The Rigors of Training (Tier up)

(tier up for bella from 2-1 to 1-4 in final form and hyper mode only. She is still subject to her power block. Will permanently upgrade her to 1-4 after She is free from Amarius.)

Bella sat on the wall, waiting for clara to arrive. It was a special day for Bella. The first real step in her training since she started training with Clara. Bella was equally scared and excited. She had no idea what Clara had in store for her, but she ready. Or atleast she hoped she was. Clara was a mean cookie. Not in the way that bad people were mean, or even mean to her. She was just. Tough. A tough cookie.

Bella was so busy thinking about mean cookies vs tough cookies that when clara finally showed up, she didn't even notice her. She stared at the ground, wondering where Clara was when she heard a cough and her head snapped up. She smiled at Clara. "Hia." She said, and hopped off the wall. "So what do you plan to do today?"

Clara's face was impassive as she approached her charge in order to administer a new lesson. The toughest one to date. The difficulty in training young Bella was not in conveying technique or knowledge. After all, despite the lack of wisdom and common sense the girl possessed a keen mind and learn all of the theory faster than anybody she'd ever met. The trick was the practical application of said theory. Because for all of Clara's desire to toughen and wise up this young one, Bella had a bumbling earnestness to her that disarmed Clara a lot of the time. The result was Clara not properly enforcing her discipline. She was still tough on her, but not as tough as Clara knew she had to be. Today though, things were about to change. Clara had retreated to the mountains briefly to meditate, and then took a trip to Hueco Mundo, pushing herself to rediscover her edge. She believed now she was ready.

Clara arrived while Bella was absentmindedly staring at the floor. Clara cleared her throat, and Bella looked up sharply and greeted her. Clara bowed respectfully. "Bella. I hope you are ready. This will be your toughest task yet." Clara gripped her sword handle and assumed a combat stance. "I will push you to your limits, and a bit further. I am no longer your friend. I am now an enemy. You will show me no mercy. Ready? On the count of three. One, two-" Without warning Clara suddenly swung the sheathe of her weapon into Bella's face, hitting the young girl flush across the jaw, before the count had finished. Clara then backed away and readied herself. "You were not ready. Come at me now!" Clara waited until Bella began to do something, and launched into her Portal Catapult, opening the portal to her side and flashing through. She emerged instantly behind Bella at triple shunpo speed, aiming a forearm strike for the back of Bella's head. If she hit or missed, she would roll through and prepare for the return.

Clara told Bella that the fight to come would be one of the most brutal fights she had ever experienced. The was no more games, or playing. Bella was worried by this, so much so she didn't actually realize the fight had begun when Clara clocked Bella in the face and knocked her on her ass. Bella stood up, two swords appearing around her, and Clara began again. She moved before Bella could attack though, and hit her from the side sending her flying.

Bella hit the ground and skipped off it once, then began to levitate. Anger flashed in her eyes but it was gone again in a second as she tracked Clara and shot a bolt of lightning from her hands. The lightning moved as fast as a Bala and hit as hard as a cero. At the same time she cast split and mega ball, splitting the attack between her two swords, which had spread out 20ft on either side of her and fired the mega ball at Clara's next location.

Clara measured Bella's response. She had seen the flash of anger in Bella's eyes, but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared. Bella fired a lightning attack at her, which Clara dealt with using her Defense Matrix. Then, Clara observed Bella charging her two floating swords, and firing attacjs from them. Switching to her white Reiatsu blade, Clara shot forward, leaving an Afterimage behind to take the attack as she slid underneath it. Then, Clara suddenly shifted direction, veering to her left and Bella's right. She gripped her sword firmly, and fired off her Rapid Reiatsu Rend attack. Clara unsheathed her sword with such speed that, for each apparent slash she performed, three actual energy slashes assailed Bella from various angles, though all from the one direction. Clara sped around Bella, using this technique two more times, leaving four more Afterimages along the way.

Clara stopped her assault and faced Bella, the red details of her armour and mask glowing threateningly and indicating her Bankai status. She pointed her sword at Bella and shouted at her. "You're holding back still! Let your power and anger fill your body! Let it fuel you, or you will not survive! Now, come at me again!" Clara readied herself again, preparing for Bella's next move. Clara had held back so far, but the stakes were about to get higher. Pushing her own personal feelings about Bella to the back of her mind, Clara now viewed Bella as just another victim now.

By the time Bella realised she'd hit an after image, Clara was moving to her right and fired an attack that Bella had barely any time to dodge. The attacks shot past and ripped up the ground. Then Clara moved and used it again, while Bella was still recovering from the last attack. She threw up protect, and two of the blades hit her shield, before it shattered and the third one hit her dead on. Bella was sent flying by the attack that left a cut across her ribs.

