B.D.D Ch48 The Mark of Progress

------Back at the archway-----

Torin and Zasshu landed on the ground and slid back, stopping about 10 meters away from each other. They had been exchanging blows for a while now, neither of them landing any hits on the other. Zasshu scowled, he was torn, he was glad to have a worthy opponent, but it was infuriating that the brat he’d beaten into submission last time they’d met had come so far in a matter of weeks.

Zasshu eyed Torin, trying to figure out what the trick was, the boy fought like an entirely different person now. The clear difference in speed and reiatsu aside, his movements before had been skilled, but sloppy and inexperienced. Now the brat fought like a veteran soldier, you couldn’t fake that difference, but you couldn’t create it out of thin air either.

While Zasshu grew increasingly flustered by the situation, Torin was the opposite, the further the fight progressed, the calmer he became. He had known his strength had increased to a completely different league than he had been in before, and now he could see the effects. Before Zasshu had seemed an unbeatable foe to him, but now he wasn’t breaking a sweat holding him off. His only concern was for Rida, who he sensed was having a challenging battle.

“Alright, I give, what happened to you shinigami brat?” Zasshu said in exasperation
Torin focused on the fight before him again, he hadn’t broken a sweat, but he hadn’t exactly landed any hits yet either, he couldn’t afford to slack off. “Nothing happened to me” Torin replied “I’ve simply trained since we last met”

Zasshu’s scowl deepened “Hogwash! No shinigami can improve this much in the time you had, I don’t care if you ARE some sort of prodigy, one month is not enough time to…”

“Kiskue Urahara, I’m sure your intelligence reports cover him” Torin said “I’m certain that you knew he was in this city and about his ability to create strange and ingenious inventions. Why are you so surprised?”

Zasshu’s eyes widened, drawing the conclusion “I see… I suppose taking this lightly is no longer an option then”

Torin frowned and tensed up, he’d suspected Zasshu was holding back, but he had no idea how much, he needed to be ready for the worst. It was at this moment that he felt Rida release bankai in his own battle, distracting him for an instant as he glanced over to see the golem. As he looked back, he received Zasshu’s fist to the face, sending him flying backwards through the air. Torin felt his cheekbone crack from the impact, and his nose was really messed up. The bleeding was soon stopped by his reiatsu, but it still hurt quite a bit.

“I’m over here brat” Zasshu said, surrounded by a grey outline of reiatsu “you may be on my level now, but you don’t have time to be looking away.

Torin landed and wiped the blood from his face, he looked over at the 5th daichiken, feeling the pressure he was putting out. It was dense, heavy energy, it wasn’t as massive as Torin’s, but it was impressive by anybody’s standards. “I suppose you’re right” he said as he reached over his back and grabbed the hilt of his sword “the time for feeling each other out has just about passed”

Torin drew his blade slowly, the sheath dissolving into crystal dust as he did. Torin held the blade out in front of him with one hand, the steel blade shining as it reflected the light. As Torin stood there, his reiatsu began to rise, a faint prismatic outline appeared around him as his reiatsu matched the intensity of Zasshu’s

Both combatants began to raise their reiatsu higher, trying to see who could put out more energy. The area grew dark as their auras glowed ever brighter, overshadowing the light of the sun.

In an instant, both men were gone, replaced by explosions of displaced rock and dust as they charged. A shockwave of displaced air tore up the ground between the two as Zasshu’s punch and Torin’s slash met. The force of the two strikes seemed equal for a moment, Zasshu’s hierro allowing him to avoid being cut, and his power seeming to match Torin’s. A split second later the illusion was shattered, as Zasshu’s momentum faded and Torin’s power won the contest, smashing Zasshu into the ground with an explosion of shattered debris.

Torin raised his blade to strike down at the prone Zasshu, but a grey cero forced him to jump away instead. Torin turned in the air, blocking a kick from Zasshu with the flat of his blade.

