The Chi Forest Part 5

Disclaimer: I don't own digimon Toei does.

Matt POV

"Up and at 'em everybody!"

Matt groaned from his sleeping bag. He was not in the mood for Tai's over enthusiastic voice in the early morning.

"Come on Matt I know you don't want too, but we have to get up" Gabumon pleaded shaking his drowsy partner lightly.

"Ugh I know Gabumon, alright I'm getting up!" Matt answered moving Gabumon's claw off of him, and rising from his sleeping bag. His hair was a complete mess, but Matt didn't have the brain function to care yet.

"About time you got up Matt, I was starting to think I needed to dowse you in some water" Tai joked with his best friend giving him a smug grin.

"Whatever man just go and wake everyone else" Matt hissed still too grouchy to be in the mood for Tai's teasing.

"Okay don't get your hair in a knot, Oopps well it looks like it's to late for that!" Tai laughed as Matt haughtily shoved him away with an annoyed look on his face.

Matt rubbed his eyes looking at the surrounding campsite to check if anyone was missing or anything was out of the ordinary. Fortunately it looked like everyone was present and accounted for. The only things Matt found worth noting were the all the transformed warriors were indeed back to normal, and Impmon and Koichi were sleeping next to one another on a rock.

"Since when are those two friends?" Matt wondered idly walking over to the river with Gabumon to splash his face. Like most of the digidestined Matt was weary of the warrior of Darkness, but he wasn't completely distrustful of him like T.K, and Kari.

So far Koichi hadn't given Matt any reason to hate him, be weary of him sure, but hate him no. Shi did initially scare him, and he still wasn't quite sure what to make of the partner to Koichi, so he decided to pass judgment when the time came.

"Matt are you ready now?" Gabumon asked softly in his deep baritone like voice.

"Yeah Gabumon, I'm finally fully awake now let's go and get the campsite ready for breakfast." Matt ordered headed to set up a couple of fire pits.

Soon everyone was gathered around for a forged up breakfast of fruits and berries, as no one had any luck fishing. Matt sat on a one of the logs with Gabumon, Biyomon, and Sora keeping up a façade that Matt knew was going to end soon.

It would just have to be at the right time.

Suddenly Sora called out to the once again wearing sunglasses Zoe who was eating an apple on the log adjacent to them. Zoe turned to face Sora with perfect precision, impressing Matt who was still amazed at how well the girl had adapted to being blind.

"Hey, Zoe can you tell us where Takuya, Koji, Koichi, and Tommy went this time?" Sora questioned calmly probably hoping she was breaking down the barrier of secrecy between the warriors and the whole group bit by bit. A few of the others in the large group turned their attention to the conversation as well.

Matt nodded in approval at his girlfriend hoping Zoe would answer the question this time, or even J.P and Umi who had decided to stay with them this time. Matt was curious too because they never did answer that question when Ryo asked them last night.

And while Matt didn't want to really push them any harder after their harrowing confession, he thought they were sorta being hypocrites when they said everyone should stick together, yet they would constantly go off on their own in their own little groups.

Zoe seemed to internally debate answering, and then she turned to share a look with her teammates and Bokomon who nodded their heads in approval as they probably wanted to abide by the deal they made with Takato last night.

"If you really want to know Takuya, Koji, Koichi, and Tommy went hunting," Zoe finally answered as J.P and Umi nodded their heads.

"Hunting? Like the way cavemen used to do?" Kazu asked.

"Yes, now because we turn into digimon we've actually adapted some of our partners habits and traits like having a carving for meat. Takuya, Koji, and Koichi all have digimon partners based off carnivores, except for Tommy whose partner is omnivorous. So every morning and night they usually go hunt for prey to eat, say something like a Unimon" J.P continued for Zoe.

"Yeah Zoe and J.P's partners are mostly herbivorous so they don't need to hunt at all, however my partner is also omnivorous so sometimes I go with them instead of Tommy." Umi finished folding her arms in what Matt knew from experience was a defensive position to ward off verbal opposition most likely.

"Hahaha, yep Zoe and I have pretty much become vegetarians, even when we're in our human forms we've lost our pension for meat" J.P laughed.

"So…what do they kill the digimon and cook them away from camp" Guilmon piped surprising Takato and the tamer group in general.

