Knights of the Digital World

"Ecce Javelin!"

Several attacks came toward Piedmon, including a few filled with holy power, causing Piedmon to show obvious discomfort.

Furthermore, based on Koushiro's analysis, the approximate range and cooldown time of Piedmon's teleportation have been determined—Piedmon has infinite energy, but can only guarantee "blue points," while the damage it will suffer and the cooldown time it will have will not change.

Therefore, WarGreymon and the others did not attack together completely, but rather each covered a separate area, blocking Piedmon's movement.

Piedmon was naturally most aware of his own abilities. Just by looking at WarGreymon and the others' attacks, he understood their intentions and curled his lip in displeasure.

Although he didn't think that no one could see through his abilities, this was just too fast!

Piedmon had many thoughts running through his mind; as a master of sarcasm, this was an essential ability for him. However, this did not hinder his actions. Piedmon once again teleported himself away, dodging the attacks that were dense with holy aura. Then, with a wave of his hands, the scattered longswords were instantly teleported back to him, shredding all the incoming energy blasts.

While spreading out attacks does increase the probability of hitting him, the power of each individual attack is also weakened. For Piedmon, these individual attacks are still quite easy to defend against.

Having blocked the attack, Piedmon immediately launched a counterattack. His primary target was Lotusmon—although Lotusmon hadn't attacked before, isn't it common sense to kill the healer first in a raid?

"Ace Throwing Knife!"

As Piedmon ran toward Lotusmon, it used its mind to move the longsword, attempting to pierce Lotusmon.

But the Lotus Beast was prepared. The double-serpent staff in her left hand released a dense white spiritual energy that enveloped her. There was also a layer of golden particles wrapped around her body, which was the protection left by the Phoenix Beast.

The four teleported longswords were supposed to pierce the Lotus Beast directly, but due to the influence of the sacred particles, their positions were slightly off, and they appeared in front of the Lotus Beast instead.

After a brief pause, the longsword thrust directly at Lotusmon. Powered by Piedmon's mental strength, the sword's speed instantly increased to a terrifying level, piercing through the protective barrier formed by the holy particles.

But this gave the Lotus Beast time to react. With a swing of its Twin Serpent Staff, black spiritual energy surged forth, knocking the four longswords away.

Four longswords flew through the air, then abruptly disappeared, disappearing back into the magic box on Piedmon's back. Piedmon had already approached Lotusmon, its white handkerchief poised to strike, ready to turn Lotusmon into a small toy.

The Lotus Beast also retreated, raising its scepter high in its right hand, and seven-colored spiritual energy spread towards the Clown Beast:

"Seven Colors Fantasia!"

Piedmon instinctively teleported, trying to avoid Lotusmon's attack. However, the seven-colored spiritual energy filled the environment around Lotusmon, and even after teleporting, Piedmon was still enveloped by the seven-colored spiritual energy, and his whole body unconsciously relaxed, falling into a beautiful illusion.

"Everyone, hurry up! I can't fool him for long!"

The lotus beast seized the opportunity and quickly ran to the side, while loudly warning the others.

"Here it comes! War-driven!"

WarGreymon had been running towards this direction to support Lotusmon, and it was the first to launch an attack.

As he ran, he raised the Dragon Beast Killer on his claws, golden energy gathering on it, and with the momentum of WarGreymon's mad dash, he pierced into Piedmon's chest.

The intense pain brought Piedmon back to his senses. He quickly teleported away, clutching his bleeding wound, a look of lingering fear on his face.

He had almost broken free of the Rainbow Illusion before; the pain merely accelerated that process. Otherwise, he would likely have been completely pierced by WarGreymon before regaining consciousness. At that point, his injuries wouldn't be what they are now; he might have perished on the spot.

After all, Piedmon's strength lies in its unpredictable and ever-changing nature. In terms of attack or defense alone, Piedmon is not particularly outstanding.

Furthermore, Piedmon's size can only be described as a slightly taller humanoid, which is far smaller than the enormous Digimon like MetalSeadramon and Mugendramon, thus lowering Piedmon's damage tolerance limit.

What might be considered minor wounds to Mugendramon would become deadly threats to Piedmon.

Of course, Piedmon's agility is a capability that even a giant Digimon like Mugendramon can only dream of.

There is always a trade-off between loss and gain; that's perfectly reasonable.

Chapter 53 The Clownmon's Resolve

"Emu, why do I feel like fighting Piedmon is easier than fighting Mugendramon? Didn't you say Piedmon is the strongest of the Four Masters?"

