Chapter 26:- Thomas vs Henkenmon

"Your mission is to kill Cherrymon."

"Kill...Cherrymon?"

"Yes, Cherrymon. He is the reason those baby digimon are alive. And also, once he is dead, the morale of the fighting digimon would be lost."

There was a knock on the door and Patamon walked in."Sir, the preparations have been made."

The Master briefly turned his attention away from Henkenmon and looked at his loyal subordinate."Yes, good work, Patamon. I will come and check as soon as I have debriefed Henkenmon."

Patamon momentarily glanced at the small, watermelon-shaped digimon."Yes, Sir. Then I will take my leave."

After Patamon left, the Master continued.
"The other digimon will act as the distraction. While the fighting ensues, you will slowly be moving your position. And once you spot Cherrymon,
Destroy him."

"Sir, what Digimon should I transform into?"

At hearing the question, Henkenmon's master cradled his chin."Someone that has , a digimon that has horns. " He finally replied.

"A digimon with horns?"

"Yeah, you can impale him. And I believe I have fed you with data of various strong digimon who have horns."

Henkenmon was quiet for a moment, going over of the list of digimon he was fed with in his mind. He finally came to a conclusion."How about Bullmon?"

"Ah! An Armor type digimon. It is not very strong, but I doubt that the digimon inside the barrier will be strong in the first place. And you can also save energy to transform into thirty or so rocks and trees."
The scar on his left hand seemed to glowed in the dim light."Very well, Henkenmon. You will transform into Bullmon."

xxxXxxx

He didn't even see it coming. Keep your eyes and ears open. That what his Master told him.
But it was harder then he had expected. All he heard around him were footsteps of someone running, screams, evil laughs and explosions. He was only concentrating on the scene in front of him.

Various baby digimon were running from either Digmon or Drimogemon. And a little far away, he could see a huge tree.
And it was outside the barrier.
To other digimon, it looked like an ordinary tree. But Henkenmon wasn't going to be fooled. That was Cherrymon alright. There was no tree as big as that anywhere. And it was just the same size as a Cherrymon. That couldn't be a coincidence.

Thomas was certainly a genius. Judging by the reaction of the digimon, they had not expected an attack from the below the ground. But Thomas must have predicted this. Otherwise, he wouldn't have hidden the baby digimon in fake trees. But that could have been a step to ensure that they weren't caught if in case the barrier had been breached from the outside.
But that was not going to explain why Cherrymon was outside the barrier. The only reason Henkenmon could come up with was that Thomas suspected the attack from the beginning.
'No one, not even the Royal Guards were able to predict Master's plan. But this guy...Now I understand why Master wants to get this guy out of the way. He is a great tactician and strategist. And on top of that, he was also a brilliant fighter. God has blessed him twice. Just like my Master.'

That was what he was thinking when he was hit in the back. Although it was practically impossible, he knew that it was Thomas. Although a person shouldn't be able to move after a wound like that, he knew that it was Thomas. And he was proved right, when he heard his voice.

"So, it was you. Henkenmon!" Thomas cried out in a bitter tone.

Yumi walked into the room, her gaze on the floor. Her face was a mixture of emotions. Her master noticed this and shook his head.
"Defeat. It always tastes bitter. Especially when you have your pride on the line."

Yumi's mouth trembled and she clenched her paw."Sorry, Master! I failed you! I-I accept every punishment you wish to inflict upon me!"

The master was taken aback by this outburst."Calm yourself, Gatomon. And hold your head high."

Yumi started.

"You did very well against someone that experienced in battle. And it was only the second time you had used your Ultimate form."

Yumi was getting more and more shocked by the seconds. Her eyeballs narrowed until they were no more than dots.'Is-Is this a compliment I am hearing from Master.'

"As I suspected, with enough training, you might become a member of my elite force."

Yumi snapped out of her daze."Elite...Force. You really think I can-

Her Master was saying this with his gaze on the ceiling. As Gatomon spoke the words, he looked at her and turned cold.
"Listen. Don't push it. Don't act like you don't get the message. Do you really think I would say something like that just to comfort you? Anyway, your defeat made no impact on the course of the battle. As I told you, it all depends on Henkenmon."

Gatomon flushed."Y-Yes. Forgive me, Master. I...Will take my leave then."

Outside, a tear trickled down Patamon's face.

Henkenmon transformed into a Bullmon.

"Oh! Such a transformation to deal with a wounded boy."Thomas commented, suppressing the fear that was slowly growing. He had barely enough energy to stand, let alone fight an armor-type digimon.

But Henkenmon was worried about his own issues. He was exhausted from his last fight. He couldn't uphold this form for long. His plan was to wait till the last minute. He would get as close to the barrier as he could before he would transform. And then, he would put all his power to burst through the ongoing battle and break through the barrier, before impaling Cherrymon.

But because of Thomas's intervention, he doubt that his plan would work.

Thomas broke off his train of thoughts and examined the Bulllmon. He noticed that one of the digimon's foot was slightly trembling and from the slight noises, he made out that the digimon was breathing quickly.
There was no doubt that he was exhausted. But Thomas couldn't make out exactly how exhausted Henkenmon was.

Thomas summed up his situation. Both of them were exhausted and were suffering with injuries.
In other words, the one who was going to exhaust himself completely first will be the one who will loose the battle.
He will be the one to die.

~x~

The enemy's battle force was depleting rapidly. With Gallantmon, MachGaogamon and RizeGreymon fighting back to back, it was a piece of cake.

