Cut Through the Silence [AfriCatastrophe Act IV]

Like a peal of thunder, the air shook as Malice O flew over the battlefield. Her sleek form cut through the air with hardly any resistance, putting even modern aircraft to shame; it was only all the more damning to be one of the living creatures in her wake, as the blades that adorned her body sliced through them as easily as water. After only a moment of flight, the bird of prey came to a stop, settling on the ground as a spiked tendril unfurled and moved to collect her feast.

Like skewering meat, corpses were piled onto the appendage, and drained of their souls until nothing remained but empty, withered husks. It was a simple matter, but the single, glowing eye of Malice O remained vigilant even now. She understood a hostile environment, and her every muscle was tensed, ready to move at a moment's notice.

Rio was prepared. The moment her forces were alerted of another horde of hollow erupting from the pit, she immediately set into action. That was her duty, after all, as the second in command of the combat division - to be prepared to fight at any moment.

Thus, the moment Malice descended toward the ground and engaged in wholesale slaughter, her sword was already positioned in the air, ready to face the monstrous bird of prey directly.

"Harden, Tetsumaru."

In a single breath, her zanpakuto's release state roared into existence. What was once a singular blade now separated into four malleable swords of obsidian, each connected to a chain hovering around her person. Gripping at the handle, she shot forward like a shooting star, transmuting one of the blades into a large battleaxe that threatened to cleave Malice in two if she remained stationary.

Beware evil hollows, the bell tolls on this day for you, and as the sun sets on this day it will carry your soul away with it. The toll of the bell of which was just spoken rang as the lone figure appeared in the air above the scene; winds stirred into action to cause her hair to flutter around her, and the boom caused by the distance she had crossed in mere seconds to arrive caught up like thunder chasing after the lightning-fast Yugiri.

"You're going to wish that you had not crawled out of that hole!"

She had rehersed this after all for when she saw the next big hollow and so she thought she looked pretty cool standing up in the sky with her arms crossed under her chest but now for the real killing blow to this foolish hollow that thought it would enjoy a little flight in her skies.

"For all the souls that you have taken, prepare to die in record time."

Yugiri finished and swiftly grabbed at the glasses on her face to expertly throw them away. The only thoughts in her mind right now were how well she'd nailed this entrance.

It had sensed both opponents coming, its sensory organs trembling from even the faintest disturbance in the wind. With only the briefest shriek, Malice O launched itself upward, a trail of burning spiritual particles trailing behind it as it shot upward toward Yugiri. Even so, at the same time, its gaze seemed never to falter from Rio down below, either.

Two spines suddenly shot toward Yugiri, the tendrils it was attached to rapidly unfurling and extending at exceedingly high speed. At the same time, a cero burst forward from its pointed face, aimed squarely at Rio below. Offense was its greatest strength, but its offense was built on speed.

"Yugiri?"

A familiar voice reached Rio's ears in an instant. In the blink of an eye, appearing as an imperceptible gale sweeping along the winds, Yugiri soared onto the scene with inhuman speed that momentarily left Rio dumbfounded. An unexpected entry, to be certain, yet Rio found it far from appropriate to worry about her inclusion now. Considering the current nature exhibited by this hollow, Yugiri's presence was more than beneficial against the unparalleled speed of Malice. After all, the way it flawlessly shot past her was anything but promising.

Though Malice's attention had barely wavered in the slightest, the short period in which it chose to attack Yugiri gave her ample opportunity to shift into action. Rio stabbed two of her blades into the plains, relying on the earth's resources to fill her blade with material to mold its shape. In the next instant, a ray of energy was descending on her from above.

The obsidian axe, intended to cleave Malice in half, was quickly repurposed into a protective barrier to defend against the descending cero. Left with one blade in her arsenal, Rio morphed its overall shape into that of a long chain with several spikes along its construction. Without hesitation, Rio hurled the chain forward in a dedicated attempt to grip at one of the hollow's tendrils.

"Ohohoho! So you run towards me rather than running for your life!"

She delcared in her show of theatrics but had played extra risky to finish the line. The smug attitude became serious when she judged the speed of her adversary as too fast for her to enjoy the moment and leisurely dance around it before killing it. Guess it was a good thing she had picked this one, only a true flash goddess could handle this issue, but why was it so fast!?

The spiritual pressure of her surged with it emanating from her whole body. The was a brief chirping sound as the tendrils got too close.

