Bloodbath (5,700-character chapter), Third Update-Please Vote for Me!

Bloodbath (5,700-character chapter), Third Update—Please Vote for Me!

Outside Karakura Town, across a vast stretch of open ground, a battle with wildly uneven numbers was underway.

Black-haired Ichigo and Uryu Ishida, who had been enemies just moments ago, now stood back-to-back in the middle of hundreds of Hollows, fighting off the creatures swarming around them. Both were looking rather worse for wear.

Ichigo was holding up better. His terrifying spiritual pressure meant that even after fighting nonstop, he was only breathing a little hard.

Uryu, on the other hand, looked quite a bit worse. Constantly drawing his bow had left several of his fingers soaked in blood, and he had already used up most of his spiritual pressure.

Still, with the two of them working together, the lesser Hollows were as easy to cut down as melons. One after another fell beneath their attacks, yet their numbers showed no sign of decreasing.

Just then, the situation on the battlefield changed. A gigantic claw shot out of the sky. It was withered and bony, yet enormous; the palm alone seemed to cover a whole section of the heavens.

"Kurosaki..." Uryu was the first to notice the change above. Cold sweat broke out across his face. "The sky..."

"The sky?"

Only then did Ichigo notice the disturbance overhead. He saw the withered, bony claw reach out of the void, and then, as if grabbing something solid, seize the blue canopy of the sky between its fingers. The heavens tore apart like a piece of cloth.

"It's huge!" Ichigo could only describe the terrifying creature tearing apart the sky as huge. He had no idea what kind of creature it was.

Unlike Ichigo, Uryu had been taught the basics by his master from an early age. The moment the creature's mask appeared, he remembered a terrifying being that should never have been able to enter the Human World.

A Gillian—a giant Hollow born from the resentment of souls, created when more than a hundred Hollows devoured one another. Hollows of that level had no interest in the insignificant souls of the Human World.

But the creature was right there before him, and Uryu had no choice but to believe it. The bait he'd released had actually attracted a Gillian.

"How could that bait possibly have this effect?"

If he had to describe the scene, it was as if Ishida had tossed a hundred dollars out to lure some starving beggars, only for a billionaire who was greedy to the extreme to come running over in person to fight the beggars for it.

If Uryu hadn't received a proper education as a child, he probably would have started cursing by now. This was just too much of a rip-off!

"Wahahaha! Now this is exciting!!!"

At that moment, an excited shout rang out from the sky. The two men on the battlefield and the members of Urahara's group, who had been preparing to join the fight, all froze. In unison, they looked up.

Urahara couldn't help but press a hand to his forehead. "After accounting for everything, I still managed to forget this human..." Behind him, Rukia was held in place by his Bakudō. He had intended to use this opportunity to see what power Ichigo had hidden inside him.

He had accounted for everything, yet somehow overlooked this human. It wasn't entirely his fault; Wu Biao had never been on his list of concerns. Still, he soon smiled nonchalantly. "But this is fine, too. I'm rather curious about just how powerful Mr. Wu Biao is."

When Ichigo and Uryu saw what was happening in the sky, they both twitched at the corners of their mouths. A hammock made of countless ropes was hanging in the air, and someone was openly walking a Hollow on it like a dog.

What kind of bizarre mind came up with something like this?

"This one's mine. Nobody else gets to fight it!" Brother Biao gazed fervently at the gigantic creature slowly emerging through the torn sky and leaped off the hammock, excitement written all over his face.

"Roar—"

Just then, a Hollow charged straight at Wu Biao as he descended from the sky.

Unable to dodge in midair, Wu Biao didn't seem to care. He simply clenched a fist, and then...

"Pegasus Meteor Fist!!!"

With a weird yell, Wu Biao dove toward the oncoming Hollow and punched it in the head. With a loud bang, the creature's head burst into a cloud of blood.

Brother Biao shot straight through the blood mist and crashed to the ground. He landed with astonishing precision two meters in front of Ichigo and Uryu, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Ichigo, you're here too!" Wu Biao pulled a cigarette from the pocket of his white lab coat, put it between his lips, and walked toward the two men. Glancing at the Hollows crowding around them, he said, "I'll leave these cannon fodder to you. If you try to take that big guy from me, Brother Biao will beat you up!"

Ichigo ignored him, acting as if Brother Biao weren't even there. He turned his attention to the Hollows around them, as though he were figuring out how to kill the cannon fodder Brother Biao had mentioned.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Wu Biao shouted.

