Field Trip [Nirx]

A swirling red vortex of infernal energy raged inches above the cold barren sands of Hueco Mundo. The disturbance was a roughly ten meter circle, so thin as to be almost two dimensional. The chaos stabilized after a brief instant, the surface growing calm as a still pond. Ripples of motion soon disturbed this placid red pool and two figured emerged from its depths. A demon Knight had come to visit the world of hollows, and this time he had brought company.

Styn stood not quite six feet tall, taller then average perhaps, but not in a way that stood out. His medium build accentuated his averageness, he wasn't quite slim, but fell short of heavily muscled. Dark green hair only an inch or so in length, could possibly be a dye job. Pale violet eyes, while a questionable fashion choice, were not outside cosmetic modification. Both ears came to slight point at the apex of their arc, something easily overlooked. His teeth might be a bit sharper then normal for a human, but they retained the same basic shape and placement. The demon's nails also came to a point and were thicker then common, but were by no means long talons or claws. All and all - discounting Za Koa which was naturally suppressed in this base form - Styn would go unremarked in most locations. Unchallenged was another story entirely.

The Knight of the First Circle sported a dark green business suit, almost black outside of direct light. The pale violet tie was clearly meant to bring out his eyes, which were somewhat concealed behind a pair of gunmetal gray glasses with translucent bottom rims. Black dress shoes capped out the attire, with especial detail paid so that the combat boot soles didn't look out of place. Still the effect lacked a certain something. First of all, his white button down shirt was untucked, which his unbuttoned dark green jacket didn't quite conceal. His tie was loosened at least an inch, and cocked slightly to the left. His pants looked a bit rumpled and his shoes were scuffed. In addition his eyes had heavy dark bags under them and his stare was half lidded, giving him the appearance of someone tired or sick.

Trailing behind this dubious form was a young seeming shinigami. At least that was the label that most aptly described the petite figure. The first thing that drew ones attention wasn't so much the oddity of a shinigami wandering into Hueco Mundo, or even that she was accompanied by a demon. No, the thing that shouted for attention was the interesting color of her attire. It was clearly modeled after normal a normal Gottei 13 uniform, only instead of black it was a brilliant hot pink. Where the white would be on such a uniform it was instead a deep crimson.

The color combination suited the woman it adorned at least. While not one to be called beautiful, she was certainly cute, with large dark eyes and violet hair, put up in a simple pony tail. A standard appearing Zanpakutō hung at her side, with a hot pink sheath. The hilt however was wrapped simply in a black pattern. On the woman's neck were demonic glyphs of some kind that formed a complete circle. Those dark eyes stared out at the surroundings without a hint of emotion. They were the eyes of someone who had given up on hope. Yet there was a purposefulness to the way she carried herself, there was still some fight left in this one.

"This is going to be so fun," Styn assured his companion, spreading his arm wide to encompass all of their surroundings. "I've got just the thing to perk you right up. You're going to kill a hollow. Nothing puts a smile on a shinigami's face quite like the brutal murder of souls that they were too slow to save."

His companion for her part continued to stare blankly at their surroundings. Styn was pretty sure that she had never been to Hueco Mundo directly. Heavens, most shinigami didn't venture into the land of their ancient enemies. The demon Knight sized up the smaller shinigami and found himself satisfied. Although the face was pretty much expressionless, the body was tense and alert now, in a way that had been lacking before. Whatever else could be said about her, she still wanted to live.

Still, Rumi was a special case. Her time with the ninth circle interrogators had certainly not improved her personality much, but because of their thoroughness, Styn knew all sorts of interesting things about Rumi. Her former squad affiliation, her specialties, her skills. He knew personal details, friends, family, lovers. There wasn't much that the ninth circle couldn't get out of someone given enough time, and Rumi had been under their tender ministrations for months now.

Styn didn't much care for broken toys though. He had it on good authority that she'd do almost anything to live, but he didn't want a mute doll following him around all the time. Technically she was his responsibility, since he had been the one to capture her. It hadn't really occurred to him what the eventual outcome to that would be. Shadow Fall was hardly the sort of organization to waste a resource, so back into Styn's care she came.

