A Completely Different Level

As the terrain turned to grass across a wide area, the Adjuchas paused for an instant. The other Shinigami seized that chance to recover.

"Scatter! All non-seated members, spread out and use Kido to restrain the Hollow as much as possible. Do not rush in and throw your lives away! Seated officers, release your Zanpakuto at once. No matter what, hold this Adjuchas in place. Reinforcements from Seireitei will arrive soon!"

As the Tenth Division's Third Seat roared those orders, the Tenth Division members displayed the training and ability expected of the Gotei 13. Many rank-and-file members quickly pulled away from the Adjuchas and began chanting various Kido.

As for the Third Seat, Seventh Seat, and Nineteenth Seat Taume Yoshigami, who had been left on duty in West District 79, they released their Zanpakuto almost simultaneously and charged at the Adjuchas from different directions.

"Pierce everything, Windthorn!"

"Sprint for love, Brave Pursuit!"

"Smash them, Storm Loach!"

In an instant, the Third Seat's Zanpakuto transformed into a Western lance wrapped in flowing wind. The Seventh Seat's Zanpakuto became a strange pair of shoes worn on his feet, and his speed abruptly rose before he slammed a kick into the Adjuchas's side.

As for Yoshigami's Zanpakuto, it was a rather rare special living-creature type. It directly summoned a yellow loach-like creature to assist Yoshigami with various attacks.

On top of that, various Hado spells finished by the surrounding members burst forth. Lights flashed across the battlefield and completely swallowed the Adjuchas at the center.

Boom!

Great smoke rose, engulfing both the Adjuchas and the three seated officers at the center.

Watching the battlefield from far away, Sosuke Aizen pushed up his glasses and commented calmly, "It seems Isshin Shiba manages the Tenth Division quite well. Even with the captain's seat vacant, its members still possess rather good discipline."

Standing beside him, Kaname Tosen was blind, but his powerful perception of reiatsu allowed him to sense the situation on the battlefield clearly.

"The reiatsu of an Adjuchas is simply not on the same level as that of ordinary seated officers. This resistance is meaningless."

Aizen smiled and did not disagree.

Immediately afterward, Tosen tilted his head slightly, as if he had sensed something. He pointed in a certain direction.

"Lord Aizen, there is one rather large Shinigami reiatsu hiding at the very rear of the battlefield. It seems the Tenth Division also has a lowly coward who values his life above all else."

"Oh?"

Aizen looked in the direction Tosen indicated. The person standing at the outermost edge of the battlefield after silently retreating there was Akira Morisawa.

Then Aizen carefully distinguished the many reiatsu signatures tangled together on the battlefield, and a trace of surprise crossed his face.

Akira's reiatsu was actually a step higher than the Third Seat's.

But as Aizen watched Akira hiding at the back from a distance, he found it somewhat amusing.

"That man is not from the Tenth Division, Tosen. His name is Akira Morisawa. He truly does value his life. He was clearly the first to identify that Hollow as an Adjuchas, yet the battle has barely begun, and he has already slipped all the way to the rear."

Tosen frowned slightly, as if remembering something.

"Akira Morisawa? Is he the disciple of Captain Unohana, the one Captain Zaraki requested be transferred to the Eleventh Division during the captain's meeting?"

Akira naturally could not detect Aizen and Tosen hiding nearby. Nor did he feel the slightest shame over retreating to the outer edge of the battlefield.

He was a doctor. A member of the Fourth Division, the healing division.

Was an ordinary Fourth Division member supposed to charge forward and cross blades with an Adjuchas?

As a professional doctor, Akira had long since mastered the skill of retreating to the edge of the battlefield without attracting an enemy's attention. This was also a skill he had developed through long coordination with Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa during his days at Shin'o Academy.

Until the last possible moment, a doctor entering battle personally was the greatest insult to every other Shinigami present.

Akira respected the Tenth Division. Naturally, he chose to let the Tenth Division Shinigami, who were better at fighting, go first.

The rising smoke remained silent for too long, and the surrounding Tenth Division members grew more and more tense.

"D-did we kill it?"

"Don't say something stupid. That is an Adjuchas!"

"Then why is there no reaction?"

Suddenly, a scream rang out from inside the smoke.

"Aah!"

In the next moment, accompanied by a series of impossibly heavy impacts against the ground, the Adjuchas walked out of the smoke without a scratch.

Under the shocked and terrified gazes of the surrounding Tenth Division members, the Western lance in the Third Seat's hands had snapped. The man himself had been pierced through the chest by the Adjuchas's tail and dragged along the ground. Blood spilled across the grass in a long line, and his pain-warped face was howling aloud.

As for the Seventh Seat and Nineteenth Seat Taume Yoshigami, they were already half-kneeling behind the Adjuchas. Their faces were pale, and visible wounds across their bodies were bleeding steadily.

"What?!"

"How is that possible? The seated officers were defeated in an instant?"

"Completely... completely different levels!"

Under the Adjuchas's inverted stare, unconcealable fear gradually spread across the Shinigami's faces, and the Hollow seemed to grow excited.

"Yes. That is the sweet scent. Souls filled with intense emotional fluctuation. How delicious..."

Suddenly, one spider-like leg of the Adjuchas shot forward and pierced through the chest of the nearest Tenth Division member. It dragged the Shinigami in front of itself.

In the next instant, under the horrified gazes of the many Shinigami, the Adjuchas opened its mouth toward that Tenth Division member. Strands of soul were drawn out and swallowed into the Hollow's belly.

The Tenth Division member's expression gradually changed from terror to numb calm, and his struggles weakened further and further.

After throwing him aside like a torn rag, the Adjuchas seemed to savor the taste. Its unique composite voice rang out.

"Hooha... As expected, a true Shinigami soul is far more delicious than the souls of Rukongai residents. Such dense emotion... ah, it fills me. My hollow heart finally feels richly full..."

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