The 7th war

Chapter 10: Much Needed Preparations

Phantom Ruins Main Church

The trio of friends found themselves resting up for the second day in a row in a large room with three beds, a large dining room table for up to 8 people, 8 chairs, 4 dressers, and 3 closets.

The first day after their victory over IceDevimon, the Digimon they had saved partied long into the night and thanked them with gifts, food, and handshakes most of the evening. Using that time of thanking the trio, the saved Digimon had prepared a grand feast that was held in their honor and recognition for their efforts in bringing down the tyrant. The team of friends slept afterwards until a little past noon the next day. When they had fully woken up, they asked the Digimon if there was anyway they could help with reconstruction efforts on the church that were happening as they slept. Being told no and to continue to rest up the trio decided it was time to train up with their new Champion form for Rookie/Champion and Champion/Champion combinations for the fights they will be in from now on.

The current Head Bakemon leads them to the training field, that the Bakemon were forced to fight each other in before they were liberated, and bows to the trio as he leaves to oversee the repairs going on and to check on the still resting Digimon who had been captured and drained of their data to feed IceDevimon during their captivity in his ice prisons.

Smirking to each other Agumon and Biyomon jump into the sparring arena, Seth makes sure to activate the training field function on his Digivice that is used for battle practice, as the battle field cloak covers the area in a large dome to keep their attacks from affecting the area outside their sparring ring, the two Digimon stretch and prepare for their spar. After admiring the effort the Bakemon put in to make sure they could fight in this 100ft diameter sparring ring they faced each other and began to spar with both physical attacks and their special attacks to fine tune their reactions with the boosts to their stats they got from leveling up so much after IceDevimon's defeat.

While seeing them spar energetically Seth summons their training gear and sees they had also leveled up from their base training forms. The striking log become a metal striking pole, the treadmill had become an obstacle running course, the sparring dummies had upgraded to sparring bots which had arms with boxing gloves on them that would shoot out to strike you if you weren't fast enough to react after you hit them.

After seeing the upgrades to their training gear Seth sees an email from Sorcerymon saying "For helping the other Digimon and my Brother get away from IceDevimon's clutches… and his stomach. Thank you and looking forward to your growth from here with these new training assistants for your use, Signed Sorcerymon"

Seth closes the email and looks to the training gear and smirks to himself, "Heh that guy has a good heart and a nice personality once you get to know him. Welp time to get working myself!"

With that Seth puts on a weighted vest and ankle/wrist weights numbering up to 30lbs total and begins to run through the moving obstacle course trying to work his entire body. While Seth did that, things were quite literally heating up at the Digimon spar.

(Cue Fight On! (FFVII ACC Version) - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Music)

"Pepper Breath!" Agumon yells while running down the middle of the sparring ring and launching 3 fireballs in succesion at Biyomon who dodges them with a swerving barrel roll while mid air.

Turning her attention to the running Dinosaur she quickly launches her sharp feathers at him, "Feather shot!"

Agumon notices and quickly cartwheels away from their flight path only to land on his feet just in time for Biyomon to dive bomb him right in his gut with a loud, "Charging beak!" Attack causing the orange reptile to let out a loud "OOOF!" as he tumbles head over legs backwards from the solid hit.

Landing on his stomach Agumon quickly jumps up and grips his stomach in slight pain, he addresses his pink feathered companion with a pained smirk, "You know I remember when I had an easier time in our spars before you Digivolved."

Biyomon stays up in the air not allowing him to get a fast one over on her and so that she doesn't lose her air superiority to the grounded dino, "Yeah but hey you went through this power boost too when you unlocked your Greymon form! So think of this as evening the playing field!"

Agumon pretends to look thoughtful until he smirks and now knows he has a plan, "Correct there and just to show no hard feelings, SPITFIRE BLAST!"

