Actually upgrading the skill will wait until the end of the current arc.
Oh, I've solved this problem quite handily by switching the timeline of the Winter War and the Thousand Years Blood War arcs, so that the Soul Society is busy fighting off Quincy while you socialize with Arrancars.
...
The beautiful thing is that you can't be sure I'm joking
The idea of Nemo surviving the Winter War and achieving some personal freedom and respect under the just rule of Tier Hallibel only to get forcibly conscripted and quincified by the Wandenreich for their invasion of Soul Society appeals to me.
It would totally suck from a personal stand point because if the amazing Y and his alphabetical band of letters gets a hold of us we are seven kinds of screwed.
Also with the upgraded sonido who can we conceivably outrun
On another note could we use the king's cave like a lair after we are finished 'evicting' the current owners.
The Hollow is coming; you don't have much time to think. You slide the heavy stone lid of the vat and jump inside, landing with a wet splash, and curl up; then you pry at the lid from below and awkwardly push it back into place from beneath.
When you're done, you hear footsteps coming in the storage room, and you feel the vat trembling around you; you sense that you are being moved. You curl up tighter and try to be as quiet and as weightless as possible.
You're sitting chest-deep in meat rubbing against you as the vat is shaken. There's a thin layer of fluid at the bottom, but you're not sitting in liquid; rather the meat has been slathered in a thick gravy, smelling sickly-sweet. You are aware, all too keenly, that these square cuts pressing against you were carved out of another Hollow. The smell is pungent, reminiscent of distant memories to you, but the cooking and seasoning changed it enough that it does not make you truly hungry.
...where did they find seasoning in Hueco Mundo?
Even through the closed stone of the vat you can hear sounds outside. You must be moving through main corridors, with Hollows talking and walking around you. Just how many people live in this butcher kingdom?
Voices rise, enough that you can hear them, disturbingly childish.
"Snatch away a lone Hollow,
Put him on a hook;
Flay him while he's raw,
Then give him to the cook!"
Did they just rhyme 'hollow' and 'raw'? Well, you're not surprised. It's not the first Hollow nursery rhyme you hear, and they always have something in common - they're created by mad, heartless monsters with no books to read, almost nothing in the way of culture, and only other mad heartless monsters for audience. The results are… Predictable.
"The Butcher King has a great big mouth,
The Butcher King has a great big knife,
The Butcher King has two great big hands;
The third one catches you,
The second one slices you,
The first one devours you!
Last one standing is a fine king's meal!"
Other voices rise further, dissolving the rhymes in the inchoate hum of a crowd; the vat is shaking harder, taking turns, likely to avoid people on its path.
You hear… Music. Percussion sounds, rhythmic and visceral, pounding beats that reach your thorax even through the vat. There is clapping too, hands and paws slamming the ground heavily. And then it stops, all of a sudden, and the voices go quiet.
"And in mere moments, before you, come from afar to display their skill and grace to a true king, the Dancers of the Salar de Luna! But first, a new course, a meal fit for a king. Hunted in the Forest of Menos by our bravest warriors, the fierce, mindless Gillian, seasoned with nectar of the Seven-Hollowed Ant!"
Eeeew.
Suddenly you feel your motion angle upward rather than forward; the vat is being lifted in the air… And then put onto an elevated place, trembling with the shock of its weight. Voices rise again, people chatting, and you tense. This is it; this is the moment. You clutch Polilla's hilt, bracing yourself for action…
The stone lid slides heavily, falling to the side of the vat, and you freeze. An enormous mask, easily your own size in height, stares at you with beady eyes; it is bone-white and shaped in the form of a vicious oni, fangs curving at angles out of its mouth, a long and sharp nose stabbing out of its face like a blade.
And atop that mask is the four-sided golden crown of Barragan.
"AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, LITTLE MORSEL?," the giant speaks, its voice the rumbling of an avalanche. "ARE YOU SO EAGER TO FEED YOUR KING, YOU CHOSE TO BE PART OF ITS FOOD?"
You blink twice rapidly and panic.
The energy comes like a surge, forming in your chest with a breath; it travels upwards, rising from the lungs, mixing in the trachea, and then splitting again in the horns of your mask. It gathers at the tips, between the two antennae-like protrusions, a pale grey orb twisting with unseen faces. Before the Butcher King has time to react, it erupts in a surge of energy, a translucent beam that frays at the edges like mist in the morning or the clothes of a ghost.
