The sound of massive, heavy footfalls echoed throughout the area, accompanied by the sound of trees being uprooted or crushed underfoot. Each footstep caused a faint tremor in the area surrounding it. Huge claws shattered through trees, sending splinters and branches flying as trunks crashed to the ground. Blue eyes filled with fury gazed around through the heavy rain, searching. Growls from a drooling maw rumbled between the trees, sending any other creatures around completely silent.
The black dinosaur Digimon slowed to a stop, its feet sinking into the mud while one of its huge claws came to rest on the trunk of a palm tree, easily causing a bow in the trunk with even a small amount of weight put upon it. The red stripes along the Digimon's black flesh seemed to throb and pulse as it lowered its head slightly, sniffing at the surrounding area.
The bloodlust emanating from the large Digimon was thick in the air as it finally tipped its head upwards and let out a mighty roar, a ball of flame erupting from its mouth only to be turned to steam by the pouring rain quickly enough.
"Fuck… this thing really is persistent…"
"It's not giving up, Fumiko, what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, we can't fight the damn thing, Hanako, we already found that out. We almost got our Digimon killed."
The two female voices spoke back and forth. The first voice, belonging to Fumiko, was a slightly deeper voice, her tone a mix of seriousness and irritation. She was currently kneeling in the mud, dressed in a black bomber jacket with grey fur around the collar, a pair of dark grey jeans and black combat boots, all of which were soaking wet and splattered with mud. Her black hair, streaked with purple was shaved on the sides and she had a long fringe hanging down which was currently stuck to her face from the rain. Her onyx eyes were locked onto the large dinosaur several metres away.
Hugging onto a palm tree beside her for support was the other girl who had addressed her, Hanako. A little shorter than the tall Fumiko, she was a slight build and had her long, black hair tied up in a bun that had once been neat. She had a pale green long-sleeved shirt on with a print of cherry blossom petals down the left sleeve, along with a dark blue skirt that ran to her ankles and had attached suspenders running up over her shoulders. Hanako's own onyx-coloured eyes were flicking between Fumiko and the angry Digimon.
"Of course we did, we tried to fight that thing with a bee, a lion cub and a little dinosaur with a gun," a male voice said from behind them.
Doubled over with a palm on a tree stump for support was a young man panting for breath. He had short, curly brown hair and was wearing a grey trench coat with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His sneakers and the black pants he wore that had two white belts wrapped around each thigh and one hanging open around the waist were all covered in mud. He lifted his head, his green eyes looking over at the black dinosaur.
"It attacked us out of nowhere Nagi, its not like we had a fucking choice. You should be thanking them for helping us get away at all," Fumiko snapped at him, shooting the young man a cold glare that sent a shiver up his spine.
Nagi took a moment to look at the three Digimon sitting under the tree that Hanako was holding onto.
The first was a bee Digimon. Its body was mostly yellow with brown strips spaced along it. It had six legs, each one with brown and orange strips in the centre and brown claws on the ends. Its four, grey wings were folded down against its body for the moment and its two, blue antennae twitched now and then as it laid with its eyes closed.
Curled against the side of the bee Digimon was a yellow Digimon that looked like a lion cub. It had short fur all over its body except for a tuft of red hair on top of its head. The three, grey claws on each of its paws were dug into the mud slightly and its tail was curled around its body. Around its neck was a golden collar with a green gemstone dangling from the front.
Sitting with its back against the tree slightly away from the other two others was a small, dinosaur Digimon. Its mottled skin seemed to shift between blue and a mix of dark greens and browns every now and then. It wore a helmet that matched the mottled blue of its skin along with a thick, military vest. Resting on the dinosaur's lap was a black assault rifle.
Nagi's eyes lingered on the little bee Digimon for a few more moments before he moved to sit on the tree stump he'd been leaning over. "I know that, these little guys fought their asses off for us. But look at that thing, no way they stood a chance."
Fumiko bit her lower lip and turned her attention back to the large dinosaur Digimon who was sniffing around the area, huffing in irritation as it looked for its prey. It pushed a palm tree over with one of its leather wrapped claws and stood up straight, sweeping its gaze left to right.
"I think its lost track of us for now. Should we try and get away?" Hanako whispered.
"Yeah, lets move. Just stay low and stay quiet. Hopefully the sound of the rain will help hide us," Fumiko said, staying crouched and moving over to the three Digimon by the tree. "Hey, nap time's over buddy, sorry," she said, gently shaking the dinosaur Digimon holding the gun.
"Aye, I'm up boss," it said in a rough and weary voice. Climbing up to its feet, it did a salute with its left hand while the right held its gun. "Commandramon reporting for duty."
"Up we go, FanBeemon, time to move," said Nagi as he lifted the bee Digimon, holding it close to his chest. The insect Digimon wiggled its antennae briefly and nestled in against him.
