81: Starting it off right!

Ren woke up the next day with new determination on his face. Wearing his new, black haori that had just been delivered that morning, Ren was about to enter the dungeon when he sensed a change in the atmosphere.

'Hmm. The day after the S.R.D.I. opens it happens? These guys sure are crazy. But it seems that they at least did a bit of research.'

Ren grew a tree branch that took him over 100 meters in the air. From above, he saw a few fires occurring in Rokungai that were spreading in several directions. There was also a large dome that was formed around the 1st Division's barracks.

'So that is how they managed to get away with killing so many captains. They trapped the old man inside a barrier so that he could not interfere. If he does try to escape, the first division is pretty much exterminated.

Most of the Quincy seemed to still be outside of Seireitei but they have already broken through two of the gates so it is only a matter of time before they swarm here.'

A few arrows shot toward Ren but he smacked them away with his bare hand. Ren lowered the branch from the air until it retreated fully into the ground.

"Officers of the 8th division!"

With Ren's shout, the 9 captain level figures arrived in an instant with all the other officer and lieutenant level members officers arriving a bit later.

"Soul Society is currently under attack. It seems that the Quincy have finally lost their minds. Let us show them the cost of that.

Baiken, Shin, Tier. Head to the 1st division and try to break the barrier. They will surely have their most powerful members there to make sure that we can't get the captain-commander free.

Cyan, Franceska, and Emilou. Head to the 4th division. They have the lowest combat strength but also have to worry about protecting the injured shinigami. Try not to use Ayon if you don't need to.

Kyou. I need you to go to the S.R.D.I. Most of the members will be in their divisions while the Quincy might not know about them since they had just become official yesterday, we should still be cautious. You are the only member who can battle and not kill everyone within a mile radius.

Kakyo and Naoko. Stay here and make sure that no one burns down anything in our division. The rest of the officers can stay here as well. The enemy will come and try to meet us here anyway. "

"Understood Ren/Lord 8th/Captain!" all of the members shouted at once before they took off in various directions to follow the orders that Ren had assigned them.

Ren had thought of each assignment and knew that he had to put the members where they were needed most and with who they had the most chemistry.

As for Ren himself... with the use of shunpo, he was gone without anyone being able to tell where he went. Soon after he left, the courtyard of the 8th division was filled with its various members who had killing intent oozing off of them.

--- 1st Division Barracks ---

Standing outside the barracks were 30 Quincy who were maintaining the barrier and 5 of the most powerful Quincy. These were known as the 5 Lockes who were one of the groups that served directly under the General.

The General had managed to gather all the Quincy clans under a single flag and were the most powerful after him. Using just their skills and spirit weapons, they could match a captain or 2 while working together.

Frederick, the leader of the 5 Lockes, was currently on was standing above the corpses of 5 shinigami who had gotten the closest while many other shinigami had died much further away under the barrage of arrows.

"The shinigami are this weak? I thought we were coming for war and not to just slaughter weaklings," the youngest member of the Lockes said. This young woman had never battled against a shinigami before but her power was currently ranked 2nd among the Lockes and top ten within the Quincy alliance.

"Do not let these few cloud your judgment, Lily. These were ordinary members and were not even officers. Do not forget that we are currently sealing their most powerful member because he is so powerful that even the General can not neat him without sufficient backup and conditions" Frederick reprimanded Lily.

The man was over 50 years old and had battled many shinigami, fullbringers, and hollows. He knew that to underestimate his enemies, was just giving others a reason to kill him easily. He was a veteran that could not be underestimated.

Feeling someone approaching from the east and the dangerous feeling they were giving off, Frederick looked up and gave orders to the Lockes.

"To the east! Full auto!"

He immediately summoned his spirit bow and started shooting arrows of reishi toward the approaching figures. The other members of the Lockes also pulled out their bows and crossbows before firing on the group.

All of the spirit arrows fired by the Quincy were struck down by the approaching shinigami with their zanpakuto. Seeing that they were easily able to keep up with their attacks, the Lockes felt some pressure.

'3 captains all at once? What are those other squads doing?!?'

The General had dispatched the Quincy in a systematic manner. He sent his 4 most powerful squads to various points around Seireitei to hold back the most powerful captains while weaker Quincy used their numbers to overwhelm and kill weaker captains.

'For 3 captain level individuals to break out of the encirclement, it means that at least 5 squads have been wiped out in order for the 3 of them to break out of their encirclement and make their way over.'

Seeing that the enemy was closing in, Frederick made a decision.

