Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.


The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier

Chapter 14: Ambush

Tamer walked ahead of the group with the others reluctantly following him. Only Bokomon and Neemon were following closely while the rest of them lagged behind since nobody really wanted to be near the liar at the moment. Koji couldn't blame them for it either - he personally wanted to deck Tamer for leading him on. However, it was hard to know if they could take Gatomon's word for it since they did just meet her. So they had two people they barely knew telling them to ignore the other by virtue of one being untrustworthy and the other not particularly liking them.

Koji remembered a riddle that went something like that, although he didn't quite remember the solution to it. Although he imagined smacking both Gatomon and the Digimon Tamer silly were out of the question.

"What do you think JP? You were right about Tamer so what do we do to get out of it?" Zoe asked.

"Honestly, I don't know what to do. How about you?" JP asked back.

"Right now? I'm not sure if we should even be near him!" Zoe replied. "Everything about this…feels so forced, if that makes sense. What about you Tomm…er, Tomoki?"

"I don't know," he answered quietly, "Kumamon won't stop screaming at me to kill Tamer before he has a chance to kill us, so it's been hard to concentrate with that in my head."

"Tell me about it," JP replied, "Beetlemon won't stop telling me the same thing."

"Okay, those are two bright red flags," Zoe said cautiously. Koji had to agree with that sentiment since his Guardian Spirit had been awfully quiet since all of this happened. Zoe adjusted her pace to match Koji. "How about you, Koji?"

Koji thought about it for a moment before responding, "Honestly? I want to just leave and go off on my own, but I get the feeling I'd just find my way back to you guys or that you guys would end up running back into me."

"You must be a lot of fun parties," JP replied.

"I get what he means though. I keep running into Koji," Zoe pointed out, reminding Koji of the fact that they'd run into each other several times already. "First the elevator, then that night in the forest, the cliff…it's like something is trying to keep all of us together."

Koji really hoped that didn't mean they were fated to fall in love or something stupid like that. He didn't like the idea of not having a choice in the matter. She gestured ahead to Tamer, "And I think that includes him. We couldn't leave him if we wanted to. And right now, I really want to."

"Look, I know you guys don't like me but if you're going to talk about ditching me, you could do it a little more quietly," Tamer said from the front of the group. Koji's eyes narrowed upon Tamer, who'd suddenly stopped in his tracks to look at them and smile. How could he be smiling after everything he'd admitted to? How could he be so calm about all of this? Wasn't he worried that they would turn on him? No matter how hard Koji tried, he couldn't figure this guy out.

"I really hope you guys are staring because I have something on my face," Tamer said quietly, furiously trying to wipe off whatever he thought they were looking at.

"Just…just tell us where we're going," Zoe finally said, the first person to actually say anything to him since they'd left Ophanimon's castle.

"Did you guys forget? The Guardian Spirits! They're supposed to show up when you guys go looking so I figure we'll run into them eventually," Tamer replied.

"So the plan is to just walk around blind and hope we run into them?" Zoe repeated disbelievingly.

Tamer shrugged back at her, "I mean, if you have a better idea? I have no idea where I'm going. Or where the next Guardian Spirit is. If I did, you think I wouldn't be going straight there?"

"And how do we know you're not pulling our leg or leading us on again?" Tomoki demanded.

"That answer is simple! It's-" Tamer began only to pause. His expression quickly shifted from his usual glee to one of immediate concern. He leapt forward towards Tomoki and the boy had just enough to time yelp before getting tackled to the ground. At that exact moment, a column of stone shaped in the form of a spear just narrowly avoided where Tomoki's head had been just a moment before. Zoe, Koji, and JP leapt backwards as the spike of stone dug itself into a nearby tree.

"What was that!?" Neemon gasped.

"Who's attacking us!?" Bokomon gasped out.


"I don't know but I am not in the mood for this today," Zoe screamed out, readying her digivice and really in the need to punch something right now.

"You can't win," the voice in her head said, giving her enough pause. What did that mean? They hadn't even fought yet? She demanded to know what the Guardian Spirit knew that she didn't when she felt something strike her from behind.

"It's party time! Now you're all gonna die! Bonsai!" someone shouted out from behind her, slamming into the ground and stomping something onto her back.

