But which one? He could easily send his most powerful Fraccion to deal with the brat, but he had stated that his weaker members could defeat Ben. And using one of his stronger Fraccion would be a waste of time and it would be over too quickly. He wanted to watch Ben Tennyson suffer as well as watch Aizen be proven wrong for the first time in his life.
Now which to use. Baraggan thought as he looked at each of his Fraccion.
The first among them was a tall man with white mask covering most of his face except for his mouth and his long blonde hair. A rapier was at his side as well as a blade attached to his wrists. This man was Findor, the strategist of Baraggan's Fraccion.
The next one was the shortest of the group, the one with the young and rather girlish appearance. His clothing was a mandarin style jacket, sleeves rolled up on his elbows, and an upturned collar. His clothes, combined with the tiger skull on his head made him fierce. He was Ggio Vega, one of Baraggan's closer Fraccion. And he loved a good fight.
The next two were the biggest of Baraggan's Fraccion. The first one was massive and wore a helmet with short tusks protruding from the sides. The second one was extremely tall and had a resemblance to a tall and muscular Chinese monk. He had a strange attachment to his chin that had two horn-like structures protruding from either side. They were Nirgge Parduoc and Choe Neng Pow.
The last one was the one who had asked him if Ben was the one they were supposed to fight. He wore no jacket, which showed the red tattoos over his body. He wore a beak-like helmet on his head. His name was Avirama Redder and he was most likely the most battle crazy of Baraggan's Fraccion.
Baraggan considered his options. He was certain that Choe could easily defeat Ben. Not even Humungousaur could compete with Choe's true power. But if he sent Choe, the others would consider him a coward for not sending someone Ben could hold his own against. He could send Nirgge, but he had a feeling that Humungousaur could take care of him. That left Findor, Ggio, or Avirama.
"Avirama Redder!" Baraggan yelled. "Crush him!"
"Yes, Lord Baraggan!" Avirama yelled. "It shall be done!"
With that, he walked forward. Realizing that he had a new opponent, Goop released Charlotte. Charlotte fell on his knees and began brushing himself off as he try to make sure that he didn't have a trace of Goop left on him. Baraggan looked at Charlotte disdainfully.
"I will deal with you later, Cuulhourne." He said with contempt. Charlotte wilted at the glare he was receiving. Ben couldn't help but feel sorry for Charlotte.
"Alright!" the one called Avirama yelled. "Gonna hurt you, gonna hurt you, gonna kill you!"
Goop tilted his head in confusion. "Uh, what in the world are you doing?"
Avirama looked at Goop like he was crazy. "What are you, retarded? It's a ritual. The two of us shout what we're gonna do to each other to get in the mood. Come on! Gonna hurt you. Gonna hurt you. Gonna kill you!"
If Goop could roll his eyes, he would have. This guy looked stupid and violent. And he had a habit of yelling what he wanted to do to Ben. That's when an idea came to Ben. He knew just the form to use against this guy. Touching the Ultimatrix, he transformed. In his place was a tailless, muscular, humanoid tiger. Rather big claws were in the middle of his hands and he had a vicious look in his eyes.
"Bad Rath!" he yelled.
Ggio's eyes widened the most when everyone saw this new transformation. Another tiger? What the heck?
But Rath's attention was only on Avirama Redder. "Let me tell you something, pal!" he yelled. "I'm gonna shove my hands down your throat, rip out your intestines, and use them to make a sweater!"
At first, Avirama just looked at Rath in absolute shock. Then his face lit up into a huge grin.
"Yeah!" he yelled. "Now that's what I'm talking about! My blood is racing! Alright, Rath! You better not disappoint me!"
"You better not disappoint me!" Rath shouted back.
Avirama's grin widened. "Scalp, Aguila!"
Rath watched as Avirama transformed. His body had now become like a giant bird man completely covered in red feathers. He soared into the sky and shrieked.
Rath balled his fists in excitement. "Now you're making it interesting!"
Avirama's real mouth, which was covered by the beak-like structure he now had, was grinning bigger than ever before.
"How's this for interesting?" he called down to Rath. "Devorar Pluma!"
Suddenly the feathers from Avirama's wings began firing at Rath. The big guy just stood there as the feathers pelted him down. The desert sand around Rath shooting up as each feather struck. Unlike Cirucci's feathers, which were blades, these feathers were as hard as stone. This, combined with how fast Avirama was shooting them, could be equal to that of a painful meteor shower. And the fact that he could instantly regrow his feathers made it so that he could keep up the attack as much as he wanted.
