the air, then he steered himself into a controlled fall directly towards the shinigami, he planned to crush the shinigami under himself. He also planned to release some of the spikes all over the area where the shinigami was, as long as the shinigami was within about 20 feet of where he landed, and if the shinigami was further away than that he planned to charge at him making himself into a giant charging spikey ball of death, again hoping to spray the shinigami with spikes if he got too close, then charge again regrowing the bone spikes he had fired. It was a energy consuming technique but Vikaz thought of it as quite worth it.

Tatsuya scanned the new clearing in the swamp, looking for the hollow. It took a moment, but he found the hollow as it moved out from underneath a fallen tree. Tatsuya studied it as it got out of the water. "Ugly thing." He thought as he looked at the black, boney, dog-like hollow. They looked directly at each other when the hollow managed to locate Tatsuya. Tatsuya's wounds were flaring with pain as he watched the hollow. He didn't want to make any unnecessary movement to aggravate the wounds. He sheathed his zanpakuto when he noticed the hollow creating spikes on its body. It didn't take long for him to realize that the spikes that wounded him earlier were shot from the hollow's body. Tatsuya figured he wouldn't be able to get close to the hollow at the moment. "It's slow." He thought as he easily followed the hollow jumping high up into the air. "Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and tear out your own throat!" He chanted out loud as the hollow dog started to fall. Tatsuya quickly moved underneath the hollow with shunpo, moving from fallen tree to fallen tree, not even allowing them to sink under his weight. "Bakudo number 10 - Horin." He jumped into the air 10 meters away from the hollow and created an orange hued tendril. The tendril went straight for the hollow. Tatsuya watched as the tendril headed towards the hollow, intending for it to tie the hollow up and then swinging it around like a shot put and slamming to the ground.

Vikaz was surprised at how fast the shinigami was, easily dodging his attack while he was still midair and counterattacking, sending some sort of tentacle out, slamming him hard into the ground, he felt many of his bone spikes shatter as he slammed hard into the ground and skidded and rolled along it, once he finally stopped he quickly gained his bearings.

He grew some more bone spikes, this time instead of an offencive ball a defencive bal, meant to absorb damage, and then grew bone spikes into the wood and ground around him like giant roots, trying to latch onto the ground and hunkered down in a defensive position. He grew bone spikes out curling themselves around the tendril trying to bind it into place as he waited to see what the shinigami would do next.

Tatsuya slammed the hollow into the ground with all his might cracking many of the spikes on it's body. He waited, holding onto the the tendril. He wanted to make sure the hollow couldn't move before moving in for the kill. He was glad he did. The hollow seemed to quickly gain his bearings and looked directly at him. He watched as the hollow took a more solid stance and began to grow more spikes, latching itself to the ground like a tick to a dog. Tatsuya figured blunt attacks would work better on this hollow, figuring its hard bones protected its body well. "Let's soften you up a bit, hollow." He called out to the dug in hollow as he thought of a kido to use. Sumiko had been teaching him various kido spells since they have been reunited, and he figured why not use one now.

*Flash back*
New york

"Let's try this one." Sumiko cheerfully suggested to Tatsuya. "The pillar of heaven falls, damn thy fate. Crush the wicked." She chanted out loud, lifting her right hand up and creating a large purple octagonal block above her in mid air. "Destructive Art number seventeen - Smite." She called out the classification and name of the kido completing the purple block. Tatsuya let out a whistle as he looked at the kido. "That looks like it would leave a good dent." He stated while letting out a chuckle. "You better believe it." Sumiko merrily replied. "Now, you try." She said as she dispelled the kido. "Alright." Tatsuya took a couple of steps away from Sumiko. "The pillar of heaven falls, damn thy fate. Crush the wicked." He chanted out loud, raising his right hand into the air. The faint outline of the purple octagonal block could be seen forming, but not as clearly as the one Sumiko had just done. No surprise really, Tatsuya was not much of a kido practitioner and more likely to get close and use his fist rather than keep his distance with kido. Tatsuya knew where this was going and stopped at that point. Sumiko waited patiently, she had seen it many times. It was always the first time that was the hardest for Tatsuya, but he was a quick learner. After a couple of deep breaths Tatsuya raised his hand up again. "The pillar of heaven falls, damn thy fate. Crush the wicked." He chanted with more concentration, this time the kido began forming similar to what Sumiko had done. "Destructive Art number seventeen - Smite." Tatsuya finished the spell and the kido completed forming above him. Tatsuya looked up at the kido he just formed and was pleased with the outcome.

