WoS Ch13 - Hubris

The story so far: Five human children have been stranded in the Digital World and tasked to reach the Forest Terminal, deep in the Land of Forests. On their way there, they each have found a Human Spirit of the Legendary Warriors, stored in their D-Tectors. These allow them to turn into Digimon. A while ago, they ran into an enemy warrior, Grumblemon, who also had access to the corresponding Beast Spirit of his element: Gigasmon. So far, the only one in the group who has control over a Beast Spirit is Tommy who nearly defeated Gigasmon last chapter. The group is currently split up with the power houses Kouji and JP gone to chase down Kouji's own Beast Spirit...

Chapter 13 - Hubris

-Meanwhile-

This couldn’t be!

Angry fists slammed into an offending rock and smashed it into a thousand tiny pieces.

Three more followed its pathetic fate.

It still didn’t satisfy his fury.

Four humans! Four clueless humans had almost beaten him! This was inconceivable!

The worst part of all this was that the monthly meeting was fast approaching. Grumblemon was in absolutely no mood to deal with the others and their snide comments. Among Cherubimon’s warriors, he still had the highest success rate and the most missions accomplished. He refused to let some children mar his perfect record.

A sturdy tree suffered his anger, and within seconds, he’d reduced it to kindling. Right, he just needed to blow off some more steam. The night was still young after all, plenty of time to find his footing again and plot his revenge. It was good to be alone.

“Grumblemon, you’ve seen better days!”

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice and whipped around to face the wooden robot who had appeared by his side. Ugh, great. It was him.

“Arbormon, Warrior of Wood!” Grumblemon said, trying not to roll his eyes. Of course Arbormon would be here. The Beast of Light had chased him all the way north into the Land of Forests, Arbormon’s territory. “What do you want?”

“Ding dong! A friend in need is a friend indeed!” the simpleton intoned. He wiped some dirt from his forehead with a towel, and then opened the round hole that constituted as a mouth. “I see there is something that ails you! I wouldn’t look the other way if you required my assistance!”

Then, he mumbled something nonsensical about the importance of looking left before crossing the road.

Grumblemon stared at his nominal ally, eyes narrowed. He hated working with the other Legendary Warriors. Even if Arbormon and his annoying speech pattern was the least obnoxious of the lot, it still wasn’t worth his time—and sanity.

But Arbormon’s position as dumb muscle reminded him of something. Grumblemon had amassed quite a lot of fractal code since the last time Master Cherubimon had visited them… it should be fine if he made it work for him a bit.

“I don’t need your help,” he said pointedly, already envisioning the mindless data slave that wouldn’t want to hog the glory. Perfect. Sending Arbormon a superior look, he added, “I have things to do, so leave me alone!” before he left the Warrior of Wood standing in between the general destruction.

He’d always made better plans when there wasn’t an idiot breathing down his neck. After all, the only real obstacle appeared to be the Beast of Ice… But there was an old spell that inhibited movement, attributed to AncientSphinxmon and as dark as the ancient warrior herself. He checked the position of the moons through the light canopy and smiled. Sometimes, his foreknowledge in all things ancient and magical really came in handy! He couldn’t wait to get started; there was so much to prepare!

Arbormon wistfully watched him walk away to gather his supplies and said, Ding dong! You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

Whatever. Grumblemon couldn’t care less as long as the Warrior of Wood wouldn’t follow him.

-Tommy-

Wiping up slimy oil was one of the least pleasant things Tommy had ever done and that list included sleeping on whatever the thing that he’d slept on was. It shouldn’t count as a bed! The uncomfortable monstrosity seemed to hide iron spikes beneath its paper-thin cover, and he’d woken up all sore and grumpy. His Spirits had healed him in the time it took him to walk to the bathroom, but they weren’t miracle workers. The oil drum in the hallway became a casualty on his way back to the room. Still half-asleep, he’d run into it, and it’d toppled over. With an almighty crash, it’d broken into pieces and spilled its content all over the dirty floor.

Who’d thought it was a good idea to put it there? And why did Tommy even have to clean up the mess? Wasn’t that the innkeeper’s job?

