Just Like A Buffalo... [Azariel, Khaana]

Azariel was confused as to where she was summoning all of this strength. He could barely tell whether she was human, Arrancar, a very intelligent Hollow, or something completely different. Her Spiritual Pressure alone couldn’t ease his mind, and neither could the bleeding pain. The creatures couldn’t be slowed down by his Balas, so harder-hitting blasts were in order- or so he wished. The girl had appeared before him, her face veiled under a tough helmet.

His first instinct was to raise his swords, and so he did – clashing with her sword at first, but being overwhelmed by the surprising blast wave that not only cut his chest, but sent him far into the woods. He was no longer in the city’s area anymore, and while he managed to brake on the dirt with his slim feet, the cut remained on his chest for just a few seconds before hastily patching itself up. He showed to be a tenacious nut to crack, despite the adversary being in the offensive.

My mission… No holds barred. Both of his swords were held up front, grinding against each other to send sparks out. "Breathe, Fantasma."

Perhaps, other Arrancars would’ve taken their time before releasing their Resurrección, but it boiled down to arrogance. A trait Azariel was… free of. His Spiritual Pressure rose with the green storm that circled around him, and from the vortex of Reishi, his lower body was coated in a ghastly mist, and his two swords had merged and transformed… into a large, bony bow. The sight window looked like the maw of a canine.

*BRRZZ!*

Azariel moved away from her, trying to make more distance while preparing the first arrow. His Reiryoku was pouring into it and the bow, clearly readying a powerful shot.

Oh? He was proving to be more reliable than she thought. She perked up as he kept up his defenses, but he didn't regard her with a lof ot the pomp she was used to. He wasn't a beast like Kanako. But he wasn't Prideful like Amaranta. He had his own interesting flavor of arrancar to him, and more and more, she was liking the idea of having this fellow working for her, instead of whoever had managed to get a hold of his strings.

Her angels soared up higher into the air as she finished her own trajectory, her helmet splitting apart, rapidly slithering along her arms to form gloves over her palms, a burst of energy launching her to land infront of the man with a skid, rolling her shoulders as her legs absorbed the impact easily, and she watched as he brought his weapons to bear, and she smiled, her face already restored, having shifted enough of her gigai's material to fill in the damage.

She raised a hand to her head and closed her eyes. And suddenly there was a burst of pale white from her frame. Bright, pale wings erupted randomly from her body, twisting as her form swelled and gushed energy. As that perfect shell was twisted and trasnformed into a hulking beast , overcoming the height of even the Seraph flying overhead as her own spiritual power bloomed explosively, and those wings twisted along her frame, until they finally found symmetrical spots along her shoulders, hips, and ankles, her now-armored chassis cracking into place as the Weapon she'd been fused with swelled in size as well. The weapons she'd left behind all returning to blackness and speeding towards where she was now, feeding into her body as that weapon spread and infused with the armor covering her body, until it finally split, ejecting from her wrists, now just two massive blades held in her clawed hands as she peered down at the Arrancar.

A Monster that, despite it's energy, looked nothing like a hollow.

"So much force of will. But this is what you apply it to?" The creature chittered, slowly tilting her head until a pop sounded and it was entirely sideways, showing the abnormality of her anatomy. As if the internal structures meant nothing.

"You're getting me a little excited to see how this fight ends. Come on. You don't have to cling to that sour face." She sighed, as energy boiled within her chassis, steam billowing out between the plates of armor.

"Show me what I'm buying~"

She suddenly was directly infront of him, those wings spread throughout her body giving a powerful thrust that suddenly shot her at insane speed, just like a sonido. Only instead of a straight line, that blur of her form zigged around his frame, stopping behind him as she brought one of those swords down on him from above in a downward cleave, curious to see how this bowman could handled close combat.

He didn’t know how, but she’d already recovered from the damage he dealt to her face earlier. She had impressive regenerative powers, too… was he really able to stop her? He was already too far away from his actual target, purely out of a necessity to survive her onslaught. Because he couldn’t tell what she was anymore, she was in a position to surprise him with any new attack she had up her sleeve. Azariel simply kept aiming his sight window towards her, not sure if shooting her would be a waste of Reiryoku or if she had some sort of weak spot anywhere on her.

But she began morphing, her form emitting so much light that Azariel was a bit blindsided. That was no Hollow power at all! What on earth was she?!

Her form manifested a large pair of wings, but there was nothing angelic about the form she assumed. The shadowy weapons from earlier, made of pitch-black energy, merged with her, and her form took on an extremely grotesque fashion. That was… worse… than any Hollow he’d face. Azariel was used to masked monsters – not monsters with nothing to hide like this.

His hands were shivering, but he kept his bow and arrow held aiming at her. Despite the façade, she still spoke to him – although the body language was improper and audibly self-harming, she didn’t address the strangeness. This was some sort of transformation…

The pressure around her… it was visibly denser and heavier than ever before. His soul, heart, and blood screamed at the sight. He couldn’t beat her, not like this.

