The Sloth Cometh

As the procession of hollows was almost at the Northern gate, the gatekeeper rose up to a huge height. "YOU PUNY SOULS THINK YOU CAN ENTER THE SEIRETEI?! PREPARE TO BE CRUSHED!" With that, the gatekeeper drew a huge spiked mace, knocking two of the hollows carrying Pereza's futon towards the horizon. Pereza, who had been dozing, found himself being woken up in a rude fashion. "...Didn't your mother tell you not to disturb a person's sleep?" He muttered darkly. The hollow army drew back, partly to get out of the giant's reach, but much more importantly out of fear of Pereza. They all knew what he was like when he was woken up, and they were scared stiff.

The giant lifted his gigantic mace into the air and let it descend onto Pereza, creating a shockwave of dust. However, Pereza had lifted his spear from the holster on his back and had blocked the weapon. "Know your place, scum." Pereza used the back of his hand to push the mace to the side, then had his spear fly up and spin, cutting through the air so quickly that the giant had no time to react. It cut across his face, gouging out one eye and leaving a long, deep cut from the chin to the crown of his head. The gatekeeper roared in pain and fell back against the wall, cracking it as he did so. The spear whipped back into Pereza's hand, and he drew his arm back to deliver the killing blow.

Right as the killing blow came down it was suddenly slapped to the side by a long sword. Standing still after preventing the gatekeeper from being skewered, Zafaron Uriuc surveyed his opponent.

"I think it will be perfectly fine to skip the pleasantries Espada, I am Zafaron Uriuc head of the Gotei 13." With a movement he threw the spear back at the espada. Even though it would have deprived the espada of a weapon, he had little knowledge of what could be done with one of their swords from afar and didn't want to find out. The Gatekeeper quickly retreated from the area, realizing things were far too hot for him to handle.

"You are a threat to everything we exist to protect and everything we are. As such, expect no mercy when we fight. However before we fight I would like to know your name. It is the tradition of my former division." As he said this he narrowed his eyes. And with a single thought, released his tremendous spiritual power. The power alone made several of the arrancars and hollows step back, waiting for an order from their leader before they did anything.

As Pereza threw his spear, he suddenly picked up one of the energy sources within the Seiretei heading towards him. Please let it not be-

But it was; there was no denying that large reiatsu that was above the other captains. Pereza knew that the shinigami who had slapped his heavy zanpakuto aside was the Sotaicho even before he had introduced himself. Pereza silently cursed to himself. Why do I have to fight THIS guy, of all the captains?

As his spear flew back towards him, Pereza simply caught it in mid-air, setting it down vertically into the ground, mace-first. The blast of energy that the Sotaicho unleashed didn't even make Pereza blink, but he did not dare underestimate a foe such as this. There's no way I'm going to get out of this one easily. "Calm yourselves," he muttered to the hollows behind him. He turned back to Zafaron. "My name, you ask? I am Pereza Milagost and..." Pereza lifted up his head to show the tattoo on his Adam's apple. "...And I am the Segunda Espada of Bracamarte's hollow army." Formalities aside, he signaled the hollows behind him to attack the Sotaicho. When they did not do so at first, he cast a steely gaze in their direction. They then sprung into action, massing against Zafaron and pouncing towards him.

Let us see what you can do, Sotaicho, Pereza thought, yawning as he looked on. Show me what techniques you have so that I can crush you easier.

"You know what is interesting?" Zafaron quietly asked as the hollows quickly came to attack him. The first were the gillians who were so used to orders they obeyed without question. As they crashed forward Zafaron quickly shunpoed forward towards their faces, dodging ceros as he did so. He quickly stood on the nose of one of them before jumping off right as one of the others fired a cero where Zaf was standing killing its allies. With another shunpo he appeared in front of another gillian chopping its head off with two strong slices underneath the mask.

"Despite being the Captain Commander, there are a lot of captains better at me with stuff."