"Too fast-"

She looked shocked for a moment at the turn of events and the crowd would see her skewered by the points. It didn't look good for our hero except when there were two other Yugiris standing at the tendrils and a fourth behind the impaled one.

"Shikko: Fuushin Kamaitachi."

They all declared in unision. The two Yugiris at the tendrils didn't have a lot of strength to offer but they still reached out to try and grab the tendrils below their spike instruments. Shikko only made her faster, not stronger, and the speed clones were already weaker. It was just a little test to see if they could hold Malice O long enough for Rio's chain to catch its target which she'd caught sight of in her response.

The one that had been impaled disappeared after the bloodspray - it looked cooler that way - that left the real Yugiri having retreated after her feign which involved getting closer to her attack to plant the other two prior to backing off with her first speed clone's death.

"Rio! I'll distract it as long as I can, prepare your bankai!"

As both of its tendrils were captured, one by clones it could not fathom and the other by chains of raw strength, Malice O screeched into the air once more, both tendrils simply snapping off of its body like a lizard removing its tail. Bright red fluid sprayed from each wound for only a moment, before sealing over as the hollow took stock of its opponents. The one below was immobile; the one in the air was a more immediate threat.

After a moment of absolute stillness, as if the beast was simply staring, the screech like a jet engine once again filled the air, and the hollow shot toward Yugiri at blinding speeds, every spine on its body fanning out to create the highest possible surface area of blades. No normal hollow could have matched it, and even few shinigami would have had a chance. This was evolution for the sake of predation, and as such, Malice O had never known defeat against a foe at its own level.

"Tch...!"

In the blink of an eye, Malice had forcibly removed the tendrils, separating its captured limbs from Rio's obsidian chain. In the skies above, Rio could only bear witness to the inhuman display of speed as Yugiri contended with the beast. Ever higher, ever faster, they drew further away, truly leaving the Shield of the Shihoin on earth without a purpose.

Rendered immobile by the nature of her zanpakuto, outclassed in the realm of speed by the imperceptible blurs darting the canopy, Rio was somewhat vexed by the thought of allowing Yugiri to carry all the weight in this battle, far too prideful to allow this battle to end without putting on a noteworthy performance of her own.

No, in this coordinated effort, she wanted to show her honorary sister what she was truly capable of. What technique, then, could be of benefit to a battle punctuated by speed? The answer was made abundantly clear by Yugiri herself.

"Let the preparations begin, then. Try not to defeat that accursed beast before I rejoin the stage, Yugiri..."

The obsidian blades converged around her. In orderly array, each ink-colored blade rooted itself within the deepest core of the earth, devoted to a process of draining the current plains of its essence. To accelerate that process, Rio, too, slowly but surely surrendered herself to fulfilling the condition of her final release, a materialization few had bore witness to. All bets were on Yugiri now to distract Malice long enough for it to come to fruition.

"Huh, that's--"

It launched itself at her again which left her unable to finish, she was already working on the need to work pre-emptively. Even with her shikkou compensating she felt like it had the advantage in raw speed over her technique, and so she needed to time it perfectly or else suffer grievous injuries but she was not wrong in her assessment when she got the second sight of it.

She took a step back, she had to guess that it was coming right towards her and so she'd let it chase her but she'd be sure to make it regret following her.

"Natsushiki - Daifunka [夏式 - 大噴火, Summer Style - Great Erupting Fire]!"

As soon as she stepped the hollow might as well have walked into a bomb going off as the speed that she moved at left its own sonic boom. A vast majority of the speed itself transformed into a violent explosion that cut the skies apart. Even if it cut through her technique, the additional resistance would slow or stagger it while she had an opportunity to reposition.

Indeed, Malice O rocketed fully into the sonic boom Yugiri had created, its myriad blades fanning out to cut through as much of the burst as it could manage. Even with that mitigating factor in place, however, it was visibly disoriented, its spiked head whipping around to get a clearer look at Yugiri rather than immediately turning to chase after her.

In an instant, two more of its razor-sharp tendrils unfurled from beneath Malice O's wings, and shot toward Yugiri like bullets. Even if it was not suited to move again just yet in this brief moment, the creature was nevertheless a predator, and could attack even while sitting completely still.

A cero followed those two strikes, still aimed at its airborn opponent as the hollow remained unaware of what was occurring below it. It was, for now, laser-focused on only this single quarry.