Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadow War ❯ Chapter 12
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: moose_of_doom 
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.31.2005 | Pages: 9 | Words: 4.0K | Visits: 299 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Digimon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.31.2005 | Pages: 9 | Words: 4.0K | Visits: 299 | Status: Completed
Chapter 12:
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They sat in silence; the only sound the rhythmic clacking of the carts wheels. Davis gripped the hilt of his sword, as the tears sprung to his eyes once more. Mimi, if anything, had withdrawn into herself, ignoring the rest of the group and silently hiding her face behind her arms. Her shoulders were shaking, and Davis suddenly felt the urge to comfort her. Michael sat across from her, not daring to move any closer.
“Mimi?”
“Leave me alone, Michael. After all that’s happened, I don’t need to talk to you.”
“Mimi, I…”
“JUST SHUT UP!”
It was practically a scream, and the blonde man recoiled. The venom in her voice stung him more than anything that Taythe or the Shadowmon could have thrown at him.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen, Mimi.” He said quietly. “I didn’t mean…”
“Well, it did, Michael, so shut the hell up and leave me alone!”
Michael shut up.
“What’s gonna happen?” asked TK.
“Huh?” Davis replied.
“I mean… Everything. What are we gonna do now?”
Davis shrugged.
“I think we should head for the real world.” Nick Pallet interjected.
Davis looked at him sharply.
“Why do you say that, Nick?”
“It’s a good tactic. If nothing else, we can gather our forces there, and make our way back into the digiworld. We can’t fight them all on our own, Davis.”
Davis nodded. He felt lost. Without realising it, he had come to rely on Liam. He’d gotten used to looking over his shoulder, and seeing the big Irishman standing there, usually with either a gun or a pint-glass in his hand. Now, everyone was looking to him for leadership, and he didn’t know what to do. He looked up at them. They were cold, but at least they’d had the chance to rest back in the town. Despite it though, he still felt drained.
“There’s nothing we can do until this damn cart reaches the end of the line anyways. For the moment, lets save our strength.”
Kari gently picked her way across the crowded bed of the cart, and sat next to him.
“And then what, Davis?”
“I don’t know, Kari, I truly don’t.”
DemiVeemon reclined on Davis’s shoulder, looking over the rear edge of the cart.
“Why does this always seem to happen to us?” the little blue Digimon sighed.
“Oh, shut up.” Gatomon snapped.
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The carts trundled onwards, and at last, Tai pointed towards the edge of their vision.
“There’s a light up there.”
And there was. Not the yellow, artificial light that they had used down in the caves, but stark, white light, streaming through the snow that covered the surface of the digital world.
The Digidestined and Digimon moved towards the front of their cart, eyes fixed on the light ahead of them, though whether in foreboding or in gladness, none could tell.
The cart slammed into the bollard in front of them, a bone-jarring halt that sent them all falling over onto each other. In any other circumstances, the situation might have looked comic, but in this day, nothing could have made them seem brighter. Davis stood, and got out of the cart.
“C’mon. We’ve gotta keep moving.”
He reached over his shoulder, and loosened his Katana in its scabbard. Just in case. He had a bad feeling, and the last time that had happened had been just before Viramon had decided to take a chunk out of the helicopter they were riding in. Tasha came up next to him.
“It doesn’t feel right, does it?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing does any more, Tasha. Not today.”
Salamandramon uncurled herself from around Tasha’s neck, and leapt to the ground. Davis looked after the small lizard-Digimon, and grinned slightly.
“Let’s go.”
They walked off into the heavy Blizzard, and the young leader of the Digidestined pulled his goggles down over his eyes to keep the freezing cold from making them tear up. Kari walked next to him, shivering in the biting weather.
“We cant keep going forever, Davis!” she yelled over the wind.
“I know! We need to find some shelter!” He yelled back.
Pallet, who had been striding in the lead, suddenly came to a halt.
“I think it’s a little late for that, Davis.” He said, and his voice had the echoing ring of finality to it that Davis had only heard him use when he didn’t give much for their chances.”
“Huh? What’s up?”
Veemon also came to a dead halt, his sharp eyes focusing on the sight ahead of them.
