Knights of the Digital World

"Ryuhime... I can actually cultivate on my own."

Seeing how Ruki pleaded with outsiders for her sake, the fox spirit was somewhat moved and tried to stop her.

"Fox Beast, listen to me! I am your tamer! How many detours and how much time will you waste if you try to figure things out on your own? Don't be willful."

"Liu Ji said in a low voice. In her interactions with her partners, she always held a dominant position."

"I'm fine with it. The cubs will be training here from now on, so you can let the foxmon do it itself. Just ask the cubs for the specific training methods."

Emu didn't mind and agreed to Ruki's request.

"Thank you, Baosheng!"

Ruki rarely showed a smile, and thanked Emu.

Renamon knew she couldn't change her tamer's decision, but she was somewhat dissatisfied with having to train under Lionmon.

In her view, the outcome of her battle with the lion cub was uncertain, so what right did the lion cub have to teach her?

Therefore, she took two steps forward and said to the lion cub, "Fight me once, let me see your strength! Let's see what makes you think you can teach me?"

"The fox spirit..." Ruki frowned, trying to stop her impolite behavior.

But Emu reached out and pulled her back, laughing, "There's no need to stop them. Digimon are thinking beings with their own feelings. Rather than letting them bottle it up, let them vent it themselves... Lionmon, go. Don't lose. You'll be the one who embarrasses yourself then."

The young lion puffed out its chest and said, "Eternal Dream, don't underestimate me. Do you think I'm so easily defeated? Little fox, if you want to fight, then come on!"

Renamon narrowed her long, narrow eyes, somewhat displeased with how the cub addressed her. But she said nothing. As a battle-hardened warrior, she knew the best response was to fight!

The next moment, the fox beast swayed and transformed into a phantom, appearing behind the lion cub, its sharp claws reaching out to grab it.

The young lion spotted the foxmon immediately, channeling energy into its tail, making it exceptionally strong. It lashed out at the foxmon's hand like a whip, slapping it away.

Renamon missed its attack and immediately jumped away, wary of Lionmon's counterattack.

However, Lionmon's innate fighting instincts were exceptionally strong, and his energy control was outstanding. He easily met the energy control standards set by BanchoMamemon for Rookie-level Digimon.

This means the cooldown is reduced, and the attack speed is faster.

Therefore, before the fox beast could even get into a defensive stance, the lion cub pounced on her, its right paw gleaming with golden energy.

"Lion Claw!"

Sharp claws slashed at the fox demon, as if to slice her in two.

But Renamon's many bloody battles were not in vain. Facing the attack at close range, she did not panic. She took the initiative to extend her left hand and tried her best to gather some energy to block the attack from Lionmon.

Then, using the strength of the cub, it flew backward, creating distance.

Although my left hand was scratched and injured, it prevented further damage.

This is the choice an excellent soldier makes in battle.

While the young lionmon possessed astonishing combat talent, it lacked experience. Seeing Renamon's decisive choice, it was somewhat stunned, seemingly not expecting Renamon to be so resolute.

The fox-mon didn't miss the opportunity either, conjuring sharp leaves that shimmered with white light in front of it and shooting them toward the lion cub.

This is precisely her ultimate weapon—

"Fox Leaf Wedge!"

Chapter Nineteen, Strange Things at School

Renamon had already seen in their previous encounters that Lionmon was superior to her in terms of physical strength, energy intensity, and control.

The only shortcoming might be the lack of combat experience, but this is made up for by the young lion's outstanding combat talent, and there are no weaknesses to be found.

Now that they had finally found an opening in his defenses, the fox demon dared not hold back and unleashed a deadly attack with all its might.

However, the cub's vulnerability was extremely brief. The instant it sensed the energy fluctuations from the foxmon's side, the cub snapped back to reality, gathering energy in its claws to tear apart the incoming leaf.

"Lion Claw!"

The leaves made from fox-leaf wedges are composed of energy. Even when torn apart by a lion cub, they explode the moment they shatter, causing considerable damage to the cub.

But the young lion was also enraged when it felt pain. It let out a roar, and a static charge emanated from its fur, momentarily paralyzing the fox-like beast and freezing it in place.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the lion cub stretched out its body, pounced on the fox beast, pinned it down, and pressed its sharp claws against the fox beast's neck.

The outcome is decided.

The fox-like beast glanced at the sharp claws around its neck, paused for a moment, and then readily admitted defeat.

"I lost."

In reality, if this weren't a friendly sparring match but a life-or-death struggle, the fox-like beast wouldn't admit defeat. Even if its claws were already embedded in its neck, as long as it could still move and fight, the fox-like beast would do its utmost to resist.

At that time, with her battle experience honed through countless battles and her decisive nature, it's hard to say who will live and who will die in the end.

However, this was ultimately just a friendly spar, not a life-or-death struggle to kill the opponent and absorb data. At this point, the outcome was already decided.

The lion cub nodded, withdrew its paw, and instead pulled the fox-like beast along, saying:

"Welcome to train together in the future. I'd like to spar with you more often if there's a chance. I can learn a lot from you."

The young lion also realized that while its talent was indeed strong, its lack of combat experience was something that even its talent could not completely compensate for.

