And here's the last chapter of the day people.
Hope you're ready for a LOT of reveals, because, seriously, we're not holding back, and we plan on blowing your socks off.
Let's go!
A Dark Mystery! Enter the Shadow Warriors!
A few days later…
"I know we've been over this, but I gotta say...this world is weird," Pierce said as currently he and Gyro were walking down a rocky area approaching a mountain that appeared to be made up of 5...spires...which were connected by ropes with the biggest being the one in the center.
"Well, we ARE in an alien world. Or is it a cyber world with a name like 'Digital World'?" Gyro shrugged. "Either way, we're here and we got our clues. All we can do is keep moving forward."
"Right. We've got some of the Spirits, and considering what we saw last time, those guys have probably gotten some too, so all that's left is to reach the Forest Terminal," Pierce nodded.
"Then we can all just go home. I'm sure those other kids want to as much as we do." Gyro sighed as the two brothers continued walking. However, as they did, they noticed something along the way, at the base of one of the mountains/spires.
It was a small Digimon, one that looked like a chick wearing his eggshell like an outfit, holding a katana in his hands and using it like a walking stick, likely because of his injuries.
"Oi…" Pierce said in worry as they ran towards the small Digimon "Hey! You alright?!"
The small Digimon looking up at the sound of his voice, before turning towards them, his eyes going wide "Ah! You're humans!"
Gyro blinked as they reached the small Digimon "Yeah… how do you know that though?"
"Because my friend is a human too. But, she's in danger!" the Digimon answered, starting to fidget in worry.
"Hey, hey, calm down, take a deep breath." Pierce told the Digimon as he crouched to his level, putting a hand on his head and trying to help him calm down. "Can you tell us what happened?"
"In as many details as you could too." Gyro added, crouching down as well "Also, I'm Gyro, this is my brother Pierce."
"Ah… I'm Hyokomon." the small Digimon introduced himself.
Digimon Analyzer: Hyokomon
Hyokomon. Vaccine Type. A Chick Digimon. A young Digimon that chose the life of a wanderer, wanting to see the world in order to become a master swordsman. He is loyal to his friends however, and will always come to their aid should they need him. His special attack is Karatakewari, cleaving his target in two with his sword.
"Alright, what happened then Hyokomon?" Gyro asked.
"My friend and I, we were just trying to find a way to get her back home. She came to the Digital World by accident and she doesn't know how to get back to the Real World. We figured maybe if we got up the mountain it would give us a clue, but… some strange Digimon attacked us and he took her hostage before throwing me down the mountain." Hyokomon finished sadly.
The brothers looked at each other at that before nodding. "Where is your friend?" Gyro asked.
Hyokomon blinked, before nodding gratefully. "Up this mountain. I should warn you though, last I saw her we were quite high up," Hyokomon said.
Both brothers looked upward...and really noticed how high it was. "...I am SO glad we're not normal humans anymore," Pierce said dryly.
"You and me both," Gyro agreed.
One Spirit Evolution later, (and calming down a fanboy reaction from the small Digimon) Hyokomon found himself in Lowemon's arms as both Warriors leaped into the air, using their greater abilities to make climbing the mountain...much easier. As such, it wasn't long before they reached the area that Hyokomon pointed towards. Since the area was a bit...small...to navigate, they were left with little choice but to revert back to human form and continue on foot, carefully navigating the ledges and thin paths….and doing their best NOT to look down.
Eventually they found a small cave that seemed too...neat...to be natural, and climbing into it, they found their path barred by iron bars...with several Digimon that looked like slugs with shells on their backs...and a human girl roughly their age.
The girl had triple colored hair, with one half being brown, the other pink, and having several white streaks going through it, she also had a right pink eye and a left white eye… though the sad thing was that she only seemed to be wearing a shirt several sizes too big for her that had a few holes in it.
"Hey… you all got caught by that Digimon Hyokomon told us about?" Gyro asked, crouching in front of the cage while Pierce stood guard behind him, just in-case the kidnapper decided to come back.
