Chapter Ninety: Evolution Equals Rampage?

Feng Xue’s head was spinning. At first, he’d hoped to subdue the Gear Beast without harming it, but now, it was a real battle in every sense. If Gear Beast’s defense was like those of the mechanical or cyborg types, with only a tough outer shell, Feng Xue could have easily pierced it with the ripple-powered explosive punch, attacking its insides. The trouble was, Gear Beast seemed completely immune to damage!

That uppercut wasn’t a killing move or a skill, but at the very least it could have given a regular Champion-level creature a concussion. Gear Beast merely tilted its head and lunged at Feng Xue again. This wasn’t just resilience—it was as if its head was made of stone!

“Gear Cannon!” A voice, sounding almost like a narrator’s, rang out. When Gear Beast fired, its mouth was occupied, so the sound couldn’t have come from it. It was more like a background effect when a Digimon unleashed its skill. Feng Xue was horrified to realize he’d been locked onto!

It was a primal, beast-like intuition, an unavoidable lock. At that moment, Feng Xue knew with certainty: whether he rushed forward, retreated, or used high-speed movement to dodge, he could not escape the blast infused with immense energy.

“What now? Can’t dodge, can’t endure—neutralize it! The little demon’s finishing move!” Finally, Feng Xue remembered he was the Impmon. Although he’d almost never used it, as a signature attack, it meant he could unleash it at will.

“Night Fire!” With Feng Xue’s shout echoing through the parking garage, a massive pale purple flame condensed into a sphere and hurtled toward the Gear Cannon’s trajectory.

“That’s enough!” A youthful male voice rang out, but Feng Xue had no time to process its meaning. Both Gear Beast and he had already launched their skills!

“What’s happening?” Feng Xue froze in surprise, for as the red fireball and purple fireball were about to collide, a figure adorned with green stripes suddenly appeared between the two energy blasts!

“Damn!” Feng Xue knew it was too late; he was about to silently mourn the story barely begun, already losing a main character. But then, as a cry of “Terriermon!” rang out, a white light enveloped the space between him and Gear Beast.

It wasn’t the light from two attacks colliding, but the radiance of evolution!

“Terriermon evolves—Gargomon!” The cute pet transformed into a burly fighter, wielding two weapons resembling revolvers, which were in fact Vulcan cannons. He opened fire relentlessly.

The attacks seemed to have no specific intent, merely a desire to unleash power. With every energy round fired, a manic laughter echoed throughout the underground parking lot.

There was no time to mourn for the owners whose cars would suffer collateral damage. Feng Xue darted back and forth across the ample space. Although Gargomon’s Gatling gun relied on quantity over quality, and individual shots weren’t that powerful, for someone like Feng Xue—neither he nor the Impmon species were known for defense—being hit even once could mean serious injury.

After all, he didn’t have Gear Beast’s freakish tough hide!

“Impmon, beat him!” Liu Ji’s voice suddenly called out, but both Feng Xue and Liu Ji had the same thought—“Not good!”

Obviously, Liu Ji’s call drew Gargomon’s attention. Now, the burly fighter with his twin hand-cannons was aiming his weapons at the reckless little girl, advancing step by step.

“Danger!” Feng Xue, almost on instinct, executed a flying sickle kick, appearing in front of Liu Ji just as Gargomon pulled the trigger on his Gatling gun!

“Impmon!” With Liu Ji’s shout, Feng Xue saw a red beam shoot into his body. Immediately, a flood of immense, mysterious data surged in, expanding his form uncontrollably. Instead of tearing pain, he felt a tingling sensation, as if his bones were rapidly growing.

“Impmon evolves—Devimon!”

Along with the absent evolution soundtrack, Feng Xue’s body underwent a radical transformation—tall and slender, clad in heavy-metal style leather pants, skin as black as night, arms long and thin, and his once puppet-like head now transformed into a classic demon’s visage with sharp, long horns.

“Just a regular Devimon?” Feng Xue ignored the faint pain, as though being shot with a toy gun, and glanced at his arms.

“Never mind. As long as I’m Devimon.” He shook his head, then realized he was still under attack. “I never expected that simply evolving to Champion-level would boost my defense so much. What was once a deadly attack now feels—utterly harmless!”

Instinctively, Feng Xue swept his arm, the elongated devil’s claw growing even longer, swatting Gargomon away as if he were a fly.

He didn’t pursue further, knowing that just the act of extending his arm had consumed a significant portion of his data. Even as he stopped immediately, his data volume dropped below MB, returning to the KB base unit of the Rookie stage, and his form swiftly shrank back to Impmon’s appearance.

(Normally, when a Digimon evolves due to a partner’s emotional surge, their data barely reaches the threshold—say, from 900KB, in a moment of danger, they break through to 1024KB and become Champion-level. But since this is just at the critical point, after a few big attacks, the data is depleted. Digimon, not understanding the importance of conserving data, continue to maintain their Champion form under the influence of holy plans, Digivices, or the light of evolution, essentially using Rookie-level data to sustain Champion-level consumption, leading to even more rapid depletion. When the external force fades, their data drops sharply, returning to Rookie with even less data than before—sometimes dropping to the Child stage—so Digimon with human partners who often rely on external forces to evolve have a hard time maintaining forms beyond Champion.)

Fortunately, his priest form seemed to have been recognized by the Digimon world, and hadn’t been erased by this brief evolution. Otherwise, this evolution would truly have been a great loss.