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[[Post Seven]]
Hotaru was not altogether happy when he felt his opponent's energy sweep over him. It surged along the edges of his own reiatsu, giving Hotaru a feeling like being slowly hit by a truck. He wasn't particularly worried. This was, after all, not a fight to the death. He wasn't even really concerned that his opponent had grown stronger. What was worrying him was the amount of effort he was now going to have to put out. He had thought that maybe they could get away with a little fighting, but now it was starting to look like a double serving of fighting, rolled in a brawl, fried in some scuffle, topped with a heaping scoop of whoopin' and finally served with hot butt kicking and soy sauce.

When he saw that Marco had suddenly forgone walking over to fight him in favor of a more flashy mode of transportation, Hotaru mentally calculated where Marco was aiming. He was slightly distressed at what he discovered. Yet again his opponent was aiming for his midsection.

"Can't he just leave my poor belly alone?," he wondered aloud, "I need that for holding sake and flexing my abs."

He lifted his zanpakutou straight up, pointed the tip down, and drove the blade into the ground. He leaned it backwards as the gauntlet struck, deflecting the blow upwards and away from himself. He absorbed the hit with his whole body, channeling the force into the ground by bending all his joints at once. Hotaru dropped to his back, simultaneously kicking out at Marco's chest with both feet and whipping his sword out to bring the point to bear against the flesh just below Marco's left clavicle. The act of wrenching his sword out of the ground so quickly brought some dirt along with it, flinging it into Marco's face.

[[Post Eight]]
Come get you? thought Hotaru, Come get you?!?! I've barely been able to avoid being sent to meet my maker when I defend, why the hell would I go on the offense?

Hotaru swallowed a mouthful of blood. It appeared as though his ruse had been working so far. Dominic didn't seem to suspect that he was barely moving thanks to the damage his ribs had taken earlier. In an effort to cover up a cough Hotaru laughed aloud. It came across as overconfident in his mind, but it was better than sounding like your innards were only bowling with two pins.

"You want me to attack? Fine, I guess I owe you, what, like three? I was hoping to let you do all the work, but I guess if it can't be avoided..."

Hotaru rushed Marco at a speed he hadn't thought himself motivated enough to perform, gritting his teeth and breathing with his steps to avoid rupturing anything because of his injuries. Just as he reached Marco he pulled his sword back for a two-handed thrust, but instead of finishing it he dropped to one knee in a slide, letting the other foot trail behind for balance. His forward thrust quickly revealed itself to be a feint, as his blade was now approaching from a downward direction, from underneath the guard. Hotaru pulled together the last of his reiatsu pool just as his knee hit the ground, pointing the fingers of each of his hands at angles just at the edge of where he expected Marco to be able to dodge in the limited time span left by this attack.

Hado number four, Byakurai, Hado Number four, Byakurai! He thought while focusing his mind. The double Kido erupted out of both fingers at almost the same time, the discrepancy being accounted for by the slight difference in the positioning of his hands on his zanpakutou.

He had created in one fell swoop not only an attack, but a diversion, a sneak attack, and a contingency plan all at once. It was, of course, at the cost of the rest of his Kido-able reiatsu, but he was fairly sure it didn't matter at this point, it was all or nothing. If Marco managed to block the original thrust, the upward strike would hit. If he dodged that he would be put in the line of one of Hotaru's white lightning bolts. If Marco managed to deal with those, well Hotaru pretty much figured he was screwed anyways so he didn't worry too much about that.