"Yes! He took us from our village so the men would give him the mountain's fractal code in exchange for our lives. There should be another cage somewhere else on the mountain too, because not all of us women are in this one." one of the Digimon, a ShellNumemon they would later find out, said in a young woman's voice "And earlier this morning he brought this young girl in too." she added, looking at the triple colored girl, who crawled at the front of the cage and looked to Gyro hopefully before looking down at Hyokomon.
"Don't worry! These guys will get you out! They're 2 of the Legendary Warriors!" Hyokomon explained, earning shocked gasps from the ShellNumemon, before they started to look hopeful as well.
Gyro chuckled a bit, before grabbing a rock and started to use it to try and break the lock after he made sure they were all away from it in case he missed. "What about the children of your village? Did he kidnap them too?"
"Just the girls there too… to be honest he didn't seem too bright." the ShellNumemon added with a sigh.
"Let's just be glad this guy was dumb enough to ONLY go for the women," Pierce sighed as Gyro finished breaking the lock, opening the cage and allowing them to get out. However, not all of them were out. The girl that Hyokomon called his friend stayed in the cage, even as Hyokomon tried to get her to come out.
"Hey… it's alright." Gyro said, holding a hand out to her "I can take a guess what kind of life you've been living… me and my brother have had a similar one. So I can understand that you're scared, but… I promise, I only want to help you. And I'll help you go back to your home personally."
The girl looked at him, but didn't say a word, but her eyes were clearly questioning.
Hyokomon saw that...and saw the confusion that Gyro was feeling and spoke up. "She...can't speak. I can understand more or less what she feels and try to translate that into words, but other than that, I'm afraid there's not much I can do," he sighed sadly.
Gyro blinked, before nodding. "I can imagine that must have made things harder, but again, I promise we'll help you get out of here," he said, giving her a reassuring smile, to which she hesitated, but slowly reached out and took his hand, letting him guide her out of the cage.
However, before they could properly leave the cave…
"What are you doing?!" came a new voice as a figure emerged from the ground, the light making it hard to see their features clearly, but they DID make out what appeared to be a squat, short figure. Before they could actually respond properly to this, the figure was upon them and with some surprisingly fast movements, grabbed them and threw them out of the cave...and into a free fall...
"What do you mean this isn't money?" Weiss said in annoyance.
"Sorry kid, I dunno where you came from but wherever it is, it's not been giving you money," the shopkeeper, a ninja looking Digimon wearing white robes with large leaves on his shoulders… and a giant shuriken on his back, said in deadpan.
Weiss looked like she wanted to argue, but ultimately just took her Lien back and apologizing for taking up his time, walked out of the shop.
"I'm guessing we're not getting any camping equipment, huh?" Blake sighed when Weiss got out of the shop.
"No, looks like this world really does use a different currency," Weiss sighed in annoyance.
"That's gonna be a problem," Jaune frowned.
"If we can't buy anything, then we're gonna have to either really ration our food, or rely on handouts whenever we can find them. That or we can look for work," Ren mused.
"But we're still kids," Ruby blinked. "And CAN we even work here?"
"We won't know until we try," Bokomon said.
"...hey wait a minute," Yang blinked. "Bokomon, you and Neemon are Digimon."
"...yes we are. Your point?" Bokomon blinked owlishly.
"Do you have any money we could borrow in an emergency?" Yang pointed out...to which Bokomon pulled out a wallet...and revealed the only thing in there were dust bunnies.
"I would, but I'm afraid I don't have any money," Bokomon sighed.
"Well...guess we'll just have to see what we can find," Pyrrha sighed as the group continued onward. They didn't get far before…
"Hey, what's that sign?" Nora asked, pointing ahead. The group looked to see a sign that read 'Help Wanted. All you can eat food as payment.'
They all looked at for a long moment, before the eight children ran towards it, leaving the two Digimon with them in the dust.
"How can we help?!" was the first thing Yang said as they rounded the corner… only to see a group of worried Digimon.
It was a bit of time later, and the group was hiding in some bushes next to a train track, waiting silently… before a Trailmon arrived, and the ShellNumemon attached some ropes to the caboose, which started pulling on the large trolley the Warriors were sitting in.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea!" Blake couldn't help but say as they were pulled along...with the trolley being...less than stable on the tracks.