Matt also thought that was a surprising dark statement from the big guy, until he remembered from the tamers story, that while usually friendly Guilmon could be particularly savage, especially in the midst of a hard battle.

"Pretty much, be grateful it's our groups way of trying to be decent we figured none of you would want to see them devour a digimon in front of your faces." J.P warned his voice getting a bit louder.

Henry rose up his hands in a calm down motion.

"Don't worry J.P we're grateful, but I'm still a bit curious. Do they hunt like actual animals, like are they in their merged forms when they hunt?" Henry questioned.

"Yep! We usually hunt in our merged forms although sometimes we can capture the digimon without needing to do merging evolution, and to be honest with all of you, we usually don't cook the prey we've caught…" Umi conceded rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

"Wait…are you saying you guys usually eat the digimon…?" Matt trailed off really not wanting to finish his own sentence.

"Uh-huh we mostly eat the digimon raw…When Zoe said we adapted some of our partners traits over…she meant it…we all can get pretty animalistic sometimes, even when we're completely human" Umi finished awkwardly as most of the group stared in disbelief.

"Yeesh" was all that Matt could think. In his opinion the warrior digidestined got stranger and stranger each day. Sure they had their cool moments, but….

"They have their pretty disturbing moments too…" Matt trailed off in his head.

Sure enough just after they finished talking about them. Takuya, Koji, Koichi, and Tommy showed up emerging from some surrounding bushes.

"Well the prey must've been an easy catch, since they aren't in their merged forms" Gabumon whispered to Matt who watched as the returning warriors went to sit with their preferred company. Koji went to sit with Umi, Takuya with Zoe, Tommy with J.P, and finally Koichi with Impmon and his currently frazzled tamer toddlers.

"Something happened between those two last night" Matt thought as he flashbacked to when he was taking his night watch shift, and he remembered seeing Impmon follow Koichi to the rock they ended up sleeping on last night.

This time the awkward air passed much quicker than it did before, as everyone grew more use to the brutality of this digital world. The breakfast chatter reset itself swiftly, and everyone continued talking about more trivial matters with the same gusto from earlier, before the questions about the warrior's hunting methods.

An hour later, after the fires were put out and bathroom breaks had been done. The group began trekking once more along the blood colored forest, which mostly everyone was eager to get out of.

Matt was walking upfront with Tai, Takuya, Koji, and Davis. These were times Matt quietly reminisced about his first adventure in his digital world, and also the times he wished he'd still carried his old harmonica with him. The instrument always had an immediate calming effect on him when he played it.

And with everything going on with the mission and Sora he sure needed it…

"To bad I don't have it, with this most likely brisk peace it be nice to play a little somber tune..." Matt quietly sighed to himself.

"Matt what's wrong?" Gabumon asked concerned mistaking his reminiscent sigh for a sad one.

"Oh nothing Gabumon just thinking about my old harmonica is all…" Matt said patting his partner on the head.

"Oh Matt, I wish you still carried it around, I loved listening to you play it. Though don't get me wrong I love your guitar playing too!" Gabumon said lifting his claws to his face doing imitation motions of harmonica movement.

"Hopefully when we get this mission over with, I'll be able to find it in my mess of an apartment back home…" Matt said trailing off a little somberly at the thought of his father. He actually hoped his group was on the "Narnia" time and he'd only been gone two minutes instead of two days back in his home dimension.

Suddenly Koji and Takuya stiffened up.

"Uh-oh…" Matt said facing Tai with a worried look as Tai mirrored the same look right back at him.

"If those two are stiffing up that means there's got to be trouble coming," Matt thought as he looked at the other warriors who were stiffening as well, however they quickly got into battle positions.

Now the whole group was on edge, knowing what resulted the last time the warriors stiffened up and jumped into battle positions.

Sure enough a chilling bark resounded in the air, and Koji immediately started violently growling in response.

"It's him…." Koji snarled remarkably like a real wolf, despite not being in his merged from affronting what Umi said earlier.

"We all can get pretty animalistic sometimes, even when we're completely human"

Matt looked in the direction Koji and all the other warriors were facing. The hill that everyone was now facing had blood red trees littered through it, however the most eye-catching thing was actually running down the hill.