Hanako crouched down by the third Digimon, the lion, and ran her fingers gently over the wet fur of its back. "Can you walk Liollmon?" she asked in a gentle voice. The Digimon opened its emerald eyes and gave a nod as it rose to its feet, swaying ever so slightly.
"Yup, I can walk," the Digimon said in a voice that sounded like a young boy.
With everyone up, the group began to move slowly, keeping themselves in a half crouch as they went away from the large Digimon that was pursuing them. As Fumiko has hoped, the heavy rain drowned out the sounds of their footsteps in the soft earth. Nagi glanced back at the dinosaur every now and then, making sure it wasn't coming after them.
"They said that thing was called DarkTyrannomon, right? Persistent bastard to have chased us all night," he grumbled quietly, not daring to talk too loud in case it heard.
The three humans and their Digimon travelled through the mud and shrubs, slowly edging further and further away from their hunter. With each step they took, Hanako expected DarkTyrannonmon's head to snap around and for it to come charging at them like it had done so many times in the last few hours.
The terrain had saved them for the most part up until now, having several nooks and holes the group could get into where the large Digimon wasn't able to follow, but its determination had helped it track them down again whenever it lost them so far.
The area they had found themselves in after coming down from a more mountainous area was much less in their favour now. An open plateau populated by palm trees, small shrubs and boulder formations. They'd hidden behind several of the latter at this point, moving from hiding spot to hiding spot to keep out of sight. In fact, the direction they were moving was one they had chosen a few minutes prior, leading them to another such pile of rocks, boulders, and the debris of fallen trees.
Each of them knew, however, that their cover could run out at any moment, and they'd be out in the open with an angry dinosaur hot on their heels.
Though the distance they had to move was not far, the pace they kept to try and avoid drawing attention made it take longer than it should have. For each member of the group, it felt like an eternity. Their hearts pounded; adrenaline coursed through their veins as they prepared themselves to run at any moment. Finally, though, they tucked themselves behind their new cover and all let out the breaths they'd been holding.
Peering out, Fumiko watched as DarkTyrannomon continued to stomp around a short way from where they'd been previously. She could see that the Digimon was getting frustrated that its prey had escaped, it was growling now as it swiped its claws and tail about in anger, shattering trees with each impact.
"Why won't it just leave us alone?" Hanako said with a soft whine, pressing her back against one of the rocks.
"It's seen us an enemy and that frenzy it's gone into won't subside until it catches us. It might tire itself out eventually, but not anytime soon," Liollmon explained, sitting down by Hanako's feet.
"Everybody take cover, a breath attack is coming!" Commandramon hissed with obvious urgency. The group followed the instructions without hesitation, crouching down behind their cover and all huddling together.
In the distance, DarkTyrannomon lowered its stance and let out a roar. Sweeping its head from left to right, a jet of fire blasted from its mouth, setting alight every tree and piece of foliage it touched despite the rain.
"Bloody hell…," Nagi murmured as he looked out from their hiding spot and saw the sea of flames now burning through the area, the pouring rain slowly diminishing the flames. "We'd have been charcoal if we were anywhere over there," he said, running his hand through his wet hair to get it out of his face.
"It is attacking indiscriminately now trying to find us, we should pick up the pace to try and find more substantial cover," Commandramon suggested, panting as he stood up straight once more.
"Hey, don't push yourself, you're still hurt," Fumiko said, putting a hand on top of the soldier Digimon's helmet. The concern in her face was clear as she gazed down at him, but Commandramon looked back up at her with a resolute gaze.
"Above all else, my mission is to keep you safe, boss. Until you all are out of danger, I will carry on."
"That was almost pretty cool there, good job," Liollmon said, his whiskers flicking a little as he patted Commandramon's back with one of his paws. The other Digimon shot him a scowl which did not seem to bother Liollmon in the slightest.
Hanako watched the exchange, she'd have laughed if she wasn't so exhausted. They had been trying to get away from DarkTyrannomon for hours now with only brief stops to rest during it all. It had been the middle of the night when the pursuit had first begun, and now the sun was rising.
"Hey, there's something over there," Nagi said urgently. He was still crouched down with FanBeemon held against him, but with one hand he was pointing to something not too far from them. The two girls and their Digimon moved to his side and followed where he was pointing.
A few metres away was another pile of rocks. Though these ones looked different. There was a broken pillar rising from one side of the pile and each of the rocks on the ground were square or rectangle shaped, though some had chunks broken off them. Those shapes certainly were not natural.
"Looks man-made right? What do you think it is?" he asked, looking back at the others.
"Not sure. That pile of rocks isn't very high though, we wouldn't all fit behind it to hide," said Fumiko.
"I believe this area is home to many ancient ruins, including some that go underground. Perhaps what we are seeing could be one of the entrances," Commandramon said as he scanned the area briefly.
