With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
Tallinn smiled at Gillroy’s answer his face contorted with a malicious smile and evil glint in his eye. He called to his pet speaking in a soft and friendly voice as he did the creature almost purring to the sound of his voice as it made it’s way towards Gilroy. It then walked up next to Gilroy opening its mouth a noxious odor poured out into the room.
”The komodo dragon, is among the largest lizards out there, capable of surviving through the toughest and conditions they can even replicate without fertilization. These lizards are the ultimate adapters, masters of their element they have almost no predators. But the most interesting thing of all is their venom. You see there mouth is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria, in fact the strains that live within are ten times more virulent then there cousins which exist outside.”
When Tallinn finished speaking the dragon clamped down on Gillroy’s shoulder releasing a multitude of powerful bacteria into the mans blood stream. Tallinn laughed a bit before he spoke his voice stern and commanding he stared directly into Gilroy’s eyes.
”If one were to be bit they would first feel dizzy, then the vision blurs, followed shortly by nausea, and muscle fatigue. Then the organs begin to fail, as they are flooded with bacteria the kidneys and the liver go first and then of course is death. That of course woln’t happen, if you manage to stay up and answer. First question, what is your greatest tool on the battle field?”
Tallinn finished his statement dangling a bottle of blackish liquid in his hand, this of course being the anti-venom. If Gilroy reached for it he wouldn’t have the fortitude to survive training. If he didn’t though Tallinn smiled maybe he’d have something fun to do for a bit.
Gillroy felt the poison invade his body like an army taking over a country. It was fast and strong. He disregarded any pain he felt. He needed to show not his strength but his toughness. He studied the lizard careful not to raise his head. It was enormous and hissed repeatedly. It did not intimmedate him though. He had killed hollows larger than that thing with one blow. He was concerned about the poison. Any man not immune to it would die without the cure. It didn't matter how tough or strong you are. Gillroy could have easily snatched the anti-venom and be done with all this. He disregarded any thoughts of that. The question raced in his mind. Then answers poured in my mind like a bucket of water had poured water on my head. They rushed to see which could reach the brain first.
"My Zanpakuto El Toro," Gillroy said emotionless and still. It was the thing that came at him first. He was careful not to overthink these answers. After he answered, ideas such as mind, will-power, and body came to him. He concidered and evaluated each one. Mind....hmmm...to Gillroy your state of mind goes blank when you fight. Yes, you need strategy and focus but to a point. He said greatest tool, meaning that he still had other great tools. When you fight, your mind is on one thing a fight and no more when it came to Gillroy. Will-power. Gillroy could overcome great pains and still fight pretty much, burrying himself a grave. It was strong, but not as strong as his weapon which tests other's will-power. Body. The thing that makes us go. The thing that generates power. The only reason he didn't pick this answer was because it did not include reaitsu which was a very important part of fights. It's what made his flames burn.
Zanpakuto. The answer he decided. He was confident in his answer and stood there kneeling as the poison spread. His weapon was what created havoic, damage, and pain. If he had no zanapkuto which included both his staff and sword he would be dead many fights ago. Even if Gillroy loses his mind, body, and will to fight his zanpakuto will still fight. It has a spirit of it's own, a standing bull. His zanpakuto gave him great power and has helped him on his journey to perfection. The man was smiling as he continued to drink. We would see if he would accept Gillroy's answer. Gillroy knew that there were much more to come.
Tallinn smiled at Gillroy’s answer as he stared the arrancar directly in the eyes his fist curled and tightened when he drew it back slamming it with great force into Gillroy’s face. ” First rule, if you die it’s because you were weak, if you fail it because you lacked the will to succeed. Your health, your meals, your safety, and your shelter are of no concern of mine. Training will begin at three am and end at two am; you may do whatever you want in your free time as long as it doesn’t disturb me. You will refer to me as sir or sire and do whatever I ask regardless of your personal feelings. Final rule there is no quitting you fail to succeed in this training you die. Now I’d catch this, the bottle is very fragile and all the anti-venom I have left”. Tallinn laughed a long wheezing laugh, as he arced the bottle gently over his shoulder towards the ground no more than three feet behind him.
He then shuffled his way over to a closet in the side of the room; the shelving unit carved into the stonewall and is covered by a tattered red sheet hanging from the ceiling. He spun the staff once before he slid it in. He then made soft clicking noise with his tongue and teeth, Chester responded almost immediately turning his head towards his room before he stalked off obviously upset he would not get to consume the arrancar.
