With the plan established for Roca and Ashido to take away the sealed Szayelaporro, Kōe's mission became clear.
Lure Baraggan away, or at least make him forget about Szayelaporro's existence for a short time. This would make it easier for Roca and the others to take Szayelaporro away, while also buying them a certain amount of time to escape.
For a Vasto Lorde-class Menos who styled himself as the Emperor of Hueco Mundo, nothing would provoke his anger more easily than directly trampling on his dignity.
And once enraged, how important would a sealed subordinate be in Baraggan's eyes?
Not at all. Perhaps there were many things important to Baraggan—dignity, pride, and so on—but these all stemmed from his own will. The life or death of his own kind was not worth mentioning in his eyes.
Of course, words like 'kind' or 'comrade' would never appear in Baraggan's dictionary. There could only ever be one king. Even if there were others of his kind, Baraggan's attitude toward them would absolutely be one of destruction.
Thus, by throwing Baraggan's words back at him to humiliate him while striking first, Kōe figured that such a disdainful, condescending attitude would easily ignite the fuse in Baraggan's heart.
In fact, to Baraggan, this deliberate posturing was not simply trampling on his dignity; it was mocking the fact that his dignity had *already* been trampled. After all, in their previous long-distance clash, it was Baraggan who had suffered a setback!
Humiliation had to be washed away with blood. The ant before him had to be crushed by his own hands!
A beautiful misunderstanding allowed Kōe's plan to begin smoothly.
Baiting Baraggan was the first step. Whether the following events would proceed as expected depended entirely on Kōe's 'acting skills'.
First, he had to create a scenario of being hunted down. Of course, that was from Kōe's perspective; to Baraggan, it was a hunt, and a solitary one at that.
The key was that the pursuer could only be Baraggan alone. The pursuit stemmed from anger, but ensuring it was 'solitary' required something else.
Showing weakness to the enemy—or more accurately, posing no threat to Baraggan—was Kōe's thought at the time.
After all, despite his seemingly arrogant demeanor, Baraggan was no reckless brute who only knew how to fight. The Baraggan who, in Kōe's past life's memory, could harbor hatred while bowing under Aizen and biding his time, was absolutely not an egotistical fool who only cared about dignity.
Approaching Baraggan to use Ikkotsu, retreating after being injured, and then refusing to clash head-on when Baraggan launched an attack. Instead, he opened up the distance while casting [Hadō #88・Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō].
Such an approach would not be considered wrong in the eyes of any Gotei 13 member. However, knowing full well what Baraggan's abilities were, Kōe had practically avoided every method that could actually harm him.
And with both methods failing to do anything to Baraggan, it was no surprise that Kōe subsequently chose to flee.
Of course, if Baraggan had shown no signs of pursuing him at that time, Kōe would have continued to attack with Kidō until Baraggan could no longer tolerate it, annoying him to the point where he had no choice but to chase him down and kill him.
The plan largely developed according to Kōe's expectations, but there were still troubles and unexpected variables—quite a few of them, in fact.
The first unexpected variable occurred when Kōe was forced back for the first time and Baraggan appeared behind him, because Kōe had very nearly failed to dodge that attack.
Shinigami had their own footwork, Shunpo. Quincy had their own footwork, Hirenkyaku. Similarly, Hollows also had a footwork unique to them—Sonído.
Kōe knew of the existence of this footwork, but this was his first time seeing it with his own eyes.
Actually, to be precise, Sonído couldn't be considered a footwork. Whether it was Shunpo or Hirenkyaku, their principles were based on high-speed movement that left a traceable path.
Sonído, however, was short-distance spatial movement. It allowed one to travel back and forth between two points without leaving any trajectory.
Because of this, under normal circumstances, Sonído was faster than Shunpo. And because there was no trajectory, Sonído could evade sensory detection like sight and hearing. It could only be perceived for a very brief instant right before the user appeared, leaving the enemy with very little time to react.
Due to the special nature of Sonído, coupled with his poor mental state, Kōe's Reiatsu perception had been steadily declining. Dodging Baraggan's claw strike had been incredibly perilous and extremely forced.
Therefore, Kōe had no choice but to use [Bakudō #58・Kakushitsuijaku]. By using this spell to lock onto the opponent's Reiatsu and track their location, he temporarily enhanced his own Reiatsu perception.
It should be known that originally, he only needed to use [Bakudō #77・Tenteikūra] to deploy tasks to Roca and Ashido in the rear. This invisibly added to his burden.
Yes, for the current Kōe, releasing too many Kidō was a burden. Especially when abandoning the incantation, casting Kidō pushed his mental state closer and closer to its limit.
At the same time, Baraggan's combat intelligence exceeded expectations. During the pursuit, he not only nullified the effects of [Bakudō #58・Kakushitsuijaku] but also suddenly used Sonído to close the distance.
Not only did he genuinely injure Kōe with an axe and a claw, but he also faintly discovered the existence of Static Recording.
Although Baraggan was full of talk about 'kings' and 'nobility,' he was absolutely not an arrogant, reckless fool. Underestimating him would inevitably exact a heavy price.
*'It's just that you, who strictly adhere to the principle of the strong preying on the weak, could never imagine just how despicable we, who believe the winner becomes king and the loser a rebel, can truly be,'* Kōe sighed inwardly, his back facing the Kurohitsugi.
Releasing Kidō through incantations was indeed a method to reduce mental strain, but his original intention for doing so was not that simple.
Baraggan's ability was a sharp blade that claimed lives, but it was also his own death warrant. As long as something affected by Senescence was sent into Baraggan's body, he would destroy himself.
Returning the favor with his own methods—Kōe knew better than anyone how to deal with Baraggan.
So from the very beginning, Kōe had held something back. He deliberately cast [Hadō #88・Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō] in front of Baraggan using the full incantation, and in the subsequent pursuit, he released quite a few Hadō through incantations as well.
Hadō below number fifty did not require an incantation; Hadō above number fifty did. Through his actions, Kōe had gradually planted this judgment in Baraggan's mind.
And this erroneous judgment caused Baraggan to completely lose his guard, allowing him to walk brazenly right up to Kōe. After all, Kidō that could be released without an incantation couldn't hurt him at all, and for the threatening Hadō that required an incantation, he could easily kill Kōe before it was completed!
Having received Roca's transmission and knowing that Resen had been rescued and Szayelaporro successfully taken away, Kōe naturally wouldn't pass up such an opportunity.
[Hadō #90・Kurohitsugi], a high-level Kidō that, in a sense, possessed the characteristics of both Bakudō and Hadō. However, it was still too difficult to heavily injure Baraggan with it, let alone kill him.
Sensing the rapidly weakening Kurohitsugi, Kōe knew that in five seconds at most, Baraggan would break free. With his current condition, wanting to finish Baraggan off as well was indeed a bit of a pipe dream.
"[Bakudō #15・Deep Swamp Entrapment] [Original Kidō]!"
"[Hadō #57・Daichi Tenyō]!"
Kōe stomped his right foot heavily. The hard ground suddenly split open, turning into gray waves of stone that parted down the middle and surged nearly a hundred meters high.
"Let this old man place a comma on this farce for now. But next time, I will personally put a period on your life!" As the two waves of stone merged into one, Kōe adjusted the mask on his face. He glanced coldly at Baraggan, who was about to be submerged a hundred meters underground, and said, "Until we meet again, temporary King of Hueco Mundo."
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