128 – To The Victor Go The Spoils
128 – To The Victor Go The Spoils
Hisashi nodded. "Then we will have to take care of him after all," he said.
Mila Rose seemed a little hesitant.
Hisashi smiled softly. He tried his best to wrap his arms around her reassuringly without cutting her with his blades.
"I know you don't like it..." he started.
She nodded hesitantly.
Nelliel came up from behind her wrapping her arms around her too. "It'll be alright. We're in this together," she said.
Hisashi softly smiled at her.
Although due to her instincts Mila Rose loved the hunt she felt no enjoyment out of dealing with prey that couldn't even put up a fight anymore.
"...however if we let him go just because he isn't an immediate threat he could threaten all of us down the line. First off he might decide to get revenge and gather power himself or find more allies. If he does he is now aware of our capabilities and would be more prepared for another attack," he said continued.
He looked down to see her reaction.
She seemed a little more relieved.
"Not only that, but for killing a bunch of our fellow Arrancar our own positions in Las Noches would be threatened simply by him reporting the situation," he said.
She looked down at Tesra who was still holding on by a thread before looking back at Hisashi with a firmer gaze in her eyes.
"You... you're right," she finally admitted.
Cirucci shrugged. " They would have done the same to us. They were planning on killing me right along with you just to make sure word never got back to Las Noches about what they did. They deserve the same from us," she said nonchalantly.
The only thing keeping order in Las Noches wasn't some kind of camaraderie between most of the Arrancar, because that didn't exist for most of them. It was the sheer overwhelming threat provided by Aizen that kept the rambunctious Arrancar in line. If they thought they could slip something under Aizen's nose they wouldn't hesitate to screw over their fellow Arrancar to benefit themselves. Unlike Mila Rose, who was a relatively new member of Las Noches, Cirucci being one of the earlier members was well aware of this.
Hisashi quickly swiped one of his blades along Tesra's neck sending a splash of blood across the ground. Within seconds what little life was left in Tesra drained away. He didn't waste any time and started absorbing Tesra's corpse to avoid more of it being lost as the spirit particles that it consisted of slowly dispersed into the atmosphere.
'Show me the muted notifications,' Hisashi ordered his system.
[+6,326,845 XP from assorted Hollows]
[+434,095 Spirit Power from assorted Hollows]
[Level Up] x 12
[+1 Available Stat Points] x 12
[+11,247,724 XP from assorted Arrancar]
[+723,492 Spirit Power from assorted Arrancar]
[Level Up] x 21
[+1 Available Stat Points] x 21
[+868,190 Spirit Power from Nnoitra Gilga]
Hisashi sighed seeing the missing XP from Nnoitra. 'Kind of a shame, but she needed this more than I needed the experience points. Even if it would have been a very nice amount,' he thought before continuing down the list of notifications.
[+8,224,898 XP from Tesra Lindocruz]
[+564,323 Spirit Power from Tesra Lindocruz]
[Level Up] x 13
[+1 Available Stat Points] x 13
Hisashi smirked. 'Just Tesra alone gave me more than all the Hollows this mission would have given me on their own. There really is no comparing the rewards regular Hollows can provide me anymore when compared to the Arrancar. Such a shame I can't just start killing my fellow Arrancar left and right though. These kinds of opportunities where they serve themselves on a silver platter are too rare,' he thought.
[Hidden Mission Completed]
[Mission: Resolve Nelliel's Knot]
[Help Nelliel resolve the emotional knot in her heart that formed after being unable to protect her Fracción from Nnoitra Gilga and Szayelaporro Granz.]
[Reward: Cero Doble]
His brow raised. 'You never told me about there being hidden missions. What's the meaning of this? ' He asked.
[Answer: Some missions are intended to test the host's intentions. If the system revealed the existence of such missions they would fail to achieve their intended meaning. In such cases their existence is hidden from the host. For example with this hidden mission. It was intended to test whether the host would prioritise the needs of Nelliel over his own. If the mission had not been hidden the motivations for the host might have been due to the rewards offered rather than for the sake of helping Nelliel and as such invalidated the purpose of the mission.]
'Whatever... just give me a description of the reward,' he ordered.
[Cero Doble]
[Unique ability belonging to Nelliel Tu Odelschwank. The ability allows the user to absorb an incoming Cero by swallowing it, then the user fires one of their own while returning the swallowed one. This results in a Cero Doble that contains the energy of both Cero.]
'Ok.. what about the changes during the trip here?' He asked.
[+1 weeks to age]
[+781,092 XP from Hollow]
[+38,280 Spirit Power from Hollow]
[+30,815 Spirit Power from Spiritual Energy Absorption]
[+2 Level]
[+2 Available Stat Points]
Hisashi wore a satisfied smile. 'Just this one fight gave me more growth than I have had in the past few months combined,' he thought.
'Show my my current status,' he told his system.
The familiar window popped up immediately.
=Status Panel=
[Name: Saito Hisashi]
[Soul Age: 59]
[Race: Hollow]
[Rank: Vasto Lorde]
[Level: 309> 357]
[XP: 30,113/631,900]
=Stats:=
[Strength: 340]
[Dexterity: 675]
[Constitution: 175]
[Intelligence: 265]
[Spirit Power: 5,826,535-> 8,485,730]
[Available Stat Points: 0 -> 48]
=Passive Skills:=
[Spiritual Energy Absorption]
[Ultra-Speed Regeneration]
[Acidic Touch]
[Silencioso]
=Active Skills:=
[Soul-Body Separation]
[Spirit Power Concealment]
[Illusory Aura]
[Blut]
[Energy Blade]
[Transcribe]
[Hachigyō Sōgai]
[Cero]
[Kūmon]
[Negación]
[Skill Infusion]
[Sonído]
[Karinzanjutsu]
[Cero Doble]
=Active Missions:=
[Allow the system to absorb the Hōgyoku]
'Go ahead and put 14 points in Strength, 32 in Dexterity, and the rest into Constitution,' he ordered.
[Strength: 340 -> 354]
[Dexterity: 675 -> 707]
[Constitution: 175 -> 177]
[Available Stat Points: 48 -> 0]
His gaze passed over what remained of the clearing. The stone temple was in pieces. The clearing had been left a mess by their battles, but there were no corpses left after Hisashi had consumed them all.
He looked at Nelliel. "You'll have to head back by yourself so there is as little connection between us regarding this as possible," he said.
She nodded hesitantly.
He smiled. "I'll see you again soon," he said softly.
A small smile formed on her lips. She rushed into his chest and gave him a tight hug. "Again... thank you..." she said softly.
When she finally let go she quickly turned and disappeared into the forest.
He turned to Mila Rose and Cirucci. "Let's head back. We'll just report the mission was completed without anything unusual happening," he said.
Both of them nodded in agreement.