The Cero catches him square-on, engulfing the mask, and the King rears back with a howl of pain. The laments dissolve, the weeping fades in the distance. You blink again, mind catching up to your actions, but by then it's too late to do anything but commit. You catch the vat's lid, hurl yourself onto it, and kick - blinking out of sight with the bang of a Sonido and hitting the smoking mask of the Menos, catching its nose to stabilize yourself. You push on it, kick yourself up, land on top of its head…
The feasting hall is far, far below, the crowd of Hollows looking up at you dumbstruck. You see great stone tables arrayed before a cohort of monsters, and the same knife-wound in the rock that is the main gate of the cavern ahead of you. Great black cloth flows beneath you and the mask like a torrent of night.
It's a Gillian; the Butcher King is a Gillian. It would actually have been much worse if it had been smaller (and thus an Adjucha), but the sheer size of his mask while standing above you in a marinade of Hollow meat just made you panic. You kick yourself internally. But at least you're standing on his head while he is stunned, the crown at hand; from up close you realize that it is far taller and wider than you'd imagined, too small for a Gillian's head but too large for your own. But if you can take it and bolt out of here, the mission will be accomplished before anyone has time to react. You grab the crown and pull…
...it doesn't come. You pull harder, and something groans, the crown moves, but is still stuck. You look down.
With its head too wide to put on the crown without it slipping, the Butcher King had it hammered into the upper side of its mask. It's embedded there, small cracks running from the point where it was beaten in.
Before you have time to reassess you approach the great body moves beneath you, and giant hands rise together. You duck to the side before they can slam on you, but when they meet the strength of the impact is such that you are knocked straight down from the Gillian's body; you fall, fall, and hit the ground hard, pain lancing your shoulder.
"Defend the king! Kill the intruder! Eat her alive!" Come rallying shouts from all around the room. You rise up, shoulder bruised, to see a half dozen bestial Hollows leap over their tables and dishes to come at you. They are weak compared to you, but large, numerous, and with a master ready to seize any advantage they can get by ganging up on you…
You breathe in, channel the power from your lungs, the orb is born between your horns again. Then you stare down at the ground and fire the Cero Fantasma; energy flows out and spreads around you, twisting in a whirlwind of mist-like fire, unseen faces crying within. The Cero spreads around you like a dome and swallows the contenders. They are blasted at the far ends of the room, and you stand alone for one moment.
"IS IT THIS RELIC THAT YOU WANT, CROWN-SEEKER?" The King says, reaching behind him. From against the far wall of the cavern he raises a butcher's cleaver, terrible in size. "THE ROOT OF MY POWER. THE ABANDONED LEGACY OF OLD BARRAGAN, THE FOOL WHO KNELT."
The King's clawed foot kicks at the stone table in front of him, and it flies off towards you, heavy and too wide to dodge, but you make a jabbing motion and fire off a Bala. It hits the table, cracks the stone, and deflects its course; it smashes beside you on the rocky ground, Hollows running from the impact. His path free the Butcher King steps forward and brings down his terrible cleaver, immensely strong but slow, too slow. You roll to the side and the blade cuts into the earth, shaking the ground, its impact sending a gust of wind that feels like a blow to the stomach. But you draw Polilla in one smooth motion, and while the Gillian is pulling his blade out of the rock you slash at his wrist, cutting the dark fabric of his great cloak; blood sprays on the ground and he howls, pulling back in a haste.
Two Hollows, too devoted for their own safety, jump towards you before you can take advantage of the opening. The first one is lion-like, a quadruped, and you thrust your free hand over your shoulder, sending him rolling away with a Bala. The second one is the great crimson ape you saw before; he roars and barrels down on you, fists like hammer. Polilla deflects the first punch, your speed lets you dodge the second, and before he can guard himself you swipe up, slashing his mask in two. He falls down and you are alone.
Somewhere, amidst the shouts, the running, the commotion, there is laughter and singing.
"Kitchens churn, bodies burn,
Stars are shining bright.
It's your turn, now you learn,
How our King feasts tonight!"
You turn on your heels to face the King before he can compose himself, but it is too late. The cleaver is coming down on you, a curtain of steel falling down, and it's all you can do to raise Polilla in an horizontal guard above your head. The blade falls with terrible strength, but your zanpakuto is beyond any mortal blade; it does not break.