“He’s still insanely fast, getting up and behind me that fast after the hit he just took.” Torin thought “So this is the 5th daichiken”

The kick sent Torin flying through the air despite his having blocked. Torin slid on a reiatsu platform to regain control of his momentum, but Zasshu was on top of him again, with a spinning kick that forced Torin to block again, knocking him higher in the process. Torin sensed Zasshu appear behind him and tried to turn to block, but before he could he received a kick to the back that smashed him into the ground almost instantly.

Torin was on his feet in an instant, his reiatsu spiking higher still and blowing away the dust cloud from his crash. He brought his blade up and blocked a punch from Zasshu, who hadn’t let up in the slightest. There was another shockwave of air as Torin dispersed the force of the strike around him, then pushed Zasshu back and knocked him off balance, then countered with a slash.

Zasshu somersaulted back to dodge the slash, using the force of his being pushed to escape just in time, but mid somersault the force of the swing caught up with him, hitting him like a speeding truck and sending him tumbling away as the ground in front of Torin split apart.

Zasshu regained his footing and slid to a stop, but struggled to stand back up. “tsk…” Zasshu thought “that blade isn’t just for show after all, the increased size increases its maximum speed and momentum, as well as allows it to drag more air with it as it swings. So when he swings it’s like he’s swinging an oversized sledgehammer attached to his blade. Close combat with him is only possible if you can exploit the unwieldiness of the blade.”

Torin hefted the blade, based on the range Zasshu had been at when the shockwave caught up with him, he estimated that there would be extensive internal damage, and that Zasshu would be forced to release soon. Pressing the offensive here was pointless in that case, since Zasshu’s injuries would simply heal upon releasing his zanpakto.

Zasshu felt his bones heal, but as Torin had predicted, his organs has suffered damage, and high-speed regeneration couldn’t heal those, even with his above average aptitude in that area compared to the other daichiken. It was a pain, but it was time to get really serious now.

“Been a long time since I released my zanpakto brat” Zasshu said “I’ll admit it, you’re strong now, your strength and speed are insane, even compared to us daichiken, but that’s fine by me. Out of all the daichiken, I’ve always been the most physically powerful. You might have been able to keep up so far, but now I’m gonna put you back in your place”

Torin frowned as Zasshu’s aura changed in intensity, going from a steady, consistent pressure, to wildly fluctuating. “Grow, Kessho Satsujinsha” he said, as his blade morphed into its shikai form Torin charged, he had a bad feeling about this release.

"Mutate, muñeca de retazos” Zasshu said as he drew his blade, the blade glowed grey before bursting into a cloud of energy.

Torin slashed, cutting through the cloud of energy, but he connected with nothing but air. Torin turned to try and spot Zasshu, and was met with a kick to the face that made him stumble backwards. Torin slashed to counter, but Zasshu was already gone.

Torin felt another kick to the back knock him a few steps forward, but by the time he turned he had received another punch to the face, this time from the side, then he saw Zasshu for a brief moment underneath him before receiving an uppercut that knocked him into the air.

From there Torin couldn’t even tell what was hitting him, all he felt were blows coming from all sides, to all parts of him. Zasshu bounced off reiatsu platforms like a pinball, bouncing straight between two at a time to change his angle and then hitting Torin, before repeating the process. For Torin’s part, he couldn’t even see Zasshu long enough to react properly.

After what felt like an eternity, Zasshu landed on the ground to catch his breath, letting Torin crash to the ground. “Hah… hah… haven’t done that in a long time, I’m a bit out of shape” Zasshu half-laughed, half-panted.

Torin got back up to his knees, the multitude of blows had beaten him up badly, he could feel that most of his bones were cracked, and his ribs had been broken several times, but he was surprised by how little damage he’d actually taken overall. “It’s like he’s traded all his power for speed, if that’s the case then he won’t be able to break my crystals.” Torin thought as he stabbed his sword into the ground and formed a dome of crystal around him. He had also sensed that Rida had won his fight at some point, which meant he’d be on his way back to destroy the archway, all he had to do now was keep Zasshu from interfering.