The other digimon from their army had also gathered. All of them were Centarumon. They were the only digimon Gallantmon could persuade to help them in the battle. But other than them, he was also able to recruit fifty other random Ultimate Digimon.
But looking around, Gallantmon couldn't spot any of them.

He sighed as he beheaded an Aquilomon. He knew there would be death. And he knew that the toll would be high.
After all, this was war.
But still, he could not shake off the guilt. He had literally called above a hundred digimon to their death. And worse, they agreed to come without hesitation. Although they told that they were worried for their fellow digimon, he knew that it wasn't true.

Survival of the fittest.
That was the rule of the Digital World. No one cared about the other. They were too occupied taking care of themselves.
Gallantmon knew that the digimon hadn't taken part in the war because they care. It was because they wanted to be respected by the Royal Knight.
Imagine how famous a digimon could become if even the best of the best respected him.

Gallantmon saw a yellow ray shot past through the corner of an eye. It hit a Ptermon and deleted it. It was a "Solar Ray" fired by a Centarumon.

Gallantmon turned around to see the digimon who saw it. He was just in time as a red ray hit it, deleting him on the spot.
'Why? Why?! Now that the enemy is focusing on us, they can retreat. They have earned the respect.' Gallantmon turned away and once again turned his attention to the enemy digimon in front of him.'So why...Why aren't they leaving? They have already earned respect just by participating. So why go all the way?
Could it be...That they actually cared?'

~x~

Bullmon made the first move. His head bent and his twisted horns pointing forward, he charged at Thomas.
The blonde waited till the last moment to dodge. He was counting his seconds. One moment too early, and Bullmon could swerve and hit him. And one moment too late, he was a goner.

He was able to dodge at the right time and Bullmon ran straight into a Digmon that had popped out of nowhere, killing him. Thomas too advantage of this situation and began to run. He had his eyes on a broken branch of a tree.

When Bullmon snapped out of his confusion, he turned around to face Thomas. But this time, the nineteen-year-old genius was holding a branch.
Thomas felt the branch in his hands and weighed it. It was crooked and a little too heavy to be comfortable. One end was branched into two while the other end was cut sharply in a diagonal way. And even though it was thick, if hit in the right place, the Bullmon could easily destroy it. It
was not his choice of weapon, but he was not in a situation to complain.

Henkenmon took a few short breaths, examining exactly how exhausted he was. As he suspected, he could use neither his "Matador Dash", nor his "Tail Whip".
And if he did, he would not have enough strength afterwords to kill Cherrymon.

This time, Thomas attacked first. He ran towards his opponent, the forked end pointing forward.
With a smirk and the slight downward movement of his head, the digimon caught the branch in between his horns. Snapping of the branched ends. Thomas took the momentum of his advantage and slid down, underneath Bullmon, freeing the branch.
Then with a swift movement of his hands, he turned the stick, the broken branched end resting under his armpit and the other end in front of him. The entire upper-body of Bullmon was heavily armored, so he couldn't do anything about it. So instead, he pierced the cut end into the knee pit of the digimon's right front leg.

Bullmon let out a cry, staggering and forcing himself not to fall. Angered, he started hammering the ground trying to squish the blonde underneath him.

Thomas cursed as he kept dodging the hooves. Unfortunately, the small finger of his left hand was caught and he let out a cry of pain. Bullmon smirked, momentarily forgetting his pain. He continued stomping.

Thomas glanced at his finger. The bones were crushed and it was covered in blood. The sight of it intensified his pain. Boiling with anger, he struck out the stick, pointing at the same knee pit. This time, it went through, stopping when it made contact with the bone.

Bullmon let out a deafening cry and fell on his front legs. Thomas managed to roll away from beneath him, dragging along the branch with him. Henkenmon was now too absorbed in the crucial pain to pay attention to his opponent. He was about to lose his transformation.

Thomas stood up. He could see that Henkenmon wasn't going to let go of his transformation. His grip tightened around the branch, so much so that his knuckles turned ghostly white. His eyeballs were now nothing but blank blue orbs.

Through the window, he was seeing everything. The panic in which the baby digimon were running here and there. The Lilymon, Marcus and Yoshi were escorting them, grouping them together as Cherrymon constructed hollow trees to protect them.
Gallantmon had sent them backup. And the digimon had just arrived. Keenan was instructing them. Although he could not here what he was saying, he could judge that the Digimon were impressed by his charisma.

Everyone was doing something. Everyone except him.

Then the war had started. And he was still in bed, once again observing what was happening. And then once he was able to muster up enough energy to walk out, Marcus, through his actions, had heavily hinted the fact that he was desperately trying to deny.
In this war. In his current condition, he was useless.

And it was all because of some puny digimon.

Useless.
He hated that word. He hated it so very very much.

He was now looking down at the Bullmon. The digimon was panting, staring up at him.

And without thinking for a second time, he brought down the diagonally cut end of the branch. It pierced right through the Bullmon's eye. Screaming in pain, Henkenmon was not able to uphold his transormation and reverted back to his original self. He was writhin in pain, his palm was covering the place where his left eye should be.
But Thomas knew that it was no longer there.

He picked up the branch and stepped closer towards Henkenmon. The digimon looked at him pleadingly with his right eye. He was begging for mercy. But Thomas could feel no emotion swelling inside. Not even hatred. He had directed it all in his last attack.
His heart was completely empty and void.

He impaled the digimon and finally killed him.
He tilted his head upwards and saw the data float into the sky and disappear.

"You...Have lost."

Although the sound of explosions was deafening. Thomas could barely hear it. His vision was turning blurry. But this time, he was not going to fight it. His legs could no longer support the weight of his body and he fell.

He fainted before he even touched the ground.