Desire Looming [Wellgunde, Open]

Oh, what a pleasant place this was. Not for the appearances, or the architecture, for Wellgunde cared profoundly little about that. No no no, she was here with a purpose; to help her darling Klein achieve his goals by every possible metric, and to ensure that everything went according to plan. To that end, she would commit the most egregious crimes, cut down countless innocents, bloody her hands a thousand times.

With a tranquil smile, Wellgunde's spear cut through yet another shinigami, before she simply stepped away from him in a leisurely manner. In spite of her modest speed, the woman nevertheless vanished from sight the moment she stepped; she appeared only for the briefest of moments, her heel clicking against the ground, before the faint hum of sonido once more caused her to vanish.

She would enjoy this little task. Any mission given to her by her beloved was something she would happily throw herself into with abandon.

All manners of spectacle had begun in sudden moments. Chaos took root, and seeing Arrancar capable of cutting down shinigami effortlessly did not help the masses. Was that a damn dragon?!

Hayden was helping with what he could, of course. With a sword in hand, he was helping to evacuate those who were most certainly outclassed by the absolute power-players that had begun to invade their home. Lord knows he was as well. But there was a duty to be held to. Rushing into a fight against someone who could effortlessly flick his head off like a soccer mom can flick the cap off a bottle of vodka wasn’t going to do anyone any good.

You’re panicking
Shut up
Watch your breathing.
That is not my highest priority right now
You can not protect these people if you’re panicking

There was a moment of silence in his head. The shinigami took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out as he kept gesturing in the direction people should follow, all the while keeping his eyes peeled on the skies around them.

Shut up

With everything that grew closer, he couldn’t sense Wellgunde very well. It wasn’t until she was significantly closer, and when she had come out of a sonido to cut down a poor peer of his, that he had any eyes on her.

“Crap” he muttered, looking back to the numbers he was helping to evacuate. “Damnit…”

Without thinking long enough to regret his upcoming actions, he jumped into the air, and flash-stepped in her direction, right before she used her own technique to disappear again. “God I hate this job,” the man complained, looking to the ground, then around him as he dropped to the floor in caution. He couldn’t stay out in the open for everyone. But he had to find the attacker before she could do more damage. Hopefully, nice and alone, he appeared as a nice little morsel for her. Or he that he could see her in time to put himself between her and the next victim...

The pink-haired girl couldn't have a moment to think, everything happened in the blink of an eye, though that was just battle. Was she scared? Of course, she dealt with cabbage thieves for God's sake. However, she needed to remain calm to assist around the Seireitei, she wasn't some nameless Shinigami anymore, she was a seated officer who needed to step up.

Currently, she assisting with getting the panicking Shinigami under control, they told Hono of a woman who was striking them down, feeling in mass from her general direction. They were fast and used a spear. That's the only concrete details Hono could gather.
"Calm the hell down, if you panic you won't be able to feel her coming. Go, find someplace safe..." She barked some commands to the soldiers near her, causing them to flee with the rest of the crowd Hayden had cooked up. Honestly, she felt bad, someplace safe? Was that even an option right now?

Seems Hayden wasn't the other person trying to summon Wellgunde, Hono wasn't that far from him. The Shinigami would shout, trying to throw her voice as wide as she could. "Oh come on! The small fries are never any fun! To scared to take on a seated officer~" She needed to act tough, any sign of weakness could be a death sentence.

"Hm~?"

Despite the serene smile on her face, as Wellgunde turned to look at Hono, there was an undeniable, burning intensity in her gaze, something between fury and hunger. She took a single step closer, her presence vanishing for that brief moment of even a normal pace, and spoke again as she stabbed her polearm into the ground momentarily.

"Scared? No no, little one. Simply on the hunt for good prey. I hope you aren't all bark, I was told to find those with some meat on their bones."

Another step forward, and Wellgunde vanished yet again, her pace still entirely mundane and yet her presence undeniably masked by a profound grasp on Sonido. This time, however, she was not simply moving idly forward. A shell of her reiryoku, akin to a hollow hierro, had shot forward toward Hono under the guise of that same sonido, polearm ready to slam the shinigami into the nearest wall. Wellgunde herself had hardly moved more than a few feet; she didn't much need to, or even care to, for that matter. Her eyes then turned to the young man who had dropped to the ground, a faint bit less malice behind them now as she spoke again in that same low, calm tone.

"Your friend might keep me busy a while longer, if you'd like to change your mind and run."

The fear Hono was feeling was quickly suppressed by anger. This woman was a monster, and Hono wouldn't just stand there and let her do as she pleased! Regardless she couldn't be rash, as much as she wanted to rush directly in and attack, she kept a level head for the time being. A small smirk appeared on the woman's face as she placed her hand on her sheathed Zanpakuto, slowly drawing the blades she responded. "Please, prey means I'm below you" She decided not to say her name or her rank, and keep up the smack talk.

