Things are starting to heat up, and encounters of many sorts are bound to happen! Some good and some bad...anyways enjoy! ^^

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Heart



Max shot another Pyro sphere into a thick boulder lodged into the ground. His location was a few miles south from Star light city, with Zeratrix's advice he began practicing to learn how to shoot the light beam he mentioned. Needless to say, his attempts just came off in failure, he could only shoot his standard Pyro sphere that only served to leave black charred markings on the stone. "Gah! Leo would you come out and tell me what I'm doing wrong?!"

"How am I supposed to know?" Leo called out, pulling Max into his inner conciousness. "You called out the power you rightfully inherited from your grandfather but you're not able to control it just yet. My suggestion would be to forget what Zeratrix said. You have to learn to be your OWN Mon, and develope your own fighting style instead of mimicking others."

Max looked around inside his conciousness and took a seat, drinking a small glass of orange juice. "What's that supposed to mean? I've been fighting my own way from the start."

Only shaking his head, Leo turned to clean another glass from the table, which was funny since his only customer in there WAS Max, the leomon looked a bit frustrated. "You've been fighting the way Pyre taught you to fight. And you're using the light in the way Zeratrix expects you to. It's not a bad way to do things since it works. But all of your attacks lack something. It lacks your heart." He put a large paw over his furred chest and smirked. "Until you can find a style that you can put your heart and spirit into, you'll never beat Myotismon. Heck you'll never make it to ultimate."

"Is that why Blade is so strong? He's not wearing the usual attire of a Dinohyumon..." Max thought to himself, but he knew that even his private thoughts weren't out of the Leomon's grasp so he decided to speak it out loud once more. "He's fighting different than his species so he's got the power of an ultimate, maybe higher."

Leo nodded, obviously happy that Max came to that conclusion on his own and poured the boy another glass. "You have it half right. YES he is decorated differently, and he's using weapons that clearly are of MEGA class. But it's not the weapons, or the attire, it's his heart. He has something the others don't, and that's passion, A passion in his belly that drives him to be the best." Leo would have went further but he turned on his serious face. "You have company..."

Max snapped back into reality, he looked to his right and saw the one thing he didn't want to see. Myotismon in the flesh, stepping to him as if he were some child. "SO this is the so called...inheritor of the light." Max waited for Myotismon to step out of the shadows, he was sporting a rather intimidating black cape with a red underlayer, a red mask covered around his eyes with pointed bat wings protruding behind his ears. Black boots on each foot, the right boot having the emblem of a skull and the left of a bat, the most definitive features were the blue tux he wore beneath his cloak and the purple lips with a menacing grin revealing a pair of fangs.

"Myotismon..." Max muttered under his breath, immediately digivolving into a Growlmon as he prepared for a confrontation. "I heard you were lurking in this city."

"Hah, you bare your fangs at me? You're but a boy, and one that is far too inexperienced to tango with me. Grisly wing!" Myotismon announced his attack, hands stretched out as a swarm of bats enveloped Max, a smack to his stomach coming soon after, knocking the large Dinosaur off his feet.

Max rubbed over his stomach but shrugged the pain off, the light flickering on and off his larger frame, the blade on his forearm glowing a bright white as he brought it to bare on the ultimate digimon. "You've hurt people!"

But Max's attack never hit it's mark, the vampiric digimon turned into a black mist as Max was forced to finish his attack on the boulder he was blasting moments before, cutting it in half. He looked around, searching for Myotismon amid the darkness and growled, it was then that Myotismon revealed himself behind Max, a long red whip wrapping itself around Max's neck, he began to choke as he tried pulling the whip away. "What makes you think that you can defeat anybody in your pathetic state? I'll not destroy you, not yet. You can still be useful. I want the spirit of darkness."

Max's vision was becoming dark, his lungs quickly depleting of oxygen as he struggled to remove the whip around his neck. The only thing he heard was mention of Darkness before his body was once again enveloped in it's bright light, the whip vanishing amid the light, startling his opponant. "I won't let the darkness consume this world!"

"Hmph...you fight out of a sense of duty, You will never be able to defeat me if all you can think about is your misguided faith in the light!" Myotismon slashed his whip back at Max, or what was left of it but was caught off guard when Max was able to snatch it in his paw, he tried yanking it back. "You miserable fool, release that this instant!"

Max's face became expressionless for a moment, then a look of pity showed, directed towards Myotismon. "Why do we have to fight?" He asked, releasing the whip.

"Why? Did you just ask WHY?" Myotismon laughed, scrutinizing Max. "Nothing in this world is clear cut kid. Plain and simple, I want to extinguish the light, and you want to stop me and my companions. If you don't want to fight me, join me."

"I can't do that." Max stated simply, he took a deep breath. "I need...no...I WANT to protect this world.

Suddenly, Pyre's voice broke through, it was a deep rumbling voice. "Believe in yourself! It doesn't matter if you're a champion or even a rookie! Follow the path that's right for you. Nobody else, not me, not Leo, not RD, not even your grandfather can make the choice for you!"