She tried to look up at her attacker but whoever they were made sure she wasn't moving too much. What she could see was JP rushing to her aid, "Zoe! Okay! Now you guys have done it! Execute! Spirit Evolu-"

Before he finished, Gigasmon emerged from the forest behind him and lifted him up into the air. JP had just enough time to yelp when Gigasmon slammed him into a nearby tree and roared, "Not this time!"

Koji was the last one still standing and he tried to retreat away from the fight, hoping to either avoid capture or at least position himself somewhere he was sure he could think of a plan to counter everything happening. As he turned, he came face to face with a tall creature in dark black armor that looked it had crawled out of some pit infested with the darkest thoughts imaginable. Just looking at it filled Zoe with overwhelming dread.

"StAy," it commanded in a guttural tone, grabbing a hold of his shoulder and digging its claws into his shoulder. Koji just stood there frozen in terror, unable to bring himself to do anything.

"Well, well! Looks like we caught ourselves some humans!" Gigasmon declared happily.

"And they didn't really put up much of a fight! Why was Dynasmon so worried about these guys?" the blue fish looking one asked.

"Who cares? The important part is we caught them!" another one said, this one resembling a mirror.

"KiLl?" the dark one asked.

"Not yet, dumbass! Did you forget? First, we need to take the power of the Guardian Spirits from them! Then, we can worry about killing them!" the fish looking one said. Koji felt a chill run through his spine as the dark creature before him loomed in closer, appearing more dangerous than it had before. What was he supposed to do to beat it?


"Stay down," Tamer whispered to Tomoki as he kept the boy pinned under him.

"What?" Tomoki asked.

"If you stay down, they'll ignore you. Let me deal with this," Tamer whispered back. Tomoki couldn't believe it. Tomoki didn't want to believe it. Tamer was telling him to not fight back, after everything these guys had done. He expected Tomoki to just lay here on the ground and let these guys hurt the others. And that ground his gears.

"No!" Tomoki snapped, pushing Tamer off of him with a harsh shove.

"Do it! Fight them! Protect your friends! Make them pay!" the Guardian Spirit's voice echoed inside his head. That was perhaps the first reasonable idea that he had heard in a while. He had the power of the Guardian Spirit! Of Kumamon! He could do this! Tomoki scrambled to his feet and raised up his digivice. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!"

The light shot out of the digivice and wrapped itself around Tomoki's body. He felt the energy surge through him as the transformation began. But before it completed, he could see one of the digimon skulking towards him. A large one that looked like a robot made of wood coming towards him. He raised his hands to strike Tomoki before he could finish spirit evolving when Tamer leapt between them, taking the hit for Tomoki instead. However, something different happened. Tamer wasn't sent flying. Instead, he'd blocked the attack with his arms but the force was still enough that he had to dig his heels into the ground.

That shouldn't have been possible. But there he was, standing up to a digimon on his own. Then Tamer looked over his shoulder at Tomoki. He could see the pleading look on the boy's face as he said, "Tomoki! Don't!"

"Oh? A human with a bit of fight in them," the wooden digimon remarked, pushing his arm in harder against Tamer. Tamer's legs began to buckle under the digimon's strength and Tomoki surprise turned to anger. Why was Tamer babying him? Did Tamer think that he couldn't do anything as Kumamon? Thankfully, his transformation finished and he readied to attack but circling around the wooden digimon.

Just as Kumamon was prepared to freeze the digimon, Tamer shouted, "Don't! Get the others!"

Kumamon blinked, "But-"

"It's fine! I can handle this. Get Zoe, Koji, and JP!" Tamer answered again.

Kumamon hesitated again. Tamer had to be joking. Why didn't he just transform into Agunimon and fight back? Why didn't he want help for this part? What made this guy think he could handle all of this by himself? It occurred to Kumamon to just ignore him and punch the wooden digimon in the back when Tamer finally rolled back from the attack. With Tamer no longer in the way, the wooden digimon's arm came crashing down upon the ground and shook the earth beneath him. Kumamon had to cover his eyes to block out the dust that it kicked up, but it left him amazed. Tamer had been holding back that kind of attack on his own? Did he even need to use a Guardian Spirit's power or had that been entirely a show?

What else had Tamer not been up front about?

When the dust cleared, Kumamon opened his eyes and he could see Tamer ducking and weaving through all of the wooden digimon's attacks. It was like watching a dance instead of a fight. But that at least settled that Tamer didn't need his help to fight against the wooden digimon. Kumamon turned around and ran towards Zoe first, who was pinned underneath the watery fish looking digimon sitting on her. Kumamon raised his arm and threw a frozen punch at the fish creature. The frozen punch was enough to make the digimon finally leap out off of Zoe, who scrambled to get behind Kumamon.

