Shinryu VS Artorias Erobern [Platinum Hearts Tournament Arc]

Artorias stopped, his eyes widening as his opponent grasped his blade. Hmm... Artorias thought for a moment, and then tightened his grip on his blade. His opponent would most likely strike in the next few moments, so he took the safety precaution of softening the inside of his body and moving his soul backwards, if his opponent was keen on running, he would make sure there was no escape. Artorias grunted as the ropes from the bakudo wrapped around him, exerting more acid on them as to dissolve them quickly, straining forward against them as well, them soon cracking.

Hng.. Artorias thought as he saw his opponents shoulders burst with energy, this was going to be a big hit. Breaking free of the bakudo just in time, Artorias moved his soul through his inner softened body downwards towards his stomach, softening his chest at the same time. Just as his opponent's blow was about to make contact with him, Artorias' now softened chest opened, the opening quickly filling with acid. Artorias would force himself forward with his opponent's pulling, and he would submerge his opponents entire arm through his chest, then crystallizing the acid within into spikes and expanding them while pressuring his body to close and harden, seeking to puncture and crush his opponent's arm.

Artorias would also force his left arm more forward, tilting it to the right so as to bring his blade behind his opponent. As his opponent's arm sunk through him and became trapped, Artorias would grab his blade behind his opponent with his right arm, pulling with all of his strength towards himself, attempting to lock and strike his opponent from behind. While all this would take place, the swirling bladed smog of acidic energy would tighten around them, licking at their bodies as it consumed their forms.


Shadow Burst: Post 2/3

Well, that was certainly very interesting. His form had some malleability to it. The fact he didn't block but dodge only confirmed Shin's thoughts: The metal was important. And he watched his opponent's movements as he tried to close the gap on him. The way the blade moved, he aimed for a pincer. But he wasn't focusing on the fists of Shin. The material began to solidify around Shin's arm as it entered. But with that conclusion, and him being this close. At least he couldn't dodge him anymore.The speed of his crystallization wasn't instant, meaning he would have all the time he needed as the liquid encased his arm. His Shikai feeling the pressure but not cracking just yet. His opponent's energy not strong enough to fully crush through his Zanpakutō, but still pulling energy from him. But, this energy was in contact with Shin's arm however.

"Bakudo #63: Tozansho."

With that said, the entire hardened material was wrapped around the energy but more importantly, it was filling the opening of his chest up. It would be just enough of a nuisance for Shin to prepare his next attack as his opponent got closer, Shin spat blood towards his face and torso as the blade hit his back, he let out a burst of his own energy from his back, using Hanki to block the force of the cut. The barbs still sat on Shin's back, cutting him up and causing him to bleed quite a bit, though not a worrying amount quite yet. With his opponent's guard wide open and his armor down, he focused energy into his foot for a Shunko reinforced kick. But more important, his right hand jutted forward, aiming for his target's upper central mass. Left shoulder, lung and heart where all in the region as his Zanpakutō's signature ability would be active. Any physical contact with the blade would instantly cause necrosis to occur in the organic component's it struck. If struck his opponent wouldn't immediately feel the effects as the instantaneous cell death would feel like nothing, literally, until the surrounding nerves reacted to the dead area with a burning pain. If Shin did manage to hit an organ it would end the fight but even hitting the arm would severely cripple his target for awhile. Shin if he did get any true penetration would also break off his middle finger's claw into his target should he need to result to that as well. If he kept letting himself get cut like this it would become a problem however.

His opponent still seemed to have quite a bit of fight left in him. He wouldn't relent though, as this might be almost over. Artorias commanded the swirling bladed acidic cloud to come down on them, speeding it up with his shadow burst so that it swiftly turned to liquid and then crystal, encasing them both in a large solid shell. Artorias' body disengaged, his upper body softening and splitting into strips as he backed up and his soul went lower in his body, before his upper body reformed again, all the time the shell splitting around him and closing after him as he backed up, which would leave only his opponent in the thick, acidic shell. Artorias was struck a few times, and his opponents blood had been splashed on him, though his durability kept up and he didn't sustain any real damage, though something did come out inside of and latch on, starting to cause an uncomfortable pressure within him. Artorias would ignore the blood and this pressure for now, as if he finished this quickly it wouldn't matter.

Artorias would walk around the spherical shell as Hunger was moved around inside of it as well, turning around and jutting hilt first out of the spheres surface. It was positioned so that the tip of the blade was pointed at his opponents back. Artorias would stand in front of his blade, his soul finally shifting back into it's original position in the center of his chest and his body hardening again. Artorias would take a punching stance, readying all of his strength, and he would throw all of his power into punches Hunger's hilt, at the same time drawing Hunger towards his opponent through the sphere, aiming to impale Hunger deeply into his opponents abdomen, hopefully to finish the match.


