Chapter 37: The Battle In Honey Land
On the other side of the kingdom, Slayerdramon searched around for Dorbickmon. However, his search had reached the point where he was starting to search for everyone else. The dragon searched the area five times, becoming a bit more frustrated each time he found nothing.
"Damn it...first I can't find Dorbickmon and now I can't even find the kid..."
As he contemplated a different strategy, a violent tremor hit, nearly sweeping the drake of his feet. He managed to stay standing, and looked around.
"What was that...?!" he muttered. Slayerdramon noticed clouds of smoke rising not too far from his location. The drake ran over to go investigate. When he arrived at the source of the tremor, he was surprised to see Zamielmon and DarkKnightmon fighting. However, he noticed DarkKnightmon easily gaining the upper hand.
"The World Shot!"
Zamielmon fired another arrow from the crossbow around his waist. DarkKnightmon moved to the side to avoid it. The knight slammed into the digimon, knocking him to the floor. Zamielmon struggled to stand up, which pleased the knight.
"You Death Generals really are pathetic..." he mocked the digimon, kicking the elf away. "Without your armies, each one of you is nothing..."
As Zamielmon stood up, DarkKnightmon grabbed him by the neck and started to choke the digimon.
"Allow me to end your suffering..." the knight smirked.
"No...!"
Slayerdramon ran out of his hiding spot and charged at the knight. DarkKnightmon noticed the dragon and jumped away, releasing his grip on Zamielmon before his hand was cut off by Slayerdramon's sword. The drake stepped in front of the Death General.
"How surprising..." DarkKnightmon smirked, "It has been a while, Slayerdramon..."
The drake growled, with his Fragarach ready. Zamielmon rose to his feet, catching his breath.
"You..." the elf coughed.
"You're only prolonging his inevitable fate..." DarkKnightmon laughed at the dragon. "He will fall by my hand whether you interfere or not..."
"We'll see about that!" Slayerdramon yelled, charging at the knight. The dragon attacked with Tenryūzanha, but his attack was blocked by another digimon.
"What?!" Slayerdramon's eyes widened with shock as he looked over at the digimon. DarkKnightmon smirked.
"You've returned..." the knight muttered, "I assume everything went well, Reapermon...?"
The digimon hit Slayerdramon away, who stumbled back a few feet.
"The target was defeated..." Reapermon informed the knight, "However, he was rescued before I could execute him..."
"Rescued...?" By who...?" DarkKnightmon asked.
"...by ZekeGreymon from Blue Flare..." Reapermon muttered.
"Blue Flare...?" DarkKnightmon glanced over at Reapermon, slightly surprised. "How interesting...those who were once enemies have turned into comrades..."
As they talked, Slayerdramon attacked again. However, Reapermon easily blocked the attacks and stopped the drake from injuring DarkKnightmon.
"Knowing their persistence, the two will come after us..." DarkKnightmon muttered. "In that time, I guess we'll just take care of you two..."
Slayerdramon jumped away, landing next to Zamielmon. The two glared at DarkKnightmon and Reapermon, and they charged into battle.
ZekeGreymon took us to a small field near a DigiHoney tree. He landed on the ground, and placed Dorbickmon on the floor. The dragon was still unconscious, and his wounds were still present when he degenerated back into his normal form. Kiriha walked over and grabbed one of the containers of DigiHoney from the tree, which was a dark shade of yellow. He brought it over to me.
"Here. This DigiHoney is for medicinal use." he explained, "If you place some of the honey on Dorbickmon's wounds, then they will heal faster once he's stored in your Xros Loader."
With a nod of understanding, I did as he told me and grabbed some of the honey, placing it on the wounds Reapermon inflicted on Dorbickmon's body. The drake didn't respond during this time, and my attention turned to Kiriha.
"So...how did you know we were here...?"
