Rukia smiled at Yuffie's confidence, and gave her a firm nod to indicate her approval. Graham...

Sigh.

It would be funny if she weren't certain he was actually very serious about everything he said. She really wasn't in the mood to fend off another surprise attack, especially since he was getting stronger and stronger to the point where she wasn't really sure she could keep defeating him. She had to, in order to make sure he didn't take that as a sign that he was now ready to fight the Calamity one on one, because she didn't want to take the chance that he hadn't forgotten the promise she'd made the first day they'd met.

So instead she shook her head. Her wry smile, at least, carried a hint of fondness. "I...suppose it is a good word."

And that brought her to the final member of the party, who definitely appeared to be the most intimidating. With his bright hair, she was concerned that the behemoth might target Kuwabara far more than any of the others. She would have to keep an eye on him if he took any injuries. At least he seemed primed to face their opponent. She nodded at him too.

The gate vanished into the stone ceiling of the arena wall, and Rukia stepped forward. Puffs of dust rose from her feet as she moved forward to lead her team, her clone at her side. The behemoth bellowed, and the sound of it reverberated all the way into the marrow of her bones. It tossed its head and slammed its horns impatiently against the unyielding bars of its pen. It was fierce, and deadly, and probably capable of wiping out the lot of them if they were unlucky.

Rukia bent her knees, dropping into a defensive crouch. Then the sound of a metallic, rhythmic 'clink-clink-clink-clink' heralded the rising of the behemoth's portcullis.

The gate was only barely halfway up before the large purple beast thrust its snout forward, scrabbling its way into the arena. The lash of its tail was powerful enough to shatter spines with one careless flick. With another mighty roar, it lowered its head and charged.

By now, Rukia was fully accustomed to using her Transience skill. Those mighty black horns shoveled right for Rukia, but she could feel the power kick in before impact. She leaped straight up, grasping her sword with both hands, and brought it down with a hard crack onto the top of the behemoth's head as if it were just another Hollow to be brought down.

The problem was, her sword wasn't dedicated to exorcising behemoths. And its hide was much, much tougher than the brittle psychological composition of a Hollow's mask. The Whip Lore ensured her attack dealt twice as much damage, but that didn't matter much if she didn't deal a lot of damage to begin with.

The behemoth snorted and tossed its head, flinging Rukia aside while her clone charged into to take a few slashes too.

Picking herself up out of the dust, Rukia raised her blade and summoned her chocobo. "Yuki! Come!" An iris of silver light spread in front of Rukia, and the green-feathered chocobo appeared with a war-wark. At her command, the bird spun around and ruffled its feathers, casting Haste upon Graham. He already had a deadly swing, and was likely to inflict more damage than she could. If he could move twice as fast, that made him a far bigger threat to the beast.

Meanwhile, the behemoth was less than pleased at being sliced in the face, or the legs. It barely noticed Graham, but that didn't mean he was out of danger. The angry creature stomped and spun around, its powerful tail swinging out to catch anyone who wasn't quick enough to get out of the way. And if someone fell beneath one of its massive feet, then they would soon be in for a world of pain...or just be reduced to toe jelly. Either way, it would not be pleasant.

[OOC: Feel free to NPC the behemoth for your tags too, it's totally okay!]

They seemed to be handling themselves well. No one had taken any serious damage, and seemed adept at making full use of their Job-learned skills. Rukia was starting to feel pretty good about their chances.

Until the Behemoth stepped on her clone, with a wet burst of bright scarlet and smoke from under its foot. What remained was a dark, greasy smear where nothing would ever grow again.

Rukia grimaced. There hadn't been much warning, nor had there been a means to anticipate the errant step. It served as a good reminder not to get too comfortable.

As Yuffie was already pretty quick on her feet, Rukia placed her next Haste spell upon Kuwabara. "Be wary!" she warned. "We haven't managed to fatigue it just yet!" The behemoth only seemed more agitated and powerful, lowering its head to point its horns at the nearest Hero and charge with the intent of impaling them.

The behemoth snorted, great billowing clouds of steam escaping its nostrils as it hunkered down, pulling up its muscular shoulders. It snorted again.

Then green flashes of light sparkled in the air around it, and its wounds began to close.

Rukia stared in disbelief. It could heal itself?! Damn! It was no wonder this thing carried such a hefty reward for its defeat. She was about to cast Haste on Yuffie, but now she realized a different tactic might be in order.

"Is anyone using magic?" she shouted. "If not, I'm going to cast Reflect on the creature!"

