They came, screaming in terror, from as far back into the First District as Kiba could see from atop the wall. The great mass of churning bodies surged forward, stumbling over itself as the individuals trampled and tripped over one another. The gap between they and the onrushing pool of black as it tore into sight was not great, Kiba lamented, but it would have to do - word had never gone out to the Citizens, it seemed, and for that Kiba would likely have a stern word for the would-be savior of the masses, but for the time being, he was busy turning and lowering his gaze to the men behind the gates, his voice raised to be heard above the call-to-arms running along the wall. "The gates are opening! Get out there, let the Citizens pass, and do NOT let those Hollow against my gate!"

The Taicho's hollered commands were met by a roar of agreement, the motley bands of Shinigami made of any Divisions that were present placing hands on their weapons as the men above the gates turned their cranks, crying out as the great portals lifted and the Shinigami went surging forward to meet first the ally, then the enemy. The dance would certainly be awkward, Rukon Citizens pinballing from body to body, Shinigami and neighbor alike, until finally those who could or would not fight were within the gates and the Shinigami, alongside whoever would help, were left to break the wave of Hollow, lest they pour unimpeded into Seireitei.

SPOILER: Click to show

Note
As with the sister-event, this thread will receive a mod post every 24 hours, or as near to as I can manage, and posting order is only to be maintained when necessary for individual cohesion. If a player is skipped over three times, they will be removed from the Event, and the Event is set to end in seven days, give or take. So let's have a fight!

The day had started so well. Admittedly, he'd been a bit put off that Haiiro had somehow managed to vanish the night before. The pup tended to roam as he pleased, and sometimes he was off romping with Fuji. Sengoku had put it out of his mind and gone on with his tasks. There was work to be done, supplies to be gathered. The big barkeep grunted as he hauled the cart behind him, loaded with meat and grain and vegetables. The winding road back into the Third district was a long one, but it went through some lovely parts of the Second. The smell of fresh spring air filled his lungs, and made him smile. He'd not noticed that there were no birds singing, no squirrels or other rodents running about. Ignorant to these oddities, he had gone on with his journey as planned.

He wasn't far out from the Second district when he stopped to take a break. Parking the cart near a large stand of trees, he leaned against it and undid the clasp on his waterskin. There were a few houses around him, farmsteads with families working in the field. Nearby, some children laughed and played. He smiled and waved to them, but otherwise minded his own business. He was just getting ready to start pulling the cart again when the wind shifted. There was a faint smell on it, one that set his jaw on edge and made him nervous. He looked out to the wastelands, where the fell wind seemed to be blowing from.

Too late, he realized what he was smelling. A shadow fell over the farmers' children. Screams came from the fields, and from the second district rose the bone chilling howls of the Rukongai's greatest threat. He moved too slowly. A hollow had crashed down among the children. Slaughter and blood, a mother's horrified screams. Sengoku was certain he'd been screaming himself. His waterskin and cart abandoned, his axe in hand. He didn't even remember activating the weapon. People were running, screaming, panicking. Shinigami were rallying.

Sengoku's blood ran cold. There were so many of them. Too many. He found himself herding survivors, rallying fighters. The Men and Women of the Rukon came out in force, and Sengoku was soon standing shoulder to shoulder with Shinigami and Rukon alike. Where had the hollows found such numbers? Had there always been this many? What about the Third and Second Districts? To have penetrated so far, they surely must have rampaged their way here.

His grip tightened on the handles of his axes, until his knuckles were white. His jaw clenched. Blood pounded in his ears, and for a moment he nearly submitted to fear. "Fuck this," came a low growl, one he barely recognized as his own voice. He stepped forward, picking his first enemy. "Fuck this, you great mad beasts!" He was bellowing now, trying to draw their attention. "You murdering, bloodthirsty bastards! Leave my people alone!" Words failed him. He charged, ready to submerse himself in a battle greater than any the Rukongai had seen in centuries. He only hoped he wasn't alone...

Hmm...its been a few months since the last major crisis. Guess there was no better way to drill you members as some land wide commotion...though he couldn't recall a time in history of the land they called their own that two events of such magnitude happened so soon one after another... And Yet, as he noticed the sudden commotion, and influx of Rukongai citizens coming through the gates, which he soon learned was a rampage of Hollow heading towards the gates, he knew that the day would be busy.

Now, the good news was that the Rukongai citizens which came through the gates were for the parts parts only injured in a minor way, so he didn't have any conflict about where to place himself. Leaving the 7 of his seated members to take care of the situation in the division, he organized 5 away teams, which he lead out towards the gate. He was pretty sure that with the Hollows storming the gates, his expertise would be much needed as close to the action as possible. And if anything, he was also ready to lend his skills as a warrior. While not a master combatant by any stretch of the imagination, he had a few tricks up his sleeve compared to the other attack.

