Water, Fire, Frost. Fight! (Africastrophe) IV

AKIRA TAIRITSU

Akira witnessed the clash of reiatsu as Joshua called forth his Shikai, Sigurd following shortly after as he watched the way his energy moved with the environment. Curious. The nerd within his core held a vested interest though as the Shinigami was busty witnessing the raw energy that oozed from both due to golden iris. It occurred. The Bankai’s were already enough across the warzone but this?!

It elicited a sense of raw horror at an entity achieving such a power, thus it took him a brief moment to recognise the words that the Mercenary had uttered. Wait. He was the target? Who knew about him enough to even do that? R wasn’t compromised this early was it? Crimson energy though burst through any hope of thinking about it, tearing through earthen ground alike and coming at him at a high speed. Fuck.

The injury Joshua inflicted made outright major movements a tragic irritance, though the Soul Society member held no reason to remain against Sigurd. A two v one was by extension, a losing battle from the get go. Akira shifted himself with a grit of pain to the left hand side to dodge the incoming moon of violent energy, though some of it burning clothing and flesh alike, luckily that drastic swing granted a moment of not having his limb utterly removed.

He scrambled, more so a desperate animal as the following shrapnel struck his back and some stones bruised flesh, eliciting a further groan.

."Bakudo 21: Sekienton.”

Akira’s hand came to the ground, placing a little more emphasis on the size by infusing it with more refinement as a burst of brutal crimson smoke came out of the palm, modified purposefully to cause a bit of pressure as to disrupt physical senses a little more alongside his own presence. Why? To leave bravely. If the Shinigami and Sigurd aimed to team on him, a battle would barely be that at all, not enough information and little insight into either made this engagement difficult. Hopefully he would manage to hobble out of it with this.

As Joshua closed he felt the energy being released; on top of this man likely being more skilled than himself, he certainly had more reiatsu to throw around. Even if it was one of those types that felt off, and this one felt more off than usual. Never a shortage of strange things anymore. While the great armored mass had nothing to say to his glib words, the man did let out something interesting; Joshua wasn’t the target? Those words, however, were accompanied by a crashing blow that send a wave of energy towards Akira in the background and himself. Joshua’s reaction was instinctual; he darted to his left and out of the way of the crashing blow. Joshua may have been certain of his own strength, and had a decent guess that he could measure up to this man’s physical might, but he wasn’t about to test both his might and spiritual power against an opponent with an edge like this. Plus, he likely had mass on his side with the size of the weapon.

“Funny way of showing it,” Joshua snarked as he came to a stop, in regards to him not being a target. Thus far both attacks Sigurd had launched at included him afterall. Akira seemed to have caught that little conversational tidbit as well, and deployed a sudden smokescreen. Seemed pretty clear his intent was to skip out of this. Hard to blame him there, this wasn’t exactly shaping up to be the best day. This left Joshua however to make a decision. It took him all of half a second to decide.
“Seems ya spooked him then. If I ain’t yer business, I’ll leave ya to whatever is then,” Joshua said, intent on doing just that and letting Sigurd move off on his own. He’d already been double crossed once though today; if Sigurd rounded on him and came at him again, Joshua had a plan. He’d drop a Sekienton of his own to try and blind Sigurd, then a Joshua would rush the man from above. This Joshua would be a diversion, a speed clone meant to create a slightly larger opening. Joshua didn’t use speed clones much, but he had been practicing with them more recently. This one wouldn’t hold up to much, but honestly Joshua just wanted the delay. While he was not afraid of a fight, and knew far too well that his death was likely to be a violent affair, he was in no real hurry to meet it just for the hell of it, and there just wasn’t anything worth fighting for here. He could simply leave this place and get back to work elsewhere. Besides, the battlefield as a while was beginning to get rather hostile and out of league of the energies flying around were anything to go by.

And if Sigurd was true to his word and simply left, well, he’d still leave at just a slower pace. There was work to do yet.

With no aggression, Joshua was away. He moved at a steady clip in the opposite direction of Sigurd and Akira before he cut hard to his right. He had to make sure he didn’t run smack dab into any other conflict. Especially considering the monstrous energies running around a this point. So he made sure to head back away from the center of this whole calamity. He was supposed to mostly be helping with containment anyway; he’d only gotten this deep because of what he’d gone chasing.

As he moved, it came to mind that he should seal up his Shikai again. Having it out waving about was likely to attract other attention. However, this simple task proved different on this day. As Joshua willed his Zanpakuto sealed he felt something, a push-back at his will followed by a deep and angry pain that ran up the arm carrying his sword. He glanced down; three deep gashes ran up his arm, and each gash was frozen over entirely. His blade was indeed sealed once more, but there was zero question where it came from.

“What the hell…?” Joshua started, but he knew some of the answer and didn’t have the time for the rest. Another wound to add to the collection, a trip to the medics was in order. For once, Joshua’s smile had slipped from his face. This...was gonna be a problem and he knew it.

A problem for later.