Last But Not Least

The girls stepped back letting Hisashi take the lead so they could recover from their wounds and exhaustion. They remained vigilant ready to jump in the moment they felt Hisashi was in danger.

"You'll regret underestimating me. A Vasto Lorde is nothing in front of an Arrancar," the hammerhead Arrancar said.

"We'll just have to see about that, won't we?" Hisashi said with a smirk.

The hammerhead Arrancar launched himself at Hisashi with a series of slashes, but against his expectations Hisashi managed to parry them expertly diverting the force away from himself. Though both of them were using swords there was only one swordsman among them.

They kept clashing, but over time it became clear Hisashi had the upper hand as the injuries just kept piling up on the Arrancar due to his lack of regeneration while Hisashi sustained fewer injuries and those he did receive healed in short order. Even if it was slow the tide was inevitable even if the hammerhead Arrancar refused to see it instead becoming more reckless as the fight continued.

It took quite a while, but eventually the hammerhead Arrancar realised he wasn't going to win and rather than concede it took drastic action.

It jumped back and started charging a Cero. He wasn't aiming for Hisashi though and instead targeted the still recovering group of Harribel and the Tres Bestias.

Hisashi narrowed his eyes. In just a fraction of a moment he crouched down. As long as he played it off as a momentary burst he could probably play it off as not being his regular capabilities. He kicked off causing the ground he was standing on to shatter as he launched himself towards the hammerhead Arrancar. On his way he coated one of his blades with blade energy while using [Blut Arterie] to strengthen his arm while using [Illusory Aura] to hide the effects.

Most of those present couldn't even keep up with his movements until he was within arm's reach of the hammerhead Arrancar where he made a sudden spin cleanly slicing off the arm that was charging the Cero. The moment his arm seperated falling towards the ground the incomplete Cero lost control exploding and causing the area around them to be obscured by the dust it kicked up.

After a few moments the wind blew away the dust cloud revealing the staggered hammerhead Arrancar with his arm severed at the shoulder gasping for breath.

Hisashi was standing between him and Harribel's group.

Finally Nelliel revealed herself by walking out of the cave entrance. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

The hammerhead Arrancar looked at her in panic and gulped. "W-what a-are y-you d-d-doing here Nelliel-sama?" he asked nervously.

She raised her brow. "Do I need to tell you about my whereabouts?" she asked him.

You could almost see the sweat dripping down his face."N-no.. I thought you had..." he stammered.

"Had what?" she asked.

"N-nothing. Great to see you are doing well," he corrected himself quickly. Last he heard Nelliel had been defeated, but he was a nobody in Las Noches and Nelliel was the former número tres Espada. Meanwhile he was just a low ranked Números. If he annoyed her he wouldn't even know how he died.

Nelliel tilted her head. "Baldy, why were you bothering Hisashi-oniichan?" she asked.

He was slowly backing away. "N-no. I would never..." he said.

"You don't think you can just leave, right?" Hisashi asked.

Before the hammerhead Arrancar could react Hisashi had rushed past him. It took a few moments before a bloody line appeared across the Arrancar's neck. Then the head separated from the body as his body collapsed.

[+517,140 XP]

[Level Up]

[+1 Available Stat Points]

[XP: 293,320/349,800]

That wasn't the end of it though. He skewered the body dragging it behind him as he walked towards the Tres Bestias. He tossed the corpse in front of Sung-Sun.

"If anything can put you over the edge this should be it," he told her.

Sung-Sun looked at the tempting corpse, the amount of spirit power it contained was beyond any other Hollow she had ever consumed. "A-are you sure?" she asked unsurely. He could tell how affected she was given that she wasn't even trying to tease him for once.

He smiled while shaking his head at her awkwardness. "Of course I'm sure," he said.

She didn't hesitate any longer and consumed the Arrancar's corpse.

Hisashi's prediction had been on the money as it didn't take long for the pressure around her to fluctuate indicating she was finally breaking through.

Since they were already near their hideout she didn't hold it back and due to Aizen likely watching from somewhere near Hisashi didn't use [Hachigyō Sōgai] to hide it either. The spirit particles started gathering to her rapidly and this time no one needed protection from the fluctuating spirit pressure since everyone else was already a Vasto Lorde.

"Congrats Sung-Sun, we knew you could do it!" Apacci yelled excitedly.

Mila Rose smiled. "Yeah, it was about time you joined us," she said.

The gathering spirit particles and pressure kicked up a cloud of dust, but they could see Sung-Sun's silhouette shrink as she evolved into her Vasto Lorde form.

Eventually the surging waves of spirit particles subsided and the dust cloud dispersed revealing Sung-Sun's new form.

She had a long scaled white snake tail as a lower body that transitioned into a human upper body with scales covering her breasts. She had the same long dark green hair she would have had as an Arrancar, but her face was still covered by a bone mask stylised like a snake's face. Her light purple eyes shone through the mask. She had become a half snake, half woman. Like a lamia. 

The first thing she did was spin around checking herself out. She seemed rather excited about her new more feminine body.

Hisashi smiled. "Congrats Sung-Sun," he said with pride.

She stopped checking herself out turning to Hisashi. "Do you like what you see?" she asked in a teasing tone.

-X-X-X-

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Writing Soundtrack: ONLAP - Various Tracks