Chapter One Hundred
Chapter One Hundred
It'd been quickly realized that in their present situation with things as they were, trying to find Ulquiorra's zanpakutÅ in the dark of night, with only eight sets of eyes actually capable of doing that, would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Fortunately that situation was alleviated with ease due to some quick thinking on Twilight's part, thus leaving everypony present with the thestral vision enchantment, and allowing them to see as easily if it were daylight out.
Although Ditzy couldn't ignore the how weird the spell was making her eyes feel at the moment, or how it was making her blink far more than usual to try and clear the strange sensation.
"Alright," Twilight spoke up upon completion of casting the spell, "everypony spread out. We have a general idea of what direction to look, but Murciélago could still be anywhere. Search everywhere that a sword of that size could reasonably fit. Leave no tree or rock formation un-inspected."
"Just be really super careful," Pinkie was quick to add, "Ulqy's sword is sharp enough to cut right through a dragon's fire like it's cheap styrofoam. If it's in a tree, don't stand directly below it, and whatever you do don't try and shake it out of the tree!"
Nopony needed -nor truly wanted- any further elaboration on the matter than that. They understood well enough, the risks they were undertaking on this mission, just as they did the risk if they didn't undertake it.
A serious miscalculation had been made on his part pertaining to Nightmare Moon's battle capabilities. That was really the only logical explanation as to what had just happened.
He hadn't directly faced her in combat when she'd been wielding her scythe. His only source of information pertaining to her capabilities had been from indirect observation of her midair combat against Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Going by his observations, he had drawn a conclusion about the range of reach Nightmare Moon could achieve with her scythe, estimating it to be approximately two meters from her body.
That estimation had quickly been proven wrong during their aerial combat, with nearly fatal consequences as a result.
Nightmare Moon's reach with her scythe was far greater than he'd assumed or otherwise observed, spanning at least ten meters, and with the ability to strike far faster than he'd been lead to believe from previous observation. Leaving him with a diagonal cut from his right shoulder down across his midsection for his troubles and his own ineptitude. Had he been any slower in his retreat, the curve of her blade would've sliced through his ribs, rather than merely scraping along them as it passed.
If her scythe could actually pierce and cut through his hierro, then he was going to need to exercise a far greater degree of caution in this battle than he'd anticipated. He was actually going to need to be careful this time around.
He hadn't needed to be careful against an opponent, since his time back in Hueco Mundo.
... Why exactly was such a thought causing him to experience a sense of anticipation just now?
"Well now," Nightmare Moon purred, her upper teeth pressing against her bottom lip as she grinned. "You're not nearly as invincible as you'd like others to believe."
Ulquiorra opted to refrain from dignifying her taunt with a response, as the wound he'd incurred proceeded to heal itself, his flesh practically stitching itself back together as all trace of the wound disappeared just as it's been delivered. Something that would've been more easily done if her weapon didn't both cut and cauterize at the same time.
"Oh, now that's very interesting right there," she mused. "All the better for me to vent my frustrations on you, without you dying prematurely."
Ulquiorra refrained from taking the bait that would've ultimately resulted in engaging in a battle of banter, and instead decided to let his own skill speak for him on the matter. In this particular case, the skill in question was a bala sent hurtling directly at her head. He already knew it wouldn't be enough to kill her, but it would certainly leave her open to a follow up attack and - it missed.
His bala had missed. If he hadn't seen it for himself, he wouldn't have believed it. She'd actually managed to move herself to the side out of its path of travel.
Making such a development worse was the smug smirk she currently wore, indicating it hadn't been simply dumb luck on her part.
"Too bad," she replied all too mockingly, "best two out of three?"
"Yes," Ulquiorra replied and tried again with another bala.
But it hadn't been a normal bala, as she found out the hard way. It hadn't been a single incoming blast that could've been easily dodged if one had adequate reflexes and response times, coupled with recognizing what was coming. Instead it'd been nine incoming projectiles in a fairly tight cluster, and managing several simultaneous points of contact with enough force to practically knock the air right out of her on impact.
"What..." Nightmare Moon found herself asking as she tried to process what'd just happened. "What... what was that just now?"
"Escopeta," Ulquiorra replied, making no effort to immediately continue the assault as he spoke. "Generally reserved for crowd control situations, or when needing to strike a quick-moving opponent."