“Uh-oh…”
“It’s too late for all of you, Paladin!” Came a cold female voice. Although he had only heard it once before, Davis knew that voice. He reached down, and whipped the Berettas from their holsters in one smooth motion, sighting along the barrels as the rest of the group spread out, raising their own weapons defiantly.
Taythe stood in the snow before them, her long Raven hair flowing out behind her. Flanking her, the Shadowmon stood, hunched shapes dark against the pure white of the snow.
“Drop your weapons, all of you.” the girl commanded.
“I don’t think so!” shout Tai defiantly above the howling wind.
The Digidestined gripped their D3s, fingers reaching for the activation studs. Davis waved a hand at them, halting their movements.
“No…”
Matt blanched in disbelief.
“No? What are you talking about, Motomiya?”
“Those Shadowmon have got enough bows aimed at us to stop us all before we fired a shot. Wait for the signal.”
“What signal?”
“You’ll know it when you see it, Matt. She’s gonna have bigger things against us than the Shadowmon, but I have to face her alone.”
He stepped forward, his pistols dropping to the snow behind him.
“I know what I have to do now.”
He undid the buckles that held his scabbard in place, and swung the sword round in front of him. He pulled the shining Golden Katana from its sheath, and dropped the scabbard into the snow. Veemon bounded forward, and stood next to his partner.
“Oh, How sweet.” Taythe sneered. “The lone champion fighting for the protection of his friends. I think I’m going to vomit.”
Davis’s eyes narrowed, but with a visible effort, he restrained his temper.
“Just because you’ve never had anyone to protect Taythe. My father always told me not to knock something until you’ve tried it.”
Now it was Taythe’s turn to snarl at the Paladin. Not witty rebuke issued from the Girl’s mouth, though. Instead, she swept back her cloak, and drew her black longsword from the scabbard underneath. Davis smiled.
“Alright, now we’re getting somewhere.”
He spun his katana in his hand, the blade winging in a circle parallel to his arm. He pulled out his D3.
“If this has to be done, Taythe, I’m in no mood to delay the inevitable.”
For the first time since he had met her, a smile creased Taythe’s face.
“As you say, Paladin… why wait?”
And she pulled her own D3 from her sword belt, and pressed the activation stud at the same instant as Davis.
Veemon Leapt into the air, carried by the surge of energy that leapt up from Davis’s Digivice, even as a mirror image of black energy leapt up from them across the small patch of snow. The small blue Digimon’s form started to grow, and white armour began to form on his body, enveloping him like a skin-tight cloud.
“I think that’s the signal!” TK yelled.
The Digimon who remained leapt into the sky, transforming as they went.
=============================================================
Nick Pallet, being neither Digidestined nor Paladin, felt strangely detached from this fight. What he was, was a soldier, and that meant that he was going to fight. Despite Davis’s ministrations that the battle was between him and Taythe alone, the former SAS member could see the Shadowmon circumventing the circle of Snow where the two combatants stood. He glanced around, and pulled himself up on a largish rock overlooking the field. Unslinging his rifle, he sat crosslegged, and fixed a scope onto the top of the weapon. he neatly placed a Shadowmon forehead in the middle of the crosshairs, and squeezed the trigger.
The high-velocity bullet didn’t explode the head, didn’t cause any movie-style mutilation, but Nick knew he had aimed right when a slight gout of greyish vapour puffed from the other side of the creatures head. The other Shadowmon paused, and Pallet grinned, moving his sight to the next in line.
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The white light dimmed, and Instead of Veemon, there now stood a shining figure in armour. Only once before had Angewoman seen this figure, and that was at the battle in front of Paul’s tower. Edenamon stood tall, even as the column of dark energy that had shot up from Taythe’s D3 began to from the shapes of the huge dragons that had once been the bane of the digital world, and were now assuming that position once more.
One Digimon, however, had stayed on the ground. Salamandramon was still focusing, as Tasha reached inside her shirt and pulled out the two crests she bore, the crest of Truth and the crest of Life. she clenched them together, and the little Lizard Digimon’s eyes bored into hers.
A dome of light covered the group of Digidestined, as Salamandramon finally took to the skies, yelling as she went.
“SALAMANDRAMON, WARP-DIGIVOLVE TO… NEOBAHAMAMON!!!”