Suddenly a flamethrower is shooting out of Agumon's muzzle and Biyomon's eyes widen at the speed that the flame is going as it heads right for her, she barely manages to dive below the stream of flames to dodge it safely, while only getting a few feathers singed as a result.

As she comes closer to the ground she then sees that instead of the normal long stream of flames that the attack is normally, it is barely half the length and quickly passes her by and hits the sparring barrier. He's learned how to shorten the attack to increase it's speed! He is learning shockingly quickly with all this training we are… wait a quicker attack means he can move quicker too!

Just as she finishes her thought and finishes her dodge Agumon is by her side mid air from a jump he did the second he shot his faster attack with his right claw reared back in a chopping motion.

Biyomon looks right at him with wide shocked eyes and goes, "Oh Fratz!"

Getting a solid bow to her back from Agumon, Biyomon crashes hard into the ground kicking up a small dust cloud as Agumon launches, "Pepper Breath!" into her unprotected back.

After the small explosion of the fireball ends Biyomon sits up a little wobbly and disorientated as Agumon lands and smirks at her.

Agumon begins to walk towards her sure of his victory after that combo and is ready for a break, "You have improved nicely Biyomon that much is for sure, but remember i've been in a few more fights than you so far."

Biyomon smirks as Agumon is only 5ft in front of her now and is looking at her with a friendly smirk, "Yeah I know, I also know that you shouldn't let your guard down when your opponent can still move so well! Spiral Twister!"

The green vortex of flames shoots out and immediately hits Agumon right in his chest sending him crashing into the sparring barrier and sliding down it painfully once the attack ends. He lands onto his chest with a loud oof and an embarrassed sounding, "Okay you win that one."

(End theme)

Biyomon quickly flies over to him to see how he is doing after the surprise attack, and sees him roll over with a groan of pain and fresh scorch marks along his chest and arms.

"You know *cough* you pack a wallop now." as Agumon says this and coughs out a small ball of black smoke Biyomon scratches her cheek sheepishly at how badly she managed to hurt him.

Seeing this Agumon quickly speaks up, "Not that it's a bad thing! This just means that I will need to up my training to stay in the same league as you since you got that power boost from your Digivolution."

As the barrier comes down Agumon gets up and starts to laugh in happiness alongside Biyomon at the Dino's honest answer, they then realize that they are standing quite close with their eyes locked after the laughing ends.

They see each other for a few seconds simply staring and realizing how much they have been through together. Biyomon remembers what caused her to Digivolve, her love and affection for her friends as they were in danger. But was that all it was?

Is it just more love and affection for them as friends that made me Digivolve? Or is it possible this silly, cute, and brave Dino grew on me? Biyomon continues to stare at Agumon's bright green eyes as she puzzles over this strange attraction to him, that wasn't there before their recent fight. Being the feeling one has to a great friend and companion.

Agumon wasn't doing much better in his mind either, She has such pretty eyes so blue like a clear summer sky, and her cute blushes she shows from time to ti- wait! Am I actually admiring Biyomon as more than a friend? When did this start? Aw man she is still staring and I am honestly attracted to her! Does she like me back? Is that why she is still looking at me? And does she realize that she has my claw in her wing right now?

Biyomon had gripped Agumon's claw without even realizing it while they were both doing their internal musings, until they hear,

"Well, well, should I just give you both a minute to have this moment last a bit longer? Or would you like to have lunch now?"

Biyomon lets out a large "EEP!" jumping up and flying a bit into the air as Agumon stands there like a child who was caught with his claw in the cookie jar. Both Digimon blush and glare slightly at their human partner who is laughing loudly as he rolls on the ground with tears of happiness coming out of his eyes.

But the emotions are not lost on his partners as Agumon look up at Biyomon at the same time she looks back at him and they give each other small smiles as well as slight blushes while going toward the food area to have a nice lunch.