"Oh," she replied and absently nodded.
She then proceeded back to business as usual and lunged forward, swinging her scythe in an effort to decapitate him, just as he had done to her in revealing he had more than one sword at his disposal.
Ulquiorra's response wasn't so much blocking the incoming strike, as it was binding it.
For reasons he didn't understand, nor cared enough to determine, the downward curve of Nightmare Moon's scythe was particularly aggressive, not unlike the hawkbill blade of a linoleum or pruning knife. But this worked to his advantage as it allowed him to wedge his own blade between the front and back points, and proceed to twist it to the side with enough torque to halt her attack entirely, as well as leaving her unable to easily pull herself free.
"Best two out of three," he stated as he balled his free hand into a fist.
Nightmare Moon could only groan in response before the carnage continued. "Oh sweet Faust..."
Even with the benefit of the thestral vision enchantment, most ponies who took the time to glance up at the battle overhead would be hard-pressed to make out any details other than the red and green glows coming off of the weapons being utilized. But most were far too busy -and far too afraid- to bother looking up to try and evaluate the current scope of things for themselves.
Had they done such, they would've noted the combat was currently appearing static rather than all over the sky, but beyond that they wouldn't be able to tell anything. As such it was far more constructive for them to focus on trying to find Ulquiorra's missing zanpakutÅ, than anything else.
Such was much easier said than done in Zecora's case, as she was working behind a disadvantage. Her one eye was still swollen and hurt to open, essentially cutting her field of vision in half as she searched right alongside Lyra and several other townsponies.
"Just so you know, what you did back there was really brave. How you faced down Nightmare Moon all by yourself, to give us an opening to attack her."
She recognized the voice as Lyra's, although she had to turn her head an extended degree to regard the unicorn as she spoke. It was a glowing evaluation, but hardly the full truth of the matter.
The real truth was that she'd been just as terrified as everypony else had been, if not even more. It hadn't been courage that'd brought her and the others out here, but rather desperation. Desperation that had only increased when they saw Ulquiorra leaving the battlefield with a pony in tow, and knowing that one who could punch a dragon to death wouldn't simply flee the conflict without a very good reason.
Honesty, it all was kind of hazy right now. She barely even remembered speaking to the townsponies when trying to mobilize them to action. It was more like someone else had taken control and had been speaking through her in order to encourage them to take the fight to Nightmare Moon and cancel her plans to her face, rather than hiding and waiting for her to come find them.
Even if they hadn't responded to her words, and she was forced to set out on her own, it still wouldn't have been bravery driving her hooves forward. She hadn't even been certain if her powder would've worked at all against alicorn physiology. She simply wouldn't have been able to live with herself if she hadn't at least tried to do something meaningful to help her friends in their time of need; not after all they'd done for her.
Before she could go about correcting Lyra's evaluation, she found herself being tackled to the ground as an explosion occurred... somewhere in the vicinity. She hadn't seen anything, she'd only heard it after the fact.
"Sheesh! We're walking here! Ugh, I hope somepony else is having better results in this search..."
"Huh."
Whether it'd been divine intervention, random chance, or some other factor at play, it'd been Luna and the rest of their little group that'd been the ones to find Murciélago first.
It literally stood before them, almost perfectly perpendicular to the ground, with half the length of its blade buried in a large chunk of granite rock.
"You know, Nightmare Moon's aim really sucks. Anypony could've found this," Rainbow Dash commented as she folded her forelegs across her chest while hovering just off the forest floor.
"Don't knock it, this works out better for us," Pinkie pointed out. If Ulquiorra's zanpakutÅ wasn't well hidden, then they didn't have to search extensively for it. The fact it'd been sent over a mile away in this mess had been bad enough all on its own, and wasn't in need of any additional complications from being extensively obscured from their sight.
Twilight simply shook her head, unable to think of anything to say on the matter, and unwilling to take the time to think anything up. She just wanted this to be over once and for all, and reached out with her magic to grasp the zanpakutÅ, enveloping its entire exposed length of a lavender aura.
Trying to yank it out of the stone nearly sent her to the ground in the process.
"Holy crap," she grunted as she braced herself to avoid face planting in the process. "It's... stuck."