With another mini army besides it…

But this time Matt felt like peaceful talking wouldn't work….

Matt saw Koji share a look with Takuya and his team, before they all shook their heads in agreement.

Koji whipped out his blue and white D-tector while the still unrecognizable stampede charged at them.

"Execute Spirit Evolution!"

Once again a data cocoon surrounded the dark haired boy, but this time it was different. The cocoon reverberated a large amount of light, representing Koji's element. Also this data cocoon was much bigger than the last one, and instead of seeing Koji grow extra appendages, all Matt could see was Koji get completely surrounded in the typical bright light of digivolution.

Matt watched as Koji's body grew and expanded, until it became a shape that Matt and his partner immediately recognized.

"Matt look! Koji's a Garurumon now!" Gabumon shouted stunned once again by Koji. Matt quickly took to observing the key differences he could see that Koji had in compared to when Gabumon became a Garurumon.

Koji became a Garurumon who looked more like a real world wolf, than an exaggerated wolf like Gabumon when he digivolved. Koji's fur was a kind of a diluted white, with the blue markings only covering his face, Matt also estimated Koji, as a Garurumon was a few inches bigger than Gabumon when he was Garurumon. He had pointed wolf ears, only three clawed toes instead of four, and instead of a whipcord like tail, he had a long bushy wolf tail.

Koji also lacked the feather-like fur around his head and back. Koji actually had metal sticking out of his shoulder blades in place of the feather fur. Koji had shackle shaped metal around both of his front and hind legs, and finally Matt noticed his white bandanna was ever present around Koji's neck.

Takuya turned to face the entire group, and shouted….

"What are you all waiting for digivolve! This isn't a battle that can be avoided with diplomacy!" Takuya shouted as everyone else immediately took his advice.

As Matt heard all the digivolutions around him, he somehow managed to solely focus on his Garurumon who luckily digivolved without any problems. Matt just continued to hope that the area's core effects really were gone and Garurumon would be able to fight no problem.

Unfortunately Impmon and Lopmon couldn't digivolve. The tamers quickly suggested it probably had something to do with the fact both Lopmon and Impmon gained the ability to only warp straight to mega and ultimate level from the Deva's back in their dimension.

So neither of them had ever achieved the simple champion state and had trouble doing it. Plus the core in the Arekuruu Sea was currently blocking ultimate level, and another core somewhere else was probably blocking mega level as well. So Gatomon had agreed to stay by them and back them up as best she could.

"Oh well, at least the tamers still have their cards they can use, I'm sure Henry and Jeri will help them out with that. Right now I can only afford to worry about Garurumon" Matt thought with determination. However Matt did find it strange that the rest of the warriors only did merging evolution, and didn't fully evolve like Koji did.

As Matt had already seen J.P, Koji, and Koichi's merged forms he took more interest in the new ones Tommy, Zoe, Umi, and Takuya presented.

Tommy was interesting one, he gained larger teeth, his hair became white and he grew white fur around his hands, lower arms, lower legs, and feet area. The hand and feet area also happened to grow dark gray claws, which in the feet area poked through his shoes.

Other than that the only other unusual things were that his original ears transformed into white bear ears, and he had a tiny bear tail barely peeking out his pants.

Zoe's appearance was rather stunning. She grew purple feathers at the edges of her face, upper arms, and at her ankles. Her hands became more slender, and bird-like with black claws at her fingertips. A bushel of straight purple tail feathers also popped out right above her jeans.

Finally a pair of bright green wings sprouted from her back through shirt, and through her hoodie as well. Once her transformation was complete Zoe immediately began hovering over the ground with her wings. Holding her cane at the ready, along with her signature sunglasses on her face.

Umi's appearance became sleeker. Her ears transformed into small otter ears; whiskers popped out on both of her cheeks, her lower legs and arms were suddenly covered in thin fine brown otter fur. Matt could even see her fingers became clawed and webbed. Matt could also account for the bluish gills he could see on her neck.

The last notable features about Umi were her sleek brown otter tail above her shorts, the white fur that was popping out from the front of her shirt around her chest area, and the fact her studded wristbands were still in place.