Holy Angel Palace, Main Courtyard

Leomon, who looked like a 7.5 foot tall humanoid lion man who had a golden mane and no fur along his body, possessed muscles that make the Rock look like an amateur fighter, wearing leather pants on his legs and a large 5 foot long sword strapped sideways behind his waist, was looking at across the courtyard at the 999 humans playing or training with their Digimon partners depending on whether their partner was only recently hatched or had reached the In-Training rank yet.

He shook his head as some of the only Tamers who had partners at Rookie level were struggling with a basic combat simulation against a holographic Ogremon. They finally took him down, despite it being 6 on one… and taking about 30 minutes… and that these guys used to be part of the top ten players from the Digimon game in their world…

Leomon pinches the bridge of his muzzle as he thinks about their… "progress", these are supposed to be the top 1,000 players brought here from Jennai's program before we lost the lab, but they either only have the basics of real life combat down, or are completely unused to it. Out of the top ten players of their group they have 4 who are on solo simulators who are doing great with their training, but these 6 are slow in progressing. I think it might be the fact that they believe that the others who are more serious about helping us will allow them to take it easy and not have to make too much of an effort. If those attitudes spread then we will lose our advantage against the 7 Vices army. What little advantage it is.

Seeing them finish their combat simulation they immediately sit down and let out long breaths as their partners lay exhausted and hurt next to them with their injuries still fresh. Leomon shakes his head and goes over to them with a scowl on his face.

They all perk up and do their best to stand up as quickly as they can despite their exhaustion and injuries.

"Listen up you lot! You are making progress, but you need to strategize! Your team work was patchwork at best, you had no set plan of who was in front and who was support, and you all could have ended it at least 15 minutes earlier if you had capitalized on his stumbling around after that critical hit on his head! But besides that you are all ignoring your hurt partners who are still injured instead of treating them and helping them recover! Remember no matter how powerful your partner becomes, if you don't work together with them and be there to heal them and feed them and take care of them then they won't grow as powerful as possible and the enemy will be able to exploit that and take you out after separating you from your partners! Now work on your team work and your efforts to become friends with them! Am I understood!"

All of them immediately salute him with fear lacing their voices as they all say together, "YES SIR!"

"Good you are dismissed until the evening combat lessons, go and rest up and get some food and medicine for your partners!" Leomon dismissed them with a wave of his hand as they all scramble off to get treatment and food for their Digimon and themselves.

As the Leomon sees them off to their breaks, he turns to the rest of the courtyard and sees the other Tamers had been watching the show, realizing they had been spotted staring they all go back to their raising, training, or playing with their respective partners. Leomon rolls his eyes at the child like antics of all the teenagers and young adults. As he is about to go back to his duties of training the more advanced Tamers he hears someone call out his name.

"Commander Leomon! I have news to share with you!" says the excited voice of Sorcerymon, with a data reader in his left hand and his ever present snowflake staff in his right.

Seeing his longtime friend Leomon grins showing off his large dagger like fangs, "Ah! Sorcerymon! Good to see you old friend! How goes things with out on the front?"

Sorcerymon chuckles at seeing his old friend up in his usual spirits, "Well that is one part of the good news! We managed to push back another part of the enemy forces and have recaptured one of our main hospital towns! It will take a while to get it restaffed with the proper Digimon but we now have another outpost we can use to treat wounded soldiers!"

Leomon's smile grows wider showing some of his back fangs, "That is excellent news! That will definitely help us out in the front, but what is the other piece of news?"

Sorcerymon seems to be vibrating a bit as he yells out "I have found a solid signal from two of the crests that were lost during the raid on the lab where Jennai was stationed!"

Leomon jumps from the outburst but then grabs and shakes the magic based Digimon excitedly, "You found some of them?! Where are they!? I can send out a team to retrieve them immediately!"

Sorcerymon adjusts his hat after being shaken up so well from the excited lion Digimon and simply shows Leomon the last signal and the last report from Angemon 0098, "No need to worry old friend the owner of the signals are being guarded quite well by an out standing agent my own brother that you helped train!"