Kei and Zoe were down the hallway, arguing with the arrogant five-prong star that was owner of the dosshouse, a digimon as dingy as his establishment named Starmon. The girls were hoping to leave a message for Kouji and JP in case they came here. From the sounds of it, they’d drifted into a full-on complaint about the murderous furniture.

Tommy dutifully wrung out the wet cloth over the bucket he’d been given. He’d told the others that they didn’t need to help him because he wanted to prove that he could handle his own mistakes. But now he realized that doing things all by himself was... lonely.

He sat back, trying to reign in the feeling of inadequacy. He was supposed to be all changed and determined and self-reliant now! And here he faltered at the thought of being alone. A small inkling of self-doubt wormed its way into his thoughts again. Was he really good enough? Could the others really rely on him now?

He must have dozed off, since from one moment to the next, a plate with scrambled eggs hovered in front of him. He traced the arm holding it up to a violet vest and striped T-shirt and Zoe’s smiling face. She nodded encouragingly and said, “I thought you might want some breakfast.”

Tommy didn’t take the plate immediately. He was looking at the corridor that had black, oily smears trailing through the grime and dust. A particularly dark patch on the greyish, once-white wall showed where the wave of oil had sloshed up the wallpaper.

Kei, who was holding two more plates, followed his gaze and sighed heavily. “You’re too kind, Tommy. Let’s just eat and leave this place.”

“But what about the message?” he asked worriedly, still looking at the unclean hallway. He’d never been interested in cleaning. He’d always had Mama tidying up after him, but somehow it felt wrong to leave it like that.

“He’ll never agree to relay a message.” Kei huffed angrily, looking towards the main room where Starmon was humming a happy tune just because he knew it would annoy them. What an unpleasant village. “You can stop playing servant to that jerkhead and just eat breakfast.”

Tommy thought about that. Then, he dropped the cloth into the bucket and wiped his hands on his trousers. (Transforming into Spirit Warriors fixed dirty and torn clothes!)

“Thank you,” he said when Zoe gave him the plate, and he meant it.

It felt good not to be alone.

After eating their mediocre scrambled eggs, they left the unhelpful village, which definitely deserved its nondescript map entry, and continued their journey to the Forest Terminal. The plain past the village opened up with reddish-brown sand and rock. From the forest close by, a fresh wind was blowing over the rolling hills.

Tommy felt… odd now that their goal was so close. Getting here had been nothing but eventful. His mind wandered backwards to the day Zoe and Kei had stopped him from running after the train home, to meeting Kumamon, to gaining control of Blizzarmon, and to today. Nothing had been easy. He would’ve given up if it weren’t for the friends he’d found along the way.

And now, two of his important friends weren’t with them. That was wrong. They should be here with them getting ever closer to the Forest Terminal.

Tommy only half-heartedly listened to Kei and Zoe’s conversation about their next steps. They were following a wide, but not well-maintained street eastward. The weather was pleasant, and a light breeze rustled through the trees lining their way. It carried a sandy, oily smell.

They weren’t alone on the road. Two minutes ago, they’d surpassed a merchant. He was transporting a dozen oil barrels in his huge cart and had been open for polite small talk. Of course, the gun-wearing digimon clad in cowboy clothes wasn’t on his way to the Forest Terminal, but merely to the next Trailmon station, and he was walking too slow for them to stick around. It had nothing to do with his creepy attitude towards Zoe and Kei, as the girls insisted. They’d left him behind rather quickly.

Tommy tried contacting Kouji again. He got only static. If only—

A second later, he was glad that he had his D-Tector already at ready. A rumbling went through the earth.

Zoe and Kei stopped in their tracks and Tommy caught up to them. “What...?”

Five meters away from the road, huge chunks of rocks exploded outwards, and a large hand grabbed the edge of the newly created hole. It belonged to a sand-coloured arm made out of lined rock, straining to push a digimon almost twice the size of Lobomon outside. It looked like a golem come to life. Its sandy rocks were much smoother and better connected than the grey stones of Gotsumon, and it wore an iron mask with a row of jagged teeth. Two dull red eyes stared vacantly towards them as it stopped next to the hole, overly long arms rigidly at its side. That vacant look… Tommy had seen it before.

On top of its head stood a gleaming Spirit Warrior showing his sharp canine teeth in a feral grin. “I finally found you!”

