His move to throw his Zanpackuto seemed to have had the opposite of the intended effect, but Willow still grinned as the arrow came hurtling towards him. "Gotcha," Willow muttered before holding his hand out and calling to his weapon, Ignister. Hearing his plea, the seven foot long double-headed spear appeared to use Sonido as it fell to the ground. The weapon warped into Willow's outstretched hand with perfect accuracy, and the young Arrancar began to spin the staff as he had done before just as the arrow came hurtling towards him.

Just like before, Willow deconstructed the arrow as it came into contact with his Zanpackuto, molding the Reishi it contained into a fireball of equal strength and tracing the vector of fire before launching his counter-attack down the arrow's flight-path. Willow knew very well that move wouldn't be nearly enough to hit, that Blackhawk bastard would see it coming from over a kilometer away. Literally. Willow exhaled slowly and used a large Sonido leap, warping 750 meters before firing off two fire-filled Balas to the left and right of the fireball attack's flight while charging a Cero from his mouth. If Arturo dodged any or all of the three blazes of flame, Willow would use that moment to fire his Cero at Arturo.

Arturo would admit he wasn't expecting the weapon to sonido out of its water bindings. If he had been expecting it, he would have held onto it more tightly. So much for that plan, he figured. Arturo saw the wave of fire approaching him from the arrow that he'd no doubt absorbed with his weapon and repurposed. Since Arturo had released, Willow had become cautious of him, making sure to keep his distance. The assassin was sure that nothing would progress if this much distance was between them. Therefore, he had to approach. Going left and going right were out of the question, since Willow had shown himself to be capable of covering both sides. Going up would be suicide as he would be a sitting duck for whatever came along there, short of him using Ransoutengai. So as Willow's flames approached, Arturo used Hirenkyaku to escape below, watching the flames pass over him. He sped along balconies and catwalks, between rooftops and walls to approach his opponent from an angle down under the roofline where he wouldn't be able to retaliate. He felt him in the rain, so there was no problem locating him or seeing what he was up to.

In record time, Arturo ended his Hirenkyaku on the far side of the building Willow was standing on, and he leapt up on top. Palming a Seele Schneider, he directed Sintflut to form chains around his opponent of comparable strength to a Bakudo 40. It wasn't much, especially against an opponent of his caliber, but if the watery chains connected and bound him for even the shortest time, Arturo would run him through from behind with his Seele Schneider.

Willow clicked his tongue as Blackhawk cleverly avoided the blow by diving below his attack. Now that the damn Quincy was out of his line of sight, Willow was forced to radar-Pesquisa the shit out of the area. Through his reckless use of the technique Willow was able to get a general grasp of his opponent's trajectory. This entire time, the two of them had been dancing around each other, trading blow after blow while avoiding each other's attacks. Willow would have to keep thinking outside the box if he was going to get the jump on this bastard.

With the Cero he'd been charging in his mouth, Willow (feeling rather ashamed, mind) took a page out of his opponent's book and fired the blast down. The beam of energy carved a hole through each floor of the building underneath the young Arrancar, which he dropped through to evade the watery chains. With a little Sonido finesse, Willow timed his descent so that he was underneath where that Blackhawk bastard had landed with his Hirenkyaku. Facing upwards, Willow charged and fired a more powerful Cero, one wreathed in powerful flames up through the roof to try and hit his enemy with a surprise attack. Whether or not his flaming Cero hit it's target, Willow would use the smoke, dust and rubble to Sonido up into the air in front of his opponent's location, aiming a stab with his spear to the dude's chest.

Arturo leapt off of a balcony and was greeted by a swath of flames rushing at him. Trapped in the middle of the air, he wasn't able to change direction and so he put his arms in front of himself to brace for the attack. The scorching flames rushed across his body, and what little Blut he could muster in this state hardly protected him. His arms took the brunt of the attack, the sleeves of his hoodie practically vaporizing as he saw his newly toasted forearms. Each had suffered a tremendous burn, and sensing his opponent approaching through the smoke, he changed direction as he began to Hirenkyaku to another platform. However, with his momentary hesitation, he was too slow to completely avoid the spear coming at him, and it ate at his side, leaving a deep gash on his left side.

"Damnit...!" His arms hurt, and he wasn't going to be able to get them healed right away. There was no way they were going to move on their own without causing him enough pain to mess up his aim, so he was forced to use Ransotengai. Focusing his energy on the reishi around him, his arms became encased in strings that supported them. Through the use of Ransotengai, he could at least fight through the pain. He would grip the spear hard and pull it as it left him, using his weight to throw his opponent off balance as he readied his Seele Schneider to bury itself in Willow's abdomen.

Willow let off a triumphant howl as Ignister cut a deep gash into that Blackhawk fucker's left side. Seeing a Quincy bleed after all this time filled the young Arrancar with immense, satisfying glee. Time seemed to slow as his opponent's flesh ripped and blood began to ooze out of the violent wound. The wound distracted him enough that he didn't notice his Zanpakuto being grabbed by the bastard, nor his body being pulled closer until he felt the Seele Schneider bite into flesh. Willow grunted as the blade drove itself through his body, his widened irises locking intensely onto Blackhwak's as he realized what had just been done to him.

"All... Or... NOTHING!" Willow howled, blood spattering from his lips and towards the damn Quincy's face as his spear ignited once more. Willow mustered what strength he could, fighting the pain that was threatening to consume him as he tried to wrench the flaming spear out of Arturo's grasp and towards his body in a sweeping motion. After he had swung his spear, Willow would fire off a blast of Hadou 20 level flames in front of him, Quincy or no Quincy. "Burn... BURN LIKE I DID!"

