Seis vs V

Seis was something like a son to Marin. Everyone knew that. Some people were bothered by that. That someone CREATED, someone who wasn't even a true Arrancar, let alone an Arrancar at all, was one of them. That someone like Seis could rise so high in so short a time, just because he was Marin's "kid" Valintine couldn't care less. As long as he could hold a sword, and not be a vapid flailing fool, he was okay in Valintine's books. Valintine had sent an invitation to him to fight in one of the many many rooms within Las Noches. The room was spacious enough for an army to fight in. So two people had plenty of space.

'Well this is strange,' Seis thought to himself as he looked down at the slip of paper in his hand. Not many people even knew he was armed most of the time, let alone went around issuing him challenges. This was truly a unique experience for the young hybrid and he wasn't sure what to do about it. Under normal circumstances he was supposed to keep his combat capabilities a secret, but considering the one who had issued the challenge he wasn't sure if that still applied. If anyone was cleared to know about the assets that might be operating in the shadows of their operations it was the Head of the Exequias right?

Shrugging that thought aside he crumpled the note and slipped it into his pocket as he entered the antechamber which had been chosen as their battlefield. He could see Valintine standing in the center of the chamber, most likely sizing him up as he approached, and so he made a conscious effort to suppress his spiritual pressure as he approached so as not to give anything away too quickly. After all he didn't want to blow his trump cards unnecessarily if the other man didn't really know anything about his abilities.

Taking one of his hands out of his pocket, he put on a semi-friendly lopsided grin and waved, "Heya... got your note, you serious about this or is this just another way of screwing with the rookie?"

Valintine looked at this man as he entered the training room. He was, indeed, sizing him up. He didn't look like much, but neither did Valintine. He knew this man was dangerous. He didn't know how dangerous though. Valintine rolled his neck as he asked him a question. "Yeah...you must be new. Nobody would ask me that question...I'm serious. I'm dead serious. No killing, but fight like your life depends on it. I don't train unless it's treated like an actual battle. How can you get better otherwise?" With that being said Valintine stood there in a relaxed position. He didn't have a visible Zanpakuto, but it was there. He wore a black trimmed hakama with a black sash for a belt. He had no boots on, but he wore a long sleeve white shirt. The sleeves flared out as it went down his arms. On his right wrist was a bangle. It was small, thin, and seemed to be composed of feather quite literally. The bangle had white feathers that overlapped and wrapped around. Valintine's emotionless eyes looked at the man. He was silently asking him to make the first move.

Seis smirked, "I don't know about new... but I don't get challenged to duels very often, no. And I'm definitely not used to dealing with you when you have your 'game face' on either." With that said he watched as Valintine's stance shifted ever so slightly while he went over the rules, becoming more relaxed as he waited for Seis to make a move. The rules themselves were simple enough, about what he'd expected from the Arrancar given that they were almost verbatim the ones Marin had forced him to operate under since as long as he could remember. The cockiness of his stance seemed to suggest that he wanted Seis to make the first move, which was fine with him. It would give him a chance to test his opponent's reaction time as well as zone in on his body language. The only question was whether or not the Arrancar would go straight for his zanpakuto or not. It may not have been immediately visible but the hybrid knew better then that, every Arrancar had one, it was just a matter of where. It was that unknown that caused him to hesitate for only a moment while he considered his best angle of attack.

In the end what he came up with was hardly inspired, but it would give him a reasonable shot at gauging his opponent. Keeping his hands loosely tucked in his pockets so as to not look dangerous, he tried to subtlety slip into a shunpo, reappearing a split second later in front of his opponent and halfway into a back flip as he tried to connect the base of his heel with the underside of his target's chin. At best it would knock the Arrancar off balance, he'd had more then enough practice over the years to know better then to think that a simple hapkido maneuver would be enough to hurt a Fraccion. This was both a ruse and a test, pure and simple, what Valintine did from next would determine where he went from here.

