"Number Zero, huh? No wonder Tsunayoshi wanted to handle him personally. That Reiatsu really is rather terrifying." Using Benihime to bind a Fracción who had rushed over to provide support, Kisuke Urahara found time to glance at Yammy, who had turned enormous.
"The Espada rankings go from zero to—"
"I know. From zero to nine, right?" Before Yammy could finish speaking, Tsunayoshi had already lost patience with his boasting. "In other words, you're the strongest one? Why is it that, to me, you feel far less oppressive than Starrk?"
Yammy's eyes widened. "You're that Shinigami who fought Starrk?"
The abilities Tsunayoshi had displayed in front of Yammy had all been Quincy abilities, so for a moment, Yammy had not connected him to the Shinigami who had defeated Starrk.
If he had known that earlier, Yammy should have used his Resurrección from the very beginning instead of making those meaningless probes.
"And what if I am?" Tsunayoshi asked with a smile.
"Then I'll establish the fame of Number Zero!"
Yammy smashed a heavy fist down toward Tsunayoshi. In his eyes, defeating Tsunayoshi, who had beaten Starrk, was undoubtedly the easiest way to prove that he was stronger than Starrk.
If he were truly asked to fight Starrk, Yammy would not be willing. Although he possessed tremendous strength after his Resurrección, his agility was far inferior to Starrk's. If the battle dragged on, his only fate would be to be harassed to death by Starrk's endless Cero.
Tsunayoshi was different. With one glance, Yammy could tell that Tsunayoshi was even more stubborn than he was. From the beginning until now, Tsunayoshi had not dodged a single one of his attacks. That meant this guy was even more thick-headed than him.
He could not beat Starrk.
But he could beat Tsunayoshi!
Just as he imagined, when faced with such a powerful punch, this blockhead Tsunayoshi showed no intention of dodging whatsoever. His fist was about to land. It was already too late to use Shunpo. For the first time, Yammy's furious face revealed a hint of joy.
However, what Yammy could not see was that Tsunayoshi, who was blocked from view by Yammy's own massive fist, had a six-pointed star pattern flash across his eyes. One corner of it, the one representing Mountain, lit up completely.
"Power erupting from a body like a hill, is it? Unfortunately for you, I have that too."
Mountain Flames.
Vollständig.
Activate.
Countless tiny fragments of stone appeared around Tsunayoshi's body, wrapped in earth-yellow flames. A metallic mask covered the lower half of Tsunayoshi's face, and the pieces of stone rapidly gathered toward the mask.
A massive earth-yellow stag-beetle horn, larger than Tsunayoshi himself, appeared. With the mask on Tsunayoshi's face as its foundation, the Mountain Flames condensed into a giant horn filled with tremendous explosive force.
This was the tenacious Jaw of the Mountain.
Yammy's fist collided with Tsunayoshi's jaw, and the exact same scene repeated itself. Even though Yammy's body had become as enormous as a hill, his fist still could not move Tsunayoshi in the slightest.
"How is this possible?" Yammy's eyes were filled with shock. This tiny ant had merely grown a slightly larger horn, yet he could not shake him at all?
Yammy began pouring all the strength in his body into his fist. Even so, Tsunayoshi still did not budge.
This was the power of Mountain Flames. Yammy, whose body was as huge as a hill, could not possibly notice that Tsunayoshi's feet had already been covered by combat boots formed from condensed fragments of stone.
His feet seemed to have taken root in the earth. As long as Tsunayoshi stood upon the ground, an unending stream of power would flow into his body through his feet, forever providing him with the Reiatsu required for eruption.
Yammy began switching arms and repeatedly punched at Tsunayoshi, but his body was too large, while Tsunayoshi was far too small a target for him. As a result, no matter how Yammy attacked, the first thing he had to get past was Tsunayoshi's Jaw of the Mountain.
He could not get past it.
No matter how Yammy exerted his strength, he simply could not break through that small stag-beetle horn. Gradually, he started to lose his temper. Driven by rage, his strength rose, and his Reiatsu condensed.
Rapid-Fire Bala Punches!
Yammy charged wildly in Tsunayoshi's direction, while Tsunayoshi, seeming to sense it, continuously raised the explosive power of his Mountain Flames.
Damn it. Why was this little ant so strong?
Yammy felt as though he were wrestling against an entire mountain. But he quickly dismissed it as an illusion. What kind of joke was that? Hueco Mundo was covered in sand everywhere. He had never even seen a proper mountain here, so where would a mountain come from?
Perhaps because he could not break through Tsunayoshi's Jaw of the Mountain no matter what, Yammy's mind began to wander. He seemed to sense something. Then his eyes widened, and he looked before him in disbelief.
A shadow covered Yammy's enormous body.
At some point, a huge mountain peak had appeared in front of him. That mountain was even larger than his own body.
And Tsunayoshi was leaning against that mountain as he fought him. Perhaps, if it had only been Tsunayoshi as an individual at the beginning, Yammy might still have had a chance to knock him down with strength. But when facing a mountain peak even taller than himself, a sense of powerlessness rose from the depths of his heart.
This… was cheating, wasn't it…?
Yammy very much wanted to say that, but as the Cero Espada, how could his pride allow him to admit that his opponent was stronger?
