This was probably the longest chapter written thus far in either set. but it's finally done and good thing too as I'll be away a couple of days! Enjoy! RD belongs to  rainbowdragon Kiya belongs to  dragonsurfer

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Working with Darkness.


Growlmon was tapping at the holo screen situated on the far end wall in the hidden cave. He looked to be scrolling through different types of scenery, until he stopped at a calm grassland "Alright...I think this will do fine for our training grounds..." Growlmon pressed his paw into the hologram, and suddenly their surroundings began to digitize, taking on the shape of the grasslands that had been on the display moments ago. The only thing that refused to change was the clear blue orb sitting in the middle of the stage

RD blinked but nodded as he set himself, channeling the light power through himself to start things off "This is somewhat like a tutorial right?" RD asked thinking "I'm just getting the hang of what my light nature is so it helps that I have someone who actually has experience in this"

Growlmon nodded a few times "Even if it's a refresher course, we couldn't risk destroying the hideout. SO I told Yggdrasil's system to digitize the base and turn it into something more...open world so that we don't cause a cave in. Plus we need to get you used to fighting even if you have a full stomach. Which is why we're not waiting for you to finish digesting those two." He took a deep breath, and collapsed the holo screen with a paw "I'm sure your spirit already taught you the basics right? But has he taught you how to manipulate the lights shape?"

RD shook his head "I only know where to direct the light, the wall thing was a fluke and it was only because I was super confident that it happened...."

Growlmon nodded a few times, he took a deep breath as he lifted his paws just a few inches apart from each other, a ray of light forming between them and creating a pike which he grasped with his left paw. "It's simple enough, it takes precise concentration. You have to imagine in your mind what it is you want to make, then will the light to bend in your favor. You also have to teach it not to dissapate, otherwise..." He gave the pike a good swing at RD, intending to slash at him but it disentigrated half swing "That happens."

RD cringed, backing up slightly before watching the light dissapate. "That's tough considering that i'm sometimes distractible, how do you teach light?" RD asked slightly confused

Growlmon chuckled softly "It's pretty simple. You don't teach it in the way that you and I would learn." HE formed another pike in his claws, then dug the pointed spear into the ground, this time rather than dissapearing, it left a decent sized hole in the ground. "In the end, the light is a part of you. Will it to solidify and it will."

"So it's based on willpower....ok" RD took some light into his hands and made a ball and chain, it stayed solid but was too light, so it was sent flying by accident when RD lifted his claws

Growlmon cringed, ducking his head a bit before laughing "Yes. Though remember...it'll only be as reliable as you make it. Try that again...except trying to add a little bit of weight to it. Once you have a decent weight we can start to battle."

RD did so, except now it was too heavy, so heavy in fact that when RD dropped it it left a crater in the floor!

Growlmon sweatdropped, before he smirked, looking at the crater that had been left on the floor "Hmmm...You're almost there." He pulled his pike out of the ground and held it steady.

RD annoyed finally managed to lift the thing and swing it around properly, he remembered how the ball and chain worked, the ball was the business end, basically though you had to keep the ball in motion and make sure you didn't accidentally wrap yourself up in the chain, it was good and heavy though so it could break weapons with ease if timed right.

Growlmon nodded a few times, he looked pleased that RD managed to get a hang of it "Alright. Now have a sparring match. Any injuries I can heal with my light so don't worry about reserving your strength for the finals. You can go buck wild."

RD blinked then nodded, he made another mental note on the biggest problem the ball and chain had, it was slow, really really slow, most people could use a bat and hand to hand (or in this case claw to claw) combat to greater effect, still RD charged in

Growlmon watched RD charging forward and took a deep breath, rather than charging in as well he took a step to the side and thrust his pike forward in RD's direction

RD dropped his ball and chain to sidestep, strangely the chain stretched like a rubber band, when the dodge ended the chain snapped tight and took the pike with it as it went back to RD's other claw

Growlmon blinked, caught by surprise as his pike was taken out of his paw and stared dumbfounded "Well then. It has a sort of stretchy substance, that's a useful trick." He chuckled, resorting to his claws as the blade on his elbow protruded outward "Dragon slash!"

RD blinked as the slash effortlessly destroyed the ball and chain "I didn't even tell it to do that, I just knew that I had to keep the weapon on hand at all times!"

Growlmon nodded a few times "That's probably it. It gave itself an elastic quality with your wishes to remain in your claw. I would suggest something smaller though. That way it won't dissapear from one slash. Preferably a sword...or some kind of spear. Not as powerful, but much more stable, and won't shatter unless enough force is put behind it."

