Chapter 36: The Fourth Key: Attack of the Reaper
After taking Gravimon to Shoutmon's Castle and returning to Dorbickmon's home, we checked on Veemon. He didn't wake up at all for the whole night. While he was unconscious, I took the liberty of finding Sorcermon to help heal Veemon's wounds. After that, he examined Veemon to check for any data that might have been damaged inside him when Callismon stabbed his DigiCore when the dragon was Paildramon. When he finished checking his injuries, Sorcermon turned to face me.
"He's sustained many injuries, but his DigiCore is in one piece." he explained, "Luckily, only the half of Paildramon's DigiCore containing Stingmon's data was harmed, so Veemon should be fine."
The news was a huge relief for me. When Sorcermon finished the examination, he excused himself and walked off. As he walked out of the room, Slayerdramon walked inside. He approached me slowly, noticing Veemon on the bed.
"Kid..." he muttered. My attention stayed on Veemon, who still wasn't waking up. Slayerdramon glanced at him.
"...is he ok...?" Slayerdramon asked.
"...his injuries will heal, and his DigiCore wasn't damaged..."
Slayerdramon sighed in relief, "That's good..."
The drake watched me store Veemon into the Xros Loader to heal. The dragon cleared his throat, but he wouldn't look at me.
"Kid..." he hesitated to speak, unable to find the words to explain the beating he committed on Callismon. "What you saw last night...it..."
"You don't have to say anything." I interrupted him, "That scene was enough of an explanation..."
"But...the way you looked at me..." Slayerdramon mumbled, "I didn't want you...to think of me in that way..."
"Revenge brings out the worst in someone..." he heard me mutter, "It happened to Dorbickmon, and it happened to you..."
"I'm sorry..." Slayerdramon dropped to his knees, "I didn't want Paildramon to get hurt...and when he did...I lost control of myself..."
Despite him regretting that moment, nothing inside me could have blamed him for what happened. In a way, that incident was also my fault. If WarGrowlmon had found the hideout much sooner, we could have stopped Callismon from injuring Paildramon, and Slayerdramon would have not lost control of himself.
"...don't bother crying about it Slayerdramon. What happened back there can't be changed now. There's no point in crying about it. Whatever the outcome was, you completed the mission Ouryumon left to you. The organization is gone, and you can start moving on..."
Slayerdramon wiped away his tears and rose to his feet. He walked out of the room to go get some sleep. My focus was still on Veemon, but he should heal since his DigiCore wasn't damaged. With DarkKnightmon out there hunting the Death Generals, it was a restless night for me. The knight could already be going after the next General, and since everyone was resting, there was nothing stopping him. Either way, I forced myself to go to sleep since we'd need all the energy possible to face the knight and whatever minion he threw at us. The following morning, Slayerdramon was on the second floor balcony of Dorbickmon's Castle. The drake was silent, deep in thought after what happened last night.
"Ouryumon..." he muttered, "I completed our mission...but why do I feel so guilty..."
As he looked around, he spotted Dorbickmon running out of the castle gates. The Death General was in a bit of a rush, confusing Slayerdramon, who walked back inside. When Slayerdramon walked into the foyer, he noticed me about to leave.
"Where are you going...?" he asked.
"...to go after Dorbickmon. He and the other Death Generals are being hunted by DarkKnightmon, and the knight has already defeated three of them."
Slayerdramon's eyes widened with shock. He followed me out the gates of the castle, and watched me reload WarGrowlmon out of my Xros Loader. The cyborg placed me on his shoulder and charged up the vernier thrusters on his shoulders.
"Let me go with you!" Slayerdramon exclaimed, grabbing WarGrowlmon's arm. The cyborg glanced down at him.
"Please kid..." the dragon glanced at me, "I swear I'm not the cruel digimon you think I am...I want to help you!"
There was a moment of silence between the two of us. WarGrowlmon glanced at me, waiting for my decision.
"...I won't make the same mistake again..." Slayerdramon reassured me, "I promise you that..."
After giving it some thought, my response to him was a simple nod of agreement. Slayerdramon gave a slight smile before being stored into my Xros Loader, and WarGrowlmon took flight, chasing after Dorbickmon. As we followed the dragon, he led us towards Honey Land. However, unlike last time, he noticed us in the skies following him. It angered the drake and he shot out two streams of fire from the cannons on his chest at WarGrowlmon. The cyborg was surprised, but shielded the two of us from the attack. While we were distracted, Dorbickmon ran off and lost us. When the smoke faded and our vision was restored, he was out of our sight.