Shadow Burst: Post 3/3

With a crack, he felt the blade enter his target, right before he dissolved again. He seemed to be the metal more than the metal. That meant a few things that were very interesting. His opponent kept trying to enclose the area around him. And he couldn't use Hanki. The time he took to liquefy gave him enough time to release his left arm from encasement however, which was an advantage. His blade moved inside the spherical encasement and Shin observed the situation carefully as his body began to be solidified in place.

How you getting out of this?

I'm not much of one who enjoys brute force but for the time being, I need to stall a little bit longer.

Shin watched his opponent attempt a finishing blow. Pfft, it was a good thing Shin waited this long to attempt to escape the enclosure. It would be fun to surprise his opponent a little bit. Not only that but, the longer this fight went on, the further it would be in Shin's advantage. Ironic for a prolong combat specialist to also be an assassin but, timing was everything. When the attack came, Shin's body exploded with the full power of Shunko, breaking away the shell immediately encasing him. Shin then jumped straight up and utilizing Shunko, would punch straight through the shell around them, shards of it cutting across his chest and leaving some collection of moderate cuts along his body. He swiftly jumped up several floors and decided that just fleeing wouldn't stop his target from following, panting as his body remained battered and the drain was beginning to tire him.

"Bakudo #61: Rikojikuro. Bakudo #9: Horin"

Shortly after doing this and pointing his finger downward. six yellow rods soon emerged. Connected to those rods was an orange tendril with spiraled yellow patterns, criss-crossing along the backs of the rods forming a net. The rods would slow him if they impaled them but if he attempted to block the technique it would either ensnare him or tangled up his shell and force him to liquefy or form it into a gas, which the rods could then pass through anyway. Simply put, unless he focused purely on dissolving the kido, part of it would hit him and bide some time for Shin to let his technique take effect.

With a large crash, the area around the two seemed to be enveloped by a large amount of spiritual pressure. Above them, then nearly endless wave of bookshelves seemed to explode outward with the books. In the following seconds, the books began to ultimately shred into millions upon millions of pieces. The paper floating ever so eloquently throughout the expansive library was now filtering the view of both male's. The fight would only drag on from here on out, the vision both obscured and aided. The tides may turn, only the following posts will give us the answer we're looking for.

Damnit! Artorias cursed inside of his head as his opponent wrested free of the encasing shell. His gazed followed his opponent as he exploded upward, the shelves in the upper floors exploding with shredding pages. Thanks to Hunger once again, Artorias saw his opponent's bakudo incoming. Artorias walked into the leftovers of the crystallized acidic shell, it opening to let him pass and closing behind him, now reforming the broken top as well, completing the sphere once more. Artorias commanded the sphere to jut outwards in all directions, rapidly expanding and hollowing out the sphere right as the bakudo impacted the outside.

Artorias formulated a new plan. With the obscuring swarm of paper floating in the air, he didn't need the cover of darkness any longer, especially since his shadow burst had ended and wouldn't be accessible for a bit more time. All of the smog in the area that had been blotting out light began to condense and crystallize into many small shards. Artorias would seize control of these shards, firing them in mass through the air towards his opponent while in the safety of the acidic shell around him. As the many, many shards approached his opponent, Artorias would change their direction, causing them to swarm around his opponent, coming in from all directions and turning sharply, returning with each miss. He would attempt to puncture his opponent in great number, the shards linking together across his body to form a crystallized net which Artorias would then control and send smashing back towards the ground.

Artorias growled as the pressure increased significantly inside of him, but it wouldn't quite get him yet, he could do this damn it!


Shadow Burst: Cooldown 1/3

Well, fuck. I think you're screwed, this guy doesn't quit.

That's what I plan on.

Huh?

Any moment now the spores will grow and the parasite is on something important. I'm sure you know what that means for the 'never say die' types.

You sneaky bastard....

Shin noticed however, that the swirling blades or shards or something would begin to come at him. This really was getting annoying and his opponent was getting boring. This would all be over soon however and with that thought in mind, Shin used his energy to blow up the floor below him. He couldn't tell where his opponent was, but he could tell where the parasite was latched onto to. So he had a faint idea of where his target was. Despite this new explosion of paper. As he was falling towards the ground he blankly stared at all the dead books as a tear fell from his eye.

"You asshole I was looking forward to reading all these books!"

Shin began to focus as he noted the sphere as he fell onto the kido impaled into it and growled. Strong tactic, but a boring one. Shin was really getting tired of this whole turtling strategy of his opponent. Knowing his spores would be kicking in any moment, Shin knew he could be much more aggressive now. With a swift kick onto the rods at each side, he cracked open the barrier and slipped in, breathing heavily. He could only hold Shunko for a little bit longer so he'd make the best of it. He knew the vital point to aim for to force his opponent into a corner and with a burst of speed, began to appear and reappear around his opponent, every other step he took or every two steps he'd let out a pulse. Each pulse aimed at causing momentary pauses or reflexes to kick in for Shin to attack from as he utilized Kamereon and utilized a series of five punches with Shunko and three kicks utilizing Shuntatsu, aiming to land devastating strikes at where the center was and trying to disorientate his target in the flurry as his sharpened feet and reinforced fists came flying.