Materializing a shield, RD smirked. "Trust me, with my defensive abilities this is more appropriate" RD said with a nod "Shall we continue?"

Growlmon nodded a few times, he materialized a sword this time into his hand "Yes. Once you've mastered these. We can work around creating that light cage...or based from what I saw on your battle I like to call it the light roaster." He laughed, before charging at RD, making a lunging motion

RD put his shield in front of himself, parrying the attack and then kicking outwards to gain a little distance, then in a move reminiscent of Captain America he chucked the shield at Growlmon's face

Growlmon didn't see this one coming, he growled as the shield made a 'CLUNK!' sound against his head, and started shaking it off "Okay...that's slightly annoying but very effective..." He growled, materializing a spear in his other hand and chucking it at RD, then surged forward to slash him


RD was easily able to sidestep the thrown spear and caught the shield as like a boomerang it came back to him, unfortunately it didn't come back to him quickly enough and he got slashed right on the chest.

Growlmon cringed, watching a small string of code leaking from where he had afflicted the wound on RD "Would you like me to heal you real quick or keep going?"

RD winced as he tried to repair the wound himself, eventually the injury seemed to repair itself due to the light. "Let's keep going for now, i'm inexperienced so I need this"

Growlmon nodded, pleased that he hadn't seriously injured his student. "You're not dodging as much as you should. It makes you a target." Growlmon moved forward, gripping the spear that remained laying on the ground and charged forward, spear first and blade at the ready

RD took his shield and used it to block while at the same time unleashing his fire and tail lash attacks, he then materialized a sword and thrust past growlmon's blade

: Growlmon blinked, keeping light on his feet to avoid the fire attack but the tail attack gave him a good whacking. He barely had enough time to get his sword for a guard and cringed as it went through him. Thankfully not hitting any vital spots "Yeesh...maybe my champion form is a bit too easy for you." He felt over his open wound, watching as data poured out through it.

Wincing, RD put down the sword at his side. "OK well at least we're making progress" RD said with a nod

Growlmon nodded a few times "Yes. But not hardly good enough to face Blade." Growlmon started glowing, armor starting to form over his torso, a pair of axe like arm pieces attaching to his arms, and his mouth being covered up by a steel plate "It may seem a little unfair, but you'll need to get the hang of battling an ultimate."

RD blinked "You digivolved?!? Ok" RD was suddenly very nervous but tried to shake it off as he tried to tweak his shield to make it larger and modify his sword, but being inexperienced he had a hard time modifying both at the same time

Growlmon, or rather WARGrowlmon now, nodded "I could digivolve straight to mega, but that would be going overboard. Every one of the champion guardians of the four high lords are of ultimate strength. Naturally you'll need to pit yourself against an ultimate to truely test yourself."

RD sighed and nodded, he knew that the training was going to be incredibly hard, but this was even more than he thought it was going to be

Wargrowlmon scratched his head before chuckling "How's this for a reward...If you manage to knock me back into my champion form by...let's say the end of the day...I will...as strange as it sounds...put myself on a platter for you and let you eat me." He scratched his cheek "How's that sound?" He asked as he got into a battle ready stance

RD drooled in spite of himself before nodded as he got ready "Alright it's a bet then but what if I don't pull it off?"

Wargrowlmon snickered as he caught RD drooling at the thought and nodded "If you don't pull it off, then I'll do the eating. We have a deal?" He asked, arms crossed. "If so, then go ahead and attack me."

RD nodded as he walked in but he did so slowly, this calculated assault wasn't his usual style but rushing in blindly was liable to get him hurt

Wargrowlmon chuckled, his massive tail twitching in anticipation for the attack, if RD looked well enough, every inch of Wargrowlmon's body seemed perfectly defined. Every muscle set to pounce and could probably send RD tumbling back into a Dracomon with a single well placed shot "Given the difference in attack power, I'll refrain from using light in this form. Blade can't use it so neither will I."

RD nodded slowly, something felt off on him but he kept his mouth shut, what was that Smithy was telling him previously about making light and dark work together to help defeat opponents, he could try it having the light be his shield and the darkness become his sword, but would that really work, the confusion nearly made him lose focus but he snapped out of it and jumped in, using the shield as a barrier in case Growlmon attacked.

Wargrowlmon blinked, keeping his eyes over RD and lifted a single paw to parry the shield.