"Damn it..." I muttered, coughing from inhaling a bit of smoke. WarGrowlmon landed on the ground, and Slayerdramon reloaded from my Xros Loader.
"What the hell is his problem attacking us like that...?!" the dragon asked.
"He doesn't want me to follow him. Last time we did, DarkKnightmon found Gravimon's hideout by tailing us..."
"Hmph..." Slayerdramon crossed his arms, "If he'd only understand that we need to work together..."
"If we want to find him, we'll have to split up to make the search easier."
"Ok." Slayerdramon nodded in agreement. He ran off to search the left side of Honey Land. WarGrowlmon resumed flight and started looking for Dorbickmon as well. Honey Land's woods and forests made it difficult to pinpoint the dragon.
"Where could he have gone..."
While we were searching, WarGrowlmon started barking, which caught my attention.
"What is it?" my attention turned to him. The cyborg pointed over to a familiar dark knight digimon flying away.
"DarkKnightmon!"
WarGrowlmon snarled angrily, and started chasing after the knight, catching me by surprise.
"Woah!"
Grabbing onto his armor, he sped off in a flash. We chased after the knight, who led us through the kingdom. The digimon led us to a huge tree where DigiHoney was growing on the branches, which helped me figure out who he was after next.
"DigiHoney...then...that must mean..."
DarkKnightmon was going after Zamielmon the Wood-Spirit this time. WarGrowlmon saw the knight enter the huge mounds of leaves near the bottom of the tree that were concealing the entrance. The cyborg snarled angrily.
"Calm down WarGrowlmon...we can't rush in there, he'd notice us."
Upon hearing my voice, the cyborg regained some control over himself and glanced at me. He nodded slowly and landed on the ground near the entrance. The cyborg placed me on the ground before he was stored into my Xros Loader. I ran inside the entrance, passing through the mounds of leaves.
The inside of the tree was hollow, with a staircase that twisted around the tree leading upward. Running up the flight of stairs was difficult, and it looked as if the staircase was endless.
"Damn it...it will take forever to reach the top."
WarGrowlmon was too big to reload inside the tree. While contemplating a faster route, my Xros Loader emitted a bright light. Grabbing the device, a familiar voice responded.
"Let me help you."
"Veemon, you're awake!" my eyes widened with surprise. Reloading him out of the Xros Loader, the small dragon looked up at me.
"I can still digivolve." he explained, "Even if I can't digivolve into Paildramon, I can still help you!"
The look of determination in his eyes was admirable for a small dragon like himself. There was nothing inside me that wanted to say no to the little guy.
"Alright."
A huge smile appeared on his face as he watched me raise my Xros Loader in the air.
"Veemon, Shinka!"
A bright light engulfed the small blue dragon as he digivolved into ExVeemon for the first time since he digivolved into Paildramon. The dragon placed me on his shoulder. Luckily, his size wasn't going to be a bother climbing up the stairs.
"Hang on." he told me. Grabbing onto his shoulder, ExVeemon flapped his wings and soared up the staircase at a swift speed. We managed to reach the top of the staircase in a short ten minutes. It led us to the entrance of another chamber. ExVeemon hid behind the wall and looked inside the room. The chamber was made of the tree bark and surrounded by the tree leaves to hide it from the outside.
"Woah..." the place astonished me. ExVeemon looked at the other side of the room, and spotted two digimon.
"Look." he told me. Glancing over, Dorbickmon and Zamielmon were in the other side of the room, and it looked like they were talking to each other. We listened in to their conversation.
"DarkKnightmon has defeated three of us." Zamielmon told the dragon, sounding rather angry. "No matter what we seem to do, he's always ahead of us and can read our strategies so damned easily!"
Dorbickmon stayed silent. As the two talked, ExVeemon looked up, and was surprised when he saw DarkKnightmon near the roof of the room, with his Twin Spear in hand. Noting the shocked look on his face, I looked over and spotted the knight as well, who was about to ambush the two.