Finally there was Takuya and he seemed to change the most structurally. He actually grew a bit taller then his upper body hunched over very similar to a real dinosaur. His lower arms and legs became covered in thick orange dinosaur skin.

With the exception of the flame pattern near the wrist of his both his arms. He also grew white claws on his hands and feet, which of course ruined his shoes. A thick blue striped orange tail popped out above his pants, he still had his cracked goggles around his neck, and finally his teeth became larger.

In fact Takuya's teeth became the largest out of all the other merged evolutions of his friends Matt noticed.

Matt also took note of Bokomon slinking towards the rear of the whole group, and at first Matt had wanted to call him out, until he realized Bokomon was staying out of the frontline because he was the primary team medic for the warriors and their digimon, not because he was a coward.

Matt realized that if Bokomon got too injured he wouldn't be any use treating the injured.

The stampeding digimon reached the bottom of the hill, having avoided all the trees and other obstacles in their way. Matt could finally make out the type of digimon they were.

"Well they're keeping with the canine theme, but these guys look even tougher than Caturamon and the Gaomon/Gaogamon pack! Garurumon be careful!" Matt warned as he assessed the enemies.

They were all Dobermon, but once again they looked much more vicious than the Dobermon that Matt had seen back in his dimension.

These Dobermon were all a deep black, had a huge pincher on their backs, they were a bit bigger than the average Dobermon he'd seen before, and the blades coming out of their dewclaws were hook shaped instead of simply jutting straight out.

Their crazed red eyes pierced the group, and just as Takuya had said it looked like this pack had no patience for diplomacy.

"These must be unconverted Dobermon" Matt said to Tai who nodded in agreement. They both knew that if these Dobermon had been vaccine type they probably would have been more open to reason. So this pack had to be made up of the unconverted virus type Dobermon.

A voice permeated into the air…

"So wolf breath we meet again…" The leader in front said who was a digimon Matt did not recognize.

"It would seem so Cerberumon" Koji snarled stepping forwards a bit.

"Aww now is that any way to greet an old friend?" the digimon called Cerberumon smiled.

Matt grimaced as he took in Cerberumon's appearance.

Cerberumon had a sleek black head with gray hair sticking out, also he was a bit bigger than Koji, had two sets of claws, a straight pair at the bottom and a jagged hooked pair on the top of his paws both front and back. Plus Cerberumon had a thick shell of black jagged armor and a large bladed tail.

However what Matt thought was most concerning were the heads that Cerberumon had on both his shoulders.

Matt could tell they couldn't move, and despite their sleek scary appearance they only looked like an intimidation feature. Still Matt couldn't help but feel that in there own way, the heads on Cerberumon; were somehow alive, and sentient.

"You're no friend of ours you bastard!" Koji hissed at the ultimate level devil dog, surprising Matt and many of the others, as it appeared Koji was quickly losing his cool head.

"Yep, these two definitely have some personal history." Matt whispered to the growling Garurumon who continued to stand his guard.

"So whose your posse behind you Cerberumon? A pack you tricked on a whim?" J.P teased the wings on his back buzzing, and crackling with electricity.

"No, this is my old Dobermon pack I led way before I was killed, thanks to wolf breath here" Cerberumon gestured to Koji whose snout formed a smug smile.

"They were none to happy about Koji killing me, their gracious leader. So it wasn't rocket science to find my old pack once Lord Dagomon revived me and convince them to help me kill you all. After all Dagomon said he was impressed with my loyalty to my pack and my pack's loyalty to me" Cerberumon said in a pleasant voice with a sadistic smile on his face.

Matt eyed the growling Dobermon who were all eyeing the group back in disgust. They were snarling and foaming at the mouth, so they were clearly displaying their readiness for a fight.

"Well if Koji killed their leader in the past, these guys already have a vendetta with us so we might as well get ready!" Tai shouted out to all to everyone who all got in safe distances away from the battle to give their partners fighting space. Matt could see Henry, Takato, Rika, and Ryo already whipping out their cards.

"Ready Strikedramon!" Ryo fist pumped.

The bluish-purple dragon digimon raised his claw in a "thumbs up" like motion. Strikedramon had a horned facemask that covered the complete top half of his face, red markings on his toned chest and stomach. Strikedramon also had green commando pants, long red hair, and metal plates covering his ankle, feet, shoulder, tail, and wrist areas.

