Swinging a sword for survival

The two men stared at the gigantic hollow that jumped out from the ground.

First of all how did it even jump at a size like that

Hollows are fallen souls.

When a human dies, the causal chain on his body breaks and the soul leaves the body. At first, the causal chain is still there, and the soul can still maintain the state it was in when it was alive. However, some souls will develop various negative emotions due to obsessions or various experiences in their lifetime.

These emotions will aggravate the chain causing it to slowly erode away. When it completely dissipates, a hole will be all that is left, and thus, a hollow is formed.

Because of the emptiness in place of their hearts, hollows will instinctively devour souls in an attempt to fill the void in their hearts. If they devour enough souls, the quantitative change will lead to a qualitative change, and they will evolve from ordinary Hollows to Great Hollows. Or as was the more well known term, Menos Grande, starting with the giant Gillian.

Of course, there are levels to Menos as well. The way to advance is similar to that of ordinary Hollows becoming a Gillian, both of which rely on devouring. However at this stage normal souls are no longer enough to satiate their hunger and so they resort to devouring their own kind.

As long as this hunger exists, they are monsters without reason who only follow their instincts.

Thus, for this gillian, there was no doubt that the man holding the katana and wearing black clothes was the most delicious food for its appetite. It had a feeling that if it could devour the black clad man, it would evolve.

So, when the Gillian appeared, it wasted no time in launching an attack on the man.

The man realized Gillian's purpose pretty quick, his expression remained unchanging, he stood his ground, choosing to fight instead.

Although he didn't know why the Great Hollow didn't stay in the Menos Forest, this was Hueco Mundo, it was a hollow world, and there were certain unspoken rules, regardless of the race of the being. One of them was no surrender, due to the power of many Menos, If a party chose to run, it would quickly get blasted by a cero and reduced to ashes, it was much more preferable to simply fight it out and die and honourable death.

Now that they had met, the only option was to fight.

His figure flickered for a moment, like a reflection on the water had been disturbed.

In an instant, he appeared beside the Gillian. Thanks to the reishi in Hueco Mundo being much richer than in Soul Society, whether the Shinigami used Shunpo or Kidō, the power output would be much stronger.

Of course, such a world was also very dangerous, after all, it was a hollow world, and the power boost applied to them as well.

The shinigami was also a soul, and because of the spiritual power in its body which had been strengthened through many years of training, it was more attractive to Hollows than ordinary souls. It can be said that a single Shinigami soul was equivalent to tens of ordinary souls.

Swing the sword and kill, that was all the shinigami had on his mind right now. Survival was paramount.

A crescent-shaped light appeared in the direction the man had swung his blade, and instantly, a deep scar was left on the Gillian's body, scarlet blood gushing out like a fountain.

The Gillian felt pain and couldn't help but roar. A terrifying spiritual pressure emanating from its body. An indescribable power swept over Tsubaki who had been watching from far away, like a mountain suddenly pressing down on his shoulders.

"What?"

The man in black also felt the heavy pressure.

"With this kind of oppressive feeling…not good, it might be about to evolve, which means it will go on a feeding frenzy any second now..."

The man was shocked.

If it was just an ordinary Gillian, he would've been able to fight. Although Gillians were huge in size and had a strong spiritual pressure, they were only the lowest-level of menos, with clumsy movements and simple thinking. It could be killed by using flexible attack methods.

But a Gillian, that is about to evolve into Adjhuchas was different. Although it was not as powerful as a real Adjhuchas, it's spiritual pressure would be far superior to that of an ordinary Gillian. This feeling of oppression came over the man, and he felt his body stiffen. All that, and not to mention should it enter a feeding frenzy, nothing would be safe anymore for a long time.

He gritted his teeth, doing his best to keep himself from kneeling. Then, he released his Zanpakutō, continuing to attack the Hollow.

Facing the man's attack, the Gillian opened its mouth slightly, spirit particles around him gathered into a small crimson ball, gushing out in a torrent of destruction.

The red light filled the desert. Tsubaki, sitting on a hill in a daze, felt a sharp pain in his eyes and lost his vision for a moment. Thankfully he had been far enough to be out of the blast range, but it was only indicative of how strong the Gillian had gotten for its reiatsu to have been felt this far.

He waited until the horrible red light ended and the storm of fire dissipated.

Tsubaki gradually regained his vision.

His eyes scanned the distance once more. The huge figure wearing a white mask still stood proud, like a monstrous pillar holding the heaven above.

But the man wearing black clothes and holding a katana was nowhere to be seen.

"Dead?"

"No…no no no no way!!!"

"I don't even know your name, why did you die?! We could have just run?!"

Tsubaki's heart sank to the bottom in an instant.

Now that the man in black was missing, combined with the horrific incident before, it may not be long before he himself died as well…

His eyes kept scanning the white dessert, the black clothes were impossible to miss in this white landscape but it was all for nought. He could feel his heart ache, maybe the man would've still been alive had he not been here to take up his time before this monster appeared.

He rose his head back up reluctantly, his eyes falling down back on the pillar-like monster that had taken his saviour from him, only to feel as though the entire world had crashed down on him again….

A long unnatural nose, a mouth with no lips and large teeth that seemed to bend a bit to the inside, like a predator whose mouth had evolved to keep prey from escaping. It was all immensely scary but what had Made Tsubaki get up on his feet were the two round holes for the eyes that had two red orb staring.

Staring at him.

Had he still been in pain, he would have barely batted an eye, taking it as simply a way to release himself of his misery but it was precisely because his pain was gone now that had made him run the opposite direction.

Escape!

He must escape from here, no matter what.

However, with his tiny arms and legs, he was no match for the monster in front of him.

One step taken by the hollow was equivalent to 20 of Tsubaki's steps. In just a few steps, he had almost reached Tsubaki.

Tsubaki also realized that escape seemed inevitable now, but it would be too painful to die again like this

Just then, his foot seemed to hit something and he tripped.

He staggered and fell into the desert, the timing couldn't have been worse.

He looked down disgruntled, his death seemed inevitable at this point anyway and saw a broken arm with a black sleeve on it. This seemed to be the arm of the man before, Tsubaki's breath hitched, as he looked at the hand, gripping tightly even after death…

The man's sword.

As Tsubaki was staring, the huge figure continued to get closer and closer.

Tsubaki looked back and grit his teeth, even if he started running right this second, he would've bought 10? Maybe 15 seconds before his death?

He didn't want to die, period, but if he could help it, at the least he didn't want to die in such a miserable way, crushed to death while running from a giant monster….

He reached out, prying the Katana from the hands of his dead savior. He held the long sword in his hand, his soul throbbing as though it had been completed, like an emptiness he had never noticed had finally filled.

Faintly, there seemed to be a voice calling him.

The Gillian reached out to grab Tsubaki, who's eyes lay closed in concentration, and just then, terrifying power burst out from Tsubaki's body his eyes now open with not fear but determination. With a swing of the sword, the power was unleashed and turned into a powerful slash, moving forward like a tremendous tornado before landing on the Gillian's mask, cracking it.

The arm that the Gillian stretched out never moved forward again.

It's mask was broken, its tall body quickly falling to the ground.

"Tired, so tired!"

Tsubaki sat down on the ground.

At this moment, he only felt tired. He couldn't tell whether this tiredness came from his body or soul. It filled his entire body, every muscle in his body seemed to cry out in pain.

He was not in the mood to think too much. Right Now, he just wanted to have a good sleep.

It was perhaps due to this tiredness he had failed to notice as the tall corpse of the Gillian burst out a tremendous force only to be absorbed by the Katana in his hand.

(End of this chapter)