"No need to be rude about it," Rukia grumbled, connecting her will with Yuki's. She could feel the chocobo's pride and dignity, bright and unyielding, and whispered the silent command. Yuki's bright green feathers fluttered as she hunkered, then threw back her head, casting the Reflect magic upon the Behemoth.

And none too soon. It had just started to cast another Cure spell to erase the injuries that had just been inflicted upon it. Instead the spell bounced off of the magic shield, reflected onto Graham instead.

Realizing what had just happened, the Behemoth roared with anger, and lowered its head to charge Rukia and her beast companion.

Hastily, Rukia dismissed Yuki, but there wasn't enough time to call for another companion before the Behemoth plowed into her. Rukia's reflexes were enough to spare her from being speared clean through on the behemoth's horn, but it still took a nasty slice out of her, throwing back the tiny shinigami and spattering the arena wall behind her with a fresh splash of her blood. She clutched at her right arm as she fell to her knees with a gasp of pain, unwittingly exposed to the virus that the behemoth carried.

It was evident that no one involved in this fight was having a good time. Graham was frowning. Kuwabara was worried. Yuffie was doing her best to divert the behemoth's attention. Rukia was struggling to tend to her injuries. And most of all, the behemoth continued to take its beatings. It knew better now than to try healing itself, and snorted in frustration. Muscled purple flesh rippled with its powerful movements as it thrashed and fought to savage the latest wave of challengers who dared to go up against it.

It took a step back, then another, oddly docile. Was it surrendering?

Rukia reached for the potion with a quick word of thanks to Yuffie, but her fingers froze as she noticed small rocks starting to rise from the dust. What was this...? Yuki was squawking in a panic, and for a moment Rukia furrowed her brow. Then her eyes widened.

"TAKE COVER!" she shouted. "It's casting Ultima!" Quickly she downed the potion, but even with that, she wasn't sure she'd survive the spell. A snap of her fingers dismissed Yuki so she wouldn't get caught in the blast. Her head jerked sharply toward Kuwabara as she reached out to grasp his sleeve. "Get beneath the creature. I don't think the spell will extend there!"

Fortunately for Rukia, her small size made her more than portable. Useful when being carted around by Heroes, less so when being manhandled by Aizens. Assuming Kuwabara had no objections, she swung herself up onto his back, gripping his shoulders without putting her arms around his neck so that his movement remained relatively unhampered.

It seemed everyone had made it to the safe zone. The behemoth snorted angrily, attempting to slap them away with its deadly tail. Once they were there, Rukia slid off of Kuwabara's back and knelt on the ground, breathing heavily.

Then the behemoth's legs shot out and it belly flopped on top of all of them. BAD END.

As she caught her breath, she glanced up, curious as to why the behemoth wasn't moving out of its spot. Did that mean it couldn't be selective about who the Ultima spell? If it was an area-of-effect spell, that meant it could be hurt by its own magic. Reflect couldn't stop that kind of powerful magic, and it didn't seem like the spell could be interrupted or stopped.

Rukia had an idea.

"Can we drive it from this spot?" her head snapped around to fix on the others. "If we can make it move forward a couple of feet, that should be all we need." Just to get its head into the spell range... That would almost certainly do it.

Hopefully everyone was prepared to do some fancy footwork, because once that javelin dug into the behemoth's softer and less protected underside, it did indeed 'freak out.' It freaked out a lot.

The creature thrashed and roared loud enough to cause pain to anyone too close to the source of the noise. Rukia winced, her hands rising almost automaticallly to clap over her ears to protect them. But there were also four large feet stamping around and a lashing tail that had to be avoided.

In short, no one was going to come out of this encounter completely unscathed. There was a reason these creatures were so dangerous.

However, the end result was far more beneficial to the party than the behemoth, as its thrashing forced it to move outside the protected area where the spell had been cast. Blue light bloomed from the ground, enveloping all it touched in blazing, fierce energy. It ripped into the behemoth's left side where it had blundered in a frantic attempt to get at the javelin, leaving large gashes and splits in its tough hide to expose bloodied red muscle, and a flash of white from one of its more prominent ribs. Even part of its face had been torn away, and the result was a nauseating visage that would likely haunt any who laid eyes on it.

Also, it wasn't dead.

Rukia knelt on one knee, panting heavily, and locked her fingers together before making a wild slashing gesture. Hades, formerly known as the Reaper, spun itself into existence out of a plume of red smoke, and conjured an enormous cauldron in front of it. Perhaps now that part of the creature was exposed, it might be more vulnerable to their attacks. It was worth a shot in any case, as Rukia unleashed a wave of debilitating status effects on the wounded beast.