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The burning sensation was deep and unbearable within Adrian’s chest. He could feel his entire body tighten more as he struggled to get himself out of the invisible grip that had got hold of him. He had his eyes shut tight for protection from the multi-coloured light that had filled the room, but he was able to hear the rest of the teens crying out in agony with him reflecting the same pain they were going through. His bones were almost at the point where they felt like they were about to crack. He could feel his heart racing faster than a stampede of horses and his head was in so much pain it felt as if his entire brain was about explode.

Without warning the bright light returned to nothing and the group was abruptly dropped to the ground along with seven black glass orbs raining down on them shortly after their decent.

Adrian rolled onto his front, sitting up on his knees as he gasped for his breath back. The pain was slowly going away but the burning sensation was still there. He could find any burnt holes, but when he lowered his new shirt he found a strange marking burnt into his flesh. It looked like the shape of a T that had a larger bar driven through it and a comma on each side in between the two lines. He looked around to find the others checking their skin to find they too had some burnt marking.

He also noticed their right wrist were some rectangular black metal device like an I-touch strapped on a woven black wristband. He looked at his wrist to find he was carrying one on his arm as well. He tried to take off, but it was refusing to budge, as he tried to push harder, it almost felt as if he was pulling his own skin.

“You guys!” He then heard Kieron whisper but in a whimpered tone.

Adrian turned his attention away from the device on his wrist to the situation Kieron seemed to be afraid of. Before them was the same circle of pillars with nothing now sitting on them at all, and now had a wide deep pit in the middle that held a descending stairway at the wall of the hole.

But that wasn’t what was frightening Kieron and wasn’t what nearly made Adrian’s heart stop at the first sight. Sitting there in front of the pillar circle was a row of seven creatures!

At the far end was a humanoid fox like creature. Its body was a dark orange colour with a stripe that travelled from under its chin to the ends of its belly was pale yellow. A red stripe was decorated on its head from the end of its nose to the back of its scalp that met a pair of silver metal headphones of which the earpieces were in the form of a cross between a lightning bolt and fireball. A long bushy yellow tipped tail sat behind it unconsciously swaying back and forth. It sat there kneeling like a human would with its yellow black clawed front paws sitting on its thighs as it breathed quietly with its eyes shut.

The creature that was sitting next to it was also in some humanoid form only with the features of a tiger. Its body was bleaching white with black stripes patterning its body. A long tail covered by black rings was almost completely wrapped around its body. Like the fox creature next to it, it held three black claws for its fingers on its paws one of which held a pair of golden wristbands on the left side. Out of its thin white fur the longest hair was on the top of its chest. On the top of its forehead was a vertical row of three black crescent moons along with a smaller singular one sitting underneath its closed eyes.

By the tiger creature’s side was a creature with the similarities of a bird. The bottom part of its body was snow white, while its head and a plumage of feathers sitting on its chest were a creamy brown colour, with its wings were a dark brown. It’s six black toes that were poking out from underneath its white belly held grey talons which matched a set of four tiny claws like fingers poking out of what seemed to be the elbows of its wings along with a shorter one like a thumb slightly beneath it. Behind it were three long thin white tails with a single white feather that was decorated by red V-shaped striped similar to a set of feathers that covered its head, which may have also been hair, hiding its right closed eye and rested on the side of its yellow beak.

Next to it was a small creature that resembled a caterpillar in a cocoon. Its brown leaf-like armour was wrapped around its body in a diagonal position. The top of its head made the shape of a peculiar flat horn with a strange floral pattern sitting it that grew from in between the two eye sockets that held dark pink wrinkled flesh eye-lids. At the end of it, a pair wrinkled pincers were instinctively dancing with one another occasionally making a heart shape out of one another.

By its side seemed to be a regular looking lion sitting like a regular lion and had brownish gold fur like a regular but there were some differences to it. Its forepaws had no fur, flesh or muscle over its bones exposing a pair of dark brown skeletal claws and so was its long tail with four small thin olive green leaves dangling from the end of it matching the two larger ones hanging from only the right side of its brown skull helmet that encased its entire head and the four thorns sprouted from its hips. Covering half of its forelegs were a pair of metal cufflinks with a colour of bronze with two golden stripes running around both ends and four small diamond shaped emeralds forming one single diamond shape in the centre. In the skull helmets eye sockets were completely black as if it had nothing there.

Next there was a creature that almost mermaid like only the upper part of it was of an otter than a regular human. The top part was covered in teal fur that smoothly transitioned into its cyan scaled tail. A thick split fin made the end of its tail. It held dark blue claws at the ends of its fingers with a small sky blue membrane between them. A similar dark membrane was travelling down the creature’s spine from the edge of its forehead to end of the tail in-between the two fins. This creature was positioned differently to the others; it was floating in the air not far off the ground with its eyes shut and its paws together in front of its chest as if it was meditating.

Curled up next to it was a chibi rabbit creature. Its entire body was pitch, black with its belly and a large patch of tuft fur on its chest a dark grey colour. The same colour of which covered half of its pudgy little face allowing it to show a pair of black crescent moons underneath its closed eyes. A bushy grey tipped black ball of fur that was big as half of its back made its tail. In between its overly large oval shaped black ears was a pair of small two pronged antler sprouted from its head. And like all the others it was just sitting there with eyes shut breathing peacefully almost in synchronisation.

The seven stood there in a mixture of awe and fright for a few seconds observing what was sitting in silence before them.

Irene stared between the seven creatures, and the other teens. She could see Kieron and Ryder slightly backing away from these creatures with a frightened expression on their faces. Jade and Yvonne on the other hand were frozen on the spot with their jaws fallen out and a bit of a shocked look in their eyes. She too could feel her mouth wide open with no control of it though and found herself with an uncomfortable feeling swimming around her stomach. Mark and the new kid Adrian were in shock as well but they seemed to also have a curious expression on their faces as well.

While backing off from the freaky monsters, Kieron accidentally caught his heel on one of the stone tiles, losing his balance and landed with a thud on the ground, which broke the creatures from their trances.

The fox creature’s eyes snapped open, displaying lean deep blue serious looking eyes that took a moment to examine the area. He stood up on all fours for a moment like a regular fox as it shook itself awake, and arose to its hind legs turning its serious stare onto Adrian which made him feel a bit uneasy.

The eyes of the tiger creature were yellow cat-like eyes, and strolled towards Kieron on the ground with a sly smile on his face. The bird creature on the other hand when it blinked open its yellow hawk eyes and caught sight of the humans, it merely backed away in fear and swiftly hid behind one of the pillars.

The blackness in the part skeleton lion’s eye sockets just simply blinked opened like regular eyelids presenting a pair of blue intelligent eyes, while the eyelids of the cocoon creature opened on the side before showing a white slimy second set of eyelids that opened normally unveiling wide pupil pale green eyes.

The black rabbit blinked opened a pair of yellow, bright, jolly eyes as they focused on Mark. It smiled at him showing a single white fang in its mouth and hopped towards him in the same movements as a regular rabbit would. And the eyes of the creature that had the mermaid otter appearance held a pair of navy blue eyes with no iris or pupils in them. It rose higher off the ground circling around the group with curiosity moving in the actions of a fish swimming in the water.

“Ok…does anyone else know what the heck’s going on around here!?” Kieron hissed to the others before spotting the tiger creature slowly prowling on all fours towards him with a mischievous expression on its face. “Um, guys, a little help here!”

In a split second the tiger leapt at Kieron, who instinctively screamed curling up in a ball, waiting for all the pain he ever felt and the last thing he ever heard was the creature’s horrible growl and Sydney screaming his name out in agony.

He heard the others call out his name in concern but the blow from the tiger didn’t come. He looked up to find the tiger standing right in front of his face with a giant smile on its face. After a moment of confusion the tiger just fell over exploding in laughter?

“You should’ve seen your face!” It hooted in crackled male voice “Priceless!”

“It can talk!?” Sydney screeched

“Can’t we all?” the otter mermaid wondered in soft-spoken feminine voice floating above Sydney’s head who simply responded to it by staring at it with her mouth wide open

“Well, where we come from, you can’t and…” Jade suddenly snapped at it while it swam around but then just stopped in confusion “Wait, why am I talking to a freaky otter thing and totally fine with it!?”

“I’m a digimon, actually” the otter replied

“Come again?” Adrian asked

“Well, digital monsters to precise” the lion explained in a male southern voice “But we’re normally known as digimon, just like Homo sapiens are known as humans”

“Right” Mark replied awkwardly. “So how did you guys get here, exactly?”

“Um, isn’t it obvious?” Ryder sighed gesturing at the stairway hole in the pillar ring.

However the puzzled expressions on the creatures’ faces said otherwise.

Suddenly the ground started to aggressively vibrate again without warning making the group to almost lose their balance.

“What the heck did you touch this time!?” Jade snapped as she balanced herself out at Kieron who was clinging on the tiles on the floor.

“It wasn’t me!” he squealed

A giant purple mole with a drill as a nose suddenly erupted from the ground letting a great growl. As soon as it stopped, a group human hares and men made out of rocks leapt out off its back and surrounded the group.

“Round them all up and prepare them for transport!” the largest palest rock creature commanded

“What do they want from us!?” Sydney asked as they roamed in closer to them

“Truthfully, I’m too scared to guess” Erica gulped

Adrian desperately searched for a gapping for them to escape, but the large group of rocks and rabbits weren’t giving any space for them to go anywhere. He could feel his brain going around in circles as he tried to find a way for them all to get out of here. He looked over the creature spotting the spiral stairway again.

“We need to get to that stairway and find a way to lose them” he whispered to the others

“That’s easier said than done!” Jade hissed

The large crowd of monsters moved in closer and rose up their paws in preparation to grab them.

“TRIPLE THUNDER!” Suddenly a three pathways of yellow beams of electricity erupted from the ground incinerating the rock and hare creatures in their way.

In confusion the group looked down gaps between the electrical pillar rows to spot the bird creature standing by the pillar halo with its tails’ feathers shrouded in weak electricity stabbed into the ground. It was using its wing finger claws to make a gesture to come to it.

“I forgot about that bird one” Kieron claimed as they rushed towards the bird in between the electrical pillar trails.