With a sigh Styn plopped down onto the cold white sands of Hueco Mundo. Maybe a bit of battle would put the spunk back in the woman. "Well, what are you waiting for? Pick a hollow any hollow." Styn of course wasn't worried about being attacked, any more then a tree would be stricken. While his companion might attract a bit of attention, he was all but undetectable in his shifted form. Unless said detector was within his class of power tier at least. Come to think of it, wouldn't that just be my luck? With that though for company, the demon Knight set about to watch the show, slightly more conscious of a potential attack. After all, things rarely went as expected.

T'was night, like always. Boring dull night in the endless sands of this world. Aluk'suul was gliding along looking for prey, to steal some knowledge. He was not like normal hollows, no he was not. He did not need to eat souls to keep being a Adjuchas, he simply needed to continue learning and taking knowledge from people, hollows, shinigami, etc. He was bored looking for his next prey that he could mind rape. The thought of juicy juicy knowledge sends trembles throughout his body. If he had a mouth he'd be licking his lips at the thought of plundering someone's brain and slowly drawing out the knowledge contained within!

Aluk'suul was not like normal Adjuchas in appearance either. He appeared to be a giant eyeball, covered with bony plates, with two smaller ones above his eyes. The bony plates around his eyes were his mask. He had purple cat-like eyes that could stare holes into people. His hollow hole was right behind his large eye. He had three tentacles a posterior one and two anterior ones. Lightning arcs from them, propelling him across the landscape. These tentacles where plated as well, as if he had some sort of exoskeleton on his tentacles. They were purple, with strange fluid dripping through the plates on his tentacles. Wherever they drop the ground steams slightly, due to it being acidic sweat.

He continued to glide over the landscape when he saw two figured standing there before one of them vanished into thin air. He stopped gliding to examine the remaining figure about 500 feet away from Aluk'suul. He blinked once before gliding towards the now lone figure. He stopped when he saw the shinigami garments, and the katana. He knew that this figure was a shinigami, but what would she be doing wearing a pink and crimson robe, that would simply get her killed in Hueco Mundo. He continued to glide towards her, before stopping about a 100 feet away from the young woman. He blinked once more, to examine her. He knew if he could only absorb the knowledge this woman had, he'd become more powerful due to his special special ability to absorb and adapt knowledge so he can use it to his own whims.

He would lick his lips if he had any. He thought 'jackpot!' He waited for her to make the first move, while thinking about his plan to subdue her so he can absorb her knowledge. He blinks before looking around to see if her friend were around, to make sure he was not messing with a actual shinigami from a squad, just encase her friend was a captain of the shinigami. Seeing him not there, he would start to glide towards the woman, preparing to dodge any attacks she might attack him with.

Styn suddenly found himself blind to his surroundings. It was as if he was suddenly in a completely black room. The demon Knight was confused, he could just barely detect the incoming reiatsu of a hollow, and yet he had not sensed any sort of attack. After a moment of thought Styn smacked the palm of his hand into his forehead. For whatever reason he had instinctively wrapped his surroundings in a sight veil. Normally the demon was a void zone to spiritual detection, but the only way that he could turn completely invisible was by using demon magic to cloak himself from eyes as well as senses.

I must be more shaken up by that close encounter with the fire serpent demon then I suspected. Styn wasn't big on psycho analyzing himself, but that seemed like the best reason for his vanishing act. Of course it couldn't be allowed to continue. When he was hidden from visual detection, it was because he used demon magic to bend light around him. Since he wasn't getting any input from the outside world, it made him blind as well. Given that there was a hollow on the way, he'd prefer to see the ensuing battle with his own eyes.

With a twisting shift of Za Koa, the demon Knight was once more visible to the world. To the approaching hollow he would appear no stronger then a powerless human, hardly standing out in a spiritual sense from the surrounding rocks. The should obviously be a warning flag of some kind. However, the demon Knight was not interested in intimidating his new potential friend. "Alright!" Styn shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth to help project his voice. "Let's have a good clean fight!"

Getting a good look at who Rumi would be engaging in battle with, Styn shuddered slightly. "Damn you sure are a looker aren't you?" Noting the tentacles the demon was equipped with as well as the sizzling juices Styn started to chuckle. "Wow, um...can we try to keep this PG-13, I'm not sure my eyes are ready to handle whatever those normally do. Rumi is such a little thing."

The object of his comments was now facing the oncoming hollow with a determined set to her jaw. Reaching down toward her side, Rumi drew her Zanpakutō somewhat clumsily. Clearly the art of the sword wasn't exactly her strong suit. Styn was unconcerned though. His companion had other skills. It would be interesting to see how she managed this otherworldly looking creature though. Traditional shinigami tactics could hardly be expected to counter such monstrosities.