The huge dragon-shape of Tasha’s Digimon circled once in the sky, before coming to float next to Edenamon. Aside from the white-armoured Digimon, NeoBahamamon was the only Digimon to have faced down Viramon successfully. The combined power of the two was a force to be reckoned with.
The Twelve dragons of the old world formed up opposite the line of Digimon, their snarling maws roaring in the night air.
=============================================================
Daisuke Motomiya lowered his Digivice, and clasped it onto his belt. Then he gripped the hilt of his katana, and closed his eyes. All that filled his mind was the thought of Hikari Kamiya, the woman he loved. She was standing barely ten paces behind him, but for all her could do, she might have been a million miles away. he looked up.
“I believe the time has come, Taythe.”
“I believe it has, Daisuke.”
The two enemies rushed at each other for the first time, and their blades met in a thunderous clang, the curved metal of the Katana striking against the straight blade of the longsword.
And then they were past each other, and spinning. The opening gambit had been made, and now it was time for the duel.
Davis came up low, an uphand strike aimed at Taythe’s throat, a lethal strike. Anything less would have been folly. The raven-haired girl parried the strike almost negligently, whipping her blade at his eyes. With catlike reflexes, he leapt back from the cut, and kicked out, catching her in the stomach. She flinched back, winded momentarily, and Davis waited.
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The Twelve swept forward, their advantage in numbers allowing them to flank around the Digimon battle line, coming at them from both sides. Angemon parried a huge clawed hand with his glaive, striking back with lightning speed.
The dragon, however, was faster than the Angel-Digimon had anticipated, rearing back in a wreath of flame, before reeling around to claw once more. Angemon knocked it stoutly across the head, and glanced over his shoulder.
Edenamon was facing at least three of them alone, and it didn’t take a genius to not that they were the largest of the dragons. He huge scaly creatures surrounded the white-armoured figure, preparing to come at him from all sides.
“Surrender, Edenamon.” Said the largest.
“No, Terras, I don’t think I’ll do that.”
“We already owe thou a debt, Edenamon. You did not destroy us last time we thought.”
“And I doubt I will this time, but I cannot surrender to you whilst you serve Taythe.”
The Dragon looked strangely dispirited as it charged.
Edenamon, however, didn’t remain idle. A huge cannon suddenly sprouted out of his arm, and as he dodged aside, and energy bolt sent the dragon Terras reeling.
“BUSTER BLAST!!!” Yelled Edenamon as the bolt released.
He didn’t dodge as the second dragon came at him from behind. His fist snapped upright from the elbow, connecting with the Dragon’s snout as neatly as a surgeons scalpel.
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In their dome of protective light, the Digidestined watched. There was little else they could do. The few sounds that filtered through were chaotic – the muffled reports of Pallet’s rifle, the sound of the Digimon battling overhead, and the clang of steel on steel as Davis and Taythe fought.
Kari grasped her hands in front of her, staring through the dome at the duel taking place on the snow-covered field.
“C’mon, Davis…” she whispered. “You can’t lose… not after we’ve come this far.”
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Taythe’s boot slammed into his face, and stars blasted through Davis’s vision as his world reeled around him. He fell, slipping in the cold snow, and rolled as the black longswords blade cut into the place where his neck had been. He came to his feet, barely in time to knock away a lunge directed at his chest. The second cut, however, slashed at the flesh of his thigh, and he flinched as the blade cut into his leg.
He backed off, his Katana raised. Taythe laughed.
“Daisuke, I thought I’d be home for dinner by now, but this is truly impressive.”
“Glad I can be of service…” Davis grinned between gritted teeth.
Taythe smiled again, and her blade whipped up. The blows came quick and fast, and it was all Davis could do to parry them, never mind launch an attack of his own. The disappointment on the Raven-haired girls face was palpable.
“That cant be all you’ve got?” she said in disbelief.
“Haven’t you got anything better to do than taunt me?” He snarled back at her.
Her eyes narrowed, and she looked over at the protective dome of light.
“Perhaps and incentive is required…”
She raised her hand, and Davis could feel some kind of energy flow out of the raised palm. The dome faltered, and vanished. Next, Taythe looked to the sky, and Davis felt the same surge.
A muffle thud landed next to him. He glanced down, as Gatomon raised her head out of the snow.
“Huh… what happened?” the little cat Digimon said.