A minor group of hare creatures attacked them at the top of the stairway but the fox and tiger creatures easily backed them off while the others descended down into the hole. The tiger made swift attacks on them through his sharp claws and his agile tail. While the fox creature was using a regular Korean ancient battle art.

Once there was enough distance the two followed them down. The tiger’s paw accidentally stepped on a tile that descended under the ground like the one earlier that caused the floor to collapse, only that trigger caused to the stairway to close behind them, placing the entire group in darkness.

“It’s so dark down here! I can’t see a thing!” Ryder’s voice complained

“Is it a common thing for humans to claim the obvious?” the voice otter mermaid wondered

“No, that’s just for the male species” Sydney’s voice replied

“Oi, I heard that!”

“You were meant to”

There was suddenly a moment of violent vibrations again, until it returned to normal again.

“What was that?” Adrian’s voice wondered

“Hey, just because we’re in the dark, doesn’t give anyone the licence to touch me!” Jade snapped

“Sorry! I thought I was grabbing onto some sort of rock!” Kieron’s voice gulped

“Well, you weren’t!” Jade growled

“Ugh, this is getting ridiculous! We need some light!” Adrian sighed

“Hold on! Who gave you the stripes!? You don’t even belong here!” Ryder questioned

“Excuse me” a quiet gentle female voice said

“Frankly I don’t think anyone belongs in this place, unless you were referring to home”

“I was referring to the home that you kidnapped us from!”

“Oh, tell me we’re not going through all that again!?”

“Excuse me”

“After everything we’ve just been through you think that I’m still responsible!?”

“Please, all that was just some smoke and mirror stunt and a bunch of your weird dwarf friends dressed in costumes, just so you can pull a fraud on how you’re a fearless hero!

“No it’s not!”

“Excuse me!”

“Face it, Adrian; you’re nothing but lonely little boy desperately wanting attention!”

“Maybe I could say the same thing about you, Francis!”

“You…”

“EXCUSE ME!!”

Adrian’s heart jumped up into his throat at the sound of the new voice that suddenly yelled out into the darkness bouncing off the walls.

“Um…I, um…might have a solution for the lights” the voice claimed in gentle timid tone

Seconds later a bright light emerges from the darkness. There standing in the stairway was the bird creature shyly smiling at the group with its tail feathers shining in a bright yellow light with occasional weak sparks of electricity dancing in between them.

“You can glow in the dark!?” Erica exclaimed in awe

“Well, actually I can produce electricity, of which if I can focus hard enough I can make my feathers light up.” The bird explained before suddenly looking down timidly “But…of coarse…however you want to call it is fine”

“Boy, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” Jade chuckled lowering to the bird’s height.

She looked away from Jade bashfully with a tiny smile on her face. For a moment she blew at a portion of her feathers that covered her face which simply returned to its recent position, not noticing Ryder walking behind her kneeling down in front of her tails.

“Where’s the battery compartment on this thing?” he wondered reaching out to touch one of her tails

The bird turned to Ryder finding his fingers close to her tail which made eyes open wide “No, wait, you shouldn’t…”

Before she could finish, Ryder poked at her tail, in which in split second, he was consumed in vicious electricity!

“Touch…my tail ends” the bird finished as she quickly moved her feathers away from Ryder’s flesh “Sorry”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll be fine” Jade snickered while she and the others tried to hold back their laughter at Ryder’s stunned face and his brand new wild haircut.

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“And then when you lot were safe. I kicked that digimon its face, jumped and looped around and wham! Landed on the right tile at the right time!” The tiger was bragging mimicking his fighting moves as they wondered through the corridors that stood at the bottom of the stairway.

“Yes, we were there, and we are grateful.” Kieron said sarcastically completely annoyed from the tiger’s never ending chatter “Now, for the hundredth time, thank you, tiger”

“Amurmon”

Kieron turned in confusion to the tiger creature “Excuse me?”

“You can just call me, Amurmon” the tiger replied

“Wait, timeout! You guys have names?” Mark exclaimed stopping in his tracks.

The entire group of nodded in reply.

“And you didn’t tell us this earlier because?” Sydney wondered

“You didn’t ask us” the fox replied in a deep male voice with a tone that matched his serious posture and stare “Of course it’s understandable considering you don’t have names”

“Actually…we have names as well. I guess we didn’t really ask because where we come from it’s the creatures like you who don’t normally have names” Adrian explained as guilt was punching him in the chest “Sorry”

The fox’s nature of stern stayed within him but a gesturing him grew upon his face as he turned to face the young human “Your apology is accepted, young…?”

“Adrian” he replied holding his hand out to the fox who responded in a bit of confusion “Oh, sorry, um, this is a human gesture of saying hello, you need your…paw to do it though”

Soon enough the fox held out his paw and Adrian shook in warm welcoming “Greetings to you, Adrian, my name is Malamon”

“Hello, human! I’m Jacklomon!” Mark’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest as he heard the sound of a squeaky male voice yelling in his ear and turned to find the horned rabbit was sitting on his shoulder mimicking Adrian and Malamon’s gesture in his face.

“Um, Mark Desai, but I’m normally known as Mark” he replied using his finger and thumb to shake Jacklomon’s tiny paw

“Well, I suppose that works as well” Amurmon said

“What works?” Adrian asked

“Well, I thought you guys didn’t have names so I thought I’d give you ones. Like, Egghead, Farm girl, Grape juice and Waiter boy” he explained pointing Kieron, Erica, Jade and Ryder.

“Egghead!?” Kieron yelled

“Farm girl!?” Erica snapped

“What in the world made you think I was…?” Ryder started but then remembered what he was wearing “Never mind. If you must know its Ryder and I for the record I did not choose this clothing”

Suddenly another tremor travelled though the tunnels again.

“That’s the third time that’s happened, what is it?” Mark wondered

“It’s probably something to do with that digimon with the drill earlier. He must be digging through to find us or something” the otter mermaid presumed

“Do you think these walls will hold?” Sydney wondered in a worried tone

“Let’s not stand around to find out” Adrian decided walking forward shortly followed by everyone else.

“I’m sorry but I’m struggling to find out where the tiger…I mean Amurmon got grape juice from” Jade said as continued through the tunnels

“And me with Farm girl” Erica added “I mean do I look like I come from a farm?”

“Well, your new style of clothing does have a bit of a country flare to it” Sydney pointed out

“Oh…no arguments there” Erica said blushing a bit

“Maybe he got your name from the stains in your hair” the bird suggested

“My stai- oh, no, these are actually hair dyes. I meant to put them in there. It’s actually a style where I come from” Jade explained “Kinda like yours”

“You mean my feathers? They’re actually a natural colour of mine” the bird corrected “So, what are your real names then?”

“Well, my name is Kieron, if you must know!” Kieron answered glaring at Amurmon

“I’m Erica, and she’s Jade” Erica introduced gesturing to Jade

“I can say my own name, you know” Jade sighed

“I think that’s a lovely name” the bird appealed “My name is Wrenmon”

“Wrenmon? As in the bird, wren, Wrenmon?” Jade questioned

“Um…” Wrenmon looked down in confusion while blowing at her feathers again

“Oh, my god these the cheesiest names I’ve ever heard!” Ryder laughed “Wrenmon, Amurmon Jacklomon? How much brain cells did it take for you to come up these names, Adrian? Is your friend in the fox costume wearing mala beads in his fur?”

“Will you stop!?” Adrian snapped “I wasn’t responsible for any of this, being trapped down here, nearly falling to our deaths, meeting these digimon, being attacked by those digimon! So why don’t you just except what’s going on and let it go!?”

“And we are what we are the same reason, you are called Francis” Malamon added

“It’s Ryder! So what did you call these creations of yours? Ottermon and Skullmon” Ryder continued

Adrian clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he slowly lost his patience with Ryder.

“If you must know, Ryder, I am known as Lutrimon” the otter said as she gracefully swam past Ryder giving him a sharp glare

“And my name is Orosmon” The skeletal lion added

“I wonder where Adrian came up with those names” Jade taunted

“I was not responsible for this” Adrian yelled who was way storming off way ahead of the group

“Obviously, he doesn’t have sarcasm where he comes from” she sighed

“Adrian, you’re walking too fast! Slow down!” Kieron called out to Adrian only to ignore him. So after a few more shouts he rushed off after him “Adrian, hold up!”

“Let him go, Pryde. That’s just what he wants you to do” Ryder said as he watched Kieron ran after Adrian

“No, it’s because you are a disrespectful human who arrogantly misjudges people’s characters. And one day, that’s going to harm you a lot more than the ones around you” Malamon explained before leaping onto all fours and running after Kieron and Adrian.

“He’s right, you know” Erica agreed as she walked on ahead of them

“About what?” Ryder wondered

“Behold the typical, clueless male” Sydney sighed to Lutrimon joining Erica’s side

“Hey!” Mark and Ryder chorused

“You don’t seem to have respect for your opposite gender, do you?” Lutrimon noticed as she swam through the air near Sydney’s shoulder level who responded with a shrug. “So what do they call you?”

“Sydney!” Kieron’s voice suddenly called out at the end of the corridor “Could you get over here?! There another one of those door things we came across earlier”

“One moment!” Sydney replied as she dashed over to the end of the corridor followed by the others

Halfway, Erica tripped of something big and hard. She assumed it was a stone a first, but when she looked down she found the cocooned caterpillar digimon sitting there with a glum expression on its face

“Oh, sorry about that. You were so quiet, I forgot that you were here” she said sitting up

“Its fine” an emotionless female said from behind the creature’s shell

“Ok” She stood back onto her feet awkwardly staring down at the caterpillar creature “So…do you have a name?”

“Yes”

“Would you like to tell me?”

“Maybe”

“I’m Erica”

“Nice name” the caterpillar replied pulling herself forward like a snail past her

Frustration grew in Erica as she watched the cocoon creature slither its way forward refusing to look up at her in a blank expression in her eyes. Noticing how her movements weren’t the quickest of the lot, Erica walked up to the cocooned caterpillar and scooped her up under arm.

“I’m perfectly capable of moving by myself, thank you” she said without a slight change in her deadpan tone

“True, but you’re not capable of moving fast” Erica pointed out “We just need to catch up with the others, that’s all. I promise I’ll put you down when we get there alright?”

