The Duel (Orgoth)

On a hill overlooking the sea, a short distance from his homeland, Jensen sat in peaceful contemplation. it was dark, they sky was clear of clouds. The stars cast faint light in the area. The trees around kept a heavy wind off him, and allowed him to sit in the rocky clearing without worrying about people spotting him unless they walked straight into the clearing.

He sighed when he suddenly felt the amergence of hollow in the area, a few probably drawn by the people living at the foot of the hill. He stood up and started walking towards them, slowly drawing his sword. He let his energy leak to draw them back towards him, and when they arrived he moved so fast they were turning to dust as he sheated his sword again. And then he felt something else appear...

Calm. Scenic. Undisturbed. Clara understood why he had picked the place. She cocked her head slightly, watching from a tall tree overlooking the clearing. Her stealth skill meant she was undetected from her vantage point. She watched the brown-haired man sit in contemplative stoicism as she considered what she had come here to ask of him. In truth, she was ashamed at having to ask her former master for help, but she knew it would benefit the many if he granted her request. She was here on behalf of a human she had met, who was working for the Coalition. While she generally stayed away from the humans and their chaotic tendencies, this particular human was special to her. The human was Elsa Arendelle, and she was special in the way that she was actually older than Clara herself, thought admittedly she spent the vast majority of her life frozen under a glacier. The other interesting fact about her was that she was a child of Arngrim's, from his human life, thus technically Elsa was Clara's step-daughter.

Clara dismissed her face masked that she used to hide her identity. Secrecy had become a way of life for her some time ago, and especially now that her husband, the Arrancar king Arngrim Wolfcloak, had been killed and replaced. She and her daughter Olivia had been lucky to escape that fight alive, and she was determined to keep her safe. Clara sighed. A unit of Hollow had shown up, though they were quickly dispatched by the man. As she expected. That was why she was here. The man was Jensen Reinhart, the greatest swordsman history has seen. She wanted to put Elsa under his tutelage, to learn the way of the sword and to protect her. She may have failed to protect her husband, but she was going to protect his children. Elsa had a younger sister, Anna, but she was already well-versed in combat, having had a military career.

Clara waited until the last Hollow was disposed of before opening a portal for herself. She jumped through, landing a few yards behind Jensen as he sheathed his sword. She bowed as he turned around. "Hello sir. It's been a while has it not?"

Jensen grinned when he seen her. "Clara." He walked forward and clapped her on the shoulder as she bowed. "Hey now, you know i hate that kind of thing. Your not my student any more, you konw." He said grinning. He looked the woman up and down. She looked older, not physically since shinigami aged so slowly it would take another thousand years before you could see any signs of it, but she was definately not the woman he'd trained years ago.

As he looked at her, he noticed something else too, the features of her face, the build of her body, he was surprised it took seeing her again to realize that she was Olivia's mother. Somehow Jensen could see her having something to do with Arngrim wolfcloaks recent change of heart, and also that she must be feeling the pain of his loss by the look of grief in her eyes. He didn't need to be a mind reader to tell these things, even if he hadn't seen her in a few hundred years, he knew her well enough.

He could also see the question in her face. She wanted something, and knowing how she was, it was probably something very important because she never asked him for help if it was trivial. He didn't ask what right away though, rather he let her ask him in her own time and smiled. "It's been far to long, Clara. I would have welcomed the occasional visit. I've trained allot of people, but you've always been my finest pupil." He said. Then he grinned. "I know you need something. But before you ask me, I think it only fair you show me how strong you've become. Agreed?"

Clara grinned sheepishly when Jensen commented on her respectful addressing of him. "I know sir. Old habits die hard though, as they say." Jensen surveyed his former pupil, taking in her changed physique and bearing. She stood taller and more assured than when they had last met. Experience had hardened her, giving her both an identity and an edge. She listened, looking slightly sheepish when Jensen pointed out her not visiting, and spoke of her being his finest pupil. "I know sir. There were... complications. I didn't want to burden anyone else with my problems." Jensen stated his desire to test Clara before he addressed what she needed. "Agreed. In that case, allow me to skip the warm-up." Clara bowed respectfully, then un-sheathed her sword and sheathed it again in a flash, using her Solar Flare to blur Jensen's vision before shunpo-ing backwards and leaving an afterimage in her wake.