As a third came near it suddenly was killed as an arrancar burst through its stomach trying to get a surprise hit on the Sotaicho. He managed it and forced Zafaron back a little bit. Looking up and massaging his face, Zafaron made no action immediately. Then suddenly, he put up his hand "Hado 54, Haien!" The purple blast suddenly flew at the arrancar who tried to get away. However, with one quick shunpo Zafaron appeared next to him slicing him across the chest knocking him back into the powerful kido. While not instantly killed from the damage, the longsword quickly finished the job.

"I am not the best at shunpo, nor the best at hand to hand fighting."

Four more hollows suddenly charged at him, intending to knock him down with superior numbers. He quickly flash stepped back a few times though they used sonido to catch up. Right as they got close they suddenly were peppered by a barrage of kidos from the shinigami who were still keeping guard behind the gate. Zafaron had maneuvered the hollows right where he had needed them. As the hollows turned to look at where they were attacked from, they realized who they should have kept paying attention to. Zafaron was in front of them in a second. Grabbing one by the arm he threw the arrancar at one of his fellows. With a quick motion he through his longsword impaling both of them through their masks.

"I am not a kido master, I can't invent stuff, and I don't have the most powerful zanpakuto."

The third hollow still went forward to use some strange move from his ress form. Dodging to decide the powerful attack he quickly grabbed one of the arrancar's arms. Spinning around he suddenly put pressure on it snapping it. As the hollow screamed he suddenly punched it in the face repeatedly smashing its non masked face into a pulp. With a sickening moan it crashed to the ground.

"There are things that I can't do that others can do. And yet I am the sotaicho, understand why?"

The 4th arrancar tried to run but Zafaron quickly caught up. Stunning it with a powerful kick to the skull, Zafaron reached his hand around to the arrancar's face from behind. With a quick jab he dug his fingers into the hollow's eyesockets and began to pull his head back. Then with a disgusting crunch he kneed the hollow in the back of the neck breaking its spinal cord. As it started to fall to the ground he muttered, "Hado 31, Shakkahō." With that, a fiery orb flew out of his hand blowing up the unconscious hollow.

As he dropped down to pull his zanpakuto from the hollows he had impaled Zafaron looked only at the Espada. "The reason is that I was considered the most dangerous of the Captains, the one best suited for dealing with the combat that you Espada would bring to us." Covered in blood from the monsters he had just killed, he held his sword out towards the Segunda. "Now that I have sated some of my bloodlust, shall we begin?"

Pereza watched the carnage unfold, but this time it was his own hollows who were being torn to shreds, and by the Sotaicho no less. As he calmly looked on, Pereza analyzed the Sotaicho's attacks. He not even fazed when the blood from a recently slaughtered adjuchas spilled over his torso. As the Sotaicho finished his slaughter, Pereza sighed and scratched his head.

"...I see why a man such as yourself would be the Sotaicho." Pereza kicked away the decapitated head of an arrancar. "Your fighting style is without style or flash; it is simple, brutal, and efficient." Pereza glanced back at the Sotaicho, his eyes as cold as steel. "In fact, if you were not wearing those clothes, I would have assumed you to be one of us." Though he was curious what the Sotaicho's response to that would be, Pereza was simply delaying having to fight him. Now that he was ready though, Pereza cracked his neck and back. Unfortunately, he had not been able to determine the abilities of Zafaron's zanpakuto. I thought the hollow army would have at least been competent enough to make him use it a bit. Oh well.

Without another word, Pereza flicked his zanpakuto into the air, Drawing his arm back, he shot out a bala from his fist just as his hand hit the mace part of the spear as it came back down. The result was his spear rocketing towards the Sotaicho, sped up by the added power of the bala. Pereza assumed that Zafaron would simply dodge the attack since it was going so fast. In fact, he was counting on it.

"I have stolen a few of my tricks from you hollows so I guess that is where you see the resemblance." Zafaron only made a quick dodge to the left as the projectile came streaking past him then jumped back a few steps keeping the weapon and the hollows in his vision. He knew that the arrancar used their zanpakutos primarily to access their ressurrection but wasn't sure if the most powerful hollows had some other tricks they could use with it.

After all, there would be little reason to throw the weapon at him if there wasn't some other way to use it. "And to be likened to a monster of battle is a compliment for people from my original division."