Zasshu frowned as he saw the dome “hrmm” he said as the crystals expanded beneath him “I should’ve finished you immediately, this is going to be a hassle.”

Zasshu jumped into the air as a spire of crystal erupted from underneath him. The crystals grew much faster than they used too, and for a few moments they seemed like they would catch up with Zasshu, but then he sprung off a reiatsu platform and changed his direction.

The spire was one of 16, forming a circle around Torin with a 25 meter radius. As Zasshu dodged he noticed the other spires growing spikes that shot out and connected to each other, as well as beginning to form a dome above them

“Trying to lock me out eh? Too bad, now that I see it I just have to stay inside” Zasshu said as he landed in between the spires and Torin’s dome as the connections began to branch out. It wasn’t long before the crystals had formed a complex cage around the two combatants, trapping them in with each other.

“Wrong” Torin said “I wasn’t trying to keep you out, I wanted to keep you IN. Now there’s nothing you can do, your speed won’t let you break my crystals, so as long as we stay like this there’s no way you can stop us from destroying your archway.

Zasshu raised an eyebrow “Oh really now? We’ll see about that”

Zasshu charged Torin’s dome, moving slower than before. Torin frowned, noticing something, but he was too late to react. Zasshu’s arm drew back for a punch, then bulged out and grew in size as it became heavily muscled and punched straight through Torin’s dome, scoring a direct hit. Torin was smashed through the other side of his dome and into one of his spires with enough force to crack it.

“My release doesn’t just boost my speed” Zasshu said “it allows me to trade speed and power back and forth, my appearance doesn’t change during my release because it simply lets me access the abilities I already had.”

Torin got to his feet and wiped the blood from his mouth, he couldn’t take another hit like that and keep going at his current level. That power had been even greater than what he could put out, which said a lot. “What do you mean by that?” he asked, trying to keep Zasshu talking while he worked out a strategy.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed my appearance is off by now” Zasshu said, indulging Torin, he knew that the shinigami wanted to buy time, but it wasn’t like there was anything the brat could do to him at this point. “That’s cause I’m no ordinary arrancar, I was created from scratch by Lord Crisis, stitched together from the remains of his daichiken from last invasion who fell in battle.”

Torin’s eyes widened “he, MADE you?” he said in genuine surprise, he knew all arrancar were, in some way, artificial beings, but to make one from scratch?

“That’s right, so now I have all the power and speed of the arrancar that make me up, but I can’t use all of it all the time, my body isn’t stable enough, that’s why most of it is sealed into my zanpakto.” Zasshu said “when I release it, I can tap into those reserves, drawing from strength or speed by giving up an equal amount of the counterpart.”

Torin frowned, that explained a lot, and it gave him a tough problem to face, when Zasshu maxed out his speed, he couldn’t keep up, but when he maxed out his power there was no way to stop it. The only option then, was to utilize whatever ability Zasshu was neglecting in order to counter the strength.

“Thinking you can beat me by focusing on what I don’t?” Zasshu said with a smirk “not a chance, that’s the most basic strategy there is, you think I wouldn’t see it coming?”
Torin gritted his teeth “I guess that means I need to pull out all the stops then” he said

“Hmm?” Zasshu said in confusion “you mean your bankai? I wouldn’t bother, that boost isn’t enough to surpass me”

“Bankai” Torin said, having already released “Kessho Satsujinsha Yoroi”
“I’m telling you, that won’t…” Zasshu started, then stopped as Torin lifted a hand to his face.

“I really hate using this, so I’m not going to show you mercy” Torin said, black, flame like energy blew back around his face, quickly solidifying into a blue and red mask shaped like crystals that had grown over his face. Instantly Torin’s reiatsu skyrocketed.

Zasshu charged, sensing that letting Torin making the first move would be a bad idea, he threw a power focused punch, but Torin was gone long before the attack reached him, appearing behind Zasshu with a black crystal blade in his hand.