"Dorbickmon! Zamielmon! Look out!" they heard me yell. DarkKnightmon jumped towards the two with his spear ready. Dorbickmon and Zamielmon managed to jump away and avoid the knight's attack.
"The World Shot!" Zamielmon fired off the arrow around his waist that was attached to his crossbow. DarkKnightmon jumped away to avoid it, charging at the Death General. Dorbickmon tried to interfere by punching the knight, but DarkKnightmon avoided the attack, grabbed Dorbickmon's arm and flipped him over, slamming the dragon on the ground. Zamielmon made his escape by jumping through an opening in the leaves. DarkKnightmon chased after him. At the same time, ExVeemon ran over to Dorbickmon.
"Are you alright?!" he asked the drake. Dorbickmon hit ExVeemon in the stomach with his elbow, causing the dragon to cringe in pain, stepping away from the Death General.
"I'm fine, but DarkKnightmon won't be!" he roared. Dorbickmon proceeded to follow DarkKnightmon and Zamielmon. ExVeemon recovered from the attack and chased after Dorbickmon. He noticed that the exit led to one of the giant branches of the tree. He looked down to see Dorbickmon jumping down from branch to branch, and followed. As he soared over to the drake, I noticed Zamielmon had already reached the bottom and ran into another part of Honey Land.
"We have to hurry!"
ExVeemon nodded in agreement and followed. Dorbickmon reached the bottom of the tree and ran after DarkKnightmon. The knight looked back and noticed the dragon, giving an evil smirk.
"They are all yours...Reapermon..." the knight muttered.
The Darkness Loader emitted a dark light as a digimon appeared out of it and powerfully slammed into Dorbickmon. The dragon was hit onto the floor, crashing against a few rocks that were nearby. ExVeemon and I arrived at the scene a few moments later.
"Dorbickmon!"
My attention turned to his attacker. The digimon was a cyborg with gold armor on his body, connected to dark gray armor on the cyborg's neck, legs and on the sides of the digimon's upper body. There was two claws on the digimon's metal boots, which had golden skeletons on the knee caps, as well as a red belt around the waist with the belt buckle resembling a ninja star. The cyborg wielded a giant silver cannon on his left forearm, and his left hand had three claws. The cyborg's right hand was a giant gold sickle blade attached to his right arm. His head was a golden skull with red eyes and two horns on the top of his head. There was the emblem of a silver skull on the cyborg's chest. The digimon glanced over at us.
"Who is that..." ExVeemon heard me mutter. Dorbickmon recovered from the attack and rose to his feet, snarling at the digimon.
"Your time...has come..." the cyborg readied his blade, "And I...as one of DarkKnightmon's loyal servants...shall be your executioner..."
Dorbickmon summoned his blade of flames, as the cyborg pointed his blade at the dragon.
"Know my name...Reapermon..."
The cyborg charged at Dorbickmon at a swift speed. Reapermon swung his blade horizontally at Dorbickmon's neck. The dragon barely managed to block the blade with his sword, nearly getting his head chopped off. I grabbed my Xros Loader.
"Reload, WarGrowlmon!"
The digimon appeared from the device and landed next to ExVeemon. WarGrowlmon roared loudly as ExVeemon placed me on the ground, and the two charged into battle.
"Grim Slasher!" Reapermon yelled. He slashed at Dorbickmon repeatedly with his cutlass. The dragon barely managed to block each attack and charged up the cannons on his chest. Dorbickmon jumped away.
"Dragon Breath Tonic Fire!" the dragon bellowed. He fired two bursts of fire at Reapermon, who didn't look fazed. The reaper swung his blade and cut the flames in half, surprising Dorbickmon. Reapermon pointed his arm cannon at the dragon.
"Bone Duster."
The cannon charged up and he fired a stream of flames at the dragon, who was too slow to avoid the attack and was hit dead on. Dorbickmon roared in pain. Reapermon wasted no time and kicked the dragon away. His attention quickly turned toward ExVeemon and WarGrowlmon, who attacked with V Laser and Atomic Blaster. Reapermon quickly dodged the combined attacks and charged at the two. He grabbed WarGrowlmon by the leg and swung him around, slamming him into ExVeemon, and proceeded to slam the cyborg on the ground, surprising us with his incredible strength.