But he had a mission. Was he willing to die for it? His death wouldn’t make the mission a success at all… what was he supposed to do? Die? Fight? Flee? Disappoint his client? Disappoint himself?! His sheer panic petrified him.

But perhaps, not giving the first blow was an advantage – the creature blurred around at impossible speeds, ignoring its own large frame as it disappeared from view. Azariel could only ever hope to rival that with Sonido, and the reverbing buzz of his Spiritual Pressure popping in and out of existence managed to bring him out of being cut in half…

His forehead was bleeding, and so was his shoulder. There was a gaping wound on his left shoulder that his Regenerar was busy patching up. Still, he made more space from her, so obviously showing his weakness – his Resurreccion wasn’t meant for short-range combat, but he needed the power it granted him right now. Otherwise, she could kill him with a touch.

Titanio!

He had gathered just enough courage to shoot one arrow at high speed, its force pushing the air away from its trajectory. The arrow was imbued with the power of Hierro, toughening its form and tip, making it a true penetrator.

Titanio:

His own regeneration certainly made this interesting. The crackle of his frame buzzing out of the path of her slash, that sleek blade stained red with the partial hit as he zipped behind her. That bow promptly unleashing a devastating shot.

Her head spun around with a crunch and those wings folded into a circular ring behind her as the air suddenly hardened between them. Her spiritual pressure compacting into a layered barrier that the arrow slammed into. Cracks strealing across the space between them as that barrier glowed. The cracks glowing bright.

The air bloomed with the shockwave of thatSeraph Field exploded outward. Sending a shockwave as the barrier itself plunged toward Azariel. Sheer force shunting everything behind her in a destructive line, slamming trees, earth, and rock in a river of flowing material as that almighty shove aimed to obliterate clean line behind her and bury the man in debris.

The arrow itself lodged in her back. Shallowly sunk into her monstrous hide, having gone through that barrier and sunk between those folded wings, but the ‘wound’ didnt heal. After all she wasnt actually regenerating. Only moving around the material her body was made of. She preferred to have a face. She had no reason to close up the wound.

”Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant. But what do you plan on doing about… them?” She looked over her shoulder, just as a barrage of spears slammed into the Arrancar from above. The flying creatures overhead launching those living weapons down like missiles. But rather than aimed to skewer him, they only aimed to slam into the ground around him. To drive home that she very much could have tried to kill him.

”I like you.” her body turned while her head was still pointing at him until she was facing him normally, striding towards him as those blades melted back i to her wrists, forming armor over the forarms as she did.

”But this is merely my Second Form, little man. Consider whatever contract you had previously nullified. Your powers have so much better they can be used for.” She stated firmly.

”Without purpose, strength is meaningless. It is what drives any warrior of note. Whatever purpose you once had, I need only look in your eyes to see that you are sorely without it now. And that is unacceptable. ” She extended a massive clawed hand to the man, and for all of her grotesque appearance there was no mistaking the confidence in her posture, nor the certainty in her voice.

”I will give you purpose.”

The falling spears were one thing. The fact she just… tanked his arrow was another thing. The fact Azariel felt powerless was drowning…

The shockwave came first, a response to his Titanio. He relied on Titanio’s piercing prowess to shatter through her defenses anyway, and that it did… but the shockwave didn’t just end with the arrow. It traveled across the poor dirt floor, kicking up rocks and debris that threatened to bury Azariel alive if he didn’t dash in a zigzag formation, preventing his foothold from disappearing all of a sudden. However, the pavement was only half the problem – with his arms raised up, he took the blunt force of her shockwave and was sent flipping several times on his way back from the impact.

He had to use his bow as a pick to brake his knockback, but he could feel the strength in his arms vanishing. That shockwave was adamant, and his Regenerar was constantly working to recover his injuries at the cost of more and more of his energy. And then… the spears. He’d assumed she could only summon them from shadows, but the creatures above him caught his attention.

Somehow, he was able to avoid getting hit by spears a bit easier than before, but it didn’t register in his mind that she was holding back. He was panicking… and she was talking to him. Calmly, confidently, and with interest in him. He found himself in a makeshift cage of spear bars, his bow supported by the ground as he tried to aim it at her… but he couldn’t bring himself to shoot.

“… W-What…?”

She had strength to spare, reserves untouched. Her ‘second form’ as shown here was merely that – a second form. It meant she had more at her disposal, which Azariel was pushed to use his Resurrección. She was right. He was little.

His arms fell. He couldn’t aim his bow at her right now, even though the muscles in his arms beckoned him to lift that bow back up again. His breath grew raspy and heavy as it dawned on him… just how much of a failure he really was. One damn target, one kill was all he was signed up for… and here he was, failing miserably.

“Why…?” he gasped, utterly confused as to what on earth this… creature saw in him. Couldn’t she see? He was as pitifully pathetic as one could be, and here she was, talking about giving him a new path forward, a new purpose and direction. What the hell did she see in scum like him?

