Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 37 - Sudden Change — Steel and Blood

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Sudden Upheaval

BOOM!

Gascard didn't flinch at the incoming Lanzador Verde. He crossed his hammer-like arms in front of him, and the lance bit into his thick, rugged forearm, but stopped there, unable to pierce a single inch deeper.

Then his Reiatsu erupted, and the double-headed lance shattered. It looked like it hadn't threatened him much at all. But Nel wasn't charging at Gascard. Her target was Varta, the one Wayne's Cero had just struck.

"My dear guest, it seems you prefer the hard way."

Nel hadn't even reached Varta when his icy voice cut through the dust cloud.

A pale purple Reiatsu surged outward, blasting the smoke away in an instant. The Varta who now stood before Wayne had taken only minor damage, just the arm he'd used to block the Cero.

"In that case, both of you will be leaving your lives here." Varta's eyes flared with dense purple light. Nel, mid-charge, skidded to a halt the moment she saw that gleam.

"Th-this is..." Frozen in place, a chill crept into her eyes.

"Illusion Cage." Varta spoke with measured ease. "My ability converts Reiryoku into a specialized light. Project it into the enemy's eyes, and they are imprisoned."

"Illusion-type." Wayne's voice dropped low. Nel was trapped in an illusion now. He knew it wasn't real, but with all five senses disrupted, breaking free wasn't something she could manage quickly.

No hesitation. Wayne fired another pale gold Cero straight at Varta, forcing him to move, trying to break his concentration.

And it worked. Gillian-level or not, the Reiatsu behind Wayne's Cero was already comparable to an Adjuchas. Varta didn't dare tank it. The first Cero had already wounded him, and that was after he had actively reinforced his defense with Reiryoku.

Taking this one head-on would not only disrupt his Illusion Cage, it would injure him further. No calculation made that worthwhile.

Reishi pulsed beneath his feet. Varta vanished.

Sonído. Wayne's Cero hit nothing. But on the other side, Nel, not yet fully lost to the illusion, broke free through Wayne's interference and her own Reiatsu, retreating swiftly to his side.

"Tch. They're not making this easy." Wayne's voice was tight. These three Adjuchas-class Menos were worse than he'd imagined. Pushing this head-on any longer would gain him nothing. "Nel. Open a Garganta. We're running."

BZZT!

A hum, and another Cero tore from his mouth.

"But... Lord Wayne, you, " Worry flickered in Nel's eyes.

"I'm fine. I can hold a little longer." His voice stayed low. "Hurry up and, "

"Shadow of Binding."

Wayne never finished. Yinfeng, the dragon-headed Hollow who had stood silent behind Varta and Gascard this entire time, finally moved.

A massive shadow erupted from him, swallowing the area where Wayne and Nel stood. Five hundred meters across, at least.

"My lord, the Garganta won't connect!" Nel had tried to open it the moment the shadow descended, but the portal shattered into streaks of black light the instant it formed, then vanished.

"Don't waste your strength." Varta's voice was heavy. "Yinfeng's Shadow of Binding doesn't just trap those inside. It seals all Reishi fluctuations within the space. A transport ability like Garganta — one that requires a connection to another endpoint — is useless here.

"When you've burned through every last drop of Reiryoku with no way to replenish it... that's when you die."

"Tch. This is bad..."

Wayne clicked his tongue, mind racing, searching for a way out.

But against absolute power, strategy thins fast. Three Adjuchas against one, even with Nel's natural gifts, she couldn't possibly withstand all three at once at her current stage.

She'd only just advanced. The gap in Reiatsu between her and these three was considerable. In a real fight, she might not last ten exchanges before going down.

And Wayne himself was still a Gillian. A frontal confrontation was out of the question. His only absolute defense was Negación, and that alone couldn't win this.

"Nel. I'll stall Varta. You take one out, fast." He had no choice now but to meet force with force. His hopes rested on Nel crippling one enemy quickly, ideally Yinfeng, the one maintaining the binding technique.

But the enemy was ready. Varta Sonídoed directly in front of Yinfeng, the purple light in his eyes glowing faintly, poised to obstruct anyone who approached. Gascard slammed his hammer-arms together with thunderous cracks, every inch of him screaming that he was about to charge in swinging. There was no opening to strike at Yinfeng.

Then Yinfeng stepped forward. The Hollow who had never spoken a word finally opened his mouth.

"Before we begin, may I know your name?"

The question wasn't aimed at Nel. It was for Wayne.

"Does it matter, at this point?" Wayne's gaze was cold. He'd realized this silent Hollow was sharper than he looked, he'd picked out the real leader in a single glance.

Wayne's words had carried flaws, but nothing glaring. Anyone who could see through it that quickly was no ordinary opponent.

"At the very least, it would let a Gillian of your caliber leave a tale worth telling among the Adjuchas."

"Heh." A dry laugh. "Fine. It's a fight to the death anyway. No shame in leaving a name." Wayne stepped forward. "Remember it. My name is Ace Wayne, the Gillian who's about to carve an indelible scar into your mask."

"Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck." Nel's voice was ice. "Even in death, we're taking you Adjuchas with us."

"Heh. Spirit." Varta's sneer was thin. "Newcomer, enough talk. Wipe them out."

"Mm."

The dragon-headed Hollow called Newcomer slowly raised his right claw. A black, gleaming light, dense with violent Reiatsu, began gathering in his palm.

Seeing Yinfeng charge his attack, Gascard stopped holding back. Reiatsu flaring wide, he charged straight at Wayne and Nel.