RD did something surprising and threw his sword, now that he thought of it he could probably make something like a sword ring, so he focused and suddenly a circle of swords surrounded them both, RD then focused the light on his legs and jumped high, just as the swords came in to stab but the swords didn't work right, and dissipated upon contact without doing any damage, cursing his inexperience and the fact that now he had turned this into an aerial battle RD kept his shield ready

Wargrowlmon smirked, watching the swords dissapate around him, it looked like RD had a lot to learn, but instead of swiping with his paw, he took a swipe with his large, powerful tail. The attack in itself was enough to knock RD out of his coredramon form, not to mention probably form a few bruises in the morning. "Don't try to do too much at once. Still...the fact that you were able to form so many is a good start. Now...come at me again!" He roared.

RD groaned as he reverted to dracomon form, meaning he couldn't fly anymore and he glided down to the ground, this time he materialized two swords, it was similar to how Blade fought with a two-handed shortsword stance as RD charged at Wargrowlmon

Wargrowlmon blinked, looking at both blades and smirked as RD came charging in, Wargrowlmon made no moves to avoid the attacks, though with his large bulky form nobody could really blame him, but none of the slashes seemed to really cut deep. a couple zeroes and ones would float into the air but his skin remained virtually unharmed. Suddenly a voice creeped into RD's head "You're too...soft hearted."

RD's eyes narrowed, what was going on? When this guy was Growlmon he had no problem attacking it, now as Wargrowlmon attacking him yielded no results and his light swords dissipated or didn't do any damage when the slash was done, also what the heck was that voice....

Wargrowlmon chuckled a bit "Now you see...This is the power Blade has in combat. Did you know...The Japanese have a different word for the ultimate class of digimon? They call us perfect. As in perfect defense...attack, and speed. Everything in this form is perfectly balanced." His tail twitched a bit, the cannons on his chest starting to glow a crimson red, a sign of a charging blast. The voice sounded again in his head "Let the Darkness take hold." Just as Wargrowlmon sounded his Pyro blaster attack, a purple aura like sphere enveloped RD, completely shielding himself from the assault!

RD blinked, wait, was that the spirit of darkness doing this?!? If so he needed to let it work, otherwise he'd be in trouble"

Wargrowlmon looked stunned to say the least, not at all expecting a barrier of darkness from RD. The voice sounded once more inside of RD's head "Embrace the darkness. But don't let it consume you." Suddenly the barrier that had enshrined RD faded, shrinking down into what looked like Jesse's Javelin as a Loweemon

RD blinked, what did he mean? He felt darkness sure but just as the concept of feeling light and darkness was foreign to him this one nearly went right over his head, until he looked at his javelin, this was only a spar sure, but there were two people he needed to defeat. Holding back on allies was a crucial concept sure but he couldn't hold back now.

Wargrowlmon stared at the Javelin before shaking his head in surprise "That's...not something I quite expected..." He lifted a paw, and brought it down to bare on RD

RD easily sidestepped the attack, despite all that power Wargrowlmon was both big and slow. He went and got to Wargrowlmon's back and then skewed him with the javelin

Wargrowlmon cringed, feeling the Javelin actually PIERCING his armor! He growled, pulling it out of his back, a decent hole in his back but not enough to knock him out of ultimate quite yet "The hell...That's better. Now come at me with more of that!" The spirit growled lightly to RD, sounding not quite menacing as much as it was guiding "Keep up the pressure, show no mercy."

RD knew this, he once remembered that while playing a boxing game that "Fighting is all about momentum" as long as he kept pressing his advantage, wargrowlmon would find himself on the receiving end of combos, he materialized a sword again and this time instead of slashing he thrusted instead, spotting that stabbing and thrusting attacks worked a lot better on Wargrowlmon's armor then straight up slashes

Wargrowlmon cringed, he himself hadn't realized this flaw in his anatomy until now as those slashes managed to dig into his armor and even started piercing skin, he started grasping for RD to capture the small Dracomon, even started resorting to trying to stomp down on him.

This was working fantastically, now Wargrowlmon wasn't focused, his attacks were becoming much more predictable and risky as RD did something simple and materialized a nail which he drove into Wargrowlmon's massive paw

Wargrowlmon blinked, cringing and yowling as the nail dug into his paw and started trying to pry ot out with a growl "Damnit! Now that was a childish move..." He muttered under his breath, trying to calm himself down. The voice within RD chuckling in amusement "Just a bit more now. Digivolve, and use your strongest attack."