Instead it is your strength that is wanting. The sheer impact of the blade caves in your arms; you fall to one knees, your guard brought down, and the cleaver bites into your shoulder. With all your strength you push back, keeping it from slicing you in two, and finally it relents, withdrawn by the King's hand. He steps towards you, long black coat sweeping the ground - from so close you can see the patterns of faded red running down the length of his body, testimony to his countless meals.
"NO CHALLENGE, THEN? NO TAUNTS, NO INSULTS, NO WARNINGS? WHO DO YOU SERVE, TO COME ALONE IN MY WALLS? NO VOICE, NO ALLIES, NO KINGDOM - YOU ARE NO CROWN-SEEKER. YOU'RE ONLY A GHOST."
Blood drips to the floor. Your wound is wide and long, a bloody gash that tore through your cloak and uniform, bleeding now on your chest and back. You flex your left hand, and it responds - perks of the abstract biology of spirits - but the shoulder itself is weak, and you're bleeding. You find your breathing ragged, and sweat pearls on your brow. But the cleaver is heavy, unskilled; you're confident you can dodge the next blow, and in the opening-
"FIND A BETTER PURPOSE IN DEATH THEN, MORCEL."
The Butcher King opens its bloody mouth, and spiritual pressure rushes over the room, intensifying in an instant. Scarlet light gathers between the curved fangs, a pulsing orb of power, and the King breathes: a Cero far too wide to dodge bursts out to swallow you.
You answer in kind. From between your horns surges wisp-like light, rushing to meet the red tide. Your Cero is far smaller in width - but at the end of the day it is as powerful as the King's own, merely focused instead of spread out too widely. Grey and red slam against each other but your Cero pierces through his, the red light scattering into a deflagration between you two, at the center of the room, but your own Cero pushes back that tide, and when the shockwave shakes the entire cavern the brunt of it is towards the King. Stone tables are knocked back by the impact, dust rains from the ceiling. Hollows scream out, running away.
You take one moment to catch your breath as the King stumbles backwards, dazed for the count.
Seize the moment. Feel free to include tactics in your vote.
[ ]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
[ ]Take the crown and run. You don't have to risk yourself facing this opponent. Now that you know the crown is stuck in his mask, you can strike where it's embedded and make off with it. That means getting out of the fortress and away with the Menos and his army at your back, but it's better than a chancey duel.
Adhoc vote count started by Omicron on Apr 13, 2017 at 7:07 AM, finished with 85 posts and 39 votes.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
[x]Take the crown and run. You don't have to risk yourself facing this opponent. Now that you know the crown is stuck in his mask, you can strike where it's embedded and make off with it. That means getting out of the fortress and away with the Menos and his army at your back, but it's better than a chancey duel.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X]You have seen hollow and arrancar fight and fall, some from a difference in strength, but far too many from underestimating their foes, dallying in nonsense like fair fights and playing around instead of going for the kill. You are not the strongest, but you are no fool. Release your full power and go for the kill immediately.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X] Hold back on your Resurrección. You need the practice, and such a thing is not for casual use anyway. If you can't even defeat such a foe without it, then what good are you?
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X] Hold back on your Resurrección. You know how a hollow dies. A Gillian may be strong, but that strength is slow. Its power is diffuse, just like its last cero. Be swift and sure in the strike.
Adhoc vote count started by Omicron on Apr 13, 2017 at 7:08 AM, finished with 85 posts and 39 votes.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
[x]Take the crown and run. You don't have to risk yourself facing this opponent. Now that you know the crown is stuck in his mask, you can strike where it's embedded and make off with it. That means getting out of the fortress and away with the Menos and his army at your back, but it's better than a chancey duel.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X]You have seen hollow and arrancar fight and fall, some from a difference in strength, but far too many from underestimating their foes, dallying in nonsense like fair fights and playing around instead of going for the kill. You are not the strongest, but you are no fool. Release your full power and go for the kill immediately.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X] Hold back on your Resurrección. You need the practice, and such a thing is not for casual use anyway. If you can't even defeat such a foe without it, then what good are you?
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X] Hold back on your Resurrección. You know how a hollow dies. A Gillian may be strong, but that strength is slow. Its power is diffuse, just like its last cero. Be swift and sure in the strike.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
I think the main reason to stick around is to prove that we are stronger to all his followers. I for one want a bunch of minions. (May not be the most practical thing to have, and possibly not something that will actually happen, but that's my reasoning.)
