[flashback: the setting is late new world 2000 in the heart of the gemstone mine. m'ors, having gotten himself lost, attempts to backtrack through the cavern, but something sinister has been advancing toward his scent on that very same trail..]

Miasmatic reishi slime splashed hollowly on the muddied ground of one tunnel within the large gemstone mines as M'ors re-traced his footsteps both by the dim light that allowed him to see most of his own prints in the mud and by the natural formations that stood out to him on the walls of the cave. His footsteps were placed carefully: he was in a foreign location in the wasteland and he did not want to foolishly disturb any slumbering beast in a place he was unfamiliar with; and while almost at a tip-toe, the echoes of his walking rang off the cavern walls, hopefully too low for any hollow to hone in on precisely.

He continued he trek, his coal eyes long since gotten accustomed to the low light of the gemstone mine as he noticed other trackings in the mud that did not belong to he. M'ors pushed forward (well, backward) and kept his cool until he noticed something queer.. this stench he had encountered was not one he had smelled before. It was fresh, in terms of potency, but rotten in scent. His ears tensed and so did his reiatsu, which may have been foolish given the case he would disturb hollow aware to sensing reiatsu, not to mention those who could locate it.

That is when he saw it. An arrancar, although unknown to him, for M'ors thought he had encountered a human within the walls of the gem cave... but why would she be naked? Even further, why did she have what looked like half of a hollow mask hanging over her forehead down to her nose? She was beautiful to M'ors who hadn't seen such an abominable creation within his centuries living in the wasteland. Her skin looked tanned under the pale light of the gems, her hair brunette or something dark by the way the light shined off of it. In addition to the half hollow-mask on her face, a long, bony tail which was connected to the back of her once hollow-ified skull hung to the soft earth in a loose coil, which matched the length of her black hair. While not wanting to immerse himself in her perfection, M'ors took to his right and hid low behind a boulder in the massive tunnel. She had to be dangerous to be living naked in the cavern, what a beautiful animal of destruction. The female lifted her head in the air and sniffed; then, from her crouched position from over the open carcass of a goat-hollow, turned to face M'ors as she licked her lips slowly before wiping away any leftovers and stood erect.

That is then when M'ors caught the glimpse of something slender glisten off the gem light in her left hand: a katana. The detail of it was obscured by the low lit room, but the crooked, s-shaped blade of the weapon was very noticeable and obviously very dangerous as the blood from the fallen goat adjucha began to hit the ground in an echoing patter.


"Come here, my child~" the woman called out to M'ors in a thick accent, her right hand extended in a beckoning manner toward the adjucha, "I can ssssmell how dangeroussssly ssssweet~ your reiat-sssu isss." So she must've sensed him rather than heard him as he cursed himself for allowing his reiatsu to spike so carelessly. Her lavender eyes gleamed devilishly to match her smile as she stood there waiting with her right hand lowered to her hip on M'ors to obey her command, the weapon in her hand a telltale sign that she was dangerous and made it apparent that her coaxing voice is what had lured the goat into her serpentine clutches. With a deep grunt, M'ors had demonstrated his defiance to the beauty queen's order and he hurled a gem (about the size of a handball) at the arrancar to signify that he would fight to defend his life rather than allow it to be seduced away. The nameless female arrancar's amethyst reiatsu flared from around the blade of the katana and cut away the thrown gem.

[one of three]

As good of a sensor of reiatsu she must have been, she also must have sensed his adamancy to live. With cool haste, the arrancar was about M'ors, her footwork light and winding as if she were still an adjucha snake. Her crooked blade cut through the boulder that M'ors was tucked behind smoothly as he jumped back and rolled to avoid certain decapitation. He growled deeply, expressing his anger and further boosting his lust of carnage. With fangs bared, the leonine adjucha bound toward the arrancar in a four-legged charge, aiming to maul then masticate the female.

Her strength nearly matched her speed as she moved to her left and dodged a heavy swipe from M'ors; countering his attack, she hit him in his tight abdomen with a well-placed fist, followed by a quick and devastating roundhouse that sent M'ors skidding back near his starting position: "You are but an adjucha," she began mockingly, "I am Euryale.. a fressshly awakened arrancar." The serpent hollow cast her sword to the side as her hands became coated in a brass-esque metal. She was upon M'ors before he could fully gather himself from her blows, the iridescent stone lights bounced off of her talons as she swung her right hand at his head, looking to redeem herself for missing her decapitation blow from earlier.

