Lousy Subordinates! (Part 7) : Payaso vs Zafaron

Payaso simply loved it. He was releasing almost no reiatsu, and the fact that he was not very intimidating (tall and lanky) only urged the recruits to fight him. He was having so much fun that he barely even noticed the captain appear. But he noticed. He was still holding the recruit by the ribcage, the recruit on the verge of death. He looked at the captain when he asked the espada who and what he was.

"Well well, the hen has come to save the little chicks from the fox." He had seen that brief look of anger on the captain's face when Payaso ripped his recruits to shreds, and he enjoyed it. But then the captain had calmed down rather quickly. He must be a seasoned fighter. What fun it'd be to crack that hard shell of his. "But where are my manners? A host must accept his guests cordially, no matter how rude they are. I am..." he paused for dramatic effect, "Payaso Real, the Cuarta Espada. As for those two..." he nodded in the direction of Layle and Alasster. "I'll leave their rankings unknown for the moment. Can't ruin everything for you, now can I?"

Without a warning, Payaso threw the recruit he had been holding at the captain. At the same time, he used his sonido and appeared to the left of the captain, though still at a distance. he whipped a thread behind the captain and fired a cero. If the captain dodged the attack, the recruit would be incinerated by the blast, not to mention the other recruits around the clearing. Payaso then activated Esquivar, maxing the reiatsu sensors in his threads. Now let's see what you do, shinigami.

Zafaron was more then a little surprised when a cero was suddenly shot at his back but not enough to rattle him. The cero had a decent amount of power behind it, but not overly so. Flaring up his reiatsu he swung Havon at the cero. The side of the axe smashed into the attack knocking it into the ground. The force still pushed him forward a little and the energy that directly hit him still hurt. However, the damage to him was minimal even though it left a crater in the ground. He then caught the rookie in his arms, stared at him for a minute, then chucked him through the garganta. Hopefully the reinforcement troops stationed on the other side would be able to heal him up.

"The injured, dying, and weak have no place on a battlefield between behemoths." He watched a couple other rookies running for the garganta as he turned to the arrancar. He had made his point perfectly clear to them. Leave or you will also be exiting at a very fast velocity. "So your name is Payaso is it? Interesting that you speak of manners then do not give me the time to introduce myself. My name is Zafaron Uriuc, Captain of 11th Company." He looked down at the two bodies that were dissolving into reishi. "The two you killed were called Sora Uzuma and Ikalor Senato. It is our custom to tell our foes to our names so that we will be remembered if we fall."

While his voice and mannerisms were calm, his mind was churning furiously. The Cuarta Espada? Espada means ten blades. And Cuar things usually refer to four. So he is the fourth of a group of ten? We have at least four of these arrancar then and maybe more? Shit, what would have happened if we hadn't come here? We wouldn't have been at all prepared.

He pointed Havon at the arrancar. He didn't need to say anything else. Battle between the two was desired by each.

Payaso wasn't too surprised when the captain blocked his attack with his zanpakuto, though he did chuckle at how the captain absent-mindedly tossed the recruit into the garganta. Hehe. Hope there's a soft landing on the other side. Payaso turned his attention to the captain's curious zanpakuto. Because of his Esquivar, he could sense something odd about it. It certainly looked like an axe, but it seemed weird, like it wasn't its only form. How interesting... I'll have to see what else it can do.

Payaso tilted his head when the captain told him the names of the recruits. "Are they really worth remembering? I find that it's one of the greatest ironies in life, that these babies, he gestures to the corpses, "might grow into powerful warriors, but met their deaths today by my hand. Wouldn't you agree?" Still... Payaso decided to remember the names for now. I might find some way to use them that might anger him in the future.

He then attached the threads in his left hand to his sword. Swinging it around, he flicked his wrist and cut down several trees around the clearing, chopping them into large pieces and using the threads in his right hand to slingshot them at the captain. "You're hiding something about your zanpakuto. Show me what else it can do!"

"I am not 'hiding' anything about it. You just haven't done anything to make me show what Havon can do. And honestly," He quickly swung the axe reducing the tree pieces into splinters. Grabbing one of them he chucked it back at the hollow watching as it flew through the air. "if you really wanted me to show its abilities then you shouldn't throw wood at an axe."

So it seems he uses strings. Great, just great. Zafaron had studied most weapons and knew about string users. However, he had never actually fought against them before and had not studied any easy ways to fight them. It just meant he would have to pay close attention to how the arrancar used them.

He stayed where he was, waiting to see what the arrancar would do next.

Payaso watched as the captain cut apart the logs as if they were butter. As for the log thrown at him, he simply slapped it away with one of his strings. Well, he seems to know the basis of my ability. What to do now? Payaso didn't have a master plan right now; he just wanted to see what Zafaron would do if Payaso did something. Now that he had elicited a reaction, he was thinking of what to do. He thought back to when he had fought Fache right before he left to fight the shinigami. Let's try that.

Payaso started to swing his sword around his head again by his threads. "All right, let's see you block this!" He threw his sword at Zafaron, ready to strike. As soon as the sword reached Zafaron, Payaso pulled it back towards him. At the same time, he used his other threads to sonido toward the captain, grabbing his sword in midair and twirling around, bringing his sword down upon the captain's unprotected head.

Zafaron had already brought the axe up to fight against the thrown sword so it took little effort to knock the downward stab to the side. However, he was not a man who would just use one move at a time. As he hit the sword he spun to the side to avoid the stab. At the same time he threw his leg out in a powerful kick towards the hollow's stomach hoping to stun him for a minute.

"Who needs to block it? Just need to redirect it enough." He said as he performed the combo. However, he still kept Havon near the hollow's sword just in case the hollow had also planned further ahead.

Payaso took the blow to the stomach, his breath momentarily knocked out of him. However, he could still move his limbs, and with a flick of his fingers two threads wrapped around Zafaron's ankle, pinning his leg. At the same time, he let go of his own sword and using his threads pivoted it to the inside of the axe, pushing it outwards. He smiled as two more threads over his shoulders aimed at the captain and started to glow.

"I wonder how you'll dodge my ceros without your leg and zanpakuto." A split second later, two ceros shot out of the tips of the threads at point-blank range.

"Interesting move arrancar, I will give you that." In all honesty Zafaron really wasn't giving it his all. He was mostly just distracting the hollow so that more of the rookies could get through the garganta. However, he realized he was in trouble when the two threads suddenly started to glow. He quickly moved his other arm.

"Bakudo #4, Hainawa!" The twisting rope caught on to the hollows arms jerking the arms, and thus the threads as well, out of the way. At the same time he ducked right as the ceros passed over him singing his hair. Using the momenum from the push the hollow had given his axe, he suddenly spun it around aiming to slice the arrancar in the shoulder.

What the - Payaso was caught by surprise by Zafaron's kido spell. Where did these ropes come from? But he had a greater problem, as he saw the captain spin around and swing a deadly blow. With a grunt, Payaso tore through the ropes and dodged to his right, but not before the axe cut the outside of his shoulder. He paused, panting as blood seeped down his left arm.

Dang. I don't really want to go all out. Payaso could feel his Esquivar technique dwindling away now. Well, guess I'll have to use Alambre Hoja. But he knew that would take two turns to prepare. What a drag. He stood there at a safe distance, waiting for the captain to make a move.