Digimon Adventure ND Book One: Manipulamon Reigns - Chapter Twenty-Two

There isn't much to say about this chapter. I wanted to illustrate that battling an Ultimate (Mega) Level version of Manipulamon would be a fight on an entirely different scale from any previous fight, so I wrote an entire chapter dedicated only to establishing that. End of story. 

Chapter Twenty-Two

ViralManipulamon

The sky above the Citadel grew dark, as a massive black cloud rolled in and blocked out the sun. Energy crackled from somewhere outside the wall up into the atmosphere, into the cloud, making it larger with every passing second. Birdramon circled around and set down in front of me and my team.

“Come, my human allies,” she said, “we ride together into battle. Win or lose, the war ends today!”

“Glad you're so enthusiastic about it,” I told her, sarcastically, and we climbed onto her massive feet, holding onto her feathery legs. She flapped her mighty wings and rose into the air, flying fearlessly through the hostile winds of the brewing storm. She carried us past High Tower, and over the back wall, where she set us down. Then she flew back over the wall.

A minute or so later she returned with Dokugamon and Tuskmon in her claws, and she set them down beside us. Finally, without another word, she launched herself into the air and joined our Digimon, still at Perfect Level, who were flying toward the place from which the skyward-lancing energy was emanating. We ran after them, and soon the source of the energy came into view. Three guesses what it was.

MetalDragonterramon and Knighthramon were still on the ground with Manipulamon. Manipulamon was going nuts. His muscles were swelling randomly, and growing larger. If he couldn't be destroyed immediately, he was actually going to continue Digivolving, despite my efforts, and based on the fact that he was already nearly triple his original size, it was obvious that he was going to grow huge. MetalDragonterramon saw this, too. He raised his rifle and took aim at Manipulamon’s face, but the foe swatted the weapon away, flailing wildly. Frustrated, MetalDragonterramon called, “Terra Strike!” His now empty claws glowed white and he swiped at the foe. The attack cut into Manipulamon's flesh, but the wounds healed in an instant.

Manipulamon swung his arms wildly, throwing my Digimon to the ground. The once-brilliant Digimon roared like an animal, and thrashed at nothing. His skin darkened, and his eyes glowed red. He grabbed his head and stumbled into a grove of tall, closely-packed trees, and out of sight.

MetalBrauntomon, MegaMechamon, MetalStaliamon, TechnoFillimon and Birdramon landed beside MetalDragonterramon, Knighthramon and my friends and I. My dragon picked up his rifle as Dokugamon, Tuskmon, and the mechanical dog from earlier walked up to us. “Hey,” I said to the robotic dog, “you’re that Digimon from before. You fought Kuwagamon. That was really brave, but I don't think you'll be much help here.”

“Maybe not,” he said, showing more emotion than his kin in his synthetic voice, “but I want to help any way I can anyway. My name's TechnoPupmon. I want to help you fight.”

“Okay,” I said. “I do get the feeling that we could use all the help we can get on this one.”

I looked back at the Citadel, “Any idea when Machinedramon might be battle ready again?”

As I spoke, and as we all watched, several trees toppled. A massive form rose up within the trees. It was as tall as any one of the Citadel towers, with a long neck. Above and below each of the creature’s proportionately too long muscular arms was a long tentacle. The creature also had a thick, strong tail, and its head was the same as Manipulamon’s, except more animalistic, with a pronounced snout and rows of sharp teeth. The massive creature swung his tail, sweeping nearly a dozen trees out of the way, looked up into the black cloud above and roared, “ViralManipulamon!”

“Oh crap,” said Jeremy. “He’s huge! How do we fight something that big!?”

“Easy,” said MegaMechamon. “Like this. Weapon Assault!”

Every weapon on the mechanical Digimon’s body fired at once. The attack hit, having absolutely no effect on ViralManipulamon at all.

“No way,” said MegaMechamon. “He didn’t even seem to feel it!”

“My turn,” said MetalBrauntomon. He charged forward calling, “Metal Dino-Strike!” He jumped into the air, switching to Flight Mode, and flew straight at the foe, meaning to slice him with his blade-like wings, but before he could get close, ViralManipulamon swatted him with one of his massive tentacles, sending the metal dinosaur plunging into the ground. The impact made a small crater in the hard earth.

“Enough games,” I said. “This guy is too much for Perfect Digimon. MetalDragonterramon, Knighthramon, time to show this monster what real Digimon can do.”

My two Digimon nodded and launched themselves into the air, souring toward the towering opponent despite the extreme danger of their actions.

“Don’t give him any time to react!” I called out to them. I saw them nod acknowledgment as they came into attack range.

Knighthramon brandished his lance, slinging a wave of cold energy from its tip at the foe, calling, “Ice Blade Slash!” The attack wave hit the foe’s chest, pushing him back, and rolling over him, covering the entirety of his body in a thick layer of ice crystals. His skin had been super cooled.

“Let's heat things up again,” said MetalDragonterramon, “Lightning Flame!” He fired his beam at ViralManipulamon, but he'd widened it. He meant not to pierce the enemies skin, but super heat it, causing it to contract and expand quickly and rip itself apart. ViralManipulamon was blasted back. Gashes appeared across his body, spraying streams of data, like blood, and he collapsed onto his back.

“Now finish it,” I said. The Digimon rose up and circled the foe. All six of our Digimon fired their attacks at once, hitting the massive fallen form from above, causing an explosion that shook the ground, kicking dust a hundred feet into the air. It looked like we'd won, but I wasn't sure.

It can’t be that easy, I thought, he's going to get back up.