“Grumblemon!”

That triple outcry didn’t faze the earth gremlin in the slightest and he proclaimed gleefully, “I knew you’d be around here somewhere!”

How did he know that? Oh no! Did he attack the Gotsumon village again?

Kei thought a step further and shouted, “What have you done to Kouji and JP?”

In a blink-and-miss moment, Tommy saw Grumblemon’s eyes widen in surprise before the gnome with the absurdly large nose smoothed his features. “Can’t you guess? I’m going to take your Spirits too!”

For a long second, Tommy was horrified, but then he remembered yesterday and turned to the stricken Zoe and Kei. “He’s lying! I bet he doesn’t know what happened to them!” And Tommy didn’t know what that meant. If they weren’t fighting Grumblemon, where were Kouji and JP?

“Enough talk!” Grumblemon screeched and gave his golem thing a command. “Rockmon, charge!”

Tommy reeled back; the Earth Warrior was pointing directly at him! Next to him, the girls drew their D-Tectors, their expressions hard and focused, and there was no more time.

Execute Spirit Digivolve to…

(“Oh no, not you!”)

(A tiny flask full of powdery sand was opened, a sudden breeze carrying it towards the beast.)

Gah?!

…Anumon!

...Kazemon!  

Next to Tommy, two data cocoons burst open, revealing dark archer Anumon and dainty butterfly Kazemon. As if by magic, they weren’t standing nearly as close to him as when they were human.

Tommy was kneeling on the ground, staring at the red lines below him. A huge, glowing pentagram had spread around him, his friends barely clear of the five-pronged star. He felt numb, sluggish. He couldn’t move! His D-Tector slipped out of his stiff and unmoving fingers and clattered uselessly to the ground. Just moving his head to look at it almost drained all his energy.

“Tommy?” Kazemon called out, one hand raised towards him.

“Pyro Shot! No time!” Anumon shouted.

Her arrow got stuck in Rockmon’s shoulder, but the creature didn’t even flinch. It opened its mouth to spew out a stream of blue energy. Anumon and Kazemon only flew out of the way once they saw that it wouldn’t hit Tommy. Even if the blue energy flared two meters above Tommy, its shock wave lifted his balloon-like hat straight off and almost toppled him over. He watched it fly away with wide eyes. Rockmon’s attack was insanely powerful, and it came in so fast!

Tommy tried reaching for his D-Tector, but it was like all his limbs weighed a hundred tons. Moving was impossible! He’d just got back into fighting again; he couldn’t believe he was forced to the side lines like that!

...No, it was much worse than that. He couldn’t move! One stray attack and he’d be a goner!

Something the other two also realized. Anumon and Kazemon gave Tommy in his trapping pentagram a wide berth, drawing Rockmon’s attention away from him.

“Okay, now,” Anumon said. “What the hell is that thing and what did you do to Tommy?!”

Grumblemon seemed content with standing on top of his slave and smirked. “Blizzarmon is taking a little break. If he can’t move, he can’t digivolve. But no worries, I’ll come back to him once Rockmon is done with you two!”

He had the battle all planned out. Rockmon continued to care very little about Anumon’s arrows (“Seriously! Why does this never work?!”), and all Kazemon’s wind managed to do was blow Grumblemon off of its head.

Tommy looked on helplessly. Even if he wouldn’t be in full control, as Blizzarmon he would’ve easily dealt with Rockmon! ... And that was why Grumblemon had singled him out.

-Kei-

Damn, with Kouji and JP out of the picture, they seriously lacked attack power. No matter how Anumon looked at it, Kazemon and she weren’t going to bring down Rockmon or Grumblemon. They needed to free Tommy ASAP. That strange seal was giving her the creeps. She instinctively knew that if she crossed the barrier, she’d be just as stuck inside as he was.

Her frantic musing nearly cost them the battle when the sizzling sound of Rockmon’s energy attack wooshed close. Damn it, this thing came in fast! Anumon lacked Kazemon’s aerial grace and couldn’t allow herself any distractions! With a desperate push, she managed to twist out of the way, but the force still blew her far off course. She let three arrows fly towards Grumblemon and quickly summoned another one to shoot at Rockmon’s only weak point: his eyes.

