Hueco Mundo Desert.
Sora stood before a massive sand crater.
He had recently learned some Quincy skills but had not yet tried using them against an enemy. He wanted to come to Hueco Mundo and find a Menos to test them out.
"There should be an Adjuchas-class Menos here."
Sora took out the Onmitsukidō's exploration map to check.
The markings indicated that a very strong Adjuchas resided in this crater. The Onmitsukidō team that had explored here previously had almost been wiped out.
They had judged that the Menos here was one of the more powerful among the Adjuchas class.
It was very suitable for testing his Quincy abilities.
Sora put away the map and looked at the crater.
The scale of the crater was spectacular, over a hundred meters in diameter.
At the bottom grew some rock-fruit trees.
These trees were relatively rare in the Hueco Mundo desert.
Their trunks were like the common rock trees, but their branches bore fruit.
The fruits were somewhat similar to coconuts, but they were "coconuts" with Hollow masks.
These masked "coconut fruits" were their true bodies.
They were a type of small, animal-like Hollow with the ability to live parasitically on rock trees and absorb reishi from them.
"An Adjuchas..."
Sora saw two of them in the crater, fighting over the rock-fruit.
The rock-fruit Hollows themselves were not very aggressive, but their fruit stored an extremely high concentration of reishi.
For a Menos, they were a high-quality supplement.
The two fighting were a large snake with distinct, black-red metallic scales, and another that looked somewhat like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Neither of them looked friendly.
The dragon-like Menos, nearly ten meters tall, was imposing, yet it was at a disadvantage.
The armored snake had already locked onto the dragon's body and coiled around it.
The terrifying constricting force was causing the dragon's abdomen to cave in.
At the moment of life and death, the dragon-like Menos bit at the snake's body with all its might.
Its fangs, which could normally crush the bones and masks of other Menos with ease, now only left some scratches on the snake's scales.
The snake's defense was extremely high. The dragon couldn't bite through and even broke a few of its own teeth!
Crack, crackle—
The snake squeezed tighter and tighter. The sound of bones breaking came continuously from within the dragon's body. The area being constricted was completely caved in.
"RAAARGH—!!!"
The dragon-like Menos let out a painful roar, but it couldn't break free from the snake's grip and could only await its death.
"You won't get away easy either!" Unwilling to just wait to die, the dragon gathered all its spiritual pressure in its mouth, and a red flash quickly formed.
The armored snake's tail suddenly whipped out, striking the dragon's jaw.
The immense force knocked the dragon's head aside, and the Cero in its mouth shot into the sky, causing no damage to the snake.
"Fool."
The armored snake's voice was dull and cold.
Its muscles tensed as it applied more force.
After unleashing its full-power Cero, the dragon's strength weakened, and it could no longer resist. Its massive body instantly broke apart, squeezed into several pieces.
After finishing off the dragon-like Menos, the armored snake did not rush to enjoy its prey.
It turned its head, its cold, murderous gaze sweeping towards the top of the crater.
Sora had not intentionally hidden himself and had been discovered.
"A Shinigami?"
The snake twisted its massive body, adjusting to the most suitable position to attack Sora.
"Has this place already changed hands? The turnover rate outside of Las Noches is really fast!"
Sora remarked.
The exploration map he had was made by the Onmitsukidō last year.
Only a little over a year had passed, and the information on it was already somewhat outdated.
Moreover, the Menos marked on the map was neither the armored snake nor the dragon it had just killed.
This place was originally the territory of a scorpion-type Menos, which used the rock-fruit as bait to hunt other Menos attracted to it.
The armored snake did not want to exchange any more words with the Shinigami and launched an attack directly.
A fan-shaped green mist spewed from its mouth.
Wherever the mist passed, even the sand and rocks sizzled with corrosion.
"Corrosive acid mist. No wonder the sand in this pit is so black."
Four bullet-casing-sized 'Gintō' appeared between Sora's fingers. He was here today to test the strength of his Quincy abilities and had no intention of using his Zanpakutō.
