Chapter Ninety-Nine: Battle

However, as if it were the Fire Cloud Evil God facing the fists of the Condor Heroes in a martial arts film, IceDevimon simply tilted its head and took Feng Xue's sudden strike head-on.

"Not even a tickle!" IceDevimon flapped its wings, forcing Feng Xue back, then turned to Ruki. "A Digimon this fragile doesn't deserve to be your partner. How about this—abandon him, and become my partner instead?"

"A mongrel who gave up its potential just to obtain raw power, and yet you dare speak so arrogantly!" A murderous aura began to emanate from Feng Xue, so intense that it even affected Li Jianliang and Takato, who had just arrived.

Though IceDevimon was somewhat stronger than an ordinary Devimon, that power was obtained at the cost of all its evolutionary potential. If an ordinary Devimon, growing steadily along the proper path, had a great chance of evolving into a proper Demon Lord lineage, then IceDevimon could easily end up branching into Beast or Undead lines instead. The difference between these paths lies in whether one gets instantly obliterated when facing a holy Digimon!

In the original series, Devimon was merely a Champion. Even after taking a punch from Angemon that concentrated the full power of seven Digivices and burned away all of its life force, it still had time to leave behind its final words. And that's to say nothing of how gathering eight Digivices was enough to seal away Apocalymon, the final boss!

Meanwhile, Myotismon, a Perfect-level vampire, collapsed after a single casual punch from Angemon. As for Phantomon, the ghost-type—it merely got grazed, and was reduced directly to ash.

Naturally, Feng Xue's words struck IceDevimon right where it hurt. The moment those words landed, IceDevimon seemed to go berserk like a raged-out Berserker, swinging its nearly two-meter-long arms straight at Feng Xue—

"Ice Claw!" Accompanying the sound effect of IceDevimon's skill activation, a colossal demonic claw came slashing toward Feng Xue from an angle that seemed impossible to evade.

"I can't take that head-on!" Though Feng Xue maintained a look of contempt on the surface, this was nonetheless one of the notable powerhouses among Champions. As a typical example of power exchanged for potential, IceDevimon's ultimate move was absolutely not to be underestimated!

Suddenly, the cape behind Feng Xue dissolved into streams of data, pouring into his body. Upon the black physique beneath the priestly garments, lines of blue began to emerge—Blut Vene, activate!

The data power injected into his arteries, combined with the Ripple's inherent ability to accelerate blood flow, sent Feng Xue's speed skyrocketing to its absolute limit in that instant. He narrowly dodged IceDevimon's Ice Claw by a hair's breadth. Yet it seemed he hadn't fully escaped after all—the Ice Claw was wrapped in overwhelming icy power, and even having evaded the attack, a thin layer of frost now clung to Feng Xue's body.

"How does that taste?" IceDevimon laughed wildly, but showed no sign of stopping its assault. Even as it spoke, its twin wings flapped rapidly, sending countless ice needles shooting toward Feng Xue—"Freezing Shower!"

It had been a long time since Feng Xue had fought a Digimon with such formidable combat experience, and for a moment, he found himself somewhat out of practice. Even so, there was no way he would be taken down by a mere signature move like that!

"Take this—Scarlet Flame Ripple Overdrive!" Feng Xue's breathing rhythm shifted, generating a waveform whose frequency approached that of fire.

Ripple itself was a power possessing a frequency close to that of the sun's waves. Through fine adjustments, Feng Xue could easily shift that frequency toward light or heat.

As his body rapidly heated up, the frost on his skin evaporated in an instant. With mobility restored, Feng Xue's feet moved urgently beneath him, and in the blink of an eye, he had evaded IceDevimon's assault with the superb mobility of Hirenkyaku.

"A speed type, are we? But in the end, you're still just a Rookie!" IceDevimon's eye flicked to the side. The next moment, its wings suddenly spread wide, and Feng Xue, who had appeared behind it, took the full brunt of that "Wing Blade"!

"Cough, cough!" Feng Xue lowered his head to look at his slashed chest—a thread of blood staining the white priestly garments. It was his first injury since arriving in this world, yet rather than any fear, what Feng Xue felt was a spark of excitement.

"Breathe in-in, out-out, in-in-out..." Under the power of the Ripple, the wound on his chest closed up in an instant. A single wipe of his hand, and all that remained was a thin line like a mere scratch. The Ripple was, by its very nature, a power that excelled in healing. As long as one hadn't lost a limb, wounds like this could mend within a few breaths.

Channeling Flame Ripple to force out the cold energy that had seeped into his body through the Wing Blade, Feng Xue's gaze turned as sharp as a blade. His entire priestly outfit began to dissolve into holy factors, pouring all at once into his body.

"Though I've never used this move before, and I don't know whether a Rookie-level body can truly handle it—still, since this is a battle to fight for a Tamer, that means staking one's very life. You... have you made your resolve?"

Imposing holy factors coiled around Feng Xue, and an unsettling pressure began to envelop IceDevimon. "Wh-what nonsense is this? A mere Rookie-level Imp-type Digimon, actually able to command such a vast holy power?"

A moment later, every piece of clothing constructed from holy factors—all except the wrist armor on his hands—dissolved into streams of white data. The body of Impmon was once again exposed. The round, QQ-emoticon-like smiling face that should have appeared on his belly had now transformed into a Quincy Cross emblem, radiating a peculiar rhythm alongside the white data spinning around him.

IceDevimon knew it couldn't just sit there and wait for death, yet it made no move to attack. Instead, it raised both hands skyward, striking a pose like Son Goku about to unleash a Spirit Bomb. In that instant, the entire ice-sealed rooftop began to melt.

The frozen domain that had encompassed the top four floors and the roof terrace thawed in that moment, replaced by streams of ice-blue energy pouring into IceDevimon's body.

"Damn—I forgot the Devimon line has that broken ability!" Just as the Devimon from the first season absorbed the black gears representing virus data, and the IceDevimon from the sixth season absorbed ice stones, the Devimon line possesses the power to absorb data of the same type to strengthen itself. And the extreme manifestation of that power is—gigantification!

An ordinary Devimon, which had stood only a few heads taller than a human, suddenly began to swell as if struck by Doraemon's Enlarging Light. In the blink of an eye, it had reached nearly fifty meters in height—surpassing the size of an average Ultraman!

"Damn it!" Seeing this scene, the Tamers' first thought wasn't how to defeat this thing, but the uproar it would cause!

They were in the heart of Tokyo. A giant demon suddenly appearing like this would definitely make the headlines tomorrow!

But Feng Xue had no time to worry about any of that. A colossal stream of data surged into his body all at once.