Grumblemon didn’t block her attack and instead sank into the earth to avoid it. So far the little gremlin hadn’t shown interest in joining the fight. He was happy to throw around demeaning comments à la “I can’t believe you call yourself ‘Legendary Warriors’ when you can’t even destroy my slave!” or “Pathetic! You wouldn’t beat me in seven hundred years!” Nothing worth mentioning. Besides, shouting at them was all he could do. He still hadn’t developed any long-range attack and... Come to think of it, that was probably why he brought Rockmon in the first place.

Despite her ill luck regarding Grumblemon, her other arrow found its mark. The burning wood drilled into Rockmon’s left eye and set it on fire. Rockmon still didn’t care! Almost like it wasn’t even alive, just an automaton following a programming. Anumon didn’t know what that meant and she didn’t have time to ponder, since it didn’t take Rockmon long to extinguish the fire. Too late, she realized that she could’ve asked Kazemon to fan the flames. When Rockmon removed its hand from its face, its eye was a patch of fractal code that reformed into the red iris.

Whatever this thing was, it had insane healing powers on top of a strong ranged attack. If only—

No time, she had an attack to avoid.

The fight moved them a little off the path and another energy attack pulverized the trees blocking the view on the lonely road.

Or not quite so lonely. With a cold feeling, Anumon spotted the merchant who they’d overtaken earlier and who was now pushing into the battle ground. Startled, he pulled his enormous cowboy hat up to look at the source of all the commotion and locked eyes with Anumon. She frowned unhappily. Great, now they had to defend a civilian. As if having Tommy trapped with some sort of witchcraft wasn’t enough.

But the vanishing trees and rampaging golem must have sent a clear sign. Even before Anumon could wrap her head around the logistics of protecting the new person, the cowboy merchant dropped the handle of his cart and ran back the way he came from. Smart cookie.

Anumon was about to turn back when she heard a dreadful sound behind her. A wave of blue energy engulfed her and blasted her into the merchant cart, scattering a dozen oil barrels over the road. She had to fight just to keep herself together. That attack had nearly knocked her out, and it wasn’t just her head that was pulsating with pain. It took way too long for the world to come back into focus, and she grabbed the side of the cart to push herself to her feet. Ow.

Somewhere in the distance, a girl screamed and Anumon snapped to high alertness. Zoe! She scanned the area past the disintegrated tree line, prepared for the worst, but breathed in relief when Kazemon pivoted around Rockmon. The Spirit Warrior doused it with wind and looked a bit worse for the wear.

Anumon clenched her fist around the handle of her bow. She had to get back and help her! But in their current state, fighting was hopeless… She resigned herself to continuing anyway when her wandering eyes took in the wooden barrels, abandoned by its owner... Oil was highly flammable, right?

With new vigour, she picked up the nearest barrel. It wasn’t that big and comfortably fit between her arms, but she’d expected to strain a bit. Instead, she lifted it easily and if it wasn’t for the viscous liquid sloshing inside, she would’ve thought the barrel empty. She had to remember her digimon form was a lot stronger than her human.

The additional weight caused her to sway in the air, and she took nearly ten seconds to reach the mangled tree.

Kazemon spotted her and shouted relieved, “Anumon!”

The fire archer hefted her barrel up. They had never done anything like this before and she didn’t know if they’d get a second try once Grumblemon figured out her plan.

“Kazemon, here. Blow that against this thing!” Then, she leaned back and threw the barrel into her partner’s attack line.

Kazemon brought both hands forwards without question, “Hurricane Wave!” and her pink storm crashed into the barrel.

Rockmon still stood where Anumon had last seen it, dumbly staring at her while it unleashed another energy rush. This time, she saw it coming and ducked. It claimed some more innocent trees while the barrel slammed into Rockmon’s side. The wood casing broke upon impact and doused the stone creature with slick black liquid. Now!

Anumon raised her bow to the sky. No point in taking any chances here. “Fiery Rain!”

A dozen arrows rained upon Rockmon. It appeared to have enough self-preservation to initiate an evasion manoeuvre but couldn’t avoid them all. Fiery Rain wasn’t a particularly strong attack. But like all her arrows, these were burning. With oil covering Rockmon everywhere, it took only one hit to set it on fire.

