Winning Votes:
[] Try your best to sound confident, and tell Lunamon not to worry. You'll get it for her. (New Minor Goal added)
[] Suggest that everyone should stick together and attack the oddly colored Goblimon. You're more than a little worried Gramps might be referring to mon like the one which beat you and Auger up.
===
With a nervous swallow, you poke your head through the small bush and gaze upon the various digimon working around the mine shaft. Your group had departed not too long after lunch and arrived to the edge of the nearby forest without any of the enemy mon noticing. Much like the last location you'd visited these rookies are milling about carrying bags, rocks and those mining tools. Unlike your initial presumption, these rookies are not darker skinned like that strange Goblimon who beat you up, but rather something else entirely. Rather then dark green, they have a strange light blue skin tone. To make things even stranger, just a quick look informs you that at least some of them have the ability to create ice, as shown when one digimon bumps into another and then proceeds to have an icicle thrown at him. You decide to mentally dub them *Snow Goblimon* after the strange substance Sorcerymon made fall the other day.
The fact that these aren't the same as that one one digimon is of course a big relief, though that feeling only lasts a moment before you realize that it means these variants are a completely unknown factor. For all you know these could be even stronger than the digimon which had casually defeated Auger. That particular nearly has you cowering in place, but with Flamemon, Gnaw and Gramps so close you manage to overcome said urge. Considering that there are ten of the blue rookies out there, you decide that the best option would be to try and catch one by himself first and then gauge his power before making any moves on the group as a whole. However before you can bring that worry up to the others, Gramps attacks.
Several seconds later, every single one of the visible *cold* digimon are thoroughly shocked into submission by the scarred Elecmon. Their initial cries of pain naturally draw out all the remaining rookies from the mine who pause in surprise from the sudden halving of their numbers. Not that they get to stay like that for very long as Fu leaps into the air and hits the leftmost one with a seed barrage. With a visible target in sight the remaining rookies charge forwards, clearly intent on beating the ever loving snot out of your friend.
"Fufufu get'em!" She shouts, thrusting out a stubby arm in their direction in an effort to order the rest of your group to attack. For a few moments you hesitate to come out and engage them, but Flamemon lightly slaps back. The sudden sensation tears a yelp from your lips and sends you scurrying forward.
Gnaw is the first one to actually the line of ten rookies, repeating his habit of tackling as an opener by grabbing two and pushing them over back towards the mine-shaft. Before their nearest allies can come help Gramps decides to attack once again, blasting them with lightning. This leaves a group of three left on each side who, upon seeing the destruction attempt to cut and run. However the villages caretaker doesn't let them run away cutting off their escapes with smaller blasts of electricity. Seeing this, they hesitantly turn back and raise their weapons to fight.
With the trio on the left being assaulted by Fu's ranged attacks, they naturally charge towards her and Auger. Unfortunately for the leading mon he ends up running straight into a Rolling Stone. The curled form of your Armadillimon companion slams straight into him, sending the Snowgoblimon flying back. He crashes down a few moments later, vaguely twitching but clearly out of the fight. Seeing Auger knock one of them out with a single attack sends another chilling sensation down your back. It puts the spar from earlier today into a new light
, if he'd done that to you in the spar....
I-I wouldn't have stood a chance
Before you can think on the matter more, the whoops and shots of three other Goblimon draw your attention back to the present. Three Goblimon, all from the right side of the initial line charge towards Flamemon and yourself tossing icicles all the while. Most end up missing by a while, but one comes in
flying for your head. When you next open your eyes it's the sight of said pointy shard of ice still In Flamemons hand. Your best friend shatters the projectile with, grins at you then moves his other hand over to give you a thumbs up.
Even as he poses several more of the projectiles slam into his body, though he ignores them in favour of speaking.
"No need to fear Verge! We'll triumph over these Foul villains it's going to take more than that too-to-to" The fire aligned digimon stumbles back, almost dropping to his knees under the barrage of icy blows. "S-s-s-stop us" Flamemon rips his gaze away from you and turns his attention to the frost digimon standing just a few feet away.
The cackling trio toss another volley at your best friend, but this time he chooses to dodge sideways. He only barely manages to avoid the barrage of icicles that streak towards him, clumsily jumping aside with perhaps half of the speed he'd displayed before.
Seeing that their ranged attacks have stopped working, the three Snowgoblimon charge into melee range. Two head towards Flamemon while the last attacks you.
Rearing up in response, you drag your eyes away from Flamemons fight and focus on the enemy in front of you. With arms raises you ready yourself for him to swing his weapon and are thus caught off guard as he takes a deep breath and then shouts.
"Snow Gob Breath!"
A chilling fog sprays out of his mouth and completely envelops you. When it disperses a few moments later, your thick fur is covered in a light coating of frost but thankfully that's the full extent of the effect.