Clara appeared again, and fired another trio of attacks. There was no way of avoiding this. She would die. The realization struck her, and Bella's locked power snapped forth, and a shield of energy burst out of her, hitting the 3 reiatsu rends, and sent them flying back at Clara. The power came and went in an instant, and she was back to her normal self. Because Clara wouldn't actually try to kill her. This was just a test.

"Woo, that was close you could have killed me." She said, not grasping the extent of the danger she was in. She Levitated into the air, righting herself and fired a barrage of fire balls at Clara, each the power of a cero. They spread out inaccurately, creating a wide barrage of destructive fire. Bella split her swords into daggers, spread them out around her and fired 20 mana bolts at clara, 5 from each dagger.

Clara watched as Bella suddenly exploded with a burst of power, sending her reiatsu slashes back at her. The raven-haired Vizard expertly parried the slashes away with her blade. Bella then returned to normal, and after Clara barked her instruction to attack, Bella went on the offensive. She levitated into the air and sprayed a volley of fireballs everywhere, peppering Clara and her immediate vicinity. Clara used her blade to cut any of the ones that were heading for her with expert skill. Clara then switched to her blue Ice blade and used her sheath to bat away some of the mana bolts as she sped forward and simply absorbed the rest. They were nice techniques, but Clara was simply far to powerful. She shunpo'd directly towards Bella and stopped just a foot in front of her. Clara unsheathed and sheathed her sword with blinding speed, unleashing her Solar Flare in Bella's face. If Bella couldn't avoid it, her vision would be blurred for a post. Either way, Clara would then attempt to smash Bella towards the ground with her sheath. If she missed, Clara would spin through and follow through with a spinning heel kick with the same trajectory. If she hit, grand.

Clara then dropped down to the ground a couple of yards away and jammed her sword in the ground to initiate her Perforate attack. Ten spikes of ice emerged from ground and shot towards Bella, attempting to impale her all over. Clara then followed up with a Power Strike, sending a wave of cold energy equivalent to a Gran Rey Cero at her protege.

Bella barely dodged the downwards strike but was caught with the kick that followed, moving her two blades to intercept and block it, she was sent flying anyway. She hit something hard and almost collapsed. But then she seen Clara raise her sword to stab the ground, and assumed it was for a good reason. She shot one of her blades at Clara, but before it would hit she switched with it, causing her to appear in front of Clara as Clara was winding for an attack.

A ball of energy appeared in Bella's hands as the attack was launched, and most of it was absorbed into the ball. The rest of the energy hit Bella and sent her flying just as one of her swords appeared and and a beam of cold energy was shot at Clara.

Clara was caught slightly by surprise as Bella shot one of her swords forwards and then suddenly switched places with it, absorbing some of the attack into a ball of energy before being blasted away by the rest. A sword appeared nearby when this happened, and the absorbed energy fired back out from it in the form of a beam of cold. Clara was hit in the chest, knocking some of the air out of her and she staggered backwards a bit but she remained on her feet. She held her chest where the attack hit for a second, just to catch her breath a bit, before fixing back on Bella.

"That's more like it, but I need more. I'm trying to kill you! Hit me harder!" Clara changed her blade to what appeared to be a normal sword blade. This was her Martial Blade, which relied on Clara's physical skill rather than her spirit. She used her Inner Focus, giving her a thirty percent boost to her Speed and Strength. Then, she charged forward while Bella was still gathering her bearings, leaving a couple of Afterimages in her wake. She feinted to slash high but instead changed at the last possible second and delivered a kick to the gut. If she hit with it and Bella doubled over as intended, Clara would follow up with a straight punt to the face, attempting to send Bella send skywards, following that up if it hit by Shunpo'ing up after her and smashing her back to earth with her Sheathe Bat.

Bella couldn't keep up at this point, and as she recoiled from a high slash, she was kicked in the gut. Doubling over she received a knee to the face containing enough force to send her flying into the air,. Clara appeared above her and slammed her sheath into Bella. She heard bone crack as she was rocketed towards the ground, impacting with allot of force.

Lying in the crater her small body created with the impact, she felt everything fade. She was going to die. Clara would kill her, she didn't understand why, but she was. Bella almost excepted it. But then she felt something give. Her shield flickered with a faint light, and she felt her wound's begin to heal. She levitated up, as her focus snapped into place. She looked at Clara, as four more of her swords popped into existance around her.

