Bleach Dark Dawn CH67, Exercises in Futility

----- academy grounds------
Renji made the opening move, sending the large snake head of his bankai barreling towards Crisis, the snake-like whip moved surprisingly quickly for its size and had just as much power as one would expect from something as large and fast as it was. Nevertheless, Crisis made no effort to actually dodge the attack, instead holding up one hand and catching it. The ground around him cracked from the shockwave of the bankai stopping in its tracks, but Crisis didn't move an inch.

"Hmph, you call this thing a bankai? The standards of the gotei have fallen more than I thought" Crisis sighed

"Try saying that after this!" Renji grunted as energy began to surge through the segments of the snake, forming a large red orb of energy in its jaw "Hikotsu Taiho!"

The snake head opened it's jaw after drawing back from Crisis's grasp, and fired the blast of energy at point blank range, scoring a direct hit. The orb exploded in a brilliant blaze of fire and smoke. Renji pulled his bankai back to prepare for another attack as the giant suit of armor of Konnamura's bankai stomped down with one armored foot at where Crisis stood, kicking up a dust cloud that mixed with the smoke of the explosion.

Hitsugaya swooped in close while the dust continued swirling in the air and touched the edge of the dust and smoke cloud with the tip of his blade. In an instant the particles of dust and smoke condensed into a solid mass of ice, momentarily trapping the foot of Konamura's bankai, but also freezing Crisis inside of it as Byakuya's streams of blade fragments surrounded the ice and prepared to shoot in.

Just before the streams could converge on the ice, the entire mass was blown away by a spike of reiatsu, revealing a completely unscathed Crisis casually holding up the foot of Konnamura's bankai. "Ah now that was refreshing. I was starting to feel ever so slightly overheated from all the fires I started on my way here" he said with a mocking yawn "are you all ready to begin for real now?"

"Damn! all of that and not a scratch?" Renji cursed "just how durable is he?"

Byakuya wasted no time in sending the streams of his bankai crashing into where Crisis was standing, but they struck nothing but air as Crisis appeared a short distance away and Konnamura's bankai staggered back, put off balance by being suddenly pushed back. He pointed a single finger at Byakuya, forming a small orb of energy at his fingertip. "Cero" he said, firing a ludicrously large beam of energy at the squad 6 captain.

"Danku" Byakuya responded, forming the kido barrier just in time to block the attack. The energy surged around the barrier, and after a few seconds Byakuya saw cracks forming in it. He had no time to marvel at the power of the cero being able to overwhelm such a powerful barrier, as he rushed to reinforce his barrier with a wall formed of his blade fragments just before it shattered. The additional layer of protection provided by his bankai held the cero off for a few moments more, but began losing ground quickly. "Hado 33, Sokatsui" Byakuya said, desperately firing a wave of blue fire to meet the cero. The final layer of defense allowed him to cancel out the attack, if only barely.

"Hm, not bad, out of all my subordinates, I can count on my hands the number of them who could have defended against that, and only three of them could do so with power alone, the others all have cero negation abilities" Crisis said, clapping slowly to acknowledge the accomplishment of the captain who'd fended off his attack "seems you actually have some modicium of talent."

While Crisis was distracted, Konnamura slashed with his bankai down at the man, the massive blade cut into the ground with a deafening crash, but moments later Crisis appeared, standing on the handguard of the blade and frowning at the giant. "You, on the other hand, are merely annoying." he snarled as he fired another cero at the giant's torso.

Renji acted quickly, sending his bankai to circle around to the side of the cero before it connected and firing another hikotsu taiho to strike it from the side and knock it far enough off course for Konnamura to dodge it. Konnamura countered by having his giant rapidly lift its blade, throwing Crisis into the air where Hitsugaya was waiting. Hitsugaya fired three ice dragons down to strike Crisis  and encase him in ice once again, the ice broke almost instantly, but it created enough of an opening for Hitsugaya to fly down and stab his blade into Crisis's gut at high speed. Sparks flew as Hitsugaya's blade pierced and froze Crisis's suit of armor, but try as he might he couldn't pierce the hierro and actually wound the man.

Realizing he wasn't going to be able to damage Crisis like this, Hitsugaya settled for freezing the arrancar once again and flying away, the ice once again buying enough time for a single attack. This time Konnamura's giant scored a direct hit with it's blade, shattering the ice and sending Crisis crashing to the ground in an explosion of displaced dirt and stone. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Renji fired another blast from his bankai, and Hitsugaya rained large ice shards down on Crisis before he could get back to his feet. Immediately following their attacks Byakuya made his bankai's blades crash down onto Crisis and swirl around him, grindng against his heirro constantly to try and wear it down as the billions of fragment clashed against it repeatedly.