For a moment the digimon just sat in her arm in silence, staring at a random stone with her straight stare, until she took a slow nod with her head and with that, Erica rushed off to catch up with rest of the group.

Once she found them, they were standing in front of another one of those doors waiting for Sydney to complete her task with placing the symbol spheres in the right position apart from Adrian who was resting his ear on the door. Instead of dragons and wizards on the door this time a yin and yang symbol of blue and orange stood above the rings surrounded by orbs containing a symbol inside each of them.

One of them looked like four barred window with a wide T shape sitting on top of it and a wonky L shape placed underneath it. In confusion she quickly opened up her buttoned shirt and checked her scar she had after the strange incident they experienced before meeting these digimon to discover it was a matching symbol.

“Excuse me” Erica was interrupted by the mask covered deadpan voice of the little cocoon digimon still sitting in her arms “You promised you would put me down once we caught up with the others. We have now caught up with the others”

“Fine” she sighed placing the non-bothered digimon back onto the ground who slowly moved herself away from her.

In curiosity she wondered over to Adrian while Sydney had just gotten onto her toes reaching up for the third sphere.

“Um, what are you doing?” she wondered

“Can’t you hear the water on the other side?” he answered still in the same grumpy tone as he left before he and Kieron found the door

“I was only asking, you don’t have to bite my…wait, water?” she quickly placed her ear against the cold stone. Adrian was correct, as she could hear the faint sound of rushing water on the other side. “Hey, you’re right. Sounds like a river or something”

“Well, then now we know he’s not making it up, we’ll use that to find a way out of here” Ryder claimed

“Hey, that’s not…” Adrian started

“Got it!” Sydney interrupted as the line of symbols started to glow again.

“What does that mean?” Jacklomon asked as the doors opened

“What does what mean?” Mark asked back

“What it said on the door; the burning Balance and the dark Chaos, the pure Order and the powerful Life, the shocking Peace and the indestructible Strength, the flowing Eternity and the radiant Wisdom will unite the Great Brothers of Harmony” he explained

“You can read all that gibberish!?” Jade explained

“It must be some instinct that only we digimon have” Orosmon presumed as he went forth

“No offence, but most of the time it sounds like you know what you’re talking about, but then it also sounds like you don’t know what you’re talking about” Erica noticed “If you get my drift”

“I believe what you’re trying to say is that it sounds like we’re unsure of the information we carry ourselves” Lutrimon cleared out hovering above her head

“Well, in truth we are” Malamon declared “We are in the dark as much as you humans are and yet here we are understanding the things that we don’t”

“Oh, god, I’m getting a headache!” Jade complained rubbing on the temples on her forehead

“You guys! We have a slight problem over here!” Kieron called out who was already on the other side of the door.

Outside the exit they found themselves in a vast cave that held white crystal stalactites up on the roof that illuminated the cavern’s darkness. However up ahead several metres beyond them where Kieron stood was a wide gap between two cliffs ledges that was roaring noises of rushing water. The group caught up with Kieron and looked over the ledge, to find a large raging river smashing around the cliff walls and a couple of stalagmites pointing out of the water.

“Well, this doesn’t look good” Mark gulped “Any ideas?”

“We could try falling” Amurmon suggested before everyone turned on him with a glare “What? Its way more fun than climbing down”

“Or we could try flying?” Jade suggested gesturing to Wrenmon and Lutrimon

Wrenmon looked over the ledge but then ran back in fear hiding behind Jade’s leg “No thank you. Far too high”

“Ok, a bird that’s afraid of heights. That’s probably the most ironic moment of the year” Kieron said

“Oh, please. She’s afraid of heights because she’s denying the fact that she can’t fly” Ryder said

“I can fly! I’m just…not fond of flying so high up, that’s all” Wrenmon timidly explained behind Jade’s leg.

“Well, what you, Lutrimon. Are you alright with high places” Sydney asked

“I am. Although, even if I did, there aren’t any vines or ropes that I could use on the other side to use to help you across” Lutrimon pointed out

“Well, you could try and carry us across one by one? Or…”

Sydney’s suggestions were interrupted by another thundering tremble. The vibrations weakened the cliff face causing the rocks to collapse underneath their feet, before rocks, humans and digimon were taken by gravity and sent into watery cavern below!

“What are we gonna do now!?” Kieron screamed

As they plummeted down to the river while trying to avoid been hit by the large tumbling rocks, Ryder suddenly felt a tiny hand rest on his shoulder and turned to find Orosmon falling with his fur on his body and the leafs on his tail and mask been affected by the upward winds as it violently danced all over the place around his body

“Ryder, I need you to do me a favour” he said

“Yeah, I don’t any of us is gonna survive this fall!” Ryder screamed

“Not like that! I need you to throw me cliff face and quick!”

“Why, so you can grab a rock and save your own hide!?”

“Look, Francis, I understand that this is strange for you and that you’re a bit afraid, but right now everyone’s lives are at stake and you need to trust me on this. Now throw me to the cliff”

The moment Ryder’s real name slipped out of the lion’s mouth, he didn’t seem to be annoyed or embarrassed by it for once. Something about that cub made his name sound like it was not much of a problem as it always use to. He looked on at the bone armoured creature as it stared back with a glance of reassurance in his eyes and a slight cheerful expression in his smile. A smile that felt strangely familiar somehow.

With several seconds to spare, Ryder reluctantly grabbed onto Orosmon paw and tossed him towards the cliff.

“TERRA RING!” Orosmon’s pulled back his bony claws as they got engulfed in an emerald flame before slamming it deep into the rocky surface. The moment his paw punched the cliff, a ring of green fire spread out across the cliff in all direction, once the ring was big enough, the flames transformed into giant wooden thorns that caught the falling teens and digimon.

But the rocks continued to fall, as they crashed into the wall of thorns and sent Jacklomon, Mark and Jade to their continuing plummet! Mark quickly grabbed little Jacklomon and forced himself on himself on his back in order to protect the little rabbit from a greater impact.

Suddenly the fall was interrupted something that wasn’t rocks or water. He opened one eyes to see the river standing a hundred metres below him. He looked up to see Lutrimon was under his arms preventing from his fall. He looked next to him and saw Jade dangling from Wrenmon talons clinging onto her shoulder as she rapidly flapped her wing-like arms forcing herself not to look down.

“You guys alright!?” Adrian’s voice called down from above

“Yeah, good job, we’ve got some flying digimon with us!” Jade called back beaming up at the petrified little bird

“Told you falling was a lot more fun didn’t I?” Amurmon called down cheerfully

“That was anything, but fun, you idiot!” Kieron’s voice was yelling

“Sheesh, you really need to loosen up Egghead”

“My name is Kieron! And my kind of fun isn’t nearly becoming skewered by river rocks!”

“So? You could always land on your feet, can’t you?”

“You probably can, but humans can’t!”

“Are they, gonna argue all day or have actually forgotten the fact that they’re all dangling off the edge of a cliff whilst trying to find a way out of this cave!?” Mark groaned as they listened to Kieron and Amurmon’s squabbling.

“Hey, Mark, look down there” Jacklomon declared who was sitting above Mark’s collar bone looking over his shoulder

The three looked in Jacklomon’s direction to spot a lane of sand sitting by the edge of the river

“Hey, you guys! There’s a bank at the side of the river!” Jade called out

“So!?” Ryder’s voice called out

“So, we can use it to follow the river and maybe find a way out of here!” Mark replied

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The next few hours weren’t as lucky as it was a while back. It took some time to get everyone down from the ring of thorns particularly with Wrenmon’s fear over heights. And when they travelled down the river each tremble made the group a little bit more anxious especially with several of them claiming that the quaking seemed to be getting louder with every vibration. The river on the other hand seemed to get a little calmer as they travelled down its banking.

Eventually they came across a vast cavern where one side was sand and the other was water, the roves were supported a few jagged arches and columns and was still decorated by luminous stalactites that seemed to be lot brighter than it was when they fell off the cliff.

“Maybe we should rest for a while” Adrian suggested as they walked into the open

“And why would we want to do that?” Ryder asked

“Because we have been walking for hours and for all we know it could be the middle night right now.” Adrian explained as the corner of his head twitched in frustration “Satisfied”

“Hey, I’m just saying, you don’t have to boss us around all the time”

“What? When the hell have I ever bossed you guys. Why is it every time I say something you have to come with a critic!?”

“It’s a critic. It’s the fact that you’re not from around here and you should just act like it”

“Except Adrian has a point” Mark interrupted “We’ve been walking for who knows how long and we need a time out from all of it”

“I don’t know about that. I mean I’m not exactly comfortable with those tremors getting louder by the second” Sydney pointed out “And what if those things actually catch up with us while we’re taking a break?”

“You worry too much” Jade sighed who was already resting on the sandy surface

“No, I’m just trying to be realistic” Sydney corrected

“They already have” Malamon suddenly said

“What makes you think…?”

As everyone looked at the digimon, they were all frozen on the spot with their eyes focused down at the ground. Malamon and Amurmon had their claws positioned in front of them baring their teeth and the pupils narrowed. Wrenmon’s wings were trembling against her body, with a concerned look in her face, while Orosmon, Lutrimon and the caterpillar digimon’s expressions were severe. Jacklomon was standing high on his hind legs like a normal rabbit on alert with occasionally an ear unconsciously twitching.

“What is it?” Erica asked

Right on cue, a thundering vibration rose up in the cavern again! The grotto responded with some of the columns that supported the roof to form cracks across its surface! At the centre of the cavern the drill nosed mole burst from the floor with the group of rock and hare digimon from before riding on its back.

“Humans! Take cover!” Malamon ordered

“Why, what are you gonna do!?” Jade questioned

The group of digimon dashed towards the group letting out strange battle cries

“ELECTRIC STUN BLAST!” two of the hare digimon coughed out a cloud of black gas that covered the group

“This gas! I can see anything! Or breathe in that matter!” Mark choked as the humans fell onto their knees gasping for air

“You don’t say!” Sydney spluttered

“Grab them while they’re paralyzed!” the voice of the biggest rock digimon was heard.