"Thanks Kumamon! Cover me while I Spirit Evolve!" Zoe shouted. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!"

"Don't just stand there you idiot! Help me!" the fish shouted to the mirror digimon. The mirror nodded and rushed forward towards Kumamon, so the bear aimed his ice powers at the ground beneath him. He expected the mirror digimon to slip on the ice and crash into the ground, not leap over the ice and dive straight for him. Kumamon just barely managed to leap out of the mirror digimon's way as he crashed into the ground. But that was all the time he needed to buy for Zoe to finish transforming into Kazemon because she leapt in from the side to tackle the mirror digimon, "I got you now!"

"Get off me!" the mirror digimon roared, desperately trying to throw Kazemon off his back.

"I got this guy! Go save JP and Koji!" Kazemon said, flapping her wings and raising the mirror digimon high into the air.

"On it!" Kumamon nodded, turning towards JP next. The boy was still unconscious so he wasn't going to be of much help in this situation but he could at least make move him somewhere out of the way of the fight. But just as he was about to close the gap, Gigasmon moved between them and cracked his knuckles.

"You'll have to go through me to get to your friend," the rock digimon cackled as he loomed over Kumamon. He would've been afraid, as he remembered how poorly their fight went last time. But last time, Gigasmon hadn't pissed Kumamon off by hurting all of his friend. And that left the digimon open and vulnerable to being attacked.

"That's fine by me! TAKE THIS!" Kumamon shouted as he concentrated a ball of ice into his fist and wound it back. "ICICLE PUNCH!"

He threw himself forward with all his might, only to be sidestepped by the big rock monster and punched in the gut. The wind rushed out of Kumamon, replaced only by pain as he doubled over to the ground in pain. Then the big digimon decided stepped on his head, putting just enough force on it for Kumamon to scream. Gigasmon just grunted, "Is that it!? I thought you'd be more of a challenge! You guys put up more of a fight last time! I guess you kids really weren't anything to worry about, huh?"

"We…didn't…want…to be…here!" Kumamon grunted from underneath his foot, still trying to process what was happening. It was just like being at his school all over again, getting picked on by the other kids and being unable to defend himself. Tomoki hated this feeling of powerlessness. Even with the power of a Guardian Spirit, he was still just as weak and unable to defend himself as he was the day he first came to the Digital World. And the frustration started to come out as tears.

"Holy crap! Are you crying!? Why was Crusadermon ever afraid of you!?" Gigasmon laughed, pressing down on Kumamon's head harder. Kumamon hated how weak and defenseless he was in this moment - the pain searing into his mind both figuratively and very literally. He'd learned a long time ago to not cry in front of the people hurting them - never let them know how badly they hurt him. But here, he couldn't contain it.

His eyes darted around for someone, anyone to help him. But JP was still unconscious and Koji was still held by the digimon in the black armor. The mirror digimon that Kazemon had carried away was able to break free of her hold and drug her back down to the ground. Once his feet were on the ground, he and the fish digimon tackled Kazemon to the ground. Kazemon threw up her arms to defend herself as they started punching into her. Kumamon was just about to scream from the pain when Gigasmon was sent flying off him.

Kumamon adjusted his head to see Gigasmon underneath the wooden looking digimon. Both the fish and the mirror looking digimon stood up from above Kazemon, their attention fully on whoever was behind Kumamon. Then someone rolled him on to his back. The Digimon Tamer, leaning over him and panicked, "Kumamon! Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," he managed to mumble out weakly, although that was nothing compared to his confusion. How had Tamer knocked the wooden digimon onto Gigasmon.

"Okay, what the hell was that Gigasmon?" the fish looking digimon asked.

"I don't know," the rock digimon grumbled, rolling the wooden digimon off him. The pair stood up and leered at Tamer now, who became the center of attention.

Tamer stood up and dusted himself off, positioning himself between Kumamon and the others. He took a moment to adjust his clothes and asked, "Okay, if we're done with all this, how about we stop and talk about this before anyone else gets hurt?"

"Who even is this guy?" the fish asked.

"How should I know?" Gigasmon responded.