All in all an interesting looking digimon…

"Okay everyone attack, show no mercy!" Takuya shouted ferociously, his sharp teeth glistening in the sunlight, as he and all the other warriors, and digivolved partners charged at the Dobermon pack, while Koji took on Cerberumon one on one in a rematch.

Matt kept his eyes on Garurumon during the whole escapade, as he finally was able to truly see about what the warriors meant by how digimon here tended to never show one once of mercy to their opponents.

And despite no "Chikara no Tatakai" being called the Dobermon still attacked with that brutal mentality only using their special attacks when they saw it necessary or saw an open opportunity to do so, however it didn't bode a disadvantage for the pack….

Unfortunately from what Matt could see it was actually a HUGE advantage…

The Dobermon fought with a ferocity Matt had never seen back in his dimension, these Dobermon slashed Matt and the older digidestined's partners with their huge back pinchers after every attack they made and their partners made.

He could tell they preferred doing the physical fighting more than using their special attacks.

"Don't get hit by the Gray Noise!" Tommy screamed.

"Watch out for the Black Beam!" Takuya warned shouting as loud as he could over the fighting.

"The two primary attacks of the Dobermon, we'd best heed their warnings everyone especially because that Gray Noise attack has the ability to seal our partners own abilities, and the Black Beam is essentially a laser knife." Izzy frayed reading from the data displayed on his laptop about the Dobermon.

Then only two minutes later Izzy spoke up again, but this time much more frazzled and with no useful information.

"This isn't good guys, with that stupid Gray Noise attack temporarily sealing our digmon's abilities! At this rate our partners may be down before the rest of the groups!" Izzy commented a bead of sweat moving down his head as he watched Kabuterimon be pelted by three black beam attacks.

Matt's face was contorted in rage. Izzy was right. That Gray Noise attack was the biggest problem. Each time Garurumon was about to use his howling blaster attack; a Dobermon would use Gray Noise and instantly diffuse the oncoming threat.

Leaving Garurumon off guard and vulnerable to black beams, and slashes from the enemies claws and back pinchers.

"Though it looks like the others aren't doing so well either." Matt inwardly said as he scoped everyone else on the battlefield. All the younger digidestined besides Ken had chosen to have their partners armor digivolve were fairing a bit better but not by much.

"Oh no! Flamedramon you gotta keep going buddy!" Davis cheered to his friend as Flamedramon was knocked upside the head by a swipe from an opposing Dobermon.

The tamers were doing better than their group was, but even Matt could tell that if it wasn't for the cards that wouldn't be the case. Matt constantly heard shouts of "Digi-Modify" shouted into the air ever couple of minutes, as the tamers struggled to keep up with the relentless Dobermon.

Matt felt really sorry for poor Impmon and Lopmon who were stuck in rookie form with young inexperienced tamers, it seemed like every time he saw them all they were doing was dodging attacks with the best of their ability, or being defended by the exhausted Gatomon.

"But of course the warriors are right on par with the pack" Matt whispered to himself not noticing the bit of anger and resentment that sneaked into his voice.

Which was true the warriors were mercilessly attacking the pack, going toe to toe with them quite easily. They were able to dodge the Dobermon's attacks, and were even managing to not let the Gray Noise attack diffuse them.

Even with their special abilities sealed the warriors still somehow managed to hit every Dobermon that encountered them. It even got to the point where the Dobermon stopped aiming for them, and specifically went after everyone else's partners.

"This is ridiculous! Their ripping us to shreds!" Tai cried out clearly as upset as Matt felt.

"I know Tai, but what can we do? We don't have cards to combat this problem like the Tamers, and we sure as hell can't get out there and fight ourselves!" Matt reasoned harshly knowing Tai would resort to doing something rash if he didn't.

"I know you're right Matt, but I hate feeling so useless! We at least need to figure out some kind of plan to help Greymon and the others" Tai insisted his hands curling into fists at his sides.

"Yeah…" Matt trailed off. Tai was absolutely right; the least they could do for their partners was give them some form of direction, since they couldn't help in a more direct manner like the tamers and warriors.

Matt peeked at Izzy and he could see the gears turning in the younger boys mind, he was definitely thinking of something.