Indeed, he felt a bit more confident then last time as he strode in the front line with the group behind him. At least now they knew they were dealing with Hollow. Ferocious creatures with carried abilities, but they weren't contagious. once they were repelled them...though it did seem that it would be a complicated endeavor...as he saw the gate from afar, he could see the sheer mass of creatures trying charging through, n beetwen he Rukongai citizens, the Shinigami following suit. It would turn nasty for sure... A much bigger tally then one lonely girl from the Rukongai... he had to do all that he could to is try to help as much as possible. And hopefully with the team assambled along with him, they would manage to do just that.

nearing the gates he would turn around,trying to disregard the masses of people moving in between them and dress the groups following him saying "Just to repeat what was said earlier: group 4 and 5, stay back here, direct the Rukongai populous further to our Division, and apply any aid they might need. Group 1, 2 and 3, follow me closer to the gates, and then spread out to try and aid any Shingami or Rukongai citizens in the area who need it. Be prepared to engage the enemy, but do NOT advance past my position, no matter the circumstances. Always make sure there is at least on companion near you as you move on. Stay vigilant, and good luck" he concluded with a determined look, his face looking quite serious without his usual smile on it. He would move forward, drawing his blade as he moved towards the gates and the Shinigami fighting there. He needed some time to asses the situation, see who needed his aid... and if it was truly necessary, at what his blade should be swung at.

Mai had been doing whatever it was she was supposed to be doing on one particular day, be it filing things or carrying thing or even helping heal things. She had been more or less stable since the incident, and while it had gotten her down on more than one day since, she had come to grips with the situation. It was her first hands-on experience with the death of a patient, after all; she was bound to be affected more than the others. The last few months seemed to be a blur, at any rate, and now here she was, apprehension filling her with dread as she followed her Fearless Captain into the heart of presumed chaos once again.

Doggedly, she kept to his heels, a shadow following him as he made his way into the fray. Whenever an unfortunate soul had the chance to bump into her, she would pause and direct him the way to go, to one of the refuges set up whence she had came, and then hurry up to reassume her position on Harupia's heels. Unlike her Taichou, she had kept her zanpakutou in its home, inexperience keeping her from following suite; she had yet to learn the art of fighting with one hand and healing the other, although she too had tricks up her billowy sleeves. Instead, she was of a mind to "heal first, fight later" and hope that someone would protect her.

Her beloved pup, now six months of age (or thereabouts) was not ready -- emotionally or physically -- to do anything but bite at Malik as he walked by; Fenris, the grey beastling, had expressed a want to follow Mai wherever she had gone, but due to his species, size, and age, had been left home to pine and destroy Malik's beloved weeds (oddly enough, he had left Mai's flowers alone). Perhaps when he cooled down, she could take him on little puppy adventures, assuming she was around to do so...how morbid one thinks when in the thick of carnage....

Zane stood around causally, his mission swiftly interrupted by the impending attack and screams by various Rukongai citizens about the happenings around them. Zane, though not much for grouping with people, awaited the arrival of several more Shinigami before he moved from his stationary position to the spot where they were desired to be at. Zane followed swiftly behind a group that passed, helping to direct any of the citizens that bumped into him as they moved, hoping they would get safely to their destinations before moving again. As he ran, using a strange zig-zag hopping pattern of movement, he clutched his hand on the hilt of his Zanpakuto in case of encountering a Hollow. Zane was, by no means, a good fighter, his skills of all forms of combat being sub-par at best, but he wasn't about to just allow this go.

Unlike the Hollow further back, the more numerous beasts that had pressed forward to the Seireitei Wall were more focused in their rampage, aiming their violence specifically for the living, fleeing bodies they chased off than the surrounding landscape. Feline Hollow were at the fore of the group, generally faster than their peers, and a few fell before the lesson 'do not run directly at the one with axes' was learned as though a lesson among a hive-mind. Rather than spread to the wall itself, the Hollow broke like a wave over the Shinigami as they formed a defensive wall, they and the warrior-citizens and the resultant fence of steel and Reiatsu.

As Harupia and his kind spread among the center of the Shinigami, whilst Zane and what few he could gather dove headlong into the Hollow ranks, Kiba simply growled from on high, watching as the fight took it's turn, watching as from the distance a new figure began to near, though 'a figure' was an improper term. Three bodies formed a wide triangle around two others, and from the three points formed by those Hollow a glowing purple pyramid had erected and moved as they did, a shield of Reiatsu guarding they and the two bodies within. One body, short but standing tall, was fully covered in cloth and cloak, while the other was a hunched and fat rat-like Hollow, bellowing and shrieking to it's churning mass of followers, entreating them attack and raise havoc.

Zane's path would come obstructed by a long, serpentine Hollow who's body width measured some four feet tall, while the length measured perhaps ten meters. Despite this dread appearance, the Hollow did not seem especially quick as a serpent might, though the great fangs protruding from the mask dripped an emerald green liquid in fat droplets.

Before the enraged Sengoku would emerge from the formless mass of Hollow a tall, bipedal beast, perhaps twelve feet tall from cleft hooves to great curving horns. The beast's core was manlike, an in the minotaur's hands, two great curved rocks were clutched at the center. Makeshift weapons to be sure, but in the formidable beast's clutches, dangerous none the less.

As the battle began to wake into it's whole form, more than a small few Shinigami began to fall back with the opening wounds, though even these were not terrible. One in particular stumbled before Harupia and Mai, three long, albeit shallow, slashes across his chest, having torn his shihakusho ragged along the tears. Still, though the wound was not deep, the man wailed and quaked, dropping his weapon to paw at the wound. The frayed edges of his uniform began smoking ever so slightly, and before long even the man's hands were turning an agitated red where they'd come into contact with the wound.