"Good. This saves us trouble." Varta stood behind Yinfeng, the purple light in his eyes brightening further. "Gascard leads the charge. Yinfeng provides support fire. I'll lock down their movements with Illusion Cage. You, what are you doing?!"

BOOM!

The roar exploded beside Varta's ear before he could finish. His vision lurched — lifting away from the Yinfeng standing before him — until he saw his own charred neck stump and his body already separated from it. Only then did the purple light in his eyes slowly fade, shock frozen in them forever.

Varta had taken a point-blank Cero to the neck from his own companion Yinfeng. Head and body parted in an instant. Dead. Utterly dead.

"Wha, " Gascard, mid-charge, whipped his head around at the sound. The sight stopped him cold. For a moment, words failed him entirely.

Wayne and Nel's eyes went wide. But Wayne had too much combat experience to stay stunned for long. Clarity returned in a heartbeat.

"Nel, take out the big one! Now!"

"Yes!" The sudden reversal lit a fire in her. Reiatsu surging, she shot toward Gascard. Wayne began condensing another Cero, ready to fire or drop Negación on Nel, whatever the shifting battle demanded.

"Bastard! I should have seen it, you were a traitor all along!" Gascard, slow as he was, had finally pieced it together. Whether this newcomer Yinfeng had killed Varta to hog the spoils, or for some other reason, it didn't matter.

The realization was worthless now. Gascard was staring down a pincer attack from two Adjuchas.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two head-on clashes with Nel, and Gascard had to Sonído backward to make space. But Nel's speed matched his, she was on him again in an instant, locking him in close combat. At the same time, the traitor Yinfeng's claw flared black once more, a dark purple Cero condensing in his palm. Wayne wasn't idle either, a pale gold Cero gathered at the edge of his mouth.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Outmatched and cornered, Gascard snapped into a berserk rage. "You want me dead? Then you're coming with me!"

Silvery-white light burst from his eyes, then spread across his entire body. His Reiatsu spiked, violent, unstable.

Self-destruction!

In his final moment, Gascard chose to take them all down with him. An Adjuchas's dying detonation was a terrifying thing. The raging Reiatsu made Nel, locked in close quarters with him, shudder. She pulled back immediately.

But Gascard knew he couldn't reach the other two. So he clung to Nel. Cracks split across his body, Reiatsu screaming from every fissure. The explosion was seconds away.

"Nel, take his head!"

Wayne's command cut through the chaos. Clarity snapped back into Nel's eyes. As if by reflex, a Lanzador Verde materialized between her hands. She swung in a full arc, the lance shifting from thrust to slash, aimed straight at Gascard's neck.

Shk!

Gascard, on the verge of detonation, had no way to dodge. The blade carved clean through his neck. His massive, bull-like head flew into the air, and the explosion followed instantly.

BOOM!

The blast tore skyward. Everything within hundreds of meters was caught in it. The shockwave rippled out nearly a kilometer, shaking Yinfeng's Shadow of Binding until it shattered apart.

WHOOSH!

The dust settled. With the shadow gone, Wayne could see the dim forest of the Forest of Menos once more. Varta and Gascard, his enemies just moments ago, had already dissolved into Reishi, merging with the sands of Hueco Mundo. All that remained were two heads, Hollow Masks still attached.

"Ah... that was close. Too close." Beneath an orange-yellow curtain of light, Nel patted her ample chest. "Thank goodness Lord Wayne's Negación was fast enough. I'd have been badly hurt."

"That's because you've always kept the code words and command drills I taught you. A few seconds slower, and even Negación wouldn't have saved you." Wayne walked toward her.

Yes, the instant Gascard's head left his body, Wayne had dropped Negación on Nel. The explosion hadn't touched her. But the impact had still stressed the barrier, leaving his own Reiatsu unsteady.

If he'd had a face to show, it would have been pale as paper. But his Reiatsu, built up over all this time, had held.

"Don't relax yet." His Reiryoku was nearly spent, but one enemy still stood before them. Yinfeng.

Incomprehensible as his actions had been, there was no guarantee he didn't intend to swallow all of them, companions included, in one go.

"Mm." Nel knew it too. She swept her lance lightly and stepped in front of Wayne.

Tap... tap...

After Gascard's self-destruction, the dragon-headed Hollow named Yinfeng walked slowly toward them, stopping a little over ten meters away.

"Sir. Thank you for your assistance." Wayne spoke the moment Yinfeng halted. "If it's the masks of these two Adjuchas you're after, let's split them fairly, half each. We'll withdraw from this Forest of Menos afterward. That should give you something to report when you return."

Wayne was far too sharp not to read the situation. A Hollow who would betray his own companions wasn't easy to deal with, and returning to his allies would require a story.

So he offered retreat. A clean exit for both sides. He and Nel could walk away intact, and he wouldn't make another enemy in the process. They'd just clawed their way out of a death trap, avoiding another fight was the priority.

Yinfeng still hadn't shown his full strength. In their current state, whether Wayne and Nel could survive a serious fight was an open question. The fifty-fifty offer was meant to leave room to negotiate. Honestly, Wayne would have surrendered both masks entirely if it came to that. In their condition, an all-out fight guaranteed nothing good.

What Yinfeng did next, Wayne never could have predicted.

The dragon-headed Hollow let his Reiatsu quietly fade. Then he bent one knee, and knelt before Wayne.

"My king. Forgive Jekain for his belated arrival. Welcome back, my king."

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