Taiichi looked at Piedmon on Koushiro's computer screen, who was desperately dodging attacks, and asked in confusion.

"I'm not lying to you. You have to look at who Piedmon's opponents are! First, there's Azure Dragonmon, who is the strongest of the Four Holy Beasts. He's the only Holy Beast who can hold his own against the Elite Four when his opponent has unlimited energy. Just dealing with Azure Dragonmon is already a huge challenge for Piedmon."

Now let's look at your Digimon partners. WarGreymon was one of the first Ultimate-level Digimon to evolve, and it even has the experience of defeating MetalSeadramon, so its strength shouldn't be underestimated. Even if you take it out alone, it's a formidable creature that could hold its own against Piedmon for a while.

MetalGarurumon and Phoenixmon were among the first Ultimate-level monsters to evolve, and they never missed a battle against the Elite Four, thus improving their strength.

Both Ophanimon and Seraphimon are angel-type Digimon, making them extremely effective against Piedmon. With the cooperation of other Digimon, their initial weaknesses after evolution are completely compensated for.

Furthermore, you have Lotusmon as a healer to soothe their wounds, and Koushiro collecting data for command. If Tentomon and Gomamon didn't still need to recuperate, you'd also have two other powerful Ultimate-level Digimon to support you.

The fact that Piedmon could hold his own against this lineup already proves how strong he is!

Emu listed out the strength of his side one by one and refuted Taichi's statement with dissatisfaction.

"Emu, don't be angry, I was just saying it casually..."

Taiichi didn't care about saving face and smiled ingratiatingly at Emu.

After Emu took the initiative to help last time, he got closer to the children, and Taichi was more at ease in front of him.

"Let's look at the next part. At this point, defeating Piedmon shouldn't be a problem. Unlike Mugendramon, Piedmon is still made of flesh and blood, and its strength lies in its skill-based abilities. Unlike Mugendramon, which doesn't care about technique and just bombards the enemy relentlessly, even a stronger Piedmon can sometimes find this kind of barrage troublesome..."

Piedmon probably doesn't have that ability. But after all, he's the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings; he might be hiding some trump cards, so we should still be careful.

Emu didn't care about Taichi's cheeky antics and said in a deep voice.

The Digital World has changed drastically since then, and the storyline he witnessed in the TV series is completely different. At least, the Four Heavenly Kings they face are far more powerful than those in the TV version. Therefore, Emu can't be sure that Piedmon doesn't have any hidden cards up his sleeve.

Hearing Emu's earnest words, Taichi's expression also turned serious. He nodded vigorously and said:

"Understood, Emu. Koushiro has been monitoring the changes in Piedmon's data. If there are any problems, he'll let us know, right, Koushiro?"

"Yes, leave it to me."

Koushiro's gaze remained fixed on the data and programs flashing in the small window next to the battle scene on his computer, and he responded with a single sentence without even looking up.

The carriage fell silent again as everyone refocused their attention on the battle.

…………

"Damn it, damn it, damn it..."

The clownmon muttered to itself, its exaggerated and brightly colored clothes now tattered and torn, bearing all sorts of marks: charred from lightning strikes, cuts from sharp blades, holes from claw spears, and water stains from melting ice.

Even more remarkably, two of Piedmon's four swords were broken, leaving only two chipped swords that, with the help of his mental power, were still blocking Azure Dragonmon's attacks.

As for WarGreymon and the others, although their attacks were fierce, their own strength was still a bit lacking, and their energy recovery rate couldn't keep up with the pace of their attacks, so they had already slowed down their offensive. Otherwise, Piedmon would have had to focus all his energy on escaping, and wouldn't have had time to mutter to himself.

In fact, Piedmon did initially resist. Using the bizarre power of the clown trick, he successfully turned WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon into keychains, and then severely injured Phoenixmon again with the Ace Knife.

However, it was then that Piedmon discovered that there wasn't just one, but two, healers in the children's group.

While Angewomon is also a formidable fighter, she represents the loving and compassionate side of "god," possessing the ability to heal and restore.

After Seraphimon and Azuryomon worked together to retrieve the keychains from WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, Ophanimon easily restored them and even healed the injuries they sustained in the previous battle.

Phoenixmon was also out of danger thanks to Lotusmon's healing. Although it didn't fully recover like WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, it was enough to keep it in the fight.