"If we could get underground, we might finally be able to stop and rest. Maybe even sleep," Hanako whispered, the hope clear in her voice.
"We don't know for certain what it-," Fumiko began to say when Nagi started to move.
"Screw it, it's better than standing around here waiting to get roasted or eaten. I'll go check it out. If there's something there, I'll wave you over," he said. Before anyone could protest, he was moving away in a crouch.
Hanako reached out briefly to try and stop him, but he was already out of reach. Fumiko meanwhile clenched a fist on her thigh and bit her lower lip, watching him go. "Idiot," she murmured.
Nagi moved slowly, keeping low to the ground with both arms hugged around FanBeemon to keep them close. He was dangerously exposed right now with nothing to obscure him from view if DarkTyrannomon looked his way. His heart pounded in his chest louder than the rain pouring around him. He was exhausted, he was wet and cold, not to mention he was starving. Overall, it had been a pretty awful time since he woke up in this weird place.
He hadn't even had time to appreciate the two beautiful women who'd also been spirited away with him to wherever the hell they were. "Stupid angry dinosaur getting in the way of things…," Nagi grumbled to himself as he went. He didn't even spare a glance at DarkTyrannomon anymore, focused completely on getting to his destination.
After what seemed like an eternity, he reached the pile of rubble and circled around it. When he saw what was on the other side, it took all his willpower not to jump up and cheer. Behind the rubble was a narrow staircase leading down into the earth. As he gazed down, he couldn't see anything blocking it, in fact he could see light at the bottom of the stairs.
Turning back to face Hanako, Fumiko and their Digimon, he waved them over before disappearing behind the rubble and beginning to descend the staircase. "Gonna be safe soon bud, just hang on a bit longer," he whispered to FanBeemon as he went, taking care not to slip on the soaked, stone steps.
Fuelled by a surge of hope as Nagi vanished from view, the two girls began to make their way over to the rubble as well, followed by their Digimon.
After a few minutes, the whole group had made it down the stairs and into the underground ruins, the sound of the rain above having faded away to almost nothing now. They stood at the bottom of the stairs, gazing down a long hallway that was lit up by sconces on the walls every few meters. The walls, floor and ceiling were all made from pale brown and yellow bricks of varying sizes. The rainwater coming down the stairs pooled on the floor for a few metres before eventually coming to a stop and leaving dry brick ahead of it.
"Should we go further in? Just to make sure it can't smell us down here or something?" Hanako asked, shaking as much of the water off herself as she could.
"Yeah, lets go so we can finally sit down," Fumiko said in response.
The group set off again with the two girls walking in front, Commandramon and Liollmon behind them and then Nagi bringing up the rear, carrying FanBeemon in his arms now instead of against his chest. The insect Digimon's green eyes were open now, looking about as it was carried.
They walked for several minutes through the corridor, all of them keeping their eyes ahead as they went, each member of the group looking forward to sitting down and getting some rest and sorely needed sleep. After a while, the hallway took a sharp turn to the right. The group of humans and Digimon followed along the path without hesitation.
The scenery in this new corridor was almost identical to the last. The only differences were one of the sconces about halfway down the lefthand wall was broken off and laying on the floor. There was also a pair of wooden doors cutting off the hallway ten metres or so from the corner.
"Let's go to the other side of that door and stop there if we can," said Fumiko as she continued to walk, the heavy soles of her combat boots sending the echoes of her footsteps all through the corridor.
Once the group arrived at the doors, Commandramon stopped them by holding up a hand and moved himself to them, pressing the side of his head up against the righthand one. Listening for a second, he took a few steps back. "I hear sounds coming from the other side," he whispered, looking up at Fumiko.
"What should we do, sis?" Hanako asked, looking to the taller girl, the exhaustion clear on her face. Fumiko glanced back at her and then looked over to Nagi who was leaning his back against one of the walls, obviously in much the same state. Even Fumiko herself was running on fumes by now.
"If it's another dangerous Digimon, we shouldn't go in, but…," Fumiko whispered, looking over to the doors.
"No way to know unless we go through," said Liollmon.
"I think we should turn back; the risk is too great. We are in no condition to run or fight," Commandramon pointed out.
"I think Commandramon is right, Fumiko. If there's something bad behind there, I don't think I can run away," Hanako whispered, hanging her head. Fumiko put a hand on the other girl's shoulder and offered her a small smile.
"We'll turn around, even if we have to hang out near the stairs, we'll get some rest and hopefully DarkTyrannomon will go away by then."
Nagi pushed himself away from the wall with a small groan and nodded his agreement. Right now, the only thing on his mind was getting to rest and frankly, he didn't care where.
Just as they were all about to turn away, a sound rang out through the corridor and caused them all to freeze. The creaking of an old, wooden door swinging open. There was silence for several long moments before a voice finally broke through it.
"Well now… ain't this an interesting little treat!"