At Abirama's command, the evil spider Tuumba immediately led two differently shaped Adjuchas into the attack, targeting Arata, who was fighting the rhino Vina.
"Hm?"
After slicing off Vina's rhino horn with a single swing, Arata instinctively sensed three powerful spiritual pressures rapidly approaching him before he could finish the job.
When he looked up, the enemy was already in front of him.
"Hahahaha! Ugly Shinigami, you've killed quite a few of our guys!"
The one speaking was a bird-like Adjuchas flying in the sky.
But unlike Abirama, he was completely black, with two blood-red dots on a white bony mask.
Was this a raven?
Arata wondered inwardly, it was the first time he had seen an Adjuchas in such an animal form.
"Motifilo, that raven voice of yours is truly disgusting. Stop babbling with the brat and just kill him already!" mocked the giant scorpion Kadavil, his gray scorpion tail already twitching impatiently.
"Be careful, this guy's strength is nothing simple. He even cut off part of Vina's horn," the spider Tuumba warned maliciously.
As soon as he said that, Rotten Raven Motifilo made the first move.
"Crowstorm!"
His screechy, unpleasant voice, enough to churn the stomach, resounded across the battlefield, amplified by spiritual pressure.
At that moment, he scattered into hundreds of black ravens, which swooped down on Arata like a swarm of insects.
Arata had no intention of backing off. He raised his hand and released a horizontal Dark Flame Slash.
The purple-black blade light instantly devoured the black ravens, and those struck fell to the sand, unmoving.
Was that it?
Arata felt a faint wave of boredom.
However, Motifilo didn't show a hint of frustration, he simply let out a senseless, raspy laugh.
In the next moment, thick black light suddenly bubbled up from the desert.
The ravens he had just downed were suddenly revived and split into two in a strange way.
Not by being cut in half, but one raven literally became two.
After that transformation, the already numerous flocks multiplied even more, overshadowing the sky like a moving black cloud.
Arata slightly furrowed his brows. Splitting and multiplying, huh?
Quite interesting.
He also noticed that the eyes of these revived ravens glowed with a strange red light, and with every flap of their wings, they scattered black dust.
"Feather of Corruption!"
Motifilo screamed, and the ravens in the sky simultaneously flapped their wings, countless black feathers rained down on Arata like a storm.
Arata immediately used Shunpo to dodge, but wherever the black feathers touched the sand, corroded holes appeared, releasing black smoke.
One Hollow fighting a Shinigami a bit farther away wasn't so lucky, struck by the feathers, it let out a ripping scream and instantly melted into a pool of black, gooey mass.
"Ga g g g! If just one of my feathers touches you, not even bones will remain!" Motifilo chirped triumphantly.
At the same moment, the giant scorpion Kadavil launched a side attack.
His massive body suddenly dived into the sand, leaving behind a raised trail in the sand as he sped toward Arata like lightning.
"Earth Scorpion Sting!"
Arata had barely avoided one wave of corrosive feathers when the sand beneath his feet exploded.
A thick scorpion tail burst out from the ground, the stinger glowing with a poisonous green hue, flying straight at his throat.
"Bakudō #39: Enkōsen!"
A circular light shield suddenly spread out in front of Arata, barely blocking the deadly stab.
But the immense force in the scorpion's tail was anything but harmless, after easily crushing the shield, it continued to push forward.
Arata drew the long blade Meigetsu and positioned it horizontally to block, but the remaining force still sent him flying several meters back, his feet digging two deep grooves in the sand.
"Pretty quick reaction, Shinigami." Kadavil finally emerged completely from the sand, his eyes flashing eerily beneath the bone mask. "But how will you block this next attack?"
As he spoke, his scorpion tail suddenly split into three prongs, each stinger pulsing with a different colored poison, dark green, purple-black, and blood red.
"Three Poisons Kill!"
The three tails shot out like lightning, so fast they left only afterimages in the air.
Arata's pupils shrank. He was genuinely shocked.
This speed far surpassed that of a normal Adjuchas, even a serious vice-captain would struggle to withstand such a strike.
Maybe… this guy was already on the verge of becoming a Vasto Lorde.
"Soul Shadow Flash!"
In the critical moment, Arata gathered all his spiritual pressure and activated one of Meigetsu's special techniques.
Kadavil's three poisonous stingers pierced only a lingering afterimage, the empty shadow Arata had left behind.
"What the hell? Where did that Shinigami go?!" growled the evil spider Tuumba, a hint of panic in his voice.
All three pairs of evolved eyes were wide open, scanning the surroundings with full force, but Arata was nowhere to be found.
The same went for Rotten Raven Motifilo, the ravens under his control gave no response.
That Shinigami's spiritual pressure had simply vanished from the air along with his form, as if he no longer existed in this world.
In the blink of an eye, Arata, who had hidden in another space, reappeared, this time behind Kadavil.
Shhhhh—!
Only the dull sound of flesh tearing was heard, and all three of Kadavil's scorpion tails were suddenly severed in a clean line and fell to the sand.
"Uuuuuuuu—!"
The intense pain from having his tails ripped from his body made Kadavil scream.
"If you cut off a scorpion's tail, its threat is practically gone," Arata said calmly, then turned toward the remaining two Adjuchas.
Though he appeared calm on the outside, inwardly his concentration was at its absolute limit.
These three Adjuchas had never appeared in the original work. Aside from Tuumba, whose abilities still hadn't been clearly shown, the other two were extremely dangerous.
If a weaker vice-captain had been in his place, he would probably be a corpse on the sand by now.
If he had a choice, Arata would rather face Grimmjow, that pure beast of speed and power from Hueco Mundo, than these three freaks.
He couldn't understand how Baraggan had so many Adjuchas with such specialized abilities, and yet none of them existed in the original story.
He was sure that, once Aizen turned them into Arrancars, these types could easily slaughter any ordinary officer.
Did they all perhaps perish in some rebellion against Aizen's rule?
But reality gave him no time to think. As soon as they saw their comrade mutilated, Motifilo and Tuumba immediately launched an attack.
"Feather of Corrosion!"
"Spider Web Sky Net!"
A sky full of black feathers rained down on Arata, forcing him to retreat in one move, while also dodging thick white webs being shot behind him.
Considering the wide area of the raven's attacks could endanger the expedition camp,
Arata simply pulled the battlefield farther outward, until the camp completely vanished from the horizon.
"Hahahaha! Let's see how long you can keep running!"
"What's wrong, running out of spiritual pressure? Hahahaha!"
"Kill him quickly!"
At that moment, Arata completely ignored their mockery and provocations and leapt straight into the air.
Purple-black flames suddenly erupted along Meigetsu's blade.
More than ten dark shadows emerged from his body, forming a ring-shaped formation.
The Zanpakutō in his hand exploded with spiritual pressure as he swung it forward.
"Moon Feast!"
All the shadows simultaneously slashed their swords, and countless purple-black crescent-shaped blade energies poured down from above.
Faced with the sudden onslaught of blade rain, Motifilo, who had just been showing off, frantically flapped his wings trying to escape.
But the blades flew much faster than he could move.
Shhh!
A crescent blade strike came from behind and pierced his head.
Motifilo's eyes rolled back in disbelief, and the scene in his field of vision began to spin and twist.
"No… impossible… I'm under Lord Baraggan…"
Before he could finish the sentence, the bone mask on his head completely shattered.