#tier0-2
#bgm
#graven
#event
2013 Alexis Grey

Graven landed lightly on the helicopter pad atop the Committee's headquarters, waiting for his Segunda to join him. As he did, he looked around and took in the sights of New York City. It's not that he cared for what the humans had built, but the fire and destruction...idly he took in the locations his fellow Espada were supposed to be frequenting, frowning as he saw the limited amount of effort they had put in. So far, there had been minimal resistance, but that was likely to change.

The eldest Arrancar's reiatsu weighed down on the surrounding area passively, not actively being channeled but still ominous and heavy enough that most of the pathetic humans below were dropping, even the Committee's relief efforts being incapable of breathing under the weight. They were dying, alone and forgotten in the tomb of an ancient king. Cold, unforgiving...It was like drowning in an ocean of their own blood, crushed under the weight of failure.

Turning to his second when she arrived, Graven would speak in his typical monotone, only a hint of warmth showing the care he gave to his closest subordinates. "Selica, it's only a matter of time until the human leader comes, and I'm not sure what pets she will bring. Your duties are to deal with them. Is that acceptable?"

#tier0-2
#graven
#event
2013 Alexis Grey

Graven would give Selica one of his rare, genuine smiles at her understanding, and her playful nature in general. This, however, would turn into a frown soon after as another white-haired individual would appear on the scene, declaring that they needed to retreat in a rather vulgar manner. The king did not need to reply, however, as his Segunda snapped with an unusual amount of bite, both of them seeming to unleash their reiatsu on the surrounding area, the building's supports obviously struggling but holding up admirably. The stand-off occurred for but a few more moments before Graven's true prey arrived. Natasha, the leader of the Committee...

At her demands, the Arrancar's face would form into a lazy smirk, one that the other Espada had seen on his face a few times, but only those who bothered to understand it would know what it meant. It was a look that showed off his extra-long canines, and made his face look slightly more animalistic than any normal human. It was predatory in origin, and meant that he had his prey in his sights, that his blood was boiling, and that he was excited for whatever was about to happen. If Natasha cared to look him in the eye, her primal instincts would likely begin to fire as if she were looking at a wolf, not a human. "My, my, such hostility...You see, I recently learned that your Committee possesses technology that allows them to travel into Hueco Mundo at will, and you humans have always been capricious and cold-hearted at best, and many are downright cruel. Call it whatever you wish, but I personally prefer the term 'preemptive strike..."

At that, Graven would actively begin channeling his reiatsu, letting it out of his body actively instead of his simple, passive output, bringing it's full might to bear on his surroundings. His eyes began to glow red, and fifteen gallons of blood seeped from his form, floating around them as the building below them gave an audible protest and the cries from the street below abruptly vanished. The sounds of the city could still be heard several hundred yards away, but their immediate area had gone silent, leaving the four combatants alone with their thoughts.

His smirk growing as his actions were registered by the others, their senses being able to confirm what his instincts told him, he burst into a ridiculously fast Sonido, stopping with his nose not six inches from Natasha's own, despite his greater height. The blood floating in the air spread out into fifteen separate needle-like objects, each as long as a human arm and containing a gallon of the life-giving fluid that the Hollow controlled. Five of them pointed at the unknown human facing off with Selica, and the remaining ten aimed over Graven's shoulders at Natasha, daring her to move. With an almost-playful hint to his usual monotone bass despite the fact that he likely just killed several hundred innocent bystanders simply by releasing his reiatsu, Graven completed his statement, giving the irate young lady a bit of wisdom. "...A monster, you say? A filthy animal like me? Monsters come from the heart, and I just can't find it in me."

The fact that, if she listened carefully, she would hear only her own heartbeat no matter how hard she looked would be telling as Graven used Sonido to return to his original position around ten feet away, firing the needles of blood at their respective targets. They each fired with the force of a Cero, and it would feel as if they were impacted by one should they strike.

#tier0-2
#bgm
#graven
#event
2013 Alexis Grey

Graven's eyes flashed as he stopped the momentum of his blood, preventing it from injuring either himself or Selica when it was reflected. Leaping into the air, he avoided the vehicle that was flung at him, and began flipping around the cannon blasts, avoiding the three from the right and using Sonido to close the gap and avoiding the larger blast simultaneously. Throwing a haymaker at Natasha's face, even as she drew massive fifty-foot hammer, he would make sure he stayed within melee distance. A weapon that large would be great for crowd control and in wide, open areas with quite a bit of distance.

Thankfully, Graven excelled in getting up close and personal.

A roundhouse kick towards the shoulder that was holding up the hammer hard enough to blast her through the next building over ensured that he'd get some breathing room as he glanced over towards his companion. Noticing the slight spatter of blood dripping onto her white dress, Graven gave her an approving once-over and a genuine smile before turning back to their opponents. Most of the Espada hadn't realized this, but the reason the Cero had chosen white for their uniforms was because the splatter of blood across a canvas so pure was captivating.