"Don't you know it's rude to talk about someone to their face? I am standing right here! So…how about this! You guys tell us who you are first, and I'll tell you who I am!" Tamer offered to them.

The other digimon looked between each other for a moment, seemingly expecting the others to come a consensus before they all nodded.

"We are the Legendary Warriors! I am Gigasmon! The Master of the Mountain," Gigasmon introduced himself.

"I'm Ranamon! The cute idol of the sea!" the fish one introduced herself.

"Mercurymon! The mirror that shows the truth!" the mirror digimon said.

"Arbormon! The tree that stands firm!" the tree digimon shouted.

"DuSkMoN," the dark one growled quietly, adding nothing else and just staring ahead at Tamer.

"Are you guys Super Sentai?" Tamer asked seriously, continuing his streak of outlandish questions with deadpan delivery.

"What the hell is a Sentai?" Ranamon asked.

"Not important! Who are you?" Gigasmon said impatiently with a pointed finger. Tamer just chuckled and took a step forward towards them.

"I think you already know the answer to that, don't you. It's not like a normal human would stand a chance against you guys," Tamer answered with a shrug. "I mean look at you! A rock, a tree, a metal man, a demon, and a…fish?"

"HEY!" Ranamon snapped at the insult.

Tamer waved her off dismissively, "Oh, mermaid then. The point is there isn't much any of them could do against you without spirit evolving. Well, here I am so I'm obviously not human! SO! Who am I? Actually, better question: what am I?"

"Annoying," Ranamon shouted.

"A pain," Gigasmon suggested.

"The first one to die!" Arbormon thought aloud.

Tamer scowled at the mocking insults until Mercurymon spoke up, "An Ancient."

"Don't be ridiculous! There's only one Ancient and no one's seen him in forever! Besides! Dynasmon said we were only going after humans!" Ranamon shouted disbelievingly.

"That's right! Don't be ridiculous," Arbormon scoffed.

"The Ancients can change their appearance, meaning they can look human," Mercurymon answered. "And if there's only one Ancient…"

"Huh. I would've thought one of the others would've gotten that first," the Digimon Tamer said with a bit of surprise. "Mostly the dark one over there since the quiet ones are usually the smart ones. Either that, or he's just incredibly slow. But yep, that's right. I am The Digimon Tamer. Now can we talk this out before anyone else gets hurt?"

"ThE dIgImOn TaMeR," the demon uttered with a demonic growl, letting Koji go and rushing forward. "DIGIMON TAMER!"

Any semblance of calm Duskmon disappeared as it reverted into a deranged frenzy. He howled like a rabid animal, crawling around on all four limbs and chasing Tamer around the open field. To his credit, Tamer did have the sense to lure Duskmon far away from the others and ran some distance. However, he didn't ever seem to engage Duskmon directly. Instead, he just kept ducking and dodging through the attacks without ever trying to spirit evolve or attack back.

"Dammit, Duskmon's gone feral," Ranamon buried her face into her hands. "Now what!?"

"What do you mean? This is a good thing! Duskmon will go crazy until he kills The Digimon Tamer! Meanwhile, we continue taking the Guardian Spirits from these humans," Gigasmon said matter of factly, gesturing towards the humans beneath his feet. "Now! Let's get cracking!"

"I think Ranamon meant what do we do about the fact that Duskmon doesn't hold back when he gets like this," Mercurymon pointed out, gesturing towards the pair. Kumamon followed his pointed finger back towards the pair and realized many of the surrounding trees had been cut down or reduced to splinters.

Duskmon had stopped chasing Tamer, instead tracking the running boy with his eyes. "DEADLY GAZE!"

Beams of red energy fired out of his eyes. In fact, they fired out of every large eye growing from every inch of his body. Each beam traced around Tamer as he ducked and weaved through the beams like a dance. The other warriors fell to the ground and covered their heads to avoid getting hit by the beams. The beams sliced through the trees, ripping apart the forest and reducing everything to splinters and ashes. Anything that was still standing came aflame.

"DAMMIT!" Arbormon cried out. "The forest! The beautiful forest!"

"I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!" Ranamon roared angrily from the forest floor.

"Okay, I see what you were getting at now!" Gigasmon said, covering his head as the lasers cut apart the surrounding forest. As the beams subsided, Gigasmon leapt up on to his feet. "Change of plan! Before we do anything else, we need to take care of Duskmon before he kills us all! Are we clear on that?"

