Zaraki's ability is Infinite Battle Continuation; as long as his limbs are cut off, his fighting ability will not be affected, and as long as his head is cut off Nozarashi, the battle will never stop.
Sōya Azashiro's tree branch-turned-sword technique is indeed incredibly powerful. Few physical attacks of this scale can rival it in the entire Soul Society. Even someone as strong as Kuruyashiki Kenpachi struggled to withstand this attack.
However, this time, he truly met his match; Zaraki was the monster with unparalleled physical attack power that he had searched the entire Soul Society for.
The kilometer-long branch was cleaved in half with a single strike, rendering the remaining length unusable for a charge. So, Sōya Azashiro resorted to his old trick: a root thrust! This technique, which had previously cornered Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, possessed even greater physical power than the branch sword, making it an unstoppable and formidable attack.
However, this time the opponent is Zaraki.
As the massive tree roots stabbed towards him from both directions simultaneously, Zaraki leaped towards one of the roots and slashed it with his sword. The immense force combined with his Spiritual Power shattered the root.
However, tree roots are not tree branches. Tree roots are thousands of meters long and become thicker and more difficult to cut as they grow. But for Zaraki, this is not a problem!
After he chopped down that one, he immediately Shunpo to move to the opposite side and chopped down another one. The unbroken part of the first root surged towards him, Zaraki Shunpo again to cleave it in two, then went back to chop down the second one.
After three rounds, Zaraki reappeared in front of the first root. However, by this time, the root of the Zaraki had grown to over thirty meters in thickness. A root this wide required Zaraki to amplify the Explosion of his Spiritual Power, but amplifying the Explosion would reduce the length of its impact.
With the reduced influence length, Zaraki had to travel back and forth between the two sides more frequently. Meanwhile, the other two tree roots had also been completely eroded by Sōya Azashiro and were flying towards them from afar.
There's a reason why Sōya Azashiro underestimates Zaraki. Before Sōya Azashiro runs out of Spiritual Power, Zaraki probably won't have any way to attack him. That's what makes Sōya Azashiro formidable. Unless he can unleash an attack with the same power as his Kuruyashiki, Zaraki can only try to outlast Sōya Azashiro.
Of course, there are also abilities that can counter Sōya Azashiro, such as the Quincy's ability to absorb Reishi. Sōya Azashiro's constituent Reishi can also be absorbed. Once absorbed, the damage Sōya Azashiro suffers is not only physical but also mental. It doesn't even need to be completely absorbed; absorbing just one-tenth of it could kill Sōya Azashiro.
So, as the saying goes, everything has its counter. This thing is truly amazing, but Zaraki is a stubborn guy who refuses to admit defeat. He's laughing, he's still laughing even in this situation, laughing madly, laughing maniacally.
"Haha~! Awesome~! This is the kind of battle I've been wanting!! This is the real battle!! Ah~!"
Suddenly, Zaraki's Shunpo technique improved further. Because Zaraki's Spiritual Sensitivity was not high, he could dash forward in a straight line when using Shunpo, but he was not good at maneuvering.
If we consider Shunpo as a game skill, what kind of skill is it? It's a skill that can be stored multiple times.
Let's say a person can store twenty uses of Shunpo, meaning you can use it twenty times consecutively. However, the cooldown starts the moment you use it for the first time, meaning it will keep running until the storage is full.
However, this cooldown mode is quite interesting; it employs a dual cooldown mode. What is a dual cooldown mode? It means that there are two cooldowns for Shunpo: one is the reload cooldown, which reloads after each use. If you use up all your charges before the last cooldown is ready, you'll have to wait for the cooldown to finish.
The second type of cooldown is called distance cooldown. This cooldown is the maximum distance that can be covered with a single use of the Shunpo. Once you exceed this distance in a short period of time, you can no longer use Shunpo and will have to wait for a long cooldown period. Why is this? This is a side effect of releasing Spiritual Power beyond its limit. It's like running 10,000 meters at the speed of a 100-meter sprint; you have to wait for your stamina cooldown to recover before you can do it again.
Next, let's look at the movement distance used each time. In this aspect, Reiatsu determines the maximum movement distance.
We can think of each Shunpo as a bullet, and the Reiatsu intensity is like different amounts of gunpowder. A bullet filled with black powder is hard to injure, while a bullet filled with yellow powder is powerful. If you could fill it with nuclear fuel, that would be amazing!
What does Spiritual Sensitivity determine? Spiritual Sensitivity determines the propellant charge of each bullet. Because in maneuvering and maneuvering, what's needed isn't the maximum distance, but the appropriate distance. This tests control, and this control is precisely Zaraki lacks.
Throughout all of Zaraki's battles, his fighting style has always been about stalling. He uses his formidable offensive power and ability to seize opportunities to launch a sudden attack at a certain moment, striking during the enemy's moments of weakness. Why does he do this? Because if Zaraki to try to outmaneuver his opponent, he would be easily outmaneuvered.
Zaraki possesses explosive power, capable of instantly reaching an enemy hundreds of meters or nearly a kilometer away. However, he lacks agility; Zaraki cannot perform a movement every twenty meters.
