Chapter 27: Chapter 27

10 chapters ahead in my Patreon. Patreon.com/Oldherd.

<------------------------------------------>

(General P.O.V)

Ash knew that the longer the fight went on, the more likely that cops and other emergency services would arrive on scene and no matter how dedicated the force would try to be, there was little chance of their bullets working on a hollow.

Ash had to finish this before it got to that point. Taking advantage of the flight ring on his finger, he flew towards the hollow with his fists before him in a Superman pose. His hardened body plowed into the white face mask of the hollow, pushing past the outer wall of the building and out into the night sky.

Concrete and metal were left falling behind them as they fell in a tumble of limbs down onto the tarmac road. The hollow's huge form dug a groove through the ground with Ash on top of it. The teen flew up to a height of 20 meters and then cut off his flight, coming down onto the body of the hollow in his unbreakable state.

His hardened feet, topped with sharp toes stabbed through it's chest near the hole on it's body. A loud keening wail exploded out of the Hollow, blood erupting from the new wound on it's body. It swung out in a panic and managed to tag Ash with one of it's arms, sending him careening away and smashing through a flower shop.

Ash took a second to clutch at his hurting ribs, the blow having been more powerful than anything else the hollow had thrown at him and then floated out into the street. The hollow was just getting to it's feet and under the light from a Street light near them, Ash was finally able to see the Hollow in its entirety.

The mask on it's face looked intimidating as expected. The shape seemed to be of a grinning ostrich skull. And that wasn't the most disturbing part. It was tall with a thin torso and a pot belly, black skin with light grey hairs and the most unnerving pair of arms Ash had ever seen.

The portion of it's arms from the shoulder to the elbow was thin, but Ash knew from a single punch that the strength it could exert was crazy. The forearms panned out broadly with a smattering of feathers that could harden on command topped with long white claws on the six fingers it had on each arm.

All in all, the monster stood at a whooping 9 feet and had it been anyone else, they would have been intimidated by the sheer size of the thing. Ash was not just anyone. Infact he smiled, folding his arms across his chest.

"So you can fly, are really strong and you can harden a specific part of your body. The similarities in our fighting styles are uncanny, either it was just a coincidence or this was planned by Urahara."

Ash speculated.

Despite the Former Soul Reaper's numerous flaws, he did not seem like the type to put Innocents in danger to serve his own purpose. So it was most likely a pure coincidence.

(Elsewhere)

"Kisuke are you sure about this?"

Yoruichi asked in doubt for the umpteenth time.

"Don't worry, hollow X only objective is to go after Ash-kun. That's why once he got within its radar, it abandoned fighting Chad and Uryu in favor of seeking him out. I programmed it not to hunt anyone else. Unfortunately it needed a higher level of intelligence to follow those commands; to effectively distinguish between normal people and it's objective."

Urahara answered, looking down at the ongoing fight. They were hovering in the air, cloaked and standing on Reiryoku platforms while gazing down.

Yoruichi turned to the scientist after his answer. Something about his explanation rubbed her the wrong way.

"What do you mean by 'giving it higher intelligence'?"

She questioned. In response Urahara closed his fan.

"Shush...it's starting."

(General P.O.V)

The hollow eyed it's objective with a vicious look on it's face. It opened it's mouth, teeth dripping with saliva.

"Eeeaat you..."

A low growl escaped it's mouth. The voice was rough and the pronunciation was almost lost to the teen.

Ash was stunned by the Hollow speaking. But he was not too stunned to evade the charge from the tall and huge creature. It ran towards him with large steps, the distance shrinking rapidly as it used it's arms to increase base speed by flapping in the air and gliding across the ground. 

Ash saw the telegraphed claw attack and strafed to the right in the air, allowing the blow to pass right by him, smashing onto more of the flower shop's entrance. He raised his leg in the air, entering his unbreakable state before allowing the hardened foot to fall. 

You are reading story A Marvelous Loop at novel35.com

The Hollow's left arm received the blow and the hollow bone broke with a snap. The creature screamed out in pain and threw another attack by its other limb. Ash flew over it, landing on the ground and activating his plasma knife. He didn't know if it was just him but the humming blade seemed almost a few inches longer. 

