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

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Getting smacked by Okuwamon hurts. Your thick fur, hardened flesh and trained muscle are nothing compared to the titanic strike, providing barely any resistance. Even your bones crumple under the impact, actively bending, then snapping in that moment of contact. But that is still barely enough to keep you alive. Instead of just being torn in half, you're sent flying back dozens of meters through the air.

..ow.

That was by far the hardest blow you've ever taken in your entire existence. Tanking another before being healed would be nothing less than lethal. You struggle back up, fighting against the bone-weary fatigue plaguing your body and look back, expecting to see your friend being ground into data-

"-Digivolve To Jewelbeemon!"

-but are instead greeted by him blocking the monstrous Ultimate's foot with a newly-created spear.

"Daemon accursed wretch! You digivolved!"

"Yes." With strength belying his nimble form, the former Stingmon shoves Okuwamon's leg to the side and vanishes into a streak of shimmering green light.

He... climbed onto a higher path. An Ultimate.

You'd believed WereGarurumon fast, but Beat eclipses the wolf digimon utterly. In a fight you wouldn't be able to even comprehend his movements, making your previous opponent seem like he was merely dithering along in comparison.

And yet despite that, Okuwamon somehow manages to follow him, wheeling on those four massive legs with a haste that defies belief. His arms, legs and even wing-guards lash out with that same unbelievable speed, actually forcing the airborne JewelBeemon to dodge lest he be smacked out of the air.

"This will not save you pretender!" The colossal insect bellows, his booming voice causing the very air to shake. You wince as his voice assaults your ears and hurry back towards the battle, carefully watching how things are unfolding. The glimmering form of your friend darts to and fro, lashing at the much larger digimon with his spear, but the shallow thrusts and slashes only manage to nick Okuwamon's thick carapace. However considering just how tough that Ultimate's body is the fact that he can even inflict those scratches is an amazing feat.

You'd had to cast Muscle Burst, strike with both war-gauntlets and utilize the entirety of your weight to sever the enemy's finger. But even than you'd aimed for a vulnerable joint, not the main body itself. If not for that less-protected portion, Pit would have been crushed. Using that spell had taken what little remained of your esoteric power, and now... you're not sure if you could even harm him.

Beat can clearly keep him occupied, but the newly evolved JewelBeemon isn't winning either... and judging by their age gaps you have a feeling that Okuwamon's superior experience and skill will triumph in the end.

Pit isn't so much as an afterthought in the fight, even when empowered by his fire (which seems dimmer than usual) his attacks don't cause a speck of damage. In the end he's knocked free from battle by an errant swipe of Okuwamon's tusk, which was trying to get at the circling JewelBeemon.

The leader of your squad does manage to intercept the attack with his rod, but the golden weapon is casually snapped in half. The spiked limb only glances his body proper, but that's still enough to smack him from the air and send him rolling over the ash-covered ground. You limp over to Pit's side in a bid to see if he has any injuries, but the tired champion rises under his own power and readies to fly back in despite the hopelessness of such an attack.

"Blegh, just hold on a friggen' second!" Sparks shouts, sliding to a stop beside the angel. The armor-digimon hurriedly ruffles through his bag and withdraws a stack of three discs.

"Ah! Lord be praised! Good thinking advisor Sparks!" The Wizard digimon tosses one to each of you, then crushes the last one himself. You snap up the tiny piece of technology(?) and immediately feel over a third of your reserves popping back into existence. Immediately you begin reciting the healing spell. Meanwhile, the flickering embers on Pit's wings burst out into a full on inferno once more and he lifts up, ready to dive back towards the melee-but gets smacked on the back by a miniscule spray of fire. "Ow! What was that for?!" You join in on the holy mon's skepticism, but Sparks just shrugs.

"I told ya to wait." With that he upends his bag, letting four loaves of of travel bread, 14 large books and one enormous polearm fall out onto the earth.

That's… one of Sandiramon's weapons!

"How is it that you acquired one of those?"

"Heh, 'twas just lyin' about after the battle with that overgrown lizard." He explains with a grin. "Weddingmon helped me stabilize it on the way here. Can ya use it Lord Pit?"

"Uh… maybe?" The Pidmon murmurs, reaching down with both hands, "Friend Beat assisted me last time but…" he trails off into a strained grunt, just barely managing to wrest the halberd up. "-yes. Can. Do." He grunts, before maneuvering the weapon's butt to lean on the ground.