"Stuck? Whadda ya mean stuck?" Applejack asked, not really understanding what Twilight was saying. She'd witnessed incredible accomplishments in strength when it came to lifting things that no pony could physically lift, and done in such a casual manner it looked like no effort was involved whatsoever. So how would one little sword be stuck in a block of stone?
"Just what I said. It's stuck," Twilight stated as she made ready to try again.
Once again the zanpakutÅ was enveloped as she tried to pull it free, the lavender aura wrapping around it flaring brightly and violently as she strained against unseen forces, without much success.
Rarity wasted no time with bothering to ask if her assistance could be of any use before contributing what she could, her own periwinkle blue aura joining with Twilight's lavender aura as they both proceeded to pull with all of their might.
It went without saying that her strength couldn't possibly compete Twilight's, but the brightness and visual intensity of her aura would certainly suggest otherwise as they worked in unison, giving it everything they had.
If nothing else, she'd at least managed to hold on as long as Twilight had before finally succumbing to the strain of their futile efforts.
"My word," she gasped, "that really is stuck."
"A'right then, move aside an' let me give 'er a try," Applejack spoke up as she tilted her stetson. Unicorn magic might've been good for a lot of things, but some applications simply required good old-fashioned earth pony physical might. If they couldn't get the sword unstuck, then she'd do it by herself.
"And where do you plan to grab onto it without getting cut in the process?" Spike asked.
Applejack stopped, unable to think up a response. Where was she going to grab hold of the sword anyway? At least half of the exposed surface area was the blade, which included that sharp edge. The hilt came to mind, but lacking hands would make that difficult. Wrapping her forelegs around it really wouldn't do much good either. And trying to grip the hilt in her mouth would be just plain awkward.
"Damn," was all she could offer up in response. Why'd Spike have to go and be so smart? "Well, wha' do we do now? Do we get more unicorns an' y'all try ta pull together?"
Twilight shook her head in response. "With how far we could all be scattered, it would take too long to try and pull that off. Even if that wasn't the case, we don't even know if something like that would work. For all we know about Hollow-type zanpakutÅs, this might actually be a design feature to prevent unauthorized use by individuals they don't belong to. In which case Ulquiorra would be the only one who can pull Murciélago loose."
"Well then let's just move the stone to Ulqy's position and let him do it!" Pinkie suggested, seeing it as the most logical, most straightforward approach to solving the problem. And if he couldn't pull it loose all that easily, he could smash the boulder over Nightmare Moon's head to break it free, so it was an added bonus.
Rarity was the one to shake her head next. "I'm afraid that won't work either, Pinkie. That's no mere stone we're up against. It's more akin to an iceberg, and we're only seeing the tip of how large it truly is. I could feel it while we were trying to free the sword just a moment ago. Even if we could unearth it, and do so quickly, I strongly doubt every earth pony in all of Ponyville would be enough to move it back to Ulquiorra at anything more than a snail's pace, if even that."
This was one of those situations where they were literally trapped between a rock and a hard place. Ulquiorra needed his sword, but they couldn't bring it to him. They'd have to bring him to it, and by extension bring Nightmare Moon along with him. That would only serve to complicate the matter even further, as she'd never allow him the opportunity to free it.
"Well then let's do what Ulquiorra would do, cut through all the bullshit, and go the most direct route," Spike spoke up. "Twilight, if you still know that spell Celestia showed you before sending us to the Crystal Empire, then use it. I'll take it from there."
It took a moment for Twilight to fully understand just what Spike was getting at. The fact that she hadn't been able to think of it herself made her want to smack her own head in frustration. Maybe it had to do with the fact that both Spike and Ulquiorra had an inherent predatory nature in their origins, even when they didn't conduct themselves in such a manner.
"And this is why you're my Number One Assistant," she muttered, before clearing her throat and speaking up. "Alright. Now we just need a plan for how to safely get Murciélago back to Ulquiorra."
"A-actually," Fluttershy practically squeaked, "I think that I might have an idea for how to do just that..."
Contrary to what some might've believed, the battle being waged overhead wasn't as wholly one-sided, or as cut and dry, as they would care for it to be.
Ulquiorra was undoubtedly the one with the superior strength, skill, and expertise in the area of open combat.
