Mysterious Hollow in France!

Considering all it had done was kill a Hollow, Blackhorn was genuinely surprised by Beetle's aggression against it. It watched as the Shinigami attacked with an empowered strike against its metallic mask, the power behind her blow forcing the behemoth to brace itself with its left leg as it threatened to be knocked off balance. Though a great force of pressure shook Blackhorn's body, it suffered no damage to its mask or skull underneath. Instead, Beetle may feel feel pain in her own arm as if she had punched a steel wall without gloves.

At the same time, Tento's restraining spell would prove successful as it coiled around Blackhorn's hulking body. However his followup spell would not strike true as the monster's tough hide wouldn't even suffer light burns from the Byakurai coursing through Tento's Hōrin chain. All this would succeed in doing is infuriating the creature, who's body was giving off ever-darkening spiritual pressure. Yet despite these attacks, Blackhorn remained like a statue, either unwilling or unable to fight back against the Shinigami trio.

All of a sudden Blackhorn turned body away from its attackers, and stared into the distance as if they weren't even there. Then, as if a spell had been broken on it, all Hell broke loose as the behemoth turned to Beetle and glared at the woman. Blackhorn let loose a terrible bellow, its roar shaking the very earth below their feet. With only a flex of its massive arms did Blackhorn shatter the Kidō chain wrapped around its body. It swiftly brought its right arm up and slashed at Beetle with sword-sized claws extending from over the back of its hand connected to the armor of its hand and arm.

A wave of fear crashed into her as the hit from her Shikai didn't even seem to register when she hit Blackhorn. She flinched, cringing lightly as she felt a wave of pain also hit her. The ribbon quickly wrapped around a nearby tree branch so as to pull her to safety, with Beetle swinging to land on top of it, nursing her hand. Even with the armored horn-like construct of her Shikai, it still felt like she had punched steel while barehanded.

She took in a deep breath, calming herself. She wouldn't be able to help them if she was up here panicking. She thought to draw more power from the NBM, the Neurological Beetle Matrix, but if that was enough to just hurt her hand through the Shikai -- the drawbacks to her durability weren't worth the risk.

However, as she was thinking of what to do next, she noticed that Blackhorn was glaring at her. As it roared and shattered Tento's Kido bindings, one of its giant arms came swinging toward her. Acting quick, Beetle wrapped the ribbon around the branch, leaping down and getting ready to swing away.

As she did, she heard a loud thud. She turned around, seeing a Danku having manifested behind her, and breathed a sigh of relief as she quickly swung to get out of the danger and land on the ground.

"I couldn't even damage it with my full strength."

Her voice quivered and wavered a bit as she spoke, her fingers tightening around her Shikai as she looked at Blackthorn. She had an idea, but with something that massive, it would take so much time and energy, not to mention the problem with trying to keep it off her for that amount of time.

"I can boost my strength still, but, that's still a risk for me. I can try to use one of my other abilities on him too, but it'd take a while to do anything of substance."

With frustration Blackhorn realized its claws had been stopped in their tracks by some strange see-through wall. Its pitch black gaze remained trained on Beetle even with the Danku separating the Shinigami from its wrath. Wrath which, along with its body's temperature, seemed to rise continuously as Blackhorn was finally allowed to let loose on the trio. With another great ROAR Blackhorn planted its left leg, leaned back, and with every muscle in its gargantuan body tensed, slammed into the Danku horns-first. Wisps of flame sparked against the spell at the contact like flint on stone. But the wall stood strong.

More anger filled Blackhorn's mind as it again leaned back and shifted forward, slamming into the wall again. Yet it still stood...but something had happened. Blackened cracks had spread from the impact point. Then, with one more, final, slam, these cracks would rapidly spread and shatter the Danku Kaminari had created, leaving naught between the monster and its prey. Blackhorn's focus was on one thing and one thing only: Beetle. And it would not rest until it had the woman in its clutches.

Blackhorn bellowed yet again, this time to announce its sudden sprint aimed in Beetle's direction. Though hardly the fastest around, given its size and bulk Blackhorn's speed may still catch the trio off guard. Though thanks to Tento, who's spell struck the side of the beast, it wouldn't immediately reach its intended target. Blackhorn felt the heat of the Shinigami's Shakkahō against its skin like a needle prick in its tough hide. The temperature of Blackhorn's body had skyrocketed as it sprinted, largely protecting it from that particular spell's power. The bulk of the spell struck the armor on its leg, leaving only a minor blackened spot on the dull metal.

Its head didn't even turn to acknowledge Tento as it resumed its sprint at Beetle. Blackhorn sought to close the gap and swipe again with its monstrous sword-sized claws, leaving trails of fire through the air as it did. Every footstep left the ground charred and covered in embers, and even being near its body would be suffocating from the heat.