Rockmon didn’t make any sound even as the fire started to consume it. It used its large hands to pat out the flames, and Anumon felt a twinge. But not for long. She was fire. Her concern shifted when she felt the flames weakening and Rockmon was still functional. That needed to change.

“Kazemon,” she called again.

She couldn’t tell what the Warrior of Wind was feeling when she summoned her rose coloured storm once more, “Storm Fingers!”

As the flames surged higher, Rockmon’s body turned black. A ring of data appeared around the shapeless fire.

Anumon let her partner rush towards it, lavender and pink D-Tector in hand. Kazemon started talking about guiding the lost spirit back to the light and readied herself for the scan.

The blue fractal code began entering her D-Tector when Tommy’s voice cut through the blistering of the flames. “Kazemon, watch out! Grumblemon!”

Damn! Anumon had completely forgotten about Grumblemon! Where was—? There! Just a few meters away from Kazemon, the evil little gnome jumped out of the earth, sending debris flying everywhere. He had his vicious hammer raised for a swing. Well, not on her watch.

Anumon appeared right between Grumblemon and his target, her face set with determination.

That damn hammer! Not again! She caught the weapon’s long handle before he could bring it around. After all, she’d just been reminded that her digimon form came with super strength. She smirked and tried to wrench the hammer out of his grasp.

Too late she remembered his second hammer. He abandoned his first weapon with a smirk of his own, making her stumble back off balance and before she regained her footing, the sharp spike of the other hammer slammed into her side. She didn’t even have the air for a decent scream before the world faded to black.

(Meanwhile, half a day away in a certain temple, a shaman was recovering from a truly dreadful vision. Such terrible, terrible things were to come! The shaman was too lost in the future to pay attention to the heavy doors to the temple’s inner sanctuary. They opened for the first time in hundreds of years. A flash, a burning passion. The Beast of Fire roared. Then the temple and the bustling market surrounding it were no more.)

-Tommy-

The ground shook with each attack. The vibrations crept up Tommy’s frozen fingers and sometimes pushed him a bit off balance. Yet, his body felt heavy and unresponsive! If only he were able to move...!

He barely got out his warning for Kazemon and it still didn’t help! With a cut off squawk, Grumblemon slammed Anumon out of the way, and her body turned into a black silhouette. A ring of data surrounded her. On it appeared a brilliant white orb that formed into her Spirit.

Grumblemon chuckled darkly. “Finally!”

Grumblemon Slide Digivolve to... Gigasmon!

Kazemon was just finishing the scan. Like Scorpiomon, Rockmon didn’t leave a DigiEgg behind. Tommy knew it! Rockmon was a construct, exactly like Scorpiomon! With the construct dissolving, Kazemon was too far away to help, and Tommy was still stuck in the pentagram. Gigasmon reached out and ripped Keisaki’s Spirit straight from her fractal code. “That’s one down!”

Immediately, she transformed back into a human and dropped to her knees in front of the Beast of Earth. “Ugh.”

Tommy wanted to flinch back, but the seal prevented the sudden movement. This was how quickly someone could take your Spirit?!

“Kei!” Kazemon shouted, summoning her wind again - “Storm Fingers!” - to catch Gigasmon’s attention.

Kei pressed a hand against her injured side and scrambled away from the enemy who’d lost interest in her anyway.

“Well, that was pretty pathetic,” Gigasmon declared casually and rolled his shoulders after a job well done. He raised his head and peered at the airborne Kazemon, the calculating look back in his orange eyes. It didn’t fit his troll-like appearance, but Gigasmon really wasn’t dumb. Tommy saw him come to his obvious next step at the same time as Kei did.

Without Kazemon coming down to engage him, he wouldn’t be able to reach her. Which was why he turned to Tommy trapped in the seal. “Well, Rockmon certainly is done now. Time to deal with—”

A book crashed against his horned skull. It was quite heavy too. He furrowed his brows and turned back to Kei who was kneeling over the rucksack, their other book in hand.

“If you think I’ll let you have Tommy, think again!” she said, putting up a brave façade. What was she doing?! She didn’t have a Spirit anymore!