Two minutes in, and already covered in blood. It was a good start, as far as Sengoku was concerned. He wrenched his right axe out of the skull of a particularly feisty cat looking hollow, and spit on its corpse. Black, tainted blood dripped from his axes. More Rukon citizens were retreating, and Sengoku was worried. What had happened to the Third District? The Second? The hollows had had to pass through those two first. Where were Mihamaru and Fuji? Where were the rest of his defenders? He had to finish up here as quickly a possible: he may be needed elsewhere.

He was moving forward, carving his path, when he was intercepted by something that actually looked like a challenge. A goat-man-hollow thingy with a couple of big rocks in its hands. Sengoku squared his shoulders, turned his chin up, and met its eyes with a hate filled gaze. "Hey ugly, I'm going to mount your head on my Tavern's wall." He had no idea if it could understand him, but that didn't matter. The words made him feel stronger. Without another sound, he surged forward, axes at his side. he came within striking distance, and lashed out at his enemy's right thigh, a sharp downward swing that could easily cleave through flesh and bone, and leave the hollow one leg lighter if it connected. What had his father always said about fighting enemies who were bigger than you? You had to drag them down to your level before you could beat them proper.

Ahh yes, the chaos was rising by the minute as the panicked masses charged between them. Fortunately the Hollows wear still keeped outside of the gate, though the Shinigmai fought hard to keep it that way. However some of them were getting wounded, one in particular rolling his way, failing wildly as he fell down before them.

The three claw wounds looked rather shallow, so he was guessing it was simply the shock of being attacked. But as he perched down and saw the hand turn red, along with the simmering of the uniform, he already knew there was something more to it. He quickly would grab a hold of the hand which touched the wounds while saying "Mai, help me hold his hand down, you two don't let him touch his wounds with the other. And don't touch the wound before I try and take care of it" He asked for Mai first, since again, in the last few months he had grown to trust her quite a bit. And he wanted to show her he didn't think of her any less in the light of recent operation.

Hoping as the two other members held down the other hand, and hopefully Mai assisted with the other, he would slowly move his free hand, the bright green glow of his Raitsu spilling over it. He wasn't quite sure what time of poison technique this was, but he was quite confident that his healing could at least nullify the spreading of it. If he managed to succeed he would move to the men's chest, trying to cure away whatever was causing the spreading, searing wounds. Of course there was a risk of getting infected himself, but he was sure he could overpower whatever toxin a Hollow could produce. He couldn't waste much time, especially with the tall Hollow...contraption lurking in the background. He was pretty sure that was bad news...he needed to have his eye's on that.

Quickly, Mai did as bade, snapping to attention from her previous position as Harupia's shadow; she had heard the collective gasp from the other two members of their team as the man had come to a stop before them, but was not entirely prepared for the sight before her. The steaming was new to her eyes, though her mind's eye had certainly imagined it from the books she had read as a child; the reddening of his hand she could assume was from some sort of poison-based substance that came from whatever kind of hollow that had inflicted the minor wounds -- the wounds were not serious by any means, but something had to happen for the man to be this painful; to her misfortune, Mai did not have much knowledge of the hollow race and what abilities they could possess.

Gingerly, she reached for the hand, trying to not touch the reddening bits -- they could quite possibly be painful and she did not want to risk any additional stress to the man, or become the target of a defensive strike (or lead to the patient striking Harupia). Once she had hold of the hand, she firmed her grip into the practiced vice, keeping the hand away from the wound, and anyone's faces. Her back was now turned to the battle, and realizing this, she twisted slightly to parallel the man's prone frame; now, at least, she could have a better idea of what was about to hit her in the back - if it did - than before.

"It's okay it's okay it's okay!" she said loudly, to ensure that she was being heard over the noise around them. "We're here to help you!" Mai was trying to get the man to come down from the pain, getting him to focus on something else before Harupia would start. An irate-with-pain patient was bad news for all around him.

Zane came to an immediate stop, his body sliding forward against the ground with help from the momentum he had been carrying. His head turned to the side and a hard gulp came to his throat as he looked over the massive, snake-like hollow that easily towered colossally over his figure. Even though he feared the massive beast, he wasn't about to turn and run with his tail between his legs. That was not the way of a Shinigami! They were to dispose of the hollow menace, even though Zane had come to actually refer to a draconic-like hollow as his sister, and this.. monstrosity was no different. Zane released the hilt of his zanpakuto and extended his right hand, more specifically his index and middle fingers.

"Vindictive Martyr, poised as flawlessly as the Heavens, tear with thy lustrous claw! Hadou no Yon, Byakurai!"

Zane had yelled these words as loud and with as much passion as he could before a single bolt of lightning escaped his fingertips, aiming to strike the hollow as hard as possible. Zane had low expectations for the strike, giving his piss-poor Kidou abilities, but it wouldn't be too bad for a first blow, right? Zane's hand met his Zanpakuto's hilt once again, awaiting the snake's counterattack.