"Impressive agility pretender, but it won't be enough! Destructive Impulse!" Off in the distance, Okuwamon's already frenzied movements gain a noticeable increase in power, speed and accuracy. The furious barrage actually manages to to catch Beat mid-dodge, swatting him out of the air and then hammering away at his grounded body. Your friend maneuvers his newly gained spear with surprising skill to block and deflect the flurry, but it's not enough to prevent all of the damage from leaking through. You wince as one particular stomp draws a line of damage across his torso, shattering a patch of dark green gemstone in the process.

Not good.

"Advisor Sparks, hinder Okuwamon however you can."

"Tch, sure thing."

"Comrade Verge strike to weaken its chest armor. I shall harry it from above." You take a step forward, ready to dart back in but Pit moves to bar your path. "But first, throw me at the foe!" His ridiculous order makes you momentarily pause, wondering why. But with how difficult it is to carry that thing around, his words make an odd amount of sense. So you nod and follow the command, taking him between your palms and then hurling him straight at Okuwamon's head.

Pit crashes into the Ultimate's head halberd first, and this time manages to actually penetrate the shell, albeit only shallowly. Okuwamon flinches from the impact, giving Beat the needed moment to recover and even counterattack. Your friend leaps up, twisting past a sweep of the tusks and plunges his weapon into the insect's chest with all the force he can muster. The speedy thrust breaks past Okuwamon's outer-shell and draws a spurt of data from the enormous insects body, but it's comparatively so small that no true damage was caused.

But at least it's a start.

Having successfully drawn attention to himself once again, Beat is subjected to another furious assault while Pit drags his weapon free and soars back up.

A moment later your spell finishes, fixing most of the inflicted damage and allowing you to charge in earnest. Against a monster like this, a little more speed or durability won't matter. Instead you choose to focus on casting Muscle Burst a second time. Okuwamon unsurprisingly manages to hear you coming and whirls at the last second, his injured hand ready to take off your head. However this time you're ready for an attack of this speed and have already interposed both gauntlets up in a guard-

Even with your momentum his offhand strike still manages to shove you back, though thankfully only a few feet this time. You shake off the pain of ripped muscles, and ready to step in-but are interrupted as as grey blur smashes into you. Before you can so much as blink, the insect digimon's tusks lock into place around your torso and squeeze.

The next instant sees your upper body being crushed. And there's not a single thing you can do about it, your solitary swing at his head bounces off harmlessly. Beat blurs towards the gigantic mon's head-but the enemy's wing guards smack him away leaving you alone.

"You're heavier than I expected, and that first strike should have seen you slain. Those mutations, they're impressive Gryzmon." His tusks press all the harder, now slicing into your very bones. "But they won't save you, Scissor-" Which is as far as he gets before Pit smacks into his head a second time. Okuwamon's attention turns to the humanoid mon on his head, which allows Beat the needed moment to soar in and brace against the foe's tusks. Another explosion rings out, Sparks's handiwork, but you dissmiss it for now. Together with Beat you manage to pry the distracted digimon's crushing appendages apart. You fall down to all fours then bound forward, latching onto the opponent's midsection as he turns to follow Beat again.

He's ignoring you.

A mistake.

Crescent Dawn by itself won't be enough, this combatant's main armor is simply too thick and hard for it to work. But, thanks to Sparks you do have enough energy to use something even stronger.

So as Okuwamon comes to a stop, you let go and twist on a rear-paw, moving into a spin. You feel the urge to roar, but mercilessly suppress the instinct, it would interrupt your spell. Every ounce of your experience and skill goes into this movements, transferring the maximum possible force up into a single armor rending strike.

Gale Claw.

Without the spoken words It's not as powerful as your usual version, that's something you can feel. Yet with the force gained from Okuwamon's own movement your wind-wreathed claws manage to strike hard enough to break the already cracked chitin and infect it with the accompanying rotting miasma.

Half a second later, the Ultimate's foot slams into your chest, throwing you off your rear-paws and another dozen meters back. It's only your one-minded concentration and weeks of practice that prevents the spell for being interrupted. When you manage to get back up Okuwamon is raging forward after Beat again, only this time your friend is leading him on a chase across the ground, instead of the air. The JewelBeemon leads him around towards a cluster of fireballs, but Okuwamon just closes his mouth and lets the azure orbs explode harmlessly against his face. Beat sprints out of melee range and now you can see why he isn't flying. Okuwamon smashed his wings.

Instead of continuing after him, the enemy does something unexpected, he starts digging.

You watch with no small amount of shock as the thirty-three foot tall insect vanishes into the earth within the breadth of a single second, kicking up a small hills worth of dirt in the process.

"Bellator Verge! Where's he going?!" Pit asks, but all you can do is shake your head. You didn't know digging like that was even possible and you can't predict where he's going through intuition alone.