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
With your relatively weak body and lacking Sonido, grabbing a huge crown and running while pursued by riled up opponents may or may not be more dangerous than a one-on-one battle with a Gillian. It's a gamble.
[x]Take the crown and run. You don't have to risk yourself facing this opponent. Now that you know the crown is stuck in his mask, you can strike where it's embedded and make off with it. That means getting out of the fortress and away with the Menos and his army at your back, but it's better than a chancey duel.
Our strength is hit and run. I see no reason not to immediately use Resurreccion, whether we want to fight or flee. Our intangibility should allow us to ghost through the walls of the room, get to a new angle, charge a zero, pop through the wall again to fire it and then run away again. As a Gillian, and one that seems to specialize in brute strength over speed and presumably perception i think the Butcher King would have serious trouble dealing with tactics like these.
On top of that, we are hurt. Resurreccion automatically heals an Arrancar.
Another tactic we could use would be to use Bala to destroy most of the lamps in the cave, creating more shadows we can use to regenerate ourselves. Basically, like Splinter Cell bullshit, except we don't kill all the lights so we have shadows instead of full darkness.
Depends on how we want Barragan to view us. The task was only to retrieve the crown, nothing more. Just grabbing the crown and going would please Barragan, but that's it. It's the option if we don't want Barragan to notice us anymore than he has already.
Killing him and bringing back his head as a trophy would be going above and beyond. Barragan would definitely notice us then. Enough that he may start asking us to do more missions for him in the future. We could use that to worm our way into his confidence to (eventually) backstab him.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
Personally I don't think he'll care all that much about whichever scavenger happened to find his crown, but if he does we could come back for the King.
I think the main reason to stick around is to prove that we are stronger to all his followers. I for one want a bunch of minions. (May not be the most practical thing to have, and possibly not something that will actually happen, but that's my reasoning.)
With your relatively weak body and lacking Sonido, grabbing a huge crown and running while pursued by riled up opponents may or may not be more dangerous than a one-on-one battle with a Gillian. It's a gamble.
Another tactic we could use would be to use Bala to destroy most of the lamps in the cave, creating more shadows we can use to regenerate ourselves. Basically, like Splinter Cell bullshit, except we don't kill all the lights so we have shadows instead of full darkness.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
Strategy:
Use Resurreccion to gain a better advantage in speed to dodge his attacks. Weaken him by attacking from a distance and then finish him by turning immaterial until we're next to/behind him with a blade in hand.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
[x]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
Really tough choice this chapter, so I guess I'll default to the one that sounds more awesome.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
I'll actually advocate we do not use Resurreccion, in order to keep Resurreccion for dramatic moments, but I won't do an actual writeup for that; paging @Tempera and @NonSequtur because it's somehow all their fault.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
Fight or flight? That age old question, one that over the years you've had much experience answering, and successfully, going by your continued survival. Your instincts say stay and fight, your enemy is weaker than you. Your mind isn't inclined to disagree. A Cero like the one it fired could mess you up if it hit you dead on, and it'd probably get the chance if the other hollows bogged you down while you were making off with the crown. Seems like some kingslaying is called for, then.
The only question now is whether to release or not. If you do, the "fight" will be over in a second. If you don't, the it'll be a real fight with a sentient Gillian - something you hadn't experienced since you'd become an Adjuchas all those years ago.
You've decided - no Resurreccion. You need a challenge if you want to get stronger, and you need to get stronger. Time to show what you're made of.
You know what, fine. No Resurreccion. You need a challenge if you want to get stronger, and you need to get stronger. Time to show what you're made of.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X]You have seen hollow and arrancar fight and fall, some from a difference in strength, but far too many from underestimating their foes, dallying in nonsense like fair fights and playing around instead of going for the kill. You are not the strongest, but you are no fool. Release your full power and go for the kill immediately.
Let's not encourage the stupidity that gets most people in Bleach maimed or killed when they should by all rights win.
[X]Defeat the Butcher King. Even if you claimed the advantage this will be easier said than done; but the other Hollows will be too terrified to intervene, and if you engage and slay the King one-on-one they will surely run rather than cause you any more trouble. You can take the crown from his body.
-[X]You have seen hollow and arrancar fight and fall, some from a difference in strength, but far too many from underestimating their foes, dallying in nonsense like fair fights and playing around instead of going for the kill. You are not the strongest, but you are no fool. Release your full power and go for the kill immediately.