"I think it's because you yelled 'Pegasus Meteor Fist' just now, so he's pretending he doesn't know you," Uryu said from the side, looking at Brother Biao with great curiosity.

The boy in front of him looked a little younger than Uryu, and he was obviously human, just like him. But based on the punch he'd just thrown, he clearly wasn't an ordinary person. He didn't look like a Quincy, either; Uryu had never heard of a Quincy who fought by punching people.

Brother Biao scratched his head at Uryu's words, clearly missing the point. He had even less idea how embarrassing it was to call out the name of a martial arts move in real life. "Then why are you talking to me?"

"Because I don't know you, and I'm even less interested in getting to know you," Uryu replied without hesitation.

"Humph! As if I want to get to know you, either. You look like a sissy!" Brother Biao shot Uryu a contemptuous glance. His words darkened Uryu's expression, while Ichigo couldn't help laughing to himself.

As they chatted, the nearly thirty-story-tall Gillian slowly emerged in full. Even when they craned their necks, they could barely see its mask. Yet all of them felt as though it had fixed its gaze on them.

"It's so damn big. I wonder what it ate to grow that way!" Brother Biao pursed his lips, looked at the Gillian, and stroked his chin as he considered how to fight it. Its foot alone was taller than he was.

Seeing this, Ichigo grinned smugly. "Brother Biao, why bother coming up with a plan for a monster like this? Just start cutting its feet, then keep chopping it shorter one section at a time until its head comes down. Then you can hit it!"

"..." Uryu's mouth twitched. "Do you think you're playing whack-a-block? If that could actually work, Menos Grandes would be ridiculously easy to deal with. Besides, there's no guarantee that your lousy sword could even cut it—"

"Great idea!" Brother Biao's eyes lit up. He gave Ichigo a thumbs-up. "As expected of the man I've set my sights on! Brother Biao, here I come!!!" Before he'd even finished speaking, he charged forward at a run.

With Brother Biao's small figure charging toward the thirty-story Gillian, it looked just like an ant rushing at an elephant!

"..." Uryu Ishida couldn't help covering his face.

"Wahahaha!!!" Brother Biao charged toward the Gillian, laughing wildly. Everyone's mouths twitched at the sight. The Gillian above them might have been unintelligent, but if it weren't, it might have called him a fool for overestimating himself.

But when it spotted the tiny bug charging at it, it simply lifted a gigantic foot to stomp on Wu Biao, as if crushing an ant. Its sole was tens of meters across; Wu Biao had no time to dodge.

Boom—

With a deafening crash, the enormous foot stamped Wu Biao into the ground. Not a sound came from beneath it!

"Brother Biao!!!"

Ichigo was startled and immediately dashed forward. But after only two steps, he stopped, a dazed expression on his face.

"Kurosaki, wait..." Uryu finally reacted and started forward to stop Ichigo from doing something rash. But then he saw Ichigo standing frozen in place, and confusion filled his heart. When he followed Ichigo's gaze, his own face went blank.

"That strength really is absurd," Urahara Kisuke murmured, half-hidden behind his fan. A flicker of surprise glimmered in his eyes.

The reason they were reacting this way was that the Gillian's foot seemed to have landed on the ground, but if one looked closely, there was a barely visible gap between its sole and the earth.

In that gap, Wu Biao's face had turned purplish red from the strain. The veins stood out on both arms, which he had raised beside his face to brace against the sole. He was clearly using all his strength. His eyes were filled with concentration, but not the slightest hint of fear. Instead, there was even a trace of delight in them.

"Now that's got some weight to it! Hahahahaha!" Laughing wildly, Brother Biao actually pulled his right hand back. The enormous sole nearly covered his entire body, then slammed down onto the ground.

"Roar—"

But before Ichigo and the others could cry out in alarm, the Gillian itself let out a scream. At the same time, Brother Biao roared with boundless excitement. "Rozan Sho Ryu Ha!!!"

Blood erupted skyward from the Gillian's foot, leaving a hole large enough for a person to pass through. Through the blood mist, Brother Biao's figure was faintly visible.

His white lab coat had been completely shredded. His right arm was raised above his head, and the dragonlike pattern on it glowed with some strange black energy. The energy seemed to form the shape of a black skull. But it wasn't spiritual power; it was more like blood energy, or the power of the body.

Ichigo, Uryu, and the others stared at him in shock. Brother Biao's attack had been terrifying. Even Rukia, watching from a distance, looked horrified. The only one who remained calm was Urahara Kisuke.

