A Meeting Of Blonde And Blue (Leona/Armina)

Leona's latest attempt to get by Armina's guard had failed, which was not too much of a surprise to her. Armina's choice of counterattack, however, was a surprise and the blonde had to move quickly to avoid getting a nasty cut or losing a leg altogether. With the time she had before the blade made contact Leona jumped back and the worst she got was a cut on the knees of her uniform, but no blood had been drawn... this time. Had she waited a second longer her mobility might have been hampered and the momentum of the match might have shifted irreversibly in Armina's favor.

Leona landed on her feet and almost immediately went on the offensive. Instead of spinning or going for raw power she again opted to try for a speedy strike using multiple jabs, but the plan would be a little different. Leona adopted the elaborate grip and stepped forward, then jabbed for the Fourth Seat's torso in the first attack. The second one was aimed at Armina's left knee and the third one was aimed at the midsection. The fourth and final jab was aimed for the right thigh.

Leona was not sure if she could catch the Fourth Seat off guard because the latter was an observant Shinigami who had picked up on Leona's style fairly quickly. The orthodox approaches to Zanjutsu and Hakuda had produced limited results, so the blonde might need to try some things that were outside the box. However, she was not sure what unusual fighting techniques she could try that would justify endangering herself for a chance to surprise the Fourth Seat.

The Fourth Seat blocked three of the four jabs aimed at her but was struck by the one targeting her thigh. Leona had scored another small victory against the seated Shinigami, but the match was far from over. There was no dramatic speech or threatening one-liner to mark the transition to the next phase of the contest, but there was no need for words when Armina's actions spoke for her. The blue-haired woman's weapon had changed from a katana to a fancy-looking warhammer, something Leona did not know was possible. If Armina looked closely she could see the undisguised curiosity on the blonde's face.

Knowing that there was no way she could realistically compete against the Fourth Seat without activating Shikai, Leona did so.

"Blow across the land, Reppūmaru!" Leona called out her Shikai release phrase before drawing her zanpakuto. There was no dramatic visual effect to mark her entering Shikai like a whirlwind or a powerful gust of wind and her weapon did not change form, but there was one physical change to the blonde Shinigami. Her hair had turned silver and it was blowing about despite the absence of wind.

Once she had entered Shikai Leona thought about how to start off. Speedy spinning attacks were not working and traditional Zanjutsu techniques were having diminishing returns, but she could not come up with anything that Armina had not seen yet. Realizing that she was not going to get very far by continuing to play it safe, Leona decided that now was the time to begin using her basic knowledge of Hoho to use shunpo for a different kind of speedy attack. Focusing intently on what she was doing for a few seconds, the blonde disappeared in a "flash step" and reappeared on Armina's right side within sword range of the latter.

Leona gripped her weapon in a two-handed grip and did a diagonal right-to-left slash aimed at Armina's right forearm. Having realized that attacking the shoulder was folly, the blonde was trying a different way to attempt to hamper Armina's ability to attack her. However, her plan of employing shunpo as part of her first attack in the new phase of the sparring match might backfire because whether or not the attack hit the Fourth Seat would be watching for that particular maneuver for the rest of the fight. Still, trying something like that was better than sitting back and letting the stronger Shinigami control the pace.

Leona's tactic of using shunpo to close the gap and attack was thwarted by Armina's reaction time, but it had been worth a try because she had learned about her opponent's warhammer. Judging from the fragments of ice that drifted off of the Fourth Seat's weapon, it was an Ice element. Leona had thought that the other Shinigami's zanpakuto would have been a Fire or Water type, but now the blonde knew what element she was dealing with.

She observed Armina use the same tactic she had and use Hoho to reposition herself in a hurry. Leona spun around to find her opponent and by the time she did so she saw the head of the warhammer heading towards her midsection and knew that being hit there by the weapon would do more than just take the wind out of her. With precious little time to react, Leona adopted a two-handed grip on her sword and assumed a defensive stance in a hurry. However, she had not had enough time to properly position herself and as a result received most of the force of the blow to her stomach as her weapon was effortlessly batted aside, but at least her weapon did not cut her when Armina had powered through her weak guard. Leona should have tried to dodge, but it was likely she would have taken a hit to the ribs and suffered them being broken or taken a hit to the head and risked getting a concussion (or worse) if she tried to duck, so she would have to live with the result of her snap decision.