"I was investigating parts of Dragon Land and Vampire Land where dark energy was emanating from when Taiki contacted me through the communicator. He told me that Honey Land was emitting a large amount of dark energy. When we traveled over to check it out, ZekeGreymon and I noticed a blinding explosion. Arriving at the scene, we saw you and Dorbickmon fighting Reapermon."
"I see..."
After treating Dorbickmon's wounds, the dragon was stored into my Xros Loader to heal. My attention then turned to ZekeGreymon and Kiriha again.
"...I'll be honest. I never expected you to save Dorbickmon...considering what has happened in the past..."
Both of them stayed silent. There was a small pond of water nearby, allowing me to wash my hands. Kiriha walked up to me.
"...the way you worked together in the tournament...it made me believe that maybe even someone like Dorbickmon can change..."
As we talked to each other, Veemon appeared from out of my Xros Loader. His injuries seemed to have healed.
"Hey...are you okay Veemon?" I asked him.
"Y...yeah..." the small dragon muttered. Kiriha looked at the digimon, recognizing him.
"...is this the same digimon that was with you at the tournament? The Paildramon?" he asked. The small dragon looked down, nodding slowly.
"He is...however, his DigiCore was damaged in a recent battle when he was Paildramon, and he can no longer digivolve into him anymore.."
"I see..." Kiriha nodded slowly in understanding, "That could pose a problem when we go after Reapermon..."
"I know...we will have to hold him of until Dorbickmon wakes up if we want to have a chance of beating him..."
"What exactly is DarkKnightmon after?" Kiriha asked.
"He's after seven keys that are inside each of the seven Death Generals."
"What are the keys for?" he crossed his arms.
"They open a gate somewhere that has a powerful digimon locked inside."
"How many has he collected so far?"
"Three. He's after Zamielmon as we speak."
"Alright then. We might not have an advantage right now, but we don't have time to lose. Let's go." Kiriha told us. He jumped onto ZekeGreymon's back, and we followed. The thrusters on the cyborg's feet lit up as he took flight.
"Where would Reapermon go?" Kiriha asked me.
"He'd probably go back and report to DarkKnightmon. We'd have to find the knight."
As we talked, an explosion occurred not too far from our location. Looking over, a tornado of flames rose out of the trees, which was easy to recognize.
"Fire...that has to be them. I'd recognize Reapermon's Burning Cyclone attack."
Using my hint, ZekeGreymon soared over to the source of the explosion.
We arrived at the scene to see Slayerdramon and Zamielmon fighting the two usual suspects. Both digimon were losing, easily overpowered by DarkKnightmon and Reapermon's cooperation.
"Damn..." Kiriha muttered, "They need our help!"
ZekeGreymon nodded and charged into battle. He slammed into Reapermon before the digimon hit Slayerdramon, knocking the reaper away.
"You..." Slayerdramon muttered, breathing heavily.
"Are you alright Slayerdramon?" I asked him. The dragon turned to look at me.
"I'm fine..." he muttered. DarkKnightmon looked over at us.
"I knew you'd return...and you even brought Blue Flare with you..." the knight smirked.
"DarkKnightmon..." Kiriha clenched his fist. We jumped off of ZekeGreymon's back as the cyborg moved away from Reapermon. Veemon stood next to ZekeGreymon, ready to fight again.
"Reapermon..." DarkKnightmon glanced at him, "Take care of your objective...I will deal with Zamielmon and Slayerdramon."
"Understood..." Reapermon muttered, wielding his sickle blade. My attention turned to Slayerdramon for a moment.
"We can't let DarkKnightmon beat Zamielmon...can you still fight?"
"Try and stop me..." the dragon growled.
"No matter what, try and protect him from the knight."
The dragon nodded slowly. He and Zamielmon ran off to another area not too far off from our current location. ZekeGreymon pointed the gun on his right hand at Reapermon, ready for battle. Grabbing my Xros Loader, the device emitted a bright light.
"Veemon, Shinka!"