Unlike the others, Urahara was paying attention to the black energy on Brother Biao's arm. He had never heard of such a strange energy, but he could sense a faint ripple of Hell within it.

"This is getting more and more interesting."

Meanwhile, back to Brother Biao. After bursting out from beneath the Gillian's foot, he didn't pause for a moment. He ran straight up the Gillian's leg as if it were flat ground, charging upward.

The Gillian had been struck by his previous blow. No matter how low its intelligence was, it had now shifted its attention to the bug with the terrifying strength. Just as Wu Biao reached its chest, it swung a hand down at him.

"Hmph. Using the same move twice won't work!"

Brother Biao shouted and a faint red glimmer flashed in his eyes. He paused slightly, then dipped downward. The next moment, he shot forward again, arcing upward in an instant.

Bang—

A rumbling boom sounded as the hand slammed into the Gillian's chest. Wu Biao managed to slip past it by a hair.

But while he was still in the air, the gust of wind generated by the blow sent him stumbling. His landing point shifted, and he began falling straight down.

All that running, and I'd climbed this high for nothing...

That was Brother Biao's only thought as the wind blew him away. Clearly, he wasn't the least bit concerned about plummeting from such a height.

"Brother Biao, step on my Zanpakuto!"

As Wu Biao fell, Ichigo's voice rang out. Wu Biao glanced down and saw that Ichigo had somehow leaped into the air and was holding out his Zanpakuto horizontally beneath him.

"Nice one, Ichigo!"

Wu Biao gave Ichigo a thumbs-up in midair, then stepped on his Zanpakuto to steady himself.

Just then, a fierce wind howled down from overhead. Looking up, they saw the Gillian's right hand clenched into a fist, blotting out the whole sky as it came straight down toward them!

Brother Biao's face grew solemn. With his mastery of all kinds of combat techniques, he knew that while they were suspended in midair, dodging was all but impossible. But...

If he couldn't dodge, then he'd just have to fight it head-on!!!

"Hold your Zanpakuto steady, Ichigo!"

A glimmer flashed in Wu Biao's eyes. His expression was no longer the least bit goofy. It was as if he had become a different person. Calmly, he said, "I'm going in!"

Ichigo wasn't surprised. He had seen Brother Biao get serious a few times before. He was strongest when he was in this state. His grip on the Zanpakuto tightened.

Wu Biao crouched instantly, the muscles in his legs straining. The next moment, Ichigo felt an indescribable force surge through his Zanpakuto. As Wu Biao blasted forward, Ichigo was sent crashing helplessly toward the ground.

"Damn it, Brother Biao! Did you have to go that hard?!"

Ichigo's shout had barely left his mouth when he crashed into the ground, carving out an enormous crater. Blood poured from his mouth.

"Kurosaki!" Uryu hurried over and helped the battered Ichigo to his feet.

"I'm fine!"

Ichigo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stared tensely up into the sky.

High above, Wu Biao had launched himself off the Zanpakuto. Wind howled past his ears, and black energy surged around his right arm, taking the vague shape of a dragon. If Wu Biao had yelled "Rozan Sho Ryu Ha" at that moment, the attack would have looked the part.

But in his current focused state, Wu Biao's mind was completely free of distractions. All he thought about was defeating the massive creature in front of him.

The Gillian stared at the charging Wu Biao. Its blood-red pupils lit up, and it let out a beastlike cry. The force behind its descending punch grew even stronger.

"Roar—"

The fist closed in, dragging a howling gale with it. The wind swept over Wu Biao's entire body. But... though the gust was powerful, it couldn't force him back even half a step.

His face, usually twisted into a ridiculous grin, was now utterly cold. He had no emotion other than fighting spirit as he charged toward the Gillian with a domineering, ferocious punch.

The scene was bizarre. The enormous fist was hundreds of meters across, and Wu Biao was as insignificant as an ant beside it. His own fist was so tiny that it might as well have been invisible.

But as the human and the Hollow's fists drew near, a deafening rumble rang out. It grew louder and more violent, as if all those sounds were building toward the instant their fists met.

Their fists drew closer and closer. The rumbling roar of the wind nearly drowned out every other sound in the world.

Everyone nearby, whether or not they had spiritual vision and could see the Gillian, felt their ears ringing in the vibrating air. Chaos erupted around them.

The next moment, their fists collided. The world seemed to stop. Then a terrifying boom erupted, sending endless ripples outward.

The sound was so violent that the air itself trembled. Turbulent currents formed at once, and the ripples swept outward like a sudden storm, forming massive waves that surged in every direction.

