Digimon Inheritance: A Heroic Lion's Turbulent Times (Finished)

Here's another pic and this one does double duty to boot.

[] Go back up there and force yourself to go fight him! You're scared yes but... Just as Flamemon said you have the power to overcome your fear. He's wounded so... maybe you really do have a chance?



===

It's a very difficult decision to make as you struggle to overcome not only the urge to run away, but also the urge to go to Flamemon for assistance. Over the few next seconds your body begins to literally shake from the strain, as it battles to get away from the conflict. In the end what tips the balance is a sudden surge of anger that comes as you remember what this guy did to Auger, and after several agonizing seconds of thinking you're able to finally make a decision.

I'm... I'm heading back up there! I'll-I will overcome my fear and f-fight him just. Just like Flamemon would want!

With gritted teeth you begin tearing through the loose gravel and dirt with renewed fervor, changing course to dig up towards the area where you'd last seen the crispy Shamanmon standing. Unlike every single other time in which the wrath had surfaced, the simmering anger propelling you forward isn't an overwhelming, impossible to handle force. This is just a fleeting shadow, a less weighty and intense, and surprisingly not something you actually mind. As you near the surface, a faint memory tickles at the surface of your consciousness.

"Stop being stupid! Use your claws Verge!"

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

He's right, The Shamanmon is too strong. I have to... Use my claws.

Another memory of something screaming in pain tries to pull at your mind, but another flash of anger pushes it away. You come up from the ground a few moments later and spot the enemy standing nearby, literally just above the exit hole you'd previously made. For a moment you pause at the top looking to see if the wounded foe heard you tunnel up, but thankfully he doesn't seem to notice your arrival back above the surface, merely peering down at the ground several feet away. So after spending an instant observing with slightly bated breath, you charge forward across the rock-strewn ground, each step letting out a loud crunch as you shorten the distance. In the final stretch you pounce, leaping through the air towards him with a yell.

"Screw Claw!"

I can do this!

Both of your arms press forward, the spinning claws on each paw aimed for his back - but even as you strike the Shamanmon has already moved, pivoting with such speed that by the time you notice what happened, it's too late. Instead of catching him off guard and plunging your claws into his skin like you hoped, his club catches your left paw mid-swing even as his body moves out of the path of your right. Even as your claws bore into the wood your opponent is thrusting his weapon-wielding arm down, forcing your longest drill through the ground. You make an attempt to thrash free from this position, but all that earns you is very painful kick to the chin.

When the stars clear out from your vision a moment later, you find yourself collapsed flat on your back staring up at the bright morning sky. Whatever anger you'd felt is gone, replaced by a sudden bout of fear-laced confusion.

You nearly want to kick yourself. How could you have forgotten? He's not just strong: he's really skilled too. His injuries are inhibiting him, but even now it's clear he's just better at fighting than you.

"I." *Cough* "Have had. Enough." *Cough* "Of you, mutant..." The Shamanmon hacks out as he approaches.

H-have to get away!

With terror-fueled speed you flip over and start digging straight down in a desperate bid to get away. Not that it does you any good; he's too close and your claws are still embedded in his club. In the next couple seconds you don't make it more than a single foot before two hands grab ahold of your legs and wrench you free with a pained grunt. Your flailing right paw crashes against something hard and suddenly the foe lets go, leaving you to drop down to the ground. Quickly, you rise back up to your hind legs, arms rising up into a defensive position.

Upon seeing the enemy so close you Instinctively step back, mind racing for ideas of how to get away.

No! D-don't run!

Unleashing a small whimper, you pull back your free arm curl into into your best summation of a fist and then hurl it forward. In response the enemy rookie raises up a closed fist and steps forward to meet you, clearly intending to outspeed you with a cross-counter. However, he miscalculated; not only have you gotten a lot faster and more skilled since he last saw you, but you're taller than the Shamanmon, and more importantly your arms are longer.

*Bomp*

These combined factors give you the advantage, and your *Mach Jab* hits his burnt face straight on, landing just over his swollen left eye with such force that the bones of your paw begins to ache and the skin of your knuckle tears open. Perhaps if you'd been a bit stronger you might have knocked him out with that blow, but that is unfortunately not the case here. Your opponent rocks back from the punch, wobbles for a moment, then stomps down with his right foot and snaps forward. His arm buries itself to the wrist in your gut. The pain is immediate and brutal, nearly folding you in half. You drop to the ground a moment later, body spasming as your struggle to draw breath.

The small green digimon takes a step back from your collapsed form and struggles to raise his hands up into the air. Strange words begin spilling out of his mouth in rapid fashion, and even as you look on in terror a massive ball of fire swirls into being above his head. In one last desperate bid to survive, you swing your head towards his leg, hoping to knock out his legs with your drill nose. But the plan is foiled nearly instantaneously as he simply takes a few steps back.