Just as the group could see the silhouettes of their attackers a radiant light appeared before them blowing all the smoke away! Once the smoke the gas had evaporated all that remained was Lutrimon, floating high in with her arms spread shrouded in a glowing aqua aura. Her eyes blinked opened revealing her glowing white eyes that glared down at the hare and rock digimon

“MYSTIC CURRENT!” The aura around her gathered in front of her forehead forming a luminous white gem that shot out a beam of cyan and aqua light at the digimon blowing them back from the group.

“I suggest you now take cover before they recover!” she ordered before speeding off from the group who stood there in awe.

“You heard her, move!” Malamon commanded snapping them out of their amazement.

But it was too late tiny groups of digimon advanced at the teens chasing them in different directions!

“ROCK FIST!” One of the rock digmon shot a rock from its head that struck Mark knocking him over!

“Mark, you alright?” Sydney gasped rushing over to help him up followed by Jacklomon.

“I think so” Mark replied sitting up as he rubbed the sore part of his head.

The trio of two hare and one rock digimon advanced forward towards the three. Sydney and Mark closed their eyes waiting for the blow, but it never came. They looked to see the three standing there staring at them dumbstruck.

Mark looked down at Jacklomon who was standing there high on his hind legs with his ears folded down on his head with wide eyes almost filled up by his pupils.

“Aww, who wouldn’t fall for such a cute face!” Sydney cooed

“I guess you’re right” Mark exclaimed noticing how Jacklomon’s stare was focused on the three digimon paralyzed with awe.

“DARKNESS SPARK!” Jacklomon swiftly returned to normal as tiny black orb formed between his little antlers that struck bolts of lightning at the trio of digimon

“Whoa, didn’t see that one coming!” Mark chuckled swiftly picking up Jacklomon heading for the rocks with Sydney.

But they suddenly intercepted two more hare digimon, with their claws hanging in front of them.

“TUNDRA AVATAR!” After Lutrimon’s voice was heard a cyan silhouette of herself flew in front of Sydney and Mark passing through the two attackers who were quickly concealed in an ice berg. They watched the ghost Lutrimon fly up to a physical Lutrimon who was floating in meditative trance glowing in the same aura as before. The silhouette flew into Lutrimon’s chest before she returned to her normal self. She gave Sydney a quick smile before swimming off to find some other digimon to fight.

Erica and Jade sped over the grained strand, using a couple of stone pillars to block incoming attacks. Though they always seemed right at their heels every time they looked over their shoulders. It seemed to be almost impossible to escape these digimon!

The caterpillar digimon stood there as they rushed by observing them with her blank expression.

“ELECTRIC STUN BLAST!”

Jade immediately grabbed Erica by the shoulder and pulled and herself down onto the sand swiftly avoiding the black cloud that passed over her head. As soon the cloud evaporated Jade quickly pulled Erica by the arm and used the rest of her limbs to push one another back up, whilst spotting a group of hare digimon pouncing at them!

“TRIPLE THUNDER!” Three bolts of lightning suddenly came crashing down on the digimon. Jade looked to find Wrenmon flying above their heads and with a yellow light for her tails dying down.

“Are you two, alright?” She asked landing next the duo

“Yeah, we’re good” Erica replied

“Hold on, I thought you said you were afraid of heights, and now you’re flying with no problem!?” Jade questioned

“Well of course I can fly. I just don’t like high places so much, that’s all” Wrenmon explained

“Um…right”

The hare digimon stood back up with a cruel look on their faces.

“Big mistake, little birdie!” the centre one snarled

“I couldn’t agree more” the recognizable deadpan voice replied from behind before its owner jumped forward in front of the others “You lot should know better than to attack defenceless infants”

“Infants!?” Jade repeated in an offended tone

“You shall all be vanquished for the great Raja!” the hare claimed before he his two teammates attacked

“Who?” Erica wondered

“I refuse to stand by as you harm my acquaintances” the caterpillar replied jumping back at the hare digimon

The word acquaintance somehow hurt Erica in the chest.

“NEEDLE BLAST!” The pincers on the end of her body straightened as its claws lit up in a pink colour shooting out two rays of short thin blast glowing magenta needles paralyzing her attacker in mid-air.

“MOURNING STAR!” the caterpillar rolled up into an armoured ball sprouting out two thorns on each side throwing herself at the stunned foe and his other two associates.

One of them leapt high in the air swiftly dodging the rolling ball and landed behind while it returned to its original form.

“ELECTRIC…”

“QUILL CYCLONE!” Wrenmon flew in front the recovering cocoon digimon and rapidly flapped her wings created a spiralling mix of wind and her electric feathers blowing away the hare digimon.

Ryder backed up at step, with his foot slipping from the unseen stone sitting in the sand. He stumbled into the gravel letting out a stunned groan, putting his out to protect himself. He sat to find two rock and a single hare digimon closing in on him.

As the trio advanced none of them noticed Orosmon galloping towards them baring his teeth and a developed sinister expression in his eyes.

“TERRAIN CALL” His blue iris turned to a luminous green colour as Orosmon let out deafening roar releasing massive blazing green sound waves. The sand that got caught in the sound waves were engulfed in green fire that united the grains to form several solid sharp shards before been tossed at the three digimon.

“How about a little heads up next time you’re gonna do that?” Ryder asked as he recovered from the recent loud bellow while Orosmon trotted towards him over the unconscious digimon

“Sorry” Orosmon said with a shrug

Elsewhere Kieron was cornered the cliff face by three rock digimon. He desperately looked around for something to help him out. He looked up and found Amurmon was perched on a high rock watching with amusement of all the chaos going in the cavern.

“Um, Amurmon, a little help here!?” he asked

Amurmon looked down between Kieron and the three rock digimon advancing forward for a moment and looked away “Nah, they’re not were worth it”

“What do you mean they’re not worth it!? They’re the enemy!” Kieron pointed out

“No, I mean, they’re not worth my time” Amurmon explained “Fighting those guys will be a snap. Let me know when there’s a real challenge, would you?”

Kieron looked back at the three rock digimon advancing with their fists up high and murderous expressions on their faces. His head pulsed as tried to come up with a plan to get out of this until one popped up and he looked back up at Amurmon with a sly on his face.

“Oh, I understand. You’re just afraid that you’ll get your butt handed to you by a bunch of measly rocks.” He said cheekily called up to him “Don’t worry, Amurmon, we’ve all been there”

“Hey, I’m not afraid!” Amurmon responded offended jumping up on his feet “Like I said, those guys are a snap! I can take them out in ten seconds flat”

“Prove it, then” Kieron smirked

“Fine!” Amurmon snorted jumping down from his rock

“CRYSTAL JAVELIN!” The first thing Amurmon did was placing his claws deep into the ground pulling out purple cylinder shard twice is own size and tossing at the three rock digimon. It exploded on impact blowing two of the rock digimon several feet away.

“Hey, watch it!” Kieron yelled raising his arms to protect himself from the flying debris.

“ROCK FIST!” the remaining digimon shot a rock from his head, but Amurmon effortlessly crushed into dust

“DIAMOND SLASH!” His claws ignited in a purple light. He swung is arms in front of him releasing a purple ray in the shape of an X sending the pushing the digimon into the watery area of the grotto.

“What’d I say? Ten seconds flat” Amurmon alleged planting his paws on his hip and growing a superior smile on his face “No, no, you’re quite welcome. No need for thanks”

“Yeah, sure” Kieron sighed wiping the sand of his head “Except, you missed a spot”

Following his gaze Amurmon spotted three hare and two rock digimon heading their way. With a roll of his eyes and an arrogant smirk he jumped on all fours and advanced at the enemy.

Another group of digimon were chasing Adrian, skidding around cave corners, ducking under parchments of rock darting from one direction to the next using the environment around him to lose them. Although he was somehow unable to shake these digimon off his tail.

Suddenly he felt pull on his collar shirt and was dragged off the ground dangling from the hands of the largest of the rock digimon.

“Let him go!” Malamon demanded running towards the rock digimon

“SUN GAZER” As he leapt into the air a ring of orange fire formed on his earpieces which in turn ignited his eyes in orange light blasting out scorching hot beams from them at the digimon which hit his arm without making dent.

“You fool!” the rock digimon chuckled tossing Adrian down the hole they came out from!

Malamon attempted to go after him but the mole digimon that stood by stepped forth and knocked him away into a crowd of rock digimon!

“Get out of my way!” he snarled as he stood back up raising his claws

“TIME SPELL!” Suddenly the entire battlefield was concealed in violet aura stopping everyone in their tracks

“Hey, I can’t move anything!” Ryder declared who had been frozen in mid-run

“Who can move anything” Jade replied sitting on one knee recently recovering from ducking of another attack.

“Dare I ask if anyone has a clue what the heck’s going on!?” Mark said also frozen in a run holding on to a wide eyed Jacklomon

“Don’t look at me!” Amurmon called frozen high above their heads in the middle of an attack

At the centre of the cavern a column of black smoke appeared with a being in a hooded purple torn robe holding an amethyst staff in his black bony hands floating a couple of metres off the ground. He lowered his hood revealing the head of a black human skull, decorated with swirled pink stripes. He looked around the area with his lean yellow eyes judging the teens and their companions for a moment until he raised his crystal staff and slammed it to the ground.

The aura around the group almost immediately disappeared making half of the group lose their balance from being clogged in the middle of an attack, leap or run.

The robed skulled floated forward eyeing the teens for a moment and then looked down at the digimon curiously.

“What are you exactly?” Sydney wondered aloud

“I am a friend, young human” he spoke in a dreary male voice

“Why do I think otherwise?” Ryder asked looking up and down in aversion at the skeleton’s appearance

“Because you are clearly a being who tends to judge clearly by one’s appearance” the skeleton replied noticed his distrusting expression “My name is Muertomon, keeper of the burning Balance and the guardian of the Eastern temple”

“Burning Balance?” Mark repeated

“What do you mean by the eastern temple?” Jade asked

“The temple, I imagine you just recently left from” Muertomon answered pointing down gorge the group entered from “I can see there is a lot of explaining to do. Come, we must retreat to my hut before the enemy recovers from my time spell attack”

“Wait you mean all this was you?” Jade figured gesturing to all the frozen digimon

“Hey, what about Adrian!?” Kieron interrupted looking around “He’s gone!”