The three formidable enemies that Piedmon had painstakingly defeated returned to the battlefield and continued their relentless pursuit of Piedmon. It felt incredibly exhilarating.

The only thing that comforted Piedmon was that Ophanimon and Lotusmon had also expended a lot of energy to heal their injuries and were temporarily unable to fight.

Otherwise, the clown's situation would be even more difficult.

Having learned his lesson, Piedmon completely abandoned his counterattack plan. He had endured several attacks to defeat WarGreymon and the others. If he were to repeat that mistake a few more times, he would surely die on the spot.

His current idea is to stall, to just wait it out.

He has unlimited energy. No matter how arrogant and overbearing you are now, your energy is finite. When you run out of energy, that's when I'll unleash my power!

Now Piedmon has seen a glimmer of hope; WarGreymon and the others' offensive has clearly slowed down, indicating that his plan is effective!

But just as Piedmon was cursing WarGreymon and the others in his heart while imagining the scene of final victory, three beams of light suddenly appeared in the sky and poured into the bodies of WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, and Phoenixmon, instantly restoring their energy to its peak.

—This is support from Taichi, Yamato, and Sora!

Piedmon was dumbfounded by what he saw. He didn't understand that children could provide energy to their Digimon partners with their intense and pure emotions, nor did he understand that this kind of energy provision could only be done once or twice at most—emotional outbursts are also physically demanding, and children couldn't keep having them indefinitely—he had assumed that WarGreymon and the others had unlimited energy, just with a delayed replenishment rate.

If our only advantage is gone, what's the point of fighting?

If this drags on, won't we just end up dead?!

The clown beast is going to become withdrawn again. His emotions have been fluctuating wildly these past few days. His initial burst of survival instinct has been completely extinguished by the children's antics, leaving him only with utter exhaustion, disillusionment, and a resigned wait for death.

wrong!

If I'm going to die anyway, why should I die in such a miserable way?

Since I can't escape my fate of death, I'll take you all with me...

To be buried alive with them!

At that moment, the clown's eyes flashed with ferocity!

Chapter 54 Clown Beast Goes Berserk

Having made his decision, the clown beast calmed down. All the chaotic thoughts that had filled his mind were cleared away, leaving only one thought:

They'll all be buried with him! No matter who it is, whether it's Azure Dragonmon, WarGreymon, those two archangels, or even that stupid bird that never learns from being severely injured by him, they'll all be buried with him!

"Azure Dragon Beast! You four Holy Beasts aren't the only ones who can burn their Digicores!!!"

The clown beast let out a sharp scream as it looked up at the sky. At the same time, a ball of black flame-like energy erupted from its body, pushing its aura upwards and healing all its wounds.

"This is the first one!"

With a single teleport, Piedmon vanished from its spot and reappeared in front of Lotusmon.

Seeing the terrified look on Lotusmon's face, Piedmon licked its lips, let out a strange laugh, and placed its hands on Lotusmon's stomach, sending Lotusmon flying with a powerful, electrified shockwave.

Lotus Beast didn't even let out a scream before its body lit up in mid-air. When it fell, it split into Mimi and Palmon, both lying on the ground covered in wounds.

"Lotusmon Mimi! Palmon! Damn it! Dragonmon Gear!"

WarGreymon roared, raised its claws to the front of its body, and thrust at Piedmon.

The clown beast let out a strange, cackling laugh and dodged again with a teleportation.

After igniting his digital core, his power was greatly enhanced. The range of his teleportation nearly doubled, and the cooldown time became negligible.

He could teleport continuously if he wanted to. However, that would put an enormous strain on his body. The burning of his Digicore was already damaging his body, and he was just waiting for the Digicore to finish burning before the explosion. If Piedmon continued to teleport continuously, it would directly shorten the explosion time, causing the Digicore to burn out prematurely.

This is not something Piedmon wants to do. He wants to take more opponents down with him, so he can't afford to waste his burst time like this.

"Die! Metal Fang!"

The children were unaware that Piedmon's abilities had increased so much after burning its Digicore. MetalGarurumon continued with its original battle strategy, taking advantage of the cooldown time after Piedmon's teleportation, and charged at him. The metal wing blades on its back popped out, enveloped in a dazzling white light, and grew twice the distance out of thin air.

Piedmon turned to look at MetalGarurumon, whose mask had cracked in several places and whose eyes were bloodshot, filled with madness and glee.

"Little puppy, you can't hurt me like that."