In terms of defense, the minotaur facing down Sengoku presented little or nothing; his declaration was met with a challenging roar, and then his axe bit deep into muscled flesh, separating sinew and crunching into bone - but unfortunately not utterly through. The massive knot-like bone at the Hollow's hip took more of the blade than could have been anticipated, and though it shrieked in pain, said bone splintering magnificently under the blow, forcing the Hollow to take a knee, the bulk of it's weight pinning the axe in, the beast was far from defenseless. In answer to the axe, the beast's right arm reared back and aimed to bring it's similarly large rock smashing into Sengoku's side, to trade a blow for a blow - of course, the mighty minotaur was not fast, and as it bellowed mightily it for all the world displayed it's course.

The serpent facing down Zane was no dull beast, and knew well the meaning behind the Shinigami's chant - the problem of course, as that it was focusing solely on the Shinigami before it, and did not have an eye open for a more broad defense. A great stone had left the wall, arcing through the air, to connect with the beast's skull as it attempted to lurch upward and avoid the Kido, meaning the penetrative Byakurai bit deep into the Hollow's skull after the mask's integrity was compromised by a great flying stone. With little in the way of glamour, the Hollow simply collapsed, thick blood weeping from the coin-sized hole in it's forehead as Kiba grunted in satisfaction from some distance away, his eyes again turning to the nearly-clear purple pyramid, from within which the apparent leader of the attack continued crying out to it's acolytes.

Nearer the wall, in the arms of Harupia, Mai and company, the wounded Shinigami tensed and whimpered, doing what he could to obey the pleas of his care-givers - the agitated redness on his hands, prior to being treated by Harupia, had turned a darker red before blood began to seep from the wound, and thus it would in short order come apparently to the Taicho that the nature of the wound was not poisonous, but in fact acidic. The attempts to avoid direct contact with the redness were rewarded, as in short order the weeping victim's quivering dulled, and as the smoldering within the chest wound abated, a low sigh of relief left his lips, his body going lax as he apparently fainted in the medic's arms.

After a few more long moments of directionless combat, another great stone heaved through the air, and as it collided into the purple pyramid, the Hollow surrounding appeared to halt as the great defensive architecture shuddered, though gave no direct sign of failure. "TAKE DOWN THE PYRAMID!" Kiba's loud voice bellowed over the pause in the fray, and the Hollow seemed to rankle at the thought of their enemy suddenly obtaining a direction. The rat within in particular didn't appear to care much for the idea, and renewed the vigor at which it shrieked and commanded it's followers to repel the Shinigami, to take the wall and show that these so-called gods of death could in turn die.

Sengoku felt a grim satisfaction as his axe ground into the hip of the bovine hollow. He had aimed to high, and the axe's blade had lodged in the beast as it went down. There was no time to dwell on it though. An counter attack was coming, but Sengoku knew he could avoid it. he had taken out the beast's right leg, and it was countering with its right arm. Sengoku moved to the left, mindful of the beast's other arm and weaving under it. he had released his hold on the axe in the monster's hip, planning on retrieving it later.

He maneuvered behind the monster, quick as he could, twisting around the monster's left side to bring the sharp spike on the back of his axe whistling up into the base of the minotaur's skull with a powerful backhanded swing that carried the full momentum of his maneuver. Vaguely, he heard a call for someone to take out "the pyramid", whatever that meant. Sengoku ignored it for now. There was a hollow to destroy, and it was almost done.

Ahh,acid. That made sense as well. while he had no doubt some kind of poison could have such a painful effect n someone, the acid clearly explained why his clothing starting to simmer from the liquid. While it surely didn't help the poor soul much, it was better in the long run. Acid, while leaving nasty wounds, did mostly that. And who knew what kind of harm a poison from a Hollow could cause to the bloodstream for a Shinigami.

The mean fell unconscious,which was also a good sign, after he made sure to check his pulse. With the pain gone the only thing keeping him conscious was also gone. Letting ho of his arm he would say "Alright, his unconscious, but he's stable. You two, help move him to the side so people dont trample them. Mai, follow them and once they set the man down look through his wounds, check for any infection. Ill rejoin you in a bit...There is something I want to try..." he said with a nod before standing up, moving slightly closer to the gate.

As he finished mending up the men he heard the familiar voice of Kiba calling out to take down some kind of pyramid...which became more clearer as he heard the large thumb of the boulder landing over the wall. A catapult...the Hollow were quite crafty this time around. However, while he couldn't make out the specifics of the target, he could see it was big, and the Hollow seemed centered around it. trying to at least do something about it was surely worth a try. Moving as close as he could , making sure he had a good angle above all the figthing creatures and Shinigami he started to speak "Ye Lord, mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings; ye who bears the name of Man, Inferno, and Pandemonium; the sea barrier surges, March on to the south! Hadou no Sanjuuichi! Shakkahou!".

The last line was bellowed as loud as he could, and as soon as he finished the chant a large, crimson orb of Reiatsu was fired from his hands, zooming above the heads of the combatants straight at the pyramid. If anything, the Taicho had a large supply of Spiritual energy, and he knew how to use it properly. Mostly to heal, but when it came to Hollow, eradicating them was the only form of help he could see for the poor creatures. Now he hoped the attack would prove at lest somewhat effective.