Description

The burning sensation was deep and unbearable within Adrian’s chest. He could feel his entire body tighten more as he struggled to get himself out of the invisible grip that had got hold of him. He had his eyes shut tight for protection from the multi-coloured light that had filled the room, but he was able to hear the rest of the teens crying out in agony with him reflecting the same pain they were going through. His bones were almost at the point where they felt like they were about to crack. He could feel his heart racing faster than a stampede of horses and his head was in so much pain it felt as if his entire brain was about explode.

Without warning the bright light returned to nothing and the group was abruptly dropped to the ground along with seven black glass orbs raining down on them shortly after their decent.

Adrian rolled onto his front, sitting up on his knees as he gasped for his breath back. The pain was slowly going away but the burning sensation was still there. He could find any burnt holes, but when he lowered his new shirt he found a strange marking burnt into his flesh. It looked like the shape of a T that had a larger bar driven through it and a comma on each side in between the two lines. He looked around to find the others checking their skin to find they too had some burnt marking.

He also noticed their right wrist were some rectangular black metal device like an I-touch strapped on a woven black wristband. He looked at his wrist to find he was carrying one on his arm as well. He tried to take off, but it was refusing to budge, as he tried to push harder, it almost felt as if he was pulling his own skin.

“You guys!” He then heard Kieron whisper but in a whimpered tone.

Adrian turned his attention away from the device on his wrist to the situation Kieron seemed to be afraid of. Before them was the same circle of pillars with nothing now sitting on them at all, and now had a wide deep pit in the middle that held a descending stairway at the wall of the hole.

But that wasn’t what was frightening Kieron and wasn’t what nearly made Adrian’s heart stop at the first sight. Sitting there in front of the pillar circle was a row of seven creatures!

At the far end was a humanoid fox like creature. Its body was a dark orange colour with a stripe that travelled from under its chin to the ends of its belly was pale yellow. A red stripe was decorated on its head from the end of its nose to the back of its scalp that met a pair of silver metal headphones of which the earpieces were in the form of a cross between a lightning bolt and fireball. A long bushy yellow tipped tail sat behind it unconsciously swaying back and forth. It sat there kneeling like a human would with its yellow black clawed front paws sitting on its thighs as it breathed quietly with its eyes shut.

The creature that was sitting next to it was also in some humanoid form only with the features of a tiger. Its body was bleaching white with black stripes patterning its body. A long tail covered by black rings was almost completely wrapped around its body. Like the fox creature next to it, it held three black claws for its fingers on its paws one of which held a pair of golden wristbands on the left side. Out of its thin white fur the longest hair was on the top of its chest. On the top of its forehead was a vertical row of three black crescent moons along with a smaller singular one sitting underneath its closed eyes.

By the tiger creature’s side was a creature with the similarities of a bird. The bottom part of its body was snow white, while its head and a plumage of feathers sitting on its chest were a creamy brown colour, with its wings were a dark brown. It’s six black toes that were poking out from underneath its white belly held grey talons which matched a set of four tiny claws like fingers poking out of what seemed to be the elbows of its wings along with a shorter one like a thumb slightly beneath it. Behind it were three long thin white tails with a single white feather that was decorated by red V-shaped striped similar to a set of feathers that covered its head, which may have also been hair, hiding its right closed eye and rested on the side of its yellow beak.

Next to it was a small creature that resembled a caterpillar in a cocoon. Its brown leaf-like armour was wrapped around its body in a diagonal position. The top of its head made the shape of a peculiar flat horn with a strange floral pattern sitting it that grew from in between the two eye sockets that held dark pink wrinkled flesh eye-lids. At the end of it, a pair wrinkled pincers were instinctively dancing with one another occasionally making a heart shape out of one another.

By its side seemed to be a regular looking lion sitting like a regular lion and had brownish gold fur like a regular but there were some differences to it. Its forepaws had no fur, flesh or muscle over its bones exposing a pair of dark brown skeletal claws and so was its long tail with four small thin olive green leaves dangling from the end of it matching the two larger ones hanging from only the right side of its brown skull helmet that encased its entire head and the four thorns sprouted from its hips. Covering half of its forelegs were a pair of metal cufflinks with a colour of bronze with two golden stripes running around both ends and four small diamond shaped emeralds forming one single diamond shape in the centre. In the skull helmets eye sockets were completely black as if it had nothing there.

Next there was a creature that almost mermaid like only the upper part of it was of an otter than a regular human. The top part was covered in teal fur that smoothly transitioned into its cyan scaled tail. A thick split fin made the end of its tail. It held dark blue claws at the ends of its fingers with a small sky blue membrane between them. A similar dark membrane was travelling down the creature’s spine from the edge of its forehead to end of the tail in-between the two fins. This creature was positioned differently to the others; it was floating in the air not far off the ground with its eyes shut and its paws together in front of its chest as if it was meditating.

Curled up next to it was a chibi rabbit creature. Its entire body was pitch, black with its belly and a large patch of tuft fur on its chest a dark grey colour. The same colour of which covered half of its pudgy little face allowing it to show a pair of black crescent moons underneath its closed eyes. A bushy grey tipped black ball of fur that was big as half of its back made its tail. In between its overly large oval shaped black ears was a pair of small two pronged antler sprouted from its head. And like all the others it was just sitting there with eyes shut breathing peacefully almost in synchronisation.

The seven stood there in a mixture of awe and fright for a few seconds observing what was sitting in silence before them.

Irene stared between the seven creatures, and the other teens. She could see Kieron and Ryder slightly backing away from these creatures with a frightened expression on their faces. Jade and Yvonne on the other hand were frozen on the spot with their jaws fallen out and a bit of a shocked look in their eyes. She too could feel her mouth wide open with no control of it though and found herself with an uncomfortable feeling swimming around her stomach. Mark and the new kid Adrian were in shock as well but they seemed to also have a curious expression on their faces as well.

While backing off from the freaky monsters, Kieron accidentally caught his heel on one of the stone tiles, losing his balance and landed with a thud on the ground, which broke the creatures from their trances.

The fox creature’s eyes snapped open, displaying lean deep blue serious looking eyes that took a moment to examine the area. He stood up on all fours for a moment like a regular fox as it shook itself awake, and arose to its hind legs turning its serious stare onto Adrian which made him feel a bit uneasy.

The eyes of the tiger creature were yellow cat-like eyes, and strolled towards Kieron on the ground with a sly smile on his face. The bird creature on the other hand when it blinked open its yellow hawk eyes and caught sight of the humans, it merely backed away in fear and swiftly hid behind one of the pillars.

The blackness in the part skeleton lion’s eye sockets just simply blinked opened like regular eyelids presenting a pair of blue intelligent eyes, while the eyelids of the cocoon creature opened on the side before showing a white slimy second set of eyelids that opened normally unveiling wide pupil pale green eyes.

The black rabbit blinked opened a pair of yellow, bright, jolly eyes as they focused on Mark. It smiled at him showing a single white fang in its mouth and hopped towards him in the same movements as a regular rabbit would. And the eyes of the creature that had the mermaid otter appearance held a pair of navy blue eyes with no iris or pupils in them. It rose higher off the ground circling around the group with curiosity moving in the actions of a fish swimming in the water.

“Ok…does anyone else know what the heck’s going on around here!?” Kieron hissed to the others before spotting the tiger creature slowly prowling on all fours towards him with a mischievous expression on its face. “Um, guys, a little help here!”

In a split second the tiger leapt at Kieron, who instinctively screamed curling up in a ball, waiting for all the pain he ever felt and the last thing he ever heard was the creature’s horrible growl and Sydney screaming his name out in agony.

He heard the others call out his name in concern but the blow from the tiger didn’t come. He looked up to find the tiger standing right in front of his face with a giant smile on its face. After a moment of confusion the tiger just fell over exploding in laughter?

“You should’ve seen your face!” It hooted in crackled male voice “Priceless!”

“It can talk!?” Sydney screeched

“Can’t we all?” the otter mermaid wondered in soft-spoken feminine voice floating above Sydney’s head who simply responded to it by staring at it with her mouth wide open

“Well, where we come from, you can’t and…” Jade suddenly snapped at it while it swam around but then just stopped in confusion “Wait, why am I talking to a freaky otter thing and totally fine with it!?”

“I’m a digimon, actually” the otter replied

“Come again?” Adrian asked

“Well, digital monsters to precise” the lion explained in a male southern voice “But we’re normally known as digimon, just like Homo sapiens are known as humans”

“Right” Mark replied awkwardly. “So how did you guys get here, exactly?”

“Um, isn’t it obvious?” Ryder sighed gesturing at the stairway hole in the pillar ring.

However the puzzled expressions on the creatures’ faces said otherwise.

Suddenly the ground started to aggressively vibrate again without warning making the group to almost lose their balance.

“What the heck did you touch this time!?” Jade snapped as she balanced herself out at Kieron who was clinging on the tiles on the floor.

“It wasn’t me!” he squealed

A giant purple mole with a drill as a nose suddenly erupted from the ground letting a great growl. As soon as it stopped, a group human hares and men made out of rocks leapt out off its back and surrounded the group.

“Round them all up and prepare them for transport!” the largest palest rock creature commanded

“What do they want from us!?” Sydney asked as they roamed in closer to them

“Truthfully, I’m too scared to guess” Erica gulped

Adrian desperately searched for a gapping for them to escape, but the large group of rocks and rabbits weren’t giving any space for them to go anywhere. He could feel his brain going around in circles as he tried to find a way for them all to get out of here. He looked over the creature spotting the spiral stairway again.

“We need to get to that stairway and find a way to lose them” he whispered to the others

“That’s easier said than done!” Jade hissed

The large crowd of monsters moved in closer and rose up their paws in preparation to grab them.

“TRIPLE THUNDER!” Suddenly a three pathways of yellow beams of electricity erupted from the ground incinerating the rock and hare creatures in their way.

In confusion the group looked down gaps between the electrical pillar rows to spot the bird creature standing by the pillar halo with its tails’ feathers shrouded in weak electricity stabbed into the ground. It was using its wing finger claws to make a gesture to come to it.

“I forgot about that bird one” Kieron claimed as they rushed towards the bird in between the electrical pillar trails.