The shinigami took one hand off the hilt of her sword and uttered the first words that Styn had heard her speak,"Sai." Styn could sense the building of Reiatsu as a wave of invisible force rushed toward the incoming hollow. This was the lowest of the low, Bakudo 1. It was said that masters of Kido at the captain class level could make such low level binding like steel cables that could crush the arms of hollow. Rumi was hardly that strong. Even if the attack struck, it would only push the hollow's tentacles together. Most likely the shinigami was counting on the attack slowing down whatever sort of plan Aluk'suul had.

"Sphere of power, form in my hand. See the light of the BURN!" Rumi was quick to chant. That same outstretched hand was engulfed in flames as Reiatsu rushed to fuel a solid fire ball. The shinigami's hand tensed and expanded, throwing the fireball toward her foe. Rumi was just skilled enough to make a small adjustment to the basic kido structure. Not only would the fireball explode in a four foot radius if it struck Aluk'suul, but a near miss would also result in the detonation of the fireball.

After sending out the second kido, Rumi gripped her Zanpakutō once more in two hands. The blade was held in steadily in front of the female form in a medium guard. Styn remained sitting on the ground, unconcerned with the potential fall out of the ongoing battle. His demonic sigils, although invisible to the naked eye, covered him an an armor that was unlikely to fall to any sort of attack that either Rumi or Aluk'suul had the ability to generate. He only hoped that his presence on the battlefield didn't dissuade the hollow from attacking, after all the two of them had come here for a battle.

Aluk'suul, saw that the man returned after becoming invisible. He heard him talk about his Shinigami, and about his tentacles and the acidic sweat coming out of them. he glares at the man. 'Thinking I would ever try and fornicate with a Shinigami, why I never!' He continued to glare at the man, before barrel rolling away from where he was, so the Bakudo misses due to it being aimed at where he was. He continues to glide around the landscape, before igniting one of his tentacles. A thin long beam of energy shoots out of it, and ends at a single meter in length. It hums and buzzes when it moves around. The fire kido flies past him and singes his exoskeleton. He winces slightly from the burn but his exoskeleton protected his tender flesh underneath the external skeleton.

He turns suddenly and starts to glide towards the woman. The wounds on his tentacle start to heal due to his low regenerative properties. He continued to glide towards the woman as fast as he could propel himself. He deactivates the beam-blade ability known as Rebanadora, before stopping suddenly while he was about 20 feet away from the woman. He aims all three of his tentacles in front of himself, before firing beams of energy in front of his eye. Soon a ball of energy forms, and he fires a huge beam out of his eye at the woman. He fired his Cero at the woman! He aimed the cero at the woman's left shin in an attempt to keep her from moving around a lot during the fight so, he would have an easier time fighting her.

Styn supposed there was something to be said for a mind focused on battle. Unfortunately that meant that he'd probably be talking at the air for his commentary. As the first lash of energy rushed past where the hollow had been the demon Knight shook his had. "See there Rumi? You should have lined up your shot so that he had to dodge properly, instead of just throwing energy around all willy nilly. Any dodge where the opponent can just keep doing what they are doing is bad placement."

The demon wasn't quite sure why the fireball had been a glancing shot instead of a full on hit, something about that energy blade might have been responsible, but he didn't notice the hollow really doing anything in particular with it. Once the creature closed to a closer distance it suddenly stopped. It was slightly eerie to see something in such a shape suddenly come to an immediate halt. The energies that powered its levitations kicked up small eddies in the sand, but handled the complete stop of forward moving mass much better then Styn would have expected possible.

"Watch out there dear, he's much faster then he looks," Styn called to his companion. The demon Knight was sure she had made the same observation as he had. In fact Rumi had been a bit fast herself when she was first acquired. Most shinigami felt the need to use speed to offset their lack of natural armor of any kind. Months of rotting away in a dungeon cell had atrophied that level of reflexes. Still, in its place she had gained a new trait. Rumi was much tougher now then she had been. Prisoners were fed well and generally taken care of when not being interrogated, so Rumi actually walked away from the whole situation with a pretty substantial degree of increased durability.

