The School Massacre [CLOSED]

When he had swung at Lance the second time, Ichigo had not been thinking straight. Not once throughout this entire battle had Ichigo stopped to consider the repercussions of his reckless actions; although this was not much different from how he usually was in these types of situations. After everything that had happened in the last few minutes, it was much worse. Ichigo was so angry, and now, desperate to stop Lance, that he could barely think straight. If he could only calm down and think things through, everything would go much smoother; he could have probably beaten the arrancar and come out with only moderate injuries. But that was not going to happen now.

Ichigo felt Zangetsu clash with Lance’s blade before he heard or saw it happen. That alone illustrated His state of mind. The clash did not last long, as Lance was blown back by the small reiryoku explosion from Zangetsu’s edge. As soon as the arrancar landed, Ichigo had charged him, sending a mighty horizontal slash towards his torso. Once again, he failed to connect, as Lance ducked right under Ichigo’s blade. He just barely had time to register the fact that Lance was lunging towards him before he felt something – Lance’s fist – hit his right arm. A searing pain shot up his arm, and then the numbness ensued. Ichigo resisted the urge to cry out in pain as Zangetsu clattered to the ground with a heavy clanging sound.

As Lance talked, Ichigo recovered somewhat, although his right arm now hung limp and useless by his side. Even in his current state, he could not deny the truth in Lance’s words. Right about now, the situation seemed hopeless. But he could not give up; nothing would come of that. Ichigo did not know why the Espada wanted him, but right now that didn’t matter. What did matter, was stopping Lance, and then going to get Orihime back from Las Noches. Moments later, Ichigo knelt down to pick Zangetsu back up off of the ground, with his left hand. “I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do… I’m going to beat your ass, right here and now. Then, I’m going to get Orihime back,” Ichigo said resolutely, slowly raising Zangetsu, with the tip pointing towards Lance.

Although his words seemed to be filled with confidence, it did not look like the battle was going to go in Ichigo’s favour. Wielding Zangetsu with his left hand was going to be extremely awkward, especially since he could not even use his right arm. The earlier advantage that he had had in strength was now void, and he wasn’t in too good of shape himself, after being hit directly by a Gran Rey Cero, among other things. But none of that mattered to Ichigo right now. He needed to win. And if he somehow was taken to Las Noches, that would make it all the more easier to save Orihime, and tear the place up while he was at it.

With that thought in mind, Ichigo poured his own reiryoku into Zangetsu, projecting it through the blade. The large cleaver-like weapon glowed with a blue-white radiance that was known as Getsuga Tensho. The attack itself had massive destructive capabilities, but he didn’t intend to unleash it while so close to the school. He flash stepped, blurring out of sight for a moment, before he reappeared next to Lance, to the left of the arrancar. At that point, the large blade was already bearing down on Lance, still glowing with power. However, the swing itself was not as powerful as the previous ones had been. It was also slightly slower. This was all due to Ichigo having to use his left hand instead of his right, which was what he was most used to.

Ichigo did not say anything in reply to Lance at first, only swinging down at the arrancar with all of the strength he could muster in his one good arm. As his own blade clashed with Lance’s, Ichigo stepped into his swing to try and get an edge on the arrancar. However, because he was using his off hand, it did not change much. He was still able to hold his own without much difficulty, though. He poured his strength into Zangetsu, desperately trying to overpower Lance. With the arrancar being able to use both of his hands, and Ichigo’s sword arm now useless, it just wasn’t going to happen. They were in a deadlock.

When Lance took his left hand from the handle of his zanpakutō, Ichigo thought for a split second that he was about to win the clash. At that point he tried to push down on the other blade even harder, but it was no use. He gritted his teeth in frustration. He could damage Lance if he released the Getsuga Tenshō that was currently swirling about Zangetsu’s blade. But if he did that, he had a fair chance of greatly damaging the surrounding area, and possibly getting other people caught up in the destruction. Ichigo had to wonder at why Lance had taken his hand from the hilt of his blade though… he got his answer when the dark red aura from another Gran Rey cero made itself known. Ichigo was surprised that the arrancar could even use another one, so soon after the previous. Although how Lance could do it really wasn’t the issue there.

“You bastard!” Ichigo growled when he realized what Lance was planning to do. He stared with apprehension at the cero as it formed, already knowing that this one was a lot stronger than the last one he had been hit with. He wondered if there was any way he could stop it. He could release the Getsuga to try and counteract it, but again, he was drastically limited by his surroundings. He couldn’t risk busting the place up while there were so many people around, unconscious ones at that. He could see that the cero was draining Lance considerably; he was slowly beginning to be pushed back. Even so, Ichigo would not be able to overwhelm him before he released the cero. He knew that. There simply wasn’t any time to try and think over each way he could go about stopping the cero, and he wasn’t going to move out of the way, either.

It’s just a cero. I can take this. Ichigo thought, before he instinctively swung Zangetsu towards the cero, and Lance’s hand, just as Lance released it. He felt something slash across his chest, and stumbled backwards just as the cero hit him. In the split second before it hit, Ichigo had once again began to emit reiryoku. He had opted to release all of his reiatsu as a means of defense. Although it would not do a whole lot, it would make sure that Ichigo did not die from this attack. The reiatsu of Lance’s cero quickly won out against the minor amount of reiatsu that Ichigo defended himself with, as he flew up into the sky with said cero. When the cero has shot as high as it could, Ichigo, in his barely-conscious, vaguely noted that he could see the entire town from where he was up in the sky. Then the cero exploded. Blood flew from his mouth as Ichigo was blown back further by the sheer force of it. By some fluke, he managed to keep a hold of Zangetsu’s hilt, even as he began falling back down to the earth. No matter how hard he fought to stay awake, Ichigo’s vision kept getting dimmer and dimmer, and he could barely move. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself from hitting the ground, whenever he managed to reach it.

OOC: Is it odd that I now have Firework by Katy Perry stuck in my head? .-. Oh, and don't mind the weird template I'm using. Just me experimenting with CSS and failing epicly. xD