"I think I have an idea, but it'll be a long shot…." Izzy said gaining the attention of all the digidestined as the tamers simply stayed on stand by for their partners.

"Well hurry Izzy let's hear it!" Joe demanded winching when he saw Ikkakumon get jumped on and bitten by three Dobermon.

"Honestly, the best idea I've got is we can tell them to follow the warrior's fighting skill to the best of their abilities. It may not seem like much, but it should at least help a little, especially since the warrior's are obviously doing the best in this battle" Izzy suggested pointing towards Takuya and his companions.

"It that all you've got Izzy?" T.K asked not in an insulting manner, but in a more dumbfounded tone. Matt thought his little brother probably didn't believe Izzy could be so short on a plan.

"Well do you have any better ideas T.K? Besides I already tried thinking over everything else. It's not like we can lead these Dobermon away or use the environment to our advantage." Izzy pointed out getting indignant as always when someone refutes his intelligence.

Matt totally agreed with Izzy. If these Dobermon were as loyal as Cerberumon said there was no way they'd leave their leader alone. Then in the case of the environmental advantage they had none. Sure they had the blood red trees, but as scary as they looked they were still just trees.

So indeed options were low…

"Right, right sorry Izzy you've got a good point…" T.K sighed showing his obvious frustration over the situation. Matt knew he was probably just more on edge because T.K like everyone else knew they was no way they could afford to lose their partners here.

Because if they did…they would never see them again…

"Give the order Tai!" Kari commanded her older brother who reacted immediately.

"Greymon! Everybody! Listen as best you can!" Tai shouted at the top of his lungs attracting the attention of all the digidestined's partners, and the attention of the warrior's who weren't being flanked as harshly as well.

Tai had paused for a split second to see if the Tamers wanted in on the plan too, because Henry and Takato were right next to them so they had to hear what was said.

Takato gave Tai an okay signal. He must be pretty sure with the cards, their teams one default mega Marineangemon, and Jeri helping the toddlers they'd be all right for the rest of the battle.

Matt agreed the Tamers at least had a mega and two card playing champions on their side, so the warriors could hopefully shift all their attention to his group.

Tai nodded in understanding and gave his order.

"Fight like the warrior's copy their mannerisms and movements to the best of your abilities! And warrior's please help them stay close to our partners and back the up!" Tai continued shouting.

Matt watched intently as their digimon seemed to hear their orders and went to back to fighting. This time however the warriors stayed flanked right beside them helping their partners out, and giving advice and tips between punches, kicks, jabs, and stabs.

Sure enough Izzy somewhat short sighted plan came through. Their partners were doing much better in the battle now, managing to keep up with the Dobermon and land some significant hits.

It certainly helped that the warriors pointed out the Dobermon's weak spots too! Turns out the Dobermons' biggest weakspots were their underbellies and their pinchers!

Matt did notice his group's digimon tended to either only knock out the Dobermon, or injured them enough to keep them out of the battle. However any Dobermon that engaged the warriors were merciless killed instead.

Matt shivered a bit, still very uncomfortable at just how brutal all the warriors were in battle…

The battle reversed into the entire groups favor, with everyone now working like a well-oiled machine and co-collaborating the battle was moving much swifter.

However the first official kill by someone other than the warriors in this battle went rather unexpected…

Flamedramon was actually the first of the digidestined group to kill the enemy, even though Matt had a high suspicion it was by complete accident.

Flamedramon must've forgotten how much of a big weak spot the underbelly was, because when one of the Dobermon leapt to attack him, Flamedramon used a punching fire rocket and effectively punched right through the Dobermon.

Killing him, but obviously scaring the crap out of Flamedramon who seemed to freeze in shock with the blood still on his claws.

"Fl-Flamedramon snap out of it!" Davis stammered stunned as well.

"Flamedramon you have to move!" Tommy ordered while effectively tossing a Dobermon that jumped on top of him clear across the battlefield.

But it seems their cries were in vain as Flamedramon remained completely still with a horrified expression on his face at his actions.

Matt knew that despite Flamedramon's strong sense of justice and previous fighting record he hadn't wanted to resort to the harsh methods of killing used in this dimension.

