Chương 117: Bankai Bankai Bankai!

"Come on!"

Roger drew the Zanpakuto from his waist, loudly calling out its name.

"Bankai – Supreme Sharp Sword: Ace!"

"Haoshoku Haki Entanglement—Godly Avoidance!"

Black-red lightning flashed along Roger's sword blade, then he swung it out.

The black-red lightning-wreathed slash collided mid-air against Ailin's hundred-meter slash, the razor sharpness of the strike tearing through the terrible Haoshoku Haki fluctuations, while the immense destructive power of the Haoshoku Haki waves shattered the slicing force.

Boom!

The two slashes intertwined, black-red and blue crisscrossing, unleashing a tremendous shockwave that shattered the surrounding ground into a huge crater dozens of meters wide.

"Bankai – Supreme Sharp: Sword: Gryphon!"

On the other side, Shanks too had released his Zanpakuto, then launched a "Haoshoku Haki" slash of his own.

"Godly Avoidance!"

The Bankai of Pirate King Roger and Pirate Emperor Shanks had very similar abilities.

The Shikai ability could shape their reiatsu into "flying sword strikes", while the Bankai ability shaped reiatsu into extremely destructive "Haoshoku Haki" slashes.

Boom!

This second slash directly broke through Ailin's strike, carrying its remaining force to rapidly attack Ailin.

Facing this slash, Ailin did not evade, instead flying straight forward. His left hand was covered in a layer of high-density spiritual pressure, then he grabbed at the incoming strike.

"Busō - Ryu!"

Crack crack--

Bang!

With that, Ailin shattered the slash, dispersing the black-red spirit particles. By this point, Ailin had crossed over half the distance to the group, immediately able to engage them in close combat.

"Bankai - Yozora: Gigas Cedar!"

Gigas Cedar's true form was an immense tree over seventy meters tall with a four meter diameter trunk, said to have lived for hundreds of thousands of years and called the 'Demon Tree'.

Yozora was a powerful weapon forged from the topmost branch of Gigas Cedar.

"Demon Sword Invasion!"

Dense black reiatsu erupted, transforming Yozora in Kirito's hands into a massive demon sword tens of meters long that he swung down at Ailin.

Facing the descending giant demon sword, Ailin casually unleashed a slash to intercept it.

Boom!

Unable to stop Ailin, Kurome made her move.

"Bankai - March of the Dead: Yatsufusa!"

Rumble!

With Kurome's Bankai release, eight Adjuchas-class Hollows of varying forms appeared by her side. Under her control, they concentrated to unleash the Hollows' strongest technique -

"Cero!"

Boom!

A barrage of red Ceros fired from the Adjuchas' mouths towards Ailin.

Whoosh!

For the first time, Ailin used Shunpo to evade the eight Ceros.

Boom!

The eight Ceros struck the ground Ailin had been standing on, triggering a massive explosion with a mushroom cloud rising dozens of meters high.

Roger cackled madly, flash-stepping to Ailin's side as he brought his sword down in an overhead slash.

Boom!

Even before their blades fully connected, Ailin's strike and Roger's Haoshoku Haki slash collided, unleashing tremendous force that completely shattered the surrounding ground. The powerful shockwave expanded outwards, pulverizing any dislodged debris like stones and trees caught in its path.

***

While Roger's group attacked Ailin, Kensei Muguruma confronted the fourth member of their group.

"So you're the one who injured Mashiro?"

Kensei glared at Setsuna Takemaru and ground out the question through clenched teeth.

"Mashiro? Who's that?" Setsuna crossed his arms and sneered. "All those I've killed become souls to serve me with my blade. I just don't know which little skeleton you're referring to."

With those words, Setsuna swung his sword, the ground bulging up as hundreds of humanoid skeletons burst forth from the soil, weapons in hand, surrounding Kensei under Setsuna's control.

"Though you may be disappointed - Mashiro was not killed by you, so I doubt any of those summoned skeletons are her!"

"I see. Then the 'Mashiro' you mention must be that girl the 11th Division Captain rescued three days ago? While I may not have a corpse puppet of that girl, I do have quite a few made from the corpses of other Shinigami. I wonder, are any of your acquaintances among them?"

As he spoke, over a dozen skeletons clad in tattered Shihakusho stepped to the front of the group encircling Kensei under Setsuna's control.