Mai continued talking to the man as Harupia did his thing, careful to not touch any of the afflicted skin or clothing; she had no past experience with any sort of acid, that she could recall, and still operated on the assumption that she was dealing with a very strange, transdermal poison. Soon, the man slipped into unconsciousness, and with it the need to check for a pulse – after the young girl, Mai was feverishly checking the pulses on each patient pre, post, and during the procedure. Her hand narrowly missed the collision between herself and her Taichou as she reached for the wounded man’s neck.

After Harupia gave his order, Mai nodded and rose to her feet, careful to not drop the shoulder she was restraining (she had repositioned herself to avoid the sudden hemorrhaging before the curative properties of the chiyudou took hold) – even though he was unconscious, that would have been rude of her, or worse, the presumed poison could transfer onto her – as she transferred him to the other medic’s much more capable arms. She followed the duo to an off-sides area of near to the gate, as Harupia had suggested, acting as a lookout to narrowly avoid any collision that may have threatened to come their way. As they approached their destination, she directed her teammates to lay him down on his back carefully, keeping a watchful eye on the wounds to make sure they wouldn’t open up again. Once down, she resumed the process that Harupia had started, working to cleanse the wounds with her own chiyudou.

Zane watched, his face that of complete shock, as the large reptilian hollow crumbled beneath a stone and, subsequently, his Kidou attack. Zane blinked a few times before his ears caught the words of Kiba, directing the Shinigami to attack a pyramid? What could he be talking about? A quick spin of the head allowed Zane to find the structure in which Kiba spoke of and begin his travels toward it, running at his quickest pace to get there. As Zane took toward moving once again, his right hand found itself clutched to the hilt of his Zanpakuto once more, sure that more Hollows were bound to come toward him.

Today just seemed to be one of those days. It had started normally enough (just another day with science) but things had then gone downhill with a large scale hollow attack. After a significant amount of running, screaming, dodging, hiding, fleeing, thinking, following, nearly getting trampled and getting lost on his way to the Seirietei. BUT BIRU HAD EVENTUALLY MADE IT. Once he was inside of it's walls he would be safe and not be the target of a hollow attempting to eat him alive (it was amazing how people took something nice like that for granted).

HOWEVER BIRU WAS TOO LATE. For instead of arriving to the relative safety of the Seirietei, Biru instead found himself staring at a battle with the hollows from the side. Staring from the sideline of the battle, Biru had a feeling that he would need his turrets and thus he spawned two of his attacking turrets and one of his defending turrets. "Okay Biru, just slowly back away and they won't notice you...hopefully...possibly...maybe." Biru said to himself as he slowly inched away from the battle. Maybe if he was really lucky the hollow wouldn't notice him.

Taisho was late getting to the area the chaos was happening to due the fact he was helping a few of the Rukongai citizens to safety. With a quick sprint towards the group of fellow shinigami he quickly noticed two captains of the gotei five and the evil young lady who dropped ink on his fine chest and the shinigami he was meant to escort into a district. He quickly drew his sword and clenched it with his left hand. He looked around the area listening to Kiba's commands he smirked a little he quickly began to run towards the hollow invasion. His attack target was not really set as he ran towards the purple pyramid he wasn't sure how to really attack it.So at the time he was more thinking if a hollow was brave enough to attack him as he charged he would take it down. At least that was the plan he had in his head. He raised his sword over his head as he yelled at the top of his lungs. "KILL THEM ALLL!!!!"

He was a member of the fifth division he enjoyed a good battle and he was hoping it would be just that. He had seemed to miss the good enjoyment of punching a hollow's face in. Perhaps today he would be able to do just that.

Thrown off by it's wild swing, dizzy and in pain, the Minotaur had no response for the wily bartender, none but another pained roar of defiance - one quickly cut short by the presence of obstruction, penetrating clear through the back of the beast's head. There was no ceremony to the death, simply a full-bodied slump forward, landing awkwardly upon the axe lodged in the beast's hip, the twin rocks simply tumbling to the grass.

Young Mai would find herself of great asset indeed, the more-than-compliant if slightly unconscious patient submitting all too simply to the care of her chiyudo. Others came in turn, all wounds just serious enough to need a medic's brief touch but not so that life was necessarily threatened - a sword-arm out of socket, a piece of wood a couple inches long stabbed into the thigh, one with little more than an open cut along the forehead what threatened to make the victim spend more time wiping his eyes than defending himself.

These, of course, were the lucky ones - it seemed there was very little middle ground between the 'wounded' and the felled, with black-clad bodies adorning the battlefield pel-mel. Still, the Shinigami did not quite even peer the number of fallen Hollow, and it was beginning to show in the morale of the beasts.

Biru, in his attempts to be unseen and undetected, unwisely did precised would make him a rather large target and invoked his powers, summoning creations of pure reiatsu and setting them to move tellingly about his person. Though this usually would have seen him beset by raging beasts, the presence of another raging beast slowed the Hollow and they divvied their attentions instead to the Shinigami who had thrust himself among them, three catlike Hollow snarling and prowling at the wailing Taisho.

