Balance of Souls: Restitution

Part 1
, Ruins of.

A massive spiked plume of sand exploded outward from the settled mass that had overtaken the area in wake of the destruction of Las Noches. Roshan Bamshad emerged from its confines, wiping away at easy to reach areas with one hand and tugging on his clothes to remove trapped sand with the other. His eyes raised away from his body to focus on finding the Quincy stronghold in the Hollow homeland, but he was left with little more than buried spires and fragments of shattered walls.

"This... Might suck a little bit", he remarked to himself with bemusement, a lopsided smile starting to frame his face with an emphasis towards his left side. He turned his back on the ruined white fortress for but a moment.

"Cielo, Red, you two alright?", he called out, though barely loud enough to be called a shout.

Then, he heard a quiet sound from behind - a footstep. Unfamiliar signature made itself manifest on his radar, oddly feeble and unassuming in such a place.

"I beg your pardon", said a deep, yet mild voice.

Bamshad turned around to face the unexpected guest. Not that far from him, amongst the ruins of once immense Las Noches, stood an extremely tall, lean young man with muscles as if chiseled in granite and spiky, medium-length jet black hair. His attire consisted of white baggy trousers, red sash and yellow hard-cuffed boots, and nothing but a set of golden jewellery with sapphire gems adorned his upper body. For all his ostensible benignity, he was armed with two rather intimidating hook swords strapped at the height of his hips.

The languid gaze of the man's glazed dark brown eyes seemed directed at the Quincy. He smiled meekly.

"I am Mamoru Nakatani, Marshal of the South", the man introduced himself with a formal bow. "It seems I have caused substantial damage to your fortress, sir. Please, accept my sincere apologies", he added with another polite bow. As he did so the two Roshan had called out to emerged from the sands, both of them had marked expressions of annoyance on their faces but neither of them had sustained any injuries.

"Just because you had trouble with the sand doesn't mean that we did, Bamshad-sama.", Cielo said, brushing the excess sand off his uniform while his partner violently shook out the sand in his long hair.

"Tch, this bastard knows how to piss a man off.", Redención growled, he sharply drew his Zanpakutū, resting it on his shoulder as he made his way next to the Quincy Regent, Cielo, while much calmer than his comrade, followed suit.

"Its fine, its fine", said the golden haired Quincy, his hand waving in light dismissal of Mamoru's apology. He had been taken aback by how tame this so-called Marshal appeared to be though it was only faintly hinted upon the mask that was his face.

"We were only occupyin' it, y'see, but you might have pissed off the locals just a smidge, they don't like it when you knock over their sand castles", he continued on, his hands once passing over the direction of his Arrancar cohort to emphasize who he was referring to.

Nakatani's eyes followed his gesture and an expression of mild surprise appeared on his face once he set his sight on the two Arrancar. He turned to them after a moment's hesitation and bowed deeply.

"I apologise, but this had to be done", he said in a sombre manner.

"Y'better be!", Redención shouted in anger towards the man, however his rage fueled shouting was silenced by Cielo's piercing glare.

"I heard you say you was the marshal of the south, which is obviously a rank of some kind, so, just what organisation are you a part of?", Cielo asked, his inquisitive gaze lines with a crazed look in his eye, his partner huffed at him, still in a rage at his interference.

"He's right, who do you work for then ya dickhead!?", Redención brashly shouted.

Mamoru glanced indifferently at the vociferous Arrancar and turned to his colleague.

"I am the Marshal of South, the commander of the Detention Corps of the Balancers of Souls", he explained.

Then, his head lowered slightly as an expression of deep sorrow appeared on his face.

"The balance of Souls has been disrupted. The existence itself is in grave danger, and it is my sacred duty to restore the equilibrium. By any means necessary", he said gloomily.

"We were hoping to solve a similiar issue", Roshan remarked casually. His hand had raised and specks of blue light formed from the area to swarm it, coming together to form a metallic bow with winged arms.