"I don't think we had a choice," Yang gulped, holding on to Ruby to make sure she didn't fall out of the trolley...with said girl also holding on tightly which was more or less what everyone else was doing too.
"So what did you need help on again?" Jaune asked as the ShellNumemon crawled back to them.
"Our village has been terrorized by a Digimon demanding to know where the Fractal Code of the Mountain is," the first ShellNumemon said. "To get us to cooperate, he's kidnapped the women of our village and won't return them unless we tell him where it is. But the thing is we don't even know where it is, and even if we knew, we can't tell him that…"
"Because if he gets the Fractal Code, the Mountain you live on will disappear…" Weiss frowned in understanding.
"That's right," the ShellNumemon nodded sadly. "Either way we lose…"
The Warriors frowned at that as they exited the tunnel they had been going through… and their eyes went wide as they saw what was at the base of the mountain "... Is that a…?"
"A double loop? I'm afraid so." Pyrrha winced.
"Everybody hang on tight!" Jaune shouted as they all gripped the trolley tightly.
The ensuing ride was...crazy to say the least. After the loops which were crazy enough as is, the ride soon took them through tracks that curved, turned, and generally felt like something out of an amusement park...and most definitely NOT safe to ride on when all you have is a little cart. Eventually they hit a point where the Trailmon they were tagging along with went up the mountain. Literally.
"I see something ahead!" Blake said...before blinking owlishly when she could see it. "Is that a village built sideways?"
"Huh?" was the general response she got for that one.
"That's our village yes," the ShellNumemon said as Trailmon went up and after a few turns...dislodged the trolley.
"Oh god my head." Jaune groaned as he clutched what he was hanging to and opened his eyes… and saw the ground miles below "GYYAAAGGHH!"
"Holy-!" Yang shouted as she gripped her seat on the fence of the village tightly.
Blake was seemingly silent as she stared with wide eyes with her fingers digging into the wood… but if you looked clearly she was starting to hyperventilate.
"Ok… I think we should do something." Pyrrha said, before she, Ruby and Nora pulled out their Digivices, and soon Fairymon and Blitzmon were flying, while Gnomemon manipulated the earth next to them and made a platform appear "Everyone get on." she said as she hopped onto the platform, the others quickly scrambling onto it.
"Sorry about that. It's easy for us to forget not everyone can do what we can," the ShellNumemon apologized, revealing they were simply sticking to the side of the Mountain and thus able to move around as if they were on flat ground. "Our house is over here. Do you need the ladders or can you reach here yourself?"
"We're good, thanks," Blitzmon said as the group soon made their way to the house.
"Glad for something actually solid to stand on," Jaune sighed as he was the first to climb in.
"So you guys are the help huh?" came a somewhat surprised voice, to which they turned and saw a familiar pair of brothers.
Though the tri colored girl hiding behind Gyro and the small chick Digimon were new.
"Huh?" Jaune blinked… before everyone climbed over him to look into the house.
"Oh hey, it's you guys." Yang said with a surprised blink, before looking at the girl "Who's she?"
Gyro turned to look at the girl, leaning down to whisper something to her, the girl looking thoughtful before nodding after a moment, Gyro turning back to them "She doesn't have a name."
"She doesn't?" Fairymon blinked in confusion, to which the girl looked away looking a bit sad. "Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything bad by that…" she quickly apologized.
The girl shrugged, trying to act not too bothered by it, before Fairymon flew into the house and landed in front of her, turning back into Ruby.
"I'm Ruby! It's nice to meet you!" she said, holding out a hand. The girl looking at it for a few moments before slowly reaching out to shake it.
"We've been trying to give her a name since this morning, but she hasn't really been liking our choices." Pierce said in amusement.
"You haven't done anything about her clothes?" Weiss whispered to him.
"We would, but we only have what we're wearing now, and the ShellNumemon never met humans before." he shrugged, and Weiss had to concede the point.
She was going to make this a priority as soon as possible though, she couldn't bear to see a fellow girl walk around in torn up rags like that.
Meanwhile, Ruby was humming as she was thinking, her tongue sticking out as her face was scrunched up, walking around the tri colored girl, before she grinned "Oh! I know! What about Neopolitan? Like the ice cream?"
