Monochromia Descends [Act IV]

The visionary launched from the hole, a blink and the ominious eye appeared from the hole to start flying through the air like a giant sphere to smash through the rubble of the city as it spun around like a spinning top to seek out its new prey. The warlord's cry had called it from the abyss and scout out the strong for his conquest of this land above.

One large red eye overlooked the scene when he flew into the sky and saw no victims for its conquest. There was no sense of disappointment or glee by this, it did not feel anything about the situation for an eye only processed what it saw. The brain is what made determinations off this information.

Whether there was one to meet Monochromia or not meant nothing. This landscape was an eyesore that required correcting and the giant glowing eye sparked with red lightning before it fired its Razer Beam across the landscape to erase the crumbling buildings which might serve as barricades or cover for potential prey.

What in the hell was that?

Ranma got the memo, alright – and here he was, fending off a couple Hollows and only expecting more to crawl out from the hellhole they spawned in the midst of poor Africa. The flying, red eye and its spherical exterior – more eye than anything else – just didn’t waste a second and started turning crumbling, surrounding buildings into gravel with an eye laser, even causing him to fly off to the side in his attempt to weave off the laser and prevent himself from turning to dust himself. His Shunpo proved only to avoid immediate impact, but the destructive force it left behind still flung him to the side – thank goodness it didn’t seem to aim directly at him, but… that was now a sort of expectation.

And here I thought I could get closer… he reprimanded his skill issues in stealth before running to the side and finally starting to soar, attempting to fly in a circle around the eye he (perhaps, definitely and faultily) assumed to be a sort of one-trick pony with its appearance in mind. “Try and hit me now, fleshlight! Fuckin’ dare ya!”

Tento would not be one to call himself a lucky man. But honestly being assigned out here again after his last failure was a bit of a mixture of luck and mercy. Maybe things were put on the back burner given the state of things. For him at least the area of his placement was calm; initially at least. There were no hollows currently felt or spotted outside of the whole, a miracle fact that was a bit unnerving.

This calmness was thrown to the wayside as a shift of pressure was felt as the pressure in the air gave a quick quake as the hovering eye. Smashing and bashing through rubble of the city the act of such quickly grabbing Tento's attention. Causing the ebony warrior to jump into the air to acquire a vantage point of view while it began its physical rampage of destruction. With a built up of energy a glowing sparkle unleashed red lightning as a Tento shunpoed out of the way further while sliding closer to the sudden appearing hollow. Avoiding the immediate impact and the destructive shockwave that filled the aftermath of its blast. Spotting another figure flying around the hollow eye, tell tale garbs of a fellow Shinigami, Tento took no time to waste moving closer in from above his zanpakuto draw in an overhead readied strike.

The blackman was attacking it? Monochromia sensed the oncoming attacker breaking into its perimeter and rolled. It's spherical shape proving most advantageous in allowing for it to quickly spin to show the eye at Tento before blasting him directly with another cero.

It now had a true adversary to face rather than just look upon this landscape and get rid of the eyesore. Monochromia's single flaming eye had no emotion except staring down the shinigami that had come directly towards it.

Darkskin colleague went in on the offense while Ranma thought that he’d caught the eye Hollow’s full attention? Well, wasn’t that a smooth bit of teamwo- damn, that filthy eyeball quickly forgot all about him and sent out another blast directly at his incoming aid, causing the yellow Cat-Eyes to grit his teeth. Oh shit… he cursed in his head, unable to intercept the blast with a Shunpo as unrefined as his.

But since the creature was looking away from him now… Ranma unleashed his Shikai; unsheathing his Zanpakutō and holding it up in front of his face. “Move…” Watching the blade’s straight form turn wavy and distort the air around itself, Ranma moved the blade down to his hip and swung at the Hollow from a range, releasing a blue slash wave that’d trap its body in slowmotion if it landed.

“Hōkamaru, Yone…!”

Zanjutsu Used:

The blackman did attack it, blade ready to strike the hollow down as he flew in. However the eye hollow turned suddenly when Tento reached into its vicinity, rolling in an odd movement to spin out of reach before unleashing a quick burst of energy in a blast that sent Tento back as he let out a grunt at the attack. Tento blade's crashed into the cero to dull the effects of the attack, a quick burst of his spiritual energy being unleashed to act as a last minute buffer. His body steadying itself in the aftermath of the cero. Tento swiped out his zanpakuto as Monochromia starred into him. The flaming eye watching and waiting. Okay. Wordless teamwork attempt number 1 was a no go. All good!

Error once, live and lesson learned. Focus young master. You must be ready to respond.

If you act stupid and can't get the job done. I will give you a hard time again. I don't care if I will cooperate for now.

HEY! NO. BAD HOLLOW. If you try that crap again i'll outta….I'm still sweating about the trouble from that.

FOCUS!!!

