Swords And Fists Filled With Resolve [Erika, Shaoling]

Bringing her blade to bear, Erika wasn't going to play around with dancing back and forth. Shaoling's shunpo would outmatch her anyways, it was a fight where she knew that she had to keep the disadvantages between them at a minimum even if that forced her into having to face the full power of the former captain's shunko.

Thankfully there was one thing that she could do when it became more apparent that she'd be facing the wind itself in this battle.

"Four winds flee. Kazekiri."

She said and let the sword change slightly to develop a green wrapping on the handle, a more developed guard and straighter blade. Katanakaji changing the mundane sword into one that had greater cutting power and ignored wind resistance to an extent. Unfortunately this was no normal wind that the sword was cutting but dense reiatsu in the shape. It was by no means a perfect counter, just another means to even the playing field.

She stepped into the woman and aimed her deflected back towards Shaoling's arm, using the momentum to push back, try and wound her arm. Flashing a grin at her opponent and hardening her own body with her reiatsu to turn their closeness into Erika's face getting closer until she headbutted Shaoling with as much force as she could muster.

It was the purest form of fighting that she knew. Surrender the defence and turn it into an offence, throw your whole being into defeating your opponent and use whatever means you had at your disposal. A style of pure resolve rather than honour or discipline. For a person like this no less would suffice.

Adaptability was one of Shaoling's greatest strengths in a fight, and that was precisely why she knew this would be a worthwhile bout. Erika was a dangerous individual regardless of approach, and that was only made all the more apparent as she forced her blade through the shunko that had only barely kept Shaoling's arm protected. Of course, keeping her arm from being cut off had left the rest of her defense relatively lacking, and she allowed herself a cocksure grin as Erika's head slammed into her own, reeling back briefly before taking up her stance once more.

"Good."

That resolve was indeed impressive, but it still wasn't enough for Shaoling to be convinced she was worth listening to. She had made her own path, and if Erika wished to completely test her conviction, then she would meet it head-on. Her shunko exploded in speed, the energy tearing through the air and whipping it into a frenzy, as the grass beneath her feet all but shredded into dust. Before Erika had the time to continue on the offensive, Shaoling engaged her in turn, striking forward with a single hand, index and middle finger extended and ready to drill into Erika's gut. At speeds like this, with her shunko raging, it was entirely likely she could have simply drilled through the woman if she didn't defend properly.

Unfortunately her own style of offence left little in the way of defence, the recoil of smashing her skull into Shaoling's probably would've dazed her if she hadn't been ready and intentional in it. Rather than falling back though or being totally left open she brought her foot up to Shaoling's thigh.

The fingers were already connected with her stomach but before they could burrow too deeply into her and come out the other side she kicked off Shaoling and pushed them away from one another with enough kinetic force to shatter the ground around them.

When she flipped back a few metres away she kept her eyes fixed on the shinigami. A trail of blood from her lips and her bruised stomach on display from the shunko tearing at her shihakusho.

"Is that all?"

She asked and slashed in front of her. Not at Shaoling but at the ground.

Jiage.

A slash that hit the ground in such a way that it uprooted the ground and launched it at Shaoling. It was a distraction just to set-up for another attack.

An impressive display of defense from Erika, and one that had offensive application in its own right. Shaoling wasn't a fragile woman, but compared to many of her peers, her body was certainly not as firm. If not for the shunko whipping around her body, the kick Erika had used might well have snapped her leg in two. As it stood, she could still tell that the impact hadn't left it totally unscathed, and her eyes darted toward the ground below. Dodging to the side would certainly be the obvious defense, as would a leap upward.

242 Zushiki: Sekiga.

Raising her leg near-vertical in a kick faster than most could even perceive, a shockwave of air from her shunko cut toward the ground that would easily cut through most objects. However, that first rising kick was followed by a second, descending axe kick, which not only created a second wind blade, but shook the ground with a significant amount of force, crushing the stone underneath and, if Erika were still standing on it, surely destabilizing her steps.

Thankfully, Shaoling was more than sufficiently trained to treat either foot as her dominant one. The lingering pain in her leg from Erika's kick was enough to tell her that, had she tried to kick with that one, it would have only worsened her situation.

She had hoped that the action would make her try and move away and come at from another angle, instead the land parted for the wind and Erika hastily brought her sword up to cleave through it. Maybe it would've gone a lot better in her head but it didn't go exactly as planned. Sword did not slice through air as easily as she had wanted, the earth weakened her footing and then a second blast of air finished the exchange.

Kazekiri had in fact cut the wind but had made it split into two attacks which had sliced into her waist and shoulder. Her golden eyes stared back at Shaoling, looking for a means to attack her in a way that was most effective but only one spot really stood out to her.

"Hoshōgekiryū - Ryōdan."

Filling her sword with reiatsu and swinging it like one would to perform the attack normally, it wasn't anything particularly special because it was a universal zanjutsu technique of sorts. The only difference was when used by her Hoshōgekiryū it was designed to be a blunt attack rather than slice through a target. if Shaoling noticed she had wielded the straight-edged sword back-to-front with the edge facing her.