Kazemon came down from the sky with a drop kick aimed at Gigasmon’s head, “Tornado Kick!” She was fast and Kei’s book attack had distracted Gigasmon enough for her to land a perfect hit. But she wasn’t prepared for Gigasmon turning around and grabbing her leg.

“That hurt a little!” He slammed her to the ground, and she rolled a few meters until she almost hit the outer line of the pentagram.

Tommy called out to her and wanted to sink back in relief when she managed to get to her feet again without turning back into Zoe.

He looked to Kei and how she tried to regain Gigasmon’s attention, and it hit him. This was like the Gotsumon in the cave. They had tried to stop Grumblemon from hurting him while he sat by and did nothing to help. It was happening again! Only that Kei was even less effective than the three Gotsumon and what if Gigasmon scanned her too?!

Tommy hadn’t even realized the world had lost focus until he heard Kazemon’s voice from far away. “Tommy! I’m sorry, I can’t even get in!” She stood outside of the pentagram, unable to come closer. But with her words, his vision cleared and he heard Kei scream.

Not again! This wasn’t fair. He was sick of people trying to sacrifice themselves for him while all he could do was watch. He screwed his eyes shut.

I have to get out, I have to get out. How do I get out? I need to get out... somehow...

Next to him Kazemon sent out another wind attack and the irate air stirred his short hair. It actually reached him through the barrier...

...!

She couldn’t get in, but her wind still affected him! Rockmon had almost toppled him over, too!

“Kazemon!” Tommy shouted quickly, his voice almost breaking with urgency. “Attack me! It will push me outside!” She could get him out after all!

She flinched back, her mouth opening in shock. “What?”

Why was she hesitating?

“I can’t do that! What if— I just can’t!” she shouted, slowly backing away. She struggled for words and finally settled on, “What if you get hurt?”

He hadn’t even worried about her attack hurting him because it was more important to stop Gigasmon from scanning Keisaki! The Beast Spirit had already grabbed her and strangled her to force out her fractal code.

Tommy couldn’t let that happen again! He barely realized that his voice grew cold with determination, Kumamon’s righteousness coming through, “You need to attack me now! We can win against him! Don’t worry about me!” Because if she didn’t do that now, they might lose Kei!

He couldn’t see her eyes, but he knew that she came to the same realization. She gritted her teeth and aimed her hands at him. “Storm Fingers!”

Behind her, Gigasmon appeared, having abandoned Kei now that it looked like Blizzarmon might get free. He delivered a devastating punch to her stomach that sent her crashing to the ground, her form fading into black, but it was too late. Her storm had already reached Tommy.

It was the weaker version of her ranged attack, but it still hurt a lot more than he expected. He shouted out in pain when the wind blasted into him. Then, he felt the raging storm lifting him out of the pentagram and the pain became bearable. Just like that, he was free. He was free! He could move!

His D-Tector was still inside the seal, but that wasn’t a problem. He pointed at it, “Come to me, Spirits!” and summoned it back to his hands.

The second he had it in his grasps, he surrounded himself with the angry fractal code of the Beast transformation. There was no time for him to warm up. He needed to be strong immediately.

Execute Beast Spirit Digivolve to...  

Ahhhh! The pain was white-hot, but it burned in tune with his determination. He endured.  

...Blizzarmon!

He didn’t even need to assert control this time. He was already in the right mindset to seamlessly merge with Blizzarmon. Becoming one with the beast was as easy as transforming into Kumamon.

That was a good thing too because he really needed the clarity to react immediately.

He lashed out with his arrowhead braids and wrapped them around Gigasmon. “Glacier Snares!” He pulled hard and was strong enough to bring the Beast of Earth down. One look confirmed that Kazemon’s Spirit was still on the data ring. Good. He’d been fast enough. While Gigasmon managed to struggle out of his hold, Zoe safely transformed back into herself and let Keisaki drag her out of the way.

Gigasmon pressed his lips together, unhappy with his new monstrous adversary.

“I won’t let you escape again!” Blizzarmon proclaimed, hitting his chest threateningly before looking at Kei. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you your Spirit back!”

She looked like she wanted to say something to that, but Gigasmon was faster. “Someone is mighty sure of himself. What makes you think you have a chance against me?”

