A Meeting Of Blonde And Blue (Leona/Armina)

Something strange was going on here and it was not Armina blocking her attacks. For some reason Leona was starting to feel slightly numb, but she was definitely moving slower. She was feeling the kind of slow that no amount of adrenaline could overcome, but she somehow mustered the reaction time to perform a backflip that carried her out of the way of the sweeping strike that was targeting her legs, but Armina might have been able to notice how her right leg was not quite as high off the ground like her left leg had been during the backflip. The moment she landed from the maneuver Leona felt the creeping numbness return to her body.

When Armina suddenly disappeared from sight Leona recalled how the fight had went up to this point and suspected that the Fourth Seat was about to strike again. She was proven right when Armina reappeared behind her and attacked using a kick directed at the back. This time Leona could not pull a last-second dodge and could do nothing but brace herself as she felt the full force of the Fourth Seat's foot connect with her back and send her staggering forward for three steps before she righted herself and stood up through sheer force of will. She turned to face Armina and took a quiet breath.

While she was on the back foot for the time being, Leona was not out just yet. She still had the energy and the will to fight. She also had both of Reppūmaru's Shikai abilities, assets that she needed to start using while she still could. With that in mind Leona prepared a Crescent Wind ability by focusing her attention completely on Reppūmaru and raised it to be vertical with the edge of the blade facing Armina and its tip pointing towards the ceiling.

The next step was focusing her reiatsu into it and making the zanpakuto visibly glow silver. The final step was to swing Reppūmaru to using the ability and Leona did so with a one-handed left-to-right slash aimed at the opponent's waist level. It did not matter whether she used a one-handed or two-handed grip and it did not matter which direction Reppūmaru was swung in because Crescent Wind could be fired with a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal swing without any loss in the projectile's striking power. Armina would see a visible and horizontal crescent blade of wind heading in her direction and aimed roughly at her waist... if it hit the damage inflicted would be comparable to a direct hit from Leona's zanpakuto. While every hit counted, Leona was also trying to send the message that distance alone would not protect the Fourth Seat from attack.

The Crescent Wind ability had had more of an effect on Armina than Leona had thought it would, but the Fourth Seat was still standing and still able to fight. That was fine with the blonde, who was glad to see that her most challenging opponent to date was not about to give up. However, the unseated Shinigami was running out of ideas to use against Armina.

Leona had tried her normal Zanjutsu style and that was having diminishing returns. She had tried Hakuda and aside from a punch to the face it did not do much. She had tried a discount version of her sister's style and the speed-based style did not have nearly enough striking power to have any noticeable effect when she managed to land a hit. She had even tried a Shikai ability and it did more than Leona thought it would, but it was still not enough to shift the momentum of the match in her favor. Armina was a good opponent... in fact she was such a good opponent that Leona had nothing left to use against her that the vigilant blue-haired Shinigami had not already seen.

Leona managed to jump back and avoid the first hammer swing Armina had used, but her legs were not working nearly as well as they had worked earlier in the fight due to the numbness she was feeling, so the dodge was one that had been made by the skin of her teeth. She landed unevenly and forced herself to remain standing upright just in time for the follow-up swing, which was one that came in about shoulder level. Leona pulled off another last-second evasion with another jump back, but the hammer's head had passed uncomfortably close to her chest when she jumped back to avoid it. Landing on her feet and feeling her right leg wobble after the landing, the blonde had a realization that the match was slipping further and further away from her; continuing to fight in a sparring match that was becoming harder and harder to remain competitive in was not a good idea.

It would be best if she conceded before she received a bad injury that did not need to be taken.

Leona sheathed Reppūmaru and deactivated Shikai before taking a step back.

"I concede the match to you, Fourth Seat." Leona announced aloud. Conceding was painful to do, but the momentary blow to her pride was a lot easier to recover from than a warhammer hit to the stomach... or to the head. Since she was having difficulty staying steady on her feet, much less staying competitive, quitting while she was ahead was perhaps the smartest move Leona could make.