Valintine looked at the male before him. He noticed his eyes moving around Valintine's body. He imagined he was looking for his zanpakuto. He seemed confidant enough to know that Valintine had one somewhere. Most people assumed he forgot it. There wasn't a person alive who though that. Valintine was glad to see this man got his hint. He waited and watched for this guy to make his move. He saw him break into a shunpo after slipping his hands in his pockets. Cocky was the first word to hit Valintine's mind. When he reappeared he was already mid attack. Valintine stepped to the side so that he was facing the attacker, and Seis's feet were crossing his face. Valintine sonido'd back about thirty feet and continued to watch the man.

Completing his flip Seis gently touched back down on his feet, his cat-like reflexes and years of training allowing him to land gracefully despite the awkward angle he started in. Turning his head slightly he glanced over at his opponent, reevaluating his initial assessments as he spoke, "Not bad... I didn't take you to be one for hesitation though. You had a perfect opportunity to follow-through on what should have been a glaring opening in my defenses and you didn't... what happened to that whole 'fight like your life depends on it' bit? Do we have to update your dossier to indicate you're getting soft in your old age?" His tone was what some would generously call sarcastic, although the term sardonic was probably more accurate. Tapping the tip of his shoe against the hardened floor of the chamber impatiently he cocked his head and continued, "So are ya gonna stop screwing with me now and take this seriously or should I go find some paperwork to do?"

Valintine sighed. Men like this annoyed him. Maybe Seis would make his blacklist. He hated explaining himself, but Seis didn't really know Valintine, albeit that was his fault. Valintine was never around often. "Do you rush off blindly into a fight? Fists swinging and legs swiping? You have your way of fighting, and I have mine. Listen up, child. I didn't get where I was by being foolish and impulsive. You don't taunt what you don't understand. If you want this to end, then you should find a way to finish your opponent quickly not question their judgement, now shouldn't you?" That was all Valintine was saying. He didn't owe him any explanation. Valintine stood there still, his eyes dead to the world and his body relaxed. He watched Seis.

Seis' eyebrow arched ever so slightly from behind the cover of his bangs, 'Looks like I struck a nerve, maybe the 'Ice King' isn't as frigid as everyone thinks after all.' His small smirk returned as his ear pricked up slightly in excitement, "That's more what I was expecting, glad to see you're willing to trade words as well as blows, otherwise this would've been very boring... I do have to question one thing you said though. I always believed the whole point of mocking was to demystify something which you don't understand so that it no longer scares you. That is completely different from taunting, which is what I was doing here." He shrugged and continued, "But that's just arguing semantics, which has no place here now does it? But to answer your question, no you don't. But as you said, we each have our own ways of fighting and I completely agree with your assessment. I merely wished to understand my opponent as well as best him... because like you said, how can you get any better otherwise?" Turning to face his opponent he took his hands out of his pockets and finished by saying, "But alas, I'll assume you're getting tired of me getting all philosophical like so I guess I should stop talking for a bit and get back to the part where we gauge each other's actions, no?"

Having said that, he vanished in another shunpo, reappearing behind his target with his back to him as he hurled his right leg into Valintine's knee joint in a blinding back kick. As he did this he spun around to face his opponent's flank, his arm flying out in a simultaneous fluid motion to try and wrap around the Arrancar's neck and bring him down to the ground now that his balance had theoretically been compromised. Moves like this were the very essence of hapkido, Seis' preferred combat style... and he was very good at it too.

Valintine believed he may have misled this poor innocent male, but whatever. He wasn't his "child" so he didn't care. Valintine toned him out at some point during his speech. All this talk really didn't concern Valintine personally, so he didn't care. He wasn't giving out trade secrets or things that would cause Valintine to single handedly destroy the Shinigami or something like that. The slightest of muscle movement from the man though caught his attention. His pesquisa instantly tracking him to behind him. Valintine wasted no time. His plan was tricky to pull off, but his hierro kept him protected for the duration. As his knee gave out, Valintine went will the fall. Him moving back, prevented the hand from connecting with his neck, and thus allowing him to avoid being "held captive" by Seis. Valintine's arms stopped him from hitting the ground. It was an awkward take off but a sonido was in his ability to do, and he did. Appearing some feet away from Seis. This man's fighting style and strategy becoming quite apparent in Valintine's eye. He would have to try out this man's hand under pressure later on in the fight. For now though, he estimated only a few more bouts before Valintine wouldn't need to play defender anymore and could go on the offensive.