Armina was rewarded with the blonde staggering back two steps while struggling for breath. Leona was forced to forgo any attempt at offense and pause for a moment to catch her breath, taking in air in short, sharp bursts. She was certainly going to feel the hit in the morning.

"I'm impressed with your balanced use of the physical Shinigami arts. It's easy to see why you're the Fourth Seat!" Leona praised her opponent for the second time in the match before coughing for a few moments. That was no idle flattery. Armina was testing the blonde's skills in Zanjutsu, Hakuda, footwork, and quick thinking like no one or nothing else had done so far and the blue-haired Shinigami's talents were worthy of praise.

After offering Armina a compliment and getting her breath back for the time being the blonde spun into action, moving towards Armina in three consecutive right-to-left spins while holding her zanpakuto in a one-handed grip. As she went through the second spin she raised the weapon and held it steady with a trajectory aimed at her opponent's midsection, but Leona was trying for a feint. Instead of using her sword to strike she was going to get within Hakuda range and use her fist to deliver the blow. When she was nearly facing Armina during the third spin and was within range Leona quickly lowered her sword diagonally and balled her left hand into a fist, then stopped the spin in front of her opponent and threw a punch aimed at the left cheek of the Fourth Seat's face.

The feint had failed, but Leona was not upset about that at all. Armina had once again shown an impressive reaction time and dodged the punch concealed behind a spinning slash. Maybe the spinning had given it away or maybe Armina was just that vigilant. Either way the attack had been dodged and the Fourth Seat had attacked by sending forth what looked like chains of ice aimed at the unseated Shinigami.

Unlike the last time the Fourth Seat had attacked Leona was focused on her opponent and saw the attack coming, so she had just enough time to react thanks to the adrenaline that was flowing freely after the warhammer hit to the stomach she had taken a short time ago. The latter quickly did a full spin to the right and dodged the chains just in time to avoid being ensnared by them. She quickly faced Armina and focused intently for a few moments before using Hoho to perform another shunpo. The blonde vanished momentarily before reappearing within Zanjutsu range at the Fourth Seat's left side.

With little time to spare Leona gripped her zanpakuto tightly and performed a one-handed three-attack combo. The first slash was a right-to-left slash aimed at Armina's elbow. The second slash was a left-to-right one aimed at the same area as the first. The third and final part of the sequence was a downward chop aimed at the shoulder.

While the first two parts of the combo had been blocked with the creative use of ice chains the third part of Leona's combo had hit Armina where it was intended to hit, but the Fourth Seat did not take long to focus again and attempt to retaliate with a combo of her own. The unseated Shinigami did not have much time to react before the warhammer came her way again, so she quickly jumped back to avoid what turned out to be a vertical attack that might have come down on the top of her head had she remained still or tried to block it with her zanpakuto. She had just landed when Armina followed the first swing with an unexpected spinning attack... being hit by the weapon after it had built up momentum through a spin was likely to be a lot more painful than being hit with a normal horizontal swing. Again Leona jumped back and avoided taking a hit to the stomach or ribs, but the timing of the dodge had left little room for error.

After landing on her feet the blonde almost immediately moved towards Armina until she got within zankaputo range before initiating another combo attack. The first part of it was a quick one-handed stab aimed aimed at Armina's shoulder. The second was a quick horizontal right-to-left slash aimed at the midsection. The third and last attack was another quick stab aimed at the thigh. Leona was trading power for speed because she was trying to keep pressure on the Fourth Seat and possibly force the latter to make a mistake that could be punished by a more powerful attack, but she was not certain if such an approach would work against an experienced combatant like the blue-haired Shinigami.