The hunter's not so triumphant return (Drake/Shinku/possibly Sora, Closed)

As if it wasn't bad enough that he was in the worst shape of his fairly long life by far, he'd been properly defeated in battle for the first time during that long life, and he'd been requested to join the numbers of those he counted as enemies... now he had to return to the place, more so person, he felt he currently belonged. He regretted it, in a way, but there was simply no other way about it in the state he was in; burns, chips missing off some of his plated scales, the works.

Not to mention that it could be plainly seen that he felt miserable, more so for actually letting others see him in such a pitiful state.

Still, whatever could be said of the state he was in, he made it to his destination quickly as he could still manage by wing, most of the rest of his body simply hanging limply beneath them and leaving them to bear the full brunt of his weight. 'Twas difficult in itself, suffice it to say, and if he weren't as durable as he was, he was certain he wouldn't make it even so far as bumping against the door as he did. Somewhat hastily moving himself out of the way of it, he slumped down the wall until he could semi-relax on the ground, simply waiting for anyone that might have caught the light noise or the remains of his reiatsu.

Shinku was tending to a fairly large rose bush as Drake came back around to see her. However, Shinku was in her own little world for a bit, just losing herself in the beautiful plants. When she did turn around, she gasped. "Drake!" She immediately dropped what she was doing, tears forming quickly as she embraced him warmly. "Where did you go? Who did this to you? Don't leave me like that again!" Her words made it seem like she was in love with the Arrancar. Well, it was partially true. She was attached to him like one would their first crush. However, it went no further than that, as Shinku wasn't exactly sure what his species liked. That part of her didn't show up now, as she was lavishing the beaten Arrancar with soft kisses along his cheeks and mouth, having been incredibly worried.

Great, now he'd made her worry more... not that the rogue Arrancar wasn't expecting that, really. Still, he wasn't completely out, beaten up though he clearly was. He certainly wasn't feeling good, but he could at least give a slight grin and place a semblance of a kiss against the woman's cheek.

"Sorry... just had to go and chase a few things away," he growled out somewhat weakly, his apparent confidence at least not the worse for wear. He'd lost, to be fair, but... well, she didn't have to know that. Better not to worry her any more than she already was. Thus he let out a light breath and simply rested after shifting and even somewhat snuggling a bit closer to Shinku, his little meal earlier before the actual conflict finally beginning to metabolize and spare him at least some amount of reiryoku in exchange. The warmth, somehow, though, felt as if it were doing even more for that; 'twas odd, for one who'd gone a century completely alone without any mind of the fact.

"Thanks, though... nice knowing I have someone to stay around and come back to any time."

For now, indeed, he was perfectly content, despite the damage he'd taken.

Shinku clung to him tighter, not wanting him to leave her side for a second at this point. "Please... Don't scare me like that again..." She sniffled against him and allowed her tears to fall upon his neck. "I couldn't bear the thought of something happening to you... Please don't leave me..." She sank to her knees, still clung to him. Really, the girl worried too much. She was weak as weak could be, and she was worrying about a creature that was exponentially more powerful than she was. Still, that was how she was. She was hopelessly attached to Drake at this point, and nothing would change that. "I'll always be here awaiting your return, Drake... I promise..."

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The Arrancar gave a little nod upon the woman's words. No... he would certainly not leave, and he'd count on being able to return to her any time. An actual peaceful time for once, after such a tenure as a self-driven hunter. Perhaps he'd finally earned his penance, of sorts, though he wasn't certain what he ever might have done to become a demon in the first place.

But... 'twas never enough, was it.

"I will not," he growled out in response of the threat. Battered and only slowly recovering though he was, he still, slowly and somewhat grudgingly, removed himself from Shinku's touch. Undeterred was he by the sudden roar; no, rather than that, it just gave him that much more reason to trigger his remaining reiatsu to flare up in as predatory a presence as the other's. Taking a light breath, he let loose a loud, screeching roar of his own, of a sound far more suited to his draconian form. That, and the utter ferocity in his eyes, told all that was needed: he would not back down.

"I will absolutely protect this woman from anything, so find yourself another target," the rogue spat. Gaze unwavering, claws dug slightly into the ground, and teeth bared, he waited for now. He couldn't afford to make any first move, not with the overall situation how it was, but that wouldn't stop him from displaying his threat.

Shinku gasped as she heard the roar, looking to the wolf and shuddering. This wasn't her normal level of fear. She felt utter despair and malice from this being. Whatever it was, it certainly was not any ordinary creature. She felt the being's power and wanted to run, but she couldn't leave Drake in his current state. He would be destroyed in an instant. She closed her eyes and shook, all that she could do at the moment. She couldn't tear her eyes away.