Hmm. Pereza had expected Zafaron to merely sidestep the spear's trajectory and do nothing else, allowing Pereza to swing his spear around for an attack onto a vulnerable neck. Instead, the Sotaicho was stepping back even further. He's being quite cautious about both me and my zanpakuto. Perhaps I should wait a bit before using my telekinesis?

The spear smashed into the wall of the Seiretei, lodging itself into it while creating large cracks on the surface. Looking around absent-mindedly for a weapon, Pereza noticed the giant mace that the gatekeeper had dropped. Using both hands, he hefted the large weapon and swung it a couple of times. "For a 'monster' from what sounds like the 11th Company, you seem to be very careful while fighting me," he remarked, heaving the mace up high and then swinging it downward to smash onto the Sotaicho. He let his spear stay in the wall for the moment; maybe the Sotaicho would forget about it momentarily, perhaps even fatally.

Zafaron just tipped his head to the side as the Espada spoke. "The most terrible monsters are those that have control over themselves. Raging without a purpose accomplishes little." As Pereza swung the large mace Zafaron stepped forward towards the Espada blocking it with the flat of his sword near the hilt of the mace where the torque would be less than at the heavy end. Stopping its momentum he stepped to the left side twisting the sword trying to cut at the espada's wrist hopefully severing some tendons.

"Those who have control over themselves..." People like the Primera appeared in Pereza's mind. "I guess you have a point." Seeing the Sotaicho step forward out of his block, sliding his sword along the bottom of the mace, Pereza put his left hand on the top of the handle, pushing down to angle the entire mace downward, thus forcing the longsword into the ground. Pereza then drew back his hand and charged it with a bala, punching at Zafaron and hoping to take advantage of the Sotaicho's shikai being momentarily stuck with a punch strengthened by his bala.

Zafaron raised his eyebrows slightly as he felt his sword get stuck in the ground. A clever move to be sure. He quickly tried to forumulate a plan as he saw the hollow get ready to punch him but then decided to take the hit. Any plan he tried to make would probably get him in a sticky situation later. He raised his reiatsu trying to use it to boost his defenses as the fist came rocketing at him.

"Holy fuckballs that hurt." Zafaron muttered right after being hit. The force of the blow had nearly knocked him off his feet and had pulled his sword out of the ground. He had been interested in how hard the hollow could hit but he wasn't any more. It was clear that the size and power of the Espada was to be respected despite Zafaron's own considerable reiatsu.

"Well, just gotta chop him up to prevent that from happening again." Zafaron quietly said this time going on the offensive trying to get in close for a diagonal slash underneath the Espada's guard.

Pereza himself was surprised that the Sotaicho had decided not to evade of deflect the blow, but instead had taken it head-on. Is he that curious to see how powerful I am? Pereza was also surprised that he had not been sent flying or at least had not been moved much by Pereza's punch. He tilted his head, yawning slightly. "Did you want to test me? Though your reiatsu may be impressive, I'm not sure if that was a smart move." Pereza wanted to say some more things, but the Sotaicho's slash cut him off.

Suddenly, Pereza was filled with the curiosity to test out his own hierro, seeing how it would fare against the Sotaicho's zanpakuto in shikai form. Pereza held out his left hand to block the longsword. It held for a moment, before Pereza could feel the blade cutting through his skin. That's a sharp blade, to cut through my hierro so quickly. He quickly shifted hands, bringing his right hand to the other side of the blade and pushing it away from and to the left of Zafaron with the back of his fist. He then drew back his left fist, ignoring the blood seeping from the cuts in his fingers, and attacked with an uppercut to the Sotaicho's lower rib.

As Zafaron felt his sword being pushed to the side he continued moving forward using the force against his sword and his momentum to start to spin slightly. However, as one of the Espada's fists came rocketing toward him he quickly pushed off the ground with his legs to evade it. He had quickly figured out a way that might end the battle quicker.