Davis looked at Taythe in shock, as the Shadowmon started to slink towards his friends. The firing of Nick Pallet’s rifle became more frequent, as the soldier struggled to fell as many of the creatures as he could before they overran the Digidestined. The staccato firing was picked up by the sound of Mimi’s Beretta and Jun’s shotgun. The girl shrugged.
“Who knows? Maybe you’ll manage to save them. You’ve just gotta stop me first!”
And she swung her sword again, as Davis’s Katana whipped up to parry.
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Edenamon hadn’t failed to notice that he was surrounded. His companions had all vanished, even NeoBahamamon, and so he now faced all twelve of the dragons on his own. The Cannon on his arm sprouted again.
“BUSTER BLAST!!!”
Energy bolts flew from his wrist, driving the circle of the twelve back. He felt the energy drain on his body. He couldn’t keep this up for long.
A fireball slammed into his back, knocking him forward, and he began to writhe as all twelve of the Dragon Digimon opened up on him, blasts of energy rocking him from side to side.
He fell, and barely recovered before he slammed into the ground below. Instead of Moving to hit the Dragons, though his return flight sent him driving straight upwards, past their forms.
A good hundred feet above them, he stopped, and clasped his hands together, summoning all that remained of his strength.
“REDEMPTIONS…EYE!!!”
A titanic beam of energy erupted from his clasped hands, surging outwards, leaving him with barely enough strength to fly.
The Dragons, however, had grouped together, and before the beam hit them, a crackling field of lightening spread out in front of them. The beam slammed into it, splashing like water over a glass vase.
“Oh. That’s new…” Edenamon had time to say, before the replying energyballs slammed into his chest, sending him spiralling towards the ground below, his form shrinking back to that of Veemon even as he fell.
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Davis parried Taythe’s stroke, and stepped away from the backswing. If the girl was tiring, she sure as hell wasn’t showing it. If anything, the fight seemed to exhilarate her.
He lunged at her, and she stepped aside, allowing the move to carry him past her. her sword razored into the flesh of his arm, making him yell in pain.
“Davis!” Kari yelled.
He looked up into her eyes, and his grip on his weapon tightened.
“I love you, Kari…” He said.
Despite the distance between them, Kari heard his words. She started to run as he turned back to his opponent. But it was too late.
The Katana leapt up in a mighty swing, even as Taythe’s weapon also swung towards the man she loved.
“DAVIS!!!” she yelled once more.
The blades met in a titanic explosion of light, blinding everyone in the vicinity.
But above all the other sounds, came a monstrous CRACK. The light dimmed, and Davis was past Taythe. Hundreds of Tiny sparkles shone in the air, flying past them.
As The two blades had met, The golden Katana, the symbol of the paladin, had shattered, spraying metal across the field. The black Longsword remained whole, and the front of Davis’s shirt, instead of it’s usual white, was stained a ghastly Red. Even as Kari began to run towards him, he fell to his knees, and collapsed forward onto the snow covered ground.
Her legs pumped as she ran, but before she could reach him, she was seized roughly by the Shadowmon.
Taythe casually wiped her longsword on the hem of her cloak, and thrust it home. The girl was trembling, not out of cold, but out of what had just happened.
“Mistress.” It was one of the Shadowmon, it’s size denoting that it was one of the commanders.
“What?”
“What about the Digidestined, mistress?” it asked.
“They come with us.”
“And the others?”
“Leave them.”
“But…”
She glared at him, and the force of her will knocked him sprawling. He got slowly to his feet, hatred boring from his eyes.
“When I feel the desire to share command, I’ll tell you. Until then, you do as I say. Is that understood?”
It held her gaze for a moment more, and then nodded. Taythe looked over at Jun and Pallet, who had been herded away from the others, their weapons taken from them.
“He fought well. He doesn’t deserve to die alone.”
She turned away, and the Shadowmon followed her, the field emptying in minutes. Jun ran over to her fallen brother, and knelt by his side. She felt for a pulse, and gently turned him over, flinching at the wound across his chest. She reached into her pack, and pulled out several of the casualty cushions that she had brought with her from the city. She looked up at Pallet.
“Don’t just stand there, help me!” she yelled.
“No-one can survive a wound like that, Jun!”
“He’s still alive right now! I might be able to save him! Help me, Goddammit!”