Max growled, reverting into his base Guilmon form, the light forming around his legs. "Let me show you what this miserable fool is capable of."

"I welcome you to try, you would have been much better off as a champion." Gloated Myotismon. "Grisly wing!" He held his hands out, the bats flying forth towards Max, what happened next startled the dark type digimon as Max dissapeared in a blur, he reappeared to Myotismon's side, dashing straight towards him, the light vanished from Max's legs and moved into his arms as he crashed his elbow into the ultimate's stomach, sending him staggering back. "The hell was that?!"

Myotismon tried to land a punch on Max, but he dissapeared once again, reappearing a couple meters away. "Thank you Myotismon. You helped me out even if you were trying to break me. I know exactly what I have to do. And more importantly what it is I WANT to do." He held both paws up, shifting between his footpaws. "Zeratrix was right, I'm not strong, I'm weak when it comes to other light wielders. At least that's what I thought."

Max dashed towards Myotismon, his feet leaving deep imprints into the ground, most of him was merely a blur until he stopped infront of the dark type and swung his legs underneath Myotismon's, tripping the guy up. "And now for a DUAL ROCK BREAKER!" His arms lit up, then in rapid succession he began pounding into Myotismon's chest, forming a crater around the two as each punch made a definitive impact.

After about a minute of the brutal pounding, Max stopped his assault, staring at the ground as well as Myotismon, who appeared to be unconcious from the beating. Max pulled himself up and spat on the ground, rubbing his paws as the light barrier dissapeared. "I'm still not able to use the light as a weapon such as a sword or a laser. And the Light that encases me isn't powerful enough to do substantial damage with my rock breaker. So I changed tactics and shifted all of the light inside of my body into a single point, increasing my speed and power." He held up his paws, blowing over one. "I know that attack wasn't enough to delete or reconvert you though so you can get up now."

A second later, Myotismon's eyes opened and he pulled himself off the ground. "Maybe there IS some truth to this inheritance. But you're still just a child."

Max only nodded in agreement, he turned his back on Myotismon as he started walking away. "You were holding back, If anything you were only using 20 or 30 percent of your full power. So I'm going to assume that you're just a projection or a clone. There's no way that even with the power of light that I'd defeat an Ultimate of your calibur."

"Quite perceptive. I thought that only 25 percent of my power would be necessary to bring you to submission. When next we meet though, I won't hold back, and you'd better get a whole lot stronger." Myotismon taunted, laughing despite his defeat as his phantom started digitizing into code, dissapearing from the world.

Max nodded, taking a deep breath as he started walking back into city. "Next time we meet, it'll be the last time." He said quietly to himself, he doubted he had the strength to make it back to the hotel so he made way to the closest tavern in the city.

A Dorumon was quick to offer Max a hand, when Max stepped into the Tavern though he promtly passed out. "Oh boy...he had it rough. Hey Weregarurumon I'm going to bring this guy upstairs so he can rest."

The Weregarurumon was sitting by the counter of the Tavern's pub. "You're gonna pay for the room?" He asked, sliding a couple drinks to some of the paying customers.

"Oh come on now! Can't you see he's hurt? Alright, I'll pay you once I get him in bed, but you owe me a free drink!" Dorumon grumbled, carrying or more like DRAGGING, Max up the stairs as poor Max's legs were left to slide against the stairs while the Dorumon carried his upper body, opening the closest available room, Dorumon set Max in bed, who immediately started snoring. "Whew...he's a bit on the heavy side..."

When Dorumon came back down he brought a bag of bits over to Weregarurumon, but the canine waved his paw. "Keep it. I'd rather not have to owe you any more drinks, that's bad for buisness."

"You just can't admit that you have a soft spot." Dorumon commented, his tongue sticking out before he sat down on a low stool, leaning his back against the counter's end. "What do you think happened to him?"

Weregarurumon shrugged his shoulders, he watched as a few others went off into their rooms for the night, leaving just a couple stragglers left in the main floor. "I think he's one of the competitors in the tournament that's going on. I saw a Guilmon in one of todays matches against an Ankylomon."

Dorumon blinked, it took him a moment to register then his eyes went wide. "that was him?!" He turned his gaze upstairs before smiling. "I hope he wakes up before the next match tomorrow, It'd be a shame for him to miss his round and be kicked out of the tournament."

"Well...it'll be your responsibility then to check up on him every now and then." Weregarurumon started scratching his head and let out a tired yawn. "Lock up the place will you Doru? I'm going to turn in early."

"Hey! You always turn in early and I always have to keep an eye on the place..." But it was too late, the Weregarurumon was already upstairs, shutting his door for rest. "Well...guess I can turn in after these two leave..." He grumbled, staring at two Goburimon that were sitting at a table, swinging their clubs around. "I wish I could go out and have some fun like that sometime..." He muttered, watching them with tired eyes. Eventually the pair took off and he was able to shut the doors to the Tavern, locking it up for the night so he could turn in. He had a few questions to ask Max when he woke up, but for now he just wanted to do what the Guilmon had done and pass out.

(To be continued)