Pushing off the ground using his momentum he dived downward into a roll and as he completed the roll he suddenly thrust forward with his sword right at the huge achiles tendon of the hollow. It had just shown that its hierro was quite strong but he could still cut through it. Not only that, but the tendons were areas of the body that had very little natural protection to facilitate their ability to let people actually walk.

If his move was successful he could cripple the Espada's leg. If it wasn't, then he would probably really piss off his adversary. Luckily he was already prepared to shunpo at a moments notice if necessary.

As Pereza punched, he realized that he had simply punched the air. Pereza quickly looked up to see the Sotaicho spinning in the air, his sword held straight out as he aimed for Pereza's right ankle. He wants to cripple me? How absurd. But Pereza knew that that shikai could cut through his hierro; with a thrust, the likelihood of it cutting through him was higher. He tried to raise his foot up and evade the tip of the blade, but the momentum of that movement carried over, and he ended up falling back as the sword stabbed into the ground. With a grunt, Pereza sat up in the small crater he had created because of his weight and rubbed his head. "Does the Sotaicho usually go for the underhanded moves?" And perhaps it's time I formally introduce him to my zanpakuto.

Meanwhile, the spear that had been stuck into the wall wiggled as Pereza commanded it. It jostled free from the wall and then sped towards Zafaron, its mace aimed for Zafaron's head.

As his blade missed and dug into the ground again Zafaron grumbled. It was clear that using his sword right now wasn't the best choice but he wanted to fight a bit more before deciding which weapon to switch to. As the hollow fell back he quickly used a shunpo to appear above him.

Right as a huge metal mace went flying past his face.

"I knew there was some trick to it!" Zafaron growled as he realized what damage could have been done if that surprise attack had hit. He was just lucky he had already been preparing to move. "Well lets keep you from actually using that!" He yelled intent on keeping the Espada weaponless.

"Carriage of Thunder. Bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Bakudo 61, Rikujōkōrō!" He cried firing the kido at the fallen hollow. From where he had fallen, how close Zafaron was to him and with his size, it would be terribly difficult to evade it despite the fact that he had used the chant. And even though Zafaron wasn't amazing at kido, it would hold the Espada for a brief time at least.

Now it was only a challenge to evade whatever ability it was that had moved the spear mace. It had to be an ability since he hadn't sensed any hollows near the area with the spear. He wasn't exactly sure what it was, but he was sure it would be quite troublesome.

As he directed his zanpakuto to attack the Sotaicho, Pereza saw Zafaron's figure blur as he used a shunpo to go above him. That flash step was way too early to have been a reaction to my zanpakuto, Pereza noted glumly, his spear sailing past the two fighters. He must've been planning on doing that beforehand. Why can't he be a little less cautious?

As Pereza began to get up, he saw a flash of light erupt from the Sotaicho's hands, and felt something hit him. He looked down to see a weird circle of light surrounding his midsection. I can't move, he observed, flexing every part of his body to make sure. Man, those shinigami spells are annoying. As the Sotaicho landed to the left of him, Pereza weighed his options. I can break out of this in a bit, but probably not before he can get an attack in. I guess I can use it now.

Getting more relaxed in his total paralysis, Pereza closed his eyes and focused on his zanpakuto, the two of them mentally connecting. The spear was heading straight for a tree, but it began to swing. It swung around the tree to make a 180-degree turn, using the trunk as a pivot. It now came flying towards Zafaron, spinning horizontally and very fast, aiming for the Sotaicho's midsection for maximum damage.

"So it is mental control eh?" Zafaron said as he saw the spear come flying back at him. It could be the only logical explanation as the Espada wouldn't be able to move. Instantly his fight or flight instincts turned on. He could try to attack right now and risk being hit by the spear, but that would take away his perfect opportunity to damage the bound Espada. Or he could just try to find someway to block or stop the spear and still attack.

His old 11th company instincts one the fight. He quickly grabbed his sword and plunged it deep into the left arm of the hollow. The resistance of the hierro was greater than he expected but the continual pressure finally pushed straight through the arm piercing the bicep and continuing downward through the tricep as well. It was a direct stab to the center of the muscle due to the fact that the bone would stop him from piercing the tricep as well, but it would still screw up the movement of that arm.