"Yeah, you first! You know how he gets when he's like this," Arbormon answered.

"Just do it you idiots!" Gigasmon shouted, pulling both Ranamon and Arbormon on to their feet. He shoved them forwards and ran along side them, all three digimon charging straight towards Duskmon. It took Mercurymon a second longer to actually join them, as he hesitated to actually join and go after the others. But once all four of them were out of the way, Kumamon scrambled to his feet and raced towards Kazemon.

He reached her at the same time as Bokomon and Neemon.

"Where did you two go?" Kumamon asked.

"Hid!" Neemon said.

"We're not fighters, so staying out of the way really was the most we could do," Bokomon said sheepishly, hanging his head.

"It hasn't failed yet so why stop?" Neemon reasoned lacking any of the Bokomon's mortified embarrassment.

"I'm sorry we didn't do more," Bokomon added quickly.

"It's fine," Kumamon answered quietly, gritting his teeth and biting back the desire to snap at them for not helping. It really wasn't though. They'd gotten into trouble and the first thing either of them did was go hide in a corner. Just like…just like he used to. He looked back to see Tamer by himself, mixed in the fight with both Duskmon and the digimon who'd attacked them. It was a three way brawl as Tamer weaved through the attacks of Duskmon, Duskmon juggled relentless pursuing Tamer and his own allies, and the other digimon tried to restrain Duskmon.

"Are you guys okay?" Koji asked as he reached their side.

"No," Kumamon said, getting back up to his feet. He wasn't going to sit back. He wasn't going to stand down. He was going to get in there and fight. "Get Kazemon and JP to safety. I'm going to go help Tamer."

He could hear Koji protesting from behind him but he was drowned out by the roar of the fighting. First, he laid down a path of ice ahead of him and slid across it to gain speed. He may have been small, but his next punch should knock one of them out if he gained enough momentum. He zoomed past the other warriors, straight towards Duskmon as he readied to throw his punch. As he closed in, Duskmon stopped his pursuit of Tamer to face him. Kumamon froze in the spot, certain he was in Duskmon's blindspot and unsure how the digimon saw him coming. Kumamon braced himself for the impact, bringing his arms in front of his face to protect himself as Duskmon prepared to strike back.

Then a flash of light blinded him and something struck his side, kicking him off the path of ice and sending him tumbling across the ground. He looked up, expecting to see Duskmon had him pinned under one arm but instead saw Tamer kneeling over him with his digivice. He was holding it up, using it to aim a blinding light that kept Duskmon back.

"This isn't safe. Don't come closer," was all Tamer said, before he stood up and rushed back towards Duskmon. By then, the digimon had regained enough composure to start the attack. And once again, Tamer demonstrated his odd ability to duck and weave through the attacks. If Kumamon didn't know any better, he would assume he knew which attacks were coming and when. And that just angered him more.

Was he supposed to do nothing? To sit idle? No. Never again. Kumamon stood up and examined his surroundings. There was still one tree standing. Tamer had said not to get closer. He said nothing about not fighting.

"Fine," Kumamon grumbled under his breath as he rushed the nearest tree and climbed to the top of it. He rushed to the nearest branch and planted himself, using the ice powers to form an icicle in his hands. If he couldn't fight up close, he would fight from a distance. And he surveyed the battle below him. Duskmon was at the center of the battle, roaring like a wild animal as he continued to flail and wildly attack everyone around him. Tamer continued maneuvering around the fight, ducking and weaving through attacks while never putting himself directly in harms way. Meanwhile, the others continued to try and encircle and restrain Duskmon as his rampage continued unabated.

"This isn't working! He keeps knocking us away!" Ranamon shouted.

"Does anyone have any better plans? Preferably one where the entire forest doesn't get destroyed?" Arbormon groaned.

"They're just trees, you stupid moron," Gigasmon grunted.

"He doesn't care about us! He only cares about The Digimon Tamer," Mercurymon pointed out. "We concentrate on him, and we can end this here before Duskmon goes completely mental and kills us all."

"That's certainly better than just trying to pin Duskmon down," Ranamon said, cracking her knuckles together and leering ahead as Tamer continued to duck and weave through the attacks.

"Okay! GO TEAM!" Gigasmon barked and they were on the move. Kumamon tried pelting them with his icicles but they were moving too quickly for him to even get a bead on. In fact, they were so focused on Tamer that they didn't even notice his snow balls going anywhere near them. Kumamon cursed and leapt to a nearby branch to get closer to the fighting.