But Nightmare Moon was the one that possessed superior skill at trickery and evasive maneuvers that made open combat prolonged and difficult to properly execute.
Perhaps she couldn't keep up with his sonido, or otherwise physically tank one of his lethal blows. But at the same time his pesquisa couldn't detect where she was going to teleport to, until after she had already teleported to her new location away from his strike. Nor could he accurately calculate which angle of approach/retreat she was going to utilize at any given moment.
Boiled down to the basics, their engagement was essentially proving to be a game of leapfrog/follow the leader, intermixed with the occasional clash of mana-based weapons as they tried to kill one another.
This manner of engagement might've carried on for quite some time, had Nightmare Moon not once again utilized an older trick and successfully snagged Ulquiorra in a field of restraining magic to stop him dead in his tracks. The only difference this time around was this time around, she was far outside of the reach of whatever he'd hit her with the last time. He wasn't about to get the drop on her again.
She just had to keep it up long enough. And he wasn't making it easy.
"The longer you drag this out, the worse it's going to be," he stated idly as he strained against the field that currently bound him, all the while straining her concentration further and further. "Release me, and I'll make your end merciful and short. You won't suffer, unlike your victims."
"It's certainly a most generous offer for you to be making," Nightmare Moon grunted sarcastically in return as she strained back in an effort to maintain her hold on him, which was proving to be far more difficult than previously. Even trying to prevent him from moving an inch required a great deal of effort.
"But no thank you. In case you didn't notice, you're not in the position to be offering me any sort of deals, biped! You're the one at the disadvantage right now, not me! I can break you in half like a twig right now, and there's nothing that you can do about it. My return to power and ascension to rule can't be prevented, especially not by something as weak and aberrant as yo- GURK!"
Her speech was cut off as something slammed into her midsection quite hard, the force of the impact being enough to double her over and knock the wind out of her, resulting in a low wheeze as her breath escaped her lungs.
She'd just been hit with a train car. That was the only explanation that made any sense. Down below, somepony had managed to throw an entire train car right at her.
"Oh. Did that break your concentration just now? I'm really sorry. But what you were saying wasn't very nice. And that is my friend you're talking about."
A train car that just happened to be colored pink and butter yellow.
Of all the ponies she'd had dealings with on this night, none of them were as sincerely hated as Fluttershy was at this very moment. Not only was she mocking her, but she was also simultaneously apologizing for mocking her! She would burn for this. She would burn...
It was then her ears detected the sound of metal scraping against metal. She didn't know what that was or what it meant, but it certainly didn't sound good.
"Alright, it's done, now let's get out of here!"
Hearing the unmistakable voice of Rainbow Dash, Nightmare Moon looked up and saw her hovering by Ulquiorra as he... as he was in the process of drawing his sword from the back of her armor.
Oh crap...
Fluttershy delivered one more gut punch to her for good measure before she fled with Rainbow Dash, leaving her alone with him in a completely unobstructed manner. And this time around she really didn't think she'd be able to get his sword away from him a second time.
There was a brief moment as he locked eyes with her from across the battlefield and slowly raised his sword, practically pointing the tip at her in an overly deliberate -almost menacing- manner.
The next thing she knew, she was being enveloped in a tidal wave of teal-outlined black flames that seemed to stretch on for miles, obscuring her sight of everything. Everything, that is, except for him at the epicenter of it all, leaving her helpless to do anything but watch as everything unfolded.
His sword had more or less dematerialized into nothing and left him empty handed, but that didn't seem to be slowing him down any. If anything it just seemed to kick things into gear! His hair was growing far longer than it had been, reaching all the way down to his lower back. The bony protrusion atop his head was both retracting and expanding as it took on a much more symmetrical and streamlined design with two prominent horns jutting outward.
There were two explosions of some thick, inky-black liquid out of his back that quickly solidified into the form of large extended bat wings that could easily dwarf her own if they were compared side by side.
Something finally served to snap her out of her stupor and she realized that he wasn't moving. For whatever reason, he appeared to be physically frozen in place during his transformation, while she was free to move about. Free to retaliate as it were.
Summoning her scythe once again, she swung it hard and fast to cleave him in half and put an end to this before he could finish transforming. Only to watch -and feel- as it shattered like cheap glass before ever making contact with his body.
