Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 51 - Hollow Beast Mine

Down in the testing ground, the two injured Gillian were already pinned motionless under Wayne's full suppression. That at least made it easier for the watching Hollows to observe them.

After the explosion, both Gillian had climbed back to their feet and kept moving. The blast hadn't hurt them nearly as much as Wayne had hoped.

Looking them over, he counted three or four spikes embedded in each body. The points had punched maybe three-tenths of an inch into the flesh, present, but not fatal. A little blood. Nothing more.

"A failure." Wayne looked at the two Gillian and waved a hand, signaling his subordinates to dispose of them.

"My King, what exactly is this for..." Jekain knew Wayne was working on traps, but the purpose behind these experiments still eluded him.

"I'm developing a way to injure the enemy that operates outside our direct control range." Wayne's tone was flat. "Borut's bombs lost performance across the board once Henden's spikes were added. On top of that, the spikes wear down from the explosion itself. That's why over twenty spikes went in and only seven or eight actually did anything. That's nowhere near what I need."

What Wayne wanted to build was, simply put, a landmine.

For pure explosive damage, Borut's larval bombs were more than adequate. But the blast radius was the problem. That result didn't satisfy him.

What he was after was a single device that wouldn't kill a Gillian outright, but could injure seven or eight, or more, in one detonation, stripping them of mobility or the ability to fight. Only then could it reliably hold back large-scale Gillian assaults and serve a tactical delaying function.

He'd already tried driving spikes directly into the larval bombs to create improvised shrapnel. The power and the results told him that approach wasn't working.

"How do you keep the explosive force intact while making sure the spikes survive the blast?" Wayne muttered to himself.

"My King, I don't quite follow." Jekain scratched the side of his dragon head. "Do you need the explosion's force to scatter the spikes outward and drive them into the enemy, something like the spike traps you taught us to build back then?"

"Exactly." Wayne nodded. "The spikes launching out is the same principle I taught you. Back then, though, we used the tension from Fislina's spider silk to generate that pull. Now our traps need to handle Gillian and even Adjuchas. What we had back then is nowhere near enough, which is why I turned to explosions. Use the blast's propulsive force to fire the spikes instead."

"What if we added a separating layer to contain the explosion's destructive force and preserve only the propulsion? Even for just an instant," Jekain asked.

"I've considered something along those lines." Wayne let out a quiet sigh. He raised his right claw and casually hacked a length of wood from a nearby tree, then began whittling with the sharp tip. In under a minute, he'd carved out a cylindrical mold.

The piece was cylindrical throughout, hollowed halfway through while keeping a solid base at the bottom, then hollowed again from the base inward through the center column. That separated the explosive chamber from the spike chamber. Around the outside, Wayne fitted the whole cylinder with a sleeve, sealing the assembly into a single enclosed space. The result was already seven or eight parts identical to the landmines he'd known in his previous life.

"The problem is wood can't withstand the blast force. The spikes — already shortened to increase propulsion — would just get incinerated." He shook his head with a regretful sigh and tossed the carved mold aside. "And the construction is too complex. Takes too long. That kills any practical efficiency."

"My King, this object..." Jekain picked it up and turned it over in his hands. "I think we might actually be able to produce it. Do you remember Mude?"

"Hm?" Wayne paused. "Mude? The rock-type Adjuchas-class Hollow Beast, Keredo Mude, the one responsible for building our bases?"

"Yes, My King. With his ability, constructing a mold like this should be straightforward. And the material he shapes with his Reiatsu, its toughness changes depending on how much Reiatsu he puts into it. Wouldn't that solve the whole mold problem in one go?"

Wayne's eyes lit up. "That's good news. Go and get him."

If this was actually viable, he could start building a technology-based arm of his army sooner than expected.

About half an hour later, Jekain returned to the testing ground with Mude in tow.

"My King, I wasn't sure what you needed from me." Mude was a massive Hollow Beast, over ten meters in his natural form. In practice, he typically shaped a roughly two-meter avatar of himself through his ability for easier interaction. He was also one of the original members of Jekain's early core group.

"Mude, try making something like this." Wayne tossed the carved mold over. "Match the size for now. If that gives you trouble, scale it up by double."

"Yes, My King." Mude's voice was low and rumbling. He began studying the mold, then pressed one hand to the ground. Reiatsu wrapped around the surrounding sand, shifting and compressing it as he shaped a rock mold from scratch.

The whole thing took less than half a minute.

"Decent speed." Wayne nodded. He signaled Borut and Henden to get the spikes and larval bombs ready, then had Jekain and Nel bring over a fresh batch of Gillian.

Under Wayne's direction, the Hollow Beasts got to work. He had Mude produce four molds at different densities and material compositions. All four Hollow Beast landmine prototypes were buried simultaneously in four separate zones, and an equal number of Gillian were herded toward each one.

The explosions came fast.

All four zones detonated at once, and the Gillian dropped across the board. But in two of the zones, the Gillian were already pushing themselves back up.