A minor group of hare creatures attacked them at the top of the stairway but the fox and tiger creatures easily backed them off while the others descended down into the hole. The tiger made swift attacks on them through his sharp claws and his agile tail. While the fox creature was using a regular Korean ancient battle art.

Once there was enough distance the two followed them down. The tiger’s paw accidentally stepped on a tile that descended under the ground like the one earlier that caused the floor to collapse, only that trigger caused to the stairway to close behind them, placing the entire group in darkness.

“It’s so dark down here! I can’t see a thing!” Ryder’s voice complained

“Is it a common thing for humans to claim the obvious?” the voice otter mermaid wondered

“No, that’s just for the male species” Sydney’s voice replied

“Oi, I heard that!”

“You were meant to”

There was suddenly a moment of violent vibrations again, until it returned to normal again.

“What was that?” Adrian’s voice wondered

“Hey, just because we’re in the dark, doesn’t give anyone the licence to touch me!” Jade snapped

“Sorry! I thought I was grabbing onto some sort of rock!” Kieron’s voice gulped

“Well, you weren’t!” Jade growled

“Ugh, this is getting ridiculous! We need some light!” Adrian sighed

“Hold on! Who gave you the stripes!? You don’t even belong here!” Ryder questioned

“Excuse me” a quiet gentle female voice said

“Frankly I don’t think anyone belongs in this place, unless you were referring to home”

“I was referring to the home that you kidnapped us from!”

“Oh, tell me we’re not going through all that again!?”

“Excuse me”

“After everything we’ve just been through you think that I’m still responsible!?”

“Please, all that was just some smoke and mirror stunt and a bunch of your weird dwarf friends dressed in costumes, just so you can pull a fraud on how you’re a fearless hero!

“No it’s not!”

“Excuse me!”

“Face it, Adrian; you’re nothing but lonely little boy desperately wanting attention!”

“Maybe I could say the same thing about you, Francis!”

“You…”

“EXCUSE ME!!”

Adrian’s heart jumped up into his throat at the sound of the new voice that suddenly yelled out into the darkness bouncing off the walls.

“Um…I, um…might have a solution for the lights” the voice claimed in gentle timid tone

Seconds later a bright light emerges from the darkness. There standing in the stairway was the bird creature shyly smiling at the group with its tail feathers shining in a bright yellow light with occasional weak sparks of electricity dancing in between them.

“You can glow in the dark!?” Erica exclaimed in awe

“Well, actually I can produce electricity, of which if I can focus hard enough I can make my feathers light up.” The bird explained before suddenly looking down timidly “But…of coarse…however you want to call it is fine”

“Boy, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” Jade chuckled lowering to the bird’s height.

She looked away from Jade bashfully with a tiny smile on her face. For a moment she blew at a portion of her feathers that covered her face which simply returned to its recent position, not noticing Ryder walking behind her kneeling down in front of her tails.

“Where’s the battery compartment on this thing?” he wondered reaching out to touch one of her tails

The bird turned to Ryder finding his fingers close to her tail which made eyes open wide “No, wait, you shouldn’t…”

Before she could finish, Ryder poked at her tail, in which in split second, he was consumed in vicious electricity!

“Touch…my tail ends” the bird finished as she quickly moved her feathers away from Ryder’s flesh “Sorry”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll be fine” Jade snickered while she and the others tried to hold back their laughter at Ryder’s stunned face and his brand new wild haircut.

---------------------

“And then when you lot were safe. I kicked that digimon its face, jumped and looped around and wham! Landed on the right tile at the right time!” The tiger was bragging mimicking his fighting moves as they wondered through the corridors that stood at the bottom of the stairway.

“Yes, we were there, and we are grateful.” Kieron said sarcastically completely annoyed from the tiger’s never ending chatter “Now, for the hundredth time, thank you, tiger”

“Amurmon”

Kieron turned in confusion to the tiger creature “Excuse me?”

“You can just call me, Amurmon” the tiger replied

“Wait, timeout! You guys have names?” Mark exclaimed stopping in his tracks.

The entire group of nodded in reply.

“And you didn’t tell us this earlier because?” Sydney wondered

“You didn’t ask us” the fox replied in a deep male voice with a tone that matched his serious posture and stare “Of course it’s understandable considering you don’t have names”

“Actually…we have names as well. I guess we didn’t really ask because where we come from it’s the creatures like you who don’t normally have names” Adrian explained as guilt was punching him in the chest “Sorry”

The fox’s nature of stern stayed within him but a gesturing him grew upon his face as he turned to face the young human “Your apology is accepted, young…?”

“Adrian” he replied holding his hand out to the fox who responded in a bit of confusion “Oh, sorry, um, this is a human gesture of saying hello, you need your…paw to do it though”

Soon enough the fox held out his paw and Adrian shook in warm welcoming “Greetings to you, Adrian, my name is Malamon”

“Hello, human! I’m Jacklomon!” Mark’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest as he heard the sound of a squeaky male voice yelling in his ear and turned to find the horned rabbit was sitting on his shoulder mimicking Adrian and Malamon’s gesture in his face.

“Um, Mark Desai, but I’m normally known as Mark” he replied using his finger and thumb to shake Jacklomon’s tiny paw

“Well, I suppose that works as well” Amurmon said

“What works?” Adrian asked

“Well, I thought you guys didn’t have names so I thought I’d give you ones. Like, Egghead, Farm girl, Grape juice and Waiter boy” he explained pointing Kieron, Erica, Jade and Ryder.

“Egghead!?” Kieron yelled

“Farm girl!?” Erica snapped

“What in the world made you think I was…?” Ryder started but then remembered what he was wearing “Never mind. If you must know its Ryder and I for the record I did not choose this clothing”

Suddenly another tremor travelled though the tunnels again.

“That’s the third time that’s happened, what is it?” Mark wondered

“It’s probably something to do with that digimon with the drill earlier. He must be digging through to find us or something” the otter mermaid presumed

“Do you think these walls will hold?” Sydney wondered in a worried tone

“Let’s not stand around to find out” Adrian decided walking forward shortly followed by everyone else.

“I’m sorry but I’m struggling to find out where the tiger…I mean Amurmon got grape juice from” Jade said as continued through the tunnels

“And me with Farm girl” Erica added “I mean do I look like I come from a farm?”

“Well, your new style of clothing does have a bit of a country flare to it” Sydney pointed out

“Oh…no arguments there” Erica said blushing a bit

“Maybe he got your name from the stains in your hair” the bird suggested

“My stai- oh, no, these are actually hair dyes. I meant to put them in there. It’s actually a style where I come from” Jade explained “Kinda like yours”

“You mean my feathers? They’re actually a natural colour of mine” the bird corrected “So, what are your real names then?”

“Well, my name is Kieron, if you must know!” Kieron answered glaring at Amurmon

“I’m Erica, and she’s Jade” Erica introduced gesturing to Jade

“I can say my own name, you know” Jade sighed

“I think that’s a lovely name” the bird appealed “My name is Wrenmon”

“Wrenmon? As in the bird, wren, Wrenmon?” Jade questioned

“Um…” Wrenmon looked down in confusion while blowing at her feathers again

“Oh, my god these the cheesiest names I’ve ever heard!” Ryder laughed “Wrenmon, Amurmon Jacklomon? How much brain cells did it take for you to come up these names, Adrian? Is your friend in the fox costume wearing mala beads in his fur?”

“Will you stop!?” Adrian snapped “I wasn’t responsible for any of this, being trapped down here, nearly falling to our deaths, meeting these digimon, being attacked by those digimon! So why don’t you just except what’s going on and let it go!?”

“And we are what we are the same reason, you are called Francis” Malamon added

“It’s Ryder! So what did you call these creations of yours? Ottermon and Skullmon” Ryder continued

Adrian clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he slowly lost his patience with Ryder.

“If you must know, Ryder, I am known as Lutrimon” the otter said as she gracefully swam past Ryder giving him a sharp glare

“And my name is Orosmon” The skeletal lion added

“I wonder where Adrian came up with those names” Jade taunted

“I was not responsible for this” Adrian yelled who was way storming off way ahead of the group

“Obviously, he doesn’t have sarcasm where he comes from” she sighed

“Adrian, you’re walking too fast! Slow down!” Kieron called out to Adrian only to ignore him. So after a few more shouts he rushed off after him “Adrian, hold up!”

“Let him go, Pryde. That’s just what he wants you to do” Ryder said as he watched Kieron ran after Adrian

“No, it’s because you are a disrespectful human who arrogantly misjudges people’s characters. And one day, that’s going to harm you a lot more than the ones around you” Malamon explained before leaping onto all fours and running after Kieron and Adrian.

“He’s right, you know” Erica agreed as she walked on ahead of them

“About what?” Ryder wondered

“Behold the typical, clueless male” Sydney sighed to Lutrimon joining Erica’s side

“Hey!” Mark and Ryder chorused

“You don’t seem to have respect for your opposite gender, do you?” Lutrimon noticed as she swam through the air near Sydney’s shoulder level who responded with a shrug. “So what do they call you?”

“Sydney!” Kieron’s voice suddenly called out at the end of the corridor “Could you get over here?! There another one of those door things we came across earlier”

“One moment!” Sydney replied as she dashed over to the end of the corridor followed by the others

Halfway, Erica tripped of something big and hard. She assumed it was a stone a first, but when she looked down she found the cocooned caterpillar digimon sitting there with a glum expression on its face

“Oh, sorry about that. You were so quiet, I forgot that you were here” she said sitting up

“Its fine” an emotionless female said from behind the creature’s shell

“Ok” She stood back onto her feet awkwardly staring down at the caterpillar creature “So…do you have a name?”

“Yes”

“Would you like to tell me?”

“Maybe”

“I’m Erica”

“Nice name” the caterpillar replied pulling herself forward like a snail past her

Frustration grew in Erica as she watched the cocoon creature slither its way forward refusing to look up at her in a blank expression in her eyes. Noticing how her movements weren’t the quickest of the lot, Erica walked up to the cocooned caterpillar and scooped her up under arm.

“I’m perfectly capable of moving by myself, thank you” she said without a slight change in her deadpan tone

“True, but you’re not capable of moving fast” Erica pointed out “We just need to catch up with the others, that’s all. I promise I’ll put you down when we get there alright?”