Despair fills your core to the brim as the enemy Shamanmon cracks a wry (if pained) grin, his attack growing larger by the second.

"It's over... I have won. Now you will finally-"

"Flame Toss!"

"-Gwaaa!"

Whatever he was about to say is cut off as a ball of fire explodes across his back. The heavily damaged mon screams in pain and falls forward, only barely managing to catch himself before his face hits the ground.

Caught flat-footed at the apex of forming his spell, the Shamanmon turns and tries to instead fling it at your attacker. "No!" *Cough* "No! I won't-"

*Wham*

But he's not quite quick enough. Flamemon's blurred form slams into the kneeling mon at full speed, tackling the vulnerable rookie with far more force than he can handle. He goes flying away once again, but this time, after skidding to a stop ten feet away, he pointedly does not get up.

It-it's over. Flamemon he... He won!

"Don't." Your best friend says between heavy gasps. "Worry!" The tall humanoid digimon shakily thrusts his right arm out in a victorious thumbs up, and it's only at this point you see how haggard he is. He can barely keep up his usual posture and smile, and you're just thankful there wasn't one or two more enemies in that crowd, or things might have gone a lot worse. "The Heroes have prevailed!"

"Y-yeah..." You murmur in agreement before slumping down in relief, not really wanting to think about anything at the moment.

The two of you stay like that for maybe a few seconds before a mighty crash directs your attention towards the nearby trees. A battered and scorched Mechanorimon crashes on its back into the gravel just a dozen feet away, sending a veritable wave of stone spraying through the air and all over both of you. The champion's long arms smash down upon the ground in an attempt to push the itself back up, but before it can even get halfway a second, somewhat less damaged mech sporting a clawed up, half-smashed cockpit comes lumbering forth, one clawed arm arm raised high to strike.

Sparks lets out a triumphant cry as his champion's hand lances down, shattering the enemy's cockpit. Before the green-skinned rookie inside can do more than cry out in surprise a bolt of lightning lashes down from above, zapping him into unconsciousness. The village's caretaker alights back down on his ally's Mechanorimon a moment later.

"Huehuehuehue! Winner!"

S-sparks? Huh, that's... an odd laugh.

The laughing voice of sparks echoes out from his ride's speakers, giving it a strangely robotic tone. He doesn't get much of a chance to bask in his victory however, as the champion takes several small steps in order to pivot towards the very last fight occurring over on the far side of the bottom of the hill. Gnaw is still darting around his foe and by the looks of things seems to have actually damaged its cockpit and body somewhat, dealing a bit more damage than the last time he fought one of those things. However, the enemy champion's armor is still mostly intact and your friend(?) is clearly tired from all the dodging, judging by his constant panting.

By now he's stopped attacking entirely and is just dodging the tireless machine digimon's attacks. You don't know why things turned out this way, but chalk it up to either this pilot being somewhat better than the others, or your BlackGarurumon companion simply being more cautious this time.

Either way, it doesn't end up mattering much as Sparks' machine breaks out into a lumbering run and then rams the enemy champions back shoulder first. Having not expected the sudden attack, the enemy pilot is unable to compensate and his machine tips over. In turn this gives Gnaw the exact opportunity he was looking for, lunging forward with his claws.

"Garuru Thrust!"

The virus Digimons claws rake across the already weakened blue material and quickly rip open a large enough section for his tooth-filled maw. You look away as the screaming starts, and then wince as it stops.

"Darn it, no! Not again.." Flamemon mumbles beside you, clearly not happy with what just took place.

"Arooo!" The sudden strange sound has you looking back to see Gnaw sitting on his haunches, head raised and howling in victory. After a few seconds Sparks decides to join in albeit with slightly mechanical sounds "Whoo's!" instead of directly copying the champions sound. Flamemon lets loose his own cry of victory a moment later complete with a fist-pump causing you to finally give in and start letting loose roars of you own.

Up upon Sparks' mech, Gramps just buries his face between his paws in embarrassment.

When the noise finally dies down a minute later, Gnaw stands back up and sweeps his gaze around the battlefield as if looking for something. Upon spotting it, his face twists into a blood-thirsty grin. Beside you Flamemon suddenly stiffens.



"Bwahahaha, and now I have a promise to keep!" The BlackGarurumon cackles cruelly, centering his gaze towards something on your left. When you turn to follow his eyes you spot the downed form of a certain Shamanmon. Suddenly, Flamemon is sprinting past you at top speed, covering the dozen feet and planting his feet less than a moment before Gnaws claw comes comes crashing down. You watch in horror at what happens next.

"Flamemon!"