Fortunately, the battle was taking place on an open stretch of ground with no other humans around, so the damage was limited. But Ichigo and Uryu, who were close to the blast, were swept off their feet, their faces filled with shock.

Even Urahara Kisuke looked genuinely surprised. Wu Biao's strength had clearly far exceeded his expectations. With a casual wave of his hand, a spiritual pressure terrifying even by captain standards surged out.

He contained the rampaging shockwaves in a limited area, preventing them from causing even more damage.

At the same time, the Gillian's enormous body shuddered in the sky. An unimaginable force surged from that tiny fist like a tide.

Cracks and pops rang out along its right arm. In an instant, a huge amount of blood burst from it, flesh turning inside out as if a bomb had exploded within its arm.

A deafening scream rang out. The massive creature couldn't withstand this unprecedented force. It was knocked staggering backward and lost its footing, falling hard to the ground.

Wu Biao, whose size was insignificant compared to the Gillian's, was also sent flying with blood spurting from his mouth. Under the immense pressure, blood burst from the pores along his right arm as well.

With a crash, Wu Biao's body slammed into the ground, leaving a massive crater like the impact of a falling meteor.

Dust billowed across the battlefield. After that single exchange...

The two combatants, despite their wildly different sizes, had fought to a draw!!!

"How is that possible... Is he a monster?"

A hundred meters from the battlefield, Uryu's pupils contracted. His voice was full of disbelief, but the scene before him left him no choice but to accept it.

"There's nothing wrong with calling him a monster!" Ichigo was just as shocked, but Brother Biao had already astonished him plenty of times. He was less surprised than Uryu, and more worried.

After an attack that terrifying, even Brother Biao might not have come away unscathed!

Just then, Wu Biao's wildly arrogant laughter rang out from the dust. A figure shot out of the cloud; it was undoubtedly Wu Biao. But he looked battered, his right arm hanging limply at his side and covered in blood.

His body was covered in torn, bloodied flesh. He was clearly badly hurt, but the fighting spirit on his face hadn't diminished at all. The moment he burst through the dust, he charged straight toward the Gillian, which had just managed to sit up.

The Gillian watched Wu Biao charge at it. Spiritual power gathered faintly in its mouth, glowing a pale red.

"Get back, Wu Biao! That's a Cero!!!"

Rukia watched from afar, her expression changing drastically as she shouted urgently.

But Wu Biao ignored her. A wild grin spread across his face, and his charge only grew faster. With one final burst of speed, he swung his left fist toward the Gillian's mouth.

"Shatter!!!"

Wu Biao's roar shook the sky. His left fist struck the Cero forming in the Gillian's mouth.

The invisible Cero, gathered from spiritual pressure, shattered as if it were solid. It dissolved back into Reishi, and Wu Biao's fist carried straight through, landing on the Gillian's mask.

Boom—

The mask immediately fractured, but the attack didn't end there. Under Wu Biao's terrifying strength, the pressure shattered the entire mask. Even the head beneath it was pierced by a bloody hole as a shrill scream rang out.

Blood sprayed into the air, soaking Wu Biao from head to toe.

The next moment, the massive body slowly dissolved from the top down into drifting points of light.

Wu Biao felt an unprecedented surge of heat pour into his body. It was so overwhelming that he couldn't control it; all he could do was watch as the heat seeped into every part of him.

His blood vessels swelled until they burst, only for the heat to repair them again and again. Under the tremendous pressure, blood streamed from his pores, dyeing him red from head to toe.

The intense pain engulfing his body, combined with the exhaustion and severe injuries from the battle, caused his vision to go black. He fainted.

I'm exhausted, but I finally made it in time. Please vote for me! I don't have a recommendation slot, so all my exposure depends on book lists and the new-book rankings. If you have recommendation tickets, please give them all to me! I'll write at least eight thousand characters a day, so updates are guaranteed!

The group asked me to help promote some books:

The Chuunibyou Kid Also Plays Sword Art Online Synopsis: Reborn as Rikka Takanashi's younger brother with a Sharingan cheat, then playing games with Shichimiya Satone in Sword Art Online...

Otherworld Traversal System: A shut-in gets a world-hopping system and roams through the worlds of the second dimension. That's about it.

[Reborn as the Peerless Ice Princess] Absolutely worth a read by a veteran author! After a meteor shower, the zombie apocalypse arrives. Su Ziyan is lucky: he becomes an ice-element evolver, one of the powerful people capable of protecting others. But he's conflicted, because while everyone else evolves by becoming stronger, she also ends up changing genders.

(End of chapter)