His lapse in concentration during the battle, which revealed a weakness, is a typical example.

The best way to make up for it is to fight more.

Renamon, with the help of Lionmon's cub, stood up and nodded in response, "Please guide me in the future. There will be many opportunities to spar. To improve combat experience, you still need more real combat experience; sparring alone is not enough."

After the battle with Lionmon, Renamon also acknowledged Lionmon's strength.

Aside from combat experience, the cub surpasses her in almost every aspect. Only someone like that is qualified to mentor her.

Otherwise, if you can't even beat her, what's the point of talking about guidance or getting stronger?

…………

Not long after, Qiren and his group arrived. They were late because they had tried to persuade Jianliang to come along.

Jianliang has a younger sister. He rarely wanders around outside, mainly to help his family and take care of his younger sister.

However, Takato and the others were also new friends he had made. Moreover, perhaps because they were both animal trainers and had relatively introverted and gentle personalities, he and Takato got along very well and had become good friends.

After much deliberation, Jianliang was persuaded by his friend's enthusiastic invitation and came along.

When they first saw Ruki, they were surprised and wary.

Fortunately, Emu explained the situation in time. Neither of them are petty, and children don't hold grudges. Emu also resolved the biggest point of contention—the fighting—while Renamon was still training nearby. So, they made up. Now they can be considered ordinary friends.

After that, a group of people played with Guilmon and Terriermon.

The foxmon and the little demonmon were focused on their training, and the lion cubmon needed to guide them, so it did not participate.

Guilmon also needed to train. However, since everyone had agreed to come and play together, it wouldn't be good to leave the others behind and rush Takato and the others to train. Besides, this wasn't a training process that could be completed in a day or two. So, Emu simply gave Guilmon a day off.

In Guilmon's mind, Emu has now become the second best person after Takato.

Terriermon is actually quite interested in training. Becoming stronger and evolving are the instinctive pursuits of Digimon in this world.

However, Li Jianliang didn't like Terriermon fighting. Terriermon felt that he wouldn't want him to train either, so he didn't say anything, but occasionally glanced at where the lion cubs were training while playing.

Unbeknownst to the big-eared beast, Li Jianliang was also watching him as he looked at the training area, his gaze filled with hesitation.

Li Jianliang was also conflicted, wondering if it was right to continue prohibiting Terriermon from fighting. Emu had said he would respect his partner's wishes; had he truly done so?

…………

"Guimon, go! Card draw, White Wings!"

Qi Ren shouted passionately, struck a pose, and swiped a card across the arc light machine.

A pair of white wings sprouted from Guilmon's back, lifting it into the air. Guilmon's eyes were sharp yet agile, clearly having broken free from the control of its wild nature, and even taking control of it in return.

"Kiel artillery!"

Guilmon opened its mouth and spewed flames downwards.

"Dark Night Flame!"

A purple figure swiftly dodged Guilmon's cannon fire, leaped up suddenly, and threw several spherical dark flames that struck Guilmon.

The white wings on Guilmon's back became ethereal under the attack and quickly disappeared. Guilmon flailed its arms and legs, crashing to the ground with a scream.

"Gilmon! Are you alright?!"

Takato screamed and ran over to check on Guilmon's condition.

Yongmeng called out to the little demon beast, smiling, "Well done, little demon beast. How about it, can you feel the improvement in your strength?"

"Hmm!" The little monster nodded excitedly and said, "My energy control has improved significantly. The power, accuracy, and speed of my attacks have also increased. In fact, because the energy flows more smoothly, I feel like my speed has even improved!"

"Haha, it works! Keep it up!"

Yongmeng offered a few words of encouragement to the little demon beast, watched it go back to its hard work with renewed vigor, and then walked over to Qiren and asked:

"Takato, how are you? Is Guilmon alright?"

"It's nothing, he just fell and it hurt a little... Emu, that little devil is so strong, even Guilmon can't hit him."

Qiren replied.

"Hmph, it's been training for four or five days now. It also spars with Lionmon and Renamon regularly. Compared to Guilmon, which plays with Guilmon every day, it's definitely stronger."

"I'm not being polite," Emu said bluntly.

Takato said somewhat awkwardly, "Isn't this to help Guilmon control its wild nature? I have to go to class, so I haven't had much time and that's why it's been delayed until now... Tomorrow, tomorrow I'll let Guilmon train with them and make Guilmon stronger too!"

After saying that, perhaps to change the subject, Qi Ren added:

"By the way, Emu, some strange things have been happening at our school. Are you interested?"

Chapter Twenty, Ancient Music Beast

"Strange thing? Tell me about it."

"I asked curiously."

"It's our school playground, which is cleaned up every day after school. But these past two days, when we went to school, we found that someone had graffitied on the playground with lime. We don't know who the culprit is. Some people say it's a vengeful spirit painting it!"

It was mysterious and authentic.

"Playground, lime, graffiti? Is this the manifestation of the Ancient Music Beast?"

After hearing Takato's account of the strange events, Emu's eyes darted around, and he immediately remembered. Wasn't this the work of the cutest creature in Part 3, Gurumon?