The girl thought about it for a moment, mulling it over properly before her expression brightened and she nodded happily. It seemed she liked the name.
"That's one problem solved I guess," Gyro couldn't help but chuckle. "And how about we go with Neo for short then?" he suggested, earning a nod from the newly named Neo.
"Nice to meet you then, Neo," Pyrrha said with a friendly smile which Neo returned.
The cheerful atmosphere continued for a bit, before Blake spoke up. "Not to be a downer, but since we're all here, I'm assuming you're helping with the bad Digimon problem this village is having."
"Pretty much yeah," Pierce shrugged. "That's actually how we met Neo, since she was in one of the cages. We managed to free some of the ShellNumemon, but more are still captive. Unfortunately we couldn't get a clear look at whoever was doing this since we got...tossed out...before we could see them clearly…"
"Tossed out? Are you all okay?!" Jaune gasped.
"I don't think they'd be talking to us if they weren't…" Ren said flatly, since well...getting tossed out from this mountain...he didn't need to explain.
"We lucked out and landed on some hay in this village," Gyro sighed.
"That's why we agreed to assist the ShellNumemon. Even if somewhat accidental, we owe them," Hyokkomon said.
"And we did agree to help too, so we should probably make a plan for this," Weiss mused, earning nods from the brothers. However, before they could actually start making plans...their stomachs started growling.
"...guess it IS time for lunch," Pyrrha said a little awkwardly.
"In that case we'll prepare the food first," the ShellNumemon said. It wasn't long before lunch was prepared, but…
"...aren't these cabbages?" Ruby asked, looking not too happy, since aside from the multiple colors, they really DID look like a pile of cabbages.
"Heh, that's what we thought too the first time," Gyro chuckled lightly as Neo and Hyokkomon were biting into some cabbages with gusto.
"These are Meal Cabbages. They're a type of vegetable that tastes like and fills you up like a proper meal," Hyokkomon explained.
"They taste REALLY good." Pierce added before he and Gyro started digging in as well.
The others all looked at the cabbages curiously, before Ren picked one up and bit into it, blinking in surprise "This one tastes like curry."
They looked at him in surprise at that, before Jaune picked up another and started eating "Huh… pizza… neat."
"This one tastes like buttered potatoes," Yang said, biting into one.
Blake didn't say anything as she was quickly devouring the cabbage she'd picked which was tuna pasta flavored.
"These are really strange in a good way," Weiss blinked as she bit into one, and found it was steak flavored. Well made steak at that.
The rest were eating into their own, finding a variety of flavors in the rest of the cabbages and before long they'd eaten their fill.
With lunch out of the way, the group were soon gathered around a table with a rough map of the central spire. "Alright, we freed the hostages that were in the cave here," Gyro said, circling a section of the map. "And based on what they told us...there should be another cave around...here…" he said, circling a section that was higher than the first one.
"So we're gonna mount a rescue on them as soon as we can?" Blake checked.
"That's the idea yeah, but the problem is the one guarding the area. Whoever it is, they can move through the ground like it's nothing. We literally didn't see him coming," Pierce said with a frown.
Nora hummed "Huh… sounds like they're as good at using the earth as Pyrrha is then." she noted.
"She's… right… that's strange." Pyrrha said in surprise.
Neo frowned, before she started gesturing, trying to explain something, though none of them could tell what… unlike Hyokomon, who nodded along "Ah, right, Miss Neo is saying when he captured her, he actually gave his name and introduced himself to mock her. He said he was Grottomon, of the Shadow Warriors."
"Shadow Warriors?" Weiss repeated in confusion, before turning to Bokomon, who was already flipping through his book.
"Hmm… I… don't seem to have anything on them no. I've honestly never heard of them either… strange." he said, scratching his chin.
"Well, they have an obvious bad guy name at least." Neemon said, and they had to agree with him there, it at least made it obvious where these 'Shadow Warriors' stood.
"So obvious villains aside, we should probably do something so Grottomon DOESN'T wreck the rescue mission," Jaune said. "The obvious option I can think of is someone needs to be bait to lead him away. Any volunteers?"
