Chapter 18

Eucaliptusmon' eyes grew as wide as theirs as Matt looked shocked around him.

"What's happening?" Davis yelled.

"It seems that Faith has discovered another part of his abilities," Gennai smiled.

"What ability?" Joe asked confused.

"Temporary restoring life."

Matt glanced at Izzy, who was smiling.

"Restoring life...does that mean?"

"For a while, yes."

Tears appeared in all of their eyes as they stared at the seven forms that now showed them the features of their fallen friends.

Eucaliptusmon pulled out of his shock and lashed out with all of his eight arms, seven of them hitting one of the forms but going right through them like they weren't even there while the eight was directed to Izzy.

Matt pulled him backward and lost his balance, pulling Izzy down with him so that Eucaliptusmon' attack missed.

"Thank you for your help, Friendship. You truly are a friend," Eucaliptusmon laughed as Matt jumped up again.

Confused Matt turned to Izzy, who was still on the ground and throwing up blood, a lot of blood.

"Izzy!" he knelt back down.

"Why?"

"He was going to hit you," Matt frowned.

"That didn't matter, I was prepared for that and wouldn't have lost control."

"Lose control over what?" Matt had no idea what Izzy was talking about and looked up when Eucaliptusmon laughed again.

"Looks like your little friend stopped you from completing what you were doing."

"What he was doing?" Matt asked confused.

"He was trying to bring your little friends back. Really Faith, your friends are kind of stupid."

Izzy didn't react to him as the features of the seven lost Digidestined became clearer and Eucaliptusmon growled as he lashed out again.

"You aren't listening to me!" he hit Izzy full force his time and Izzy gasped in pain as he was knocked into a rock, landing flat onto his stomach and staying that way for a long moment before rising to his feet again.

"We need to distract Eucaliptusmon," Leomon suddenly said. "Izzy is trying to bring back the others but he needs time and Eucaliptusmon is attacking him to keep him from finishing."

"How? Our Digimon are down, if we attack him ourselves he'll just swat us away."

"And he'll kill Izzy before he's finished at this rate," Leomon growled before leaping forward. "First of the Beast King!"

He screamed as he hit the ground in front of Eucaliptusmon, taking him by surprise as the attack hit him full on.

He screamed something before he turned his attention to Leomon and dodged the second attack before laughing.

"Ah, the lion king. You should know better than to fight me, little lion...Supernova!"

Leomon couldn't avoid the attack and he screamed in pain as he was thrown backwards, landing right beside Davis who knelt down beside him.

"Are you all right?"

"No. This attack is eating me up from the inside. It's burning me. He is so much stronger than I had ever thought," he wasn't looking at Davis, instead staring at his claws that were slowly disappearing before looking up.

"Protect him, Davis. Do anything you can to help him. He might have been surviving for thirty-five hundred years, but that doesn't mean he's invincible. He won't survive if this keeps going on."

"Leomon..." Davis gasped as Leomon grabbed onto him.

"Don't give up on him."

"Leomon...I...I don't know if I can," Davis whispered.

"Don't lose Faith in him or he won't be able to defeat him. Don't let him become a lost hope like his parents before him."

Leomon slowly turned into date as he disappeared. "Don't lose hope..."

Davis felt tears roll down as Leomon disappeared from his arms, the lion's words repeating themselves over and over again in his head and he closed his eyes tightly.

"Lose hope...T.K...why aren't you here to tell me what to do? Even yelling at me wouldn't matter."

His eyes snapped open as a plan formed and he looked at Izzy, who was coughing up more blood after another attack.

"Don't give up...right," he turned to the others. "Distract him for a moment at any cost!"

He ran off towards Izzy while the others nodded.

"Seems like you cause another death, Faith. Don't you ever grow tired of killing all those innocent Digimon?"

"Hey you, Eucaliptusmon. Do you have any idea of just how ugly you are?!"

Kari turned to Matt with a frown. "That's really the best you can do?"

"It worked didn't it?" he shrugged as the huge Digimon turned to him with a glare. "All right, I know you guys can't defeat him, but we've got to buy Izzy time."

Their Digimon nodded determined and Gomamon turned to the others. "For Izzy, we can do this!"

"Gomamon Digivolve into…. Ikkakumon…Harpoon torpedo!"

"Gabumon Digivolve into…Garurumon…Howling Blaster!"

"Veemon Armordigivolve into…Flamedramon… Fire rocket!"

"Gatomon Armordigivolve into…Nefertimon…. Rosetta stone!"

The three Digidestined looked worried as their Digimon attacked Eucaliptusmon and he threw their attacks aside like they were no more than annoying flies.

"Really, you think you stand a chance against me?"

"We won't give up, we must keep fighting," Ikkakumon growled as he glanced at where Davis was kneeling beside Izzy. "They need the time."

The other Digimon nodded and attacked again to buy more time.

TBC...