"I don't suppose we could work together, eh?", in an instant his free hand shot back passed the body of the newly formed weapon, a single bolt of light firing from its center in response to the motion, it flew immediately, aimed at the throat of the Marshal of the South.

But he was not there, and the arrow simply flew forward.

"I'm afraid not", Roshan heard a sombre whisper unexpectedly.

Nakatani had somehow materialised right beside him, and whilst uttering his grim words his left hand shot upward in a powerful uppercut punch. His clenched fist struck the Quincy's abdomen and sank into it with a thunderous thud, emitting a small shockwave on impact.

"Shit!", the two Arrancar cursed in unison as they readied themselves, swiftly going into a solid stance in the presence of the Balancer.

A cloud of sand blasted into the air with the collision followed by rising trails of dust as the Quincy Regent slid across the burned yellow surface of Hueco Mundo. His stance remained firm, even though he appeared to be lazily lugging himself around.

"That's too bad, a guy like you would be great for morale", a coarsing of blue faint light emanated from beneath his clothes, only barely distinguishable amongst the white of the uniform. His hand drew back once more and a volley of arrows numbering in the hundreds flew forth.

Nakatani looked at the impending attack with unnatural torpidity. Then, he literally vanished without a trace once the volley of destructive light reached him. He was unexpectedly right behind the two Arrancar watching the scuffle, slipping unnoticed despite the fact they were on guard. Without wasting a single moment he grabbed their heads and smashed them into one another with a rapid motion.

Before he could do any more than that, the Balancer Marshal was tossed off his feet, flung backwards by a new arrows drilling into his chest, its form covered by a second larger covering. As soon as it had pushed the man a fair distance away from his Arrancar victims the arrow ignited and then exploded.

Roshan grinned in the distance, his visage clear through a small gap between his comrades that he'd exploited. The two Arrancar, however, lacked Roshan's high spirits.

"That hurt you twat!", Cielo exclaimed, his anger getting the better of him as Redención chuckled at his partner's frustration, turning to the cloud of dust Bamshad's arrow left behind.

"Y'gonna have to do a lot better than that to properly hurt us ya bozo, all you're doin' is pissin' us off!", Redención shouted, using his right hand, he swiped up a handful of white sand, he discarded his sword as he placed his other hand on top of his sand filled one, charging the granules with a red energy, shortly after, Redención positioned himself, his arm pointing at Mamoru's vague direction.

"Bala Fragmentos.", Redención hissed.

In a split second, countless, tiny red bullets shot forth from the Arrancar's right hand, speeding towards the settling dust cloud that was Mamoru. The barrage quickly perforated and dispersed the shroud of dust, only to reveal that there was nothing behind it.

"It seems I have underestimated your durability", remarked a gloomy voice.

Nakatani was standing a moderate distance from both the Arrancars and the Quincy. Apart from the fact that his spiritual pressure had grown from negligible to average in the course of the confrontation, he appeared unaffacted by what had transpired so far.

"I promise this shall not happen again", he added apologetically with a slight bow.

He spread his bent legs whilst still leaning forward and flexed his arms. His face became stiff in an expression of profound concentration, as if he was pondering about something of great importance.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind emanated from his body with the release of a wave of Reiatsu. Shortly afterward there was another one. This time much stronger, it was nearly enough to throw the Wandenreich's members off balance. White sand poured upon them.

Then, they were momentarily defeaned as an incredibly potent shockwave burst from Mamoru's body and rampaged across the desert of Hueco Mundo with devastating might, punching a crater in its surface and striking Bamshad and the two Arrancars with a blinding sandstorm.

Before the shroud of dust even began to settle, a sharp, golden shape had emerged from the cloud of sand to Roshan's left side, descending rapidly upon him. The blade cut across air and dust instead of its intended target.

Not one to remain in a position to his disadvantage, the Quincy regent had begun moving as soon as he was engulfed in the dust cloud. Shooting up through it, a plume of it following behind him. From the air a second bow formed in his free hand, each firing a flurry of arrows that detonated in mid-air to become even more. Like shrapnel from an ignited grenade, they scattered all across the field, exploding on contact with whatever they found below.