"Damn...!" I clenched my fist. Dorbickmon grabbed Reapermon from behind, but it didn't catch the reaper by surprise. The digimon hit the dragon in the stomach with a strong elbow. Dorbickmon coughed up blood, stepping back and holding his stomach in pain.
"Burning Cyclone!"
Reapermon spun around rapidly, producing a powerful cyclone of flames that burned Dorbickmon's body. The drake yelled in pain, and Reapermon kicked him away afterward. Throughout the battle, Reapermon maintained a composed attitude, and battled seriously. He wasn't fazed by any surprise, and retaliated perfectly against everyone's attacks.
"V Laser!"
ExVeemon crossed his arms in front of himself and shot out an energy beam in the shape of an X from his chest. Reapermon took the attack headfirst, barely receiving any damage. The cyborg ran up to ExVeemon and punched him in the stomach. The dragon grunted in pain, dropping to one knee. Reapermon assaulted the dragon with a barrage of punches to his body, and then kicked ExVeemon in the chest, knocking the drake away and knocking him out with a punch to the face.
"ExVeemon!" my eyes widened with shock. He didn't respond to my call as Reapermon approached him, wielding his blade.
"Radiation Blades!"
Reapermon looked over and jumped away to avoid the charging WarGrowlmon, who attacked the digimon with his arm blades. Reapermon parried each of WarGrowlmon's attacks with his sickle blade, and jumped over the beast.
"Bone Duster!"
Reapermon turned around and fired a burst of flames from the arm cannon on his left arm. The attack hit WarGrowlmon in the back, causing the digimon to roar in pain. Reapermon was about to redirect his attention towards ExVeemon when he noticed Dorbickmon rising to his feet again. My Xros Loader emitted a gold light.
"Dorbickmon, Xros Shinka!"
The gold light engulfed the dragon as he digivolved. He grew slightly bigger, gaining dragon wings and a long tail that matched the color of his scales. His appearance was the same as when he digixrossed with his entire army back when he was serving the Bagra Empire.
"Xros Shinka, Dorbickmon Dragon Mode!"
The dragon soared at Reapermon, sword in hand, and the two engaged in combat. Reapermon was on the defensive, blocking each swing of Dorbickmon's blade and waiting for the opportunity to strike. Dorbickmon attacked the digimon swiftly and violently, trying to stab Reapermon with his sword. However, even with Xros Digivolution, the reaper was still faster, and jumped over the drake. He grabbed Dorbickmon by the tail and swung him around. Reapermon slammed the dragon into some of the huge boulders nearby.
"Grim Slasher!"
Letting go of Dorbickmon, Reapermon swung his blade towards the dragon. The drake managed to block the sickle with his sword when the weapon was barely an inch from his eye. Dorbickmon punched Reapermon in the face. The digimon didn't flinch from the attack, merely jumping away from Dorbickmon. Around this time, ExVeemon woke up from unconsciousness, rising to his feet slowly. WarGrowlmon also recovered from Reapermon's attack, snarling at the cyborg.
"Attack all at once!" I yelled.
"V Laser!"
"Atomic Blaster!"
"Dragon Breath Tonic Fire!"
All of them fired their attacks at Reapermon. The three blasts homed in on Reapermon, who didn't move to avoid it and simply crosses his arms to defend. A huge explosion occurred, blinding us from the result. When the smoke subsided, the four of us were astonished to see Reapermon still standing with less damage to his body than we thought.
"How could he withstand such an attack?!" my eyes widened with shock. WarGrowlmon charged at the digimon, attacking with his Radiation Blades. Reapermon avoided the beast's attack and stopped him in his tracks with a powerful kick to the groin. WarGrowlmon snarled in pain, about to fall on top of the digimon. Reapermon assaulted the beast with a barrage of physical attacks to his stomach and legs before using Bone Duster to blast WarGrowlmon away. The cyborg crashed onto the floor in front of me, unconscious and defeated.
"Damn it...!"
"V Laser!" ExVeemon yelled. Reapermon avoided the attack and hit the dragon with a powerful knee to the gut. The drake groaned in pain. Reapermon hit him with more punches to the body before hitting ExVeemon into the air with an uppercut and kicking the drake away. ExVeemon was hit onto a tree, and degenerated back into Veemon.
"Veemon!"