For a moment the digimon just sat in her arm in silence, staring at a random stone with her straight stare, until she took a slow nod with her head and with that, Erica rushed off to catch up with rest of the group.

Once she found them, they were standing in front of another one of those doors waiting for Sydney to complete her task with placing the symbol spheres in the right position apart from Adrian who was resting his ear on the door. Instead of dragons and wizards on the door this time a yin and yang symbol of blue and orange stood above the rings surrounded by orbs containing a symbol inside each of them.

One of them looked like four barred window with a wide T shape sitting on top of it and a wonky L shape placed underneath it. In confusion she quickly opened up her buttoned shirt and checked her scar she had after the strange incident they experienced before meeting these digimon to discover it was a matching symbol.

“Excuse me” Erica was interrupted by the mask covered deadpan voice of the little cocoon digimon still sitting in her arms “You promised you would put me down once we caught up with the others. We have now caught up with the others”

“Fine” she sighed placing the non-bothered digimon back onto the ground who slowly moved herself away from her.

In curiosity she wondered over to Adrian while Sydney had just gotten onto her toes reaching up for the third sphere.

“Um, what are you doing?” she wondered

“Can’t you hear the water on the other side?” he answered still in the same grumpy tone as he left before he and Kieron found the door

“I was only asking, you don’t have to bite my…wait, water?” she quickly placed her ear against the cold stone. Adrian was correct, as she could hear the faint sound of rushing water on the other side. “Hey, you’re right. Sounds like a river or something”

“Well, then now we know he’s not making it up, we’ll use that to find a way out of here” Ryder claimed

“Hey, that’s not…” Adrian started

“Got it!” Sydney interrupted as the line of symbols started to glow again.

“What does that mean?” Jacklomon asked as the doors opened

“What does what mean?” Mark asked back

“What it said on the door; the burning Balance and the dark Chaos, the pure Order and the powerful Life, the shocking Peace and the indestructible Strength, the flowing Eternity and the radiant Wisdom will unite the Great Brothers of Harmony” he explained

“You can read all that gibberish!?” Jade explained

“It must be some instinct that only we digimon have” Orosmon presumed as he went forth

“No offence, but most of the time it sounds like you know what you’re talking about, but then it also sounds like you don’t know what you’re talking about” Erica noticed “If you get my drift”

“I believe what you’re trying to say is that it sounds like we’re unsure of the information we carry ourselves” Lutrimon cleared out hovering above her head

“Well, in truth we are” Malamon declared “We are in the dark as much as you humans are and yet here we are understanding the things that we don’t”

“Oh, god, I’m getting a headache!” Jade complained rubbing on the temples on her forehead

“You guys! We have a slight problem over here!” Kieron called out who was already on the other side of the door.

Outside the exit they found themselves in a vast cave that held white crystal stalactites up on the roof that illuminated the cavern’s darkness. However up ahead several metres beyond them where Kieron stood was a wide gap between two cliffs ledges that was roaring noises of rushing water. The group caught up with Kieron and looked over the ledge, to find a large raging river smashing around the cliff walls and a couple of stalagmites pointing out of the water.

“Well, this doesn’t look good” Mark gulped “Any ideas?”

“We could try falling” Amurmon suggested before everyone turned on him with a glare “What? Its way more fun than climbing down”

“Or we could try flying?” Jade suggested gesturing to Wrenmon and Lutrimon

Wrenmon looked over the ledge but then ran back in fear hiding behind Jade’s leg “No thank you. Far too high”

“Ok, a bird that’s afraid of heights. That’s probably the most ironic moment of the year” Kieron said

“Oh, please. She’s afraid of heights because she’s denying the fact that she can’t fly” Ryder said

“I can fly! I’m just…not fond of flying so high up, that’s all” Wrenmon timidly explained behind Jade’s leg.

“Well, what you, Lutrimon. Are you alright with high places” Sydney asked

“I am. Although, even if I did, there aren’t any vines or ropes that I could use on the other side to use to help you across” Lutrimon pointed out

“Well, you could try and carry us across one by one? Or…”

Sydney’s suggestions were interrupted by another thundering tremble. The vibrations weakened the cliff face causing the rocks to collapse underneath their feet, before rocks, humans and digimon were taken by gravity and sent into watery cavern below!

“What are we gonna do now!?” Kieron screamed

As they plummeted down to the river while trying to avoid been hit by the large tumbling rocks, Ryder suddenly felt a tiny hand rest on his shoulder and turned to find Orosmon falling with his fur on his body and the leafs on his tail and mask been affected by the upward winds as it violently danced all over the place around his body

“Ryder, I need you to do me a favour” he said

“Yeah, I don’t any of us is gonna survive this fall!” Ryder screamed

“Not like that! I need you to throw me cliff face and quick!”

“Why, so you can grab a rock and save your own hide!?”

“Look, Francis, I understand that this is strange for you and that you’re a bit afraid, but right now everyone’s lives are at stake and you need to trust me on this. Now throw me to the cliff”

The moment Ryder’s real name slipped out of the lion’s mouth, he didn’t seem to be annoyed or embarrassed by it for once. Something about that cub made his name sound like it was not much of a problem as it always use to. He looked on at the bone armoured creature as it stared back with a glance of reassurance in his eyes and a slight cheerful expression in his smile. A smile that felt strangely familiar somehow.

With several seconds to spare, Ryder reluctantly grabbed onto Orosmon paw and tossed him towards the cliff.

“TERRA RING!” Orosmon’s pulled back his bony claws as they got engulfed in an emerald flame before slamming it deep into the rocky surface. The moment his paw punched the cliff, a ring of green fire spread out across the cliff in all direction, once the ring was big enough, the flames transformed into giant wooden thorns that caught the falling teens and digimon.

But the rocks continued to fall, as they crashed into the wall of thorns and sent Jacklomon, Mark and Jade to their continuing plummet! Mark quickly grabbed little Jacklomon and forced himself on himself on his back in order to protect the little rabbit from a greater impact.

Suddenly the fall was interrupted something that wasn’t rocks or water. He opened one eyes to see the river standing a hundred metres below him. He looked up to see Lutrimon was under his arms preventing from his fall. He looked next to him and saw Jade dangling from Wrenmon talons clinging onto her shoulder as she rapidly flapped her wing-like arms forcing herself not to look down.

“You guys alright!?” Adrian’s voice called down from above

“Yeah, good job, we’ve got some flying digimon with us!” Jade called back beaming up at the petrified little bird

“Told you falling was a lot more fun didn’t I?” Amurmon called down cheerfully

“That was anything, but fun, you idiot!” Kieron’s voice was yelling

“Sheesh, you really need to loosen up Egghead”

“My name is Kieron! And my kind of fun isn’t nearly becoming skewered by river rocks!”

“So? You could always land on your feet, can’t you?”

“You probably can, but humans can’t!”

“Are they, gonna argue all day or have actually forgotten the fact that they’re all dangling off the edge of a cliff whilst trying to find a way out of this cave!?” Mark groaned as they listened to Kieron and Amurmon’s squabbling.

“Hey, Mark, look down there” Jacklomon declared who was sitting above Mark’s collar bone looking over his shoulder

The three looked in Jacklomon’s direction to spot a lane of sand sitting by the edge of the river

“Hey, you guys! There’s a bank at the side of the river!” Jade called out

“So!?” Ryder’s voice called out

“So, we can use it to follow the river and maybe find a way out of here!” Mark replied

---------------------

The next few hours weren’t as lucky as it was a while back. It took some time to get everyone down from the ring of thorns particularly with Wrenmon’s fear over heights. And when they travelled down the river each tremble made the group a little bit more anxious especially with several of them claiming that the quaking seemed to be getting louder with every vibration. The river on the other hand seemed to get a little calmer as they travelled down its banking.

Eventually they came across a vast cavern where one side was sand and the other was water, the roves were supported a few jagged arches and columns and was still decorated by luminous stalactites that seemed to be lot brighter than it was when they fell off the cliff.

“Maybe we should rest for a while” Adrian suggested as they walked into the open

“And why would we want to do that?” Ryder asked

“Because we have been walking for hours and for all we know it could be the middle night right now.” Adrian explained as the corner of his head twitched in frustration “Satisfied”

“Hey, I’m just saying, you don’t have to boss us around all the time”

“What? When the hell have I ever bossed you guys. Why is it every time I say something you have to come with a critic!?”

“It’s a critic. It’s the fact that you’re not from around here and you should just act like it”

“Except Adrian has a point” Mark interrupted “We’ve been walking for who knows how long and we need a time out from all of it”

“I don’t know about that. I mean I’m not exactly comfortable with those tremors getting louder by the second” Sydney pointed out “And what if those things actually catch up with us while we’re taking a break?”

“You worry too much” Jade sighed who was already resting on the sandy surface

“No, I’m just trying to be realistic” Sydney corrected

“They already have” Malamon suddenly said

“What makes you think…?”

As everyone looked at the digimon, they were all frozen on the spot with their eyes focused down at the ground. Malamon and Amurmon had their claws positioned in front of them baring their teeth and the pupils narrowed. Wrenmon’s wings were trembling against her body, with a concerned look in her face, while Orosmon, Lutrimon and the caterpillar digimon’s expressions were severe. Jacklomon was standing high on his hind legs like a normal rabbit on alert with occasionally an ear unconsciously twitching.

“What is it?” Erica asked

Right on cue, a thundering vibration rose up in the cavern again! The grotto responded with some of the columns that supported the roof to form cracks across its surface! At the centre of the cavern the drill nosed mole burst from the floor with the group of rock and hare digimon from before riding on its back.

“Humans! Take cover!” Malamon ordered

“Why, what are you gonna do!?” Jade questioned

The group of digimon dashed towards the group letting out strange battle cries

“ELECTRIC STUN BLAST!” two of the hare digimon coughed out a cloud of black gas that covered the group

“This gas! I can see anything! Or breathe in that matter!” Mark choked as the humans fell onto their knees gasping for air

“You don’t say!” Sydney spluttered

“Grab them while they’re paralyzed!” the voice of the biggest rock digimon was heard.