Though it seems their banter came to an end as Wellgunde lunged at Hono, ( or at least she thought it was actually her). Hono drew her blade fully as she went to retaliate, going to slash at the approaching figure, stepping to the side quickly to avoid being slammed into the wall. After that, she held onto her Zanpakuto, keeping her eyes glued to Wellgunde, watching for any funny business.

The sound of Hono's voice, followed by that of the nearby clash, had drawn his attention. Hayden had made his way to their location with a leap, followed by a flash step to impact into the ground. Just in time to watch as Wellgunde threw… not quite herself at Hono. He had landed more on the opposite side to her, placing the Arrancar between the two Shinigami. Both arms held his sword out in front of him, with his feet poised and ready to launch himself back if need be.

“Unfortunately, I'm trying to get a raise,” he jested in response to her addressing him, although his face did not change from a stern expression, revealing that he wasn't taking his job lightly despite the small jab. “I don't suppose asking you to walk away from this is an option, is it?”

Hayden figured there was no way in hell that their opponent was going to leave it alone. But he came to buy time for the others to get away, not to save his own hide. The two only had to stall her long enough for the masses to escape, or for someone stronger than them to show up. The man just hoped that he and his teammate were at least on similar pages.

"Mm... I see. Well, I wouldn't ever place myself beneath you, little girl. But at least you'll make for amusing prey for now."

Wellgunde stabbed her polearm into the ground at her feet, a pool of water forming as she pulled it away. Dealing with two opponents would be a little bit more work than only one; even so, as long as she didn't act a fool, it shouldn't have been impossible to deal with.

"Walk away? No, of course not. I'm here on a mission from my beloved, and you know what they say..."

With one step forward, two more shells of hierro burst forward from the woman, appearing next to Hono and Hayden and readying to cut into them both. Wellgunde herself, however, had still hardly moved much at all, maintaining her unimpressive pace as she spoke again.

"Love conquers all."

As the mass shot forward, Hayden reacted by shifting his feet into a more stable position and bringing his sword up defensively. He noticed had the water that appeared, but hardly had time to process it as he blocked the blow comeing at him with his zanpakuto. An oversized pole arm was not going to make things easy, but it wasn’t like he had a choice except to deal with it. Turning his body, he raised his blade to push the weapon coming at him upwards and to the side, with his left hand letting go of the handle part way through the action. He made a wide step forward, took his free hand, and grabbed the arm of the entity close to him.

Using a considerable amount of force, his arm yanked what it was holding behind him. His back foot stepped forward, then he flung the husk at where the Arrancar had been standing. It had considerable speed behind it, and the way his arm moved turned it laterally, with a bit of a curve as it pretty much flew at his opponent.

“Yeah, yeah,” he brushed off with an annoyed huff, wanting to roll his eyes but refraining from doing so as the Shinigami brought his sword back up. “Save it for the hallmark script.”

A very soft exhale came from Hono's mouth, she was ready for a fight. She was taking note of the water that came from the woman's weapon, which wasn't going to reveal much about her powers, there was so much it still could be. Hono knew she could create clones or illusions, so she expected them. Turning to block the strike from the shell.

Hono spoke up, looking towards her teammate, she didn't know who Hayden was exactly, but he was on her side and that's all that mattered to her. The Shinigami would kick at the fake Wellgunde, trying to push it back. With her hand, she would take her Zanapkuto and drag the blade against the floor during her kick.

"Breakthrough! Kazagumowari!"

As her blade dragged against the ground, she released her Zanpakuto. Dragging the fight out was pointless, so Hono was gonna let her Shikai see some action. The blade of her sword began to crumble and break apart, seemingly falling to pieces, all that was left was a rusty-looking cleaver.

Hono would now keep on the defense, since her blade was shorter, she needed to stay on alert!

Despite her combat readiness, Wellgunde seemed faintly surprised as the hierro shell was thrown back at her, stepping to the side as her presence disappeared with the static of sonido. However, she reappeared with a faint graze on her shoulder, and her lips had formed into a thin line rather than their detached smile of previous.

"I see. I hadn't expected little pups like you to yap quite so incessantly at my heels, but very well."

Taking a gentle breath inward, Wellgunde crouched low to the ground, the hierro surrounding her legs exploding outward and launching her toward Hono and Hayden far quicker than her previous measured steps. The nature of sonido masked her arrival, and only the sound of static filling the air gave much indication of her sudden arrival. When she suddenly appeared closer to Hono, the more immediate threat simply by way of her release, she stabbed forward with her spear, water pooling at the point of impact as she did so.

"If you wish to protect the rest of your ilk, then you had best be prepared to suffer."