While storing WarGrowlmon in my Xros Loader and running over to help Veemon, Reapermon turned his attention towards Dorbickmon, who glared at the digimon.
"Tyrant Collbrande!" he bellowed. Vertically swinging his blade, the dragon tried to cut Reapermon in half. The digimon however, blocked the attack with his cutlass, and was not struggling to stop the attack from killing him, which angered Dorbickmon even further.
"Dragon Breath Tonic Fire!"
Reapermon nullified both streams of fire shot at him with a simple swipe of his claws. The cyborg noticed Dorbickmon getting tired, and the dragon's blade of flames was decreasing in size as a result of the drake getting weaker, allowing Reapermon to easily overpower the attack and run up to Dorbickmon.
"Grim Slasher!"
The reaper swung his blade and slashed Dorbickmon's chest and shoulders, cutting open wounds as the dragon roared in pain. Reapermon then used Bone Duster and fired off a burst of fire from the arm cannon on his left arm, hitting Dorbickmon in the open wounds and burning his open flesh. Reapermon was not about to let him attack, and assaulted the dragon with multiple blows to the face and chest before kicking the dragon away. Dorbickmon managed to land on his feet, but he was low on energy. Nevertheless, his anger blinded him from the fact that he would lose the battle.
"Dragon...Breath...Tonic...Fire!" he roared. He shot burst after burst of fire from the cannons on his chest. Reapermon approached him slowly, nullifying the flames by cutting them in half with his sickle. Eventually, Dorbickmon ran out of energy, dropping to one knee. Reapermon stood in front of him, looking down at the drake. Without saying a word, he kicked Dorbickmon in the lower jaw and powerfully punched him in the face, causing the dragon to fall back. Reapermon grabbed Dorbickmon by the lower jaw and lifted him up. The near unconscious dragon opening his eyes slightly, glaring at the blurred image of Reapermon. The reaper repeatedly hit Dorbickmon in the gut with his knee, causing the dragon to cough up blood. Reapermon finally put Dorbickmon out of his misery by knocking the dragon out with a strong punch to the side of his head, giving the dragon a concussion. Without any way of fighting back now, the dragon was at the mercy of Reapermon, and without Veemon and WarGrowlmon awake to help, there was nothing I could do but watch.
"Dorbickmon! Wake up! You have to!"
The dragon didn't hear me. Reapermon raised his right arm in the air. The blade reflected off one of the sun's rays, as he went in for the kill, aiming the tip of the blade at Dorbickmon's head. In that moment, a familiar voice was heard.
"Plasma Railgun!"
Before Reapermon dug his blade into Dorbickmon's skull, he was hit with a burst of blue plasma, causing him to release the dragon. A few more plasma bursts were fired at him from above, which the reaper blocked. The silohuette of a digimon appeared, hovering in front of the sun. It swiftly swooped down, grabbing the unconscious Dorbickmon and quickly turning to grab me before escaping from Reapermon. The cyborg simply watched, not surprised at all. It simply glared.
"...escaping...is futile..." he muttered, "You will be back...and I will be waiting..."
On that note, Reapermon walked away in the opposite direction. As we soared in the air, I looked around, surprised.
"Who...?"
My eyes recognized familiar gold armor and wings, as well as the blaster at the end of the tail this digimon wielded. Connecting the dots in my mind, my eyes widened with shock.
"It can't be..."
"So we meet again...though I never expected that we would have to save you two.." a familiar voice responded. Looking over at him, the boy's blonde hair and his blue Xros Loader was enough to give me a clear picture of who saved us.
"Kiriha!" my eyes widened with surprise. The boy turned around and looked at me.
"It was quite a surprise running into you here." he told me. Looking over at the digimon, it was none other than ZekeGreymon who saved us, as he soared towards another part of Honey Land while holding the unconscious Dorbickmon, who had one arm over the cyborg's neck.
"Who was that digimon?" Kiriha asked.
"He's one of DarkKnightmon's servants."
The boy wasn't surprised by my answer. "And what exactly was he doing here?"
"I'll explain it to you when we find a safe place to land." he heard me mutter. Nodding in agreement, he turned towards ZekeGreymon.
"ZekeGreymon, fly over towards the other side of Honey Land."
The digimon nodded in agreement and sped off, flying across the forest.