There had been a few others who followed Kiba's command from atop the wall, and four Shinigami had fallen into practice swinging their weapons at the translucent purple pyramid the Hollow had erected, the trio straining to sustain the barrier until the explosive Kido connected, making the whole of the figure quiver before dropping one of the three walls. Before the Shinigami could exploit this newfound weakness, however, it seemed another's amusement had run dry.

The Hollow who had failed to maintain his portion of the barrier was quite suddenly lifted into the air, and the other two walls were dropped as the brothers were quickly treated in the same regard. The trio of Hollow wailed and shook, trying to fight off the eventuality of fate, but were brought to the ground in all-too-short order, unseen hands slamming all three bodies viciously into the dirt three, four, five times before simply dropping the broken frames. The ratlike Hollow quailed, beseeching the poorly-clothed being beside it for calmness, but the words were not to be heard - only a moment later, a human hand rose from the overextended sleeves of the tattered cloak and dropped the hood, revealing the even, expressionless face of a young man, a teenaged boy with raven hair and eyes so vacant as to be considered dead.

Those vacant eyes, however, lit up in short order, and the young man let fly a cry that seemed mixed somewhere between pain and unfiltered rage, as all around his body ten figures shimmered and danced, floating at chest level and, though not great by any means, definitely hinted at as dangerous, as the Hollow again quailed in fear, falling away from his purported follower.

With his enemy defeated, Sengoku wrenched his axe out of the back of its skull and worked to lever the other from its thigh. The beast had fallen in such a way that had forced the bones the axehead was wedged in to press around it, but that didn't stop him. He tightened his grip on the haft of the axe and, with a grunt and a gritting of teeth, ripped it up and out of the dead monster's flesh. He looked around him, trying to find the pyramid that the shinigami on the wall had been screaming about, and caught sight of it just in time to see it flicker and fade, and to watch as the hollows transformed into humanoid beings. Sengoku grimaced and flourished his axes, throwing the blood off of them and stepping towards the...fuck, he didn't have a name for them. Were they Arrancars, like that ass Andra? He suspected so.

He kept walking, flexing his grip on his axes, aware that he was surrounded by monsters and death. He forced his breathing back under control, forced the tension out of his muscles. Adrenaline was pounding though his blood stream. He had targets, and they were ringed by shinigami, but they didn't seem to be doing much. He rushed at them, pushing his way into the fray to try and reach the monsters. Anything that came close to him in his rush would find themselves at the business end of his axe. The Arrancar things seemed to be the ones in control of the horde. If he could cut them down, maybe the other hollows would be easier to destroy.

SPOILER: Click to show

I see the reference you put in Yuka >_____>

As luck would have it, the various killer monsters that made a habit out of eating people ignored him. Having his three turrets stop moving to further avoid drawing the hollow's attention, Biru noticed that the hollows were instead focusing on the very brave suicidal man who decided to charge straight at them while yelling. Noticing that the shinigami had little backup and was about to face three hollow, Biru considered giving his assistance to the man. However Biru decided not to go through with this plan due to not wanting to draw attention to himself. Plus there were a few shinigami and if they were that confident with the numbers they had then they must all have been amazing warriors.

Beginning to slowly back away, with his turrets slowly moving straight back to keep at his side, Biru figured that as long as he made no sudden moves the hollow were less likely to notice him. However before Biru could make much progress in escaping, the large energy pyramid fell and Biru saw several hollow get lifted up and slammed down. Giving a slight wince when he saw what was left of the hollows after the smashing, Biru saw the culprit who turned out to be an arrancar. Considering an attempt at blowing up the arrancar with his turrets, Biru noticed that proximity of the three shinigami who had assaulted the barrier and figured that there was a chance of them getting hurt if he tried to attack. "So now we have a cannibalistic teenager with telekinetic powers...and the ability to make glowing...things. Why do I have a feeling that the glowing things are extremely extremely bad?" Biru quietly said to himself as he backed away a bit more. Keeping an eye on the glowing figures that the arrancar had created, Biru had a feeling that he might just end up getting dragged into this battle.

The patient responded well to her treatments, which was to be expected after his initial response to Harupia's chiyudou. Soon after she had started, however, a slew of injured soldiers had started a circle around their area, reacting to the red bands on the medic's arm. "Keep an eye on him," Mai said sternly to the teammate to her left. The poor man's wounds were of a strange nature, and there was no telling of what else could be going on -- the poison could still be doing things that neither she nor Harupia could see at this moment.

The young medic could not dwell on these thoughts for long as the first of many successive patients stepped into her waiting sights; a mended arm here, a scratch there, that poor soldier with the dislocated shoulder -- all were treated with haste and precious reiatsu, though this did not slow Mai down. She had greatly improved over the last several months, Harupia had said as much, and the triage was the best she could do at the moment with no real place to treat as she should (some of those wounds could have gone off with a light bandage, but everyone needed to be at the top of their games for this...chaos).

The thing off in the distance, occasionally caught from the corner of her eye, was a constant threat that send chills racing up her spine, but one she could do nothing about; she was simply too far away and far too demanded to help take it down...not that she would ever presume her abilities to be on par with those of the more combat oriented divisions. Tanaka Mai knew her place, and it was here, healing the wounded, beside her currently missing (from her line of sight) Taichou.