Zasshu instantly switched to speed, launching a back kick and a barrage of punches, all of which Torin managed to block, then counter with a sword slash. Zasshu retreated quickly, but found there was nowhere to run due to the cage.

Torin turned to face Zasshu, a ball of red energy in his hand “cero” he said, firing a wide cero at Zasshu that landed a direct hit with ease at the close range.

Zasshu landed, having suffered nasty burns from the cero, then charged at Torin at full speed and landed a kick, then sprung off and tried to use the cage wall as a springboard. He had to abort and twist out of the way as a spike grew on the wall where he was about to land, causing him to crash into the wall at high speed.

“You always travel in a straight line when you max your speed” Torin said, his voice doubled as if two of him were speaking. “It took a while to notice before, but you use your springboards to turn, making it easy to predict where you’ll end up.”
Zasshu scowled as he got back to his feet, his reiatsu spiking, as he began to switch to power.

Torin placed his hand on the cage, from the point he touched the crystals began to turn black, infused with his hollow reiatsu. Zasshu was increasing in size now, becoming incredibly bulky and large.

“If I can’t move while in this cage, I’ll just smash it!” Zasshu said

“That’s what I was counting on” Torin said as a doorway opened up for him in the cage and he stepped out

Zasshu raised a massive fist to smash his own doorway, when spikes shot out from all sides of the cage, as his fist smashed through the side of the cage with relative ease, the rest of the spikes impaled Zasshu from all other sides.

“I’ll admit, if it were a straight up contest of physical superiority, you would’ve won that fight” Torin said, taking off his mask as he did so “But I’m a shinigami, with our zanpakto it’s never a straight contest like that if we don’t want it to be.”

Zasshu glared at Torin, trying to move despite all the spikes holding him in place. None of the spikes had pierced any organs, and so his regeneration was keeping him alive, if only barely.

“You… brat… I am… the 5th” Zasshu seethed

“Yes, and you are well deserving of the title” Torin said “but I wasn’t training to kill you, I trained to kill your master, you never had a chance”

Zasshu smiled “you? Kill Lord Crisis? If I wasn’t in such pain I’d laugh. You may have beaten me, but he’s NOTHING like me, you’ll never compare to him, not if you trained for 1000 years.”

Torin raised a hand “only time will tell, but you will never know” he said, making the spikes inside Zasshu branch out and grow through all of his organs at once. Zasshu let out a roar of pain, then fell silent.

Torin looked to the archway, it had activated  now, the massive garganta it created yawned ever larger, Torin could see the heads of the larger hollows through the gateway, it wouldn’t be long before the armies could invade.

Rida appeared next to Torin, with Aurora arriving shortly afterwards.

“You have a really bad habit of being flamboyant you know” Rida said “was the whole intricate crystal cage thing REALLY necessary?”

Torin sighed “come on, we need to destroy that archway before all our efforts go to waste.”
Aurora nodded and shunpod to the right side of the arch, Rida went to the left, releasing bankai as he arrived.

Aurora jumped into the air and pointed at her side of the arch “Hado 92, Senju Koten Taiho!” she said, firing numerous spears of purple energy that converged on the arch and exploding magnificently, obliterating a large portion of it. RIda simply had his golem wreck his side of the arch with a molten punch.

Torin leapt up above the arch and donned his mask once more “Kurisutarubimu!” he roared as he slashed with the black crystal blade from before, the wave of energy unleashed was far larger than it had ever been before training, and with the hollow mask it now had a thick black outline, with wisps of black in the energy itself. Torin’s attack cleaved through the top of the arch at the same time as his friend’s attacks connecting on either side, obliterating a large portion of the arch in the process.

Between the three friends, the archway was instantly rendered useless, and the great garganta slammed shut as the rest of the arch fell to pieces.

Rida and Aurora regrouped with Torin “that’s it then” Rida said “we win”

Torin looked at the ruined enemy base “yeah, for now at least, there are still far more battles to fight though. This war is far from over”

With that solemn thought, the trio turned and walked back to the city.