Even as Tento fired a Shakkaho at Blackhorn, it did little to stop it. As it slammed against the barrier, Beetle was quick to send the ribbon up to wrap around a tree branch and pull her away from the others.

She heard Kaminari shouting, and, having turned her head, she saw the black cracks right before it broke. Did it have some kind of destruction ability like she did? Could it sense that? Was that why it was after her? Regardless, the sight of it made her skin crawl. The heat that she could feel and see from its claws and feet didn't help, either.

It wasn't after them -- it was after her. Was it because she was the first to hit it? Because she was acting as the frontline powerhouse? Regardless, she acted fast, retrieving a beetle-themed helmet and sliding it on as she continued to run, climbing higher into the nearby trees to try and keep her distance.

As she reached the top, she was quick to turn around, channeling energy into her body. Once again, she activated the Neurological Beetle Matrix, drawing from its power. Blue particles of energy gathered around her arms and legs as she suddenly dove down, readying her arms.

As she grew close, a burst of autumn leaves erupted from the vents around her elbows, giving her arm even more force as she came within range. The moment she had the chance, Beetle immediately began to unleash a flurry of powerful, high-speed punches to Blackhorn's right shoulder: Raioken. Even if her full strength before hadn't managed to scratch it, this augmented power, in addition with how many strikes she was making, she knew it had to at least do something, right?

Strength/NBM:

Shikai:

Not remotely the mindless beast Blackhorn appeared to be, he could hear and understand the strategizing of the ants around him and had no intention of letting such plans go off without a hitch. Still, it was no genius either; as they aimed their attacks against it, Blackhorn simply grew angrier and more aggressive, coinciding with the rising temperature of its body. With its chosen prey escaping to the treetops and the appearance of another one of those translucent barriers, Blackhorn's anger flared to new heights, causing its body to suddenly ignite as fire wrapped around its body like a blazing aura.

The first to hit him was Kaminari's Byakurai, which struck his armored shoulder with only a black mark left behind on it. Though from a skilled practitioner, such a spell could do little against the thick metal plates on his limbs. Unfortunately for Blackhorn his left shoulder had no such protection, and so Tento's spell found more purchase on his rough hide and knocked him off balance while damaging the outermost layer of his skin, prevented from doing more by the raging fire covering him. With his hulking body now unstable Blackhorn couldn't recover entirely in time to prevent Beetle's repeated strikes from slamming into him, though once again the extended armor on his right shoulder came in handy as it guarded from more significant injury. Along with this, the still-rising temperature of the fire covering Blackhorn's body may also harm his attacker in return if she remained too close for too long.

With injuries piling up, Blackhorn acted quick by slamming the back of his armored arm into Beetle's side to send her flying away. Whether she was struck or somehow dodged mattered little to the monstrous creature who turned his entire hulking body to now face the rat that damaged the back of his left shoulder: Tento. From within the flaming aura shrouding his body two wrathful red eyes could be seen as his focus switched from Beetle to his new prey. A loud BOOM rang out as Blackhorn suddenly disappeared before reappearing a moment later in front of Tento, his armored head down as he sprinted at the Shinigami, aiming to slam into him with his full crushing power and weight like an enraged bull. To those who'd dealt with Arrancar in the past, the sound that accompanied Blackhorn's sudden burst of speed may be familiar as Sonido.

Even through the armor and her Shikai, Beetle could feel the rising heat from the Hollow as it seemed to get angrier and angrier. As she was about to use Blackhorn as a springboard to go in for another flurry of blows, she felt the wind be knocked out of her and suddenly go flying. She flew hundreds of feet, crashing into multiple trees, before her glove-like Shikai suddenly, autonomously opened, firing the ribbon and wrapping around a nearby branch.

Her body suddenly lurched as she came to a stop, but Beetle knew she didn't have time to waste. She swung up onto the branch, quickly catching her breath as she quickly went to return to the battle. It hadn't come after her -- it must have switched targets to Tento or Kaminari! But, how was it determining who to target? It hadn't gone after Tento before, so what was the deal now?!

Beetle leaped and swung from the branches to keep her in the air, eventually launching herself into the air. She needed to try and deal some actual damage to it. But, as she flew through the air, the sound of a loud boom filled her with dread as she watched it suddenly move with tremendous speed.

In that moment, Beetle began gathering power from the Neurological Beetle Matrix, drawing more strength from it than before. The faint particles of blue energy suddenly erupted, coating her arms and legs.

Now drawing from half of the network's power, Beetle launched herself toward Blackhorn, aiming a single, solid punch at his head with enough power to bore through a cargo ship with no issue. Even if there were risks to accessing more of the Network's power, she needed to up her game if they were to triumph.