The edge of despair (tier up)

(this is the tier up for Orgoth's Olivia, Graham's Styxx and Rase's Keirn if he accepts. 10 posts each minimum before the tier up will be looked at and new tiers, if earned, will be given. Have fun. )

A few miles out from the fortress of los noches, a large muscular man with red hair and a beard stood on a chariot pulled by two hollow horses. He wore a finely decorated leather chestplate and leather vambraces lined with fir, a leather and red cloth tasset hung around his waist, with leather shingaurds, also lined with fur, and black, thick leather boots. A long red cloak with golden patterns hung from his shoulders, the top, inside and base were lined with the fur of a wolf, as his name suggested.

Arngrim's espada was lacking in number, his forces were weakened and he needed to strengthen them. Normally he would only recognize the strong as people worthy to face him in battle, but today he would make an exception. He had sent out a few messengers to bring notice to arrancar with the highest potential to be become espada, and he would shape them into such with his own two hands, or kill them, even if two of them were his children. Arngrim waited for everyone to arrive.

He had been wondering through the deserts of hueco mundo. The deserts had seemed to clear his mind ever since he had been brought out into them as a child. He grew up here, and he had learned it's rules long ago, it was this places rules that forged him and made him what he had become. He continued walking through the sands pondering his position in the whole hierarchy of things. He had stayed under his father this entire time in fear of being banished again. Even now when he couldn't stand up against his father he relied upon his sister and others. As his anger began to spike as did his spiritual energy. He hadn't noticed this however and eventually he attracted the attention of someone unwanted. It wasn't a hollow, and they didn't approach him with weapon drawn. He crouched down into a position prepared to strike at them as he placed his hand near his blade. When they landed in front of him and made no move to grab a weapon he yelled out, "What reason do you have to be here, to speak to me? How do you even know me!"

Within minutes he was rushing the in the direction the arrancar had come from. His face was partially contorted into a face of anger, the other half seemed to be trying to smile. He had been called by his father, he knew that this was his chance to either hold his ground and branch his own future out. He also understood that this was the time that he could finally be wiped away from his fathers existence, the small plague he had been as a child, powerless and weak. To have not grown in strength since then would make him just a useless plague in the ranks of the arrancar, yet today he knew he would encounter others stronger or even just as strong as himself. The messenger had mentioned that those with the potential to become espada had been called, not just himself.

When he arrived he held his ground across from his father standing with his arms crossed as his cowl waved slightly in the dessert breeze, his eyes locked onto his father. He didn't know whether he appreciated his father for what he did, or held pure malice. His skin seemed to glow as he stood there beneath the moon of hueco mundo, and his dark blue eyes seemed like black orbs. His silver hair denied what his fathers brilliant red. "So you know old man, I don't think I ever asked who are mother was." He let out the statement with slight curiosity in his voice. He doubted he would even remember who there mother was, or if he would even answer. He had just wanted to break the silence as they waited for the others to arrive.

Liv Firestorm was anxious. Arngrim, her father, had issued a challenge in order to bolster his Espada ranks. Arrancar from far and wide were summoned to prove their worth by fighting to the death, the survivors then taken into consideration for Espada membership. But Liv wasn't interested in that. She was here simply to kill. Any chance to thin out the Arrancar population was a chance she was willing to take. Besides, she thought, I'm long overdue for a reunion with Pops and who knows, maybe Styxx will show his face. Liv had not seen her twin brother in some time. He had been training hard, and she wanted to see how strong he had gotten.

Arriving at the designated location, Liv saw none other than Styxx standing before her, between her and her father. An evil smile crossed her face when she spoke. "Well, isn't this a happy family portrait?" She nodded at Styxx, "Brother, faring well I hope?", and then at Arngrim, "Father, why don't you answer his question?" Liv swished her hair back and cockily crossed her arms, not losing the evil smirk.

Arngrim was pleased to see his son arrived. Not pleased in a proud father kind of way, but more so pleased to know that he was at least willing to risk his life to become stronger. It lessened his distaste of the boy's existence. If he kept this up, the boy might actually grow on Arngrim. He still couldn't hold back a snear as the boy nonchalantly addressed his as old man. The lack of respect shown annoyed him enough that he had to restrain himself from firing a cero at styxx right then.

Styxx asked about his mother. Arngrim frowned. That was the first time either of his children asked about her. A voice from behind Styxx signified that another person had arrived. Arngrim's frown turned to a genuine smile when he realized it was Olivia. Arngrim stepped off his chariot and walked around styxx so he could see her properly. Annoyingly, she asked about their mother too. Arngrim sighed.

"What's all this interest in your mother all of a sudden. You haven't asked about her since you were toddlers, why now, right this minute?" He said with a sigh. Arngrim held back any sign of emotion. He wasn't about to explain to his children that she'd been the only woman he'd ever loved, truly, but it might shed some light on why he was so disdainful of styxx, who'd been the primary cause of her death, and why he favored Olivia so much, who resembled their mother in allot of ways. Arngrim let anger flair to the surface. "I will tell you of her later. If you survive." He growled.

"Dodge!" He whipped around a hand and launched a cero in between the two, then sprung away, landing about 10 feet back. "Your survival depends on this moment! Stand and fight, or flee!" Arngrim roared as his form started to blurr and the sand began to tremble. "Set the world aflame and darken its sky, Harbinger, Ressurection Segunda!" Arngrim roared. Fires burst into life and vanished rapidly around him as his power skyrocketed. His body quickly grew and began to take on the form of a dragon almost. Thick armored plates covered his long body and tail, his wings were engulfed in flames. His forarms had massive blades and his hands had thick claws. his tail, long and thick, had an axe like set of blades on the end of it. Fires burst into life on parts of his body, while earth seemed to grow over others.