Shiōmaru to the rescue once again with these two knuckleheads…

Since Ranma had taken the opportunity of the hollow focusing on Tento to make his move. So would he, and after Ranma unleashed his Shikai and threw out a blue slash wave, Tento would eye the Hollow’s moves and charge in once again after the hollow got it or responded to the attempted attack. Appearing for a while before vanishing in a flash step, appearing at the Hollow’s side throwing out a horizontal slash before flicking his sword forward into a stab in quick succession. Tento's blade shifted mid strike of the second attack, greatly extending his reach in an attempt to catch the hollow by surprise.

“Soar. Shiōmaru”.

Slowed as it was by Ranma's wave of reiatsu, the eyeball did not have the same capacity to spin or strafe as it might normally enjoy but its primary threat - the black shinigami - attacked the side of its durable carapace which made a sound as though the blade was clashing with bedrock. A flash of sparks from the dragging over its strong hide before the bright red eye went dim for a moment.

It had blinked and in the act of blinking the hollow dispersed into a black mist before reforming behind Tentou about fifty metres away from him to create extra distance from the shinigami that had slowed it in the first place.

While a nice reposition, the hollow eye had no retaliation immediately as though it were revaluating the situation before it to line up a new offence for the two.

… Oh, at least he was alright. Ranma wouldn’t lie, his heart raced up to his throat for a brief moment there – now, to the present-

His Yone actually landed on the flying, armored, nasty eyeball and made it lag in real life. He’d met his fair share of opponents who thought it’d be real fun to crush his confidence by simply evading those spirit waves, but luck must’ve been on his side today! And Tentō wasn’t a second too late with a follow-up attack, with such synergy complimenting the enigma’s supportive role and revitalizing his coura- that sound didn’t sound like severing flesh, not one bit…

…

Nooooooooooo… bullshit.

Apparently, the fancy eyeball had some sturdy… whatever that was. It was mostly an eye, so was that carapace its eyelids? Weren’t eyes fragile and vulnerable to something as little as a hair? Stupid Hollow powers… but it was still an eye, right?

“Ayo, Tentō…” Ranma tried reestablishing verbal contact once more, ditching the wordless teamwork while they had some breathing room. The floating orb they were trying to kill had made distance from them both, maybe with the same idea or maybe it was charging up a Cero. Either way, from his observation, it had no fucking ears, so what gives? But Ranma had a plan, and if not for his bandages, he’d reveal a wide crooked grin with squinting eyes at the setting taking place in his mind. “Reckon you can cook up a Kyokkō? At my mark, I’ll give ya a setup – just get ready to surprise the meatball.”

Aaaaaaaand the incantation was probably needed, he wanted the cloud to be as big as possible… and he’d end up pointing both palms downward, ending his chant with: “Bakudō #21. Sekienton!” And as things played out in his wonky head, the moment that red, scattering cloud of smoke emerged, Tentō would know exactly what to do.

Shiōmaru was held Tento's hands. Its fan resting in his left hand while the chained sickle spun in a gentle turn to the side. His body quickly turned to face the hollow as it shifted away in a light mist. Its exterior was tough then he had thought by the looks of it. He would need to use more of his strength in his strikes to land a deeper cut. Either that or find a different way to hurt this thing. The flash of sparks shone in reflection to his rich brown eyes. His face in a straight deadline of focus. He had no idea how Ranma delayed the Hollow’s movement with his zanpakuto. But it was a critical role in that strike landing. His ability, if this was any hint of the flow of battle, would be critical in this match up. Tento already learnt his lesson of what would happen if he just tried to charge in…

“Sup Ranma?”, Tento said shifting a foot and lowering his center of gravity ever so slightly as the first line of communication began. Eyes trained on the floating eye hollow as his ears heeded his fellow Shinigami's words. “Oh?”, Tento sounded in interest at the request.

Curious about why he was asking, the kido spell was not that useful easily once you was in combat after all. He had a smile start to creep onto his lips though, “yeah. I can do that. Show me what ya got up in ya mind!”, Tento sounded in a bountiful battle cry roar. With that Tento quickly realized what Ranma was going to do next as Ranma began his incantation of Sekienton. And with a quick cast Tento unleashed Kyokko in a wordless chant while snapping the spinning sickle into his right hand. Uplifting a contortion of light that bent around the two soul reapers. Hiding their physical form and Reiastu.

With a quick shift of his body attempting to make his movement almost as quiet as possible. Tento moved below. Plucking a feather from his fan before gathering the energy for another wordless incantation. Curious if this camaflouge would work. It was fine either way for him. As this was Tento's attempt at having the hollow focus on where he may be given its focus on him so far. Hopefully what Ranma was cooking up would be good.

It regarded the plan with indifference. Whether the eyeball had the wisdom to be able to formulate a counterstrategy was debatable at best while the hollow rose from its position to greater heights. The smoke screen was making it difficult to see its prey but this could be dealt with by increasing the scope of its sight.

After a delay to reposition itself, in one fell swoop the hollow's eye glowed and it fired a cero in the shape of a cone. The cero growing wider the further away it was from the hollow until it bathed the entire city ruins below in a red light. To encompass both the smokescreen and the area surrounding. They could hide but Monochromia would be sure to burn its prey wherever they decided to hide.