The fight (Stella/ Gaoh)

Attention slipped from the axe to Stella's movement as she let go. Gaoh's expression only exaggerated as his smile bore teeth, clenching as his heel dug back. The quincy was already forming a good impression on him, with a willingness to discard her weapon at a moment's notice. And the shift of speed! It glimmered palpably in his eyes, a crimson flash that followed her. By the breadth of a heartbeat, she'd swing, and his attack launched.

Muscle sprang into action with a step back, elbow rocking towards Stella's face. A sharp, powerful counter, enough to fling the woman backwards with a bloody nose and give Gaoh a hearty chuckle. "You're earnest! I appreciate that." Words tumbled after the laughter, relaxing from the stance as he turned to face her fully.

"But you're thinking small. Amateurs 'like' fighting. Sadists, egotists, small minds." An arm bowed, a solitary finger pressing against Gaoh's temple. "Life is fighting. Fighting is life. Communication in its purest form. Make a fist," the finger pulled away, clenching into a fist that pointed to the sky. "and you can find out the kind of person someone is faster than if you've known them your whole life. Bleed for someone, or make them bleed. Worth more than words, worth more than ideas."

The arrancar's arm dropped to his side, and he took a small step forward, eyes locked to Stella with a friendly intensity. "Violence is the great equalizer."

It was fine if the woman did or didn't understand. Few came to the arrancar's mindset easily, let alone naturally. For the value of a fist to be taught, it needed to be ingrained. The only way to understand what it meant. "Funny, you don't strike me as someone running from a fight." Gaoh chimed in turn, gaze lagging behind as Stella shot upwards. Reflexively, his stance shifted, wider, lower; his abdomen clenching and arms lifting skywards.

Forearm braced against forearm, elbows scissoring against the falling axe as muscle bound like steel. There it was! No holding back, Stella's attack caused the ground beneath Gaoh to shift, crack, crater under his feet. Smile wide, his neck craned past the view of her weapon. A line of blood ran down his arm as he spoke, shoulders tensing further. "I see it now, your 'benefit of the doubt'. Show me something of who you really are, quincy!"

Fists slammed upwards, the shift aiming to blow the axe backwards as arms rose. A duck, shifting forward to dodge retaliation and circle the clearing, footing turning him backwards all the same. Attention on Stella, her show of determination. If he couldn't make her flinch, then he'd have to find the next best thing. An open palm led, as his fist drew back once again.

With the quincy withdrawn, her movements played out in a myriad of ways. Gaoh's eyes steadied on her, afterimages and swings building in the forefront of his mind. Steps, blocks, strikes, defense, offense; it all sifted through like a flip book, spreading out between the distance that separated them. That high speed movement of hers was troublesome, but nothing he couldn't prepare for. Another card in the hand, another variable to understand. How many more did she have up her sleeve?

And what should he show her?

Moments flew by with the concentration of sweat, the shifting breeze. A leaf slowly gliding into a beam of light, and the arrancar moved in a blink. A direct charge forward, open palm ready to match any imminent counter. Footwork light, non committal. Toes that edged a hypothetical ring, waist poised to spin, lower the weight, shift into near three hundred degrees of motion. All the while his fist tightened, muscle taught, springing into action at the moment it was requested, and not a split idea before or after.

Any window of hesitation, inaction from the quincy; and it'd be thrown with a spiral, extending range and output into a jaw clenching gut blow. A counterattack, and it'd aim downward, a hammer fist to pin the woman's kneecap into the joint with incredible force. Going upwards, it'd shift into a side blow, using the rotation required to slip underneath or behind as necessary. Dodging further back and he could secure his footing, extend into a back handed punch to tag the woman prior to an exchange of blows. The exits were accounted for. The distance was perfect. A song was being sung, and it was Gaoh's solo.

To the tune of bruises and broken bones.

Blow connected - not entirely, but still heavy. Gaoh had to give the girl credit, she had good instinct. Maybe not the best training, but guts mattered more. Couldn't train that.

Vision escaped Gaoh as Stella's spell enveloped him. The forest giving way to a white sphere, and then darkness. Even in the dark, a smile burst wide, gleaming white. A boisterous yell followed, the arrancar's volume peaking. "GOOD! SHOW ME MORE!!" and in turn, he'd show her more.

Twin nukite launched, fingers punching through the sphere's wall before clenching back, gripping into the substance with full force. Shoulders strained, muscles clenching as Gaoh twisted and pulled. Tearing open the glitz, he'd relinquish the scraps in his hands, both arms drawn back. A half step on his left, rotating against the ball of his foot in an attempt to catch Stella's movements, eyes flicking around the trees. The shake of a leaf, the stir of a branch -

Wait, that wasn't the quincy.

Gaoh jumped back as a cero tore through the air, a hollow slithering out from the forest. A hideous thing, its body was long and segmented, a cenipede's carapace that bristled with assorted limbs. Hands and feet, arms and legs, glittering porcelain white. A mask sat atop where a head would be, large mandibles extending from beneath, smoking from its attack. The mask shaped into a crescent moon, a singular bloodshot eye resting atop.

"Friend of yours??" he half yelled, attention shifting in totality. Blood on the rock from earlier... Thing needed to be put down.

The quincy wasn't falling short of Gaoh's expectations as she moved, immediately shifting focus as he did. Maybe he'd found someone more interesting that he thought. That was for another time - matters at hand were of more import.

"Take care of? We really need to work on your vocabulary." Gaoh grabbed his neck, cracking it with a pull. "This is an extermination."

The karateka blurred with his step, a practiced, heavy motion. His stance squared in front of the hollow, one arm drawn back, the other gripped into a claw. A piston fired, launching an uppercut to push the centipede further into Stella's axe head.

A bundle of flesh met in turn, and it screeched.

A bucking motion, and both of them would be flung away, the single eye widening as dozens of arms and legs squirmed, seizing before shifting. A blur of white filled the air, each of the limbs spindling out into a razor sharp spike. Trees felled, stone pierced, lines of blood scoring both of Gaoh's arms as he exhaled, having narrowly avoided a more dangerous wound. The spikes receded slowly, the hollow squirming towards the pair on reforming limbs, screeching as another cero charged.