Chapter Four: Leomon's Liberators
Darkness consumed their dreams as they slept. Their aching muscles were finally able to rest for a few fleeting hours away from their enslavement. Even in their dreams though, their slavery haunted them, the long shadow of their captors over them, the ever present danger of whips, spears and arrows.
Thompson woke with a start, his heart pounding heavy in his chest and a cold sweat racing down his brow. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, looking over his sleeping companions. He looked up at the sky, the stars staring back at him were unfamiliar to his eyes but no less beautiful than the ones on Earth. He turned his attention to the two moons, one a perfect pale blue sphere, the other tan and craterous. Several of the craters were so large they likely had threatened the moon itself, and at least moved its orbit farther from the planet they were on. The planet they were on… where was it? Was it in the same Universe as the Earth? Was it all in his mind, this place just a hallucination designed to help him cope with reality? No, he looked at his hands, covered in dirt and blisters. He looked at the bars of the cage… this was real.
Thompson turned to Solara, who slept upon the soft soil beneath them. She looked so radiant, even covered in dirt. He lay back on the dirt, praying to whatever deities this world might hold that Patamon would be successful in finding them help. He'd helped get them into this mess and he wanted them all free, even the Digimon. Slavery was no way for a sentient being to live. His eyelids grew heavy and he drifted off to sleep.
The sound of a trumpet awoke him a little while later. He shot up to his feet in an instant looking around for the source of the sound to find the Tulismon at the front gate sounding the alarm. One of the Tulismon unsheathed his sword and rushed out of the camp into the forest.
Outside the gate the Tulismon had gathered together, their eyes searching the forests. One of them, a scout, had returned reporting he'd been attacked by something out in the woods but hadn't gotten a good look at it. Now all twelve Tulismon had eyes glued to the forest, searching the densely packed trees for any signs of hostile activity.
"Well, I don't see anything," one of them spit.
"I tell ya it was big, damn big, furry to," the scout said, lifting his hand above his head to show the height of what he saw.
"Leomon," one of the other Tulismon growled, "the hero of the wood."
"He's just a myth," one chimed.
As they bickered none noticed the flanking maneuver that was happening silently. Leomon, his hulking feline frame towering in at ten and a half feet, made his way quietly toward the back entrance of the camp. He stood frozen for a second, his cat eyes making out the forms of two more Tulismon walking the perimeter. He crouched behind several bushes and unsheathed his sword waiting as the Tulismon approached. Neither of the poor Digimon had any idea he was there but as they reached the far edge of the camp they turned around to make their way back, they turned in time to see Leomon in the open. The great hero leapt from the bushes and went to work sweeping the legs from one Tulismon while using his sword to stab into the other. The fight had cost him, as several other guards came around the corner to check on the noise. Leomon had luckily dragged the bodies into the bushes; still it was only a matter of time until they were discovered.
He had to act quickly. He pulled a grappling hook from his sack and tossed it over the wall, scaling the wooden barrier in a few seconds flat and hitting the ground on the other side with a thud.
"Come on, we're wasting our time, there's nothing out here," one of the Tulismon said.
"We gotta get those slaves to work before the boss gets back," another growled.
"I'm telling you I saw Leomon!"
"Yeah yeah, sure you did, you saw-"
The Tulismon was cut short as four Digimon stepped from the forest. One of them had hit him in the back with a powerful gust of air. One of them was tall, horned, and dressed in very strange attire. The other three were fairly small but none of them looked at all happy. The first little one was Patamon, the orange winged creature looked familiar to the guards though none could quite put a finger on why. The second, a fairy-like Digimon, stared with a powerful anger in her eyes. The third Rookie was a four foot tall feline with orange-yellow fur that seemed to stand on end and blackened razor flaws. It stood on two legs and was covered in black stripes.
"You have defiled this forest," one of the Digimon, a pixie-like creature, said.
"You have enslaved the free," the large horned one said.
"Who are you?"
"I am Yasyamon, servant of all that is good and punisher of those who are not so good."
"You think you that you four can take us twelve?"
"No," the menacing Yasyamon said with a cold tone, "I think I could take you myself, these three, they're just insurance."
Yasyamon lunged forward, lifting his Kendo Swords and knocking the blades from the hands of two Tulismon. He then reversed the attack knocking the legs from under the Tulismon on the right and finishing him with his left Kendo Sword. The left Tulismon had drawn a dagger driving it down toward Yasyamon, who blocked it with his arm guard, head butting the Tulismon, jabbing his two horns into the eyes of the wicked bandit. By this time the other enemies had begun to arm themselves.
"Puppet Master," Yasyamon shouted, his hands going up and one of the Tulismon's arms went up as well. Yasyamon controlled his foe having the Tulismon turn his bandit blade on the other enemies. While he controlled one of them with his mind he moved in with his swords to deal with the others. Between his puppet and himself he was managing to fight four of them at once quite effectively blocking each blow and parrying each thrust to perfection. The Tulismon facing their own friend didn't know what to whether to go for the kill or not, reluctant to hurt one of their own kind as they desperately defended his relentless attacks.
The other three Digimon split up now. The feline dashed like lightning toward two of the Tulismon on the left flank that had been hesitant to join the battle against Yasyamon. The bandits were happy to brandish their blades against the cat-like Rookie, thinking they would have themselves an easy victory. In an instant their plans were dashed to pieces as the feral Digimon they faced leapt into the air swatting, arcs of golden electricity pouring from his cat paws leaping to strike the Tulismon's swords. The Tulismon, feeling the jolt rush through them, dropped their swords, each lunging at the cat but neither fast enough to catch him.