The hollow was only turning around when Ash spun on his knees, assisted by the flight ring and slashed into one of the hollows tendons on what passed for it's legs. The hollow screamed again, stumbling away with Ash following closely. He had a chance now! The Hollow was distracted so the next attack would surely put it down.

Ash exploded forth with momentum as he headed towards the Hollow's mask, posed to slash it apart and destroy the hollow. Or was it exorcise it? 

"Aarrgh!"

Before he could complete the move, he felt something massive hit him on the back, sending him to smack on the concrete sidewalk with a bang. 

Ash rolled away quickly, he was used to the pain and although he was stunned by the unexpected hit, he knew that his quick thinking had saved his life. The ground where a shape of his body was imprinted erupted in a shower of stones as the Hollow stomped it's foot on it. 

Ash was up on his feet in a split second, breathing heavily a safe distance away. In his mind, he was reevaluating the strength this Hollow possessed. 

"You're not a normal hollow are you?"

He wondered out loud, walking around it just as the sounds of police cars closed in on their position.

"Your broken arm healed in only a few seconds. That is much faster than any average Hollow."

The hollow snarled.

"Eaaat you..."

Ash shook his head.

"Then there is that. You can speak... This feels more and more like it was pre-planned."

"tallk too much. Eat. Eat You!!"

The Hollow exploded forth once more, just as the light from the police cars grew prominent, coming from around the corner. 

Ash exploded forth too, evading the swiping of it's arms and slashes. Each blow that he dodged was done with great coordination. He was learning how to fight in mid air better than before. Using his weird sixth sense to notice danger before it arrived. 

Another claw slash passed by his head. Ash slammed onto the Hollow's chest and begun to push both of them to the sky towards the least populated area in the town. The woods around Karakura. 

The Hollow yelled out while trying to swat him away, only to fail because of it's gigantic claws and Ash's diminutive size. Ash had not dared to try and use his flight ring while carrying Rukia because he was still not great at stabilizing both himself and someone else in the air, so this was like good practice for him.

He yelled as they cleared over 500 meters, claws dug in to the Hollow's flesh, eliciting both pain and anger from the creature. That pain no doubt increased once their trajectory begun to shift towards the ground. Ash hoped they were now far away from Karakura, less chance of someone getting hurt.

He let go of the Hollow's flesh, standing up on it's chest and begun to slash at it's torso with his hardened fingers. The hollow could do nothing as it's back plowed across the ground, leaving behind a trench in the soil and overturning rocks and trees. The Hollow's momentum was finally put to a stop once it collided with a huge rock standing below a steep hill. 

Ash jumped away and rolled on the ground. The moonlight streaming in from between the tree branches and leaves, revealed the devasted scene caused by the crash of the monster. The thing lay wheezing on the ground as Ash gingerly walked forward with bloodied hands. One of his arms, placed over his injured ribs. The hit from earlier might have cracked some ribs. 

His plasma knife activated with a hum and he took measured steps towards the Hollow, heart growing hard due to what he needed to do. He couldn't let it regenerate because as it stood, Ash might have been more skilled at using his advantages to his...well advantage but his major weakness was his stamina. He had used Unbreakable state a couple of times and that was enough to make him exhausted.

He couldn't wait to finish up this loop and hopefully evolve his quirk. Maybe the stamina issue would be taken care of during the evolution. 

He shook his head to get rid of the distracting thoughts before continuing his advance towards the rapidly healing Hollow. Getting too close appeared to be a mistake as a claw was poised to shred him into ribbons. He received the blow on the side of his left forearm, grabbed the offending limb and slashed at the elbow with the Plasma knife.

The whole forearm of the creature detached, the wound cauterized by the heat. Ash threw away the limb, feeling like he was going to vomit. The smell was of burnt rotten flesh. He reminded himself of what he had to do and looked into the eyes of the Hollow.

His plasma knife sliced it's mask from the tip to the bottom easily in one swift move.

The Hollow's final glance was Ash's unflinching stare as he looked down at it. 

You can find story with these keywords: A Marvelous Loop, Read A Marvelous Loop, A Marvelous Loop novel, A Marvelous Loop book, A Marvelous Loop story, A Marvelous Loop full, A Marvelous Loop Latest Chapter