The shroud of monstrocity peeled away like so many thin fleshy ribbons. The creature that had been terrorizing the man turning to dust in the wind, as if it had never been there to begin with. And in the wake of that veil, as she shed the MAJORITY of her release. All that was left was her normal form, shrouded in pale wings.

She was still released, and if he attempted to raise his hands to her, he'd find himself put back in the firt. But all the same, the gesture was there. So many months, YEARS of work on this form. To force herself into being able to achieve a version of her release that was ...palatable.

She smiled softly down at the arrancar as she kept her hand outstretched.

"Because if you were just some assassin. You'd have never started with the bala. You'd have plunged down from above and stabbed him through the heart. You're no assassin. And I can see the regret in your eyes. Ain't often I see an arrancar looking for a purpose. Rarer I see one with a conscience. " She noted, some small mote of bitterness in her voice. As her mind drifted to the feline under her employ. And she lamented that ultimately, she would never truly reign them in.

But Azariel?

She saw potential.

Huh… she was shedding away her monstrosity right in front of him. She had all the confidence in the world to do such – he didn’t know if it even changed anything. Her Spiritual Pressure was still sky-high. And yet… she looked very serene. As if there was nothing to worry about.

That was it, wasn’t it? That was all he was worth – pity, at the end of the day. Pity by who he’d tried to kill… how depressing. His hands still shaking, he even started to shed a tear. He felt utterly defeated, though he was still drawing breath. His father would’ve rebuked him harshly in this circumstance – draw your blade and just destroy her! C’mon! C’MON!!!

… But he couldn’t bring himself to lift that bow back up. It merely dissipated into Reishi, reverting back to his dual blades. He’d lost the strength in his arms. He was done for.

… But she answered him. For some reason, she answered his poorly-constructed question – the Bala he started out with… yeah… why did he start with that? It was one hell of a distraction, but- what did she mean? Wasn’t he an assassin? Was he just a bad assassin? That was terrible! He had to be a good one! The most reliable one! Otherwise, he’d be… useless…

But…

“Am I not disgraceful? I… can’t complete my task now. I’ve failed,” Azariel spoke with regret, losing his desire to even return to his client now. He’d just get scolded or punished, and his heart sank to his feet at the thought. “Do you… see use in me? Even now?”

Khaana smirked softly at his question. Even seeing him devolving into this teary state. She still maintained her confidence, but it wasn't pity she was looking at him with. No, she had .. specific people she reserved that emotion for. But not him, at least not quite at this juncture. He certainly could prove to need it eventually. But for now...

"Who cares if you failed at a Stupid task to begin with? Your mission was retarded, not that I guess there was any way they could have known. But still. That's not on you." She stated simply, before reaching down and grabbing his wrist. Forcing him up onot his feet with a tug. "I dont care if youre a bad assassin. I don't need any assassins. What I need is arrancar who can know right from wrong." She had fewer of those than she'd like. She could honestly use one more.

She firmly patted his shoulder as she hoped to keep him standing upright, those wings furling behind her as she did. "So what's it gonna be bucko? You wanna keep being a bad assassin? Or do you wanna come with me?"

A stupid task, eh… a really stupid task… he really did bring himself to this point, didn’t he? All because Azariel was unable to say no when asked to do something. There was just something lively about helping others achieve certain goals, to prove his own worth… even if it’d brought him to this level of low. She had every right to call it stupid.

He was a bit taken aback, but thanks to her hand, he was able to stand back up on his own two feet again. She had… new tasks for him. Expectations he hadn’t… ever met before. She didn’t want a mercenary or an assassin, but she wanted an Arrancar with a sense of morality? From what Azariel knew, those were scarce, but… could he be the one?

It felt… good. Yeah. The knot on his heart wasn’t there when he thought about this offer. The painful, aching knot that tied around his heart had loosened… this must’ve been a sign! Certainly, his mother wouldn’t roll in her grave if he went with her. But his father… would definitely scoff at him.

Visible hesitation grabbed Azariel’s face, tugging him away when he tried to move forward. A true Arrancar wouldn’t- wait…

…

“I… am not a pure Arrancar,” he stated, taking a step forward towards her as he sheathed his weapons, “Maybe that’s why… this feels right to me. But I let down those who expected things from me before… will this… make me feel more Human again?”

Khaana offered a lopsided smirk and gave a little snort and a chuckle at the explanation. "Huh, that right? I thought you were a little unusual, not often I run into half arrancar." She murmured thoughtfully.

"I admit I don't really know. I'm not exactly an expert on feeling human. But if it'll help you out, I'll do my best to help you reach that point. What with all the stuff going on lately, I wanna try and deal with some of the fuckers who want to take advantage of how things are now. That means that I may need your help,now and then, okay?" She asked calmly. Patting him firmly on the shoulder as she promptly turned to start leading him off to the side. A bit away from the city he had uh.. just caused a ruckus at.

"It's not gonna be easy, but I'll teach you stuff. Not just fighting, but helping you mingle with humans too, if you want."