The battle raged on, and it was looking better and better with each passing moment. The Shinigami had a number of wounded, but they were holding of the offensive. Still, more and more Hollow poured towards the gate, and the contraption was still working...though it seemed backup was on the way. A single Shinigami throwing himself into the fray quite haphazardly. He hoped he wouldn't have to heal him to much alter on...the hot heads were the worst to treat... It seemed he wasn't the only one who decided to attack the wall, thankfully, however his move proved to be the one who pushed the barrier over, or at least a fragment of it. Now getting down the other two would be... a none issue it seemed, as strange things started to happen...

The Hollow holding up the defensive shield were picked up and slammed to the ground to the ground by an invisible force...and then the cloak figured rose from its seat next to the rat like Hollow, bellowing out a horrifying shriek...a younger male with dead eyes...an Arrancar perhaps? Whatever it was, it seemed to be the one controlling the whole attack. So it was the prime target.

He had lost insight of Mai and the other medics, which worried him a bit. However, the gate was still far from being breached, so his men should be safe. And he was confident in their ability to heal those who had a chance to be saved. While he wanted to help, his father always said that prevention was better then curing. And he still didn't gain the attention of any Hollow...his sword in hand still, he would move a bit closer towards the other shinigami and the axe wilding warrior, as he started to gather his energies again, saying "He who is named Raiden, Thor and Susanoo, grant now a boon; with wretched right hand reach and grasp to shake loose foundation of life. Heavens flash as a King's tears fall; split sky, part sea, tear map and shred to pieces! Hadou no Sanjuuni! Ōkasen!" extending his head towards the elevated Hollow, sending another energy attack, the ball formed in his hand shooting out as a wave roughly his own width. He should be at a range close enough for it to impact...now to see how effective it would be.

Once Zane had made the appropriate travels to the area where the pyramid was set up, he came skidding to a halt. His arrival was moments too late as the pyramid began to fall once he had gotten there. His eyes widened in shock, however, as he watched the barrier keepers being dismantled within mere moments by a single, currently unseen force. As the form began to reveal itself, Zane began to shake in fear from it's presence alone. Zane gulped and released a heavy exhale before shaking off the thoughts of fear and doubt from his mind.

He was not alone in this fight and some of the best Shinigami, including two Taicho and, unbeknownst to him, a Fukutaicho, were amongst the ranks here today and he could not let them down by being weak. Zane knew that he wouldn't get as lucky as he had earlier with the snake-like hollow, but he had to do something for the time being. So, much like he had earlier, Zane raised his right hand and extended the index and middle fingers of his hand, ""Vindictive Martyr, poised as flawlessly as the Heavens, tear with thy lustrous claw! Hadou no Yon, Byakurai!, He called out a second time, releasing a bolt of lightning from his fingertips at the enemy. Maybe if he was lucky, it would distract it..

Taisho came to a halting stop as he watched what unfolded in front of hes eyes a slight smile came over his face. Truly this battle would be something to enjoy. Swinging his sword to his side he looked at Zane then Hitoshi watching them both fire kidou. He slightly wished he had trained more with kidou, griping his sword a little more tightly he began to run towards the hollow. He was sure he was not the strongest one in the bunch of them but he would be damn sure to give these demons a run for there money.

He charged at the human looking hollow thing, even though he wasn't to sure what the blasted thing was, but it wasn't something to go back home and have a cup of tea with. Once he got close enough he would swing his blade in a upwards slash, the blade if hit would cut from the human like hollow's right waist to it left shoulder. That's of course if he was lucky enough to not get attacked from any other creature.

Change shivered through the battlefield, the cobwebs of dream cast off lethargic hearts and minds - their prophet fallen, his pyramid shattered, and his purported messiah on the rampage, the Hollow broke from their illusory hold and in turn broke from the engagement, seeing the small humanoid figure in his wrathful glory and knowing well their new cause - survive to see the sun rise again.

The poorly-dressed, bare-faced figure turned as the thundering lummox charged him, and but one of the glittering figures dancing about him acted - a hand, it would shortly be discerned, was the shape of that and the other figures - by jumping through the air, pressing into the giant's abdomen, and hoisting him skyward, a toss that would send him over the smaller figure's back and toward Zane. Fortunately for the Fukutaicho, he would clear the arc of Harupia's Kido and Zane's - and between both those kido, the remaining nine 'hands' surrounding the swordless boy were busy dancing and swirling in the air, having apparently caught the two Kido as they flew toward their master, subjugating the twin masses of Reiatsu into a single whirling mass before simply sublimating the attacks, dissipating the reiatsu.

Watching with a sense of relief as the hollow all began to break off from their attack, The thought then occurred to Biru that they probably had a very good reason for doing so. Rather alarmed at the potential power that the arrancar had which would cause the hollow to run off despite them being on the same side, the prospect of fleeing seemed even more tempting to Biru.

In fact Biru was just about to run away when he saw a glowing hand throw the charging shinigami into the air. Realizing the trajectory of the man, Biru saw that he would land on another shinigami and likely injure both of them a lot (Having a person dropped on you is no laughing matter). BUT BIRU WOULD SAVE THE DAY. It would probably also lead to him drawing the attention of the arrancar but the less injured the better.