"Han, Sol, Lorne. Set up Sprenger. Me and Lily will buy you guys some time."

Frederick pulled out a thin, silver-colored sword hilt. After inserting some energy into it, a blue blade made out of reishi emerged. The Quincy put the sword inside of his bow and fired it at the approaching foes.

This was a Seele Schneider, the only Quincy weapon that was a blade. It was a weapon much like a chainsaw, with Reishi making 3 million round trips per second around the edge of the blade. The vibrations of the Seele Schneider were not just for cutting.

Through its vibrations, the Seele Schneider loosened the bonds between the reishi of whatever it cut in order to make them easier to capture.

The Quincy fought by gathering the surrounding Reishi and using them as their own personal weapon and the most powerful manifestation of that was the Seele Schneider. The Seele Schneider was not a sword, but an arrow.

The arrow launched at Tier was moving at a fast speed and was such a powerful weapon that Tier even felt cautious by how dangerous the blade was. Even though she felt danger, with her superior body and skills, she was able to knock the arrow aside after exerting a bit of force.

While Tier was dealing with the arrow, Shin and Baiken continued to charge forward. They were met with Lily how was dual-wielding a pair of Seele Schneider.

Just as Shin was about to clash with the blonde woman, Baiken charged forward and used her zanpakuto to block both blades.

"Go deal with those 3 who are setting something up. Me and Tier can handle these two!"

Shin nodded and used shunpo to move instantly. Sol, who was focused on setting up the pentagram of Sprenger, did not see Shin approach or even realize that he had died when his head was sent flying through the air.

"1 down!"

Seeing that Sol had died so quickly, Frederick wanted to help but Tier appeared in front of his face. Without another choice, he had to pull out a Seele blade to block the woman's zanpakuto and leave his men to fend for themselves.

"Agh!"

"Ugh!"

Within moments, Han and Lorne had been killed. Lily was also not doing much better against Baiken and had lost her left eye though she was barely hanging on.

Under the information that they had gathered over the years and Ren's warnings, the members of the 8th division knew that the best way to deal with Quincy was using physical abilities since the race were similar to parasites who would get stronger, the more reiatsu that they used.

With the 3 other members of the Lockes dead, Shin decided to kill off all the Quincy who were maintaining the barrier around the 1st division.

Seeing Shin about to kill a member of the barrier team, Frederick raised both of his hands above his head and let Tier cut into his chest. The wound was deep but it would not kill him.

Using this chance, he broke off part of his glove and said the words,

"Letzt Stil!"

An explosion occurred around Frederick and forced Tier to step back. When the light cleared, he appeared without a shirt and with a single wing made out of reishi appearing behind the left side of his body.

He stood proud as motes of reishi gathered within his wings as they were drawn from the very buildings around himself and destroying them.

Letzt Stil was a Quincy's last resort. Using it raised the Quincy's battle prowess and reishi manipulation by a large margin for 30 seconds but at the cost of the Quincy losing all their powers.

Moving as fast as he could, Frederick jumped into the air as he summoned an arrow in his right hand before putting it in his drawing his bow and aiming it at Baiken and firing.

Caught off guard, Baiken hurried to try and block the arrow using her shikai.

"San no kata: Kasan no Shibuk (Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash)! Tsubame Gaeshi (Secret Sword: Swallow Return)!"

Slashing her sword toward the arrow, the blade clashed with the tip of the arrow, the side of the arrow, and striking the arrow from above. With all 3 strikes at once, the blade that should have pierced through Baiken and killed her was pushed to the side by an impossible sword strike.

San no kata: Kasan no Shibuk was a technique of the Mist Breathing Style that was sued to blow away projectiles while Tsubame Gaeshi was Baiken's shikai ability.

It was one of the rare instant active abilities and created 3 simultaneous attacks that trapped an enemy in a move that was impossible to dodge or survive.

By combining both techniques, Baiken was able to live through a move that for all intents and purposes, should have killed her.

Seeing Baiken Live, Frederick was surprised but did not let it get to him. The wound on his chest was painful while Shin and Tier had begun to attack him together. But since he had gathered all of their attention, he gave this message to Lily.

"Escape! You are now the last of Lockes. Make sure to not disgrace us!"

Lily wanted to say something but once she saw that all 3 cpatains were attacking him and that Frederick had already used the 'Last Resort', she let out silent tears as she ran away.

'I will definitely kill all of you shinigami!'

Frederick saw Lily's fading back as he held off Shin, Baiken, and Tier for the last 23 seconds of his technique.

'Lily Ishida. Please survive this.'