As he pushed with his personal weight and the strength of one hand he pointed the other hand towards the flying spear. "Hado 31, Shakkahō" he fired another kido right at the spear. The powerful orb of fire collided right with the spear.

Unfortunately he had underestimated how much force was behind the spear. It slowed a bit but still collided with him painfully knocking him backwards and yanking, hopefully painfully, the sword out of the Espada's arm. As he regained his footing he jumped back a few times to increase the distance from the spear.

Luckily he had used that kido because he could feel that being slammed even with the shaft of the spear had cracked one of his ribs. Luckily it didn't impair his breathing or his movement but it hurt quite a bit.

"Well now that you are pulling that trick out I guess I will need a more appropriate weapon he called to the hollow. Dawn, its your turn." As he said this his zanpakuto started to change shape and elongate. He narrowed his eyes as he saw the Espada finally break out of the kido, but the transformation was complete.

Pereza felt the burning pain of the sword stabbing into his left arm, though a slight wince was the only sign that he had even felt pain. He was a bit surprised by the Sotaicho's decision-making, managing to both wound him and partly deflect his zanpakuto in a very short amount of time.

But he was slightly pleased to see that his zanpakuto had managed to make contact with Zafaron, at least injuring him. Even a slight injury could define the winner of a fight. Speaking of which...

Pereza's right hand slowly and jerkily rose as he resisted the bakudo's effects. He managed to lay his hand on the circle of light and crushed it, breaking the spell. He slowly got up, his zanpakuto coming back to circle around him in case the Sotaicho decided to attack him. He attempted to flex his left arm, only getting a limited response from the limb. He tore through a good part of my upper arm. That's not good. It did not help that the Sotaicho had revealed the ability of his shikai. I had thought it was weird that that shikai didn't show any abilities up until now. But it seems it can form into different weapons, though I wonder how many...

Pereza finally looked back at the Sotaicho, ignoring the blood trickling down his arm. "Hmm, I believe we both exchange shots that time." He gestured to the spear circling around him. "As you guessed, I can mentally connect with my zanpakuto. But I think that's all I'll say for the moment."

Pereza yawned, his mouth stretching widely. Though his yawn was partially spurred by a bit of weariness, the darkness in Pereza's mouth suddenly brightened as an amber-colored cero burst out, shooting straight for the Sotaicho. At the same time, his zanpakuto shot into the air and then came down in a slicing motion, hoping to attack Zafaron if he decided to block the cero. Pereza also timed it so that if the Sotaicho decided to dodge the cero, the zanpakuto would fall after the cero had passed and then come back to Pereza.

Seeing the cero fly towards him as well as the spear the sotaicho used one of the tactics he had learned with ceros. He rushed forward jabbing the end of the spear into the ground and pushing off vaulting over the cero. However as he still had to hold onto the spear he didn't get as much height as he expected and felt the cero pass by him burning his arm slightly. Ignoring the pain and the spear that went flying past him he landed dashing forward attempting to impale the espada through the chest. While it would have been a difficult move with another weapon, his spear would be most effective in piercing the espada.

As he did so he also kept his upper body slightly turned so he could see the zanpakuto out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't going to risk having it fly at him again when he wasn't paying attention.

Of the many options that Pereza could think of for the Sotaicho to deflect/dodge his cero, polevaulting was not high on the list. His own zanpakuto had fallen to the ground and was momentarily floating aimlessly, awaiting a command. But Pereza was distracted by the Sotaicho charging him with a spear to give his zanpakuto directions yet.

"I'm beginning to get annoyed," Pereza mumbled to himself. He crouched down for a split second, then brought his right fist into an upward punch aimed right behind the spearhead, knocking the tip of the spear upward and over the Segunda's head. Pereza then shifted forward to close the distance between him and Zafaron, so that the Sotaicho could not effectively use his zanpakuto at the moment. He drew his right arm across his body, then drove it towards Zafaron, elbow-first, attempting to do a lot of damage to the Sotaicho's midsetion.