Sending his barrier turret out towards Taisho, the turret would create a square barrier that was 10 feet by 10 feet. Intercepting Taisho so he would land on the barrier instead of Zane, the barrier would then slow down and eventually come to a stop to minimize the injuries that Taisho would receive from the throw (although Biru wouldn't be extremely surprised if Taisho still received a few wounds from Biru's save). Depositing Taisho a few meters from Zane so the two weren't too close to each other in case another attack came their way, Biru hoped that the shinigami wasn't seriously wounded.

"Right. So the glowing hand things can dissipate reiatsu. But if we can throw more attacks at it than there are hands we could overwhelm it. Or we could try to hit it indirectly." Biru said to himself as he came up with a plan. Having his two turrets move to opposite sides of the arrancar, Biru had each of the turrets unleash three shots toward the ground around the arrancar. Hopefully by firing shots at the ground near the arrancar, the shots wouldn't get intercepted by the glowing hands of fate and would instead manage to injure the arrancar through the explosions that they created. "The shinigami should have enough distance on them so the arrancar is the only target of the explosions. Hopefully one of them can at least use it as a distraction if my attack doesn't work. Biru thought to himself as he prepared to run away from the arrancar if anything went wrong.

Mai continued healing as the line grew longer and longer; fortunately, the majority of the wounds were not serious, and she was able to return them back to duty posthaste. She did keep one eye on the poor man who had succumbed to the pain several minutes ago, who had not yet regained consciousness -- he had endured a very traumatic experience, after all, and she could not expect of him to wake up immediately. So far, so good for the trio missing their Taichou.

Very few things frightened Mai more than being separated from someone she cared about; while she had the line of shinigami to tend to with their varying degrees of injury, her mind seemed to focus on her absent Taichou more and more with each passing patient. She knew he was more than capable of defending himself in the thick of things, but that did nothing to assuage her worrisome heart. With her hands gently covering the man with small laceration on his forearm, she chanced a glance over the playing field to try and catch a glimpse of her captain...He did say that they shouldn't be out there alone....

Well, the situation was taking a turn for the better...at least at first glance. The Hollow seemed to be less interested in carrying on their assault, and rather started to scurry away for the most part. It seemed that this sudden act of camaraderie between the Hollow was short lived...though it did show that the potential of a larger scale beast invasion could be quite hard to deal with. Still, before something could be done about that, they still needed to deal with the situation at hand...and it could have been better.

Whatever the humanoid creature was, he didn't seem easy to trifle with. Seeing how he flung a Shinigami right through the air with ease, and managed to block his and another kido with the hand like orbs. That was disheartening...the Taicho took a deep breath as he wiped his forehead. even with his mastery of manipulating Reiatsu, following two blasts like that did take its tool. He needed to catch his breath for a bit...

Still, they couldn't stop at that. Thy would need to concentrate their efforts to try and put the psychic being down. Taking a few steps towards Zane and Taisho, hoping that none of them would end up wounded to badly, he would call out to shouting at the top of his lungs "Kiba-san, direct the attack towards the clothed figure! 2nd Division, move up closer to me, the Hollow's are in retreat!". Now that the battle was dissipating a bit, they would need the healers closer by the field, to try and help those who couldn't move still from the battlefield. He would wave to any of his men who came into view beckoning them to come closer as he moved back, mainly towards where Taisho would land.

Sengoku had been moving towards the location where the pyramid had stood, making his way through the monstrous horde. It was hard going, and his arms burned and ached. The stench of blood was everywhere, and with it came the screams of the injured and the dying. The target was clear, despite all of this: He had to reach that strange boy surrounded by floating hands, and plant an axe firmly between his eyes. He watched, with surprise, as two kido spells were intercepted by the hands and dissipated with ease. A white haired giant of a man charged the boy and was throne aside like a rag doll. Whatever this strange things powers were, Sengoku was obviously ill equipped to combat it.

But that had never stopped him before. He raced past Biru, axes at his side, and moved to the boy's left, lashing out with his right axe in an attempt to shave the top half of the brat's skull off with the cruel edge of his weapon. He was, however, anticipating an interception; He planned to see for himself how the hands would react to his attack.

It all happened so fast his run towards the rat like thing had gone all for nothing, He was flung into the air like he was nothing. He let out a yelp of pain as he was struck and sent flying in the air, His sword flew out of his grip as he spun around in the air. He seen Zane and was now worried what if he landed on the small fry he would crush him under his manly ness. Luckly it seemed he wouldn't get to close to the man as a energy like plat form came under him out of no were, he landed still hard onto it, he felt his left wrist snap breaking bones in his wrist. However when he finally did hit the ground it left a loud thud sound he rolled a few times still breaking two ribs on his left side as well. He spun around only his back only to see his sword stab into the ground inchs away from his face on his right side.

"That could of been worse"

Taisho groaned in pain as he slowly picked him self up resting his right hand on his sword hilt, as he stood up he yanked the blade from the ground. He was truly unsure how he should attack next. He looked over at the second division taicho who had seemed to send some medics towards him. Hopefully they were pretty.