RD smirked and did so as he digivolved and opened his mouth wide "G shurunen!" Maybe it was because his own light was added to it but the laser blast was much bigger than normal

Wargrowlmon finally managed to dig the nail out of his paw, then cringed as the beam of light came charging at him, smacking him clear on his face and knocking him on his back. He surprisingly started reverting into a Growlmon again

RD smirked as he walked up to Wargrowlmon as he was reverting "That worked out nicely"

Once he was back into a Growlmon, he groaned, pulling himself up and starting to treat his injuries "I didn't expect you to use the darkness...It might even startle Blade enough to give you the upper hand...Either way I...DID promise. Though..." He smacked his belly, laughing "I'm lunch. I was planning for it to end up this way anyway. If you and Max win then you'll come to this place and I'd rather not Max see me."

RD nodded laughing "It sort of just happened, I still have some ways to go but I can do it" RD said looking at himself and nodding "I'm going to go back but that training helped out a lot"

Growlmon nodded, chuckling "Well...go on and eat me. once I'm in your belly...go see a Dorumon by the name of Doru. He can continue your training."

RD blinked, wondering if that was the same dorumon he ate but he got right to work starting on Growlmon's head and stretching his jaws to swallow the digi

Growlmon stared into RD's drooling jaws, groaning as thhey stretched out to accomodate his large frame but overall it wasn't such a bad situation, one could assume this is where Max got his enjoyment out of the activity himself.

RD thought it was funny when he spotted the Growlmon's tail wagging, the apple didn't fall far from the tree as the saying went. With a few powerful swallows he started pulling in Growlmon's midsection, that belly of his jiggling and squishing inside those jaws as he was by all means a bit larger than your average dino. After a few more laborous swallows, RD lifted his head up to swallow what remained of his Jurrassic meal.

Growlmon groaned, bulging out RD's stomach greatly, The Dracomon's gut bouncing much as it did when he'd swallowed down the Garurumon, though this meal succeeded in doing what the previous could not, and that was weighing down the dragon type.

Belching thickly, RD struggled to the blue glowing orb in the center of their training grounds. He had to figure out now how to turn off the simulation and get back to where he'd been. Eventually, this would come about naturally to the bloated Coredramon who found he'd simply had to hover his hand above the orb and a holo screen with the digi code for "return" plastered in the middle. He gave it a soft press and he was right back in the hollowed underground base below the city. Now with that done he pulled out his digivice, he recalled from Smithy that anything he ate would end up as a digiegg in his portable primary village.

As Smithy said, there seemed to be a few digi-eggs inside of his digivice, and conveniently, each egg listed off just who was inside of it, right from the Ogremon he'd eaten when they first stepped into the digital world, and down to Dorumon, whose egg was a mix of purple and white

RD blinked, hrmm none of the digieggs had hatched yet despite the time that had passed, he'd better check on them, he gave his belly a few good pats. Growlmon wasn't giving him any sort of trouble at least down there.

Surprisingly, as he checked the digieggs listed on them, one among RD's meals in the digital world was missing among them. It wasn't until he heard singing from his digivices speakers that it became apparently clear, and if he swiped pages in the digivice he'd spot Echo sitting in the center of the screen, singing in his microphone while holding what looked like an envelope.

This was way too easy, but he couldn't pass up the chance to crack a joke. "Hi Echo, wow a few minutes of singing and already somebody lodged a noise complaint against you?"

Echo blinked, looking around to find the source of the voice then looked straight at RD, laughing "I didn't want to wake up the other digieggs so I decided to walk through your digivice...you know...surprisingly it's pretty spacious...I was even considering encoding a house here!" He smirked. "Oh...and you've got mail!"

RD blinked, baffled that Echo was taking it so casually but nodded. "Ok so you hatched, wait so that means even I could go into that digivice if need be?" RD had a weird fascination with things storing other things in spaces much smaller than themselves

Echo nodded a few times. Laughing "I guess you could. Though getting out would be the tricky part since well you're the one who handles the digivice."

RD shrugs "True anyways let's get you out of there, how did you hatch before everyone else, also what's on my mail?"

Echo shrugged his shoulders "First get me out of here." He tapped his foot.

"Right, you can put me in the thing for easy travel for revenge if it makes you feel better, how long have you been in there" RD asked messing with the digivice to get Echo out.

Echo laughed and shook his head "I'm not angry, besides like I said I was thinking of coding a house in here...I'd code a house in your stomach but I don't think that would work." He admitted, actually admitted to RD that he had enjoyed being eaten. "As For how long only about a few hours. Long enough to have heard that you ate something you shouldn't have." Soon enough, RD got lucky and ended up redigitizing Echo infront of him.