Listening to Natasha speak once she had begun, his predatory smirk would return and grow until it looked almost half-crazed, while an explosion of red reiatsu lashed out and cracked the roof of the Committee building. His eyes began glowing red along with his estigma, and a pair of claws formed out of the energy along with a wolf's tail. As a faint red aura surrounded his body, he dashed forward in a burst of Sonido, and began speaking in the same taunting monotone. "Why don't we just stop lying to each other? Innocent? A device you don't have? I haven't been that naive in almost six thousand years..."

Lashing out in a right straight to Natasha's body, Graven's claws were extended in a knife-handed strike capable of tearing through nearly anything. If they struck, he would leave a bit of his reiatsu in her body, completely harmless and unnoticeable at the moment but having the potential to be utterly lethal later. Regardless, at the end of the strike he would fire a Cero from his fingertips completely without warning, the aura around him seeming to draw in reishi from the surrounding area if one looked closely.

Generating five more gallons of blood, Graven would lash out with ten of them towards the white-haired human, creating a serpent-like shape that would strike with the force of a Cero and continue with the flow in an attempt to prevent the redirection abilities he seems to possess, or at least determine what the root of the power was. The other ten gallons would split into two separate spears, each containing five, and launch at each of Natasha's cannons.

Hopefully Selica would be able to capitalize on any openings the usually-lazy wolf had made for her.

#tier0-2
#bgm
#graven
#event
2013 Alexis Grey

Things certainly could have gone better, Graven mused, as he was tossed back, flipping to arrest his momentum and landing on the balls of his feet. The right arm of his kimono was burnt off when he blocked the plasma-laden punch by the foolish pet that attempted to defend Natasha. Avoiding it on it's own was easy enough, but the fact that he had deflected the initial punch, then somehow forced the hammer to swing at the Arrancar was problematic, and had forced him to jump and take the hit instead. Clever.

The rest of his attacks were made more difficult by the balls of plasma, but the real issue came when Natasha's arm was revealed to be some sort of mechanical device capable of deflecting his claws, the Cero firing off near-harmlessly to the side. Near, simply because there was suddenly several buildings vaporized off in the general direction of 'that way'. The punch that came afterward?

It was probably one of the hardest Graven had ever taken, and that was saying something.

The breastplate he wore shattered on impact, he coughed up blood immediately, then was rocketed through another building before coming to a stop. Groaning, Graven looked down, past his burnt and ruined kimono to the ground below him. His vision was fuzzy, and he noticed that he was floating despite the fact that his control over the reishi in the air required a slight bit more concentration than he was able to give at the moment. The blood back at the Committee building had splattered onto the ground, his control over it having vanished the moment he left the area. Wondering why all of this was happening, why his extremities were starting to feel cold, Graven looked down once more, forcing all of his concentration on a broken metal support that was sticking out of his chest, right where his heart should have been.

As he did, memories flashed before his eyes, his long life playing before him as if he were suspended in time. One image, however, stood out through the rest. A sandy haired woman dancing in the rocks and ice of Northern Hueco Mundo, moonlight glowing off of her skin. A warm smile, despite the frigid, dead air surrounding them. A playful laugh, a rush of soft, smooth skin across his own, a child with hair the color of blood. A voice, laden with honey, speaking to him even now..."Show everyone why you're the strongest...Show everyone why I love you..."

Gritting his teeth, Graven pulled himself off from the spike and used his unnatural regeneration to repair his body before exploding into a pillar of pitch-black reiatsu, tainted with bright crimson, that spread for a hundred feet in every direction, and extended upwards, an unearthly howl ensuing as the sky above New York City was briefly turned into an unending night. The sun flickered, and for a moment one could swear that it looked more like a crescent moon. A Hollow moon...

A buzz of Sonido would herald Graven's return the battlefield, as the reiatsu that had shot into the air began to rain down as blood. His kimono was discarded, allowing those present to see his well-muscled form, and bright red lines that formed across it like a Quincy's Blut, centered around the point over his heart in a bright red circle that could have been a hole, or not, depending on the angle. The energy that made up his claws and tail had turned the same black and red color, brief flickers sparking up like fire. The sclera of his eyes had turned black, and the irises themselves were a dull red, glowing softly with raw power. On his right pectoral, the black gothic "0" stood defiant, even in the midst of his changes. His reiatsu, while not truly any heavier, would seem more oppressive and forceful, as if the air itself was full of blood and the sensation of loneliness was all around them.

Glancing over at Selica, who had given in to her instincts admirably, Graven growled as she was blasted off the building once more. Turning back to the two humans, Graven spoke, his voice sounding both regal and primal in equal measure. "Humans are such simplistic creatures. Do you honestly think either of you is strong enough to kill me? The oldest of our kind, the one known as the God of Hollows?"