And he knelt next to her, as they started to work, and the snow around them started to ease, towards the lightness that heralded warmer weather.
The End…
But
To Be Continued…
*********
They sat in silence; the only sound the rhythmic clacking of the carts wheels. Davis gripped the hilt of his sword, as the tears sprung to his eyes once more. Mimi, if anything, had withdrawn into herself, ignoring the rest of the group and silently hiding her face behind her arms. Her shoulders were shaking, and Davis suddenly felt the urge to comfort her. Michael sat across from her, not daring to move any closer.
“Mimi?”
“Leave me alone, Michael. After all that’s happened, I don’t need to talk to you.”
“Mimi, I…”
“JUST SHUT UP!”
It was practically a scream, and the blonde man recoiled. The venom in her voice stung him more than anything that Taythe or the Shadowmon could have thrown at him.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen, Mimi.” He said quietly. “I didn’t mean…”
“Well, it did, Michael, so shut the hell up and leave me alone!”
Michael shut up.
“What’s gonna happen?” asked TK.
“Huh?” Davis replied.
“I mean… Everything. What are we gonna do now?”
Davis shrugged.
“I think we should head for the real world.” Nick Pallet interjected.
Davis looked at him sharply.
“Why do you say that, Nick?”
“It’s a good tactic. If nothing else, we can gather our forces there, and make our way back into the digiworld. We can’t fight them all on our own, Davis.”
Davis nodded. He felt lost. Without realising it, he had come to rely on Liam. He’d gotten used to looking over his shoulder, and seeing the big Irishman standing there, usually with either a gun or a pint-glass in his hand. Now, everyone was looking to him for leadership, and he didn’t know what to do. He looked up at them. They were cold, but at least they’d had the chance to rest back in the town. Despite it though, he still felt drained.
“There’s nothing we can do until this damn cart reaches the end of the line anyways. For the moment, lets save our strength.”
Kari gently picked her way across the crowded bed of the cart, and sat next to him.
“And then what, Davis?”
“I don’t know, Kari, I truly don’t.”
DemiVeemon reclined on Davis’s shoulder, looking over the rear edge of the cart.
“Why does this always seem to happen to us?” the little blue Digimon sighed.
“Oh, shut up.” Gatomon snapped.
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The carts trundled onwards, and at last, Tai pointed towards the edge of their vision.
“There’s a light up there.”
And there was. Not the yellow, artificial light that they had used down in the caves, but stark, white light, streaming through the snow that covered the surface of the digital world.
The Digidestined and Digimon moved towards the front of their cart, eyes fixed on the light ahead of them, though whether in foreboding or in gladness, none could tell.
The cart slammed into the bollard in front of them, a bone-jarring halt that sent them all falling over onto each other. In any other circumstances, the situation might have looked comic, but in this day, nothing could have made them seem brighter. Davis stood, and got out of the cart.
“C’mon. We’ve gotta keep moving.”
He reached over his shoulder, and loosened his Katana in its scabbard. Just in case. He had a bad feeling, and the last time that had happened had been just before Viramon had decided to take a chunk out of the helicopter they were riding in. Tasha came up next to him.
“It doesn’t feel right, does it?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing does any more, Tasha. Not today.”
Salamandramon uncurled herself from around Tasha’s neck, and leapt to the ground. Davis looked after the small lizard-Digimon, and grinned slightly.
“Let’s go.”
They walked off into the heavy Blizzard, and the young leader of the Digidestined pulled his goggles down over his eyes to keep the freezing cold from making them tear up. Kari walked next to him, shivering in the biting weather.
“We cant keep going forever, Davis!” she yelled over the wind.
“I know! We need to find some shelter!” He yelled back.
Pallet, who had been striding in the lead, suddenly came to a halt.
“I think it’s a little late for that, Davis.” He said, and his voice had the echoing ring of finality to it that Davis had only heard him use when he didn’t give much for their chances.”
“Huh? What’s up?”
Veemon also came to a dead halt, his sharp eyes focusing on the sight ahead of them.
“Uh-oh…”
“It’s too late for all of you, Paladin!” Came a cold female voice. Although he had only heard it once before, Davis knew that voice. He reached down, and whipped the Berettas from their holsters in one smooth motion, sighting along the barrels as the rest of the group spread out, raising their own weapons defiantly.