Rage.
He needed more rage.
Rage could transform the food stored in his body into Reiatsu, making his Resurrección state even larger, and he would become even stronger.
His anger was still rising. As long as his stored energy was sufficient, Yammy's power would increase without limit as his rage accumulated.
The problem was that the energy inside Yammy's body was limited.
On top of his current form, he still had another power form known as rage.
But that rage form required Yammy to eat and sleep for a long period before battle, accumulating sufficient energy within his body before it could be realized.
The current Yammy had not prepared for a major battle in advance at all. Nor could he possibly have accumulated enough energy inside his body. Therefore, he was only growing angrier and angrier, while the increase in his strength had turned into a curve gradually approaching a flat line.
Like a car whose fuel light had turned on, Yammy's internal reserves were almost empty. Before long, he would enter a state of impotent rage.
As Yammy's opponent, Tsunayoshi was the one who could most clearly sense the changes in his strength. Since the rage form he had imagined did not appear, Tsunayoshi could roughly guess the principle behind Yammy's transformation.
But a Number Zero Arrancar like this was still not qualified to clash with the Miracle.
Tsunayoshi sighed silently in his heart.
Bearing the name of the Miracle, that Quincy's combat strength truly had no upper limit. It was far beyond Yammy's false infinity.
Tsunayoshi had already begun silently calculating how to have Kisuke Urahara carry out some modifications on Yammy later. Since Yammy could increase his combat strength by storing energy, was there a way to make Yammy's body continuously receive an energy supply?
Yammy had no idea that, just as he was about to fall into impotent rage, his opponent had already regarded him as spoils of war and begun planning his modification.
In his state of fury, Yammy no longer had much brainpower left to think about anything else. He had only one thought now: completely crush this opponent who had humiliated him.
Yammy's fourteen thick legs exerted force at the same time, actually carrying his enormous body high into the air.
His idea was very simple.
If he could not beat Tsunayoshi to death, then he would crush him to death.
An unprecedented Cero-like radiance wrapped around him. Yammy enclosed himself within a massive Bala. As he fell, it was as if a gigantic meteor were descending before the gates of Las Noches.
Faced with Yammy's thought process, Tsunayoshi could not help wiping sweat from his forehead. If an attack of this level fell, even if Yammy defeated him, it would probably cost Las Noches a good portion of itself, right?
Yammy's brain really did not seem very sharp. Using an attack of this scale, was he truly not afraid of being hung up and beaten by Aizen afterward?
There was no choice. A mess he had provoked himself had to be handled by himself.
The Espada and Las Noches still had value. They could not be wasted by Yammy like this.
The mountain behind Tsunayoshi rapidly crumbled. All the Mountain Flames condensed toward Tsunayoshi's jaw. The giant stag-beetle horn formed by the Jaw of the Mountain expanded wildly, and before long, it reached the same size as the red meteor-like Bala in the sky.
"What an exaggerated battle. Mr. Ashido, let's avoid this for now."
Even Urahara had no choice but to lift his hat and observe the battlefield above. Several half-dead Arrancar lay beside him. He had no interest in saving those Arrancar. He merely hurriedly warned Ashido, then rushed toward the relatively central palace.
Ashido could only hurriedly glance at the two absurdly enormous techniques in the sky before quickly following Kisuke Urahara.
In Urahara's view, the central palace was undoubtedly the most important part. He believed that the current king of Hueco Mundo, Sōsuke Aizen, would not allow those two exaggerated forces to destroy Las Noches. At the very least, not now.
Kisuke Urahara could use the situation to dodge. The other Arrancar lying on the ground could only pray that the power above did not fall near them.
From a distance, the two enormous stag-beetle horns formed by Tsunayoshi looked like a massive pair of scissors, clamping toward the giant red sphere in midair.
This was the Omega Scissors formed from all of Tsunayoshi's Mountain Flames.
Hiss!
It seemed far easier than expected.
The gigantic scissors sliced through the outer layer of Reiatsu around the Bala as easily as a hot knife through butter, continuing to close toward the space inside.
It made sense. To wrap a hill-sized Yammy inside a Bala would require terrifying amounts of Reiatsu. How could the already exhausted Yammy possibly manage that?
All he had done was cover the surface of his body with a thin layer of Reiatsu. It looked as terrifying as a meteor, but in reality, it was merely a bluff. A pure paper tiger.
Yammy was using a paper-tiger attack, while Tsunayoshi's side was a genuine massive pair of scissors formed entirely from Mountain Flames. Their power and biting force split Yammy's body apart in a single motion.
Fortunately, Tsunayoshi had estimated Yammy's strength. After breaking through the outer layer of Reiatsu, he subconsciously adjusted the angle of the Omega Scissors.
Tsunayoshi did not truly intend to kill Yammy. Thus, the scissors' point of attack shifted from Yammy's abdomen to Yammy's rear spine.
After this powerful cut, Yammy's Resurrección-transformed body and his tail were severed in two. With his tail cut off, Yammy's body rapidly shrank.
With just this one blow, Yammy quickly reverted from his Resurrección state back to his Arrancar state. Having lost his strength, he rapidly plummeted from high in the sky.
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