"I think I got ya beat Red", Roshan chimmed over the sound of his attack. The aggressive Arrancar merely snorted in response while Cielo approached his two accomplices.

"You think he was affected by that?", Cielo asked the two of them, his eyes fixed at the massive cloud of scorched sand ahead of them.

The shroud was dispersing slowly. It did not had the chance to settle on its own, though, for it was suddenly blown away with a surge of Reiatsu, revealing Mamoru's silhouette. The Balancer was standing firmly; his right hand, holding one of his golden hook swords, was lowered to the side, and the left one was lifted and outstretched, aimed at the Quincy regent and his subordinates. The tips of its fingers were glowing red.

Then, black and orange beams of energy in the shape of ethereal snakes burst forth toward Bamshad, one from each finger.

The Quincy's belt jangled slightly when gripped, two of the thin metal objects on its back coming loose and descending to the soft sands below.

"Test somethin' for me would ya, guys?", the regent asked of his comrades before making use of. His body weaved through the snakes of black and orange, moving with the nimble motions of a dancer whilst seemingly skating through the air towards his shirtless destination. Occassionally his body would blur, appearing still for a second before appearing somewhere else entirely.

Though his motions avoided an initial encounter, the snake-shaped flames were still on his tail once he'd closed the gap with Mamoru Nakatani.

There was a glint of shining metal in front of the Balancer's eyes, its shape becoming clear as a small silver tube in the moon light.

"O Lord, smite those before you with great force and holy fire! Rückstoss!", Roshan encanted his spell as the last vestige of distance between himself and his target evaporated. The man had motioned himself into an arrow of sorts, no longer skating across the empty sky upon invisible particles of, he had instead taking to a literal descent, feet first towards his opponent.

His boots had become illuminated in a film of blue light, which transformed into flames as he made contact, and smashed, the small tube between himself and Mamoru. He made contact again, this time with Nakatani's face, the blue flames removing themselves from Roshan's boots and engulfing Mamoru's body.

For a while it seemed the Balancer had been consumed by the blue fire. However, he promtply emerged from the attack seemingly unscathed. His now enormous Reiatsu had become so dense it was enveloping his body with a clearly visible, gleaming lime aura. Nakatani lifted his head lazily and absent-mindedly glanced at the Quincy.

He smirked.

Bamshad suddenly realised that Mamoru had somehow grabbed his leg with his free hand, even though he did not notice the movement required to do so. Caught in a crushing grip, he had been unable to escape before the Balancer threw him aside with terrible force. Launching him into the surface of the white desert with such impetus quaked the entire area and caused a column of sand to erupt upward.

In the meantime, Mamoru drew his second hook sword and abruptly charged forward, straight in the direction of the two Arrancars. Cielo and Redención, while startled at the Balancer's speed, both immediately got into action, Redención, picking up his Zanpakutō swiftly, used Sonido in order to intercept the powerful opponent while Cielo kept his distance, charging a spherical orb of red energy.

"Cero Fuerte!", Cielo exclaimed, an extremely thin, Cero like beam came forth from Cielo's hand, speeding it's way towards the Balancer just as Redención appeared in front of him, his blade raised high, crying for blood.

Seeing that, Mamoru immediately turned to the closer Hollow and swung both of his swords in a simultaneous, broad shearing motion. The left one struck Redención at his right armpit, and the other at the left side of his waist, and thanks to the large hooks on their tips locked him in an uncomfortable position. Then, the Balancer quickly held the incapacitated Arrancar in the path of the incoming Cero.

Despite the seriousness of his predicament Redención merely smirked at Mamoru as he braced himself, the Cero hit the Arrancar on the right side of his torso, piercing through him and hitting the Balancer he was shielding.

Expression of mild surprise flickered on Nakatani's otherwise nigh-melancholic face as the concetrated beam hit him, leaving a circular, scorched mark on his exposed torso. However, the superficial wound was all that the attack had managed to achieve.