"I'll do it. I can control the whole land on the mountain when I'm Gnomemon." Pyrrha said, raising her hand.
"Oh! Me and Nora can help by flying around and annoying him!" Ruby said, giggling as she thought of being an annoying fly, Nora laughing along with her.
"Let's see how he likes thundershocks!" Nora grinned.
"I mean, he MIGHT not feel a thing? Ground isn't very good at conducting electricity." Gyro pointed out.
"I'll just hit him real hard then," Nora said.
"...eh, fair enough," Gyro shrugged. "At any rate, when you get his attention, focus on keeping him busy. Save the butt kicking for once the hostages are safe."
"We'll keep that in mind," Pyrrha nodded. "Anything else?"
"Nothing really. Assuming nothing too serious happens, this should be pretty straightforward," Pierce shrugged.
"It's a simple plan, but it definitely should work," Weiss nodded. "When do we do this?"
"We're thinking at dawn," Gyro said. "By then there's a chance Grottomon might be tired assuming he stands guard over the cage. Even if not, he'll be only just waking up. Either way it's a good time to strike."
"Alright then, so I guess the next thing to do is get a good night's sleep so we're all ready for this," Ren nodded.
Once the morning came, the Warriors were up bright and early, despite some slight reluctance at first, they quickly reminded themselves of their objective and focused on that.
As such, the plan began with Gnomemon walking up the surface of the mountain, using her control over the earth to make herself stick to it, while Blitzmon and Fairymon flew up next to her.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group, Neo and Hyokomon included, were scaling up the opposite side of the mountain.
"I think I see the cave. For now though, we'll wait here," Gyro said as they were at a section that was far enough from the cave to avoid being immediately noticed, but close enough that they could aim for it when the time was right.
As they were waiting, the distraction team soon reached the cave where the rest of the hostages were being held. "They're all here," Fairymon said, having flown into the cave to check. However, right as she was moving closer to the cage...something came out of the ground, which she narrowly evaded and quickly went out of the cave. The thing soon followed after, revealing what they assumed was Grottomon.
He looked like a goblin really, with a large nose and slightly overgrown forearms, wearing a long hat and some blue armor… that bore the symbol of earth.
"What?" Gnomemon said in surprise, looking down at her own symbol of earth on her armored dress.
And obviously, Grottomon noticed, his eyes narrowing, before he smirked "So, the Legendary Warriors themselves. I've been waiting for this meeting for a long time."
"You...who ARE you? Why do you have that symbol?!" Gnomemon couldn't help but ask. They'd talked with Bokomon enough to know that the symbols of the elements that the warriors had weren't used lightly, not with how significant they were, so to see another Digimon bearing it...that's not normal at all.
Grottomon laughed, before pointing at himself "I am Grottomon, the Shadow of Earth, one of the Ten Shadow Warriors, made by Lord Lucemon himself after you lot defeated him ages ago. He decided that the best way to meddle with you as revenge, was to make you fight those similar to you." he chuckled "Of course, we HAVE met before, but clearly, you are a different user than the last time I fought you, Gnomemon. And I am FAR more powerful than the last time."
"Wait...if these guys fought us...or our Spirits before...how come Bokomon's book doesn't have info on them?" Blitzmon couldn't help but ask.
"That's the LEAST of your worries!" Grottomon roared, as he pulled out a sledgehammer that was taller than he was. "Snake Eye Break!" he roared, as he slammed it into the mountain...which caused the entire area to shake, and knocking some boulders loose which rolled down towards them.
"Watch out! Breezo Petalo!" Fairymon said in alarm as she quickly used the wind to knock the boulders away. However, when she did that, Grottomon took the opening to try and get to her...only for a pillar of stone to come out and knock him off course, to which he soon landed on another section of rock.
"If you want us you're gonna have to catch us first!" Blitzmon taunted before the three of them did an about face and moved away.
"You won't escape me THAT easily!" Grottomon growled, chasing after them.
As that was happening, the rescue party was making their way to the caves and quickly got in, finding the cage with the remaining ShellNumemon. "Guess these are the remaining hostages," Blake mused. "We'd better get them out fast."