Just as the group could see the silhouettes of their attackers a radiant light appeared before them blowing all the smoke away! Once the smoke the gas had evaporated all that remained was Lutrimon, floating high in with her arms spread shrouded in a glowing aqua aura. Her eyes blinked opened revealing her glowing white eyes that glared down at the hare and rock digimon

“MYSTIC CURRENT!” The aura around her gathered in front of her forehead forming a luminous white gem that shot out a beam of cyan and aqua light at the digimon blowing them back from the group.

“I suggest you now take cover before they recover!” she ordered before speeding off from the group who stood there in awe.

“You heard her, move!” Malamon commanded snapping them out of their amazement.

But it was too late tiny groups of digimon advanced at the teens chasing them in different directions!

“ROCK FIST!” One of the rock digmon shot a rock from its head that struck Mark knocking him over!

“Mark, you alright?” Sydney gasped rushing over to help him up followed by Jacklomon.

“I think so” Mark replied sitting up as he rubbed the sore part of his head.

The trio of two hare and one rock digimon advanced forward towards the three. Sydney and Mark closed their eyes waiting for the blow, but it never came. They looked to see the three standing there staring at them dumbstruck.

Mark looked down at Jacklomon who was standing there high on his hind legs with his ears folded down on his head with wide eyes almost filled up by his pupils.

“Aww, who wouldn’t fall for such a cute face!” Sydney cooed

“I guess you’re right” Mark exclaimed noticing how Jacklomon’s stare was focused on the three digimon paralyzed with awe.

“DARKNESS SPARK!” Jacklomon swiftly returned to normal as tiny black orb formed between his little antlers that struck bolts of lightning at the trio of digimon

“Whoa, didn’t see that one coming!” Mark chuckled swiftly picking up Jacklomon heading for the rocks with Sydney.

But they suddenly intercepted two more hare digimon, with their claws hanging in front of them.

“TUNDRA AVATAR!” After Lutrimon’s voice was heard a cyan silhouette of herself flew in front of Sydney and Mark passing through the two attackers who were quickly concealed in an ice berg. They watched the ghost Lutrimon fly up to a physical Lutrimon who was floating in meditative trance glowing in the same aura as before. The silhouette flew into Lutrimon’s chest before she returned to her normal self. She gave Sydney a quick smile before swimming off to find some other digimon to fight.

Erica and Jade sped over the grained strand, using a couple of stone pillars to block incoming attacks. Though they always seemed right at their heels every time they looked over their shoulders. It seemed to be almost impossible to escape these digimon!

The caterpillar digimon stood there as they rushed by observing them with her blank expression.

“ELECTRIC STUN BLAST!”

Jade immediately grabbed Erica by the shoulder and pulled and herself down onto the sand swiftly avoiding the black cloud that passed over her head. As soon the cloud evaporated Jade quickly pulled Erica by the arm and used the rest of her limbs to push one another back up, whilst spotting a group of hare digimon pouncing at them!

“TRIPLE THUNDER!” Three bolts of lightning suddenly came crashing down on the digimon. Jade looked to find Wrenmon flying above their heads and with a yellow light for her tails dying down.

“Are you two, alright?” She asked landing next the duo

“Yeah, we’re good” Erica replied

“Hold on, I thought you said you were afraid of heights, and now you’re flying with no problem!?” Jade questioned

“Well of course I can fly. I just don’t like high places so much, that’s all” Wrenmon explained

“Um…right”

The hare digimon stood back up with a cruel look on their faces.

“Big mistake, little birdie!” the centre one snarled

“I couldn’t agree more” the recognizable deadpan voice replied from behind before its owner jumped forward in front of the others “You lot should know better than to attack defenceless infants”

“Infants!?” Jade repeated in an offended tone

“You shall all be vanquished for the great Raja!” the hare claimed before he his two teammates attacked

“Who?” Erica wondered

“I refuse to stand by as you harm my acquaintances” the caterpillar replied jumping back at the hare digimon

The word acquaintance somehow hurt Erica in the chest.

“NEEDLE BLAST!” The pincers on the end of her body straightened as its claws lit up in a pink colour shooting out two rays of short thin blast glowing magenta needles paralyzing her attacker in mid-air.

“MOURNING STAR!” the caterpillar rolled up into an armoured ball sprouting out two thorns on each side throwing herself at the stunned foe and his other two associates.

One of them leapt high in the air swiftly dodging the rolling ball and landed behind while it returned to its original form.

“ELECTRIC…”

“QUILL CYCLONE!” Wrenmon flew in front the recovering cocoon digimon and rapidly flapped her wings created a spiralling mix of wind and her electric feathers blowing away the hare digimon.

Ryder backed up at step, with his foot slipping from the unseen stone sitting in the sand. He stumbled into the gravel letting out a stunned groan, putting his out to protect himself. He sat to find two rock and a single hare digimon closing in on him.

As the trio advanced none of them noticed Orosmon galloping towards them baring his teeth and a developed sinister expression in his eyes.

“TERRAIN CALL” His blue iris turned to a luminous green colour as Orosmon let out deafening roar releasing massive blazing green sound waves. The sand that got caught in the sound waves were engulfed in green fire that united the grains to form several solid sharp shards before been tossed at the three digimon.

“How about a little heads up next time you’re gonna do that?” Ryder asked as he recovered from the recent loud bellow while Orosmon trotted towards him over the unconscious digimon

“Sorry” Orosmon said with a shrug

Elsewhere Kieron was cornered the cliff face by three rock digimon. He desperately looked around for something to help him out. He looked up and found Amurmon was perched on a high rock watching with amusement of all the chaos going in the cavern.

“Um, Amurmon, a little help here!?” he asked

Amurmon looked down between Kieron and the three rock digimon advancing forward for a moment and looked away “Nah, they’re not were worth it”

“What do you mean they’re not worth it!? They’re the enemy!” Kieron pointed out

“No, I mean, they’re not worth my time” Amurmon explained “Fighting those guys will be a snap. Let me know when there’s a real challenge, would you?”

Kieron looked back at the three rock digimon advancing with their fists up high and murderous expressions on their faces. His head pulsed as tried to come up with a plan to get out of this until one popped up and he looked back up at Amurmon with a sly on his face.

“Oh, I understand. You’re just afraid that you’ll get your butt handed to you by a bunch of measly rocks.” He said cheekily called up to him “Don’t worry, Amurmon, we’ve all been there”

“Hey, I’m not afraid!” Amurmon responded offended jumping up on his feet “Like I said, those guys are a snap! I can take them out in ten seconds flat”

“Prove it, then” Kieron smirked

“Fine!” Amurmon snorted jumping down from his rock

“CRYSTAL JAVELIN!” The first thing Amurmon did was placing his claws deep into the ground pulling out purple cylinder shard twice is own size and tossing at the three rock digimon. It exploded on impact blowing two of the rock digimon several feet away.

“Hey, watch it!” Kieron yelled raising his arms to protect himself from the flying debris.

“ROCK FIST!” the remaining digimon shot a rock from his head, but Amurmon effortlessly crushed into dust

“DIAMOND SLASH!” His claws ignited in a purple light. He swung is arms in front of him releasing a purple ray in the shape of an X sending the pushing the digimon into the watery area of the grotto.

“What’d I say? Ten seconds flat” Amurmon alleged planting his paws on his hip and growing a superior smile on his face “No, no, you’re quite welcome. No need for thanks”

“Yeah, sure” Kieron sighed wiping the sand of his head “Except, you missed a spot”

Following his gaze Amurmon spotted three hare and two rock digimon heading their way. With a roll of his eyes and an arrogant smirk he jumped on all fours and advanced at the enemy.

Another group of digimon were chasing Adrian, skidding around cave corners, ducking under parchments of rock darting from one direction to the next using the environment around him to lose them. Although he was somehow unable to shake these digimon off his tail.

Suddenly he felt pull on his collar shirt and was dragged off the ground dangling from the hands of the largest of the rock digimon.

“Let him go!” Malamon demanded running towards the rock digimon

“SUN GAZER” As he leapt into the air a ring of orange fire formed on his earpieces which in turn ignited his eyes in orange light blasting out scorching hot beams from them at the digimon which hit his arm without making dent.

“You fool!” the rock digimon chuckled tossing Adrian down the hole they came out from!

Malamon attempted to go after him but the mole digimon that stood by stepped forth and knocked him away into a crowd of rock digimon!

“Get out of my way!” he snarled as he stood back up raising his claws

“TIME SPELL!” Suddenly the entire battlefield was concealed in violet aura stopping everyone in their tracks

“Hey, I can’t move anything!” Ryder declared who had been frozen in mid-run

“Who can move anything” Jade replied sitting on one knee recently recovering from ducking of another attack.

“Dare I ask if anyone has a clue what the heck’s going on!?” Mark said also frozen in a run holding on to a wide eyed Jacklomon

“Don’t look at me!” Amurmon called frozen high above their heads in the middle of an attack

At the centre of the cavern a column of black smoke appeared with a being in a hooded purple torn robe holding an amethyst staff in his black bony hands floating a couple of metres off the ground. He lowered his hood revealing the head of a black human skull, decorated with swirled pink stripes. He looked around the area with his lean yellow eyes judging the teens and their companions for a moment until he raised his crystal staff and slammed it to the ground.

The aura around the group almost immediately disappeared making half of the group lose their balance from being clogged in the middle of an attack, leap or run.

The robed skulled floated forward eyeing the teens for a moment and then looked down at the digimon curiously.

“What are you exactly?” Sydney wondered aloud

“I am a friend, young human” he spoke in a dreary male voice

“Why do I think otherwise?” Ryder asked looking up and down in aversion at the skeleton’s appearance

“Because you are clearly a being who tends to judge clearly by one’s appearance” the skeleton replied noticed his distrusting expression “My name is Muertomon, keeper of the burning Balance and the guardian of the Eastern temple”

“Burning Balance?” Mark repeated

“What do you mean by the eastern temple?” Jade asked

“The temple, I imagine you just recently left from” Muertomon answered pointing down gorge the group entered from “I can see there is a lot of explaining to do. Come, we must retreat to my hut before the enemy recovers from my time spell attack”

“Wait you mean all this was you?” Jade figured gesturing to all the frozen digimon

“Hey, what about Adrian!?” Kieron interrupted looking around “He’s gone!”