All six swords began unleashing a 30 strong barrage of elemental bolts, 50% fire, 50% energy damage, 5 shot from each sword. As she straightened some more, energy built up around her, and then the ground started to crack. A rock launched at Clara, and then half the wall bell had been sitting on early ripped up, cracking into pieces and began chasing clara. More rocks floated up to surround Bella, as a spear of Psionic energy appeared infront of her. It, and all of the rocks around Bella shot at clara.

The spear hit the ground near Clara, with a cero powered blast, and began sucking in everything around it, including Clara if she was not heavy or strong enough to resist its pull. After a few seconds, it exploded with the force of a gran rey cero, with a 30ft radius. Bella watched silently, preparing her next attack.

Clara flinched internally as each of her strikes connected with sickening impact. Bella plummeted to the ground, landing hard and creating a crater in the earth. Clara floated slowly down to the ground and surveyed her young charge. Clara sighed. Maybe Bella just didn't have it in her after all. Clara bowed her head slightly with guilt. Guilt at letting Alistair down and for putting Bella through all of this punishment. She sheathed her sword and was about to take a step forward to tend to Bella, when suddenly Clara felt a power surge from Bella. The diminutive girl levitated up out of the crater, surrounded by a soothing light. Clara stared at her for a moment, taken aback momentarily by the sudden power increase. Bella had become exponentially more powerful, leading Clara to conclude that Bella had finally attained her Hyper Mode. Clara beamed with pride under her mask.

"That's it! You've done it! Now, give me all you've got!" Bella complied, abruptly barraging Clara and everything around her with fire bolts. Clara put up her Defence Matrix to deal with the ones that were on target. Clara began to move then, slaloming as the ground began to shake and lumps of rock began to pelt after her. The wall Bella had used as a seat earlier also fragmented and began to seek out Clara. The Vizard ducked and weaved, slashing any bits of debris that came too close. Then a psionic spear came from Bella's direction, along with a load more debris. Clara ducked the spear and began to deal with the debris, but she realised the secondary effect of the spear too late. She was sucked in to the psionic field before she could react, hurtling along the ground when the spear exploded with the force of a Gran Rey Cero.

Clara rose rapidly to her feet and observed Bella for a second. The young girl's expression was completely neutral now, a new focus in her eyes that had been absent before. Clara's adrenaline was pumping now with the renewed challenge. She switched to her Fire Blade and charged Bella, leaping over her and using her Blazing Javelin technique to throw her sword at Bella's feet. The sword would explode on impact with the force of a cero, then instantly reappear in her hand. Upon landing on the other side, Clara would then turn and slash downwards in Bella's direction, calling down her Flame Strike on the young fighter. A pillar of flame five feet wide would descend rapidly and upon contact with either Bella or the ground, it would explode like a Gran Rey Cero, setting fire to exposed fabrics or other flammable materials if Bella wasn't fast enough. Clara would then sheath her sword again and wait for the next phase.

Bella's shield blocked the explosion as earth erupted, and then Clara had it back in hand. She raised it, and swung down. To far to hit Bella, she guessed the woman was using an ability. Instead of waiting to see what would happen next she linked her restorative shield with iron guard, reinforcing her shield to the point that it could block a cero oscuras, just as a column of fire hit her from above. The attack staggered her, and the explosion knocked her back, but it failed to break her barrier.

Bella Tilted her head. She thought about the attack, and how it had formed. Then she sent out her swords to attack and distract clara. Each would move in and slash at the woman once each, before vanishing. The last one passed over her head, and slashed downwards like Clara had moments before, calling down a pillar of fire 12ft thick on Clara. It had a 30ft explosive radius and would deal a cero oscuras worth of damage on impact. Bella watched Clara's react, and prepared for the next assault. However she could already feel her power stating to wane.

Clara was again impressed with the newfound strength Bella possessed. The young girl managed to withstand the Flame Strike enough that she only took moderate damage from the force of the attack knocking her off her feet. Clara braced herself as Bella rose to her feet again and paused, as if mulling something over. Then, Clara drew her sword rapidly and began to parry the attacks from the swords, wanting to see what Bella had in store next. She soon found out.

One of the swords appeared above her and slashed downwards. Clara braced to parry, but the blade bypassed her completely. Confused, Clara suddenly looked up as the area brightened rapidly. There was a column of fire descending rapidly on her, identical to her own Flame Strike but on a vastly larger scale. Clara only had one option. She drew her sword and absorbed the attack into the blade, marvelling at the power behind it. When the attack was completely absorbed, Clara rose up into the air slowly, and then unleashed her charged Lunar Slice, sending an energy slash at Bella that packed the same force as the attack she had just absorbed. Clara silently dropped to the floor, her breathing visibly laboured, and her left eye showing where a large fragment of her mask was missing.

