Chapter 96 - Los Lobos
"I want to become weak and if that's not possible, then I at least want to make friends that are as strong as me." — Coyote Starrk.
°
°
°°°°°°
After the first attack, both Starrk and Baraggan remained unmoving and silent as they watched the situation of Itachi and Baraggan's fraccion while also keeping an eye on the other.
"This is stupid you know. If you want to permanently kick us out of Las Noches then I'm fine with that. All jokes aside, you should know that trying to kill me will be no easy task, even for you. Same goes for me too. A sleep right about this time sounds heavenly. Hmm? Truce?"
Baraggan however remained silent, his hollow eyes tracking each of Itachi's and Lilynette's actions, and that was when it happened.
Itachi severed the limbs of his subordinates and even killed them with a delayed explosion.
Starrk sighed as he saw that, knowing that no amount of talk and persuasion will stop the fight that was about to happen.
And he was almost this close to getting through to Baraggan, or at least he believed.
"A Hollow in cooperation with a Shinigami?That alone is taboo and deserving of death. Killing a member of my fraccion? Even your death will not be enough."
"I can never understand you people who only know how to thirst for power. Can't you see what is in store for you at the end of the road?" Starrk casually waved his hand and five Cero formed and was sent flying towards the death deluge Baraggan had sent towards him.
'His arrogance will be his own undoing.' Starrk thought idly as he watched Baraggan's actions and noticed the intent behind every one of them. Basically, he was foregoing efficiency for pride. 'His attacks… those decays are too fast and there seems to be something else going on with it.'
'But first things first.' He glanced at Itachi and saw that he, Lilynette and Baraggan's fraccion were now a good distance away and would only continue to move further away from them.
They were a good distance away and now he could let loose a little, to his distaste. For a brief moment he thought of what would have happened had they not followed Itachi around, but just as immediately brushed it off.
However, no matter how he tried not to pay that particular thought any mind, it kept coming back in scenarios like how the first time he moved in centuries, he came across another Vasto Lorde like him in just a few days, and one that he had to fight.
And it wasn't exactly like he was some sort of genius in fighting people.
And speaking of geniuses, he wasn't exactly fighting one… not that it diminished Baraggan's threat in the slightest.
He formed a Cero and split it in two with his hands and both parts veered off to collide with the two parts attack Baraggan had sent.
Another Cero, this one stretched out like a lance, exploded in a high wall of royal blue Reiatsu that could be seen from all over Las Noches.
It wasn't something he would brag with – in fact he would never brag with anything concerning his strength – but Starrk would say that he had never seen any Hollow with Cero as strong and diverse as his was.
The lonely wolf.
His strength was never something to be proud of; maybe that was what he hated most about his existence.
'What is the point of standing at the top if you're standing alone?'
He wasn't trying to fight Baraggan, nor was he trying to kill him. He just needed to hold him back long enough for Itachi to break free of the encirclement and join up with Lilynette to hide somewhere safe.
For the first time in a long time, the wolf atop the mountain howled.
Not for its nonexistent pack. Not for help. Not for an asinine plea.
It was a howl of sadness. A howl of regret, because once more he'd drawn from that very thing which gave him despair.
….
Eons passed and never once had Baraggan come across a threat to his rule, or even more blasphemous, his life.
Until now that is.
It wasn't actually the intensity of the wolf's Reiatsu that made him pause his steps. No, it wasn't.
It was the detached emotion accompanied by the burst of Reiatsu that both warned and angered Baraggan.
Despite the intensity of the stake involved, Baraggan seethed when he felt how utterly bored and reluctant Starrk was. Was this lowly Vasto Lorde looking down on him? HIM?
"I really hate doing this, you know. I don't know why Hollows thrive in it. Maybe it's just me. I guess I'll never truly know."
The blatant apathy reflected in his Reiatsu stoked something no one has ever stoked in Baraggan's soul for millenniums.
"Crumble to dust. Insolent cur." The king's Reiatsu blossomed in a petal of death and despair, flowing out like the torrents of tumultuous sea, swallowing up everything in its path until only death and nothing remained.
"The wisdom of old age comes with the knowledge that at their end, everything crumbles to dust. I wield that END."
The reason for his uncontested rule bared out in front of the foreign Vasto Lorde. What a pity. He'd soon crumble like all the rest.
…..
Starrk took a step forward, even as a wave of dark miasma that killed everything in its path flowed towards him, and a dark blue Cero formed from the back of his neck – where his Hollow hole was – but instead of shooting it like he always did, Starrk chose to grab the Cero.
The moment hand met Cero, the latter seeped into his flesh and turned his hand into a burning blue – even as Baraggan's miasma threatened to swallow him – and he brought his fingers down in a claw swipe fashion.
The Cero was released in waves resembling that of a wolf's claws and the result was a collision of blue and black explosion, with the black soon engulfing and claws. But even with the claws gone, the miasma couldn't move forward and soon evaporated as it had lost all of its momentum.
Unlike Itachi's battle, this was no showcase of skills but instead unbridled power.
What use was masterful skills when it could all be rendered useless with overwhelming power?
As much as it hurt Baraggan's pride, he couldn't advance in the midst of Starrk's unending barrage of Ceros that were both swift and precise, and equally as dangerous.
Starrk had forced them into a stalemate as he said he'd do. Now it was up to Itachi to round up with the remaining Adjuchas and get Lilynette to safety so that Starrk could finally relax and rest. This was the most tiring thing he'd ever done in his long life, and for Starrk that was saying something.
'Those things are very dangerous. I'd be at risk even if one of them were to hit.'
Death to the Soul.
It was a very scary concept, Starrk realized, when he understood what Baraggan's attack would do to him if he was hit with it.
Strong and dangerous – that was his honest evaluation of the Hollow king.
He dodged to the side, avoiding the arc of death that sailed too dangerously close to him, retreated backwards and bastardized the area with a volley of Cero that would have surely killed any Hollow, as long as they weren't Baraggan that is.
It was during the intense battle between Starrk and Baraggan that the former felt something happening, not to him but to his companion Lilynette.
His head whipped fast towards the direction Lilynette had run in. He tried calling out her name but was forced to forget that action when he felt Baraggan right behind him punching down a sphere of black death.
Acting fast, he formed two extremely small Cero that intercepted Baraggan's death punch that was just a few centimeters away from his face, covering them in the point blank explosion that pushed them both back.
Baraggan was quick to cover himself in a dome of his ability, negating much of what could happen to him but Starrk wasn't that lucky. Thankfully, it wasn't anything he couldn't walk off.
"Lilynette!"
"I see Chuhlhourne has gotten to the girl. As distasteful as this was, like everything, it must come to an end." Baraggan chuckled when he saw the expression on Starrk's face.
"For the last time; serve under me and I'll forgive this disobedience."
Starrk didn't answer Baraggan, his eyes staring hard at when Itachi was fighting against the remaining Hollows of Baraggan's fraccion. It seemed as if Itachi had noticed but he was still in the midst of an encirclement – what remained of it anyway – and Starrk was confronted with one of the hardest choices he's ever been presented with.
What should he do now?
One instant. A briefly passed moment. A growl threatened to escape the maw of the lone wolf.
––––––
Read 15 Chapters ahead on pat
Patreøn*com/QuackVader
––––––