He had made these 'Gintō' himself.
Mayuri had already successfully analyzed the method for making the standard-issue ones, so Sora had just used it.
He threw the four 'Gintō' out in a square formation. The reishi within them connected, forming a rectangular pillar.
"Seiretsu!"
The reishi pillar flew into the corrosive acid mist, sizzling.
'Seiretsu' could instantly unleash the reishi stored in four 'Gintō'. Its power was no less than a Hollow's Cero, and it had the advantage of being fast to release, with no preparation time.
The snake's acid mist couldn't completely corrode the reishi pillar in a short time.
The pillar pushed through the mist towards the armored snake.
Seeing that its acid was ineffective, the snake stopped spraying and turned its head to dodge the attack.
"Sprenger!"
Sora made a grasping motion, and the reishi pillar instantly exploded.
The snake had only turned its head to dodge, so it was extremely close to the pillar. It exploded right next to it.
"BOOM—!"
The massive, ten-meter-long snake body was instantly sent flying by the reishi explosion.
Thud—
Its body slammed into the edge of the crater, creating a large gap.
"Damn you, Shinigami!!!"
The armored snake got back up, but its metallic scales now had a large area of cracks, and bright red blood flowed from them.
The blood dripped onto the ground, sizzling and quickly corroding a black pit in the sand.
The snake's blood also contained a strong, acidic poison.
"Pretty tough."
Sora felt that if that last attack had hit an unprepared seated officer-level Shinigami, it would have been enough to kill them instantly.
Yet the armored snake had managed to endure it.
Compared to Shinigami, Hollows had far inferior combat techniques and moves, but their physical strength was much greater than a Shinigami of the same level.
Sora raised his hand again, and four rice-grain-sized balls of reishi appeared between his fingers.
These were condensed from his own spiritual pressure.
He was trying to modify a Quincy formula into a Kidō spell.
He threw the four reishi balls out in a square formation. They spread out and gradually formed a rectangular pillar.
"Quincy techniques do have some advantages. Without the aid of the formulas on the 'Gintō', the operational difficulty is much higher..."
The formation time of the reishi pillar was a lot slower.
With the aid of the formulas, it would have formed almost instantly.
The 'Gintō' were engraved with several formulas that could be coordinated with Quincy techniques, allowing them to be released faster and with less effort.
The reishi pillar shot towards the armored snake. This time, it didn't dare to underestimate the move and immediately burrowed into the sand.
Thud—
The reishi pillar stuck into the sand but did not explode.
Sora raised his hand but did not detonate it.
The pillar was rapidly collapsing, decomposing into reishi, and these particles were converging towards Sora's hand.
"It works!"
His level 81 Reishi Manipulation ability already gave him extremely strong control over external spiritual particles.
The reishi pillar was a move Sora had released with his own spiritual pressure, so he had even stronger control over the reishi in it.
He had just used his Reishi Manipulation ability to retrieve the reishi pillar he had just released!
The reishi gathered in Sora's palm, turning into strands of blue thread.
"A Quincy's stamina is really impressive..."
Sora looked at the reishi in his hand. Although this operation had some loss, it also greatly increased his endurance.
"A shame I can't put it back into my body..."
What he found regrettable was that although he could use this reishi to cast more Quincy techniques, he couldn't stuff it back into his own spiritual body.
If he could, he would be able to fly by pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.
Just then, there was a movement under the sand.
The sand was trembling violently.
Boom—!
The sand in front of him was suddenly thrown up, and a massive wave of sand crashed towards him.
The armored snake was churning its body under the sand, creating the terrifying wave.
Swoosh—
Sora's figure vanished from the spot and instantly appeared in the air above the crater, avoiding the sand wave.
At that moment, a red beam of light shot towards him at high speed.
A Cero!
The sand wave was just to force him to move; the Cero was the snake's real killing blow!
Sora calmly raised his left hand in front of him.
"BOOM—!!!"
A Cero powerful enough to wipe out a small Onmitsukidō squad exploded in front of him.
"Die! Hahahaha!!!"