"You bastard!"

Though only skeletons, Kensei could vaguely recognize the builds of his 9th Division elites he had led on this mission.

"Roar, Tachikaze!"

Immense reiatsu erupted around Kensei, then with a powerful kick off the ground that cracked the earth beneath his feet, he shot forward like an arrow towards Setsuna.

Boom! Boom!

Like a raging locomotive, Kensei smashed through any skeletons in his path, the whirlwinds from his flailing short sword shattering them to pieces.

"Hmph!"

Seeing his weakest skeletal troops failing to stop Kensei, Setsuna scoffed and raised his sword high.

"Bankai – The Land of Underworld: Setsuna Takemaru!"

Boom!

Setsuna's wild reiatsu, absorbed by his Zanpakuto, transformed into innumerable black tornado-like miasmas that rapidly rose skyward, blotting out the sun.

All land covered by the black miasma turned purple, with skeletons of all sizes emerging from this hellish purple soil.

Setsuna's Bankai could summon the underworld itself. Any area covered by his reiatsu would become the dark soil of hell itself.

Within this hellish domain, the strength of Setsuna's skeletal puppets increased by an entire level. And their numbers multiplied several dozen times over compared to his Shikai state.

Bang!

Boom! Boom!

"Damn it!"

Kensei roared furiously, attacking without restraint. But to his dismay, Kensei found himself overwhelmed by Setsuna's Bankai, swarmed by the skeletal horde.

While his raging winds could previously shred the skeletons, after Setsuna's Bankai the skeletons could withstand far greater attacks.

Essentially, it now took one of Kensei's punches to shatter a single skeleton. Though for now the horde could not seriously injure Kensei, he also could not escape their encirclement.

"Hey, I'd love to get my hands on a captain-class puppet too..."

"Since the boss didn't say I couldn't kill..."

Standing a few dozen meters away, Setsuna eyed the overwhelmed Kensei while raising his Zanpakuto high.

Whooosh!

A red sphere formed at the sword's tip, countless purple tornadoes whirling madly around it, shredding anything caught in their path into oblivion.

"Gokuryuha – Prison Dragon Break"

Boom!

This massive purple tornado, Setsuna swung it hurtling towards Kensei like a striking dragon. Along its path, the overwhelming force of the Gokuryuha ripped apart any skeletal puppet caught in its wake, friend or foe.

Boom!

"Bankai - Tekken Tachikaze!"

***

Boom!

Ailin's entire body glowed with blue reiatsu as he swung his sword down, the strike blasting Roger away to crash into a distant mountain. Then Ailin followed up with another slashing strike.

The mountain shattered from Roger's impact, Ailin's subsequent slash blowing straight through it.

Now surrounded by four opponents, Ailin got serious. Infusing his body with reiatsu and channeling it into his sword increased Ailin's slashing power dozens of times over.

Not just his sword strikes, but Ailin's overall speed, strength, defenses and more were qualitatively elevated by releasing his reiatsu.

Roger, Shanks and Kirito who could previously trade blows with Ailin now couldn't even withstand a single sword strike, sent flying and crashing into mountains, blasted into deep craters in the earth one after another.

Fortunately for Roger's group, with four combatants including Roger, Shanks and Kirito on the offensive while Kurome provided support, plus Kirito periodically healing them with his abilities, they managed to endure Ailin's onslaught.

If only one or two faced Ailin, they would have perished within ten breaths of him getting serious.

After infusing himself with reiatsu, Kurome's eight Adjuchas puppets posed little threat to Ailin. Their Ceros were either slashed apart, shattered by a punch, or casually swatted away and flung elsewhere...

In close quarters, Ailin's sword blows cleaved the Adjuchas in two before they could react.

However, Kurome's Bankai had one trait - the fewer Hollow puppets under her control, the greater the strength increase for each remaining one.

So aside from the Adjuchas at her feet, Kurome commanded the other seven to attack Ailin simultaneously.

As each fell, the reiatsu of her remaining puppet spiked, until the final Adjuchas reached the pinnacle of its tier, just shy of breaking through to Vasto Lorde level.

But that slight gap meant an immense difference in power. Unable to become a Vasto Lorde, after knocking Shanks away, Ailin bifurcated Kurome's last Hollow puppet with a single sword stroke.

Kurome was the first to be eliminated from the group of five.