Chapter 253: Perseverance
"It seems I am not needed here..." hummed Kiba, appearing a short distance from where Yamato was standing over a downed Ikkaku, lying face down with his three-section staff splintered to pieces.
"Ah, Kiba-dono! You appear to have had some trouble with your foe...!" shouted Yamato, peering back at Kiba over her right shoulder, her eyes widening when she noticed he was missing an arm.
"Something like that," responded Kiba, choosing not to explain what had happened as a courtesy.
Shifting his gaze to the downed Ikkaku, Kiba remarked, "If you find the act distasteful, I can finish your opponent. Remember, even if we kill in this place, our foes will be transported outside unharmed. Trust in Vahn-sama's power."
"Oh, I have no—"
"Hmm...?"
Interrupting Yamato's response, a large iron ball covered in silvery-white spikes came flying at her with considerable momentum. She managed to bat it away with her kanabo, but the force behind the impact left her hand tingling.
At the same time Yamato was fending off the spiked ball, revealed to be a flail by the fact it was attached to a chain, Kiba leaped back with extreme speed, narrowly evading being stabbed in the chest by a wakizashi with a yellow hilt, wielded by a notably petite woman with short, flared black hair fixed into two long, cloth-bound braids tipped with gold rings.
"2nd Division Captain Sui-Feng, I presume...?" hummed Kiba, breaking away from Sui-Feng's attack by parrying her blade with the black-and-white longsword he had used to block it.
"You're well-informed..." remarked Sui-Feng, narrowing her dark brown, nearly black eyes into a scowl and lowering herself into a ready stance, her short-bladed Zanpakuto held in a reverse grip as she added, "But I don't need to know who you are to defeat you."
"Oh? Pardon me—" started Kiba, prepared to introduce himself, but Sui-Feng ostensibly didn't care or viewed the attempt as an opportune time to attack as she flickered forward, her blade leaving a shallow cut in his left lower abdomen as he narrowly evaded to the side.