A faint healing glow emanated from Sora's hand as he treated the deer, snake, and lion-like Menos.
Harribel had agreed to be Nelliel's sparring partner. In exchange, Sora would heal her friends who had been injured by the Black Shark King.
"This is...?!"
Harribel's eyes twitched.
She sensed a spiritual pressure fluctuation, but it wasn't that of a Hollow!
Harribel had originally thought this was a Hollow with a special ability, but she never expected him to be a Shinigami.
She sized up the cloaked Shinigami before her, then took another serious look at the mask on Nelliel's head and muttered:
"Can Shinigami and Hollows really get along peacefully..."
She felt as if her entire worldview was being reshaped!
Ever since coming to Hueco Mundo, the information she had heard about Shinigami had been mostly negative.
Just a while ago, she had even heard that the self-proclaimed King of Hueco Mundo, Baraggan, had died by a Shinigami's blade.
She never thought that Shinigami could coexist peacefully with Hollows.
"Thank you, powerful Vasto Lorde, I'm all better now..."
"This spiritual pressure is so strange, not quite like a Hollow's..."
"What an incredible ability. Such a heavy wound was healed in an instant."
A short while later, the deer, snake, and lion-like Menos got back on their feet, their injuries having been healed by Sora's Kidō.
However, they were not as experienced as Harribel. They had never seen a Shinigami before and couldn't even identify the spiritual pressure.
"My professor is amazing, right!"
Nelliel said proudly, her hands on her hips.
"Professor?" Harribel was surprised again. "You two are master and disciple?"
She had just imagined many possibilities for the relationship between this Shinigami and Hollow, but she had never considered that they could be master and disciple.
In her understanding, the abilities of Shinigami and Hollows were vastly different.
"That's right~ I came to spar with you to perfect the moves my professor taught me!"
Nelliel explained enthusiastically.
She felt that Harribel, like herself, was a Menos whose reason and emotion outweighed her Hollow instincts.
She could sense the importance Harribel placed on her companions.
This made Nelliel feel nostalgic for her own two companions from her past in Hueco Mundo.
"Something learned from a Shinigami?"
Harribel couldn't help but feel a sliver of anticipation for the upcoming fight.
She was not keen on meaningless slaughter, but it was a different matter if she could witness what a Hollow had learned from a Shinigami.
"Let's begin, little Harri!" Nelliel leaped into the air and found a relatively open spot in the stone forest.
During their brief conversation, Nelliel had already learned Harribel's name.
The corner of Harribel's eye twitched. She was a bit uncomfortable with Nelliel's over-familiarity but did not reject the overly intimate nickname.
In all her time, this was the first time she had met a Menos who could communicate on equal terms, unaffected by Hollow instincts.
Even her own three companions showed more awe than familiarity.
"Lady Harribel!"
The Deer Hollow came over and nuzzled its head against her, worried. "Are you going to fight that powerful Vasto Lorde... The one who healed us... his spiritual pressure is a bit strange, he doesn't seem to be a Hollow..."
The Deer Hollow hadn't overheard their conversation.
However, it had also noticed that Sora's spiritual pressure was unusual, but its limited experience prevented it from identifying it as a Shinigami's.
"Don't worry, they mean no harm."
Harribel patted the deer's head, reassuring it.
She leaped lightly into the air and landed in the spot Nelliel had chosen.
"Come on, let me see what you've learned from your Shinigami professor!"
Harribel raised the giant shark-tooth sword in her right hand, full of fighting spirit.
"Then be careful~" Nelliel placed her right hand on her sword hilt, her body tense.
Clang—
A flash of light rose from the scabbard.
The next moment, the single blade flash multiplied into countless blades.
After splitting, the blades of light were like a fine, dense rain.
"Such a fast blade!"
Harribel's expression changed when she saw the 'raindrops' pouring down.
She swung her giant sword, and a torrent of water erupted from its tip.
If Nelliel's blades were like rain, then she would use an ocean to drown them!
The torrent formed a monstrous wave that crashed towards the dense curtain of blade shadows.
Some Hollows possess innate talents.
Controlling and creating water was Harribel's talent.
As she evolved, this talent had grown continuously stronger.
If she could evolve to the Vasto Lorde stage, her ability would likely become even stronger than a typical "water-type Zanpakutō."
Nelliel's blade pierced into the torrent and felt a strong resistance.
Harribel had infused her powerful spiritual pressure into the water.
Nelliel wasn't using her Resurrección and didn't have much of a spiritual pressure advantage over Harribel. She didn't plan to take the attack head-on.
The next moment, the rapid sound of a drumbeat suddenly exploded.
Thump, thump—
Nelliel's figure instantly vanished from her spot and then flashed through two other locations.
Everywhere she flashed, a blade of light shot towards Harribel.
Harribel's reaction was already very fast. She quickly changed the direction of the water's flow, making it swirl around her.
But Nelliel's Sonído and her sword swing were still a step faster.
Clink, clink—
Several cuts appeared on the bone armor of Harribel's back shoulder.
Sonído: Senmaioroshi!
By using Sonído while executing Senmaioroshi, Nelliel could achieve the effect of attacking from different directions almost simultaneously.
"Such a fast move..."
Harribel swung her giant sword, and the torrent of water swept towards Nelliel's landing point, but she had already moved away. The water returned to circle around Harribel.
On a taller stone mountain, Sora and the trio of animal-like Menos were also watching the fight.
"It's only just begun, and Lady Harribel has already been hit... As expected, fighting a powerful Vasto Lorde is too much for her!" the Snake Hollow said.
"Lady Harribel's bone armor is very hard. It can even withstand my Cero. She shouldn't be injured," said the Lion Hollow.
The Lion Hollow had a bit of a temper. When she first met Harribel, she was a bit defiant and wanted to be the leader, so she had fought her.
Nelliel also noticed that Harribel's bone armor was very tough.
Her attack had only broken the surface layer and had not truly harmed her.
"Looks like I'll have to use a more concentrated attack."
As she thought, the torrent of water around Harribel grew larger; she had never stopped releasing it.
The water formed a thick, rotating shield around her.
She had noticed Nelliel's attack speed was very high and wanted to use the spiritual pressure-infused water to reduce the force of the slashes.
The effect was excellent. When Nelliel's sword struck again, it only left a few more scratches on her bone armor.
Harribel pointed her giant sword at Nelliel, and a dozen streams of water branched off from the torrent and shot towards her.
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