Finally, Drake's words of protecting her rang true in her mind, snapping her out of her fear. She gulped and stood up straight, looking at Lance rather strongly for her normal look. "Don't hurt him... Just... Leave us..." She was trying to remain strong so Drake would not worry, but it was difficult. "There's... There's no reason for you to bother us... So... Just leave peacefully! We didn't do anything to you! We won't, either!" She felt his power, and it was more than Drake's was when he was perfectly healthy. She also felt like, even with his threatening appearance, this was just the tip of the iceberg, and there was a lot more underneath. She leaned behind Drake and whispered in a slightly panicked tone. "I think we need to run... This... You can't fight him in your state... He would kill you... You don't need to be hurt anymore, Drake..."

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'Run,' she said... sure, he'd love to, but in this state? With someone to take along and protect? No... at the moment, he wasn't so sure about his confidence in running, which left forcing himself to stand and fight however much longer his body's state and his remaining energy would allow. Chances were, not very long, but... well, he wasn't as tough as he was for nothing at all.

So far as he was concerned, he'd fight as necessary, and not lose again, not now. If only his body as it was now could quite keep up with that will; the speed that came at him wasn't far beyond his own, but right now it was a bit much for him to react to so suddenly, at such a short distance. What he needed right now, then, was not his normal thought; he needed the savagery just as innate to him as any other such bestial-formed hollows. Even if he'd soon have to begin slowly burning through some of his spiritual form itself to keep going.

So it was with not a further sound or protest that he lunged forward as fast as his paired legs and wings would take him. Claws, teeth, and tail; on him, each was as dangerous as the other, and each lashed out in turn. His long neck afforded him a quick lunge at one of the opposing Arrancar's forearms, in specific the one that had slashed out at Shinku's leg. One of his foreclaws came down for the leg on the same side. Finally, his tail whipped out and downward in full intent to impale the other straight through their lower back. Each possessed plenty enough force to crush a concrete wall, each were burdened with the limits of his damaged body and yet pushed beyond...

...each proved more than anything that if this Arrancar wanted her, then there would be a wall to bring down before that could happen, for the rogue Arrancar showed no slight signs of backing down.

"You... Want me?" She shivered as she heard that. Nothing spoken like that could mean anything good. She only had a second to give him a look back, but it wasn't the fear he was looking for. It was a look of surprise that a being could move with such sheer speed. She was utterly shocked that she couldn't even follow his movements.

Then his attack came, laming her leg and causing her to jump back on her good leg, stumbling for roughly twenty feet before she finally fell on her back. Miraculously, the fall didn't hinder her want to get away, and she continued scrambling, ignoring and burning pain of her blood so quickly leaving her body through the gaping wounds. Shinku held herself together, the only indicator of the pain was the streams of tears and hyperventilated panting coming from the woman. The dark reiatsu emanating from the bestial Espada was terrifying, so much so that she wanted to run, however her damaged leg was keeping her from running really effectively. Still, she turned and began limping quickly away, feeling certain Drake would do the same once he saw her leaving.

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Such bestial aggression... how long had it been since he'd resorted to it? No, how long had it been since he'd had to resort to it? Probably... the time when most of his mask had been ripped off and he'd gone berserk in the midst of the sudden transformation and power shift. Yes, that was probably right. Since then, he'd had but to simply overpower everything in his path.

How strange it was, then, to revert to that primal bloodlust.

Thus he clawed, bit, and lashed out with his tail with general abandon, neither for his own already ailed being nor, particularly, the one for whom he desired only destruction. 'Twas so much he was lost in that he had no chance to react to the sudden cero, instead getting blasted away by it.

Of course, if that was the way it was going to be played, so be it. Blazing white, his own cero fired off rapidly as soon as Drake had come to a halt. Scratches as well littered his own tough but already previously damaged body, adding to the random chips missing from his plated scales. A faint aura radiated off him, indicative of both his own reiatsu and the fact that he was at the very early stages of burning through his spiritual form itself just to let loose such a blast from his own maw, and yet he followed that blast with his own charging body, fully intending to ram into the opposing Arrancar and take a bite right out of his enemy's neck.

If he could have shouted at Shinku to run, to oppose the other Arrancars words, he most certainly would have... but right now, the rogue was far too lost in using what little of his self was left for combat.

Shinku's reiatsu flaring like it was was the only thing keeping her from being paralyzed, as Lance would have miscalculated her spiritual power as being less than it was. Her reiatsu hit it's peak from it's extremely low level in the moment she was hurt by Lance, in an effort to get her away from the assailing Arrancar. However, she would stop completely once Lance threatened Drake, making her gasp and reach her arms out, even moving back towards them slightly.