Your best friend intercepts the finishing blow before it can land, grabbing onto Gnaw's clawed digits (with one in each hand) but struggling to hold the champion's limb back. The powerful rookie is driven to a knee by the sheer forces of Gnaw's blow, but nonetheless holds firm, preventing your other companion from finishing the enemy leader off.

"Urgh!" Flamemon grits out through clenched teeth "Stop it Gnaw! He's beaten! We don't have to delete him!" He tries to stand up all the way, but is quickly forced back down.

Why is he doing this? I-I don't get it! Not wanting to d-d-delete other mon is one thing but...

Nonetheless, your friend keeps at it, continuing to try and talk Gnaw down. There's a strange desperation on his face that's hard to read. Honestly, this whole exchange is bizarre. "That's not what heroes do! We-"

"Bah!" Gnaw scoffs dismissively and starts pressing his claw down even harder, forcing your best friend deeper into the gravel in front of the defeated Shamanmon. The relaxed, deranged savagery his face has been wearing ever since he digivolved is now mixed with confusion and what might just be a bit of doubt. "That is... so stupid! You're really defending this bastard after what he did to Auger!?"

"Auger is-arg, alive! They never managed to delete any of us! Destroying him now..." Fire bursts into life around the tall rookie, seeming to give him new strength as he actually manages to begin push the champion's paw back up. In sharp contrast to the BlackGarurumon, your friend's face bears a mix of anger and… sadness? Or maybe something else? "It wouldn't be right!"

Gnaw pauses his assault for a moment, perhaps taken aback by Flamemon's sheer tenacity, and briefly seems to consider it... Then with a sudden burst of motion, all other emotion asie from rage seems to disappear from him and his other paw lashes out, from the side, batting Flamemon away and sending him flying through the air. Forgetting his original goal, Gnaw whirls on your best friend.

"I'm don't have to listen to you, hero!" The virus-type roars angrily, overcome by that strange and sudden berserk madness again. "Not when I'm the stronger one now!" Gnaw then lifts his head to the sky and takes a deep breath. Frost swirls about his mouth and he takes aim at Flamemon, who's now hurt more on top of his prior exhaustion and is struggling to rise back to his feet.

"Ice Canno-"

Gnaw no! D-don't!

"-Sparkling Thunder!"

A bolt of lightning strikes Gnaw's head just before he can finish speaking, sending his breath attack flying off towards the forest. The massive ball of frost bowls through the trees, snap-freezing a dozen solid before going out of sight. Flamemon struggles back to his feet, tears streaming down his eyes and a large wound across his torso leaking data, but despite that he raises his fists up to fight.

"Graaah! Who did that!? I'll rip you apar-" The snarling Gnaw freezes mid-sentence as he realizes just who has attacked him. "G-Gramps... Flamemon!" As if a switch was suddenly flipped, the angry champion's face changes from angry to utterly horrified. "I-" He's cut off as a large black bag is tossed at his front paws. "-What?"

"...This has enough bits to feed you at the next town" Comes the deadly serious voice of Gramps. The old scarred Elecmon doesn't quite glare at your companion, his gaze has too much sadness for that. After a few seconds he turns away. "Take it and leave, you know the way"

"What is this-"

"Your going away gift." The red rookie growls. "Take it and Go. Don't come back."

No...

"But… but..." Gnaw flinches back at the sentence almost like the caretaker had struck him with another bolt of lighting. But after a few seconds frozen in place, he turns away and lets out a irritated *harrumph* "Fine! I... Never liked the stupid village anyway! Or any of you!" In a flash of motion he snatches the large satchel's strap with his teeth and turns to the forest.

… What?

"Don't get involved." Gramps states coldly to the rest of the group, though his voice still tinged with regret. "We have things to take care of here, and then we're going." Gramps then turns away and moves to go begin looting the battlefield.

As he pads away you notice something odd considering his words. Large droplets of what looks like water falling down from his head.

He's.. Sad?

"Gnaw, wait!" You scream, scrambling after the BlackGarurmon as fast as your legs can carry you. He stops for a second upon hearing your cry, and takes a moment to look back, his eyes red and puffy from crying.

"Hmph. Take care of yourself Verge. Don't go dying to something stupid alright?"

"Yeah I-I won't..."

"Heh," *Sniff* "That's good to hear"

And just like that, he breaks into a sprint and vanishes into the forest.

Your friend is gone.

=== In the aftermath you realize that you left a couple Goblimon buried in the gravel. Do you help them?

[] Yes, maybe… Maybe some digging will help you take your mind off what happened.

[] No. You... You just want to go back to the village and lay down.

===

Authors Note: I rally did not think I'd been able to get this done tonight! But somehow I pulled through, woot! Thanks to everyone for waiting patiently. Next post will cover the direct aftermath and lead to the week timeskip! Beta'd by @no.