The Balancer rapidly lifted his left leg and struck Redención with a lightning fast kick, aimed right into the hole left by Cero Fuerte. As the Arrancar was simultaneously pulled closer to him, Mamoru instantly followed with an abrupt headbutt. Then, he moved his twin blades to the sides, freeing the opponent, and finished with a powerful side kick that sent the Hollow flying.

Nakatani crouched and rebounded, launching himself toward Cielo like a bullet. The Arrancar swiftly shot a Bala at the sand below his feet, causing the dune he was standing on to explode, Cielo immoderately then used Sonido to regroup with Redención, who was in the middle of brushing some sand off his coat and rubbing his head.

"Bastard's tough, y'think we need ta use em'?", Redención mumbled.

"Not yet, he's not doing enough damage to warrant it.", Cielo quietly replied, his eyes focused and ready to spot any signs of movement.

There was a potent gust of wind, and sand crashed down upon them like a tidal wave when Nakatani swung one of his blades in their direction. Then, he made a vague gesture with his other hand and his aura of lime Reiatsu gleamed brighter.

A large spike formed, hovering in the air beside him, made from the omnipresent sand and reinforced with his own energy. With a light tap, he sent it shooting forward with lethal speed, right through the wall of sand and into Redención behind it. The obelisk like structure hit Redención square in the chest, sending him flying backwards, being propelled by the monstrous momentum of the Balancer's spell.

Wincing, Redención placed his spare hand on the spinning spike, he gathered a large amount of red energy in his hands, firing a point blank Cero at the hazard, destroying it. The Arrancar traveled a fair distance before coming to a halt, he straightened up, panting slightly as he inspected his wound, which consisted of a small hole with blood dripping down, as if the spike bored into the Arrancar.

"Tch.", Cielo spat out, he used Sonido, charging towards the still motionless Balancer, pointing the tip of his Zanpakutō at the Balancer, Cielo began to deliver a flurry of jabs and quick swipes at him.

Mamoru quickly responded to the ferocious attack, erecting an impenetrable wall of defence with his whirring twin blades. After several seconds of an intense exachange of sword strikes, he deflected the Arrancar's sword to the side and instantly followed with a swift.

The Arrancar quickly moved backwards with Sonido, reappearing a few metres away, despite him seemingly dodging Momoru's attack, a quick inspection showed a rather neat, relatively shallow horizontal cut on Cielo's chest, along with a similar kind of cut on his right forearm.

"You fucking bastard, Cero Fuerte!", Cielo growled, immediately firing a thin beam of red energy at the Balancar's direction, just as Cielo did so, he found himself next to a storm of tiny red bullets, all of them rushing past him, heading towards Mamoru. Cielo turned to see his ally walking towards him, one hand covering the new hole he had gained while the other carried his sword, which he was dragging slightly on the ground.

"Get ready Cielo, I may be a dumbass for falling for his tricks but I know he's not gonna be hurt much by that.", Redención shouted, Cielo quietly nodded in response, turning back to the point the Balancer stood.

"Can't let 'em weasel around forever, I guess", mused Roshan to himself, half his body caked with sand and a large portion of his face marred by grazed flesh from the previous impact.

His eyes followed the battle from afar before turning back to the Seele Schneiders embedded in the desert around him. With a single drop from a Gintō, the area around him erupted into an intense blue flame that rose into the Heavens, casting a great shadow of blue over the current combatants.

Emerging from the pillars confines was an arrow, one much larger than anything Roshan had thus far shot. Its body was metallic rather than pure Reishi; it was Seele Wyrger.

Nakatani indeed was not significantly damaged by the attacks of the Arrancars. Even though some light burn marks had appeared on his exposed chest, he did not seem to notice them at all. What he did notice, however, was the peculiar projectile fired by Bamshad. Enveloped with his own gleaming Reiatsu, Mamoru flexed the muscles of his right arm, swelling them and forcing the blood vessels to bulge out visibly. Then, he quickly aimed the hook sword it held at the arrow and made.

"Hah!", he uttered a short grunt.