On the other flank of the Tulismon line were Patamon and Dyrasmon, who had flown forward to meet the remaining bandit in battle. Even facing two Rookies the bandit swung his sword with arrogant over energetic swings, laughing as he did. Patamon had a hard time flying fast enough to avoid the swings, but Dyrasmon managed to fly circles around the bandit so fast her fairy dust trail blinded the beast. The Tulismon was left swinging in wild arcs leaving him fully vulnerable for a Boom Bubble. Patamon huffed in a lung of air launching the powerful gust to further imbalance the bandit sending him stumbling into Dyrasmon's small but powerful punches. The fairy scratched with her bark-like nails each attack shredding away at the clothing and armor of the Tulismon, sometimes reaching the skin beneath the black cloth.
Back in camp Leomon had set everyone free, all the Digimon limped from their cages but where once their hearts had been heavy and wills broken Leomon detected the return of hope in each of their eyes. He gathered them around as the remaining Tulismon guards, who numbered only about five, came out to surround them.
"Leomon I presume," Xander greeted the courageous lion.
"Indeed… Patamon said they were keeping Digimon captive here but you do not look like any Digimon I've ever seen."
"We get that a lot," Xander assured.
"We're going to have to fight our way out," Leomon declared, "I will take the two guards behind us. I want you, Floramon, Bogmon, Gizamon, Tentomon and Kunemon to take the two who are approaching from the front gate."
"What about us?" Jonathan asked, anxious to get his revenge.
"Do you six have any attacks?" Leomon asked.
"Well," Anselm replied with a grin, "we have shovels."
"Works for me, you get the guard over there on the left. Now, FOR FREEDOM!"
And with that the attack was on. The kids picked up their shovels and charged the Tulismon guard. Though their bellies had been empty save some strange stale fruit the Tulismon had fed them, they moved with all the righteous anger of their hearts against their captor. The Tulismon knocked aside Anselm and Vera with one arm while slicing at Jonathan with his sword. John blocked it, barely, the impact sending him sliding into the dirt. Thompson drew close to the bandit looking over to Solara for reassurance, she offered a wink. They both went in, but instead of going high they went low, sliding under the slicing attack of the Tulismon to smack the metal shovel heads right into the shins of the giant. The Tulismon roared in pain as a second pair of shovel blows hit his knees. Now Solara and Thompson reached the shovels behind the bandit's legs tripping the guard up and jumping on him like some Lilliputian army. The six of them looked back to see that Leomon had made short work of his two enemies as had already moved on to help the slaves deal with their two targets. With shovels in the air the six of them charged forward to help their fellow captives.
Outside the gate the fight was still going on. Yasyamon had to break his psychic puppetry of one of the Tulismon off to concentrate on his foes who were proving more troublesome then he'd anticipated. Still he was easily holding his own against the five of them, with at least two of them so injured they could hardly continue to block his swords let alone put up any kind of attack. He moved in for the kill on those two now, smacking them into each other and pushing off of them using the momentum to get a leap attack on two others. He turned for a moment to see his feline friend Haomon was having trouble and clearly growing tired, whilst Patamon and Dyrasmon had tired their enemy out and had nearly knocked him out.
Dyrasmon had grown tired of the games they were playing with this Tulismon. While they'd managed to do damage to it none of their attacks had been strong enough to knock it out and the bandit kept flailing in anger, each failed attack making it only more determined to slice them in two. She finally resolved to finish it, seeing Patamon take a deep breath she too prepared a special attack.
"Wooden Wing!" she shouted releasing a burst of sparks from her wings that met the Tulismon at the same moment as Patamon's Boom Bubble knocking the Tulismon into a spiral until he collapsed to the ground in a heap. She checked and her foe was indeed unconscious. Her eyes went over to Haomon and to her surprise she found the feline Digimon getting knocked over by a powerful kick from the eight foot Tulismon. Both giants loomed over Haomon now threatening to crush the tired Digimon under their boots. Dyrasmon rushed over launching another Wooden Wing attack mainly to blind the Tulismon and send them backpedaling. It worked and Patamon kept them distracted as she helped Haomon to his feet.
"Thank you," Haomon purred, standing up and attempting to regain a fighting stance.
"You can't fight, you're too weak."
"You two are too tired to take out these two by yourselves."
"DOUBLE STRIKE!"
The loud yell came from Yasyamon, who had crossed his swords. A powerful burst of energy came forward from them knocking the two remaining Tulismon to the ground.
"Good work old friend," Leomon called, making his way toward Yasyamon with the freed captives just behind, "now, let us get moving, any other Tulismon in the area will be sure to have heard that."
"Not to mention that foul smelling Podramon," Bogmon croaked.
This was it, they were free. The Digital World didn't seem so bad a place after all and as the kids made their way to Leomon's camp they found they were in good company. Leomon led them forward without fear, stopping to check tracks in the forest and on the trail, pointing out every Digimon to the six of them as though he knew of their ignorance on the subject. When they at last reached the camp the towering lion offered them a place to rest for the night on a bed of soft branches and a pink something he called Sheepmon wool. Their minds were, for the first time in days, truly at peace and sleep came swiftly to their tired bodies.