"Someone grab a rock. We'll smash the cage open," Pierce said, but Weiss walked right past him.
"Allow me," Weiss said, picking up a rock and manifesting a Glyph which she used to launch the rock right at the lock, breaking it immediately...and knocking the cage door loose too.
"Nice shot," Yang said as she and Jaune quickly got the door open (neither of them noticing the very surprised look the brothers were giving what Weiss just did), and quickly ushered the ShellNumemon out, and with everyone's help, the hostages were now all free.
"I think that's all the ShellNumemon," Bokomon said.
"Good, now let's help the others fight Grottomon," Ren said as they went to the cave entrance… and realized that Grottomon had noticed the ShellNumemon leaving and had come back.
"So there were more of you huh?" he grumbled, before sucking in a deep breath… and shouting "Hey! Wake up you lazy bum! The Legendary Warriors are ALL here!"
There was silence, as well as some slight confusion at his sudden strange shout… before the very tip of the mountain they were on EXPLODED into flame, like a red hot geyser shooting up into the sky, a figure standing up within the fire… and letting out a loud, crazed laugh. "Finally! I've been waiting for this rematch for ages! Time for ME to be the strongest flame, Agneyamon!" the figure roared out, before the flames scattered away, revealing them.
The first thing they noticed was that their hair was LITERALLY fire, flickering constantly like a wild blaze that poured out their head and down their back. They were also bare chested, revealing a muscular male torso… one that was black as coal with glowing red cracks on his body, like magma visible through cracks in the earth. He wore a minimal amount of armor really, just wearing it on his lower half, a dark red in color with glowing yellow highlights. The other notable features were that his hands were made of fire itself, and his eyes were glowing orbs of flame, with his mouth open in a mad grin of diamond looking teeth.
"It's been a few centuries since our last bout. So you no doubt have a new host. I hate having to introduce myself… but if I must…" the Digimon chuckled before raising his arms proudly "I am the Shadow of Fire, Kagutsumon! And unlike last time, my flames will burn brighter than yours!"
"The Shadow of Fire?!" Bokomon said in surprise, quickly looking through his book. "This can't be right! There's no information on anything like that!"
"Well he's standing right there," Pierce said dryly. "And they sure as heck aren't friendly."
Yang however stepped forward. "Pretty big talk from the guy who's outnumbered," she couldn't help but say with a slight smirk.
"Well you're the twerps who are outmatched," Kagutsumon said with a rather unhealthy looking grin.
"Okay you're asking for it now," Yang frowned a bit. "Everyone ready?"
"Not like we have a choice," Ren said with a humorless chuckle as they grabbed their Digivices.
"Spirit...Evolution!"
The light quickly subsided, revealing the group in their Evolved states.
"Let's do this!" Agneyamon grinned, before she jumped forward and met Kagutsumon head on, aiming for a punch to his head, which he reacted quickly and blocked.
"Not a bad punch, but not even CLOSE to enough if you want to beat me," Kagutsumon smirked, before countering with a punch of his own, pushing Agneyamon back significantly. "Meteor Fist!" he called out, before his arms were a blur of motion as they punched forward, releasing a barrage of fireballs which flew towards Agneyamon and would have hit her like well...meteors...if not for Kaleidmon getting between them.
"Trick tool!" Kaleidmon called out, wrapping herself in her scarf, which caused the fireballs to hit and get reflected into several directions. "Don't go running off on your own!" she scolded Agneyamon.
"This guy is confident enough that he thinks he can take all of us," Wolfmon said. "That's not something we should take lightly," he frowned.
"Hope everybody's been studying up on teamwork." Lowemon said, cracking his neck, knowing they were in for a tough fight.
The group didn't have long to talk as once again Kagutsumon was throwing fireballs like...oh wait, he really was laughing as he was throwing those around.
"Great...we got the maniac," Arbormon groaned, narrowly avoiding another fireball because well… wood and fire. Obvious bad matchup.
"Well first of all let's NOT attack without a plan!" Ranamon suggested...right after Wolfmon and Lowemon had charged forward after a round of attacks and were currently keeping Kagutsumon from raining fiery death on them. Effectiveness for some still questionable. "I JUST said-!"