The light engulfed Veemon as he digivolved into ExVeemon. Reapermon didn't react at all to this, and charged up the arm cannon he wielded on his left hand.
"Bone Duster!"
Reapermon shot out a burst of fire from the cannon. ZekeGreymon moved away to avoid it. ExVeemon ran up to the reaper and attacked with a few swift punches. Reapermon blocked the dragon's attacks, retaliating every opportunity he had by punching ExVeemon in the snout. The dragon distracted Reapermon, allowing ZekeGreymon to fly at Reapermon from behind.
"Plasma Railgun!" he bellowed., firing a burst of blue plasma from the blaster on his right hand. Reapermon noticed the attack. He quickly turned around, cutting the blast in half with his claws before turning around and punching ExVeemon in the gut. The dragon groaned in pain, nearly dropping to his knees. ZekeGreymon soared up to the two and slammed Reapermon away with his tail. The digimon slid back a few feet, still standing. He attacked with Bone Duster repeatedly, trying to hit ZekeGreymon. The digimon avoided Reapermon's attacks swiftly, staying airborne. He made sure that the reaper was too busy trying to shoot him out of the sky to notice ExVeemon attack from behind.
"V Laser!"
Crossing his arms in front of himself, ExVeemon fired an energy beam in the shape of an X from his chest. The attack hit Reapermon in the back, but it didn't cause much damage. The reaper turned around to face the dragon, allowing ZekeGreymon the opportunity to attack.
"Zeke Flame!" the digimon roared. ZekeGreymon exhaled a burst of fire from his mouth at Reapermon. ExVeemon jumped away from the reaper and fired off another V Laser. The reaper didn't show any sign of surprise.
"Burning Cyclone!"
Reapermon spun around, creating a tornado of fire that protected himself from both attacks.
Damn...he's good... ZekeGreymon thought, He's easily taking the two of us on...and he's good at both attacking at defending...our attacks barely do any damage alone...
Reapermon slammed into ExVeemon, hitting the dragon onto a tree. The reaper continued his assault by kicking the dragon in the chest. ZekeGreymon charged from behind and grabbed Reapermon. He took to the skies, taking the reaper with him. ZekeGreymon flipped over and soared towards the ground at an incredible speed. He released his grip on Reapermon seconds before making impact with the ground. The crash caused a huge tremor as rubble fell to the ground near us. The cloud of smoke that blanketed us faded slowly, showing that Reapermon was still conscious, with his armor only having dirt on it, which he brushed off with his hand.
"He's tougher than I imagined..." Kiriha muttered.
"It's amazing how much he can withstand." he heard me under my breath, "He withstood a combined attack from Dorbickmon, ExVeemon and WarGrowlmon, receiving only minimal damage to his armor."
"If that's correct, then fighting him normally won't get us far..." Kiriha clenched his fist, "And we'll be wasting time..."
Reapermon avoided ExVeemon's punches and hit the dragon with an uppercut.
"Bone Duster!" the reaper yelled, unleashing a stream of fire from the arm cannon on his left hand, hitting ExVeemon and blasting him away. The drake hit a tree, and the attack knocked him out, as he degenerated back into Veemon.
"Damn it!" I clenched my fist.
"ZekeGreymon!" Kiriha yelled. The cyborg charged at Reapermon.
"Trident Fang!" ZekeGreymon bellowed. He tried to stab Reapermon with the claw on his left hand. The digimon blocked the attack with his cutlass, and the two engaged in close combat. While ZekeGreymon was distracting him, it gave me the opportunity to pick up Veemon and take him out of the battlefield.
"Are you alright...?"
"Y...yeah..." his eyes winced, catching a small glance at me. "I'm sorry that I can't put up much of a fight against our enemies anymore..."
"Don't say that Veemon. You did a great job...now get some rest..."
The small dragon nodded in agreement, getting stored in my Xros Loader. My attention turned back to the fight.
