Fate in Bleach: Unlimited Blade Works!

"Uryū, look out!"

Seeing the approaching tentacles, Chad jumped in front of Uryū, raising his shield.

Boom! Boom!

The white tentacles, deceptively soft in appearance, struck Chad's shield with tremendous force, sending him flying.

"Chad!" Uryū shouted, using Hirenkyaku to escape as another tentacle slammed into the ground where he had been standing, creating a large crater. The impact sent debris flying, forcing Uryū to shield his face.

"I'm alright," Chad called out, rising from the sand.

Hearing Chad's response, Uryū felt relieved. He didn't realize, however, that despite his words, blood seeped from beneath Chad's shield, staining his arm.

Chad, however, understood. This Arrancar was on a completely different level. The difference in strength was vast. Even the strongest Privaron Espada they had encountered paled in comparison to this Luppi.

If a mere Fracción was this powerful, how strong was Grimmjow?

He briefly sensed Ichigo's reiatsu. It remained steady. It seemed Grimmjow wasn't a threat to Ichigo. But their situation was dire. Even if Luppi wasn't as strong as Grimmjow, he possessed Espada-level reiatsu. Why wasn't he an Espada? Why was he merely a Fracción?

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Uryū drew Ginrei Kojaku, firing arrows at Luppi.

Faced with this barrage of attacks, the tentacles behind Luppi stretched out and directly wrapped him up.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The arrows struck the tentacles, creating a series of explosions that raised a cloud of sand that obscured their vision.

"Is that all you've got? You're tickling me!" A tentacle emerged from the dust cloud, striking at Uryū, who evaded it with Hirenkyaku.

As the dust settled, Uryū's expression turned grim. His attacks hadn't even scratched Luppi.

"Chad!"

"I know."

Chad responded instantly, understanding Uryū's unspoken plan. If his arrows were ineffective, their strategy would shift. Uryū would provide a distraction while he attacked. His left arm, the Devil's Left Arm, possessed far greater destructive power than Uryū's arrows.

Uryū, seeing that Chad understood, used Hirenkyaku to move behind Luppi, launching another barrage.

"I told you it's useless!" Luppi turned, using four tentacles to shield himself while the other four lashed out at Uryū.

Unable to block the attacks, Uryū evaded them with Hirenkyaku. Each near miss created sonic booms, the force of the displaced air visible as shockwaves.

"A single hit could kill me…" Uryū thought grimly.

As a Quincy, he hadn't mastered Blut Vene, the technique that enhanced defense by channeling reiatsu into one's blood vessels. His defenses were weaker than those of Hollows and Shinigami.

However, despite his limited talent, he had diligently honed the Quincy combat skills he had learned from Sōken Ishida. And after regaining his Quincy powers, his control over reishi had improved significantly. His current strength wasn't far below what it had been when he used the Sanrei Glove.

Thanks to Ginrei Kojaku, he could now fire twelve hundred reishi arrows per second, a devastating barrage. While his range and attack frequency had increased, the individual power of his arrows wasn't comparable to the attack he had used against Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the one that had nearly killed them both.

"Now's my chance!" While Luppi's attention was focused on Uryū, Chad charged forward. Under the cover of the shield in his right hand, no one noticed that a large amount of spiritual pressure had gathered in Chad's left hand.

"Hahaha! You fell for it!"

As Chad reached Luppi and was about to strike, Luppi turned and grinned.

"That Quincy brat's attacks can't even scratch me. Did you really think I needed four tentacles to block him?"

The tentacles surrounding Luppi extended, one shielding him completely from Uryū's arrows while the other three shot towards Chad.

"Chad, look out!" Uryū shouted, but the warning came too late.

Forced to reveal his hand prematurely, Chad lowered his shield and unleashed his attack.

"La Muerte!"

BOOM!

He punched Luppi and a wave of red reiatsu erupted from his left fist.

Two of Luppi's tentacles were torn, spraying blood that splattered across the sand, forming a gruesome, skull-shaped pattern.

"Aaaagh! You… you dare injure me? You will die!" Luppi screamed, the pain from his injured tentacles fueled his rage.

The remaining tentacle wrapped around Chad and lifted him into the air.