“Well, why did you need to trap me in a seal if you’re so sure of winning?” he countered. Enough talk; he drew Éji and Ōji and jumped at his enemy. “Avalanche Step!”

Gigasmon remembered the attack and he took a few steps back. That got him away from the axes, but not from the ice-cold energy that they radiated and blasted outwards. It pushed him away, but Blizzarmon was right behind him to punch him into the overly large nose, visibly disorienting him.

He had taken Anumon. Another punch to the face. He killed Gotsumon. Gigasmon recovered enough and blocked the next hit. He had ruined countless homes and caused so much suffering. A slice with Éji made him think twice about blocking again. He would finally pay for everything that he’d done!

Blizzarmon roared with fury when Gigasmon got a hit of his own in but repaid it tenfold with a flurry of punches that sent his enemy straight to the ground. Straight into the ground because Gigasmon disappeared.

No! Blizzarmon had let him escape again! No! Gigasmon had Kei’s Spirit! They needed to get it back!

In the end, Blizzarmon wasn’t sure if it was his panic or the easily distracted mind of his animalistic side that caused him to completely miss Gigasmon raising out of the earth behind him. His only warning was a loud shout, “Earthquake!” and he barely turned around before the Beast of Earth slammed into him. Through the blinding pain, he felt himself pressed deep into the ground.

Around them, the landscape shattered. Rifts opened in a wide circle, swallowing the road. Trees started to slide down the deep chasms.

It hurt, but digivolving into Blizzarmon was also painful. He endured and held on to the transformation with the sudden spark of hope. Gigasmon was still here. He could still win.

That was to say, Blizzarmon could win after he managed to convince his protesting body to move. Ugh. This was the first time he’d been that hurt in Beast form and for some reason, he thought that he’d deal with it better... He flinched back and screwed his eyes shut when Gigasmon punched him in the stomach. He hadn’t given the troll creature time to recover after he’d slammed him into the ground and now Gigasmon was repaying the favour.

The next hit made Blizzarmon groan in pain. He almost slipped back into self-doubt. Almost. But the Beast of Ice had a strong mind, and there was an enemy to defeat. When Gigasmon pulled his fist back for another punch, Blizzarmon brought both his legs forwards and kicked him away.

He needed to end the fight now! Even though he knew the slightest hesitation would allow Gigasmon to get back on his feet, Blizzarmon took three seconds to send a short prayer to the God of the Ice. When he opened his eyes again, feeling more confident, Gigasmon was already standing.

“Praying won’t save you now! Quagmire Twister!” The Earth Warrior started spinning in place.

Blizzarmon sprang to his feet, covering his arms in ice to meet the whirlwind attack. He was concentrating too hard to say something witty, eyes wide and focused on the rotating fists. When the twister was close enough, he pulled both arms back and jabbed them into the beige maelstrom. Ice shards were flying everywhere, but it was his fists that connected with the brown hide of Gigasmon and he felt the Earth Beast give way.

“N-No way...” Gigasmon managed to say before his form grew dark.

Blizzarmon blinked. A data circle appeared around the blackened figure. He blinked again.

Hah!

He did it!

He defeated Gigasmon!

Three shining orbs appeared in front of the fractal code. The two Spirits of Earth and Anumon.

Blizzarmon only knew how to rip things to shreds, but that was good enough to tear the Spirit of Fire from Gigasmon. He needed to hurry though, because consciousness started to come back to the enemy. He surveyed the silhouette of Gigasmon and felt only cold anger. Well, there wouldn’t be a Gigasmon anymore. He reached out again and closed his fist around the Beast Spirit of Earth. With a final tuck, it came loose and just like that, he’d stripped Grumblemon of his most dangerous weapon.

But he was running out of time. Already the black form grew smaller and turned back into the Human Warrior of Earth.

There was something distinctly wrong about how Blizzarmon scanned fractal code, and it made him hesitate. The data fragments of Gwappamon (flinch) were still coursing through his body and until now he’d been unable to put his finger on why it unnerved him so much. Standing in front of Grumblemon now he suddenly connected the dots. Gwappamon hadn’t been purified. He didn’t know what that meant for his DigiEgg, but he doubted that it was anything good. He swallowed nervously. Only Kumamon had access to the D-Tector...