Sure the hollow armor plating looked tough, but Styn would bet that the regular skin on Rumi's arm, enhanced with the reiatsu that surged through her body, was even stronger. When for months on end your life became using every fiber of your being to reduce damage, certain things became unconscious. Styn was therefore unconcerned when Aluk'suul began to charge an obvious cero. It did of course answer the question of whether this was menos class or not. Normally that automatically put a hollow at at least a few hundred years old.

Rumi kept her stance, watching and analyzing the growing attack with cold calm eyes. The first time you saw a cero was always a shocking experience. The raw energy and destructive force was awe inspiring. Still, her shinigami training would have covered all the different aspects of such an attack. Rumi's experience with being a demon captive had dulled her mental capacity for being surprised. Although nervous energy obviously coursed through her body, on display from the way her Zanpakutō kept wavering slightly in front of her, she was ready for what came next.

The shinigami didn't bother waiting to see that the blast would have impacted the area where her shin had been. Instead as soon as the energy reached critical mass she was in motion. Pivoting off her lead foot and sending a burst of reiatsu into the sands she flash stepped to her maximum limit with her current skill set, placing herself to the side of the hollow. Rumi was still forced to roll across the sand at her destination as the ground erupted with an explosion of force from the impact of the cero.

She came to her feet fighting though and quickly pointed a finger toward her foe. "Byakurai," Rumi practically whispered, voice hoarse still hoarse from under use. The lance of finger thick lighting had deceptive piercing power. At this point it was merely meant to be a distraction, but the speed at which it moved at was quite impressive. Not only that, but unlike before her target was not in motion, and the distance was far shorter then when her initial attacks were launched. Rumi now found herself flanking her target, instead of directly in font. She aimed the strike at the hollow mask that rimmed its three eyes, knowing that to be the weakest part of its physical structure.

Styn had moved in his own burst of speed, applying Shadow Movement to connect to a nearby shadow and pull himself out of range of the strike, and resulting explosion. Unlike his young charge, the demon Knight was more then capable of moving well out of range in a single jump. "Oh nice shot there hollow, its too bad you can't fire those off a bit faster though huh?" the demon was quick to mock at the missed attack. "I hope you don't think that you'll be ok just firing energy at each other all day? Rumi could fire kido off for hours before getting tired."

Styn knew that if both the hollow and Rumi were of equal skill with their energy attacks it would come down to capacity. Even its regeneration was something that would consume its resources. Granted Rumi's sloppy flash steps weren't exactly helping her own reiatsu management. Then again, from his own senses it did seem as though the hollow had a slightly deeper well to draw strength from. It might just be a valid strategy after all. Regardless, he was looking forward to see what she would try next, since the lightning laser had seemed like a feint to him, something to keep Aluk'suul off balance while she readied her next kido.

"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini!! Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat!" Rumi commanded, "Geki." From above a flat circle of red light formed in around a ten meter diameter, centered on the hollow and sending down a blast of crimson radiance to bathe Aluk'suul's form. Like regular light, this attack moved very swiftly and would only need to catch a small part of the hollow to have the desired effect of locking its movements down. Since they were both of similar power, such a freeze would hardly last more than an instant though. If successful Rumi would use the chance to fire off another Byakurai, which only needed a moment to aim and shoot. Even if damaging the mask did nothing, the creature certainly seemed to like those eyes. The second shot would be better aimed then the first, if Rumi was given the chance to shoot, fired from the side in an attempt to pierce through all three of the orbs.

Aluk'suul stopped the cero before watching the woman. If he could frown he would frown at her dodging his cero. He barrel rolled 5 feet to the left of him with the byakurai singeing his left anterior tentacle. Once again his exoskeleton protected the tender flesh beneath. He glided towards the woman dodging the bakudo bu a mere milimeter. He continued to glide towards her before igniting his tentacles once more. This time his uses Rebanadora with all three of his tentacles, while he continues making his way towards the shinigami woman, this time he has a devious idea on how to use his Rebanadora. The Rebanadora blades are all a meter long. They hummed and buzzed as he moved around. He stops when he is within 15 feet of her before spinning in place. His tentacles are all straight out. He spins faster and faster until the blades appear to be fusing together to form a discus of some kind. After a second, the discus launches off of his tentacles flying at the shinigami. He manipulated the blades to launch the new sub-technique of Rebanadora at the shinigami. He thinks he shall call this Espiral Rebanadora.