"No... Don't hurt him! He..." She said no more, as she was afraid to say anything that would make him more of a target. She didn't want Drake hurt anymore. She had grown rather attached to him in the time they've known each other. She wanted to help him whenever possibly, and this was one of those times. She stands up slowly, because of her gored leg, and whimpers softly, still terrified. "If... If you leave him alone... I'll do whatever you ask... Just please don't hurt him..." She meant every word, but she was having trouble speaking through her tears of worry. Drake had become somewhat of a surrogate for Ichigo in her absence, only more so. "So... Just stop... Please... Stop trying to protect me, and stop trying to kill him..." Oddly demanding, but it got the job done.

With the deceptive ears of Drake and Lance, both in bestial forms, they would hear the sound of footsteps, but no reiatsu. Most likely a human or normal person that was just jogging or running; hell, maybe they'd even heard odd sounds and had come to check it out. But no, what emerged from the nearby area was a man, with a beanie on top of his head, and an eyepatch on his right eye with a skull and crossbones on it. A tanned man with dark brown hair curling from beneath the beanie. A complete stranger to Lance, but possibly the very thing that had needed to perk up the morale of Drake and Shinku; Sora.

Sora ran, seeming to go slowly. He stopped, almost mid-stride, as a green light emanated from his foot that was still in the air, and he disappeared. He reappeared in front of Shinku, a long, thin spear in his hands that looked oddly like a paintbrush, especially with the black, inky-looking substance floating from the tip, disappearing in mid-air. He glared directly at Lance, a glare that was a stark contrast to his usually friendly look; even those who didn't know how rare it was often cowered from such a look, as Sora harbored such a look of hatred for nobody. At least, not until now. With a few swift swings of his spear, what appeared to be a spade was drawn in mid-air, floating in front of Sora as he moved directly next to Shinku. "DRAKE! DON'T LET HIM BEAT YOU. YOU KNOW WHAT'S AT STAKE HERE! I HAVE SHINKU COVERED!" He called out, a sound valiant enough to raise the spirits of an army outnumbered 500 to 1. It was empowering, that was true, but it was a shout so courageous, that it might even lower the morale of those thousands of enemies that would outnumber our own army so. Immediately, as soon as he was done he began painting in the air once again, already knowing he was going to intervene regardless of who liked it.

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Shinku gasped as she was pounced, unable to do anything from the speed of Lance's attack. She didn't scream out in fright or fear, unlike what some might have expected. The only thing she did was look to Lance weakly and begins to gasp out a soft but panicked exclamation before the teeth violently ripped her flesh from her neck, silencing her words forever. Blood quickly pumped from her torn neck, and that would have killed the girl anyways, leaving her weakly moving as the pain all but paralyzed her. Even as her arm was torn away, she felt her death coming upon her, and simply... Closed her eyes. She knew she was going to die. There was nothing any of her friends could do to stop Lance from killing her at this point. Her body gave twitches as Lance continues tearing uselessly at her body, and her throat made an eerie noise of the woman trying to breathe, but in her mind, she was serene. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she began thinking of Ichigo, her long-dead sister, and how she would be able to see her sister again. She opened her eyes and gave Drake a look, one the Arrancar wouldn't understand, but one that was filled with regret of not being able to speak to him. She was never able to tell Drake of the feelings that had grown on the human for the Arrancar as he protected her... She had come to love him, and maybe it was quick and poorly-thought-out on her part, but he was the one person that had ever protected her. It that was poorly thought out, then she would gladly take the repercussions for such thinking. Then, as her heart was yanked from her torn chest, her eyes widened and her life was snuffed out completely, leaving her corpse looking at Drake with a soft, loving look, even with her light clothing matted with blood and torn away from her body.

Shout though anyone might, despite his ordinarily good hearing... Drake's 'ears' were good as closed right now. There was naught but the bloodlust fueling him, nothing more than his sole target in any bit of his perception. He wasn't even aware Sora had even come out, so lost was he to a state more resembling those weak, unintelligent hollows only driven by hunger... though it was, at least, something radically different that drove him.

Upon that final act that he was certain he could have done something about were he not so weakened, however... he very nearly snapped completely, irreversibly. A cero beyond what was safe for him right now was hastily charged, before that charge quickly departed on him noticing what it would otherwise hit. And then there was only death in his head; the death of the one person to show him true kindness, and the planned death of the one that had done the deed along with anything and everything affiliated with it.

Yet... he was certain she wasn't gone, not completely; he'd seen people die at times, then later seen their wandering souls; 'twas only inevitably he would after a century of existence.

"I'm going to find her... and I'm going to rip them apart... all of them..." the draconian Arrancar growled weakly, choosing a direction where held something of mild interest each time he'd passed it and beginning to trudge along. He'd not be stopped, not any more, not for what he now intended to do. He was rather full of injuries and his reiatsu formed only the weakest of presences -- even the most meager, mindless of hollows might even have a chance against him now -- but he'd still not be stopped.