So with the horrified, off guard, Flamedramon being completely still of course he was attacked….

But ironically not by the rampaging Dobermon…

Matt heard a yell of "Hellfire!" and saw sickening looking green flames come right up from behind Flamedramon and hit him in the back.

"Ahhhhh" Flamedramon screamed in pain as the flames surprisingly managed to burn his back pretty harshly, despite the fact that attack shouldn't have worked so well on the fire oriented digimon.

"NO! FLAMEDRAMON!" Davis shouted in distress tears forming at the corners of his eyes. His hands were balled up into fist by his sides in stress. Fortunately Tommy who was closest to Flamedramon picked him up and dragged him away from the continuing battle.

Also fortunately they had plenty of back up on hand.

Koji sprung up from behind the laughing Cerberumon hitting him with a body blow (hard tackle) attack. Koji then proceeded to launch an attack called Howling Laser from his mouth, which to Matt seemed to be a light laser version of his Garurumon's Howling Blaster attack.

However the light beam was obviously very effective, because Cerberumon screamed in agony before turning around to Koji and while snarling began using an attack called Styx Killer.

Matt would never see what that attack did however, because he was currently paying attention to the ejected from the battlefield Flamedramon. Once Tommy had carefully laid Flamedramon's head in Davis' arms he gave an apologetic look, before heading right back into the battle.

Flamedramon instantly undigivolved once he was in Davis' arms. Veemon now looked at Davis with sad scared eyes, but he didn't say anything still too injured to speak.

"Veemon you did great buddy…" Davis assured tears falling from his eyes as he gently hugged his partner best he could, while Veemon managed a small smile, and thank you in return.

Bokomon rushed into the safe area as well going over to Davis and Veemon his paws already alight. Matt was very relieved that Bokomon hadn't gotten injured when he was out on the field, as Bokomon only had a single bruise on his arm to show his participation from the battle.

With Bokomon beginning to heal Veemon's back, Matt returned his attention to Garurumon and the others.

By some miracle, despite Veemon's freeze up on the field, it didn't alter the battle on goings too much. Their partners were still hammering the Dobermon away with the warriors by their sides.

The tamers were also fairing better now with Marineangemon being the healer on their team, who instead of fighting, now under Kenta's orders was flying around healing his injured comrades.

Kenta must've been spooked by Flamedramon's defeat.

But Matt couldn't do any form of complaining because it was a very effective tactic. It kept the energy of the tamers digimon up, plus along with the card power ups they were now making short work of the Dobermon attacking them as well.

In fact by the bodies around Growlmon, it seems he was probably the second most prolific killer in this battle besides the Tommy from the warriors group, who definitely had killed the most Dobermon all together…

"Well Takato certainly wasn't lying when he said Growlmon was a savage battler..." Matt whispered to himself. This battle really reminded Matt of Growlmon's virus type status.

Sure Matt realized Stingmon was a virus type as well, but he never got as vicious as Growlmon when fighting. Matt even saw how Growlmon's eyes were dilated into slits the whole battle.

"He could probably fit in pretty well in this world…" Matt thought rather morbidly.

Then in five minutes the signal of the battle being over came from Koji.

"Inferno Gate!" Cerberumon cried as the ground in front of him parted to reveal green and red flames shooting up from the ground. Then the crack in the ground became larger and started shooting towards Koji in startling speed.

"Howling Laser!" Koji cried jumping into the air, to avoid the suction of the Hell Gate. Then launching his laser attack straight into the spot between Cerberumon second heads on his shoulders.

The shoulder haunches…

Cerberumon cried in excruciating pain, and to everyone besides the warriors surprise cried along with the heads on his shoulders, that had opened their mouths too.

"They were sentient! I was right!" Matt thought stunned, but if they were sentient why didn't Cerberumon use them to attack?

It appears that question would never be answered by Cerberumon, because the elemental light laser shot in that spot by Koji finally did him in…

"Well this proves my theory correct" Izzy said catching the attention of all the tamers and digidestined, the warriors were making they way up to stand beside Koji.

"What theory Izzy?" Matt asked

"That element advantages are clearly something we're going to have to pay extra attention to here, because clearly Koji having the element of light aided him greatly against the fight with the dark elemental Cerberumon" Izzy pointed out in warning to his comrades.