Haste was on M'ors' side as he quickly re-acted to her arcing hand with a well timed offensive-defensive maneuver by throwing sand into her face, blinding and enraging the beauty queen as she toppled over from the brute force of her swing.

This was the time to strike. This would be the death blow. Reiryoku began to spiral inward toward M'ors' agape maw, the charged and fully visible particles a telltale of what was imminent. As Euryale spat curses and fought to get the sand out of her eyes (for she had foolishly tore into her own sockets with her still sharp and brass claws), M'ors primed his crimson doom blast to maximum potential within the gemstone mines. "Wait, wait, adjucha!" the woman called out, having sensed her foe readying his attack while she was downed, "You'll kill usss both by releasssing a cero in here!!—"

—The lion M'ors let loose his trump card on Euryale. He knew if he had allowed her to recover, then he would have surely died. Gemstone, earth and the arrancar fell victim to the reiatsu cannon as the explosion ripped through the mines, knocking the cave roof to the cavern floor and blowing M'ors back into a craggy wall, away from the middle of calamity.

As dust and debris settled, M'ors shook himself to and stood, aiming to claim his bounty. He cautiously walked toward the fallen arrancar's grave, as he could see her brazen hand sticking out from a pile of rubble. Quick thinking and know-how allowed the five-hundred and twenty-six year old adjucha to best a freshly awakened arrancar, he was thankful that she wasn't one who had seen too many skirmishes before he.

[two of three]

While he dug through and tossed broken rock aside, thoughts ran rampant through his head: 

What was an arrancar? How did she achieve this level of evolution? Exactly how strong were these beings? And how did she come across that serpentine katana?

With time, M'ors knew the answers would come to him, more than most coming from the meal he was soon to consume. After M'ors recovered half of the body (her right side and lower half had been crushed by rock and destroyed by cero respectively) he took a closer look at her and was amazed at how human she appeared. He didn't see her hollow hole, which may have been on a lost portion of her body, but again he took note of the material he found broken on her head—this had the same composition of a hollow mask.

It took little time for M'ors to devour his meal and after several minutes of walking toward one of the many exits of the gemstone mines, he felt a surge of power and most notably understanding overwhelm him. The lion hollow climbed upward on to outside land. He scanned the environs and found himself standing on the outskirts of the miasmic swamp, where few hollows dared traverse. This would be the ideal resting spot for M'ors to concentrate and further digest his meal.

Toxic bubbles popped and oozed smog into the air hauntingly as M'ors took a seat near a crooked tree-stump. He took in shallow breaths and closed his eyes as he began to focus on the bits and pieces of his meal's ethos:

---

In the low lit gemstone caverns, an amazing feat was about to pass: an adjucha's evolution to arrancar. The large snake adjucha Euryale had been scouring the labyrinth for centuries, winding her way through tunnels and honing in on quick meals. She was massive in her adjucha state, her being brimmed with raw power. Euryale took refuge in a dead end of one of the tunnels and coiled her body tightly, unaware of what was happening to her. As if though she had shed her skin for the final time, Euryale emerged from her pupa dripping with slime and naked. What had happened to her, few hollows had experienced in the wastelands. After hours of being unconscious, the arrancar stood in the large den and peered around cautiously in her latest form. While not physical, she thought she had heard a hum—a voice calling to her—from underneath her decomposing adjucha husk. What she uncovered was a wicked blade that seemed to resonate with her being as she gripped it in her hand. Instantly she knew what it was: her adjucha powers materialized into a katana. She smiled malevolently as her reiatsu sensing powers fluctuated, and headed toward the mouth of her den in search of the reiatsu's source: evolution took a hefty toll on her appetite and she would be quick to sate it...

---

Startled, M'ors came back from his mental projection. He now knew what he had to do (for the most part) to reach the final tier of evolution and he knew how Euryale had come across her weapon. He had taken but a small glimpse into the eye of an arrancar, yet he had no clue how to achieve it or even how he would regain his hollow powers from his weapon. But what he did gain was motivation to even further his existence, and with what techniques and knowledge he had gained from the fallen Euryale, he wasn't too far off from his latest goal: arrancar-ification.

He stood after hours of rest and took himself deep into the miasma marsh in search of prey.

An adjucha: M'ors was but a diamond in the rough..

[end thread]