My-my fur. It protected me!
You step forward and launch the first actual strike, socking the surprised Snowgoblimon right in the face.
"Mach Jab!"
He stumbles back from the heavy blow and is then forced on the defensive as you lumber forward to continue the assault. Afraid of what might happen if you let the enemy mon get some distance, you desperately hammer away at him with strike after strike, keeping him on the backfoot. Several gashes open up along your arms and chest from his counterattacks but as the seconds pass it becomes clear that the fight is only going to end one way. Your opponent changes tactics, trying to use his weapon in a purely defensive manner. The wooden shaft is tough, easily able to withstand your punches, but unfortunately for him you a way around, or rather through that.
"Screw Claw!"
The drills on your right paw ram into he wooden haft of his weapon and then in the next second rip it apart, leaving him holding two much separate halves. Hurriedly you pull your arm back, afraid of what might happen if you push further, only for the Snowgoblimon to throw his sundered equipment into your face and turn to flee. However he doesn't get far. Remembering Gnaw's tactic you leap after the mon and tackle him over. Then after a brief struggle wind up sitting on the smaller mons chest. A few moments of pummeling later and he stops moving entirely.
You stand up over the beaten mon, breathing heavily but for once not scared.
I-I won. I won!
With a newfound sense of happiness you turn back towards Flamemon, ready to proudly tell him about your victory. You expect to see him triumphantly standing over the pair of enemy digimon, or perhaps even finishing the last off. Instead you're greeted with the horrifying sight of Flamemon being pulled forward by his left hand straight into a headbutt. The bruised but still very much combat capable Snowgoblimon follows this up with a punch directly to the reeling Flamemons stomach, which in turn sets him up for an uppercut right to the chin. The taller rookie falls back in a daze and lands on the ground a moment later.
Wha-what? Flamemon lo-lo-lo-lost?!
"Gwahahaha! Fell for it! Fell For it!" The rookie cackles, doing a little dance in place. It summons up another icicle to try and hit Flamemon while he's down, only to be immolated not a moment later.
"Blue Fire!"
Gnaw, saunters up to the blackened Snowgoblimon and casually pushes it over.
"Trash" He growls, spitting on the beaten rookie. The Blackgabumon turns over to Flamemon who's struggling to get up, then begins laughing madly "Bwahahahaha!" You rush to Flamemon and help him up, the tall rookie endures Gnaws laughter with gritted teeth then after it's the wider rookies laugh dies off, thanks you for the help.
"Thanks Verge. That dastardly villain tricked me" He murmurs sounding more than a little ashamed. "He surrendered and-
"-Beat your stupid face up" Gnaw interrupts with a snort. Flamemon sends him a glare, but the BlackGabumon merely grins giddily. "I had to save you"
"I'd have beaten him!"
"Hmph, suuure you would have" Your friend says before erupting into yet another fit of laughter.
"Why you-"
"Spirits above stop!" Gramps shouts, leaping between the two rookies. Gnaw backs off, still laughing, Flamemon tries to go after him but a burst of electricity flies past his face keeping him from going further. "Stay still" Gramps growls, reaching up to grab Flamemons hand. With surprising strength he pulls your best friend down to examine his wounds, then after a bit of scrutiny reaches into the bag around his neck and pulls out a small container. "Sit down!" Flamemon reluctantly takes a seat, and hisses as Gramps begins to spread a green paste over the many wounds on his chest. "Foolish just taking their attacks like that" Gramps snarls. "By the warriors ten, don't do that again. You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"I made it out ok-"
"This time!" The scarred Elecmon bellows, "Next time you might not! You let your power go to your head!" Gramps takes a deep breath to calm himself, then murmurs. "You'll be staying back in the next attack." Flamemon tries to speak up, but a flare of lightning cuts him off. "No, rest and recover. You'll need it when we get back to the village" The red digimon shakes his head "
I'll teach you the lesson I should have taught him"
Once the Goblimon have all been *dealt with* and the various loot taken, Gramps lines everyone up and explains how things are going to happen for the next assault. There are two options, either just attacking straight on, or if you and Auger are interested, attempting to tunnel in under the wall for a sneak attack.
=== Choose One:
[] You decide to volunteer to try the digging route. It might be a nice way to get your mind off of what happened.
[] You decide to just go with the frontal assault, Gramps can help end things quickly that way.
[] Write in.
=== Stat/Skill Changes:
- General Fighting: 11/100->12/100
===
Verge Gains 900 Bits from this encounter
Authors Note: Hmm. Added the whole swearing to buy Lunamon that Tiara to my Omake list. Hmm perhaps once we hit like 50 pages I'll hold an Omake vote or something. Or maybe once the Prologue finishes up. If anyone is interested feel free to let me know! 