RD's eyes went wide, astounded. "My stomach is THAT cozy?!?" RD was becoming more and more stunned by the masochistic amount of preyish digimon in this world, from what he was familiar with it was typically the other way around. In any case RD chuckled as he got echo in front of him "Now I need to see what's taking that ogremon digiegg so long sheesh"

Echo laughed and nodded "It's pretty soft and warm, and quite honestly...I wouldn't mind going back in there. Of course..." Echo looked RD over, smirking at the sagging stomach and the bulge that Growlmon made inside of it "I'd say right now there's not any room. Jeez...I can't believe you even have the stomach capacity for a growlmon." He laughed..

Laughing at the comment, RD simply nodded. "Trust me I LOVE stuffing myself! anyways about that mail"

Echo smirked "I'll have to keep that in mind." He then caught himself, grinning "Oh! Right." He handed RD the envelope "It's from somebody by the name of Fang. It contained information regarding Blade."

Taking it, RD decided now was as good a time to skim through it. First time he knew they could send any form of communications to each other and he'd have to remember that, in case they got seperated further.

Echo tilted his head, jumping a few times as if to try and peek over RD's shoulder, eventually he settled with climbing RD's stomach like a mountain to view the note. Inside it had some pretty detailed reports on Blade's last two battles. One detail that Fang took great care to emphasize was the fact that Blade favored his left handed blade over his right, preferring to parry with the right and go with the kill using his left

"So he's a lefty, ok got to remember that" RD said nodding at this, This gave him a little more information on Blade than he had first off.

Echo nodded a few times, and coughed "Yeah...erm I think I have an idea on how to hatch Doru's egg. Though he himself might not be too happy with it. It just came to me but erm...Put me back into your digivice...my singing erm...might be able to get him to hatch early."

"Alright, not sure about the other ones but ok" RD put echo back in the digivice, wondering how his singing would effect a hatching digiegg.

Echo felt himself digitizing back into RD's digivice, and chuckled "Well...least think of it this way...I'm easy storage, and once Doru is hatched you can come in here. Afterall I doubt you'll be going ANYWHERE with that gut." RD would watch Echo's image walk through the different screens. Eventually making it into the primary village and walked over to Doru's egg. And surprisingly enough, started serenading to it, not with the best of singing voices either

RD cringed, he remembered an episode of digimon where agumon and gomamon tried to sing, it was so high pitched and screechy that everyone covered their ears, compared to that......this was SLIGHTLY more pleasant

Echo continued his singing for a few minutes longer, Doru's egg eventually starting to crack, then dissapearing to be replaced with a Dorumon covering his ears with a paw "Gah! Enough...I know I did bad Were!" He whined, then blinked when he saw Echo "Erm...where am I?" He seemed oblivious.

RD tried his absolute best not to crack up laughing as he saw this but he had to get to the arena soon, so he decided to try once more to drag his stomach off the floor to the elevator. That would prove easier said than done, as Echo had pointed out, Growlmon's weight left him nearly immovable. Every step took a a bit of effort, with his stomach dragging despite him holding it in his claws. Eventually he just gave up, overall deciding it best to sit it out and let this large meal digest.

Within RD's digivice, Echo was watching the scene from the digivice's screen and laughed. "I told ya! Let me out and you won't have to worry about being stuck in that dark place."

RD grumpily put his one claw to his face in annoyance, Echo had a point, and it was his own fault for stuffing Growlmon into his mouth without taking careful consideration. He also had amends to make with Doru, though the small beast type had a few apologies of his own.

Echo snickered a bit "Well...maybe you should talk it out with Doru. It won't do much to cast blame." Once Echo was let out he smirked, holding his mic in one hand and then using his other to grab RD's digivice, and with a bit of luck digitized him into his own digivice

Doru was sitting by a cluster of eggs, but when RD formed infront of him, he winced. To make sure RD didn't flatten any of the eggs he started rolling RD to the next page "Ugh...I wish I could stuff myself..." Doru replied in what sounded like an envious tone.

Meanwhile, Scav and Kiya were JUST making their way into the eastern domain, and even atop Leviamon's snout they could sense something wasn't quite right, but it was Leviamon that sounded his worries first. "I sense something is amiss here. Something has happened to Azulongmon. I'll get you both to the shore but you'd better fly fast and true."

(To be continued)