By the time Chester was in his room Tallinn was already back in his chair leaning against his gourd. It would be a few minutes before the anti-venom took effect if Gillroy had managed to get it, and the pain after drinking it is supposed to be almost unbearable if the anti-venom hadn’t been distilled. Whoops Tallinn thought as he half seriously scolded himself for not distilling it.
Gillroy listened to the man's rules, absolutely sure he would never repeat them unless he broke one. The man did not ask for much. Nothing Gillroy felt was too demanding, or too hard at that. He did not see the anti-venom the old man was holding. However, he heard the man say he had it. Gillroy watched his arm and noticed it arced behind him. He was throwing the battle backwards, Gillroy thought to himself. He was still kneeling down when he seemd to vanish. He used his signature tecnique. High Sonido. A speed faster than any average sonido. He was in posistion to catch it the second the man had let go fo the bottle. He clutched the bottle mid air with one hand. He gripped it and lifted it up. There was not much left. He tipped it over and drank what was left.
It tasted horrible. He tried not to wince and was successful for now. He knew training would be worse than this, so he ignored the pain, knowing his stomach would kill him tomarrow. He was standign and sat back down on the chair for the time being.
"Sir-sama, If you would excuse me. I'll leave the Gin here if perhaps you would want some. It seems I need to get provisions to make my shelter," Gillroy said bowing his head once more awaiting a response. It was past the time trainign would usually end and he knew the old man would not let Gillroy live with him. He planned to make his shelter in a nearbye cave he saw on his trip here. Now that he knew the location he could use garganta to move in and out of the area. However it seemed he would spend all his time here once he got supplies. He noticed the upset lizard leave. He was about to clench his stomach due tot he unbearable pain but his mind told him to stop and so he did.
"Unless Sire you wouldn't mind me making an add-on to this cave for me to sleep only. This way I could clean and cook," Gillroy said almost hoping the man would say no. He could clean well, but his cooking was only basics he had learned from his wife. He didn't mind living either way. This old man was hard to figure out.
”Sleep here you ask? No no no, you haven’t earned the rights to sleep inside yet. You will leave your weapons here and I want you back here in forty minutes so we can start some real training. Now get outta here ya whipper snapper, oh and no using a garganta to go back home and rest ill feel if one is opened.”. Tallinn stood and shuffled towards the forge room as he reached the curtain door he called back in a gruff wheezy and agitate voice barely a few seconds after he finished telling Gillroy to leave, ”I thought I said leave boy!”.
Once Gillroy left the premises Tallinn walked into the forge room grabbed a large broad sword from the rack on the wall. Among the blades on the wall the one he grabbed seemed utterly terrible it was off balance and clearly in the middle of being forged. The rest of the blades gleamed with white and silver ornate carvings along the hilt and blade. He flipped the blade in his hands twice before thrusting the weapon into the flame of his forge. He held it there for nearly ten minutes before he pulled out the red-hot blade and placed it on an anvil, steam rising from the glowing blade. Reaching out he grabbed a large black hammer from the wall and raised it high above his head striking down with a viscous off angle blow which shattered the blade of the sword leaving four inches protruding from the heavy handle. Barely a thought passed through the old Arrancar’s head as he through the shattered weapon into a barrel of water near the forge and headed back to his chair and his sake.
Gillroy walked out. As he was walkign out he could hear the forge roaring and soemthign shattering. Gillroy sighed as he went through the door. The man was now demanding some harsh things. Where would he find stuff to build a home. This training could last years. No garganta, he thought to himself. Fourty minutes would pass by quickly in this hellish dessert. Gillroy walked to the cave he had passed while on his journey. This was were he slept best. It was hard to get in. A small creviced opening was the only way in. He slid under. Inside was rocks. He had slept on one rock that was long and flat. When he would have more time he would use his fire skills to forge the items into stuff he needed. There was another crevice that sprouted from the back of the living area. He slid under. This one was smaller than the other. He looked and found a small body fo water enough to fit about seven people. The water was supplied by a small waterfall that trickled from above. He thought he could heat up the water in order to get drinking water. What was water doing in the middle of a dessert? Gillroy did not complain.