Leomon looks at the signal report and the agent report and grins in joy at seeing this news, "Ah excellent then they are in good hands!"

Sorcerymon nods his head and then becomes a bit solemn as his eyes shift to the surrounding Tamers who were getting curious to their conversation.

Leomon notices the shift in energy and beckons Sorcerymon to his private tent with anti sound and infiltration codes around it.

"You can now talk freely what is it that has you so worried old friend?", Leomon asks as he crosses his arms in preparation for some bad news.

Sorcerymon clears his throat and shows Leomon the reports on the corrupted data and vaccine Digimon and the extremely powerful Devimon who appeared out of nowhere despite great patrol guards around the island they were on.

Leomon is in deep thought at these pieces of news and thinks hard on what to do next, If things are becoming this bad with powerful champions appearing and the enemy being able to corrupt our own troops, not to mention the Biyomon spy we sent out reported back with the news of them trying to create their own pseudo Tamer program to power up their forces further then we are going to need to bump up the training of the Tamers we have. No more slowly getting them used to combat, now I will have to try to push them to their limits every day to get them combat ready.

Sorcerymon clears his throat to interrupt the musing of Leomon, seeing he got his attention again, Sorcerymon shows Leomon the remaining report of how they can now track the Tamer and his two Digimon partners.

Leomon's attention perks up at this, "Wait this tamer is heading for the Deleter Lava ridge zone? He does know that is where some ultimate's who want nothing to do with the current war reside right?"

At seeing Sorcerymon averting his eyes and sweating bullets, Leomon sighs as he looks at the last readings of the two Digimon the Tamer has in his team. "Well, at least he has some good companions who will be there to help him out of a tight spot so that is something."

Sorcerymon nods at this and head out of the tent to go through the scanner and see if there is anything else he can do from the lab to support the army and various Tamers while Leomon looks thoughtful about the training methods he has been employing for the Tamers.

"I have been training them like Digimon, but they are Digimon and Humans who help them in battle… That's it! Scout and Tank type training are what I need to do now! The Tamers take the supporting role of the scout and the Digimon is now the tank! Perfect! Time to give those tamers a true taste of training hell! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Meanwhile all the tamers and their Digimon shiver in fear at the feeling of something evil being planned for them.

Phantom Ruins Main Church

After a hearty Lunch Seth and Agumon were going through the obstacle course while Biyomon did target training with her feathers. As they were taking their turn all three turned to each other and suddenly had a huge wave of relief pass over for no apparent reason. Shrugging off the weird sensation they all return to their own training's and prepared for the Deleter Lava Ridge zone of the map.

It would not be a picnic as Seth plans out a route while his Digimon continued their training, based on many arcade games and RPGs I have played before there are usually many fire type and lava type monsters and enemies that can live and withstand the heat of lava in a map zone, so it stands to reason that this next area will be Agumon's home field advantage along with both of my Digimon's Champion forms given their elemental types.

Glancing back with a calculating look Seth observes Biyomon and Agumon both taking a break from training and chatting with each other.

However that also means that the enemy will have a home field advantage as they literally live in that area without needing to worry about Digivolving or De-Digivolving to survive there. Unlike my two friends who will need to Digivolve before we even head into the zone to stand a chance at whatever we may find waiting for us to stumble by.

Leaning back from his sitting position Seth rubs his face from stress and looks at his two friends once more before he then smirks to himself at a realization hit him. But we also know we can reach those forms and know we will be pretty well off due to them as we defeated a high level champion not once, but twice thanks to those forms. As long as we don't face an Ultimate before we are ready we should be fine.

Meanwhile a Leomon sneezes while explaining the new training for the Tamers

And now back to the trio.

Seth began to crunch the numbers for his team as he readies a good route for them all to take so that way they don't burn to death or get incinerated by a lava pits fireball releases.