(Sekai-Teki activation commencing)

As his opponent would start descending towards him, the shards of acid would turn and follow at high speeds, everything now closing in around them. Once Shinryu broke through the shell and began engaging him, Artorias knew it was time to try and end this now, especially now that the pressure was increasing to dangerous levels around his soul. Artorias would use the last of his energy to accelerate the incoming shards, shattering the dome in the process and violently pulling everything towards himself and his opponent, raining it down with as much power as he could. Artorias' soul couldn't take much more, he could feel it beginning to crack.

After the many hard impacts, the acid would begin to dissipate as Artorias would begin releasing his energy, he could really only do one more thing at this point. The feeling of pressure around his soul began to lessen. His fatigue began to fade. All feelings began to dissipate.

Rnnng.. RRRRRRRRNNNG.. EEEEEEEEHYGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Artorias voice rang out violently, shaking the ground somewhat around him. Hunger immediately materialized in his left hand. Artorias spotted his opponent and thundered towards him, rational thought still present, but all of it centered on the destruction of the target before him. Artorias would ram into his opponent, grabbing him and ramming into whatever may be in his path. He would throw him on the ground, then attempting to impale and strike at him rapidly, resorting to punching with all of his power should his blade get caught, before yet again striking with his many bladed sword relentlessly. Artorias would harden his body as best he could, thundering through blows in an attempt to overwhelm his opponent in his last stand as his soul worked on repairing itself from the cracks, possibly keeping up just a bit longer. The fungus sprouting in large areas from his chest from his opponents ability didn't go completely unknown to Artorias, though he disregarded it in his last charge forward.


Shadow Burst: Cooldown 2/3

Why isn't he slowing down?

He is. This is just his last push it seems.

Shin jumped back to dodge the stabbing blows but a single vertical slash from above came downward, forcing Shin to his knees as rose a single hand to block it. The force on the blow making the ground underneath him crack slightly as he tried to hold on but felt the immense strength. Even Shin's own strength was faltering in this condition. And without Shunko to utilize to reinforce it, he really only had one option to utilize. Moving his arm to the side, the deflected the blade to hit on the other side of him, the swing of the blade in question dislocating Shin's right shoulder as he rolled to his left and pressed his hand to the ground.

"Bakudo #73: Tozansho."

And with that, Shin would form a triangle shaped barrier around his target. Using his own strategy against him for a different reason. Now with only one arm to use, Shin pondered his options. But knowing the damage he did to the guy, Shin knew his own option was to force him to exhaust himself or strain himself to death. With the fungus and the parasite in place, that left Shin only needing to physically restrain his target so much that he'd be forced to harm himself with overusing his own energy to free himself. Tozansho would be difficult to break through with physical power alone and it would buy some time. But just to be sure.

"Bakudo #63: Sajo Sabaku. Now stay put Demmy-san."

Under his target's location, the yellow rope would swirl around his target, aiming at ensnaring and securing him. In addition to this, the barrier would further make him need to strain himself. While having the brute strength to rip through both was possible, He wasn't entirely convinced his opponent had that kind of strength. And if he used reinforced blows, he would hurt himself further. Shin stood up and took a step back, while keeping his left ringer pointed at his target should the need arise. His arm seared with pain the entire time as he tried his best to ignore it, though he couldn't lie that it hurt like a bitch. More importantly, the drain from earlier meant he could use only two more Kido before being at his limit.

Hnng.. HNNG... Artorias grunted as he was trapped. He needed to break out, and the only way to do that was to take some more damage. He coated his right fist and his arms in his acid, crystallizing it, covering only the knuckles and the outsides of his arms as to minimize damage to himself. After ripping out of the ropes by sharping the acid on his arms, he slammed his fist repetitively against the barrier and grunted as the bakudo began to crack and finally shatter as he slammed himself into it with full force. He prepared to charge forward again, thundering forward a few steps before his soul cracked in various places, causing a lapse in control over his body. Artorias fell to a knee, slowly getting back up as the cracks began to seal, his healing the only thing keeping him alive at this point. He was at his limits.

Artorias shakily got back up, the acid crumbling off of his knuckles and arms as he finally came to a standing position once more. He made to charge forward once more, but drew back his left arm and hurled Hunger spinning diagonally at his opponent. He would follow up by charging forward, hoping to surprise his opponent by dematerializing the blade after it struck or his opponent dodged, following up with a double handed downward slash with all his might after it rematerialized back in his hands. If his hit did not land, he would once more lunge towards his opponent, hacking at him, occasionally stumbling, but charging forward nonetheless.


Shadow Burst: Cooldown 3/3