"At this rate, DarkKnightmon will capture Zamielmon's key before we can chase after him..."
"We need more assistance..." Kiriha told me, "Unfortunately, one of my other digimon is helping Xros Heart in another kingdom..."
As we thought of a strategy, a loud groan came out of my Xros Loader. The voice sounded familiar.
"Dorbickmon...?"
"Urrghh..." the drake snarled in pain. The deep, serious tone of voice was none other than his.
"Reload, Dorbickmon!"
A bright flash emitted from my Xros Loader as the drake appeared next to us. His eyes winced slowly as he rose to his feet, looking around.
"Good, you're awake..."
Dorbickmon looked over at me, and noticed Kiriha next to me. It angered him.
"Blue Flare..." he slightly snarled.
"Look, we don't have time for this. Put your anger aside, Reapermon is back to finish what he started."
The dragon looked over to see the reaper hitting ZekeGreymon away with Burning Cyclone. Dorbickmon snarled, catching Reapermon's attention.
"If fighting Reapermon normally won't work, then we will have to resort to DigiXrossing." Kiriha grabbed his Blue Xros Loader. He turned to me.
"Do you have any other digimon that are able to DigiXros?" the boy asked. Before being able to answer, Veemon interrupted the conversation.
"Carlos!" he called me.
"What is it Veemon?"
"WarGrowlmon's awake!" the dragon told me from inside the Xros Loader. With that piece of information, we planned our next move.
"Thanks Veemon." I told the small dragon, raising my Xros Loader in the air.
"Reload, WarGrowlmon!"
A bright flash emitted from the device, as the digimon appeared next to Dorbickmon. Kiriha repeated the same procedure.
"Reload, Deckerdramon!" the boy yelled. Another bright flash emanated from his Xros Loader as a familiar metal alligator digimon appeared next to him.
"ZekeGreymon!" Kiriha called the cyborg, "Fall back! We are changing our strategy!"
The digimon obeyed the order, jumping away from Reapermon. The reaper glanced over at us.
"Hopefully, with the strength of two digixrossed digimon, we'll be able to turn the tide." Kiriha muttered.
"There's only one way to find out..." my attention turned to him. Both of us nodded slowly, and raised our Xros Loaders in the air.
"ZekeGreymon! Deckerdramon, DigiXros!" Kiriha yelled. A bright light engulfed both digimon.
"DigiXros!" the two roared. Deckerdramon's head replaced the armor on ZekeGreymon's chest, and the cyborg's right gun was replaced with Deckerdramon's tail blaster. His shoulders also gained two small versions of Deckerdramon's missile port. ZekeGreymon's gold armor darkened slightly in shade to better match Deckerdramon's dark brown armor.
"ZekeGreymon, Decker Mode!" the cyborg roared. After they finished, it was our turn.
"Dorbickmon, WarGrowlmon, DigiXros!" I yelled. The two were engulfed in a similar light as they digixrossed together.
"DigiXros!" the two digimon bellowed. Dorbickmon's legs grew in muscle mass. His lower body now resembled WarGrowlmon's, which changed color to match Dorbickmon's scales. The black rings around WarGrowlmon's legs weren't there anymore though. The armor on Dorbickmon's chest was replaced with WarGrowlmon's, and the two spikes on Dorbickmon's gauntlets were replaced by WarGrowlmon's Radiation Blades. Dorbickmon's mouth and jaw was now mechanical, being the same as WarGrowlmon's. The two cannons he wielded on his chest were now smaller, being similar to the gun ports WarGrowlmon wielded. Dorbickmon also gained WarGrowlmon's vernier thrusters on his shoulders, and the three horns on his back were gone. Along with gaining WarGrowlmon's tail, the emblem of fire Dorbickmon normally wielded on his cannons now appeared on the center of his chest.
"Dorbickmon, War Mode!" he roared. The dragon bellowed loudly. Reapermon wasn't fazed by the dragon's roar.