Willow ripped the spear out of Arturo's burned hand, but that was fine. He grinned cruelly as his Seele Schneider went in and he saw Willow's eyes widen. "Muere agradecido, Arrancar." He growled. He knew his opponent wasn't done yet, and he saw him brandish the spear outward, swinging it in toward Arturo. His options were too limited, however, and in this state where Arturo was well within his guard, Willow was easy to predict. He called upon Sintflut once again as the spear came alight with flame, immersing himself and Willow in a seven-foot cube of water. Arturo maintained eye contact as the flames were instantly put out, and the weight of the water slowed the spear enough for Arturo to grab onto its shaft once again. He maintained eye contact with Willow as he moved to slice the Seele Schneider up toward his shoulder.

Something was wrong. The blade that Blackhawk had stabbed into his gut was... vibrating. Like a miniature chainsaw, it felt like his very intestines were getting scrambled. Not to mention, his close-range attack was completely countered by the two of them being in water. A cursory glance revealed that the two of them were in a small cube of water, seven or eight feet at the most. The deep wound in his gut ached horribly with pain, blood seeping into the cube of water as the damn Quincy before him swiped that stupid chainsaw blade at his shoulder. The water slowed his movements and made him incredibly sluggish, so when he tried to shift out of the blade's way he just managed to keep it from severing his arm, though it left a respectably-deep gash on his shoulder.

This was the endgame, of this fact Willow was certain. The water appeared to have a slight sealing effect, making any sort of proper Sonido out difficult. With his mind hazy from the wounds he had been inflicted, Willow decided to opt for a different strategy. Willow reached deep inside himself, calling forth as much fire as he could muster from deep within his spirit. Willow used the shortest burst of Sonido he could easily muster, shifting about 3 feet to the left while flames exploded out from his body. In combination with this, Willow pumped more juice into the blaze and created an extra burst of Hadou 20 flames out from his body in an attempt to turn as much of the water around him into steam as he could. Then, Willow thrust his Zanpakuto forward at his opponent while aiming for his chest, putting his full weight behind the blow while hopefully being free enough from the water due to the attempted steam creation that his strike wasn't slowed by the water.

Arturo felt Willow forcibly separate himself from the Seele Schneider, and the lethal hit that he'd intended with his reishi blade only grazed him instead. After that, he took the initiative and used Sonido to create some distance, to which Arturo reacted accordingly. As Willow escaped the water, he flung a series of fireballs at him, and Arturo let Sintflut block them, the water cube evaporating from each hit. As the water left him, the heat of the fire aggravated his burns and he winced from the pain, but the strings holding his arms held strong.

This would be the final stroke. Arturo held firm in his position, if only because the wound on his side was becoming incredibly taxing and moving around more would be dangerous. Willow charged at him with his spear. With the reishi that his Seele Schnieder had absorbed, it had become powerful enough to glow and whir. Arturo held it in front of him as the spear came, allowing it to move right through the top of the spear and, as Willow used his weight to thrust with the spear, toward the base. If the sword touched the spear in this way, the spear would continue through, but it would dissolve into reishi as it connected, which would be funneled toward the blade itself. It wouldn't prevent him from reforming his zanpakuto, but it would take time for him to get it back.

Consumed wit ha single-minded desire to impale the living fuck out of Blackhawk, Willow kept up the charge with his Zanpakuto towards Arturo even as he positioned his Seele Schneider right in Ignister's path of vengeance. Willow howled triumphantly, but his sound was cut short and morphed into a scream of anguish as Arturo's attack broke his Zanpakuto into particles of Reishi. The momentum Willow had built up drove him into the Seele Schneider, the blade piercing his arm once more for dramatic effect.

Willow, a shocked and blank look upon his face, looked down at his hands before snarling and Sonido-ing off. He moved with a desperate and rapid purpose, the desire to survive blocking out everything else. He couldn't call this a victory, not by a long shot. Had he hurt his opponent? Yes. Was he fucking burnt to a crisp? No. This was by no means a victory by any stretch of the imagination. "...Dammit...!" Willow eventually stopped in an alleyway and fell to his knees, clutching his chest and squeezing his eyes shut as he smacked a fist against the wall.

"Again... I keep losing it all again...!" This trading of blows had made clear the fact that Willow needed to get stronger. "I can't even kill one fucking Quincy... Dammit! DAMMIT!" Willow's hunched up body shook as blood stained his white robes a deep red. Willow suppressed a scream of rage, letting out as a silent wail of anguish as blood and his frustrations splattered on his knees.

[THREAD END]

Willow Sonido'd away immediately after Arturo's attack. He didn't know if he should have felt relieved that the pressure was coming off of him or disappointed that he couldn't goad him further. Arturo returned his Seele Schneider to his belt. It would be useless to chase him now. He didn't want to follow him to his other Arrancar friends in the state he was in, so Arturo decided to simply leave the battlefield after that, using Hirenkyaku to appear down in the street.

The city was in ruins here, all of their collateral damage had caused the deaths of so many. Arturo couldn't bring himself to care. Maybe that Willow guy would die on his way back to Hueco Mundo. Arturo hoped so. He never did like leaving an mark alive.

"Dammit." He swore. He'd have to run back home to treat his wounds. After that, he'd need to grab a bottle of something strong, because today, he just needed to forget.

-Thread Exit-