While one-handed, the strike unleashed a devastating wave of spiritual force that split the desert in front of the man and shook the area perceptibly.

The sword-like arrow shot through the oncoming shockwave, first it pierced through the spiritual energy at the forefront, but its body shook in response to the kinetic energy caught up in its wake. That quickly stopped though, Seele Wyrger continued its flight towards Mamoru as if it had never been resisted.

From a distance Roshan moved, a simple hop to the side, a motion unbecoming of a man of his station, though it was all he needed to escape the oncoming spiritual wave.

Meanwhile, his projectile flew virtually undeterred and pierced cleanly through the Balancer's body before he could react... but he was suddenly elsewhere, unharmed and charging at Redención. His left hook sword was held in a defensive position, whereas the right one stuck out, pointed to the side in preparation for attack.

"The pitfalls of linearity, eh?", the blonde Quincy muttered as his blade changed course, immediately following to intercept the newly moving target.

Nakatani continued his advance, quickening the pace with the use of Shunpo. Then, as he was about to approach Redención, the Balancer vanished for an instant only to reappear several metres behind the Arrancar, now speeding toward the elderly Quincy.

"Tch, not so fast!", Redención stated, swinging around on his heel as he pulled back his fist, launching a Bala at the Balancer's back. Cielo on the other hand, used Sonido in an attempt to intercept the Balancer before he reached Roshan.

Again the gargantuan arrow changed its path, now poised to strike the back of the Balancer, it flew by Redención with an audible hum that made the spiritual particles in his shoulder rumble with unease.

Up in front Roshan had begun firing his bow once more, lazily raising it into position, a hail of light flung outward in Mamoru's direction, but seemingly every shot missed bar the occassional arrow, the rest impacted around him, exploding violently.

The Balancer was caught up in a series of small explosions. Shortly afterward he emerged from the flames, sliding on the white sand with trails of smoke following him. He rapidly leant forward, letting the Bala shot by Redención pass an inch above his bent back and fly toward Bamshad. Then, he turned around with an abrupt motion and faced Cielo, swinging both of his swords at the Arrancar in the meantime.

The first strike deflected Cielo's own blade. The other hit him hard on the left side with a loud thud, launching him at the rapidly approaching Seele Wyrger.

The blonde Quincy had moved in unison with his prey, not content to simply let him walk away, he had entirely bypassed the oncoming Bala before it could become a threat, himself appearing behind the Balancer as he engaged Cielo. Seele Wyrger's thinner counterpart, Seele Schneider, buzzing in hand. Roshan drew it downward in an attempt to sever the limbs of the taller spiritual being.

Seele Wyrger's blade cut out as it flew, becoming little more than a silvery-steel shell that clocked the back of Cielo's skull with a ringing thud.

Meanwhile, Nakatani detected Bamshad's manoeuvre and rotated rapidly to respond. For a while it appeared he had proven too slow to block the gleaming blade of the Quincy weapon. However, after a moment Roshan realised the Seele Schneider had actually somehow passed beside the Balancer, who was now swinging his blade at him from the right side.

Roshan didn't even attempt to look surprised, his attack had simply readjusted from a swing into a thrust at the close target before him. The Balancer's blade, moving unhindered hit nothing. Instead of the expected outcome, it had been halted a short distance from cleaving through the blonde Quincy's body by an almost invisible force, a small blue barrier giving it away at present.

With no other options left, Mamoru could do nothing but take the hit as the Seele Schneider stabbed him in the abdomen, his own sword hanging useless just an inch above its target. The Balancer appeared surprised, at least as far as his nearly stiff face expression allowed to be expressed. He lifted his head and looked at Roshan with a faint, ominous flicker in his otherwise calm, glassy stare.

Even though technically it should have cut through the body like a hot knife through butter, the gleaming blade of the Quincy weapon was somehow stuck in Nakatani's side. Lime aura of the Balancer's Reiatsu enveloped both combatants with a quiet hum.

"I apologise", said Mamoru. "It seems that I still haven't adjusted myself to your level."