With a small distance now created between them, Clara entered Bankai and equipped her Hollow Mask. Clara waited for Jensen to look at her, then used her Portal Catapult. Generating a portal right in front of her, she shunpo'd through it, accelerating to 3x the speed she entered it. She emerged almost instantaneously from a portal that formed behind Jensen, slashing at him at 3x shunpo speeds. Hit or miss, she would slide a bit before stopping, then spinning to regard her opponent.

Jensen smiled and spun away as she tried to solar flare him. "Oh come on i thought you that move." He said laughing as he faced her. She had speed on him, he had to admit that. She was already gone but there was no life in the image before him so he simply stepped through it to see her darting at him. A portal opened up and she vanished, and he spun almost to slow. Almost. There was a screech of steel on steel as she shot at him far faster than he'd ever seen her move, but his shield was suddenly between them, as black armor covered his body. The force of the blow sent him sliding back with her but that impact must have rattled her bones, becuase he definately felt that.

Jensen smiled as he looked her in the eye. "Impressive." He grinned, then he moved forward at half his speed, coming in with an arcing slash, forcing her to block or dodge and distract her when he suddenly shot into her at full speed, and tried to slam into her with his shield. He flipped his sword, catching the blade with his gauntlet and tried to hook her ankle, if he did indeed knock her off balance with his shield, then he backed off to let her recover if need be.

Clara felt the impact of her attack on Jensen's shield rattle her to the core. She smiled knowingly as she watched Jensen's Bankai release. "Thank you." Jensen moved in and came down(?) with an arcing slash. She saw the deception as it transpired. Sheathing rapidly and switching to the White blade(Reiatsu), she made to block the slash, only to realize the shield was coming. Thinking quickly, she accelerated swiftly and slid on her knees, taking her underneath the oncoming shield charge. She tried to use her sheath to take Jensen's legs out from underneath him as she slid past. If successful, she would turn and allow him to get up before continuing.

Either way, Clara took aim at Jensen and used her Rapid Reiatsu Rend. She slashed three times at him, but each slash resulted in three more slashes assaulting him from various angle. Then, she braced herself for the rebuttal.

(more like diagonally but its cool)

Jensen seen the counter before it was to late and jumped into the air, sailing over Clara before she could hit him. He landed and spun as she came at him with a triple slice and used sword and shield to block and parry her initial attacks. He was then barraged from different angles by the three other slashes. The first left a deep cut in his armor and and cut his arm, but the other two failed to get through the tougher areas. She definately had the speed advantage here, but Jensen could hit harder.

He launched into a counter starting with pulse wave. He swung both sword and shield outwards, launching a pair of the heavy waves of reiatsu to trap Clara in a V shaped wave of energy that would do no harm but would push her back, and then shunpo'd behind her and the two waves hopefully before she recovered. He drew back his sword as it charged with energy, and launched out a celestial slash from behind. The blade of energy would hit with the force of a cero oscuros.

Clara saw the Pulse Wave coming, and leaped over the V-shaped energy wave. In -mid-air, she saw Jensen shunpo-ing to behind her. She landed nimbly and spun as the second attack came in. She was unprepared for the speed of it as the slash came in. Reacting by pure instinct, Clara activated her Defense Matrix, blocking the energy but not the force. The Crimson Samurai was sent hurtling through a few trees and landing in a tangle of roots. "Well, that was a thing." She stood quickly and re-acquired Jensen.

Clara sped towards Jensen, changing to her Martial Blade on the way. She strafed as she went, leaving Afterimages of herself to try and throw Jensen off. Channelling her Inner Focus, which gave her an increase of 30% to her Speed and Strength for 3 posts, she led with a swift unsheath-slash at the man's midriff. Knowing it would be blocked, she continued the movement, using her sheath to try and bat the shield away, even just a little bit as she spun. She then spun her sword with lightning quickness and aimed a stab behind her and into Jensen's shoulder. She then completed the movement by kicking off from Jensen and backflipping away to about 15 ft away.

Jensen seen the midriff slash coming and turtled down, his defense blocking the blade with a loung crack of steel on steel. An normal sword would have shattered. A normal shield would have been rent in two though. He seen the next move before it happened and tried to resist, but his defense slipped as his shield was knocked askew enough to allow Clara to finish her combo and stab her sword into his right shoulder, coming away bloody despite his armor. Jensen however was hardly bothered, and as Clara tried to kick off him like he was a spring board, he threw his sword upwards and attempted to grab her by the leg.