Below him, he watched as Tamer was now on the run from five separate attackers. And in this situation, Tomoki could see he was fully outclassed. A few times, he seemed to be reaching for his digivice to activate a Spirit Evolution but the other warriors wouldn't give him the chance to do so. So he was left constantly on the run, trying to get clear of the attacking digimon and looking for an opening to spirit evolve. And at this point, the fighting had become so close that there was no way for him to safely fire off any shots without risking hitting Tamer.

Thankfully, a moment presented itself where Tamer was able to raise up his digivice and shout, "EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVO-"

Before he could finish that sentence, a rock pelted Tamer's hand and sent the digivice flying off to the side. Then he was surrounded - Duskmon in front of him, Gigasmon and Arbormon to his right, and Mercurymon and Ranamon to his left.

"That won't save you this time," Gigasmon jeered.

"DiE!" Duskmon growled, his face contorting into a twisted toothy smile. "TaMeR mUsT dIe!"

Tamer grunted, massaging his wrist and appearing more annoyed than worried. His eyes darted up and he made eye contact with Kumamon, catching the little bear off guard. He wasn't sure if it was chance or if Tamer had known he was up there the entire time. But he could see it clearly in Tamer's eyes that he wanted Kumamon to throw the icicle as hard as he could. So Kumamon obliged, "AAAAAAAH!"

He threw the icicle as hard as he could and it struck Mercurymon in the back of the head, sending the digimon doubling over. The others turned their attention towards Kumamon and he answered by throwing another icicle at them. "TAKE THIS!"

"Get to cover!" Gigasmon shouted, slamming his fist into the ground and pulling up a large rock for the others to get behind. Duskmon was the only one who didn't move, instead keeping his attention squarely on Tamer. And that was when Tamer did something he didn't expect. He calmly sauntered towards the leering digimon and flicked it where it's nose would be. That caught Duskmon off guard and he tilted his head slightly, leaving him open to a throat punch from Tamer. The digimon coughed and gagged, stepping away from Tamer as the boy continued past the dark digimon at his continued calm and relaxed pace.

"You've got to be kidding!" Gigasmon grumbled.

"That did not just work," Mercurymon protested as Tamer proceeded towards where his digivice was. And with all the flair and pretense that Tamer had, he dusted it off, adjusted his clothes, and raised it above his head, "Execute! Spirit Evolution!"

Light burst forth and he transformed in a blaze of fire into Agunimon. This angered Duskmon more and sent the digimon into a blind rage, charging straight at Agunimon who met the digimon my digging his heels into the ground. The two digimon crashed into each other, but neither moved from where they stood, leaving them standing with their hands wrapped around each other. It appeared to be a stalemate for a moment, until Agunimon buckled and kneeled down. He used that momentum to lift Duskmon over his head and throw him over his head. Instead, Duskmon caught himself and reversed the flip by throwing Agunimon over his head, sending the fire digimon crashing into a nearby tree. But the attack wasn't done there as Duskmon charged forward, ramming Agunimon and knocking over several trees that landed on top of them.

"Oh crap!" Ranamon gasped.

"Did…did he kill the both of them?" Mercurymon asked.

Kumamon wasn't going to wait and leapt off the tree, racing towards the collapsed trees. Agunimon had to be okay. He had to be. As he reached the edge of the fallen timber, a blast of fire erupted out the side and Agunimon came flying out of it. He rolled as he hit the ground, before catching himself on a nearby tree and straightening himself out. He planted both feet into the ground and positioned himself back into a fighting stance. Duskmon roared from somewhere inside the fallen wood and charged back out, running on all fours again as he raced towards Agunimon.

Kumamon wasted no time in hesitating and prepared another icicle, throwing it with all his might to strike Duskmon's head just before the digimon closed the gap with Agunimon. Duskmon stopped in his tracks and locked eyes on Kumamon, "YoU wIsH tO dIe!?"

"If you think you can do it!" Kumamon said, readying another icicle. Duskmon roared and charged towards Kumamon now, prompting Agunimon to launch himself forward with a blast of fire.

"StAy OuT oF mY wAy! TaMeR wIlL dIe!" Duskmon roared just as Kumamon was about to throw this ice, only for Agunimon to move between them again and lock arms with Duskmon.

