Ashes to Ashes, We All Fall Down! [Africatastrophe Part II]

Once again cutting through Asher was found to be a double-edged sword as Kanae observed the floating crimson globules of his blood. Her acid was finding it a simple process to burn away his flesh and muscle, but his blood released too quickly to immediately deal with, and so the coinciding blast rapidly overtook her form. A scream of agony could be heard over the sound of the blast as Kanae felt the pain of flesh and muscle being torn from her bones as she shielded her face with her free hand. This pain compelled her to act, and so she opened a hole beneath herself using her acid and dropped into it, giving herself a moment to regenerate with more of acid.

Throes of agony were soon replaced by fiery rage. Kanae was floating in an ocean of wrath, her eyes burning with it, slaughtering Asher was all she could picture. There was no room for planning, for strategizing in her mind. All that mattered was the slaughter. She would destroy this Hollow in every way imaginable. As her rage grew so did the spiritual pressure emanating from her body, and by the time the coast was clear above, Kanae's full power was on display for all across the battlefield to marvel at.

Like a rocket Kanae launched from her hideaway in the ground and met Asher face to face once again, green mist radiating from her body, but there would be no time to continue regenerating as she struck like a snake from a pit. Kanae swung wildly at the Hollow general, her sword a brush, her foe an easel on which to leave a Jackson Pollack painting. With each swing came a tidal wave of horrifically caustic acid that swallowed entire sections of the field of battle before swiftly eating itself as well. Kanae and Tosatsusha pushed themselves to their limits to reduce this creature to ash.

Kanae would strike from the front, a wave of acid following her sword as she sought to cleave through Asher. As her Zanpakuto met its mark she would be gone, vanishing only to reappear at Asher's side where she would do the same. She continued this for what felt like minutes, attacking from every direction like a swarm of death meant to overwhelm and prevent the Hollow's blood from disrupting her relentless assault. From his back Kanae struck with myriad slashes in the form of Sazaeta, but she didn't stop as she'd done before. Her sword never found fit to relent. She sought to turn the monster who'd evaded death thus far into a puddle.

Having pushed her body beyond its breaking point, Kanae could feel her power beginning to falter. She had already managed to last longer in this form than she had a thousand years ago. A numbness was filling her extremities as she called upon the last dregs of her power to put this worm down for good. She Flash Stepped around his body rapidly until she latched onto his back and jammed her Zanpakuto as deep into his spine as her strength would allow. Unlike before, her touch didn't bring along with it the familiar burning. To Asher it may seem as if there was no acid coming from her at all, and this would prove partially true. Acid was welling up inside her like a balloon filling with water. Then, like an overfilled balloon, the acid exploded out of her in a violent eruption of green that vanish as quick as it'd come, leaving them in a empty crater devoid of even oxygen.

From her perch atop Asher Kanae would fall to ground, unable to stop her descent. Her breathing was ragged and pain and exhaustion filled every atom of her body as her now-glossy eyes struggled to maintain their focus on the monstrous Hollow that she had fought so hard to kill. In the aftermath of her final attack she couldn't quite make out the results of her efforts due to the cloud of dust filling the area. In a moment of clarity Kanae spoke to her partner once more.

Tosatsusha...we may not get that chance for revenge after all.
Don't fret, Kanae. We'll murder the whole world. Together.

Asher could never think to keep up with the woman in this final, manic push of hers. With every swing of Kanae's blade, flesh was all but washed off the hollow's body as if it were nothing more than dirt caked on a rock. His body was incapable of reacting at such a speed, but even throughout her assault, the warrior did not collapse, did not fall. As the viridian eruption washed over Asher, he simply stood, and stared at his opponent with red eyes that had grown dim within that helm.

All the more impressive, when one looked at what was left of him. Nearly nothing left but bone, a jagged and inhuman skeleton barely an ounce of flesh left upon it. He could not battle any further today, but the battlefield had grown silent now. It seemed his foe had reached the same peak that he himself had, and one hand made only of bone slowly raised itself, pointing forward as if toward Kanae, even if in truth he simply did not know where she was.

"You have given me no name, woman. But I need none to remember one such as you."

One foot moved, then another. Asher turned away, back toward the pit, bones shambling across the dust-ridden ground even as he continued to speak to his foe.

"We will meet again. Grow stronger for that meeting, and I will do the same."

Very slowly, strands of red began to crawl from between the joints of Asher's bones. Flesh slowly, almost desperately working to repair a body with scarcely anything left. At a pace such as that, it would take days, if not weeks to bring a body back together, but the Warlord of Alhireth would not die yet. After all, he had found one more opponent he longed to face again. One of the Hollows which had still remained alive on the battlfield, far from their bout, beat its wings to come and collect its lord.

This was neither victory nor defeat for Asher the Empty Hearted. Simply a bout worthy of memory.