ESPADA- The Ten Blades

The arrancar under Aizen's command are arranged into various ranks based on their strength. Not all of the existing arrancar are under Aizen's command, mostly through lack of interest on Aizen's part.

The Espada ( ten swords; the sword in Spanish) are the top-ranked arrancar in Aizen's army. The Espada at the time of the group's introduction into the series consists of nine males and one female. Each Espada member is chosen for their superior combat ability and then assigned a number from 1 to 10 that indicates their rank and relative power level, which is tattooed somewhere on their body. The Espada are given control over the Números. The Espada are regarded as the strongest arrancar in existence, and their strength far surpasses the average Número, similar to the power gap between captains and lieutenants in the Gotei 13.

Yammy (ヤミー, Yamī)- 10th Espada

Yammy is the 10th Espada in Sōsuke Aizen's army. Yammy is a giant, dark-skinned arrancar. What remains of his hollow mask is the jawbone, which rests on his chin. A tattoo of the number ten, signifying Yammy's rank and level of power amongst the Espada, is on his left shoulder. He relies on his brute strength in battle, taking little interest in using his sword until he is overpowered. In addition to his strength, he makes use of cero and bala blasts, like many other high-class hollows and arrancar. He relies on his superior, Ulquiorra Schiffer, to explain things and give him orders while in battle. Aside from his fighting abilities, Yammy can suck the souls from living humans en masse using gonzui. It affects a wide area, but people with even slight spiritual power are able to resist it.

Yammy initially appears in Karakura Town along with Ulquiorra as the first team of arrancar to scout out the human world. Yammy injures Yasutora Sado and Orihime Inoue, but is stopped by Ichigo before he can kill them. Ichigo quickly slices off Yammy's arm, in revenge for injuring Sado. In the end, he is fended off by Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihouin, who make sport of him. Sometime after retreating to Hueco Mundo, an arrancar medic re-attaches his severed arm. To test the arm's strength, he strikes the medic's head and instantly kills her.^[25] The only regret he expresses after doing so is that she didn't split in half. He then returns to Karakura Town on a second assault, only to be toyed with by Kisuke Urahara again before having to retreat with the rest of his group.

Aaroniero Arleri (アーロニーロ・アルルエリ, Āronīro Arurueri) - 9th Espada

Aaroniero Arleri is the 9th Espada in Sōsuke Aizen's arrancar army. Aaroniero was a gillian, the weakest class of menos, before becoming an arrancar. His unique ability to absorb other hollows and gain their power, something he has done to 33,650 hollows, is what earned him his position. He usually covers his face with a white mask covered in holes while in the light. In place of a normal head, he has a large, glass capsule filled with red liquid and two floating heads. The two heads tend to talk in tandem when revealed, giving the effect of two people speaking at once.

Aaroniero has the ability to completely absorb other hollows, merging the sum total of their power with his own. Once a hollow is absorbed in this fashion, Aaroniero can manifest any aspect of them at will, including their physical form. Through an unusual series of events, he also absorbs the shinigami abilities of Kaien Shiba by eating Metastacia, a hollow able to merge its body and mind with other spiritual beings. Though Aaroniero can manifest any power he has absorbed at will, he can only do so one at a time unless he unseals his zanpakutō. The weakness of this power is sunlight, which nullifies it on contact and reveals Aaroniero's true form. Aaroniero also has the ability to broadcast information of whatever he is currently seeing or experiencing to other arrancar.

Aaroniero encounters Rukia Kuchiki in Las Noches, playing tricks with her by assuming Kaien's identity. Rukia kills him in combat, but not before being mortally wounded herself.

Aaroniero's zanpakutō is Glotonería (喰虚, lit. eating hollow, Spanish for gluttony). It is activated by the command "devour" (喰い尽くせ, kuitsukuse). When sealed, Aaroniero can manifest any power he has absorbed through his zanpakutō, morphing it into a perfect approximation of the one he absorbed, as he does with Kaien's Nejibana. His absorption ability also allows him to perfectly mimic the accompanying battle styles of those powers. When released, it turns Aaroniero into a huge, blob-like mass resembling an incredibly bloated cartoonish octopus, with dozens of stubby tentacles, giving him access to the full range of his absorbed abilities. He can still manifest the powers of those he has absorbed in this form, but has no limit to the total number.

Szayel Aporro Grant
Szayel is the Octava Espada, making him the eighth strongest arrancar in Aizen's army.[11] By his own admission, Szayel's skills lean more towards science and analysis than combat, which he uses to make up for the latter through his inventions that manipulate spiritual power. Szayel is manipulative in his battles, planning them out well in advance to improve his odds of winning. In his battle with Renji and Uryū, he uses data gathered from their previously defeated opponents to design devices that negate their powers in addition to the regenerative factor in his own followers he can access by eating them.
The name of Szayel's zanpakutō is Fornicarás (邪淫妃, Fornicarás? lit. lewd concubine, but read as the Spanish future indicative of fornicate).[12] When sealed, it has an unusual guard consisting of a series of orbs attached to one-another in a sphere formation. The sheath is fixed to his sash with a vine-like rope. The edge is down like a tachi instead of up like a katana. The release command for his zanpakutō is "sip" (啜れ, susure?).[13]
Szayel releases his zanpakutō by swallowing it. His body then swells to enormous proportions and explodes, revealing Szayel's released form. Szayel's released form grows a pair of wing-shaped structures from his back while his lower body transforms into a flock of long tentacles, which can recede into Szayel's clothing to allow him free movement.[14] The shape of his glasses also changes and a strange tattoo consisting of four vertical "dripping" lines appears around his left eye. Blood-like liquid drips from his clothes, fingertips, and wings in this state.
In his released state, Szayel can expel massive amounts of liquid from his back, spraying it into the air so it will rain down on his opponents. Each drop that touches his opponent then grows into a clone of that person. It is unknown if the liquid littering Szayel's attire holds the same properties as the sap used for this technique, or if it is merely for cosmetic value. Due to the amount of liquid he releases, this ends up creating almost half a dozen clones for each opponent. The clones retain the appearance and abilities of their source, but are distinguishable by an "X" tattoo appearing on their pupil-less eyes. Szayel can also alter the appearance of his clones if he wishes. The clones imitate the actions of their source in combat. Szayel can also make the clones dissolve by snapping his fingers.
By wrapping his opponents in his wings, Szayel can create voodoo dolls of them. Like the myth, damage done to the dolls is reflected on the original, although it seems that they can be taken apart without harm and are limited to damage to the internal organs, which are represented in the doll as removable parts labeled with the appropriate Spanish term. He can also use his wings as a defensive mechanism, shielding himself from attacks of considerable force. For example, he withstands an entire ceiling caving in with no sign of injury.