Taythe stood in the snow before them, her long Raven hair flowing out behind her. Flanking her, the Shadowmon stood, hunched shapes dark against the pure white of the snow.
“Drop your weapons, all of you.” the girl commanded.
“I don’t think so!” shout Tai defiantly above the howling wind.
The Digidestined gripped their D3s, fingers reaching for the activation studs. Davis waved a hand at them, halting their movements.
“No…”
Matt blanched in disbelief.
“No? What are you talking about, Motomiya?”
“Those Shadowmon have got enough bows aimed at us to stop us all before we fired a shot. Wait for the signal.”
“What signal?”
“You’ll know it when you see it, Matt. She’s gonna have bigger things against us than the Shadowmon, but I have to face her alone.”
He stepped forward, his pistols dropping to the snow behind him.
“I know what I have to do now.”
He undid the buckles that held his scabbard in place, and swung the sword round in front of him. He pulled the shining Golden Katana from its sheath, and dropped the scabbard into the snow. Veemon bounded forward, and stood next to his partner.
“Oh, How sweet.” Taythe sneered. “The lone champion fighting for the protection of his friends. I think I’m going to vomit.”
Davis’s eyes narrowed, but with a visible effort, he restrained his temper.
“Just because you’ve never had anyone to protect Taythe. My father always told me not to knock something until you’ve tried it.”
Now it was Taythe’s turn to snarl at the Paladin. Not witty rebuke issued from the Girl’s mouth, though. Instead, she swept back her cloak, and drew her black longsword from the scabbard underneath. Davis smiled.
“Alright, now we’re getting somewhere.”
He spun his katana in his hand, the blade winging in a circle parallel to his arm. He pulled out his D3.
“If this has to be done, Taythe, I’m in no mood to delay the inevitable.”
For the first time since he had met her, a smile creased Taythe’s face.
“As you say, Paladin… why wait?”
And she pulled her own D3 from her sword belt, and pressed the activation stud at the same instant as Davis.
Veemon Leapt into the air, carried by the surge of energy that leapt up from Davis’s Digivice, even as a mirror image of black energy leapt up from them across the small patch of snow. The small blue Digimon’s form started to grow, and white armour began to form on his body, enveloping him like a skin-tight cloud.
“I think that’s the signal!” TK yelled.
The Digimon who remained leapt into the sky, transforming as they went.
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Nick Pallet, being neither Digidestined nor Paladin, felt strangely detached from this fight. What he was, was a soldier, and that meant that he was going to fight. Despite Davis’s ministrations that the battle was between him and Taythe alone, the former SAS member could see the Shadowmon circumventing the circle of Snow where the two combatants stood. He glanced around, and pulled himself up on a largish rock overlooking the field. Unslinging his rifle, he sat crosslegged, and fixed a scope onto the top of the weapon. he neatly placed a Shadowmon forehead in the middle of the crosshairs, and squeezed the trigger.
The high-velocity bullet didn’t explode the head, didn’t cause any movie-style mutilation, but Nick knew he had aimed right when a slight gout of greyish vapour puffed from the other side of the creatures head. The other Shadowmon paused, and Pallet grinned, moving his sight to the next in line.
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The white light dimmed, and Instead of Veemon, there now stood a shining figure in armour. Only once before had Angewoman seen this figure, and that was at the battle in front of Paul’s tower. Edenamon stood tall, even as the column of dark energy that had shot up from Taythe’s D3 began to from the shapes of the huge dragons that had once been the bane of the digital world, and were now assuming that position once more.
One Digimon, however, had stayed on the ground. Salamandramon was still focusing, as Tasha reached inside her shirt and pulled out the two crests she bore, the crest of Truth and the crest of Life. she clenched them together, and the little Lizard Digimon’s eyes bored into hers.
A dome of light covered the group of Digidestined, as Salamandramon finally took to the skies, yelling as she went.
“SALAMANDRAMON, WARP-DIGIVOLVE TO… NEOBAHAMAMON!!!”
The huge dragon-shape of Tasha’s Digimon circled once in the sky, before coming to float next to Edenamon. Aside from the white-armoured Digimon, NeoBahamamon was the only Digimon to have faced down Viramon successfully. The combined power of the two was a force to be reckoned with.