The armored snake laughed loudly.
This Shinigami was very strong and had actually injured it.
It was a top predator even in the Hueco Mundo desert and had not been in such a sorry state for many years.
But in front of its Cero, this Shinigami could only be reduced to ashes.
The ferocious smile on the snake's face quickly froze.
After the light of the explosion in the air dissipated, Sora was still standing there, completely unharmed.
On his left hand, blue lines were visible.
Blut Vene!
Sora had blocked the Cero's attack using only the defense of his Blut Vene.
His Blut Vene level was actually not that high.
If it were an average Quincy, this level of Blut Vene would not provide much defense.
But Sora's was condensed from his own spiritual pressure.
Overwhelming power beats fancy techniques!
His captain-level spiritual pressure gave his Blut Vene extremely strong defensive power even at a low level.
If he continued to strengthen it, its defensive power would increase even more.
"What is that?!"
The armored snake was terrified. It was ignorant and had never seen a Quincy before, so it couldn't recognize the ability the Shinigami was using.
Its strongest attack had been blocked so casually!
This Shinigami was too terrifying!
The snake completely lost its will to fight. It turned its head and was about to burrow into the ground to escape.
The reishi that had been coiling around Sora's right hand quickly condensed into five reishi blades.
"Gritz!"
The five blades landed on the ground, and the reishi light that flowed from them connected to form a pentagonal sigil.
The pentagonal sigil trapped the armored snake in the center, rendering it immobile.
'Gritz' was an incantation-less trap formation that normally required a hilt-like spiritual tool called a 'Seele Schneider' to assist in its casting.
But Sora, with his superb mastery of reishi blades, had achieved a similar effect.
Until the five reishi blades were consumed, the armored snake could not leave the central area of the formation.
After throwing out the 'Gritz', Sora did not stop.
Spiritual pressure surged from his body. Blue threads appeared on his right hand, condensing together to form a reishi arrow.
The silver ring on his left middle finger glowed blue, and the spirit bow expanded.
He nocked the Heilig Pfeil on the bow, and a hurricane from the bow wrapped around it.
The powerful airflow tore open the air in front of him, creating a vacuum.
He released the bowstring—
The next moment, the Heilig Pfeil struck the armored snake.
"BOOM—!!!"
A Heilig Pfeil released with level 81 Reishi Manipulation could at most match the power of a Hadō cast by a lieutenant-class Shinigami.
But Sora had used his own spiritual pressure. This Heilig Pfeil was even stronger than one released by most elite Quincy!
The snake's massive body was instantly torn to pieces by the reishi explosion.
The power of the Heilig Pfeil was relatively concentrated, leaving a not-so-large pit in the ground.
"A Heilig Pfeil released with my own spiritual pressure is stronger than most Hadō... it can be compared to some high-tier Hadō cast without an incantation."
Sora was very satisfied with the power of the Heilig Pfeil.
There was a reason it was the signature skill of the Quincy.
It was fast to release, had concentrated power, and was very practical.
Even someone as powerful as Yhwach still used it.
"'Gritz' can be compared to a full-incantation Bakudō of the mid-tier or higher."
For an ordinary Quincy, 'Gritz' was also very practical.
However, Sora's Zanpakutō had its own binding ability, so 'Gritz' wasn't very useful for him.
He had just had a sudden idea and wanted to test if he could cast 'Gritz' with a reishi blade.
The result was that it was possible.
However, probably few Quincy could do it. It required extremely high reishi blade skill to release the formation from the spiritual pressure on the blade.
"The combination of 'Seiretsu' and 'Sprenger' is quite powerful and can also be released with one's own spiritual pressure. If I use 'Gintō' to assist, it can be formed quickly."
When using 'Gintō' to release these moves, the power depends on the amount of reishi stored in the tubes.
The ones Sora had just used were standard-issue. The amount of reishi stored in one was only equivalent to a low-tier Kidō.
Once Mayuri cracked the special 'Gintō' that could store high-concentration reishi, the power of these moves would be even greater.
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