Chapter 287: A three-way battle

Chapter 287: A three-way battle

(3rd's pov)

---(Akio's side)---

*SLASH*

With one clean slash from Akio's Zanpakuto, a head came clean off. Slowly, the head was sliding off into the ground as it lost connection to the body. A surprised Quincy didn't have any time to use Blut to defend against the attack, not that it would change much since Pepe wasn't proficient in that technique.

Akio looked at two of his remaining enemies to judge their reaction. He was hopeful that they would at least partially lose their cool. In that case, it would be easier to predict them, but this hope was quickly crushed as he noticed no reaction from them.

Even with suppressed emotions, Akio felt slightly annoyed, and he suppressed clicking his tongue. It made things more difficult, although 3 vs 1 turned into 2 vs 1, so at least he raised his chances.

"Pepe always was a fool... hiding behind his Schrift... abusing a gift from his Majesty and never improving. Nevertheless, he was of use to His Majesty, and for that... I need... to kill you."

The creepy voice slowly turned into more chilling and finally, into outright terrifying. It didn't intimidate Akio, but it was mostly thanks to the drug of his making.

The other Quincy was glancing at his 'ally' as he was losing his cool and tried to formulate a plan as now he needed to include a Sternritter running wild alongside himself. He would need to adapt to him if he wanted any kind of teamwork, and from the last interaction, it seemed that they would need to because Akio didn't even use Shikai, yet he killed a Sternritter. A weak Sternritter but a Sternritter nonetheless. The most frustrating part of all of this is that Akio wasn't that strong. He was just a very hard counter to 2 of his 3 opponents and was able to predict their movements to a scary degree, but his body couldn't keep up that kind of high-level fight for a long time, the number of bruises and cuts that he had were a sign of that.

"You won't be able to win this fight, Shinigami."

That was undoubtedly the truth. As it was now, Akio didn't stand a chance, but he had an ace up his sleeves.Visit nov3lb!n(.)com for new novels

"Spread, Doku to chiryo." Akio released his Shikai, and his sword changed its shape. Gone was a standard katana, and in its place was a large great sword with three holes in it, and the blade ended in a half circle. A strange shape for a sword.

"I don't like using it, you know. It's too big for my liking, and it tires me out too much to be useful in longer battles. Not to mention, its main ability is not as effective as I would have liked against stronger opponents such as you two."

"So why use it, and more importantly, why explain it?" Cang Du asked with his eyes narrowed.

At that, Akio grinned.

"What an idiot. I won't say that I'll miss him, but His Majesty will be disappointed." Bambietta commented without a hint of sadness in her voice. It only showed how little they cared about their own comrades. "...but we should take care of the intruder first before we report to His Majesty."

With that said, she created projectiles and sent them towards Masaru. Before they reached him, they hit a wall of black flames and exploded without harming him.

Bambietta and Bazz-B narrowed their eyes.

"So, Shinigami thinks he's hot stuff? Let's see how he deals with Burning Finger 2!"

With a swing of his arm, heat gathered in the two of his fingers and shot towards young Yuuki as Bazz-B let a feral smile creep on his face.

Expecting his attack to pierce through his enemy's fire, he was left utterly flabbergasted when it was his flames that got surrounded and slowly 'eaten' until there was only black left.

There was silence. What just happened was insane. An attack overpowering another attack was a regular occurrence, but that wasn't what occurred. Masaru's flames devoured Bazz-B's fire. Such was the nature of his Zanpakuto, but there was a minuscule detail that the two Quincies missed. Masaru was starting to sweat and breathe a bit roughly.

The way he used Tsukihi wasn't the way he would normally, That was required if he wanted to keep 2 opponents in check at the same time. Not to mention that his Zanpakuto was very Reiatsu dependent. The more he devoured, the more Reiatsu was needed, which may seem strange, but the energy is stored somewhere and is waiting to be used whenever Masaru releases his Bankai. In short, Shikai gathers the fuel, and Bankai burns through it.

Masaru couldn't allow himself to get lazy and block all attacks with his fire. He just wouldn't last. He is not Captain Commander who can fire left and right until his enemies melt. Yamamoto is a monster among monsters with a monstrous amount of Reiatsu as well, which Masaru didn't possess. Not to say that he was sloppy, but in comparison to Yamamoto, most would look weak.

---

And so the fights on three fronts went on until...

"Bankai!"

—

END

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