The Twelve dragons of the old world formed up opposite the line of Digimon, their snarling maws roaring in the night air.
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Daisuke Motomiya lowered his Digivice, and clasped it onto his belt. Then he gripped the hilt of his katana, and closed his eyes. All that filled his mind was the thought of Hikari Kamiya, the woman he loved. She was standing barely ten paces behind him, but for all her could do, she might have been a million miles away. he looked up.
“I believe the time has come, Taythe.”
“I believe it has, Daisuke.”
The two enemies rushed at each other for the first time, and their blades met in a thunderous clang, the curved metal of the Katana striking against the straight blade of the longsword.
And then they were past each other, and spinning. The opening gambit had been made, and now it was time for the duel.
Davis came up low, an uphand strike aimed at Taythe’s throat, a lethal strike. Anything less would have been folly. The raven-haired girl parried the strike almost negligently, whipping her blade at his eyes. With catlike reflexes, he leapt back from the cut, and kicked out, catching her in the stomach. She flinched back, winded momentarily, and Davis waited.
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The Twelve swept forward, their advantage in numbers allowing them to flank around the Digimon battle line, coming at them from both sides. Angemon parried a huge clawed hand with his glaive, striking back with lightning speed.
The dragon, however, was faster than the Angel-Digimon had anticipated, rearing back in a wreath of flame, before reeling around to claw once more. Angemon knocked it stoutly across the head, and glanced over his shoulder.
Edenamon was facing at least three of them alone, and it didn’t take a genius to not that they were the largest of the dragons. He huge scaly creatures surrounded the white-armoured figure, preparing to come at him from all sides.
“Surrender, Edenamon.” Said the largest.
“No, Terras, I don’t think I’ll do that.”
“We already owe thou a debt, Edenamon. You did not destroy us last time we thought.”
“And I doubt I will this time, but I cannot surrender to you whilst you serve Taythe.”
The Dragon looked strangely dispirited as it charged.
Edenamon, however, didn’t remain idle. A huge cannon suddenly sprouted out of his arm, and as he dodged aside, and energy bolt sent the dragon Terras reeling.
“BUSTER BLAST!!!” Yelled Edenamon as the bolt released.
He didn’t dodge as the second dragon came at him from behind. His fist snapped upright from the elbow, connecting with the Dragon’s snout as neatly as a surgeons scalpel.
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In their dome of protective light, the Digidestined watched. There was little else they could do. The few sounds that filtered through were chaotic – the muffled reports of Pallet’s rifle, the sound of the Digimon battling overhead, and the clang of steel on steel as Davis and Taythe fought.
Kari grasped her hands in front of her, staring through the dome at the duel taking place on the snow-covered field.
“C’mon, Davis…” she whispered. “You can’t lose… not after we’ve come this far.”
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Taythe’s boot slammed into his face, and stars blasted through Davis’s vision as his world reeled around him. He fell, slipping in the cold snow, and rolled as the black longswords blade cut into the place where his neck had been. He came to his feet, barely in time to knock away a lunge directed at his chest. The second cut, however, slashed at the flesh of his thigh, and he flinched as the blade cut into his leg.
He backed off, his Katana raised. Taythe laughed.
“Daisuke, I thought I’d be home for dinner by now, but this is truly impressive.”
“Glad I can be of service…” Davis grinned between gritted teeth.
Taythe smiled again, and her blade whipped up. The blows came quick and fast, and it was all Davis could do to parry them, never mind launch an attack of his own. The disappointment on the Raven-haired girls face was palpable.
“That cant be all you’ve got?” she said in disbelief.
“Haven’t you got anything better to do than taunt me?” He snarled back at her.
Her eyes narrowed, and she looked over at the protective dome of light.
“Perhaps and incentive is required…”
She raised her hand, and Davis could feel some kind of energy flow out of the raised palm. The dome faltered, and vanished. Next, Taythe looked to the sky, and Davis felt the same surge.
A muffle thud landed next to him. He glanced down, as Gatomon raised her head out of the snow.
“Huh… what happened?” the little cat Digimon said.
Davis looked at Taythe in shock, as the Shadowmon started to slink towards his friends. The firing of Nick Pallet’s rifle became more frequent, as the soldier struggled to fell as many of the creatures as he could before they overran the Digidestined. The staccato firing was picked up by the sound of Mimi’s Beretta and Jun’s shotgun. The girl shrugged.