Gillroy was good with time. People said he had an internal clock. That was not the case he could tell by the sun and by a mathmatical equation. This room was large and the water only occupied 1/10 of the space. He slide back under cautious not to hit his head. His living room was small the size of a bedroom. Rocks occupied most of the space. He slid under the second crevice. He was outside. He figured he had a good 15 minutes left. Gillroy began his walk back. By the time he made it to the man's door, he had only a minute before it would be 40 minutes since the man told him. He hesitated until it was exactly forty minutes. He knocked on the door.
"Sir-sama. I am here to train," Gillroy said loudly making sure the man heard.
Gillroy’s call startled Tallinn out of a nap, after standing up and wiping off a bit of drool he looks back and forth for the source of the noise. Not seeing anyone in the main room he walked into the forge and then Chesters room looking for who called. After roughly fifteen minutes or so he noticed the reiatsu at the door and made his way up the stairs to fling open the slide. Looking through the hole he called out in a gruff and angry voice, ”Who are you? Whadd’ya want? Show up at my door with no gifts in hand Ha like I’d let you in.”. Tallinn then slammed shut the slide turning to leave he noticed Gillroy’s zanpakuto on the rack. Recalling the arrancar he went back downstairs straight to the forge room and dipped his hand into the bucket, pulling out the trashed sword. With the weapon in hand he opened a box on the table pulling out a small talon which he slides onto the handle, the venomous tip poking out from beneath the wrapped cloth. With the blade carefully in hand he made his way back up the stairs and swung open the door tossing the weapon at Gillroy. ”Go fetch me three hollow, at least six feet in length and I need them alive. You have one hour before the poison kills you I suggest you be back here before it does.”
As Tallinn walked back down the stairs to his den he smiled, that was a very special poison a favorite of Tallinn’s; fifteen minutes in the fatigue would hit exhaustion beyond anything natural, it would take another twenty before the double vision and then of course you hit the one hour mark.
He grabbed the sword. It was more of a dagger if anything. It had been shattered, the sound he heard when he had left must have caused this. Gillroy sighed. How was he supposed to get three live hollow. Live, being the key word. He walked the desert, only five minutes had passed. He hadn't seen one hollow. He continued to walk and looked at the desert grounds. He felt a floor. A floor in the middle of a desert? He asked himself. He followed the stone floor into a vast cave. Alive? Was this man crazy? Bringing them back dead was a ten minute task. Bringing them alive could take hours. He went inside the cave. Ten minutes had passed. He figured out what the cave was. It was a vasto lorde/ arrancar torture facility. He watched as he saw the boned corpses of prevoius humans and shinigami. Even vizards. They were chained to the walls. Chains. Prefect. Gillroy go to work using heat to break the chains of the corpses and conncecting chains using the heat. After 15 minutes of chain work he had a twenty foot chain. He walked farther into the cave. After a half an hour passed he felt his vision blur. He was weak from walking and sluggishly moves across the floor. He tried to regain his vision but failed. He focused his mind and looked forward at 2 hollows. There was only one.
"Come with me hollow if you want power. Buwahahahaha," Gillroy said giving it his best evil laugh. He stared with wide eyes at the hollow. The hollow satred back with bigger eyes. Gillroy looked at him carefully. The hollow looked back at Gillroy carefully. There was an akward silence.
"Power, I can give you," Gillroy snickered. The hollow looked confused. Gillroy scratched his head. Mindless things. He used High Sonido to wrap the chain around the hollows body and tied him to the wall. His vision blurred so it was hard to make a sturdy knot. Gillroy ran swaying side to side. He ran across the cave floor passing one hollow and stopping in front of a second. 35 minutes had passed. He looked at what seemed to be a two headed hollow. He turned around runnign away making the hollow chase him. He passed again the second hollow who joined the chase. The two hollows ran after him. He was knocking into walls and running through rocks. Hierro protected him from scars. He ran to where he tied the first hollow. He could not untie the knot.
"Forget this," Gillroy said heating the metal so it broke. He used High Sonido to tie all three hollows with the single chain. 45 minutes had passed. The three were tied together by the body and Gillroy held the dangling chain in his hand. He threw the chain over his shoulder and started to run sloppily. The hollows fell onto the ground and then were dragged by Gillroy running for his life. He got out of the cave and looked for which direction Master Tallinn lived. He was out of it and couldn't remember. He luckily saw the footstep he had made and followed them. 50 minutes had passed. He was dizzy and was starting to cough. He turned around to see the three hollows charging a cero. A cero. Gillroy took his free hand and faced it palm towards the hollow. An orange cero formed and matched the three red ceroes in power. He was careful not to kill them. He ran up to the wooden door with 5 minutes to spare. He knocked once, hard. The hollows were angry and stood up still chained.