'Not bad, sacrificing the knee to avoid the pin. Looks like your rep is well deserved after all,' Seis thought to himself as he followed Valintine's movements with his eyes. Now that he had his opponent off balance he was going to have to press the advantage. Intent on not giving his foe enough time to fully recover he followed after his sonido with a shunpo, reappearing in front of him in a low crouch or Pok Toi (Pressing Stance) as he brought both of his arms forward in an open handed strike against his target's torso. Even as he moved he had to suppress the urge to shout 'kamehameha,' his attack stance reminding him so much of some old show which for some reason he couldn't shake from his memory. But now wasn't the time for comedy so he kept that thought to himself and waited to see how Valentine would respond.

Surprise. Valintine was always watching for it. Waiting, expecting, wanting, yearning for it. He was raised around it, and gave birth to it. Surprise, it is how you killed your enemy. Surprise, was the key to all victory. Get in a few good surprises, and you could defy gods. When Seis used the shunpo, Valintine's body responded. He sonido'd before he even saw where he was going. Using his sonido he took the spot where Seis shunpo'd from. He raised his right hand. He had seen enough. Nothing was changing with this man, and if it did, Valintine was flexible, literally and figuratively. His right hand let loose a green bolt of lightning aimed at the feet of Seis.

'So much for follow through, but at least both sides are participating now,' Pushing off with his back leg Seis launched himself into a forward flip, carrying himself clear of the lightning's path as he landed in the basic Bāguàzhǎng fighting stance. He had been dancing to Valintine's tune for awhile now, with his opponent finally going on the offensive he figured that it was probably best to switch to a primarily defensive style for the moment and see just what his adversary had up his sleeve. Not that unarmed combat techniques were going to do him much good if his opponent kept playing the range game, but somehow he felt that that was unlikely.

Valintine sighed as his enemy dodged his attack. Yes, he would certainly need to work on it's speed. Oh well. He knew what it was capable of. He knew very well, but such things would have to wait. With time came power, and with power came death. The Arrancar's eyes traced the male's as he landed. If he thought Valintine was coming to him he had another thing coming. Valintine's body supplied him with a flow of electricity. When he was ready, he could release that out of his hand. Valintine sonido'd forward stopping ten feet in front of Seis. He fired off another bolt of lightning. He sonido'd back and to the left, twenty feet to fire another bolt as well.

More lightning, not surprising really but somewhat disappointing. He knew very well that Valintine wasn't a one trick pony, but right now that was what he was coming across as. He was going to have to break him of that real quick if this was going to get any kind of interesting.

Sweeping his back leg 90-degrees Seis leaned back slightly, allowing the movement to shift his stance so that he was perpendicular to his previous position as his hand gestures seemed to guide the attack through the space he had been occupying just seconds before, nearly missing him in the process. This was purely for show of course as there was no way that he was capable of deflecting an attack of this level with just his bare hands, but the fluid movements were kinda pretty to look at. Seeming more like a dance then an actual combat technique.

With the first bolt successfully neutralized he brought his full attention back to his opponent just in time to see him reappear from another sonido and release another electric burst in his general direction. Seeing this as an opportunity to turn things on their head, literally, he used a flash step of his own to evade the second strike and move behind his target. Re-materializing behind his back in a handstand as he tried to lock his ankles around the Arrancar's throat and slam him face first into the ground.

Valintine's smile was hidden because it was not in his opponent's view. He was truly pleased though, lightning was so much more effective at close range. Risking his leg was one thing, his neck was another. Valintine's hands went up as the ankles came up. He waited until they were crossed to grip them, catching them before they were able to get a good grip on his neck. The strength of Seis was a bit hard to control though, Valintine's muscled actually worked in order to keep him from choking, but the worst wasn't over yet. As he felt the tug of Seis' legs. Valintine pushed off the ground to go with the flow of Seis' tug. Valintine flew threw the air, and his legs stopped him from crashing to the ground. Before he even had time to recover he let lightning move from his right hand to Seis' ankle. His legs shook for a moment before quickly adjusting to the weight. Hopefully this would sate the male's thirst for Valintine to make a move.