"DigiXrossing..." he muttered. He aimed his arm cannon at Dorbickmon and ZekeGreymon for the next part of the fight. ZekeGreymon and Dorbickmon charged at the reaper.
"Bone Duster!" Reapermon unleashed a burst of flames from the cannon.
"Dragon Blades!" Dorbickmon roared. His voice was much more feral when digixrossed with WarGrowlmon. He used the arm blades on his gauntlets to cut Reapermon's attacks into thirds, nullifying the flames. The reaper avoided the two from slamming into him, but they quickly turned in the air to face him.
"Destroy Tailhook!" ZekeGreymon roared. He swung around and hit Reapermon with his tail, knocking the reaper away. He then charged up the blaster on his right hand and fired a blast of blue energy. Reapermon shielded his core from the blast, receiving damage on his arms. Dorbickmon chased after him, grabbing Reapermon by the leg and slamming him on the ground. The dragon's eye flashed, using his Burning the Dragon technique to make stalactites rise from the ground around the reaper and trap him from standing.
"Now's your chance! Hit him with everything you've got!" Kiriha ordered. The missile ports on ZekeGreymon's shoulders opened up, as he moved away from Reapermon.
"Decker Smasher!" the cyborg roared. He spun around rapidly, shooting out missiles, as well as energy blasts from the gun on ZekeGreymon's tail. All the attacks homed in on Reapermon, who couldn't free himself. The blasts caused a chain of explosions, not allowing the reaper an opportunity to retaliate.
"Keep it up!" I yelled. The gun ports on Dorbickmon's chest lit up.
"Atomic Fire!" the dragon roared. He unleashed two huge streams of fire that hit Reapermon dead on, exploding and causing a huge smoke cloud to rise. ZekeGreymon and Dorbickmon continued their assault, causing a lot of destruction to the area. They ceased fire a few seconds later, allowing the smoke to start clearing. We noticed Reapermon's silhouette start to form. The reaper was still alive, but the assault had inflicted a lot of damage to his body. He struggled to stand, giving us one last opportunity.
"Finish it!" Kiriha yelled. ZekeGreymon charged at the reaper, with the claw on his left hand ready. However, DarkKnightmon interfered before he could make the kill, hitting the digimon away with a powerful kick to the cheek.
"What...?!" Kiriha's eyes widened with shock. ZekeGreymon stayed in the air, stopping himself.
"Not one step..." the knight growled. We noticed Slayerdramon and Zamielmon on his back. Both digimon were out cold, and the knight showed us the green diamond in the palm of his hand.
"I've acquired what I want." he muttered, "Now unless you want both of these two to be nothing but data, you'll back off..."
He dropped the two digimon, and pointed the tip of his Twin Spear at Slayerdramon's neck.
"What makes you think we're going to let you get away with all this?!" Kiriha yelled.
"Because I know you won't let this unconscious drake fall by my hand because of a simple mistake you two make..." he growled. DarkKnightmon wasn't toying around with us this time. ZekeGreymon and Dorbickmon snarled at the knight, with their weapons armed. Reapermon managed to stand up, slowly walking over to DarkKnightmon. The reaper pointed his sickle blade at Slayerdramon's neck to help his master. It allowed DarkKnightmon to use Super Dimensional Ax to open a portal for the two to escape. It was a difficult moment for us since we had the opportunity to finish Reapermon off. The digimon glared at us.
"Next time..." he growled, "It won't end this way..."
He and DarkKnightmon entered the portal, which closed behind them. We ran over to Slayerdramon and Zamielmon when they were gone.
"Hey, wake up!"
Slayerdramon wouldn't respond to my call. Storing him in the Xros Loader to heal, Kiriha turned to me.
"Zamielmon won't respond either." he informed. This situation with DarkKnightmon has now become more serious than before.
"...we'll take him to Shoutmon's Castle. Once we're there, I'll talk to Shoutmon and Taiki. It's about time they get involved with this."
