He who fights monsters but is already a mon-

His eyes adjusted to the change in light, two emerald orbs gleaming between the trees of stone. Everywhere around him was darkness, the hole he had created the only source of light, a pale moonbeam silhouetting Inigo's face. He felt, rather than heard or saw, a bustle of movement around him. The menos were here. He grinned his grotesque, twisted grin, and looked around him at the flashes of white bone in the darkness. He simply waited, his spiritual pressure and the delicious meal he would seem like to the starving adjuchas would be bait enough, even if they recognized his superior strength they would be driven to feed by desire and by greed. Inigo understood those emotions well, and he was using them now, to create a hope that he would rapidly extinguish as he tore their life from them with his bare hands.

He anticipated the jump before it happened, some poor soul had finally decided that the risk was worth the reward and leaped for Inigo. It had a slight, feminine body, that was also somewhat catlike. It tried to snap at Inigo's neck, but broke its teeth as its jaws clamped shut. It simply didn't have the killing intent required to harm him.

Blood covering him and the sand around him Inigo leaped off of the small pile of sand he had been standing on, wiping his mouth with the back of an arm, he laughed a cruel, high, callous laugh before emitting an enormous, high pitched scream designed to terrify all those around him. He chuckled- now he would hunt his prey through the trees. The thrill of the hunt electrified Inigo, the fear he inflicted, the adrenaline he made to pump through his veins. It was an almost sexual thrill for him, and as he walked sedately forward, he activated his technique: the Lantern of Espanoza. It was the only light in the trees- the hollows would be all but blinded by it, but Inigo himself was totally invisible as there was no other light around. He stalked through the trees, his general presence but not his precise location given away by the lantern. He caught the scent of a hollow who was rabidly fleeing from him and he took chase. He used his sonido to appear in its path, constantly blocking its avenues for escape. He wouldn't kill yet. First he would let it know true despair. He cackled to himself, darkly.

It was larger than a human- larger than Inigo who himself stood some nearly seven foot tall. It looked almost like a medieval knight, its mask flat and blank but for slits where its eyes were. It carried a great shield and a large broard-sword that appeared to be made of a kind of bony substance, similar to the material of hollow masks. Inigo sensed no fear here- only purpose and it enraged him to no end, he could feel his muscles pumping at the sight of this interloper who felt it could challenge him. It appeared to look him up and down before throwing him its sword which he caught awkwardly- before drawing another which had seemingly materialized in the scabbard at its belt. Inigo looked at it.

"You fight with the sword or you will die." she said in a rich alto purr. Inigo shoved the sword into the ground laughing, pouncing immediately upon the hollow, prepared to show her how wrong she was. He wanted to rip into her, to abuse her, to humiliate her and then make her watch as he ate her alive, for her insolence. He wanted to violently extinguish her and a fire erupted inside him as he leaped.

Inigo could feel his cuts healing up thanks to his high speed generation. He was grateful for his own ability, as the stinging pain ceased. The hollow was eyeing him from behind her visor-like mask, and he couldn't help but feel that she was laughing at him. The sword's advantage was not its cutting power but its reach- she was able to keep him at a distance with it, which was what was dangeous. No matter how hard to cut he was, if she was able to draw blood she would always have an advantage if he couldn't get close. Her mirth faded to dismay as she noticed that his shoulder had all but healed up as he flexed it and drew the bone-sword from the ground. She would come to regret giving it to him he maniacally thought to himself as he imagined violently eviscerating her, and listening to her screams. He toyed with the sword, tossing it from one hand to another. His swordplay was not his strongest point, he had to admit and he was frustrated that she likely knew that. He watched her tense as he picked it up. Why had she given him the key to a certain victory?

They locked blades, and Inigo took the opportunity to disengage a single hand from his sword, which he had up until that point been wielding dual-handed, and formed it into a conelike shape and impaling her with it. The shock meant that she had not had the opportunity to anticipate it and she staggered back. His own cut had almost healed already. Inigo laughed, once again placing both hands on the now bloody hilt of his sword and sending it flying down with a mighty blow which she managed to block on her shield, but he was fairly sure that it broke her arm as he heard a loud crack. He wondered why she was not countering his offensives but then noticed that she had been charging a cero as he pressed his advantage which he noticed at the last second with wide eyes.

