39 – Hunt

39 – Hunt

'Well, forests are definitely not my favourite places anymore. At least this one looks different enough from the regular ones on Earth.' he thinks as he tracks the spirit signature he had decided on.

Hisashi eventually came across a trio of Gillian making their way through the forest. He wasn't sure if it was thanks to the system or just the fact that he maintained his consciousness during the evolution, but he was still able to use the skills from before despite being in the Gillian form. He was concealing himself with [Illusory Aura] while stalking the trio of Gillian.

[Illusory Aura] worked flawlessly, it just seemed to have a massive increase in spirit power consumption, likely due to his equally massive increase in size. Only his [Energy Blade] skill seemed to be wasted as he didn't have any blades in his new form.

The three Gillian seemed oddly sedate when comparing them to the Hollow he was used to dealing with on Earth. Maybe the increased spirit particle density or something else in Hueco Mundo was causing this. Making them less hungry for souls while the regular Hollow on Earth were effectively starving at all times.

He closed in on the group without them being able to notice him as he stalked up behind the one nearest to him.

'Alright, no time like the present. Let's do this!' he tried to psyche himself up for his first battle with Gillian.

He activated his [Blut Arterie] to boost his attack to deliver a crushing surprise attack on his first target.

He launched himself towards the first one with so much force the dry ground cracked. The crack was loud enough to gain it's attention, but before it was able to respond he had already taken a massive bite out of its mask taking it out of the battle immediately and started devouring it one massive bite at a time while the other two were still too stunned to react. Thankfully these Gillian were still too stupid to immediately realise there was an invisible foe attacking them.

They might even be a decent bit slower than regular Hollow in this aspect, probably a side effect of hundred of Hollow souls vying for control rather than having one soul in control. He should keep in mind that it might be different for Gillian with unique masks indicating there is a single soul in control.

[+40,500 XP]

[XP: 53,230/78,080]

[+1012 Spirit Power]

[Spirit Power: 237478 -> 238490]

[Mission: Devour 20 Gillian 2/20]

Unfortunately, it didn't take long to finish devouring the second Gillian and run after the last. Though he didn't get a boost in dexterity when transforming into a Gillian he assumed neither did the other Gillian, because he was still a decent bit faster than them.

He concentrated [Blut Arterie] on his arm and hand effectively turning it into a deadly spike. He leapt onto the running Gillian and pierced it's skull from behind to finish the last one off to devour.

[+47,200 XP]

[XP: 66150/79250]

[+1180 Spirit Power]

[Spirit Power: 239585 -> 240765]

[Mission: Devour 20 Gillian 3/20]

'Alright, they don't go down quite as easily as regular Hollow. They have high resistance and their damage output is quite crazy. That Cero barely grazed me, but it went straight through my defences, but they might actually be a decent bit dumber than regular Hollow. At least until one consciousness takes control of their body. I've seen more intelligent animals than these three were.' he goes over how the fight went and the conclusions he could draw from it.

'They also give an insane amount of XP and Spirit Power though. I'm sure I'll hit a plateau again eventually, but for now this should give me at least a few more levels in days rather than months.' he thinks with an excited predatory smile.

'System, put the free point into dexterity.' he tells the system.

[Answer: Affirmative host's dexterity has been upgraded by 1 to 61]

'Alright, time to grind some Gillian before Aizen comes back. If I can manage groups like these regularly I should be able to hit 20 before then easily and if Adjuchas is as much of a jump as Gillian was I will be incomparable to where I was as a basic Hollow by then. I already seem to outclass the Gillian I've found so far by a decent amount. Even if I didn't use my [Illusory Aura] and their lack of intellect to trick them I could probably take these three head on, but who would be that stupid.' he thinks to himself.