"Make a plan!" Wolfmon shouted at her.
"They're buying us time then… alright." Chackmon said, having to hide from the fire as well.
"Well first of all he called himself the Shadow Warrior of Fire. That should mean he'd be weak to Water so... I'll fight," Ranamon frowned.
"Not alone you're not," Agneyamon said. "He seemed pretty keen on fighting me. Plus you'll want some backup too...even if the brothers will do that just fine."
"I'll stick over here and make sure stray fireballs don't hit the ones who are probably weak to fire," Kaleidmon said, creating a few Mirror Clones in front of the rock where Chackmon and Arbormon were taking refuge.
"I'll shoot from over here. Cover fire might help," Chackmon said, readying Romeo and Juliet.
Arbormon though… "Uh...moral support?" he offered lamely. Seriously, it sucked how he was useless against a fire enemy.
"I mean… you COULD fire at Grottomon?" Chackmon pointed out, and Arbormon looked at the fight between Blitzmon, Fairymon, Gnomemon and Grottomon.
He blinked slowly at that "... Good point." he said before opening his mouth and starting to fire his attack at the Shadow of Earth.
Needless to say Grottomon was NOT happy with the intrusion...mostly because it gave his own opponents more opening...which they took advantage of seeing as he was slammed back into the mountain side by Blitzmon, Fairymon and Gnomemon flashing Arbormon a thumbs up.
Back with Kagutsumon… "Hahaha! Come on! Is that the best you got?!" he roared gleefully as Wolfmon and Lowemon were on the defensive due to another Meteor Fist. Yeah...he's having a bit too much fun…
"Anyone ever tell you you're bat crap crazy?" Lowemon asked dryly.
"Of course! It makes life worth it!" Kagutsumon laughed, his flames growing brighter and hotter until…
All three of them heard singing… before Kagutsumon was hit with a torrent of water… right in his face and open mouth. "You need to cool off!" Agneyamon laughed, before socking the still disoriented (and slightly drowned) Kagutsumon in the face, knocking him into a nearby rock.
Kagutsumon was about to get up...when he was hit with another torrent of water from Ranamon.
"Huh...not the most fun plan, but definitely effective," Wolfmon mused as Kagutsumon was dealing with the very...odd...predicament of having to try and stand up while someone is dousing him with all the force of a fire truck's hose.
"I believe in using what works," Ranamon said simply...right before something came flying their way, and ended up knocking into Kagutsumon and knocking him out of the attack range, leaving him to fall to a lower ledge, that thing being revealed to be Grottomon.
"Sorry about that!" Gnomemon said sheepishly, a blunt pillar of earth not far from her, showing WHAT had launched Grottomon.
"Hey, we're not complaining! Come on, let's beat them up while they're in one place together!" Lowemon said completely shamelessly.
"What a band of heroes we are," Chackmon couldn't help but snort in amusement.
"Don't...get so cocky…" Grottomon growled as he and Kagutsumon got up albeit a little shakily.
"That should be our line. Where's all that bravado you two idiots had earlier?" Agneyamon smirked.
"Heh...looks like they think this is all we got? Want to prove them wrong?" Kagutsumon smirked despite a few small coughs from the dousing he'd endured.
"So we're gonna use 'those'? Count me in," Grottomon smirked, as both of them reached into...somewhere...and pulled out...a pair of Spirits, one for each of them.
"Feel the might of the Beast Spirits!" Kagutsumon smirked as both of them were covered in cocoons of Fractal Code.
"Kagutsumon…!"
"Grottomon…!"
"Slide Evolution!"
The Cocoons soon burst to reveal two new Digimon. The first of the two was the one Grottomon had turned into, looking like some kind of light brown colored troll looking Digimon with large arms and legs… and an even larger nose than before. "Gigasmon!"
The second one was a large bear shaped Digimon, with fur black like charcoal and dark red eyes, armor covering his stomach and back with the mark of fire on it, and on his paws were more armor, that had holes where his claws would be… and releasing small jets of fire in the shape of claws. "Ursamon!"
"What the heck?! How'd they do that?!" Arbormon gasped.
