"Hadō #63. Raikōhō!"
A beam of golden lightning tore through the air.
Metastacia had already darted out of the way and put considerable distance between us.
I had only fired the Kidō to keep it in check, but the thing was surprisingly quick for something that looked like that.
"Ryunosuke...?"
Miyako was a wreck, but thankfully, she was still alive.
"Please hold on a little longer. Captain Ukitake will be here soon."
Ukitake was also a master of Kaidō. And since he possessed strength befitting a captain, all we had to do was buy time until he arrived. Then victory would be ours.
But I had no intention of merely stalling.
If I could not defeat a Hollow that fell short of even a Fracción, much less an Espada, then my future was bleak.
...Besides, relying on him made me a little uneasy. What if I held out all this time, only for Ukitake to suddenly cough up blood and collapse?
Before facing Metastacia, however, there was something I needed to do.
"Bakudō #73. Tozanshō."
"Ryunosuke... What is this?"
"Leave the rest to me and get some rest."
A pyramid-shaped barrier of spiritual energy enveloped Miyako.
In addition to its ability to erase Zanpakuto, Metastacia could also possess spiritual bodies.
The binding spell I had placed on Miyako was meant to prevent Metastacia from making one final, desperate move.
The standard strategy was to skip a boss’s desperation phase, but one could never be too careful.
"Wait... That thing is too much for you...!"
"I can’t exactly run away, can I? Please tell me about its ability."
"It seems... capable of erasing the Zanpakuto... of anyone it touches. You’ll have to fight... mainly with Kidō."
"So it only works after touching someone once...."
Even forcing out those few words seemed difficult for her.
I had heard everything I needed, so I used what little skill I had with Kaidō to put her to sleep.
Only then did I finally release the breath I had been holding and gasp for air.
To end up like this after barely more than ten minutes of sprinting at full speed... I still had a long way to go.
"Heehee... Finished with your little chat, runt?"
"Hah... Should I thank you for waiting? That was some real third-rate villain behavior."
"Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing tastes better than devouring a man in front of the woman he just told, ‘Leave this to me.’"
Heehee, heeheehee—the creature’s grotesque laughter rang out, sounding almost as if drool were leaking through the wind with it.
Sick of hearing it, I slowly leveled my spear.
I bent my left leg forward and stretched my right leg behind me.
The spearhead pointed not at my enemy but toward the ground, while I lowered my upper body until it nearly touched my knee.
This was the basic stance best suited to my Zanpakuto, Byakurai.
"Hee—didn’t that wench lying over there tell you about my ability? And you still point your Zanpakuto at me?"
"Of course I heard her. You can erase a Zanpakuto after touching its wielder once."
It looked smug, as if it could erase my Zanpakuto at any moment, but that was a bluff.
Its ability could only be used once per day. And even then, only at night, against the Zanpakuto of the first person who made contact with it.
But that did not mean I could casually fight it with my Zanpakuto.
Right now, I could not make use of any information beyond what Miyako had told me.
There was no way for me to explain how I knew it, after all.
Therefore—
"There is no need to question it, Hollow."
"Hee, heehee! What are you talking about, Soul Reaper?"
"One strike. For the span of a single charge, my spear and my body can far surpass the speed of sound."
"What?"
"Block it or dodge it. If you can do either, I will acknowledge your victory."
Upon hearing that, the Hollow burst into maniacal laughter, as if it could no longer contain itself.
"Hee, heeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!!!!! Idiot... You idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot!! You just keep babbling and babbling and babbling about your own ability!!"
Drool poured from the monster’s mouth like a waterfall, as though it could hardly wait for the feast ahead.
"You’re an imbecile, Soul Reaper! What can you possibly do with that pathetic spear that looks like a charred stick? You ran yourself half to death just getting here, and now you’re gasping for breath! What do you think you can accomplish? If I’m ready for it, a single strike like that is nothing!! Now, come! I’ll block your precious attack before your very eyes, and then I’ll start from your toes and slowly chew you to piec—!!!"
Crackle—
**
Unbearable delight and ravenous hunger. Adrenaline erupted through Metastacia’s body in response.
For an instant, Metastacia thought the world had slowed.
It was the chemical union of extreme concentration and the stimulants flooding its body.
It could hear the saliva spilling from its mouth strike the ground. It could hear its own blood coursing through its veins. Even its own voice seemed to reach it slowly and distinctly from somewhere far away.
This was it. At that moment, Metastacia had no doubt whatsoever that victory belonged to it.
And because of that—
Crackle—
When the soot-black spear resembling a burned log—and the black-clad Soul Reaper who resembled it—vanished from before its eyes, Metastacia could not comprehend what had happened.
KRA-KOOOM—
Only after everything was over did the deafening thunder reach its ears.
From behind Metastacia.
"What... did you...?"
A death rattle escaped like a moan from what remained of its mouth, after a single straight line had pierced through its head and torso, leaving behind only traces that they had ever existed.
Path Through the Azure Sky. A technique that charged the entire body with lightning and destroyed everything along a straight line with a single rush.
"You couldn’t keep up, Hollow—with the speed of a world without sound."
Only then did Metastacia’s remaining limbs succumb to their own weight and collapse across the ground.
"Well... I suppose you can’t hear me anymore."
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