Kido app
Hado #17 - Smite: word count - 298/270

Approved- Hibiki Jishin

*Present Day*
Swamp

Tatsuya raised his hand up into the air as he remembered the kido. He had practiced that kido many times that day as he had done for others he had learned so that he could use them with ease when he needed to. "The pillar of heaven falls, damn thy fate. Crush the wicked." The purple blocked quickly began forming in the air above Tatsuya as he chanted. "Destructive Art number 17 - Smite." He shouted out as the kido completed before launching it directly at the hollow.

Vikaz peered through his bone spike barrier at the shinigami as he started to create a giant purple block in the air, the block was quite large, the shinigami quickly directed it to smash into Vikaz's barrier. The attack was slower than vikaz would have thought for it's size, Vikaz assumed that since it was slow it wouldn't have much force behind it, but he was wrong. The purple cube Smashed into his barrier, his bone spikes snapping and cracking all around him as the block forcefully crushed him down on his barrier pushing him down, Vikaz thinking quickly broke himself off from his barrier and dashed to the side, his barrier quickly shattering without him supporting it. He didn't fully escape the cube hitting his back half, however due to the slick swamp water and the give in the ground in the current destroyed environment he was able to squeeze out without much harm.

Vikaz realized he was easily outmatched and honestly had no clue as to what he could do to escape, his primitive mind raced and he dashed back towards the nearby forest intending to try and escape in there or maybe trying to use that terrain to his advantage, the shinigami didn't seem to like the forest. There were other options that were popping into his head as he ran along but he just needed to put distance between himself and the shinigami for now.

The purple octagonal block flew straight into the hollow, smashing it to the ground and crushing it's spike barrier. Tatsuya quickly drew his sword and waited in the air as he watched the hollow squirm free, from underneath. He was about to go in for the kill when the hollow began to run back into the swampy forest. He thought about going after it, but the thought of having his movement restricted discouraged that thought. "Get out of here you stupid mutt!" Tatsuya yelled out to the fleeing hollow. He sheathed his sword as he slowly lowered himself back to the swamp. His wounds were still painful, but he could bare with them. He figured that the spikes had some sort of venom that made the pain more excruciating. Tatsuya waited for a while, taking a seat on a fallen tree trunk, making sure the hollow decided not to return. Once he felt that it wasn't, he began to search the area to see if he could at least locate the remains of the researchers. It didn't take to long. Tatsuya found what looked like a nesting area for the hollow. Plenty of remains were left behind. Something in the back of the area caught Tatsuya's attention. He made his way over and looked upon a a black orb like object with purple marbling inside. "Wierd." He said as he picked it up to examine it closely. He thought he felt something emitting from it but chose to ignore the minute feeling. There were other things around area. collections of sort that the hollow picked up. "Damn pack rat." He thought as he continued looking around. A little more exploring an a light sparkly caught his eye as he walked passed. "Hmm." Tatsuya bent over and pushed some dirt around. He picked up a dirt encrusted jewel and proceeded to clean it off. "Oh...I know Sumiko is going to love this." He said when he found out it was a raw diamond. He put both the Orb and the diamond inside his shihakusho and headed back to where he left his gikon.

Vikaz looked back towards where he had come from, the shinigami seemed not really to care that he was leaving, which slightly confused him but he was glad seeing as there would be no way he could defeat him. He lowered his reiatsu and hung around watching the shinigami's reiatsu for a while, becoming upset when the man entered his little cave, it was where he stored objects he found interesting. Vikaz knew that most of them would be gone, probably for the same reason he took them in the first place, especially that orb.

Vikaz, decided to move on, he lost all reason to stay and the food was starting to get sparse anyways. And so while the shinigami raided his home he ran off and searched for a more populated place to call home.