The energy and pressure his body must've been exerting as he transformed was so intense, not even her scythe could pierce it. Like it or not, that dastardly fiend had ensured that he couldn't be interrupted before he was ready. That was supposed to be her routine!
Finally, it ended. The flames dispersed, leaving her with an unobstructed view of just what she was facing. Of the source of so many of Celestia's recent and delicious nightmares. Seeing him... it... for herself, rather than through the eyes of another, now she could understand why that was. Just being in this close a proximity was enough to make her legs tremble. Had she been standing on the ground at the time, she might've collapsed.
"Do not become overwhelmed by fear. It'll only serve to further hamper your efforts at survival."
Sweet merciful Faust, even his voice had changed along with his form. It was smooth like butter, yet contained a sharp edge in what could've been a whisper. The sinister way he rolled his R's as he spoke could practically make a mare melt. Under different circumstances...
She shook her head. She couldn't allow herself to get distracted or she was going to die, and in short order. She had to stay focused!
"I-I warn you, biped, I will not be holding back on my strength like Celestia did when you fought her over Canterlot! You're going to learn firsthoof just how strong an alicorn truly can be!" she bellowed as furiously as she could manage, emphasizing her point as she once again summoned her scythe and making ready for battle. He was not about to drive her to terror. She was going to emerge victorious in this encounter, one way or another.
"Then I won't be holding back either."
An uneasy lump formed in the back of her throat as he spoke. It'd only been a mere seven words, and yet it was possibly the most terrifying sentence she could've heard under present circumstances. When he'd been smacking Celestia around up in Canterlot, he'd actually been holding back!? He was truly that strong?!?
No. No, he had to be bluffing. No creature in this world could possibly be that strong, it simply wasn't possible. If such strength existed, they would've known about it long before now.
Confident in such knowledge she lunged forward, swinging her scythe towards him to cut him in half. She'd managed to injure him previously, she'd do it again. And this time she'd do it faster than his response time could save him!
Except not. In the time it took her to cross the distance, he'd managed to already summon his javelin and move it into position to block her strike before it could land.
He then proceeded to flex his arm, and fling her away like she was nothing more than mosquito; like her strength and resistance didn't matter in the least in comparison to his own.
She would be having none of that! Flaring both her magic and her wings, she righted herself and launched a counterattack, teleporting directly behind him to strike.
Except he wasn't there. She looked around from side to side, but saw no sign of him. She'd teleported behind him, and yet he wasn't anywhere to be found. How was that possible? How could he have disappeared when he didn't even know where she was teleporting to? He was-
"Olé."
He was directly behind her!
Somehow, he'd managed to move behind her, before she'd even finished teleporting behind him. He had countered her counterattack.
Oh shit.
"Oh crap," she groaned.
This was going to suck for her on so many levels.
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Well, I won't comment on the continuation of this tired plotline or my humble opinion that you should go back to when Ulquiorra first started fighting Nightmare and revamp it, condensing it down to one or two chapters. Rather, I'm going to congratulate you on your 100th chapter. Congratulations
Better to have a justified multi part ending then a giant chapter that people stop reading half way through anyways.
Nice chapter, let the ass kicking commence
Hopefully it will suck onto to level to finally kill her and end this :/.
???
Didn't Bleach end like 10 years ago?
9894298
You are correct. This is getting awfully boring.
good lord is this still going on?
Nice to see a new chapter.
And by anything else, you can be at least satisfied to know this chapter didn't felt at all drag on.
Well I said I would repost this each time a new chapter came out with the fight still going on. No one can say I'm all talk and no bite.
Congrats on 100 chapters. This one was nice.
Pinkie was funny in this chapter
Great landing of the one hundredth chapter, after all this time, Ulquiorra finally released his zanpakutÅ.
Keep updating, fan fiction is all that is left for me now.
Congratulations on the 100th chapter. Hope you continue with your craft and that enjoyment fill your days.
I stopped reading this story back in December because of how long the fight was taking. I still keep tabs in the hopes that the fight ended and the story can finally leave stasis. I will go back to reading it once that happens.
Alright where's king Arthur when ya need him.
I'm excited now time for death.