"I'll make you suffer! You'll beg for death!" He retracted the six tentacles attacking Uryū.

"Hierro Virgen!"

The tips of the six tentacles transformed into clusters of sharp spikes, resembling hedgehogs. They spun rapidly, like windmills, slashing towards Chad.

"Chad!"

Seeing Chad's predicament, Uryū frantically fired another volley of arrows at Luppi.

Twelve hundred arrows per second converged into a three-meter-wide stream of energy, engulfing Luppi.

However, the attack was too weak. Forced to use his spinning tentacles as a shield, Luppi was annoyed.

"You're so irritating!"

"Jaula de Hierros!"

He unleashed all seven tentacles, except for the one binding Chad.

The seven tentacles converged, their combined force shattered Uryū's arrow rain. The impact created a powerful shockwave that struck Uryū, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Oof!" Caught off guard, Uryū coughed up blood.

"Oh dear, those humans are about to die. What do we do, Pesche, Dondochakka?" Nell and her two Fracción, Pesche Guatiche and Dondochakka Bilstin, hid behind a large rock, watching the battles unfold. Ichigo and Grimmjow's fight had moved too far away, but they could still see Chad and Uryū struggling against Luppi.

They hadn't expected Luppi, a mere Fracción, to be so powerful. In their time, such strength would have qualified him for Espada rank. Had the Espada become so strong that even their subordinates possessed such power?

"Nell-sama, do you want to save them?"

"Yes! They're Ichigo's friends. They've been kind to us, and they protect us when we're in danger."

"Do you have a plan, Pesche, Dondochakka?" Nell looked at her friends hopefully.

Pesche and Dondochakka exchanged glances, then nodded. If it was Nell's wish, they would try.

"Nell-sama, we'll rescue those humans. You run. We'll catch up."

"Really? Pesche, Dondochakka…" Nell's eyes widened with concern. While she wanted to save Chad and Uryū, she couldn't bear the thought of them sacrificing themselves for her.

"Don't worry, Nell-sama," Pesche said, flexing his scrawny arms. "We're actually very strong!"

Reassured, Nell ran.

"Hey, Dondochakka," Pesche said, turning to his companion, "how long has it been since we fought together?"

"I don't know. Decades, maybe?"

"Well, for Nell-sama's sake, let's do it again!"

"Yeah, let's go!" After a brief pep talk, they charged towards Luppi.

"Oh? More insects?" Luppi turned, noticing the approaching figures: the scrawny Pesche and the rotund Dondochakka. "Well, no matter how many insects there are, they're still insects. I'll just crush them." Two tentacles extended, striking at them.

To Luppi's surprise, despite their weak reiatsu, they were remarkably agile, dodging his attacks in comical ways, gradually closing the distance.

Pesche and Dondochakka, in their prime, weren't weaker than Espada subordinates. However, to provoke Nell, Nnoitra had torn off their masks, causing them to lose a significant amount of reiatsu, regressing from Arrancar.

After Nell's mask had been shattered, transforming her into a child, they had dedicated themselves to mastering evasion techniques, to protect her, to escape with her should she face danger. Now, those skills were being put to the test.

As they reached Luppi, Pesche jumped, spitting a large glob of saliva onto the tentacle binding Chad. The saliva coated Chad, and Dondochakka, grabbing Chad's leg, pulled him downwards. The incredibly slippery saliva made it easy to free Chad from Luppi's grasp. Dondochakka, holding Chad, started running.

"Aaaagh! You disgusting insects! You… you soiled my tentacle!" Luppi shrieked, horrified. "I'll kill you all! I'll make you suffer!"

"Hierro Virgen!"

"Giro de la Muerte!"

He roared and spikes erupted from all his tentacles, which then began to spin rapidly, like windmills, creating a whirlwind of destruction.

"Waaaaah! Run, Pesche! We can't beat this!"

Dondochakka, carrying Chad, ran.

Pesche, carrying Uryū, followed.

Their evasion skills were only effective against smaller-scale attacks. Luppi's wide-ranging, indiscriminate assault rendered them useless.

"Dondochakka," Pesche said, "it seems we have no choice. We have to use that technique."

"Yeah." Dondochakka nodded.

They threw Chad and Uryū away from them.