Kiriha nodded in agreement with the plan. ZekeGreymon and Dorbickmon reverted from their digixrossed forms. While storing WarGrowlmon and Dorbickmon in my Xros Loader, Kiriha stored Deckerdramon in his device. ZekeGreymon picked up Zamielmon, and we climbed onto the cyborg's back. He took flight, heading towards Shoutmon's Castle. Once there, Zamielmon was taken into one of the rooms like the other three Death Generals were. After that, Shoutmon and Taiki met us in the throne room.
"It's about time I told you what DarkKnightmon is after." I told them. For the next half hour, they were informed about Examon's story, and about the Royal Knights sealing away ExoGrimmon, as well as the seven keys hidden inside each Death General. They nodded in understanding.
"I see...so this whole pandemic is just to keep us all busy while he goes after the Death Generals..." Taiki muttered.
"And so far, he's succeeded, no matter what resistance you've put up against him." Shoutmon crossed his arms, looking down.
"I'm running out of ideas...anything we've tried, he still manages to get the better of us."
"Not this time." Shoutmon looked at me, "We're going to help. He'll have much more trouble to deal with this time..."
"The only way to find out who he's after next is to track all that dark energy." they heard me mutter, "During our previous battles in Cyber Land and Vampire Land, the areas we fought him in were emitting large amounts of dark energy when he was around."
"The same thing occurred in Honey Land." Kiriha added.
"Alright then." Shoutmon nodded, "Go get some rest for now. We'll use the communicator to contact you once we know his next target."
"Alright..."
On that note, we parted ways to get some rest. Arriving at Dorbickmon's Castle just before night fall, Slayerdramon was reloaded onto his bed. He remained unconscious for the rest of the night. Dorbickmon appeared out of the device as well, walking away to rest as well. The next day, Dorbickmon left early to Shoutmon's Castle. When I walked into Slayerdramon's room, the dragon wasn't there. My search for him led me to a hill not too far off from the castle, where he could be seen from afar.
"Hey..." my voice caught his attention. He turned around to look at me.
"Hi..." he muttered.
"What are you doing here, Slayerdramon?"
He stayed silent. Instead of telling me, he showed me what he was doing up here by moving out of the way. There was a small mound he made out of some stones and flowers. He built it in front of a tree.
"What is this...?"
"...it's a small memorial for Ouryumon." Slayerdramon muttered. He placed a small yellow jewel on top of the stones that was cracked in the center. "Now that the organization is gone. It's time for me to start that new life...and this is something I thought of to preserve his memory..."
"I see..."
"This small jewel was the object that was taken from me when we first met." he explained to me. "He brought it back to me, but it was cracked. Either way, I've kept it ever since..."
I placed a hand on his arm, smiling slightly. "...I think that's a great idea Slayerdramon."
The dragon looked at me, giving a smile. My communicator started ringing.
"...you should answer that." he told me. Nodding in agreement, the one who was calling was Shoutmon.
"What is it?"
"We've figured out where DarkKnightmon's going next. There's a lot of dark energy emanating from Gold Land." he told us.
"Alright. We'll meet you at the castle."
Ending the call, Slayerdramon rose to his feet.
"Shall we get going?" he heard me ask. The dragon nodded slowly.
"Let's."
Walking away, Slayerdramon followed slowly. He turned around, glancing at the memorial for a moment.
Ouryumon...thanks...I'll live this new life for the both of us...
He turned around, following after me. Storing Slayerdramon in the Xros Loader and reloading WarGrowlmon, the cyborg placed me on his shoulder. He charged up the vernier thrusters and took flight, heading towards Shoutmon's Castle.
Author's Note: Another chapter down. Also, about that last scene. I've seen that in a few animes where they kill a character and he's just forgotten a few chapters later. This is at least to show that Slayerdramon and the others aren't forgetting Ouryumon, and his memory lives on.