In the midst of the storm of blades around him Crisis got back to his feet. Then unleashed an explosion of powerful flames from his hand that wrapped around his body and then expanded, blasting away the blade fragments. Despite all he'd just been hit by, the only damage he seemed to have recieved was that his suit of armor had been destroyed. If any of the attacks had actually injured him, he'd healed from it already. He dusted himself off slightly, then smirked at the shinigami before him. "Is that all?" he asked with a small laugh.

Hitsugaya flew down next to Byakuya to discuss strategy, clearly nothing they were trying was having any effect, and at the moment Crisis wasn't even seriously fighting back. "Captain Kuchki, any ideas?" he asked

Byakuya shook his head "I only have one move that could possibly hurt him, but keeping him stationary for me to use it seems unlikely to happen... furthermore if Konnamura's bankai inflicted no damage at all, I don't think anything we do will harm him."

"Then it's just a matter of keeping him busy while we wait for the army to be repelled'" Hitsugaya said "if we can at least tire him out a bit, maybe one of the other captains will have the means of defeating him."

"You know, discussing strategy in the middle of a fight is usually ill-fated" Crisis said from behind the two captains. They reacted quickly, turning to face the arrancar, but not quickly enough to evade the bala blasts he fired at them. Byakuya blocked his blast with his bankai, and Hitsugaya used his ice wings to shield himself, but both were severely burned by the ensuing explosions.

"Why you little!" Renji yelled as he began to send his bankai at the man, only for Crisis to appear inches away from him the moment the snake-whip began shooting towards where he'd been.

"Having a bankai does not a captain-class combatant make" Crisis said coldly as he exerted his reiatsu on Renji "you do not belong in this fight"

Renji collapsed immediately, he felt as if someone had just dropped a few hundred anvils on his back. He couldn't breathe or move at all, and felt his ribs cracking under the pressure he was being subjected too. Within moments, he was unconscious and his bankai sealed itself, indicating he was at death's door already.

Crisis was about to finish the job when a slash from Konnamura's bankai drove him away. With a sigh he sonidod up in front of the giant's chest and fired a volley of bala blasts to strike it in a few dozen locations, blowing holes in the armor with each one. Blood exploded from Konnamura's chest as both he and the giant fell backwards and collapsed, the giant fading before it even hit the ground.

Byakuya appeared before Crisis in a shunpo and placed a hand on the arrancar's chest "hado 72, Sonen Sokatsui" he said, unleashing the twin blasts of energy directly into Crisis. They were made even more powerful by Byakuya having chanted the full incantation while Crisis was busy with his other opponents. The waves of flame blasted Crisis to the ground, where Hitsugaya had prepared for him.

"I've got you this time" Hitsugaya said as a dozen massive columns of ice formed around Crisis, then crashed together on him to freeze him in a massive pillar of ice "let's see you escape this"

A moment passed, then another, and another, Hitsugaya lowered his blade slightly, dropping his guard as he began to think the ice had successfully trapped the man. The moment he did so however a cero burst out of the ice and blew off his right shoulder entirely. his arm and blade fell to the ground, with their wielder crashing down shortly afterwards. The pillar of ice cracked apart and crumbled to nothing as Crisis slowly landed back on the ground.

"That wasn't a half bad ice attack there. Seems the both of you have talent. That will only get you so far however." Crisis said as he sonidod behind Byakuya, casually cutting him in two with his blade "in the end, none of you have the raw power required to defeat me."

As the two halves of Byakuya fell, Crisis noticed something was wrong, he looked at the captain again, only to find the only thing he'd cut was the man's haori. "Shit! Utsusemi!" he cursed, looking to find where the captain had gone. He felt a presence behind him and turned to see a glowing white pheonix's beak strike him in the chest.
"Shuhei Hakutegen" Byakuya said as he pushed forward with his blade. Crisis found himself being driven back by the power of the attack, and as the energy surrounding Byakuya's blade slowly died out, he could see the attack had actually pierced his skin, inflicting a nasty gash right above where his hogyoku resided.

With a snarl Crisis slashed with his blade, inflicting a long and deep gash on Byakuya in retaliation. As the man collapsed, the wound in Crisis's chest healed itself. "Well well, I'm impressed, you actually wounded me there. I got careless and assumed all of you lacked the firepower required to pierce my hierro, but you managed to pull it off. Unfortunately for you it seems that attack was your trump card, and it was far from enough to defeat me. Still, you've earned my respect if nothing else."

Crisis lifted his blade to deliver the killing blow, when a golden flash of light blinded him for a moment. When the light faded, Byakuya and the other shinigami had vanished. Now standing before him were a group of 5 new foes, three arrancar, and two more shinigami, all dressed in pure white. "Hmph, I was wondering when Aizen's little pets would make their move" Crisis said as he lowered his blade "very well then, throw as many worms at me as you want, it won't matter in the end."