If he succeeded in catching her leg, he would, without being gentle, swing her over him and slam her into the ground, releasing her foot and catching his sword by the handle as it came back down. Assuming that worked and she was still in the same place he moved into his reaping the barley stance, and used the technique Rock Falls from cliff, slamming his sword down between Clara's legs with enough force to lift her off the ground and send her flying. It was only a shockwave though and wouldn't harm her directly.

If the initial grab failed Jensen would instead take a different stance, rain on stone, and rush directly at Clara with his shield using the technique boar rushes downhill. Even if he didn't reach, a powerful shockwave would blast off from his shield and knock her back, and if it hit would leave her open up for what followed. Jensen would activate his black hole ability behind clara, and the move would start puling her towards it. A few seconds later it exploded with the force of a cero in 30ft and would also scatter out some rocks it had sucked in. Assuming he didn't catch her leg to begin with.

Clara scored with the first blood on Jensen. Her sword pierced the warrior's soldier, but it was only a light wound. Jensen had encountered far worse than that, she was sure. She back-flipped using Jensen as a springboard, narrowly avoiding Jensen's hand as he attempted to grab her leg. She landed deftly, only to see that Jensen was charging directly at her, shield up. She braced herself to either dodge or block the charge, but Jensen stopped short. She hesitated for just a moment which left her open to the shock-wave that burst from Jensen's shield the instant he stopped. The blast hit her square in the chest, sending her flying backwards into the next attack. A strong gravimetric force appeared behind her, pulling her into its centre. It then exploded, sending her hurtling through some more trees. She landed hard on her side, but used her momentum to swing herself back up to her feet, cutting up any rocks that followed her with lightning speed. She surveyed herself, noticing her armor was broken in places, and she sported cuts and bruises in a few places.

Clara wiped the blood from her blade on her cloak. She spun her blade and sheathed it. Jensen stood before her. Clara lowered her head and shunpo'd towards him, zig-zagging her approach. Upon reaching him, she jumped up above him and began to slash down at him, but feinted and thrust her sword pommel at him. The Force Blast that issued forth was the equivalent of Hado #1. The blast was intended to force Jensen down. She then continued her movement and landed behind him. Whether Jensen flinched from the force or blocked it with his shield, she would switch to her Cold Blade and thrust at him 3 times with her Flash Freeze ability, once on each leg and once more at his sword-arm. If they hit, they would encase his legs and arm with strong ice, pinning him to the floor and hampering his arm. She would then use Power Strike to hit him with a Gran Rey-level ice slash.

Jensen kinda blinked a little at the force blast. He didn't know what she'd expected with that particular move, however when she landed down he responded by slamming his blade at her feet to treat her to a more powerful force blast of his own. Even if it didn't effect her fully it threw off the attacks she had planned for him and two missed, the third scrapping across his shield and along the upper part of his arm as he lunged towards her with a powerful thrust aimed at her gut. He slashed the blade upwards and over himself as he stepped in and attempted to slam the edge of his shield towards her but his attack fell a little short when he realised his shield arm was a bit frozen. This realisation came around the same time as she struck with her power slash.

Jensen wasn't used to being turned into a human pinata, so what followed was a rare experience for him as he was smashed into by the wave of ice that sent him flying. He landed on his back and bounced, rolling through the air as he was flipped back onto his feet. He regarded Clara with cool calm, and suddenly grinned inside his helmet. With a dash of speed he moved at her, forming an energy chain with a ball at the end. it attached to his sword and he swung it around at her. However clara was not the target. The ground next to her was so even if she dodged the ball, what followed would not be pleasant.

With a radius of 50ft and the explosive force of a gran rey, it would be interesting to see if she escaped, or more likely was sent rocketing away from him into the trees. It would be a bit of pay back for the rent in his chest plate, and the loss of pride he suffered from being turned into a bowling ball.

Clara was jostled heavily by Jensen's reactionary force strike, but one of the Flash Freeze attacks hit home, albeit on the wrong arm. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise however, as Jensen attempted to line up another shield smash, only for the ice to hamper his movement just enough for Clara's follow-up attack to connect. Jensen was sent tumbling but nimbly landed on his feet. He looked at Clara and she looked straight back at him. This was turning out to be fun, even if she would be nursing the bruises and cuts for a while. She knew he was planning something diabolical. She could almost see the evil smile under his helmet.