"Bokomon…?" Fairymon gulped as Bokomon was furiously looking through his book. "There's nothing in here about this!" Bokomon said, looking just as panicked, while Neo was trying to hide with Hyokomon.
"But then how are they like that?" Neemon asked.
"Heh, you really don't know anything if you don't even know about Beast Spirits!" Gigasmon laughed.
"And since we're such nice guys, why don't we show you. Up close and personal!" Ursamon smirked.
"Be careful," Wolfmon said. "We might still outnumber them, but they've gotta be confident for a reason."
"Like we're gonna let you do that!" Gigasmon roared as the two of them charged forward.
"Hit them with everything first!" Agneyamon shouted, and nobody was looking to argue.
"Fire Darts!"
"Blockade Seed!"
"Mjolnir Thunder!"
"Snow Bomber!"
"Brezzo Petalo!"
"Endlich Meteor!"
"Aqua Needle!"
"Licht Kugel!"
"Eruption Blast!"
"Trick Tool!"
All ten attacks flew towards the two Shadow Warriors… who simply smirked before deflecting them away.
"Not good enough." Gigasmon said with a dark grin.
"That...that can't be right…" Kaleidmon gasped, involuntarily stepping back for a moment.
"...what do we do now?" Gnomemon gulped.
There was a pause...but nobody could come up with anything. Not even Agneyamon could see them fighting these two monsters head on, and nobody was suggesting running, seeing as if they did, there would be nothing to stop the two Shadow Warriors from terrorizing the mountain and eventually destroying it. However, the issue was soon taken out of their hands when some of the rocks fell away, specifically a section where their attacks had been deflected to, revealing a mass of Fractal Codes.
"Is that?!" Chackmon gasped in surprise.
"Well what do you know, so the Fractal Code was right here," Ursamon smirked.
"And we're not going to let you take it!" Fairymon shouted, charging forward.
"Ruby wait!" Agneyamon gasped, charging after her sister.
"H-hey wait!" Ranamon gasped, and before she realized it she'd ended up charging after them.
"Don't be reckless!" Kaleidmon shouted in alarm...and ended up going forward too.
"Yeah, like THAT'S gonna stop us!" Ursamon laughed as his claws burned brighter. "Inferno Claw!" he called out, sending three burning crescent shaped shockwaves from his claw, which hit the four of them, knocking them off course, leaving them hanging off of a lower ledge.
"Dammit!" Wolfmon growled as he jumped down to try and help them, Neo and Hyokkomon doing the same. "Try to hold them off!"
"No promises!" Lowemon responded...right as Gigasmon came for them, forcing them to scatter and try to counter with their own attacks, but…
"Hurricane Bomber!" Gigasmon called out, spinning like a small tornado...and completely knocked the attacks away, before soon moving about and pinballing off of each of them, sending them flying to another section too, the group just barely being able to grab on to some ledges.
"Hah! If that's all you got, you're barely even worth the time!" Gigasmon laughed as near the Fractal Codes, Ursamon reverted to Kagutsumon.
"In the name of our Masters, we claim this Fractal Code and land!" he laughed as he held out his hand, and the Fractal Code was scanned into it, much to the horror of those watching.
"Get out of here!" Wolfmon managed to shout towards some of the ShellNumemon who had stayed to watch while he grabbed Neo and Hyokomon in his arms, to which they didn't hesitate and quickly started evacuating their village. Good thing too as once the Fractal Codes were taken, the entire central mountain seemed to turn into Fractal Codes and started dissolving as Kagutsumon and Gigasmon leaped away, their work here done.
The entire area shook and shifted, and as a result, all of the Warriors and their allies lost whatever footing or hold they had and with the violent winds that were being kicked up from the shifts, even the fliers couldn't stay in the air, resulting in everyone falling into the newly formed abyss as the mountain disappeared.
Bet nobody expected us to do it like that huh? That's right, we even went and made an evil Fire Warrior.
And, of course, Neo being in the Digital World as a child, and with a Hyokomon as her first friend.
Surprisingly, she's a recent addition to the plans... but oh BOY have we made a lot of those, and trust me, they will shock you.
Anyway, as always.
The Legend Evolves