The new technique disperses after it reaches 5 feet away from the Adjuchas. He grumbles within his mind, 'it seems that this ability needs to be worked on'. He simply decides to work on the technique later before rushing at the shinigami once more this time, he had decided to attack her with the Rebanadora instead of trying the Espiral Rebanadora again, due to it probably not having enough power to finish the shinigami off. He disperses the rebanadora coming out of his posterior tentacle, before extending the two rebanadora on his tentacles to one and a half meters in length. He attacks the woman by bringing one of his rebanadora at her knees attempting to cut through them with the other one striking at her torso. It appears that he is using a pincer type attack, bringing the left one right and low and the right one left and high, meaning he's swinging his right rebanadora towards the left and at her chest with the left one heading right and at her knees.

Styn was sure that Rumi shared his confusion as Aluk'suul stopped well outside of what seemed like his optimal attack range. However, while the demon found his bewilderment flavored with amusement and curiosity, Rumi was all business. She quickly focused her reiatsu into yet another kido chant, this one able to cover any number of potential outcomes to the arrancar's mad spin. "Shield me, protect me, from the reality of what is in front of me!," the petite shinigami chanted, holding off the final key words of the spell. Instead of immediately activating the shield and committing her resources, she elected to wait and see what would come of this motion.

When you were dealing with limited energy there were times that you had to gamble, in this particular situation it ended up working out in her favor. A mass of energy began to form at the edges of the rotation, and for a moment it seemed as though Aluk'suul was about to launch a high speed and ranged projection of cutting force. The force of crafted reiatsu was unstable, Styn could tell that even with his blunted senses. For someone like Rumi who had learned to interpret the fluctuations of energy out of raw survival over the last few months, the deduction was even easier. Still, hollows could be trick-some and Styn could tell that his shinigami companion remained well alert to a potential surprise.

Even Aluk'suul seemed slightly taken aback by what was starting to look like an abject failure at attacking. Although how Styn could say he got that impression was beyond him. Reading emotion was not quite easy with such an alien looking construct. Perhaps it was the slight hesitation the creature exhibited before continuing the assault in a more traditional fashion. Maybe it was the way the skin around its mask tightened ever so slightly. It wasn't the demon Knights eyes that were bad after all, merely his spiritual detection capability. Such was sometimes the result when you trained from a young age not to extend a single scrap of your own power beyond the powering and maintenance of invisible demonic sigils that acted as your armor.

The hollow was certainly fast though. Once the beast committed to attacking it was clear to see that its large body really was just for show. Those tentacles where mobile and could change direction with ease, as such Rumi was forced to wait till almost the last instant before finishing her current incantation. "Gyokuseki o Hogo," she said in the same soft tone she had used for most of the encounter. Rumi didn't seem to be much on words, that was for sure. The only spoken dialogue from the shinigami thus far had been kido chants, and Styn was sure she would have forsaken even those if it wouldn't have resulted in a noticeable loss of power.

A pale pink plate of hardened reiatsu materialized in front of the shinigami, curving backwards to cover a bit of her sides as well. Even as the first two strikes were repelled with most likely numbing force, Rumi was moving her left hand into a clawing motion at the back of the five by five foot wall. An attunement of reiatsu and application of kido manipulation soon had the wall anchored to her left hand. Now instead of an immobile barricade, the shinigami had what effectively amounted to a full body shield linked to the movement of her left hand. Without a flash step equivalent, Aluk'suul would find himself hard pressed to out maneuver the clever shinigami, even with the multitude of angles in which he could attack from.

Rumi would keep her distance as she prepped her next strike. "Sphere of power, form in my hand. Hear the crack of the freeze," Rumi chanted as she invoked the next materialization of elemental force. "Kōri no tama." An azue surge of energy formed into a large shard of ice, completely encasing Rumi's Zanpakutō. Normally this attack was much like a grenade, and that was what was taught to beginners to give them some sort of arsenal. Such unfocused attacks had already proven to be unreliable in scoring critical damage against the hollow. With the formation of the ice, Rumi was ready to go on the offensive, having been doing her best to hold the hollow off for those few brief seconds in which it took to summon the ice.

Dashing forward now, closing the distance to not only attempt to lessen the effectiveness of Aluk'suul's much larger reach, but to increase the power of her next blast, Rumi put her plan into motion. If forced she would use a flash step, but would prefer to dash into range so long as Aluk'suul did not attempt to run away. Still using the shield to ward off blows, Rumi suddenly moved it away from the right side of her body. Stabbing forward with her Zanpakutō she directed a rush of reiatsu into the ice, controlling the direction of the blast and channeling the force into something a bit more useful then a three hundred and sixty degree arc of frozen shards. Instead of a grenade of ice she formed the knives into a shotgun of frozen death.