"Tch," Avirama groaned. "He just stood there. And I was hoping that I was gonna get a good fight out of this."
When the sand cleared, everyone was in for a surprise. Rath was still there, still looking at Avirama like nothing had happened. He looked completely unhurt.
"Is that all you got?" Rath yelled. "Is that all you've got? I've felt raindrops more painful than that!"
Avirama thought he was in paradise. Long had he wanted an opponent that could get his adrenaline pumping and make him just go wild in a fight. And now here was this shapeshifting human who fit the bill entirely. After this fight, he'd have to see if Baraggan would still let them keep Ben as a pet or something.
"Is that all I've got?" Avirama repeated to Rath. "Not even close!"
With that, Redder fired off even more of his feathers at Rath, who this time decided to dodge. He continued running to dodge, and proved to be quite good at it. But Avirama wouldn't let his foe get away. He flew after him.
Meanwhile, Aizen walked over to Szayel. "Well, Szayel," he said. "What is your opinion on this?"
Szayel tapped his chin. "Well," he said. "While this form is not as interesting as some of Ben's other forms, it does have its uses. This form seems to be one purely for combat use, which is perfect to use against someone like Avirama Redder. Rath seems to be highly aggressive and very short tempered. He also appears to be less intelligent in this form, which allows him to brush off injuries like they were nothing."
Avirama was getting impatient. After all he and Rath had just been through, this couldn't be all he was capable of. All Rath was doing was dodging his attacks.
"Come on, Rath," Avirama yelled to the tiger-like creature. "This is a fight! Birds and cats are natural enemies! Show me what you've got!"
Crouching down like a real tiger, Rath leaped into the air and slammed Avirama with a perfect uppercut. But his attack didn't end there. He grabbed Avirama by the neck, swung his body so that he would wind up on Avirama's back, and gripped him in a headlock. Avirama struggled to get Rath off, but Rath's grip on his neck was like iron. The oxygen to his brain was effectively cut off.
"Let me tell you something, Avirama Redder!" Rath yelled despite that fact that Avirama was at his face. "Birds are not cats' enemies. They're food!"
And Rath raised his fist back and practically slammed it against Avirama's head. The blow was enough to send Avirama nosediving straight into the ground. Rath let go of Avirama and stood to face him.
"Come on, Bird Man," Rath said. "I thought you said you were going to hurt Rath. How are you supposed to do that when you're having a sand sandwich?"
Baraggan was gritting his teeth and his fist was balled extremely tight. So far, this boy had managed to make a fool out of two of his Fraccion.
Slowly, Avirama got back up to his feet. He laughed weakly as he started to get air back in his system.
"This is great," Avirama said. "Ben Tennyson," he assumed another fighting stance. "I think I've just found my sparring partner."
Rath grinned. "Just don't come crying to me when I kick your butt so bad, Bird Man!"
Avirama took off into the sky again and began blasting more of his feathers at Rath. However, Rath knew that if he kept fighting in his current form, things could get messy. So instead, he decided to try something else instead. Touching the Ultimatrix dial, he transformed again. In his place was a big, two legged turtle like creature. Its arms were rather more like flippers and he had holes on his chest.
"Bad Terraspin!" this new form called.
Avirama Redder yelled. "What happened? Why'd you change into some turtle thing? Change back to Rath."
"I'm afraid not," Terraspin said. "I'm perfectly capable of defeating you with this form."
Avirama laughed. "Defeat me? Defeat me? And how do you intend to do that as a turtle?"
Terraspin smiled. "Like this."
Terraspin tucked his head into his shell and jumped into his air. His legs connected together and altered themselves along with his arms to become more blade-like. Then, the limbs began to spin wildly like that of a fan and wind began pouring out of the holes in his chest. The wind erupted into a massive gale force. Avirama found himself struggling against it.
"What does this boy not turn into?" Apache asked.
"So many forms and so many powers," Mila-Rose noted.
"But Harribel-sama," Sun-Sun said. "What exactly does Aizen need Ben for?"
Harribel merely watched as Terraspin continued to use his wind powers on Avirama. "I'm not sure, but I am certain that Aizen has some need for Ben."