Hard Work & Guts [Sola, Solo]

"Now while I'd love to be doubleteamed like that... I really can't afford to die right now."

Sola explained to the last remaining bandit in his sights. What a waste of potential future opponents like this but he could afford to lose a couple. Unfortunately these guys would probably never aspire to leave this nice little place they had going. They were comfortable and content, unwilling to challenge themselves or try. Terrorising people because it was easier than putting in the effort to do it themselves.

"You lot sicken me."

For all the wrong reasons, and as the other man started running the lethargic arrancar chased along. A little unsteady on his feet as he tried to keep up and gain on his fleeing quarry. This guy was running now that he felt the tides turn, this cowardly weak individual that was scared of a challenge.

"No.. No. Don't kill me. Go away!"

He shouted to his pursuer while trying to escape. It was working as well, a quick turn of his head showed that Sola was losing distance and so he kept running until he felt a sharp pain in his back and fell over. Crawling forward while trying to figure out what had happened to him. He stood back up and shakily started running again but by this time though he had lost his advantage.

This was getting really annoying chasing this guy like this and sonido wasn't an option on this terrain in his current state. One saving grace though was that he'd grabbed the knife off the annoying loud one and so Sola had thrown it. Whether it stabbed him or just hit him hard enough to stagger him all it needed to do and he got lucky. The arrancar caught up before staggering on top of the man wailing like a child about his life.

"Shut up! Don't beg me, if you want to live then grit your teeth and try your hardest to do so!"

He was already pissed off by these guys' attitude. It was the very opposite of his own being. The core of his aspect of death that demanded the desire to face difficulty and grow from it. None of these individuals were about that same concept and so they were antithetical to his own ideals, his own death drive was alient to people like this.

After a good minute of laying in punches until his knuckles were covered in blood and the squealing and begging for life came to a standstill he rolled off the dead man to land in the snow and pant. That took more work than he'd expected, maybe he should thank them for the fact they did make him try at the end of the day. Even if it was for all the wrong reasons.

"I'm so tired.... and cold. Crap, I need to beat that boss guy."

He reached up to feel the cut, a little nick like that was easy to deal with. It was still there for the moment but it'd heal. Sola just needed to wait a couple more minutes to let his body settle and deal with its slight bout of poisoning.

The longer he laid here the harder it felt to move, no more than five minutes passed before he painfully rolled himself over and got on all fours to stare at the ground. His body still wanted him to rest but he didn't have time for that and to counteract the lethargic feeling he reeled his head back before smashing it into the cold hard terrain to shock his system.

"Ugh..."

That hurt but it woke him up a little bit with the jolt it sent through his body. Pain seemed like it'd be the best thing to force his body to fight through it right now and so he held his hand out, the red reiatsu gathering in his palm before he closed his hand over it and let it blow up to burn his palm enough to leave it singed. A constant aching pain that'd remain a constant.

"This way... right?"

He muttered to the dead guy for confirmation before standing up and stumbling along the way in the direction that the group had indicated. It couldn't be too far away, right? One sonido, two sonido... five sonido later and he was looking at a decent sized camp from afar.

A length of time passed while he remained focused on the situation. It'd be too annoying to try and get in there with them all there. Better to lure some of them out because if those three were anything to go by, Sola did not want to try and take on something like twenty of them all at once. That's why he aimed a cero and shot a couple at the camp from afar.

The following chaos was like he'd antagonised a beehive. All of them came spilling out screaming things about what it was. Questions and confusion of whether it was a hollow, a person or even some horrifying wildlife. The lot of them came pouring out while they scoured the environment and Sola made use of sonido to slip into the camp. It was a real good thing that they were all so loud and no one took note of the strange crackling sound that came with his sonido.

Now that he was inside he just had to find the head honcho. Probably the guy that didn't look like an NPC, right? Speak of the devil.

"Ya think I'm a fool, boy!"

The voice boomed as a large wooden pillar went flying towards the intruder which had snuck into his camp. He'd worked real hard to make this nice comfy spot he was in, it was a hard job to unite all these petty thugs under his banner and make them work like a nice machine. Take advantage of the others just trying to survive in the wastelands, take what you want and everything that you can! That was his motto.

"I might have one eye but I'm not blind enough to be unaware of spiritual pressure when I smell it."

He cheered while grabbing a coil of chains to face off against the intruder that had snuck into his little den of theft, exploitation and savagery.

Sola was ill-prepared for the man to be competent enough to both sense him and then also have the strength to surprise him like that. It suddenly made sense how a guy could get all these goons to follow him out here, strength. Unfortunately he was wasting it but more pressingly, the arrancar was violently thrown back by the feeling of a length of wood smashing into him and tossing him aside like a ragdoll.

"Ugh."

He took a bit too long to recovery from the dizziness when he felt the hand grab his head and lift him up to hang off the ground. These guys were all freaks, how the hell was this guy almost seven feet tall? The man continued to prattle on, gloating his victory over the arrancar that was already worn out from dealing with his other three goons.

"--So whaddya say, I could use a guy like you."

Sola recovered his wits just in time to hear something which he thought was an offer to join this guy. At this time though his head is ringing considering that he took some force to his head as well as his chest. Taking a moment to collect himself and spit out a tooth he flashed a grin which was missing a pearly white.

"No thanks... Already made a deal."

"That so, huh? Damn shame ya not gonna fulfill it."

He said with his own grin. Tossing the arrancar aside and giving his chains a few testing whips. If he was going to see if a good beating will make a change of heart then he wanted to make sure he was well and right about it.

"You're a weird kind of human, kid. Can't say I've seen many with your features or clothes around these parts. You wander up here all the way from Africa or somethin'?"

The man asked with a crack of the whip to bring the chain across the tanned body in the dirt. He was real sure that it'd kill a man after a couple more blows. Still a bit of time to see if he could sway a guy after all.

Sola had to count his lucky stars that his hierro was doing something right about now and he had no idea why this guy was calling him a human. It made a bit more sense if he wasn't dealing with a concussion, a lingering trace of sedative toxins and the pain of his back being bludgoned. There was no mask fragment or hollow hole, his nucleus was so weak that it was barely even something that registered to a person that didn't specialise in sensing.

"H-hold on."

He muttered out while rolling onto his back with a pained groan. His eyes were locked with his aggressor's, for a moment there was silence and maybe the guy was eager to hear that Sola's spirit had broken and he would agree to work under him.

"I- need... to explain some-thing."

It was really important, just getting that out brought a bit of blood to his lips and he reached into his pocket while the big guy's eyes were focused on his.

"You wanna say your last words, huh? Sure. Go ahead for getting the boys all prickly like that I'll give you one."

He pulled the chain back, spinning it idly to build up momentum. Preparing to build up the final killing blow since the kid didn't seem like he wanted to play ball. One good swing, he'd cave his chest in so hard that torso of his would never bend back into shape if he wasn't in two parts by then anyway.