“Who knows? Maybe you’ll manage to save them. You’ve just gotta stop me first!”
And she swung her sword again, as Davis’s Katana whipped up to parry.
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Edenamon hadn’t failed to notice that he was surrounded. His companions had all vanished, even NeoBahamamon, and so he now faced all twelve of the dragons on his own. The Cannon on his arm sprouted again.
“BUSTER BLAST!!!”
Energy bolts flew from his wrist, driving the circle of the twelve back. He felt the energy drain on his body. He couldn’t keep this up for long.
A fireball slammed into his back, knocking him forward, and he began to writhe as all twelve of the Dragon Digimon opened up on him, blasts of energy rocking him from side to side.
He fell, and barely recovered before he slammed into the ground below. Instead of Moving to hit the Dragons, though his return flight sent him driving straight upwards, past their forms.
A good hundred feet above them, he stopped, and clasped his hands together, summoning all that remained of his strength.
“REDEMPTIONS…EYE!!!”
A titanic beam of energy erupted from his clasped hands, surging outwards, leaving him with barely enough strength to fly.
The Dragons, however, had grouped together, and before the beam hit them, a crackling field of lightening spread out in front of them. The beam slammed into it, splashing like water over a glass vase.
“Oh. That’s new…” Edenamon had time to say, before the replying energyballs slammed into his chest, sending him spiralling towards the ground below, his form shrinking back to that of Veemon even as he fell.
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Davis parried Taythe’s stroke, and stepped away from the backswing. If the girl was tiring, she sure as hell wasn’t showing it. If anything, the fight seemed to exhilarate her.
He lunged at her, and she stepped aside, allowing the move to carry him past her. her sword razored into the flesh of his arm, making him yell in pain.
“Davis!” Kari yelled.
He looked up into her eyes, and his grip on his weapon tightened.
“I love you, Kari…” He said.
Despite the distance between them, Kari heard his words. She started to run as he turned back to his opponent. But it was too late.
The Katana leapt up in a mighty swing, even as Taythe’s weapon also swung towards the man she loved.
“DAVIS!!!” she yelled once more.
The blades met in a titanic explosion of light, blinding everyone in the vicinity.
But above all the other sounds, came a monstrous CRACK. The light dimmed, and Davis was past Taythe. Hundreds of Tiny sparkles shone in the air, flying past them.
As The two blades had met, The golden Katana, the symbol of the paladin, had shattered, spraying metal across the field. The black Longsword remained whole, and the front of Davis’s shirt, instead of it’s usual white, was stained a ghastly Red. Even as Kari began to run towards him, he fell to his knees, and collapsed forward onto the snow covered ground.
Her legs pumped as she ran, but before she could reach him, she was seized roughly by the Shadowmon.
Taythe casually wiped her longsword on the hem of her cloak, and thrust it home. The girl was trembling, not out of cold, but out of what had just happened.
“Mistress.” It was one of the Shadowmon, it’s size denoting that it was one of the commanders.
“What?”
“What about the Digidestined, mistress?” it asked.
“They come with us.”
“And the others?”
“Leave them.”
“But…”
She glared at him, and the force of her will knocked him sprawling. He got slowly to his feet, hatred boring from his eyes.
“When I feel the desire to share command, I’ll tell you. Until then, you do as I say. Is that understood?”
It held her gaze for a moment more, and then nodded. Taythe looked over at Jun and Pallet, who had been herded away from the others, their weapons taken from them.
“He fought well. He doesn’t deserve to die alone.”
She turned away, and the Shadowmon followed her, the field emptying in minutes. Jun ran over to her fallen brother, and knelt by his side. She felt for a pulse, and gently turned him over, flinching at the wound across his chest. She reached into her pack, and pulled out several of the casualty cushions that she had brought with her from the city. She looked up at Pallet.
“Don’t just stand there, help me!” she yelled.
“No-one can survive a wound like that, Jun!”
“He’s still alive right now! I might be able to save him! Help me, Goddammit!”
And he knelt next to her, as they started to work, and the snow around them started to ease, towards the lightness that heralded warmer weather.
The End…
But
To Be Continued…