Arngrim stood up, his full hight reaching over 17 feet. He looked down on his two children as he sensed others arrive. He chuckled. " It seems we have guests. Your not the only ones here to try for espada." Arngrim said. He turned and looked at the two arrivals. They tensed. Arngrim fired a beam of fire from his eyes that roasted the two arrancar alive in a matter of seconds. He turned back to Liv and Styxx. "Weaklings." he said. But he seemed to frown. He couldn't fight them like this, he would kill them far to easily. But he didn't have to power down either.

A gate of stone burst from the earth and flickered into life as a portal opened. Nothing happened for a moment, and then a massive monster burst out of the rift, roaring as it crashed into the sand and turned towards Arngrim. The creature was 10 feet tall on all fours and over 18 feet long, covered in thick armored plates, with a massive pair of horns.

"Kreshta, its good to see you. These are my children. Why don't you play with them for a while. And By play with, I mean kill." The massive monster roared in response and turned towards Styxx and Liv. It opened its mouth again and unleashed a cero powered blast of lava at styxx, then spun and used its tail as a whip to smash Liv.

Arngrim:

Kreshta:

He let his own spiritual pressure release as his father let out the remark of if they made it out alive. He already knew he was going to have trouble fighting their father but not giving him the knowledge of their mother before dying, he at least had a goal set out before him in this fight. He was just curious why their father was so overly defensive about giving out information about their own mother. As the cero came flying towards them he leapt backward away from Arngrim, his shield off his back, before him in his right hand now, his sword in his left hand, he didn't want to take the possibility of the blast damaging. "If we choose to run from this occasion, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have showed up in the first place!"

Yet his entire emotional state changed as he heard Arngrim's call out, his blood ran cold, he doubted himself. He doubted his ability to fight his father again, all of their matches had resulted in him losing. When he looked over at his sister though courage ran back into him, he had more to defend than just himself and curiosity. He was prepared to put down his life for the sake of helping his sister, even if he were to die if she made her own goal succeed. He felt his heart drop again when he watched the two arrancars that neared them to join in on the fight near instantly obliterated. He let his mind reach the end of it's brink and jump into wrath and hate. His father was going to kill them, HE KNEW HE COULD KILL THEM!, Why was he doing this if he knew so easily!

When the portal kicked open his anger died down, his curiosity spiking, curious of what his father was doing. His heart couldn't sink any further when he saw the creature that ripped it's way out of the opening. When he heard his fathers voice and what he said he knew he would need his anger again to take the creature on, but despair held him cold in his tracks. When it opened it's mouth and fired off it's cero he finally moved, his heart and mind settled on taking the creature out. He knew he would have to release if he were to fight this creature properly.

"Burittsu, inazumasenshi!" His body ignited into spikes as he sonido'd himself towards the creature his buster blade off his back. Electricity coursing along his body and armor as he let out a primal roar, he began spinning like a top before bringing the blade down trying to shatter a single plate of armor on the creature. A cero in his left hand forming before he lobbed it at the armored plate. He intended to peel this creature down to nothing one stroke of his blade at a time.

Liv sensed an attack coming long before she saw her father incinerate the two other Arrancar that had arrived looking to gain membership of the Espada. They didn't stand a chance. Normally, the blatant disregard for life that her father had just shown would have enraged her. However, she had no sympathy for them, simply because they were Arrancar, and they probably deserved it. She noted her father's defensiveness on the subject of their mother. She wondered about this, and also about the affection he showed her constantly, as well as the lack of affection shown to Styxx. But these thoughts were soon driven out of her mind.

Arngrim fired a cero at them, making a small crater between them as Liv back-flipped out of the way. The hairs stood up on the back of her neck as she saw her father enter straight into Ressureccion Segunda, taking the form of some sort of frightful fire demon. Looking at Styxx, she was alarmed to see his eyes, full of confidence a moment ago, suddenly wide and frightful. "Time to Blayze through the battlefield!" she yelled, summoning her flash gauntlets and greaves. Then she shouted to Styxx, "Styxx don't lose heart! Show him your strength!" Liv knew that he had the ability and the power, he just needed to bring it out.

She stopped dead when Arngrim summoned his favorite pet, Kreshta the Magma Mauler, from the ether. She cried out when the beast fired a cero powered blast of lava at Styxx, but she was cut short when she was forced to front-roll over a massive tail that tried to smash her. In response she called out, "Ressurrecion!". Liv's flash gauntlets transformed into her signature hollow gauntlets. She ran at the creature and jumped over it firing Power Shots into the creature's head. These shots inflict a cero's worth of damage, and one was fired from each gauntlet. She then landed behind the creature and pumped her gauntlets, moving all the while as to not present a static target. Liv knew her attacks would cause minimal damage, but she hoped they would cause a distraction at least.

Arngrim watch in interest as the battle began. Styxx went in with his sword to try and crack Kreshna's shell, but the blade barely left a scratch as it bounced off the rocky hide. Kreshna counter with a quick turn that lead into an attempted head butt, using its massive tusks to try and gore styxx. A pair of shots smashed into its neck from Olivia's attack. Kreshna smashed down into the earth and brough all of its weight around, and then it lunged forward attempting to swat Olivia from the air with massive claws, meanwhile it's tail flicked around and tried to hit styxx if he was still in range.

With each heavy movement the ground shook and Kreshna's feet dug into sand. Arngrim found himself amused by the creatures prowess even in an unfamiliar landscape. though he definitely noticed the sand was proving to be an obstacle. With a tap of his foot the sand beneath their feet bonded together and hardened into stone, giving Kreshna a better surface to grip, allowing the creature to gain a little more speed as it pushed off the round and slam its shoulder towards Olivia.