It wasn't to disrespect her or fear of cutting her, sometimes you just needed crushing force rather than slicing and behind that golden wave of reiatsu that came towards the woman to smash down her entire body was Erika using shunpo to follow it and use it as cover. Her real target was to use her Hoshōgekiryū to focus on her target's wounded leg. If she could make it too hard to use the full extent of her shunpo then Erika would feel a lot better to keep up.

Now that was a technique Shaoling hadn't seen in a long while, one so simple that she felt some small degree of respect for using it in this situation. The fact that Erika had chosen to use the blunt edge of her blade certainly didn't escape Shaoling's sharp gaze, and it was a commendable choice in this context. A blunt weapon was one that few shinigami trained against. Perhaps it was a matter of pride, or simply an assumption that the bladed, standard form of the zanpakuto was more honorable.

Erika certainly must have anticipated that Shaoling would have little choice but to dodge this technique, or make a foolish attempt to face it head on. But if she thought that such evasive maneuvers would be straightforward, or easily anticipated, then she was certainly gravely mistaken.

405 Hoshiki: Kawakaze.

In a way, Shaoling almost felt she ought to return the favor to Erika and state the name of this technique. But if she proved not to be worth the trouble, then she would certainly not be deserving of even hearing the name. As the Ryodan came crashing toward her, Shaoling shifted just enough to let the attack fly past her, and as it did so, the gales of her shunko intensified around her legs, letting her nearly glide against the attack itself and fly toward Erika in turn. As she'd expected, Erika had merely used the attack as a distraction. But Shaoling wasn't finished, and she grinned a touch more cruelly as she watched Erika's strike intended to crush her leg.

Kei 405 Hoshiki: Minagi.

As Erika's weapon came closer, Shaoling kicked outward with the very leg being targeted, now wreathed not only in the full galeforce of the shunko itself, but further amplified by its rapid rotation against the Ryodan. Of course, Shaoling would almost certainly still be struck, but she had no reason to fear injury. A kick like this would be enough to tear the arm off a lesser foe like it was nothing more than paper, and the cutting wind surrounding it only made that all the deadlier.

The explosion of power from the woman's shunko was anticipated, whether it was defensively or offensively. Erika figured that there would be some kind of retaliation from the fact that Shaoling was just unilaterally stronger than her as a soul so as the Ryodan was avoided and Shaoling was going to strike at her. Erika's skin tanned and hardened, her blonde hair became as silver and her spiritual pressure exploded outwards while the sword vanished from her palm.

Even though her skin was hard like metal and her strength had amplified from the release form, it didn't change the fact that it felt like she was trying to grasp a literal tornado within her hands that tried to grab the ankle. The sharp winds slashing across her skin and drawing blood in various spots up its length, it was hard enough to not been thrown away from the winds.

She did hold on though and using that grasp the vice-captain dedicated everything in her wounded arm to crash down on Shaoling's thigh, snap bone and render it useless if she could manage despite the fact the shunko left cuts all over her right arm.

Now that was conviction, most certainly. It was more than Shaoling would have expected from a woman fighting on behalf of the modern Gotei, but if Erika thought that it was nearly enough to match her own resolve, then she would surely be disappointed.

331 Zushiki: Nokogiri.

Two fingers extended, the wind around her right hand accelerated to its fullest potential, and before Erika could shatter the bones in Shaoling's thigh, her own hand cut cleanly through the leg, flesh and bone bisected as she used her single remaining leg to kick backward. If not for the sheer control over her shunko, on top of her physical balance, she would absolutely have fallen over. As it stood, she could still fight perfectly well. If Erika thought that Shaoling was unused to fighting at such a handicap, she had another thing coming.

"Is that all the resolve you have?"

Smirking as the leg was cut cleanly off by its owner and left in her grasp, Erika's eyes didn't bother following her opponent. Her reikaku was enough to tell her all that she needed to know that even if Shaoling gouged them out of her eyes it wouldn't faze her at all, that's the type of person that she was. Until she was killed, she'd claw at her opponent until they were dead. That's who the Suicidal Devil was and will remain to be.

"No. Ask again and I'll go for your tongue next."

She spat the blood pooling in her mouth out and sneered while tossing the woman's leg towards her like it was a piece of garbage. Erika held her hand out and forged another sword in her hand which was directed at Shaoling, it was a nodachi but its length was irrelevant to her since its cumbersome form was as light as a feather to someone like her.

Swatting the discarded limb away, giving it every bit the same lack of care as Erika had, Shaoling went on the offensive once more. While it was true that her shunpo was at a significant disadvantage with only one leg, she also knew that she'd cut down on a significant amount of weight. And, of course, most didn't ready their defense for a potential blow from a missing limb. A good ace in the hole. For now, however, she simply kept on the offensive, seemingly unfazed by the drastic wound she'd taken.

15 Zushiki: Oogama.

A quick, sharp swing of her elbow toward the back of Erika's neck. Of course, knowing her opponent, she didn't think such a thing would catch her off guard, and that was why it was followed up by a rising knee from her remaining leg, aimed such that it would hit her from behind if Erika turned to save her kneck. It was a pincer attack that would only work at such high speeds as Shaoling was capable of, but also one she wouldn't have even felt necessary against most opponents.

The two were, frankly, evenly matched in many ways. Shaoling was quite assured that she was the superior shinigami, of course, based on her own strength, her training, but she also knew that Erika had been around for longer than she had. Underestimating an opponent was a terrible mistake.