However, this time, despite the sudden attack from the four tree roots, Zaraki managed to do it. For the first time, he repeatedly moved back and forth within a distance of about fifty meters. This was no easy feat. Indeed, life-or-death battles were the only way for this kind of monster to evolve.
Two of the four tree roots had already been cut down to a point where they couldn't reach Zaraki, and their thickness had reached Kongbu fifty meters in diameter. Even if the fusion was complete, Sōya Azashiro wouldn't be able to make this enormous object fly; it would need an acceleration mechanism. However, Zaraki's attack had destroyed all that potential energy.
So two more tree roots were added, but the previous two had already been almost completely destroyed. In other words, the two sides were now locked in a tug-of-war: which would be faster, the Zaraki root or the erosion of the Azashiro?
If the Azashiro erodes quickly, then sooner or later Zaraki will have to face the spikes of six, eight, or ten tree roots. But if Zaraki cuts them down quickly, then Zaraki will have room to move and dodge.
"Did that monster named Zaraki not even think about hiding?" Natasha and Starrk also arrived at Jun's side, along with several other Visored from other directions. No one was worried about the battlefield being disturbed; this commotion wouldn't attract any Hollows. Hollows were beasts, not idiots.
"Oh? You're Arrancar! You actually called him a monster?" Chun laughed heartily.
Natasha shrugged. "With that kind of attack power, my small frame would be instantly killed after two hits. I'm not the thick-skinned type of Arrancar."
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Biersen, the one symbolizing the brown bear, scratched his face. "If this guy were to cut me, I wouldn't be able to withstand many blows either. But if I were to fight him, he wouldn't be able to withstand it either. It's a contest of who dies first. I'm very confident in my survivability."
Pandele, whose symbol was a saber-toothed tiger, shook his head. "I wouldn't fight that kind of guy to the death, but I could hunt him down."
Tigers are not bears. Felines rarely engage in direct, head-on combat, even though tigers are among the best at it. Pandele doesn't like that. The same goes for Oka; despite their large size, orcas are very efficient at conserving energy.
For example, when eating sharks, orcas will ram the shark from the side and then eat it; they won't chase after it from behind and bite it. That's something only an idiot would do.
Surprisingly, Nel and Tier Harribel, the two girls, actually wanted to go up and fight Zaraki head-on. Tier Harribel's symbol is a shark, a species that loves to fight head-on. Because sharks have a problem with their tails, their straight-line acceleration is invincible, but their turning is extremely terrible.
While Nel's symbol is a centaur, the tone suggests she's more of a knight. Knights are generally perceived as upright and honorable, so Nel is surprisingly a reckless and impulsive character.
As for Starrk, he's practically asleep by now. He's the one who best controls Zaraki among everyone here; he can keep Zaraki at bay no matter what.
Ashido Kanō rubbed his shoulder. "I probably can't withstand his attacks."
"Haha, you're really at a disadvantage against him, you rookie in the 11th Division! You're really something!" Zennosuke Kuruyashiki.
Chun chuckled, "Did you guys misunderstand something?"
"What do you mean?" asked Starrk.
Jun pointed at the laughing monster and chuckled, "That guy is only in his Shikai."
A gasp escaped the ring of Arrancar, and Biersen suddenly became excited, "Hahaha~! I want to see his solution, whether it can really compete with mine!?"
Natasha shook her head, rubbing her forehead. "Damn it, another one's gone mad."
"Still this!! I'm so bored!" Zaraki, Zaraki, suddenly roared, "No stronger attacks?! Ah~!"
But what came towards Zaraki was Zaraki roots, only now there were three. Zaraki was trembling all over, his body turning red, and he had entered a strange state. After this attack, suddenly...
A surge of red and black Reiatsu suddenly erupted, the immense power shattering the piercing tree roots, and at the same time, a deafening roar resounded in everyone's hearts.
"Death is not the end of the battle! Release! Nozarashi Ashura King!"
An ominous color enveloped Zaraki, Nozarashi's massive blade suddenly split in two, becoming a broken sword. At the same time, Zaraki body was stained with blood, his pupils disappeared and turned completely red, and two demon horns grew from his head.
Then, in this state, Zaraki swung his broken sword, his body spinning in the air, unleashing three consecutive sword energies.
Boom!
A massive gale swept up fragments of tree roots, sending them flying into the distance. Even Jun, several kilometers away, was affected. He managed to catch a shard by raising his hand to block it. The Arrancar and Visored were also busy dodging and fighting, disposing of the fragments.
"Hey~ hey~, isn't that a bit exaggerated! How far is that? How much force is that?" Pandele was startled; he couldn't match that brute strength.
Chun stood up, his expression turning serious. "Let's go over there. I'm not sure if we can subdue this guy in his current state."
The group leaped high into the air. Given the unclear situation, taking a hit of this level of attack would be disastrous. However, no second strike came for a long time, and the smoke and dust began to dissipate. Junichi waved his hand, and a wisp of Spiritual Power gently dispersed the smoke and dust.
Two figures appeared: one was Zaraki, who was raising his sword to strike, and the other was Sōya Azashiro, who had his hand deep inside Zaraki's chest. Strangely, Zaraki had a clear life force, and why did he stop his attack?
"Could it be a battle in the Inner World? Oh dear, this is even more dangerous. Forget it, let's retreat and wait for the outcome."