Chapter 59 - Considerations

Hisashi was extremely excited. Now that he was sparring with Harribel an actual Vasto Lorde he was getting an idea of his newfound strength. He was completely outclassing her in his speed while still at least matching her in strength. Though he was still adjusting to his sudden raise in power he could already tell when he did master it he would be able to deal with Harribel pretty easily which was good since he knew she was already the second most powerful Hollow if you don't consider Arrancar.

Knowing this he finally felt a little relief, he might not have the power to dominate in Hueco Mundo just yet, but he definitely had enough power to move around without needing to worry he might get destroyed the moment he runs into the wrong person. He had been rushing through things trying to evolve as quickly as possible. The only interaction he even had with others for the past months beyond fighting and killing had been with Harribel's crew.

Harribel, not one to take a beating went on the offensive hoping to perform better when not on the back foot by relying on her experience rather than her physical abilities. She clashed with him and at first she regained an upper hand with his having to use all four of his arms to block her slashes.

As the battle progressed Hisashi was learning and adjusting though. At first he got to the point where he was able to block her with only three of his arms eventually even getting it down to only needing two by improving his stance and adjusting where and how he received her blows. He could have easily used his illusions and trickery to beat her much faster or spamming energy based attacks with his ridiculous levels of spirit power. However, this spar wasn't about defeating her easily or at all. It was about improving his skills.

He couldn't be sure there would never be an enemy that could see through his illusions. If there ever was then he would have to rely purely on his physique and swordsmanship to beat them. Given how most of his battles had been up until now he had mostly relied on his physique and illusion skills to steamroll the enemies he could and avoid those he couldn't.

Until now though he hadn't had any enemies that used swords and that would likely change soon enough. Both Arrancar and Shinigami primarily used swords after all. Harribel was the perfect person to help him shore up this weakness of his. She might not be an Arrancar yet, but with her right arm ending in what was pretty much already a broadsword she definitely was a swordsman with centuries of experience in combat. Who better to spar and learn from?

There might be better swordsmen among the Shinigami in Seireitei that could teach him. However all of Soul Society was under the watch of Wandenreich, Yhwach's empire hidden in the shadow of Seireitei. If he didn't discover him then Aizen likely would have. Both of them were individuals he would rather not be on the radar for. That was even ignoring the 99% chance of any Shinigami killing him the moment he showed up.

Hollow didn't have the best reputation among any of the other factions and for good reason. Although with every evolution a Hollow became more rational most of them are more like a talking beast than sentient being until they become Arrancar. Harribel's group is a major outlier. The only other Hollow he can remember being of a similar disposition based on the show before becoming an Arrancar was Nelliel. Most Hollow were still pretty awful individuals after becoming Arrancar.

Since both of them had near limitless stamina they actually sparred for well over an hour before they called it a day without even breaking a sweat. Although part of him hated becoming a Hollow, he had to be thankful for some aspects of it.

It would have been much worse if he hadn't gotten a system that allowed him to keep his sanity. If not for that he would have probably been either eliminated by the Shinigami or consumed by another Hollow before even managing to become an Adjuchas.

Now however he was extremely powerful and near immortal so despite the many struggles he had to go through to get here he could have done much worse in his second life.

The Tres Bestias were practically stunned to silence during and for a while after their spar. They had never witnessed a battle between two Vasto Lorde after all. The only two they were aware of were Harribel and Barragan, the latter of which they avoided to the best of their ability.

While Hisashi was left wondering what his next steps should be now that he became a Vasto Lorde. Of course he wanted to become an Arrancar, but he was still worried. Unlike the regular evolutions of a Hollow becoming an Arrancar would require tearing off his Hollow mask, something which the vast majority of Hollow didn't survive without the assistance of the Hōgyoku created by Urahara Kisuke. It was probably now already in the possession of Aizen at this point.

His options would be to either risk it and tear of his mask hoping his will was powerful enough to keep his soul together to complete the transformation or hope the system would act and help him through it neither of which were a guarantee. Or he would somehow need to get transformed with the Hōgyoku.

[New Mission: Allow the system to absorb the Hōgyoku]

[Reward: Evolution into a perfect Arrancar giving the host the best offered by being Hollow and Shinigami.]

'Oh shit!' Hisashi thought seeing the new mission. It was both a bit terrifying and tempting. He would gain immense power, but at the same time he wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of stealing the Hōgyoku. At this point it was either in the highest security prison in soul society with Rukia or already in the hands of Aizen. The different flow of time between Earth, Hueco Mundo and Soul Society making it hard to keep track between them all.

-X-X-X-

A shoutout to Starstorm for supporting the novel on patreon.

If you enjoyed the chapter leave a power stone.

If you're looking for more content check out my patreon(4+ chapters ahead):

https://www.pâtreon.com/Prognastat

Replace "â" with "a" and you should arrive at my page.