He sees both his Digimon relaxing on a bench nearby and figures, Eh, why not?

Plopping himself down next to his two friends they all grin and relax after a good day of preparations for the trails ahead of them.

7 Vice HQ

Another crash is heard as another two Ogremon meet their doom and are turned into Digi-eggs from a powerful Darkness Blast from a panting Devimon.

Devimon looks at his stats and smiles wickedly at how close he is to the requirements he needs to Digivolve. Soon I will teach that upstart lizard and pink annoyance with wings what happens when you mess with an officer of the 7 Vices army!

Laughing darkly to himself he leaves the training field after having just finished a 20 enemy battle gauntlet where 20 Ogremon were wiped out by him.

As he exits the room he sees his… Friend?… Fellow compatriot?… comrade in schemes

Wisemon waiting for him with an excited look about him.

Giving out a gruff "What?" to the powerful dark magic Digimon and heading to the healing chambers to recover his energy used in that practice battle.

Wisemon keeps pace with him as he explains why he is so excited.

"Well I noticed your stats were climbing higher and higher recently and did some comparisons to that failed Devimon clone we discarded to that graveyard zone a while back.

Pausing at the familiar sounding Digimon Devimon snaps his fingers in recognition. "Ah you mean that failure IceDevimon who couldn't grow the normal way and was gotten rid of before the Generals blamed us for that embarrassment of a soldier?"

Wisemon sweat dropped at the way Devimon remembered him but nodded, "Yes his signal was destroyed"

Chuckling in a mocking way Devimon waves his hand in an uncaring way, "So? He was a failure I'm not surprised a Digimon from Seraphimon's army found him and put him down already."

Wisemon holds his chuckle to see the reaction that will be coming from Devimon at his next piece of news. "Well that's the thing, it wasn't an agent of Seraphimon that did him in..."

Devimon pauses in slight chock at this, "You're telling me another wild champion got him? How? There are basically only Bakemon's and Candlemon's in that zone!"

Wisemon is holding his chuckles as best he could for the big reveal, "Not a wild Digimon either, it was someone you know personally."

Devimon racks his brain until he realizes something, eyes widening in shock and disbelief, "Wait you can't mean..."

Wisemon chuckles lightly at his compatriots face as he pulls up the scan data of the battle, "Yep… your old trio of friends that Tamer Seth and his two friends, based on the scans apparently both Biyomon and Agumon can now reach Champion level, the only way for you to beat them now is to either have more than their combined stats or to reach your full potential as an ultimate." Wisemon finishes with a quiet tone to see if Devimon catches what he means.

Devimon is clasping his horns in frustration at the news, "Damn it! Just as I pull ahead they close the gap with another power up for their side! Now I will have to Digivolve and then… train… wait… what do you mean 'full potential' for my ultimate form?"

Hook, Line, and Sinker, Wisemon thinks to himself as he pulls up the progress scan data on Devimon's evolution tree.

"Well at the current moment of your progression you can Digivolve into a basic Myotismon no questions about it," Showing Devimon his possible Digivolution's he gasps at the extra branch never seen before now, "That's right my friend you have a hidden rare Digivolution that we have not seen before now. It will be more powerful than even a fully trained Myotismon in combat and durability."

Devimon adopts a thinking pose as he realizes something, "Hold on. You said more powerful, does this mean it requires even more strict requirements for me to Digivolve into it?" At Wisemon's happy nod he notices something else and gives an excited smirk in return.

"And you know what the requirements are now don't you?"

Another nod as Wisemon beckons him into the healing chamber room, "Indeed but first you must rest up and recover your strength for the trials ahead of you."

Entering the pod Devimon falls into a healing trance with a wide grin on his face with his last thoughts being, Just you wait Seth your two 'pets' won't protect you from me next time I see you, you will become my tamer whether I need to break your body, or your mind to do it.

The unconsciousness took him into a relaxing blissful sleep.