Sora was confident. WAS. He figured that with both himself and Lance, they could defeat the beast, even in Lance's weakened state. So, one can only get an idea when the beast lunged for Shinku, how shocked he was. It knocked him back by hitting the shield, sending him to his bottom. As he lunged on top of Shinku and stared at her, time seemed to slow down for Sora. "Shinku!" He yelled, but it was is if he didn't speak at all. It sounded to him like a voice that was very distant, or maybe in the back of his head. When the Arrancar bent down and ripped her throat out of her teeth, that was it. Sora's stomach began to feel queasy, his head becoming light-headed. Was this really happening? He yelled once more, but that sounded even more distant than the first. What was he doing? He was right there. He could have helped her! Sora stood up, knuckles tight on the spear-like paintbrush as he walked forward. It was too slow, though.

Damnit, everything was just going too slow! It felt like by the time he had reached Shinku, time had stopped. By now, Lance was gone, her chest cavity wide open, her throat missing. He fell to a single knee in front of her, the limb seeming unable to support him all of a sudden. Subconsciously, he dropped his spear. He reached up with his hands, one gripping the hat sitting atop his head, and the other his eyepatch, before he yanked and ripped them off, putting them in his pocket. By now, his weapon had reverted to a mere paintbrush, which he grabbed and deposited into his pocket, also. Gingerly, not caring about the blood, he picked up Shinku, before standing up and looking to Drake. He noticed the way her gaze had stayed on Drake, and the exact look her eyes had held before she died. She had been in love with the man, making her death that much worse. "I'm going to.... find somewhere to bury her..." He said, to Drake. "And not just you.. WE will find them. And WE will kill them. I can't let you do this alone. That isn't what she would want." Sora said, uncaring at this point in time if his stitched-up right eye was visible or not.

Sora wanted to... help? Well, it didn't ultimately matter; 'twas for her sake, not the rogue's. Thus he'd remain essentially alone, and... for the moment, he had his own path to take. A particular path for only a creature like him, an... Arrancar, they'd said? Even that didn't matter; 'twas just a label to the particular brand of demon he was. Not in their domain, though, not yet; that would come later. The solution he sought was likely to be found somewhere lower, darker, if such a place existed; 'twas just an inkling, but it was something he had to go on, however small.

"Maybe not, but she's still around, somewhere, I'm sure..." he spoke, faintly curious about something. Was it a somewhat continued proximity to him or Shinku that the man seemed able to understand him still better? Well... who knew. He'd go with it. "For now... I'm sure there's places only I can go and things only I can do as a demon. You seem to know a lot more than me about the creatures around, so... where do these... 'hollows' come from, and is there anyplace darker?" he inquired. He'd no guarantee that Sora would know, but it could get him a start. For now, he let out a light sigh and laid himself down to rest for now as he mulled things over... though he didn't intend to stay still for long.

Sora nodded, figuring that Drake would quite possibly ask about such a thing. "Hollow's come from a place called Hueco Mundo, and from there, usually reside in the Forest of Menos." Sora said, as he looked down at Shinku's face, now pale with the clamp of death upon her. He felt her skin become ice cold. Just a few moments after Drake had realized it, Sora found that now, he too could make out what most of Drake said. He didn't have to strain himself so much. He had trouble occasionally, but for the most part, he could make out what the man was saying. He nodded with what Drake said about Shinku being around, figuring that this wouldn't be the last Drake saw of her, at least. He couldn't say if he'd see her again in any form before he died; he didn't have the longevity that others did, after all.

"As for some place darker, I couldn't say. There was an odd gate a ways off in Karakura, but that's about it." He said, as he lay Shinku gently on the ground for a moment. He ignored the blood that was on him that had come off from the woman's body. Now wasn't the time to worry about one's life essence staining another's soul.

"...that will do," he simply spoke, allowing himself a light, somewhat pained stretch as he picked himself back up to his feet. If it was some sort of gate, surely he'd crossed such a thing in all his time wandering the area generally at random, and it wouldn't be something difficult for him to find again. Before then, though, there were other priorities... recovery, first and foremost. For that, he needed rest... and 'food.' Neither would be hard, with how easily he could find other demons when he wanted to.

"Sorry to leave you like this for now, but I'm going. I'll be stronger once I come back from... wherever that gate takes me," he assured, beginning to trudge off again. He'd not a clue where it might take him or how he might return from there, but... right now, 'twas all he had. He needed power, and surely that was where to find it.

"I understand." He said, as he once again picked Shinku up. He idly wondered what trouble Lilly was probably getting into, admittedly missing the small Arrancar. He began to walk away, before he stopped, turning back to Drake. "Come back safely, though. For her sake, if not your own." He said, a sad smile on his face as he watched the Hollow who he had come to know as a friend walk away. They both had dark and difficult paths in front of them, but Sora could only allow this to be a bump on the road. With that, Sora sped away via bringer light.