Then, Clara was rocked as the energy flail that Jensen had produced missed her, but fulfilled its duty regardless. She only managed to bring her sheath in front of her to no avail as the Gran Rey blast sent her flying and she came to rest about 20 yards away, upside down against a tree root. "Well, this is awkward." She stood up groggily, sheathed her sword and sealed her Bankai away. She walked towards Jensen with a slight limp, and she clutched her ribs. She breathed heavily as she spoke. "I think... you've convinced me.... thank you."

Clara found a rock that hadn't been destroyed and sat down gingerly. "As you might know already, I need your guidance, and a favor." She pulled picture from beneath her cloak. She handed it to Jensen to look at. "This is Elsa. She is a human currently working for the Coalition in their medical department. She is possessed of incredible raw power, and she is a good person. Most of her abilities are either healing or defense-based. She has enough power to cause significant damage, but she lacks refinement. She has no combat training. That is why I have come. I wish to ask you to train her."

Jensen laughed at clara as she de-rooted herself and clambered onto her feet from the base of the tree. He winced right after as his rib cage protested against this. She might be limping but she wasn't the only one battered senseless. Jensen sealed his bankai and retrieved his houri from a rock. His chest and shoulder were bleeding from wounds, but the rest of him was only bruised. Unlike Clara he had a very talented wife who could fix him up, albiet he was going to get an ear full over it regardless of who his opponent had been.

Jensen stopped to listen to Clara as she spoke. He nodded as he did. "I believe I've heard of this woman and her sister. My sister encountered them a month or so ago." He said as he examined the picture. "Anna saved Eve's life. I think I owe them enough to Train Elsa. That and i've missed having a student around. I'll speak to Grainne about getting Elsa permission to enter the soul society for a few weeks of training." Jensen said. He handed her back the picture. "So what did you need Guidance with?"

Clara bowed respectfully when Jensen finished speaking. "Thank you. I knew I could trust you. But there is one more thing you should know. I looked up some information on the fall of Arendelle, the kingdom that Elsa ruled before she was encased in ice. Her father was Arngrim. He was ruler of that kingdom in his human life. But she does not know." She removed her mask so she could look Jensen eye-to-eye. "I need your guidance on this matter. I know it would be disrespectful to keep the life her father lived as an Arrancar a secret from her. But how will she react to the news of his death? What could it be like? To lose your father, and then over a thousand years later to lose him again?" Clara's gaze turned inward, as she struggled to find some wisdom to rely on.

Jensen sighed at the revelation. That man was something else all together. "Why am i not surprised." He said, face palming. "Arngrim did some.. Terrible things. But he was also an honorable man, and as much as I disliked him, it would be unkind to keep this from her. I understand now too why you have so much interesting in Elsa. However I think it best to keep this from her for now. If she found out, she might seek revenge and end up getting herself killed trying to do so." Jensen said.

He shook his head. "We'll have to think carefully about when and how to tell her. However right now I think We're both in need of some healing and food. Why don't you join me in the Seireitei, for dinner." He said with a sudden smile. "It's been so long since we've spoken, I've just realised you haven't met my wife and daughter. I think you'd like Marie." He said. He wondered if Clara knew about her and Arngrim. Regardless it wasn't his place to say anything. He didn't want Clara running into heuco mundo to slap Azazael into the ground for that.

Clara nodded. She noted - not for the first time - that whenever Jensen spoke to offer advice, he spoke with such a measured and assured cadence and tone that you couldn't help but at least consider what he had to offer, regardless of what it was. He was right though. The last thing they needed was Elsa to go and get herself killed. "You are right. It is not the time. We should wait until she has trained with you. If she she pays as much attention as I did, she will learn patience. I am grateful that I had the chance to train with you. I learned far more than just sword skill."

Clara smiled when Jensen offered dinner. "I would be honored. I've never met Marie in person. I only saw her when she was with Arngrim. It's alright, I'm sure it was worse for you than it was for me. I used to monitor the traffic in and out of Las Noches to keep an eye on my kids. Speaking of which, do you think it will be alright if I bring Olivia? She hasn't taken Arngrim's death particularly well so I want to try and help. She trusts you and she has already met the Captain-Commander."

"It wasn't hard for me. She did what she needed to survive, and I don't think either of them ever really loved each other. Regardless its in the past. Better to not even bring it up, right?" He said laughing. He drew his sword and unlocked a senkaimon infront of them. "Come on then. We can portal back out and pick up Olivia, then ask Grainne about allowing Elsa into Seireitei and you can bring her in tomorrow to begin. Who knows maybe Grainne will join us for dinner too."