Seis winced as the electricity passed through his body, 'Alright, so grabbing the electric eel was probably not the best idea you could've come up with... new plan.' Relying on Valintine's small success to cloud his judgment just long enough to provide and brief opening he moved his hands away from the ground. Locking one around the Arrancar's leg in order to ground himself somewhat and channel his opponent's attack back into his own body while he used his other hand to strike at the Exequias commander's family jewels. The one universal vulnerable spot on any creature possessing the capability to reproduce. True it was fighting dirty, but Seis had only been taught about honor and such recently, and still felt that it had no place once a fight had actually started.

Valintine sighed inwardly. Everyone made the same choice. Grab him, and he will get shocked too, right? No. Not quite, as this man was about to painfully experience. Especially after his dirty trick. Valintine expressed no pain, on part because of pride, and on part because his hierro extended even his his most precious areas. So while pain was felt, it was dulled some what. He refused to show what pain he did feel though. He wasn't going to give this man the satisfaction of seeing him in pain. He held on tight and rather than torment him with one, he shot three bolts of electricity from his hand into Seis' body. It touched him on his foot as well, however it wasn't felt through pain as much as a creepy warmth. Valintine was not going to lose this fight. If Seis wanted to fight dirty so mote it be, but Valintine could be as persistent as Seis dirty.

'Seriously? Does this guy have titanium balls or something,' Seis idly wondered to himself as three more bolts passed through his body, not that thinking such things at the moment was doing him any good. Every second he remained trapped like this was another chance for Valintine to finish him off, which he was currently doing a pretty good job of considering there was only so much voltage a body could take before it gave out entirely. Problem was there was only so much he could do without giving away things that were supposed to remain classified.

Relaxing his legs in the hopes that the sudden loss of resistance would cause his opponent to accidentally clock himself in the head, Seis released Valintine's leg and shoved both of his arms through the opening between his adversary's lower extremities. As he did this he executed two simultaneous hand chops, one to the back of each knee, and swung the full force of his weight forward. Almost as if he were trying to throw his whole body through the gap between his opponent's thighs. Obviously he wouldn't fit given the difference between their heights and his current positioning, but he hoped that the combination of the two moves would be enough to throw the Arrancar off balance and possibly get him to let go long enough for the young hybrid to escape. If not then he was going to have to consider either tapping out or revealing one of the tricks that were supposed to be secret to all save the King of Hollows.

Valintine was making progress somewhat. The man had apparently seen the danger in holding onto Valintine. He wasn't going to be thrown off so easily though. He felt the awkward movement and held on just barely as he readjusted his grip. The strike to his knees felt weird to him and he had to shake his legs a bit, but he knew that this was getting tiring. He had to end it sooner or later. He preferred sooner rather than later, but he would see to it that Seis showed him his hidden potential. Valintine had seen it within him. This Shinigami reiatsu. It was high. Not entirely high, but high enough to match or be greater than a lieutenant. Possibly even a captain. Shikai had to be known, and that is the true reason why Valintine issued this. For information was Valintine's drug. Valintine wouldn't sacrifice this opportunity. He sent one more shock to Seis, but his grip had relaxed a bit. He wasn't truly touching Seis. The odds were slim as the casting was instant, but Seis might yet escape this bolt.

He felt the shift in Valintine's stance, the slight quaver as he was forced to compensate for the momentary loss of stability and the slight release of his grip on his captive's legs as well. Tempted to continue his attack, but realizing that this was probably his only opportunity to escape, he launched himself into another shunpo. Landing a few feet away from his foe and once again right-side up as a few sparks appeared in random places on his body, he'd caught the leading edge of the bolt, his moment's hesitation having prevented him from escaping totally unscathed.