Bella called all of her swords back to her as The flame strike hit, and clara aborbed it. Clara fired a slash of energy and bella splayed out her swords into a barrier to block it. The force sent her and her blades flying backwards. She shot out two and used them to ancher her to a tree and a rock, bringing her to a stop. Then Bella clicked her fingers, calling them all back to her, and formed a circle with the blades, the handles facing in to the centre. She began to spin them, as the tips of the weapons closed together pointing at Clara. She could feel herself straining as the energy amassed in the centre of her spinning swords.

Unable to charge it fully, she unsleashed the expanding cone of energy at Clara's location. Trees, the ground and anything within a 100ft by 50ft cone was ripped away and destroyed. Then mass of energy flaired for a few seconds, and then it vanished. All of bella's swords vanished with it, as she looked at the destruction she had caused, and then she pitched forward onto her face, out cold.

Clara's Lunar Slice hurtled towards Bella, halting abruptly when it connected with a barrier put up by Bella's swords. The force of the attack still sent Bella flying, but she was able to recover quickly by anchoring herself to the terrain with a pair of swords. The swords then began to circle in front of Bella, and Clara felt an extremely large build-up of energy. The energy suddenly erupted in a green blast that expanded outwards rapidly. Clara, out of pure instinct, threw up her Defense Matrix and dived to the side in a last gasp effort to mitigate the damage. Clara was hit across her midriff and sent spinning, smashing through some trees and landing hard against a boulder.

When the dust settled, Clara stood up gingerly and looked around. A large area around her had been devastated, with the largest remains being a few rocks here and there. Clara went to retrieve her weapon, which had landed nearby. She bent down and felt a sharp pain in her right arm as she reached out. Clara looked down and noticed her arm was bent very much the wrong way. She grimaced and grunted as she popped the joint back into place with a sickening 'pop'. She then reached down with her good arm and picked up her blade, before looking around for Bella. The young girl was lying face down at the base of the cone of destruction. Clara sealed her zanpakuto away and removed her mask as she approached the small form of Bella Pennywell. She looked down with pride at her protege.

"Well, looks like Alistair was right. You're the real deal, kid. Nice job." Clara sheathed her sword and reached down with her one good arm and picked up Bella's prone body and hefted her awkwardly over her shoulder. "Time for some rest I think. For both of us." Clara winced as she slowly and carefully used her blade to open a portal and walked through. The portal closed behind them with a whoosh.

In New York City, Clara marched through the streets towards the Coalition HQ. Upon entering the front reception area, she requested a gurney for Bella and for the young girl to be brought straight to the infirmary. When that was done, she asked to meet Alistair. She waited patiently for the old warrior to arrive, nursing her right arm slightly.

Alistair was under his desk sleeping when there was a knock on his door, and the reception is entered. He looked up from where he was curled up as a wolf on the floor and tilted his head. She knew he could understand her so didn't bother transforming back, as she started talking and explaining what was going on. Alistair gave her a nod of his head and stood up, trotting out of the room, rubbing against her leg as he passed. She gave nice belly rubs. He was fond of her.

Alistair trotted down the hall into the waiting room Clara had been brought to. He looked at her and his voice was cast into her mind. So I've been informed you put your charge in the infirmary. Does she have all her limbs? He asked as he sat on the floor infront of her. Well, it appears she did a number on you, eh? I told you she was powerful..  She just lacks focus. He said. So how did she do?

Clara took a seat in the waiting room as she awaited Alistair's arrival. Soon after, a wolf trotted in and  looked her up and down before the voice of Alistair sounded in her head. He asked about the extent of the damage inflicted on Bella during the fight. She peered at him, her mask obscuring the exasperated smile on her face. "Bella will be fine. She was more exhausted than damaged. I believe I was successful. She was able to harness her latent energy in a most impressive display of power. She was unaware that she was actually in no danger of being killed, but I was very convincing I thought." She removed her mask and sank to her knees, to look Alistair eye-to-eye. He pointed out Clara's own fatigue and she looked down at her previously dislocated arm. She rubbed it tenderly. "That she is, and I think she realises now that she has it in her to do some real damage. As you say, she just needs to learn to focus it for the right ends. She took a very big step today." Clara gazed in the direction of the infirmary. "You've got quite the warrior on your hands, if Bella continues to apply herself. You'll need to guide her, make sure she takes her own path, that she is not led astray. We'll need her soon I imagine. But for now, I will return to Soul Society. I will return soon and check in. Farewell, old friend." Clara gave Alistair a fond scratch behind the ears, then rose to her feet. She bowed politely and opened a Senkaimon and disappeared through it.