He crossed his arms over his face and surrounded himself with reiatsu at the last second, as the red beam hit him square in the chest and lifted him into the air, his entire body feeling like it had just been hit by a train. He noticed that a proportion of it went straight through his hollow hole which was quite large, thus reducing the amount that hit him but it was nothing to shrug off.

Inigo was crazy. Batshit insane- a violent psychopath. He didn't see himself as evil- for that he would have had to have a comprehension of others as beings whose happiness, whose feelings were the same and distinct as his own. When the only measure of good in the world is one's own pleasure, and when one derives pleasure from watching others feel fear and despair- without understanding those as being emotions similar to one's own, a person such as Inigo is the result. Most people, however, tended to disregard Inigo as stupid- a being of intelligence could never commit such heinous acts. That was what made Inigo so deadly. Many people dismissed him as being non-verbal for he seldom felt the need to speak to his prey. But Inigo spoke. He spoke and he was intelligent- exceedingly intelligent, and a fast learner to.

So he had little issue picking up on the swordplay between himself and his opponent. The safety net that his high speed regeneration provided for him as well as his vastly superior strength and endurance meant that despite his opponent seeming gradually to tire as they exchanged blows, he learned more and grew more adept, delight creeping over his gore-splattered face.

She fired off an enormous stream of Bala, pummelling his whole body. She got to her feet, her form massive and imposing as Inigo failed to react in time and took punishment. His anger sizzled and roared, as she put both hands upon the hilt of her sword and drove at him with a mighty lunge. She was strong! Inigo had not taken into account that she had been duelling one-handed up until now. Her strength effectively doubled, her blows had a new edge. He felt himself healing slowly from the bruises and even perhaps a broken bone- he was really taking one hell of a beating.

They clashed more, still cutting one another to ribbons. Inigo had the edge now, his swordsmanship having improved vastly and the hollow's strength flagging compared to his, she began to succumb to more and more injury. It took more and more strength to heal after each cut, more energy to knit together the sore muscles and skin and she looked like she was beginning to tire. Inigo's grin widened, as he had her backed up against a tree, blocking blow after blow with her sword as he swung and swung down at her before suddenly; crack!

He fled to where there were no holes in the roof of the forest. Menos around him fled not just the Vasto Lorde hollow but the enraged adjuchas who was giving chase, screaming profanities at him. He stepped using his sonido and attached Lanterns to the trees, illuminating the forest with a warm, steady cream-yellow light. The forest which before had been dark and ominous looked as though it was inhabited by something ethereal, as though fairies had taken up residence in the petrified stone trees. Except these fairies were dark, grim, twisted creatures, lanterns of bone created from Inigo himself.

The hollow charged into the trees but Inigo was totally invisible to her. The lanterns were the only source of light, and he was invisible to them. The faintest outline of Inigo would be visible from the moonlight far away, but it was overpowered by the brightness of the more immediate lights. She roared and, presumably unaware what the source of his disappearance was, began launching bolts of energy every which way. Inigo was a master at hiding his presence as well. He waited to make his move, feeling his many wounds slowly healing up. As he healed he almost felt more secure, in the way scar tissue always feels tougher.

He stepped forwards and sliced off both of her forelegs, and she gave out a scream of pain. Before she could begin to regenerate, he began charging a cero on his hand, after slicing both of her arms off. The cero was aimed right for her abdomen. He was close enough that she would be able to faintly see the blue of his face despite him mostly being transparent. He smiled at her and he saw the recognition in her eyes, the acceptance of her fate, and she screamed no more, only looked at him with an unrivalled hatred. He unleashed his cero into her abdomen and it struck her with such force that she was bisected, the two halves of her body spinning away through the air, showering blood everywhere. Her torso crashed into a tree and he heard her ribs crack with a snap.

She fell to the floor as he approached her, the lanterns all extinguishing one by one, and so by the distant moonlight, Inigo gradually came into focus. By some miracle, she was still alive. He would soon rectify that. He watched her body begin to regenerate into its original form. Her organs were destroyed though- she was dead either way.