Wiping a small trickle of blood away from his mouth, he tucked his other hand into his pocket again and said, "Well that was fun... forgot how much juice you're supposed to be packing there for a moment. Ya almost had me..." Maintaining his cover was becoming harder and harder as this fight progressed, he was enjoying himself but having to hold back like this was killing him inside. He was fairly certain that the two of them would be on a more then even keel if only he was allowed to fight at his full potential, but seeing as his combat capabilities were supposed to be classified that was obviously impossible. Thus he was limited to only unarmed techniques which he could claim that he'd learned as a means of self-defense. He did have one last trick up his sleeve though before he crossed the line that he was already toeing heavily, and it was trick he was going to enjoy using if only to give the Exequias commander a taste of his own medicine. Giving Valintine his full focus, he began trying to dial into and adapt to his opponent's reiatsu, a technique he had discovered during his days training under Marin. It probably wouldn't provide him with much of an edge, but if he could overcome the other's hierro, if only slightly, then that would increase his chances of victory by a fair margin.

Valintine sighed inwardly as he stood up. He rolled his neck a bit. "Everybody does...for the best I suppose." Valintine took this time to center his own mind. He slowed his breathing and silenced his heart from his ears. He tuned out the world and focused only on Seis. He wouldn't have this any other way. Seis was his fight right now, not himself. He had tamed himself and he would tame this battle. Victory would be his one way or another. He looked at Seis with eyes that were void of emotion. They held no life in them, no death, no joy or sadness. They were just eyes, and his body a relaxed shell of spiritual energy. It was Seis' move.

It was a wonderful thing when your opponent was obliging enough to give you the time you needed, even if it did give them time to recover as well. Seis really couldn't complain though as Valintine's hesitation had allowed him the chance to dial in as much as he was ever going to be able to. Now all there really was left to do was toss the dice and let them land where they may.

Pushing off from the ground he quickly covered the short distance between them, jumping into the air as he approached and launching a quick scissor kick before throwing his weight backwards into a backflip. Touching down in a handstand, he allowed his legs to drop down about halfway to the ground and then proceeded to try and sweep Valintine's legs out from him in what some would consider a breakdancing kick. Not a true martial art maneuver true, but still surprisingly effective if used correctly.

And so it began. Valintine was done playing the defensive one now. He expected that in this time, Seis had prepared to strike down Valintine. Be it through some crafty plot, or adjusting his reiatsu to parallel Valintine's. The Arrancar readied himself for an attack. As the opponent charged him he blocked the first attack with relative ease. However, his target was on the move again already. The sweep kick did it's job and knocked Valintine's fee out from under him. Valintine fell backwards, and braced himself with his hands and feet falling in a perfect bridge. Forcing his lower half up and pushing off with his hand, Valintine soared away and vanished in a sonido. He reappeared mid butterfly kick, aiming for Seis' collarbone.

Allowing his legs to drop after his successful sweep, Seis quickly righted himself in a manner all kung-fu fans were familiar with. Completing the maneuver just in time to catch Valintine's reappearance in his face. Bringing an arm up to block the attack, he quickly pivoted on his heel and shifted his block into a grab with lightning speed before slamming his remaining arm down with the full force available to him on the exposed knee joint, having every intention of breaking it if possible. He then tried to use the leg he'd captured to once again throw his opponent across the room, banking on the adjustments he'd made earlier to enable maximum damage.

If he wasn't going to up the power outage, Valintine was. His reiatsu flared to full power just before the counter-attack took place. As his reiatsu got higher, his hierro got stronger. Valintine was aware this probably saved him from losing a leg, but bone was still bruised, and he was in pain from that. Valintine felt his body surge through the air as he moved, but he wasn't going to let something like this stop him for long. Valintine flipped back and planted himself horizontally on solidified air. He looked at Seis. His reiatsu still flowing at full capacity. It seemed that Angel would have to work today after all. He held his right hand out to the side. The feathered bangle glowed white and burst into feathers. The feathers surrounded his hand and reformed into a jian style blade. The blade was composed all of feathers from guard to tip. The handle was black, but on the pommel was a small ivory representation of a man with wings folded around his body.

Valintine sighed and spun the blade holding it with one hand. He vanished in a sonido. Literally, he vanished. Most sonido and shunpo have the person fade for a half second before they are gone, Valintine just vanished. During this sonido he attacked Seis. As he moved past Seis he swung his sword down attempting to cut the man from right shoulder to left hip. No matter if the attack hit or was deflected, Valintine would end his sonido thirty feet behind Seis.