Chapter 46

"Thanks..." Ichigo weakly muttered from Uryu's back as they swiftly retreated from the two Menos Grande.

"Don't misunderstand, I only saved you because I knew it would be difficult for me to fight those two Menos Grande alone. More importantly, why are you suddenly unable to move—Shit!" Uryu was cut off as he noticed something and dodged the tongue of one of the hollows, which shot towards them like a reptilian whip.

The tongue hit the spot where Uryu had previously stood, cracking the ground beneath. They looked at the tongue and the Hollow that retracted it back.

"We're really in deep trouble. Hey, Kurosaki, as I was saying, what happened?" Uryu asked in a grave tone, fully aware of his own limitations and knowing he couldn't defeat those hollows without help.

"I don't know—ARRRHHH!" Ichigo's words were cut short as his spiritual power suddenly went berserk, pouring into his Zanpakuto to the point that it began to bend and lose its shape.

Uryu, hearing his shout, immediately checked what was going on, but was forced to dodge a Cero charged and fired by one of the Menos Grande. The area where he had previously stood was now scorched by the Cero.

Uryu sighed in relief, looking at Ichigo's condition. His spiritual power was out of control, as if a plug had been removed and most of his spiritual power was being released outside. It even made Uryu's spiritual bow bigger without touching his sword.

'If this continues, he'll die from releasing all his power... wait!' Uryu's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.

'His previous constant release of his spiritual power was because he never tried to control it. I thought it was because he was always at his max power, but what if that was his lowest state? Blocking the Cero earlier might have caused him to push himself beyond his normal limits, removing some kind of plug. Now he doesn't know how to put it back and his spiritual power is leaking uncontrollably into his Zanpakuto,' Uryu thought.

He glanced at Ichigo's condition, then at the Menos Grande that was steadily approaching them. He looked at his enlarged bow and remembered his previous plan that was disrupted by Ichigo's recklessness.

Uryu suddenly stopped running and placed Ichigo down. "Kurosaki, we're back to the plan."

"What?" Ichigo asked, trying to control himself.

Uryu stepped on Ichigo's sword, which was constantly releasing spiritual energy. Now, instead of spreading out, Ichigo's spiritual power was flowing into Uryu's bow, making it stronger and larger.

"Hughhh," Uryu gritted his teeth as the spiritual power was so intense, he felt as if he would explode. He pulled the string of his spiritual bow and condensed a large arrow, aiming at the head of one of the Gillians.

"ARRHHH!" He released the large arrow, which flew extremely fast towards one of the hollows and hit its giant mask.

Boom!

The arrow didn't pierce the Gillian's mask but exploded upon impact, causing the large Gillian to stagger back.

The smoke cleared from its face, revealing small cracks. Uryu didn't hesitate and pulled his bow again, firing another gigantic arrow that hit the Gillian's face, causing it to stagger back again.

The cracks on its mask began to grow, and Uryu didn't stop. He kept shooting, his hands bleeding, and the hollow's mask was now full of cracks. Just one more shot and it would shatter. But it seemed the Gillian had had enough and began to condense a Cero, aiming it at them.

Upon seeing the situation, Uryu Ishida immediately attempted to condense an arrow. However, a sudden wave of intense pain shot through his hands. It was only then that he noticed the sorry state of his fingers. Despite the pain, he tried to pull the bowstring, but his fingers lacked the necessary strength.

"Hoy, Ishida, that's enough. Leave me alone," Ichigo Kurosaki, noticing Uryu's predicament, urged him to stop. Ichigo was still incapacitated, but thanks to Uryu's efforts to drain his excess spiritual power, he no longer felt like he was on the brink of death.

Upon hearing Ichigo's voice, Uryu clenched his teeth in frustration. "Shut up and be quiet. I'm merely using you as a fuel source for my arrows. So, provide more of your power so we can avoid death!"

Ichigo, initially trying to be considerate, couldn't help but flare up in anger. "Fine! Since you're so eager to die, let's go. And since you're using my power, take it all!"

Ichigo wasn't sure how he managed to control it, but he suddenly increased the spiritual power he was releasing. This caused Uryu's spiritual bow to grow significantly due to the sudden influx of condensed power.

"You bastard! It was already difficult to control before, and now you've made it even harder!" Uryu cursed Ichigo before mustering all his strength to pull the bowstring, ignoring the excruciating pain in his hands.

He condensed an arrow, as large as possible, from Ichigo's spiritual power, creating the biggest arrow he had ever made. As he finished, the hollow fired a red Cero in their direction.

Uryu aimed the arrow at the Cero and released it. The arrow launched into the air at an incredible speed, piercing the Cero and continuing on its path.

The arrow acted like a spear, relentlessly piercing the red Cero, reaching the Gillian, and striking it right in the middle of its forehead, destroying the mask and killing it.

"Roar..." The Gillian let out its final roar before disappearing.

"We...did...it," Uryu muttered as he dropped to his knees, having used all his strength for that last arrow. Ichigo, too, smiled in relief. However, their celebration was cut short when they were suddenly enveloped in the shadow of another massive Gillian.

Uryu and Ichigo sensed it and slowly turned around, shock etched on their faces as they saw the third Gillian grinning at them. Uryu attempted to move his arms, but he couldn't feel them anymore due to blood loss and exhaustion from controlling Ichigo's spiritual power to fire an arrow. Ichigo was similarly immobilized, drained of his spiritual power.

Just as they were bracing for death, Rukia, who was still incapacitated due to Urahara's binding, saw something moving extremely fast towards the hollow.

Errol had been observing Uryu, who was using Ichigo's spiritual power to fire potent spiritual arrows at one of the Gillians, slowly but surely killing it. However, Uryu was so focused on the single Gillian that he failed to notice another Gillian circling around to their back.

After they successfully killed the first Gillian, the second Gillian saw that they were exhausted and planned to attack.

Errol sighed as he glanced at Urahara, who remained inactive. "I planned not to help you guys, but I guess you've suffered enough."

Errol contemplated whether to change his Order but decided to stick with what he had. His current Order, Minds Eye, allowed him to see everything without blind spots and increase the range of his vision. His other Order gave him the ability to manipulate the wind within his field of vision.

"Okay, let's go with this," Errol decided. He raised his index finger and manipulated the surrounding wind, compressing it at the tip of his finger like a mini rasengan. He pointed his finger at the Gillian's head and said, "Bang."

Swosshhh!

The compressed air shot from his finger at the Gillian with such speed that it broke the sound barrier. It whizzed past Uryu and Ichigo, creating a strong gust of wind, and entered the hollow's mouth.

There was a moment of silence before the compressed air expanded and exploded like a bomb.

BOOOMM!!

The explosion was so powerful that the shockwave pushed Ichigo and Uryu away, causing them to roll on the ground before they finally stopped and looked up to see what had happened to the Gillian. Their eyes widened at the sight.

The monster that had made them feel helpless and pushed them to their limits was now missing its upper body.