A second passes. Ten seconds, twenty. Beat comes to a stop looking around warily. Sparks steps closer his face turning into a confident grin.

"Hah! I bet that jerk went and ra-" Which is as far as he gets before Okuwamon explodes out the ash-covered ground in a shower of earth and snatches Beat in his tusks before the JewelBeemon can move more than a single step.

With his arms pinned to his sides Beat can't do much more than swing his legs wildly in protest, as the Ultimate tries its best to crush the life from him. Pit drops down, aiming to pull off another rescue, but this time the assassin is ready. He simply swipes at the falling angel with an arm, smashing against the halberd's haft and smashing him down through several meters of dirt.

Spirits below. This. It is not good. Something must be done and… my spell is nearly finished.

You charge and Okuwamon swings round to face you a second time, this time with the tell-tale sounds of Beat's armor cracking. The insect digimon readies himself to intercept you, raising both arms and lifting one leg for a kick. There's no way you could possibly land a hit on your lonesome.

"Boost:-"

But you're not alone.

"-Greater Sparkling Thunder!" A veritable river of lightning flies underneath Beat's legs and drives up into the Ultimate's rotting wound, burning the softer internal flesh and sending a shock right through his body.

It's not enough to kill Okuwamon, or even hurt the assassin overly much. But it does knock him off his game for a split second.

And that split second is enough.

You leap as the spell runs its course, pouring every ounce of power left into this final blow.

"Megaton-" You grit your teeth as the empowering energy pushes your muscles past their limits. Okuwamon's arms respond too late, but his leg flies out with the same speed as before... Just as you expected. Your right arm is already arcing out, deflecting the momentarily weakened limb away and turn the recoiling force into a horizontal spin. "-Punch!"

A spinning fist strikes Okuwamon's chest dead on, ripping what remained of the cracked, blackened shell asunder and drilling into his inner vitals.

Elation flushes through your core, the intense feeling of earned victory. However that vanishes as you realize that he isn't starting to fade. Claws wrap around your forelimb, yanking you free to dangle helplessly in the air.

No. It's too shallow. We... failed.

"Accursed bear. A worthy attempt, but a failed one." Okuwamon muses smugly, pulling his injured hand back for what would no doubt be the killing blow. "I will remember this battle long after you return, may your next life be in service to Astamon."

*Crack*

The armor around Beat's chest and arms shatter revealing his raw data to the world at large.

And creating enough space for him to drop away from Okuwamon's oppressive tusks. Your friend hits the ground-

"Spike Buster!"

And throws his spear, imbedding it into the larger Ultimate's gaping wound. The next moment sees him leaping up after it, ready to make a final push.

Your enemy's free arm springs forward, desperately seeking to smash his uncovered chest, but Beat simply passes through the spot where Okuwamon's other finger used to be, grapples onto the limb, and kicks off to add the last needed shred of momentum.

The bottom of his foot slams into the spear's opposite end, driving it into the assassin's most vital point and shattering the enemy's very core.

With that the claw holding you goes limp, no longer having enough strength to hold you aloft.

Okuwamon stumbles back in shock; mouth gaping as if he's unable to comprehend what had just happened. You don't blame him, after your last attack failed, you thought victory was impossible.

But even with his body starting to fall apart into data, Okuwamon refuses to simply fade away. He roars one last time, a furious, nearly mindless bellow of rage and lunges at Beat.

Who simply stands there impassively, watching as the colossal bug shakes itself apart. His legs go first, unable to support the bulk of his weight. Next are his arms, dispersing harmlessly against your friend's body.

And then Beat's bladed arm strikes, splitting the head right open and completing the process. Your friend takes a smidgeon of data from the pile, just enough to reconstruct his armor.

"Zehaha."

You'd won.

Goodbye Okuwamon. You were a worthy opponent.

"Rest now loyal warrior, may your next life be untroubled."

=== Choose One:

[] The sun is setting. Go check on Baromon's temple on case the Gloaming are trying anything else… plus you're curious about what Baromon actually looks like.

[] With the Stealth Squad defeated the danger should be past. Inform Galgomon and Wendimon of what transpired and ask if the latter knew anything about the attacks.

[] Ogremon and the townsmon he gathered should be fighting Valvemon and the Gloaming force. It may be breaking the pact, but go support them.

===Authors Note: Woot! This was a large one, but I'm glad I got this portion done! Arc should be coming to a close relatively soon. Just a couple juicy bits left.

Sparks is burnt out and Pit is currently unconscious. None of the squad are exactly in good fighting shape right now. Though Beat could still handle just about any champion right about now.

Beta'd by @TempestK