The Red Sun Sets, the Black Sun Rises

Chapter 13: The Wrath of Hell.

With the release of their zanpakutos, the soul reapers began pushing back the Sinners, but still struggled with the fact that there was one human soul still present, preventing them from releasing their limiters. Rukia and Rangiku were working in tandem with one another with Rukia darting in trying to sever the tentacle that held the girl, while Rangiku shielded her with Haineko from Gunjo's strikes.

Below them Renji faced off against the behemoth Garogai, the latter showing his incredible strength as he effortlessly caught Hihio Zabimaru's head, as it launched him into the ground. Despite the crushing blow, he shrugged off the damage and yanked back on the bankai, drawing Renji into his own attacks.

Uryu also struggled with his opponent as he continued to swallow all the reishi based attacks, firing them right back at him. The archer remained unfazed though, as he weaved in between the blasts, dodging them with relative ease.

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Between Toshiro and Shuren though, things literally began to heat up as Shuren launched a volley of fire arrows at Toshiro.

"Guncho Tsurara," Toshiro chanted, swinging his blade horizontally and launching back a wave of ice daggers, which went on to tear through the flaming arrows and forced Shuren to use his blade to shatter them. "As impressive as your control over fire is, I'm afraid that the only fire based attacks that worry me are from the former Captain Commander," he said nonchalantly, watching as the Shuren grit his teeth in anger.

"My flames will not be snuffed out so easily Captain," he spat, dismissing his single blade and summoning two flaming whips to his hands. Whipping one towards Toshiro, the young Captain covered himself with a wing, watching as the whip cracked its outer layer. Fanning his wings out, he dodged to his left avoiding the follow up and charged in, his blade clashing with one of the flaming strands. Shuren smirked as they strove back against each other, raising his free hand to attack, only to stop as he watched ice flow over his whip and down on his hand, freezing it solid. Forcing his opponent back, he looked down with a grimace at the frozen limb, grimacing as he held a flaming hand over it to help it thaw.

"Not going to happen," Toshiro said from behind him, making Shuren leap forward, twisting his body to avoid another wave of ice daggers.

"Insolent little…" Shuren gritted out, charging a fireball in with both hands. When it was no larger than a football, he tossed it at Toshiro, watching as it grew larger and larger.

"Hyorinmaru!" he called once again, sending a much larger ice-dragon than before, at the attack, watching as they yet again cancelled each other out and covered the area in mist. "I can keep this up for a long time Sinner."

His attention was diverted though, when he heard a scream from where Rukia and Rangiku fought. Turning to look, his eyes widened at the new figure that had appeared his pitch black blade dripping with blood as Rukia and Rangiku's bodies fell from the air. "MATSUMOTO!" he screamed, dimly aware of Renji shouting Rukia's name. Feeling a searing pain in his right shoulder, he looked back to see Shuren with a smirk on his face and a flaming lance embedded in his flesh.

"You should've been looking at me Captain," he gloated, withdrawing his weapon and kicking Toshiro into the ground.

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As Renji and Garogai fought, it soon became apparent that the behemoth was simply unafraid of taking the bankai head on. After pulling Renji in, he delivered a bone-breaking fist into the Lieutenants torso, sending him flying backwards, destroying several benches and the swing set before finally coming to a halt against the back of a tree. Looking up, he could see Garogai charging in at him fist raised, but with a swing of his wrist, had his bankai charge in from the side, blind-siding the reckless berserker and sending him barrelling into several trees.