The aura of visible spiritual pressure shone brightly, illuminating the two like a solar flare. Within a couple of moments Nakatani's body swelled, covered with an intricate network of bulged out veins. The vibrating noise produced by the outburst of energy was defeaning at such a short distance, and the pressure exerted by his raw power was overwhelming. The Seele Schneider's blade flickered and dissipated, and its wielder himself was pushed back, as was Cielo.

The display of power was short-lived, however, and Mamoru quickly emerged from the contained chaos of immense energy. Now he appeared a bit larger, his skin tone darker and his hair slightly raised upward, as if due to an electric shock. The aura of lime Reiatsu remained clearly visible, engulfing his body like a wild flame.

"Fuck this.", Redención muttered, letting his Zanpakutō drag behind him as he rushed towards the Balancer, passing his comrades in an instant, as he approached the enemy he charged a small Cero beam, firing it haphazardly at the Balancer, just as he did he swung horizontally at him, a wild glint in his eye as he did so.

Mamoru turned around to repel the abrupt charge, and dispersed the Cero beam with a rapid swing of his right sword. Then, as Redención's strike was approaching him, he parried it effortlessly with the other blade. Despite his sword quaking due to the impetus of the two combatants' strength, Redención spared no time in countering against the Balancer's parry, he slid his sword out of the bearing grip of Mamoru's Hook Sword, swiftly clashing once again with the Jiūkǔndao in a more straightforward position, as he did so he poised his free arm, charging a more potent Cero, directed at the Balancer's face, Redención grimaced as his Zanpakutō shook violently, gritting his teeth he released his Cero.

Nakatani reacted fast, placing one of his blades in the beam's path to split it in halves. Whereas unable to completely redirect the energy away from himself, he managed to render a potentially dangerous technique nearly harmless. Then, he sallied forward and caught the Arrancar's sword in his blade's hook, pulling it aside. In the meantime the second sword slashed toward Redención's exposed torso, its crooked tip aimed at the wound left by Cielo's Cero Fuerte.

"Shit.", Redención breathed, he discarded his sword and fired a Bala at their feet, encasing them in a plume of white sand, Redención flew out of the sand, clutching his arm, while the hook sword missed it's intended mark, it managed to slash Redención's left arm, rendering it useless.

"Now that is just plain unfair", said the Quincy looking over his inactive Seel Schneider before he returned it to the confines of his belt. He passed a glance over a pouch on his side, taking a mental note of how many precious Gintō he'd used thus far.

"Time to try, try again, eh?", he sighed to himself, before summoning his bow and moving across the desert sands with Hirenkyaku. He started up a rhythm, he'd stop, fire a series of shots and then move again, providing the Arrancar with supporting fire.

Mamoru, unaffected by the Bala, began a series of evasive manoeuvres. For a while he did nothing but dodge and leap to another position with the use of Shunpo, observing Bamshad's movements. Then, suddenly, rather than avoid yet another volley of arrows, he simply stood firm and dispersed them with one swoop of his left hook sword. Without a warning, a shockwave emanated from his body and quickly caught up all of his opponents within its range, but did no damage to them.

At least not physical damage.

The monochromatic world of Hueco Mundo became blurred, and the noise of heated battle was almost completely drowned out. Nakatani rebounded from the white sand with nary a sound, and his Wandenreich enemies watched the outburst of white dust lifting off into the air, grain by grain, with the occasional glint of dim, reflected light of the inverted moon. They observed his muscles flex as he was leaning forward, inch by inch, flying lazily in the direction of Redención. He was floating gently in the air, like a small, fluffy cloud sailing majestically on the midnight sky.

Redención was gazing at him attentively, at the ominous glow in the otherwise glassy eyes, the lime flame of spiritual pressure, the twin blades slicing the air as he was approaching him, slowly yet inevitably. There was some sense of danger, the urge to react to a threat, but it was distant and unimportant. Everything was so sluggish, so tranquil, and the Arrancar's sword remained low, stuck in his unmoving, numb hand. He was watching the reflexions in sapphires adorning the Balancer's jewellery, and the curves of the bent tips of his blades.

