Grimmjow tried to dodge the sudden burst of black shadow.
But the speed at which it spread surpassed even his nervous system's response time—he had no chance to evade it.
The next moment, he found himself standing inside a pitch-black space.
"This spiritual pressure…"
Grimmjow's heart sank.
This man had the most overwhelming Reiatsu Grimmjow had ever encountered since becoming a Hollow.
Even though that mountain-like spiritual pressure wasn't directly bearing down on him, it still made it hard to breathe.
"Nel, test his strength."
Having sealed off the area with Shadow Space, Katori Nanatsuki withdrew from the fight.
"Sensei, your Reiatsu scared the little panther—he won't be able to fight properly!"
Nel's words were like gasoline on a fire—Grimmjow immediately bristled with rage.
"The word 'fear' doesn't exist in the Panther King's dictionary!" he snapped, eyes blazing. "And don't call me by some weak-sounding nickname! I have a name!"
"No fear at all? Maybe your dictionary just doesn't have any words in it."
Nel replied with pure sincerity, as if that was her genuine deduction.
Grimmjow's fury ignited completely.
To him, that kind of remark was a blatant insult to all Hollows—a way of calling them nothing more than untamed beasts.
Grimmjow vanished.
A moment later, he reappeared beside Nel, lunging straight for her neck with jaws wide open.
But Nel reacted instantly—her toes pushed off, spinning in the air with incredible speed.
Her fluttering cloak revealed the small bells hidden in her sleeves.
Before they even had a chance to chime, Nel launched a spinning kick.
She had anticipated the panther's pounce and was ready to knock him flying before he could bite down!
Grimmjow sensed the terrifying wind pressure from her strike and knew he couldn't take it head-on.
Boom—he reappeared several meters away, evading the kick with Sonído.
"Not bad, little panther. You're fast."
Nel giggled.
She removed her hood, then unfastened her cloak and tossed it aside.
That cloak had stealth and spiritual pressure suppression functions—it was an expensive spiritual tool. She didn't want to ruin it.
Underneath, Nel wore a dōjō uniform.
At the ends of the long white sleeves, each was tied with a red string holding a small bell.
Even her waist sash had a similar knot, adorned with two more bells.
Nel was currently in the advanced stage of Reiatsu control training.
She could now move in daily life without the bells making a sound.
However, once in combat, her focus split—and she couldn't maintain that level of control.
Her mastery of spiritual pressure hadn't yet been fully internalized as instinct or muscle memory.
As she moved, her long green hair flowed free, and the ram skull mask fragment on her head became visible.
Grimmjow's pupils contracted the moment he saw it.
'She wasn't a Shinigami—she was a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow, and an Arrancar at that?!'
Grimmjow had only seen one Hollow that had already undergone Arrancarization.
But from the moment he became a Hollow, he knew exactly where the path of evolution led.
All who pursued that path fought and devoured one another for a single purpose.
Grimmjow was no different. Becoming an Arrancar was his ultimate goal on the path to evolution.
"A Vasto Lorde… and an Arrancar at that—yet you're siding with the Shinigami?!"
He clenched his fists, realizing that his dream of evolution might end today—but he wasn't the kind to fear death.
"You've discarded the pride of a king!!"
In his eyes, an Arrancar should stand atop all Hollows, and Shinigami should be nothing more than their prey.
He immediately filled in the blanks in his head.
This fallen Arrancar had allied with Shinigami...
And now she was here to hunt down promising Hollows like him—those with potential to evolve into Arrancar.
She was trying to cut off the path of evolution.
She was destroying Hueco Mundo's future!
"What's little panther even talking about?"
Nel blinked, her eyes filled with innocent confusion.
She didn't understand why the little panther was suddenly so upset.
Grimmjow's eyes hardened—he was done talking. He would defeat this fallen queen.
Grimmjow leapt high, forming a Cero in his mouth.
But Nel had never taken her eyes off him. The moment he jumped, her blade was already swinging.
Clang!
Her long sword drew from its sheath, unleashing a sudden Flowlight.
Nel, being a Hollow, couldn't use Shunpo or Kidō, and thus couldn't learn techniques like Shunpo Iaido or Quadrant Shun Strike, which relied on movement techniques to boost cutting power.
All of Nanatsuki's Kidō-infused sword arts were also unusable to her.
But she had mastered techniques like Flowlight and Senmai-Oroshi, which focused on pure draw speed.
Grimmjow's eyes widened slightly—the slash was too fast. He didn't even have time to fire the Cero.
Boom! Grimmjow vanished again, narrowly avoiding Nel's strike using Sonído.
Sonído allowed teleportation via Garganta, but its speed varied from Hollow to Hollow.
Grimmjow's Sonído was exceptionally fast—within a single breath, he could shift positions multiple times.
It was a natural gift.
It was also how he had defeated countless enemies on his rise to power.
Boom boom boom—Grimmjow's form flickered across the battlefield, disrupting Nel's ability to lock on with spiritual sense.
The Cero in his mouth remained charged. If Nel let her guard down for even a second, he'd land a fatal blow.
Nel frowned slightly and returned her blade to its sheath.
Though his Reiatsu was weaker than hers, his Sonído speed was just a bit faster—she needed to take this seriously.
Grimmjow appeared behind her, firing the Cero at point-blank range.
Faced with such a sudden attack, Nel had a simple option.
Her innate ability, Cero Concerto, allowed her to absorb and reflect other Hollows' Cero.
But before coming to Hueco Mundo, her teacher had forbidden her from using both Cero Doble and her Resurrección.
She had come here to break through her limits.
Only by experiencing real pressure in battle could she synthesize everything she had learned.
Clang!
In a flash, Flowlight met the oncoming Cero head-on.
The tip of the Cero was instantly sliced in half, splitting and whizzing past Nel on either side.
But Grimmjow continued feeding Reiatsu into the attack.
The Hollow's beam didn't stop—it kept regenerating.
Nel also maintained the Reiatsu Blade of her Flowlight technique.
As the two forces clashed, a piercing screech rang out.
Zzzzzzzz! The two split halves of the Cero shot behind Nel and exploded.
BOOM BOOM—!
The blast of wind whipped her green hair into the air, but she didn't move an inch.
Grimmjow's bone-muscle hybrid body tensed, pouring his full spiritual pressure into the beam.
But Nel's Flowlight Reiatsu Blade slowly crept forward through the surging blast.
In this clash, it was clear—Nel held the advantage.