Wayne walked the zones and checked the results. The two lighter-density groups had done more damage to the spikes themselves, leaving the Gillian with relatively minor injuries. The two higher-density groups were different, the denser material had absorbed more of the blast's destructive force and channeled it into propulsion instead, launching the spikes cleanly and driving them into the Gillian with real effect.

"The spike damage in the last two is sufficient. Density somewhere between those two should be the target range." He looked at the two Gillian still on the ground, bodies bristling with dozens of spikes, and nodded.

"The damage is there," Nel said, studying the collapsed Gillian before turning to Wayne. "But it's mostly penetration impact right now. I'm not sure how it would hold up in a wider engagement, my lord. I think we should increase the test intensity and bring in more Gillian for a more precise trial." This was her first time researching something that had nothing to do with direct combat, and her interest was showing.

Jekain felt it too.

"Agreed. We'll expand the scope and run another round." Wayne nodded. "Mude, can you hold your Reiatsu density output to exactly that range consistently?"

"Yes, My King."

"Henden, Borut — what about you? Can your Reiatsu sustain it?"

"For the current quantity, I have no issues on the spike side."

"Same here." Both Adjuchas confirmed.

"Good. Absorb these Gillian. Half an hour, then we start the next round."

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Nel and Jekain began the summons. Before long, around forty or fifty Gillian were trudging toward the testing ground in their slow, lumbering way.

BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions rolled through the air one after another. Gillian dropped across every zone. Wayne watched from the high vantage point, tracking each fallen body with careful eyes.

Past a hundred-meter radius, the spike effect dropped off sharply. Past a hundred and fifty meters, it could barely be called harassment, nowhere near enough to bring a Gillian down.

"Still lacking." But after confirming that each blast zone had left over ten Gillian unable to move, Wayne gave a slow nod. "It can serve a purpose. It's just a pity, if the range were greater, this would be more than a harassment tool."

"Lord Wayne." Nel tilted her head beside him.

"Hm?"

"What if... we coated the spikes with poison?"

Wayne blinked.

Then his eyes went sharp. "Damn, of course." In his previous life, every bomb and landmine he'd ever thought about was built around raw explosive force. Chemical weapons, the kind that violated every humanitarian convention, barely entered the picture. But this was Hueco Mundo. There were no humanitarian conventions here. Biochemical weapons were entirely on the table.

"Nice, Nel!"

Nel tilted her head. "Eh? What's... Nai-su?"

"Ha, doesn't matter!" Wayne was already grinning. "Jekain, do we have anyone under our command with a venom ability? Neurotoxin specifically, not corrosive."

"We do, My King. I'll bring them immediately." Jekain was gone with a step of Sonído.

"While we wait, get this area cleaned up. Nel, go summon another batch of Gillian."

"Heehee, yes, my lord~"

It wasn't long before Jekain returned with an aberrant Hollow shaped like a pufferfish.

"Your subordinate Delipus, paying respects to My King." The voice was female.

"Good." Wayne looked her over. Reiatsu sense put her at early-stage Adjuchas. "Jekain filled you in?"

"Yes, My King." Delipus nodded. "My ability is a neurotoxin. It can be delivered through skin contact, through the bloodstream, or through inhalation. That said, it isn't fast-acting when it comes to outright killing, it works gradually as it circulates, producing a paralytic effect that eventually becomes fatal. Against Gillian, it's fully effective. Against an Adjuchas-level Menos Grande, my venom will only cause a short-term paralysis."

"That's fine. We'll see what it does." Wayne waved a hand.

He had Mude produce a new set of molds, this time with an enlarged cavity around the spike compartment. Delipus's venom was injected into that space, then sealed. Borut's bomb was locked into the central chamber. The whole assembly closed into a single airtight unit.

Start to finish, with Wayne directing each step, the process took about two minutes. For a weapon being assembled by hand in the field, that was fast.

"Let's test it." Wayne looked at the finished device, a smooth, sealed cylinder, and nodded.

"Yes, My King." Jekain took the landmine and flew toward the distant Gillian group, burying it just ahead of the herd's leading edge.

"Borut — is the Reiatsu cut off?"

"Yes, My King. The larvae have entered their dormant state," Borut confirmed.

"Good. Let's see what it can do."

The Adjuchas took their positions on the high platform and waited.

It didn't take long.

At the front of the Gillian herd, a cylindrical shape erupted from the earth and launched itself some three meters into the air. A sharp, ear-splitting crack followed, and then the sky turned purple.

Toxic mist billowed outward in a rolling cloud, mixing with dust and smoke, swallowing more than half the Gillian group in seconds.

"The venom aerosolized from the blast." Beneath his Hollow Mask, Wayne's eyes were bright and fixed. "That extends the effective range even further."

Two minutes later, the purple haze thinned and cleared.

More than half the Gillian were down. Those caught at the fringes were still twitching where they'd fallen, lungs full of mist. Those caught close to the detonation, pierced by poison-coated spikes, had already gone still. The Gillian at the outer edge that hadn't yet entered the cloud stood frozen, seemingly unsure whether to advance.

Wayne felt the excitement rise through him like a current.

"The Hollow Beast Mine, it works!"

➤ Next: Dispute — Face to Face