(Awesomesauce )

Zafaron's eyes widened as the Espada managed to knock his spear upwards. He knew that the Espada was strong, but the force of the hit almost made the entire spear fly out of his hands. The fact that the Espada had also specifically hit the part of the shaft furthest from Zafaron's grip did not help matters. The entire attack also knocked the Sotaicho off balance and sent his zanpakuto upwards away from any area he could use it to block an attack. As he tried to slam it back downwards into Pereza's shoulder, the arrancar proved to be the faster.

With a movement faster then even Zafaron anticipated the hollow managed to close the gap and slam the Sotaicho right in the midsection. Zafaron was sent flying backwards crashing against the ground and forced to do a somersault back onto his feet. Panting slightly he felt his side trying to survey the damage. One rib had indeed been broken, he was lucky the others had remained intact. He suddenly started coughing and he put his hand to his mouth. Taking it away while still looking at the hollow and the flying spear he glanced at his hand quickly.

Flecks of blood covered his hand, probably from internal damage to his organs. But that wasn't what he was thinking about at the moment. He could feel the pain racing through his body, sense his breathing rate increasing, and see the blood on his hand. a change suddenly started to appear in the Sotaicho. No longer was he thinking about his position as the head of the Gotei 13. His worries disappeared replaced by pure bloodlust. He wasn't anyone but a bringer of death, a monster of battle. He was just one warrior with an enemy in front of him. And there was only one way this could end. The subconscious understanding that he was fighting against a powerful foe that had the capability to kill him awoke all of his suppressed instincts.

He suddenly threw his head back and started to laugh loudly as small drops of blood began flying out of his mouth. As he laughed his spiritual pressure started to increase starting to shatter the ground around him. Some of the hollows around him actually turned around and fled in fear of the bloodlust the head of the Gotei 13 was releasing. Laughing even harder at their fear Zafaron faced the Segunda Espada. "My wonderful enemy, it will be sad when I am done tearing you to pieces." His words showed that he expected exactly that to happen.

As Pereza slammed his elbow into Zafaron's midsection, he gasped in pain as his left arm was jolted by the impact. Pereza prodded the arm; it was becoming numb, which was concerning. I cannot keep fighting like this. He didn't even glance at Zafaron to see how much damage he had inflicted on the Sotaicho. At least, not until Zafaron's reiatsu began to increase at a fast rate. Pereza looked up to too see his opponent bristling with a fierce energy, one that even Pereza could recognize: the desire to maim and kill all enemies who stood in the way.

Pereza stood there, the only sound from him coming from the drops of blood dripping down his arm. This is not good. This type of being cannot be defeated with me running around like this. What a pain... Pereza released a deep sigh, as his own reiatsu began to slowly rise, releasing a low trembling in the air. In a flash, his zanpakuto came racing back to him, circling behind him. Pereza took another deep breath, then looked at Zafaron. He now knew that this shinigami was in battle no more than a beast focused only on the grinding his opponent into dust. That was what made him a very dangerous foe for Pereza, and one that Pereza knew that he had to go all-out against if he wanted to survive.

"It seems you are now serious about destroying me. If that is the case, allow me to extinguish that bloodlust of yours."

Behind Pereza, his zanpakuto stopped circling and aimed for him. It shot forward and stabbed him in the middle of the back. With a grunt, Pereza was forced onto all fours, as a pillar of amber-colored reiatsy shot out from him and into the sky. Bristling with the reiatsu that his zanpakuto was releasing, Pereza looked up. "Emerge..." he said, as his zanpakuto twisted 90-degrees in his back. "...Tortuga Diamante!" As he said these words, the 10-foot spear began to melt down, to form into a shell-like shape. In an instant, the reiatsu pillar brightened until it was solid amber, momentarily hiding Pereza from view. A shockwave then shot forth from the pillar, knocking down trees and cracking the northern walls of the Seiretei, causing them to groan as they began to crumble from the massive output of reiatsu. A cloud of dust slowly descended upon the area where the reiatsu pillar had been, masking the transformed arrancar from view.

{OOC: I'll let you post as Zafaron responding to this transformation, as I intend to show Pereza's form and then have him attack in the following post}