Before he could come to the decision to Slide Digivolve to his Human Spirit, Grumblemon’s form regained its colour and the data ring alongside his Spirit disappeared. Too slow! The enemy had recovered!

Grumblemon opened his blue eyes, checked his surroundings and was greeted with a blast of wind. Kazemon had rejoined the battle, carrying Kei in one arm. The other one was outstretched.

To be honest, Blizzarmon had almost forgotten that they existed. Something about being a Beast Spirit gave him tunnel vision, and looking around, he realized that he stood in the middle of a deep crater, fractured pillars and pieces of earth surrounding him. The Earthquake had to have shaken the ground so much that there’d been no safe place to stand... Suddenly, he was very glad that Grumblemon hadn’t taken Zoe’s Spirit. Blizzarmon wouldn’t have realized that they needed his help...

Grumblemon had needed only a split second to evaluate his options after coming around and made to tunnel into the earth. Oh no, he wouldn’t get away! Blizzarmon concentrated and wanted to lash out with his Glacier Snares when the world started spinning. He could feel every blow Gigasmon had dealt to him and for a second, his vision went all blurry. He’d never felt this exhausted in Spirit form and despite Kazemon coming down and grabbing Grumblemon to stop him from escaping, the Earth Warrior was still strong enough to fend her off. Then he was gone.

Blizzarmon wanted to howl in rage, but even that was too much effort. He couldn’t keep the transformation going anymore. With a flurry of data, he was Tommy again and landed uncomfortably on the ground, breathing heavily.

Already the pain was fading away, now that he had four Spirits healing him. Despite the exhaustion and despite Grumblemon getting away, he couldn’t help but lean back with a smile. He’d done it. He’d gotten Kei’s Spirit back and Grumblemon wasn’t as dangerous anymore.

Kazemon landed next to him, also smiling. “That was amazing!” She held out her hand. “Here, let me get you back up.”

Right, what looked to Blizzarmon like some manageable earth walls around the crater seemed very much too high for his human form. He gratefully let Kazemon pull him to his feet and within seconds, they were outside of the crater. She dropped him next to Kei, who was standing far away from the nearest chasm.

“Tommy, you look terrible,” Kei said good-naturedly, and there was an unfamiliar warmness in her voice.

He rubbed the back of his head, just below his hat, and wanted to say that she didn’t look much better. Which reminded him. “I got you your Spirit back!” was what he said instead.

It took him much less time than Kouji to figure out how to give it back to her. While he searched into himself to find Anumon’s burning fire, Zoe poked Kei in the side.

She said dramatically, “Kei, you worry me. You keep acquiring new bad habits. First you lose people and now you keep losing your Spirit. You need to get a grip!”

Kei started to laugh, but then her D-Tector lit up. They all froze. She had her Spirit back now, but the symbol shining on her display was the yellow sign of Thunder.

Half a second later, JP’s voice sounded, “Okay, I really hope it works this time.”

“JP!” Zoe shouted out, surprised but happy. “Are you guys okay?”

But he was talking over her as if she hadn’t said anything. “So I don’t know if you can hear me, but... well, there are a lot of things that happened and here is the thing about Kouji...”

-Meanwhile-

In his two years of existence, Grumblemon had never been so humiliated.

After he’d finally acquired an enemy Spirit for his master, he’d lost it again at the same time as that... that Beast stole his own Spirit!

Damn it all! He wanted to smash something in rage but thought better of it when something else’s rage burned much brighter. He stopped in his tracks and listened to a roar that came from not far away at all. For maybe the first time, he looked around.

Just a little left of him awaited destruction. Burnt leather tents, scorched stone walls and the crumpled skeleton of a temple. To the right were the charred remains of a forest, some trees still burning. Black smoke ominously rose to the sky. From inside the forest of black sticks sounded that terrifying howl.

Grumblemon thought about his options. He’d fled here to recover from Blizzarmon’s assault and some of his strength had returned to him. But that didn’t change the fact that his damn Beast Spirit was gone and whatever was in that forest didn’t seem friendly.

Still... This peculiar type of destruction... He stared at the forest, calculating.

Then he grabbed his hammer. There was something he could still do.