"Kumamon! What did I say? Stay back!" Agunimon warned the little bear, angering further.

"I'm trying to help you!" Kumamon spat back at the ungrateful fire user, moving to reposition himself for a clean shot with the icicle.

"No! It's not that! It's-" Agunimon began but Kumamon didn't hear him. He threw his icicle with all of his might but Duskmon obliterated it with a beam of light from one of the eyes protruding out of his body. That same beam hit Kumamon and sent him into a nearby tree. He could hear the tree crack and break from the force of the impact, but all he could feel was how much he hurt from those two attacks. He lay on the ground, barely able to move as he could hear the tree start to fall down. And going by the movement of the shadow, it was going to come crashing down on top of him.

Kumamon braced for the impact when he heard Agunimon shout, "RAAAARGH!"

He leapt away from Duskmon to kick the falling tree back so it fell in the other direction. Kumamon breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he wasn't going to be hurt and looked up to see Agunimon standing over him. Just as he turned around to return his attention towards Duskmon, Tomoki saw a claw come forward and strike Agunimon in the stomach.

"AARGH!" he cried out in agony, his face twisting into one of pain that Kumamon never thought he'd see him wear. And on the other side of the claw was Duskmon with a delightedly twisted smile on his face. Kumamon's heart stopped for a moment as he watched Agunimon finally buckle and sink to his knees.

"No," Kumamon mumbled out, still looking at Duskmon's twisted smile. The smile he'd seen so many times. The smile of the kids who bullied him. Then pure instinct took over. He produced another icicle in his hand and jabbed it as hard as he could into Duskmon's side. "NOOOO!"

"ARGH!" Duskmon roared as he finally pulled out of Tamer's chest, staggering away as the icicle stuck out of his side. His gaze shifted towards Kumamon and he growled, "YoU bAsTaRd!"

Kumamon rolled onto his feet, adjusting himself to catch Agunimon before he fell, while the other warriors assembled around Duskmon. Duskmon growled angrily, but the blind rage was fading now that he had successfully gotten to Tamer. Kumamon was worried that this would turn into a battle between himself and these guys when Koji, JP, and Kazemon ran in front of him. This time, even Bokomon and Neemon came forward with them.

"What are you two doing?" Tomoki hissed, wondering why the two didn't run like they had last time.

"Though I loathe to admit it, we will not stand idly by any longer if this drags out," Bokomon answered with his usual pomp.

"He means we're going to take Agunimon and drag him out of harm's way if this gets ugly," Neemon said, running over to help hold the digimon up.

"What do we do now, boss?" Ranamon asked. "We still have to take their Guardian Spirits!"

Gigasmon grumbled quietly and looked between his group of digimon. They were all tired from the fight and Duskmon was in no condition to keep going. Then he looked to their group. Kazemon may have been badly battered, but Koji and JP were still fresh and ready to go. After a moment, Gigasmon sighed, "We retreat for now and try again later."

"But-"

"Don't question me! Just do it!" Gigasmon roared. The group nodded and the other digimon fell back, disappearing into a portion of the woods that hadn't been destroyed. Once they were out of sight, Kumamon heard Tamer cough beside him and looked up. He didn't know when it happened but he'd regressed back from Agunimon into his other form. And that form had just coughed up blood.

"TAMER!" Kumamon gasped, as Tamer started leaning to the side and fell over.


Author's Notes: Agunimon has fallen! What does this mean for the others? Will they figure out why they were so brazenly attacked? And will they be prepared for when the next one comes? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v3.0 - Bold New Frontier due out in three weeks on Friday November 26th at 8 PM CDT! Let me know your thoughts in the reviews! And don't forget to follow to keep up with all the latest updates and to favorite to show support! That's all for now, so let's see previews for the next chapter:

"So now what do we do?" Kumamon asked, crossing his arms.

"Honestly? Relax! Let's grab a bite to eat. There's been too much going on the last couple of days and I could do with a day off!" JP reasoned, sniffing the air. "Does anyone else smell that? It smells like barbecue and I am starving!"

"I could go for a bite. All the macaroni and cheese in my pockets have been ruined," Neemon remarked, turning his pockets inside out to reveal clumps of molding mac and cheese. Kazemon had to hold back the urge to gag while Bokomon chastised Neemon about washing his pants when he had the chance. But that didn't stop Kazemon's own stomach from grumbling.