20
New Encounters
"I came to the cliffs and was somewhat disquieted to note that the illusive moonlight lent them a subtle appearance I had not noticed before – in the weird light they appeared less like natural cliffs and more like the ruins of cyclopean and Titan-reared battlements jutting from the mountain-slope." – Robert E. Howard, "The Black Stone"
The first that they saw of it was a pinnacle of gray emerging from the forest. Miyako, Holsmon, Hikari, and Nefertimon had been searching the entire day for Dark Towers in a heavily forested and mountainous region. They had found several, but it was slow going. Only a few of the towers had tops which could be seen above the trees. The majority were hidden among the trees, sometimes half buried in the earth. They had spent a good twenty minutes scouring one area for a tower that they eventually found with only its pyramidal top aboveground.
As the flying Digimon drew closer to this new mass, the group was able to see that it was an artificial construction. Stone tiles covered the surface of a bizarre, asymmetrical structure. They got closer still, and Hikari noticed that there were entrances in the walls. Holsmon pulled up next to Nefertimon.
"Should we see what's inside?" Hikari asked Miyako.
"Well," the other girl said, "we know there's a Dark Tower here somewhere. Maybe it's inside there. But…" she looked down at her partner. "Can we fit?"
"We can revert to our usual forms," Holsmon said. Miyako looked dubiously at the shadowy apertures.
"Any Digimon that may be inside there would have to be small as well," Nefertimon pointed out. The girls looked at each other and nodded.
"Let's go," Hikari said.
There were large, semicircular ledges just outside each entrance. Hikari and Miyako alighted on one, and their partners devolved to Hawkmon and Tailmon. Beyond the threshold lay a stone tunnel leading into the heart of the gigantic structure. They began walking in file, Tailmon in front and Hawkmon bringing up the rear.
Every once in a while they would pass archways leading into other tunnels, but the layout was not mazelike, and there was no danger of being unable to retrace their steps. There were no echoes but their own footfalls. Even so, they peered into each arch they came to, making sure there was nothing squatting in the shadows.
Tailmon was just passing by the fifth of these when she caught sight of movement within. She took an instinctive little jump back into her partner, barely avoiding the gigantic blue fist which came shooting out of the dark. It withdrew just as quickly, and there next emerged from the passage a trio of small white Digimon, instantly recognizable as ghostlike Bakemon.
Reversing her motion, Tailmon sprang forward, her own fist extended. Hawkmon made to move forward and help, but he was hit from behind. Miyako turned and saw that a second group of Bakemon had taken up positions behind them.
"Hawkmon!" She knelt quickly to help her partner to his feet.
"Stand back, Miyako-san." He moved his wings above his head and grasped the feather atop it.
"Feather Slash!" He threw it like a spinning blade, and the Bakemon disintegrated as it ripped through their cloth bodies. Tailmon's claws had made equally short work of the other enemies, but everyone could see additional luminous white forms speeding forward to take the place of their fallen comrades.
"Let's get outside!" Hikari yelled.
"Cat's Eye!" The Bakemon that Tailmon had been staring down ceased moving forward and began floating around aimlessly, as if confused. The cat Digimon then turned to help Hawkmon clear a path through the enemies that had flanked them.
Lighdramon and his passengers raced on to the next area. This territory was more rugged than what they had traversed up to this point, with a greater number of hills and valleys. It was not long after entering the region that Daisuke, Ken, and Wormmon noticed that Lighdramon had begun to slow down. They could see that he tried to maintain his pace, but was having difficulty.
"Are you okay, Lighdramon?" Daisuke asked. "Do you wanna take a break?"
"We have come pretty far," Ken said. Lighdramon continued running, and didn't speak for a few seconds.
"I don't know what's wrong with me," he said. "Usually I'd have energy to spare."
"Well, let's rest for a while, anyway," Daisuke said. He and the others dismounted.
"I'm sorry, Lighdramon," said Wormmon. "It's not fair for you to do all the work."
"It's okay," the other Digimon replied. "But… I don't know why I'm so tired all of a sudden. Let's keep walking." He began moving again, keeping to the others' pace. Eventually they reached the crest of a rocky hill, and saw another of the Dark Towers standing across a valley from their position.
"Well, that was easy," Daisuke said brightly.
"I'll take it out," Lighdramon answered. He started down the hill. He had reached the bottom by the time Ken spoke.
"Where did that mist come from?" Ken asked.
"Huh?"
Daisuke had not even noticed, but as he took a closer look at his surroundings he found that his visibility had lessened. A thin gray mist had materialized suddenly in the air. Moment by moment it grew thicker, and already the Dark Tower was difficult to pick out among the haze.
Lighdramon paused, looking around him warily. He could… feel something. Why was he so tired? Neither he nor the others saw anything.
Then in an instant there was an object speeding out of the mist, appearing from nothingness to sink its fangs into Lighdramon's flank. Lighdramon roared in pain, and turned his head around to better see his attacker. As he did so the jaws gripping him released and the enemy seemed to vanish, only to reappear somewhere in the mist and ram him from the opposite side.
Lighdramon went over with a grunt and rolled on the weedy ground as blood trickled from the punctures in his side. Whatever the thing was, it could pierce his natural armor without much effort, though it could not penetrate very deeply into the skin beneath.
Watching in open-mouthed astonishment from the hilltop, Daisuke and Ken could see the attacker dimly in the mist. It looked something like a wolf, fast and powerfully built, almost as large as Lighdramon himself.
"Ken-chan!" Wormmon turned half around to look at his partner.
"Yeah," Ken said, beginning to recover from the shock of what had happened. He began to lift his Digivice. Before it was half way raised, however, the wolf thing turned, and, with a swish of its tail, disintegrated again into the mist. Lighdramon got shakily to his feet. The four strained their eyes to search for their attacker, but besides the swirling mists, there was no other movement. Somewhere, from no discernible direction, a wolf howled.
When Miyako and the others finally emerged from the tunnel and stopped just short of jumping off the semicircular ledge, they found several additional Bakemon floating in the air outside, waiting. These shot forward, but before they came close enough to attack the group, Holsmon and Nefertimon were newly evolved and ready for them.
"Red Sun!"
"Nile Jewelry!"
Several of the Bakemon vanished as the attacks hit them, but a handful still survived.
"Get on, Hikari."
"Miyako-san."
The girls mounted and their partners took to the sky. A blue hand emerged from the tunnel behind them and almost fastened itself in Miyako's streaming hair, but was not fast enough. The Bakemon before the Chosen were beginning to back away from them when, without warning, a blast of searing wind from behind them blew the ghost Digimon to shreds.
The two Chosen Digimon and their riders were hit next. Nefertimon and Holsmon had the strength to avoid being blown backwards, but they winced at the sensation, a strange mingling of blistering heat and paralyzing cold. Miyako and Hikari cried out as they felt the last breath of it, and lowered their faces. When they looked up again and opened their eyes, they saw what must have been the deadly wind's source.
There were two Digimon floating in midair that the Chosen had never seen before, one long and serpentine, the other seemingly built similar to Holsmon. The pair didn't move, but only stared intently at the humans and their partners.
"I feel… a power…" Holsmon faltered.
"Familiar… but…" Nefertimon said.
"What are they?" Miyako asked. As if in answer, the beings plunged toward them.