"Man it sure looks that way Izzy" Matt agreed.

As Cerberumon sagged slowly down to the ground, Koji approached him with a steely look on his face.

"It looks like I won again Cerberumon…I'm much stronger than the first time we fought" Koji said standing tall and proud, even when he was covered in deep gashes and bruises a sure signs of the brutal battle.

"Yes you have, I remember when you first received Akakuri's spirit you were a completely novice fighter only winning because I underestimated you…." Cerberumon said hacking up a medium amount of blood from his mouth.

"It appears that's no longer the case, and so I don't feel as humiliated as last time when I lost. This lose was my fault and my fault alone…" Cerberumon continued to wheeze out.

Turning to the ten Dobermon that were left from the battle, Cerberumon issued one final order.

"Go live on without me, leave Koji and all his comrades be. This loss was due to my weakness alone, in remembrance of me all I ask you to do is find a more a capable leader." Cerberumon said imploringly to his pack that barked back in agreement.

The least injured Dobermon walked upfront to Cerberumon nuzzled him a bit, before returning to the remaining nine. Then the rest of the Dobermon pack slowly limped back deep into the Blood Forest to continue on with their lives.

Cerberumon gave everyone one final warning before dying.

"Beware what Dagomon is planning is truly more dangerous than you imagine, but be warned he may not be the true enemy….it's I-i" Cerberumon said trying to say one more thing but to no avail.

He died before he could finish his warning.

Koji nodded to the dead body in consent, before absorbing the data from Cerberumon leaving the body a shade of gray.

Then Koji and all the other partners excluding the other warriors, Bokomon, Veemon, Lopmon, Impmon, and Marineangemon reverted back into their rookie forms and flopped onto the ground.

Matt rushed over to Gabumon holding him closely to his side, rubbing his sore partner's head gently.

Bokomon walked into the middle of the group and said in a voice that displayed morbid humor;

"Okay where do I start?"

Long Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long, I usually try to update this story on Mondays, but with the holiday season I didn't get the chance too.

Anyway here's the big fight I promised everyone! I hope it satisfies. I wanted the whole group to be involved with this one. Also I want say that if any of you are curious to what Koji, Cerberumon, Strikedramon, and Dobermon look like if my description wasn't good enough go to the digimon wikia or google images and look up…

Garurumon X, Dobermon X, Strikedramon, and Cerberumon X!

Plus for any readers that may not know Cerberumon was the first enemy the warriors fought in Digimon Frontier, but in the canon show it was Takuya who defeated him not Koji. Once again I rearranged whom Koji and Takuya first fought with their spirits to fit my AU frontier verse. So instead of Takuya vs. Cerberumon, and Koji vs. Raremon it's now the opposite. Also there the fact Cerberumon was originally in his X form in the first place, since he is from the my AU Frontier verse.

Mainly because I felt it more significant to have Koji's first fight be with an elemental opposite canine digimon to himself, and it keeps with the theme of Chi Forest being canine digimon dominant. There's also another theme about the Chi Forest I've got going now, and in case some people haven't caught it yet I'll give a free hint..

It starts with the letter "L"!

Finally I want to remind everyone reading, and new readers I did say multiple times that the some of existing warriors digimon forms in their digivolution line would be completely changed from the one's in the show, slightly altered, or placed at a different level. For example here I got rid of Lobomon, but kept Lobomon's howling laser attack on Koji's Garurumon form.

My reason for doing that is because I want the digidestined to see just how closely connected they are with the warriors, keep the forms a bit more consistent, keep some forms more beastial ( Remember I said beast like digimon get treated worse in this world), and to give all the warriors a fair chance at a primary and secondary mega form like Takuya and Koji had in the show!

But don't worry I'll say now that KendoGarurumon and MagnaGarurumon do make an appearance down the line! So not all the forms are altered and that goes for all the warriors!

One final note: The reason Marineangemon didn't dedigivolve when entering this dimension is because mega is his default form mode. The cores only block digivolution they cannot make an already digivolved digimon revert back like Ken's past control spires. So the mysterious core blocking mega digivolution won't effect him that way!

Anyway Please Review, and Happy Holidays!

FusaoKairi Out!