Suddenly, he realised that Mamoru was about to cut him to ribbons with two simultaneous slashes.

In a frenzied effort to dodge Mamoru's oncoming attack, Redención leaped backwards, however, despite his legs pushing with all their might, it felt as if he was in a body of water and sluggishly moving backwards as Nakatani's swords came down onto his chest.

Despite his best efforts, Redención fell backwards onto the sand, sliding back a few feet as he did so. Coming to a halt, Cielo saw two, neat, relatively deep cuts painted on Redención's chest. His face contorting angrily, he fired a powerful Cero blast at Mamoru as he charged towards the Balancer manically.

Detecting an abrupt surge in the other Arrancar's Reiatsu, Nakatani quickly turned to confront him. As the beam of energy was closing in, he crossed his arms, with the swords pointed to the sides. Right before the impact, he swung both blades at the same time with a short exclamation of effort, and dissipated the Cero. Then, he plunged at the charging Cielo, his hook swords preparing to strike en route.

A sluggish step on the ground followed by another instance of Hirenkyaku, and another, and another. The Quincy archer had taken a diamond trail around the fight, seemingly to line up his perfect shot. He loosed an arrow, that shot straight past the glowing hulk of a Balancer that was his opponent.

The arrow exploded in the air creating a massive shockwave that appeared to summon a gargantuan Quincy bow in its place. It loosed an arrow of equally gigantic proportion, though with a design more reminiscent of a flag-bearer's spear.

Seeing the enormous projectile approaching him rapidly, Mamoru reacted immediately. He swung one of his blades and dug it into the sand below whilst still on the move. Whereas on its own that action was insufficient to lose the considerable momentum, Nakatani used the sudden resistance to swing his lower body downward. Then, as the arrow was nearly at him, his legs crashed on the surface of the desert and he rebounded backward in a cascade of white dust.

The arrow impacted against the sands, far from hitting its supposed target, creating a large crater of flowing dust particles at its landing point. In an instant Roshan had shifted over and plucked the spear from the ground, twirling it around freely in his hand. The free hand worked its way into the pockets of his uniform as the spinning stopped, the spear's point raised behind the blonde sharpshooter, a flag bearing the cross of the Quincy flowing proudly to the tune of invisible wind flows.

"I'm sorry," the Quincy gave a slanted nod apologetically to the transformed Balancer. "I've been a little lax, I'll take this serious from now on", his words were followed by the faintest hint of a shockwave, the smallest granules of sand fluttering into the air as it passed by.

Mamoru, crouching on the ground, had been observing the aftermath of the explosion until Bamshad addressed him. Then, he turned to the man casually, his face expression completely neutral, and straightened up. Streaks of gleaming energy were still writhing around his body, humming quietly and enveloping him with a shroud of lime Reiatsu. His muscles were somewhat swollen, as if they were all incessantly flexed, and webs of veins were covering them with pulsating networks.

With an absent-minded smile slowly blooming on his face, the Balancer strapped both of his swords at his waist.

"I am afraid it is too late, Roshan Bamshad-dono", he stated with a calm near-whisper.

All of a sudden he performed an incredibly fast sequence of gestures with both of his hands, which he subsequently slammed to the ground. The earth quaked perceptibly and a vibrating roar swept across the area as a pillar of dark flames erupted from the white sand a couple dozen metres from the two. Then, another pillar of fire emerged from a different place, and the next one after it. Shortly there were five immense columns of jet black flames encircling all of the combatants in a pentagon-shaped formation, drowning the area with dim light and undulating heat.

"Hametsu no Honō", declared Nakatani, gazing at Roshan with an ominous smile.

Despite the ominous nature of Nakatani's spell Cielo was unfazed by it, he recovered from the quakes that shook though the ground immediately, positioning himself near Roshan.

"Any plans Bamshad-dono?", Cielo asked Roshan, his face fixated on Mamoru and his newly formed spell.