All along the encased Zanpakutō cracks splintered the ice as twenty shards exploded off the blade in all directions. Once at a range of two inches, instead of continuing their outward motion, each shard stopped, quivering madly in the air, as their points all spun till they were facing toward the tip of the Zanpakutō. Instead of using the ice sword to strike at melee range, Rumi was instead now pointed the tip at Aluk'suul and thrust. All of the kinetic energy now directed twenty spikes of ice toward the face of the hollow. Much like a shotgun blast, the barely restrained force would spread outward, however at this range every piece would strike the hollow if he did not move.

Rumi had seen his speed and mobility. With the wide arc of ice coming at him, there was no way a simple roll or twist would take him completely out of range. While intercepting with his tentacles seemed possible, there were still a rather large amount of shards. Styn was curious to see how Aluk'suul would counter this particular assault, but even more then that he could see that the chaining of multiple kido was beginning to take its tole on his companion. If this didn't work, the demon Knight wasn't sure how much longer she would last. It looks like my bragging earlier was a bit overconfident. If she makes it out of this alive we'll have to do something about that.

The dust screen was standard tactics and Styn was sure that in a regular sort of battle it would have been plenty to ensure a successful ambush. As it were, this was hardly a normal set of conditions. Simple eyes were not the only senses that Shinigami possessed. Much as Aluk'suul was able to accurately aim his attacks through the cloud, Rumi was able to perceive the speed, power, and trajectory of his Muerte Altanero.

The barrier she had previously conjured was already fracturing and the drain on her reiatsu was immense. Crafting a static shield was a simple application of her kido, manipulating it to move was a constant burden on her quickly emptying reserves. It had however, allowed Rumi to close the distance initially. Turning now to face the barrage of Muerte Altanero the Shinigami caught each of the orbs with her conjured shield. Surprisingly the attacks didn't detonate on impact, but instead seemed to melt into barrier.

With a flick of her wrist Rumi rid herself on the pink wall, locking it back into place on the ground. She wasn't sure what sort of attack it was, but staying near the massed energy didn't exactly strike her as a good idea. Still, Aluk'suul had launched the strike while closing back into her attack range and she was able to get off her ice shot. As the agile Hollow narrowly avoided the bulk of the blast, Rumi found herself splashed with his acid blood. A quick curse escaped her open mouth as she pushed backward in a blur of motion.

Clear now of the dust cloud she had little time to take in the state of her clothes as the next wave of attacks closed in, but Styn was not similarly hampered. "Hey now," the Demon Knight called out. "I thought we agreed to keep this kosher? You can see her ity bity little titties now." It was true, although the quick flash step had saved all of her clothes from the ignoble fate of acidic dissolution, there were several distinct holes in her pink kimono. One of those in particular was a palm sized burn over her chest that went all the way through to her skin.

With the shield gone and having so recently executed a hoho, Rumi was in no position to immediately go back on the offense. Panting, the Shinigami found herself now covered in sweat. In addition, several areas of her body were smarting from the acid burns. The demons had done far worse with her during her incarceration though. Rumi grit her teeth, eyes tracking the Hollow as he descended back into the settling dust. She could just barely make out his shape with her eyes, but had little difficulty locating his reiatsu signature.

"Come on Rumi, you got this," Styn said with mocking encouragement. The Shinigami appeared to be ignoring him still. Hardly the reaction that Styn desired. On the bright side she was getting more animated as the battle dragged on, reinforcing in his mind at least, that this trip had been a good idea. This Hollow was stronger then he had expected though and left the Demon Knight wondering if maybe he shouldn't have brought his young charge to the human world instead.

The barrier trick had worked out well for her before and seemed especially effective against Aluk'suul's odd energy attacks. She didn't think she'd be able to manage a moving one at the moment, but just creating another shield should still be within her range. "Shield me, protect me, from the reality of what is in front of me, Gyokuseki o Hogo," She managed to say in between heavy breaths. Another pale pink translucent barrier formed before her outstretched hand. Attacking into the smoke screen wasn't a good use of her remaining stamina. Instead Rumi spread her feet shoulder width apart and waited to see what the Aluk'suul would do next.