Tallinn woke up scratched his head and his balls then walked over to the side of the room pulling back a wall on a hidden hinge he slides the wall out of the way revealing a bone white door with no handle. ”Burst, Hanguri-Enmu” Mist flooded the room as the large gourd on his back shattered in a cloud of white smoke, which dyed down to into a thick mist which rolled along the floor flooding the floor of the room. Tallinn’s release stand’s at six foot seven and has a raptor like appearance; three talons like long surgical scalpels extend from each of his claw like hand, his body appears to be wearing some sort of sleeveless plate like armor that extends from his ankles to his shoulders. His face has become reptilian and his eyes have become narrow and reptilian. A crest runs from the top of the forehead to the base of the neck.
The mist gathered and swirled around him shot towards the door swirling around it. The door clicked and then began to slowly recede into the ground, the mist followed in it’s footsteps swirling around Tallinn and resealing into the massive gourd. As soon as he returned to his sealed form, Tallinn walked through the door into a large rectangle shaped room made of obsidian. To his left is wall well lit by glowing lights it holds Tallinn’s ten best weapons each sitting on a gold rack from the wall the blades are the best Tallinn has ever made and represent millenniums of practice. Each of them is equally impressive and incredible they are priceless in value. To his right and taking up the majority of the room are six large parallel walls of racks, each wall carrying nearly three hundred bottles of sake. He turned towards the walls reaching out and grabbing a bottle of sake he pulled out the cork. He had perplexed look on his face when he noted the white note tied to the top of the cork, flipping it over he reads;
”Whipper Snapper in an hour “
After reading the note he took a swig of the bottle turning out the room the door slamming shut as the rock wall slid into place behind him. He headed towards the stairs stopping to scratch his ass before he headed up the spiral staircase. Midway up the stairs a resounding knock echoed through the stairwell followed shortly after by some garbled words. He swung open the door looking down at Gillroy’s form at the ground and then at his catch. Grabbing the chained hollows he drags them into the house calling back over his shoulder as he closed the door,”I’ll take these down the poison should wear off in fifteen minutes, let this be a warning for the next time you show up at my door without a gift in hand.”
Once down stairs, Tallinn laid the Hollows down on the forge room table, drew the curtain shut and released his Zanpakuto, mist flowed out from beneath the curtain then sucked back in and around the hollows. The procedure would be simple surgically slice through each of the hollows nervous system leaving them alive but brain dead. When he heard the sound of Gillroy on the bottom stairs he called out in a wheezy and excited voice, ”Hand stand push-ups, and don’t you dare stop unless I tell you to!”.
Gillroy was relieved to feel the affects of the poison slowly start to fade away. Gillroy took a few steps into the "house." He watched as the man released his resereccion. He was supposed to be an Iguana? Oh...Maybe a Komona Dragon? A lizard? A dinosaur? Gillroy watched as the creature grabbed the hollows. He laid them on a table. Then the curtain blocked Gillroy's view. He heard a voice.
”Hand stand push-ups, and don’t you dare stop unless I tell you to!”.
Gillroy got to the middle of the room and put his hands to the ground. He pressed against the floor and kicked his legs up. He straightened them so they faced the ceiling. He pulled them togther binding them by the knees and ankles. He looked forward hearing some cutting noise. What was he going to do with those hollows? Eat Them? Gillroy raised his right hand and put it behind his backbending the elbow. The palm faced behind him. He lowered his body with all his weight on his left arm. As he reached the extent of the push up he breathed out lifting his body using only his left arm. Gillroy was in shape, but he did need to get some power rather than speed. Maybe something like this could really benefit him. He continued to do push ups the strain forcing itself on the left arm.
He looked at the Gin on the table which was untouched. He soon got bored and decided to create fun out of boring. He would challenge himself to do a certain amount of push ups in a minute. He would increase the number by one every five minutes. As the time went on he was doing many one handed hand stand push ups in one minute. His body told him to stop. The old man could not see him through the curtain after all. Gillroy disregarded the idea and continued to do push ups. His left hand was dripping in sweat as he lowered his body to the extent of the push up. His hair was also dripping sweat. The grey hair shaked and sweat spiraled away. The man was with those hollows for quite some time. He watched the curtain as he continued to do push ups.