I was right. Before the dust could even settle the immense Digimon was already on his feet, throwing his arms wide, dispersing the cloud of dust around him as he roared. I examined him, looking for visible wounds. There were a few left, but they were closing quickly. The massive foe swung his head and neck form left to right, roaring, as he swung his tentacles wildly, rippling the air, sending waves of compressed air, like massive blades, flying in all directions. The air attacks moved amongst the Digimon, causing the aerial Digimon to tumble out of control and lose their bearings.

He seems to be acting only on instinct, I thought, but even so he's countering us at every turn!

As I watched, ViralManipulamon raised one massive fist and leaped at the Digimon with unexpected speed, punching with all of his strength. His attack hit MetalBrauntomon and MegaMechamon, sending them crashing to the ground, where they reverted to their Child forms. Jeremy ran over and made sure that they were alright before leading them back to our group, but they couldn't Digivolve again yet. We were down in numbers by two, and even further from defeating our opponent that we had been before, though this slight increase in the gap between the power of us and our enemy was difficult to notice.

I had to come up with a plan to turn the tides in our favor. In case you haven't noticed, I have a habit of rushing ahead and making things worse sometimes. Usually this actually works out, but this time things were too serious for improvisational tactics. I needed to think my actions through before I carried them out this time, and I had to involve the entire team, or what was left of it. Only together did we have even a chance of winning this. With a deep breath I focused, and I came up with a rough idea.

“Guys,” I said, calling up to the remaining Digimon, “keep him busy and try to keep him in one spot!” I turned to Dokugamon and said, “I have an idea, but I’ll need your help to pull it off.”


Above me four shapes weaved between ViralManipulamon’s attacks, keeping close enough that he didn’t have to move from the ring of trees that encircled him to attack. After several minutes of this, Dokugamon returned to my side and said, “I’ve finished doing as you asked.”

I nodded and looked up at my team’s four flying Digimon and Birdramon. They wove in and out of ViralManipulamon's strikes with precision and finesse, but now there was no reason. Now I needed ViralManipulamon to move. “Okay guys,” I called out to them, “break off and regroup!”

Instantly, the Digimon complied, veering away from ViralManipulamon. The massive dark Digimon roared at them and stepped forward to pursue, stepping into the trees ahead of him and catching his foot in the layers upon layers of spider webs that were set up between them. He yanked his foot free of the sticky netting, but the inertia caused him to stumble back. He tripped over the trees behind him and fell into them, getting caught in the layers upon layers of web strewn between them as well. He struggled to free up his arms and tentacles so that he could rise to his feet, but he was too stuck, and his efforts were too slow. Before he could even begin to break free, the Digimon took the opportunity to unleash everything that they had on him.

Birdramon dropped a barrage of fireballs on the massive foe and then swooped down to grab Tuskmon by his horns while the other Digimon moved into place to attack. The called their attacks and fired, hitting the enemy with multiple barrages. Then they ceased their attacks and veered to the side as Birdramon flew over the foe, dropping Tuskmon from above. He fell right at the massive form and called, “Tusk Slam!” hitting ViralManipulamon square in the chest at high speed. He bounced back up, stunned, and Birdramon caught him again, carrying him away.

I really hope that did something, I thought, because I’m out of ideas.

I knew it though. I knew that it wouldn't be enough to damage our opponent. Desperate to accomplish something against him, I called up to the Digimon, “One more time for good measure!”

The four Digimon fired their attacks while Birdramon and Tuskmon circled around them. The attacks drew close, intermingling and feeding each other, but at the last moment they were deflected by three tentacles that rose up out of the cloud of grove of trees. I watched as ViralManipulamon pushed himself back up onto his feet. One of his tentacles actually seemed to be crippled, and their were several wide tears in his chest where the attacks had ripped through his flesh. From those tears oozed a viscous black substance. At first I thought it was blood, but then I noticed that the ooze was actually pulling the wounds closed, slowly but surely returning the massive Digimon to full strength.

Is that what's been healing him? I wondered. If it was, that particular power was working a lot slower that it had been only minutes before. But why? I took a moment to consider this, and then it hit me.

“Dokugamon,” I told the giant spider standing at my side, smiling at our good fortune, “I didn't plan for it, but I think the poison in your webs might have actually affected him. I think it slowed down his regeneration power. We might just have a chance!”

“I'm glad I could help,” said Dokugamon, sounding as if she felt overwhelmed by this situation. After all, she'd told us on the day that we'd met that she wasn't a good fighter.

“Will it really matter in the end?” Sarah asked, as she stood with Amanda close at her side.

“Every little thing matters in a situation as one-sided as this one,” Jen answered. I nodded, offering her statement my silent agreement.

My hope for victory renewed, I looked for weaknesses in the creature’s body, and I noticed that there were no repairs happening to the crippled tentacle. I wasn’t sure what this meant yet, but I knew it would be important, and I filed it away in the back of my mind. Meanwhile, ViralManipulamon roared and called out in a growling voice, “Manipulate Energy!”

He held his tentacles in an X shape (or as close to an X shape as he could with one lame tentacle), and aimed his palms forward. Energy traveled along the tentacles and into his palms, building in the form of a red glowing orb. The energy within the orb discharged out in the form of a nearly one-hundred-yard-thick energy beam that was, thankfully pointing away from myself and my helpless friends.

“Lookout!” called TechnoFillimon. The Digimon scattered and managed to avoid ViralManipulamon’s attack. The beam carried through, hitting the nearby Citadel wall, leaving a huge smoking crater deep in the surface where it hit. Metal and cement were fused together at the molecular level by the extreme heat of the blast.

I stared wide-eyed at the damage that the beam had wrought, Oh crap! I called up to the Digimon, “Uh, guys. Word of advice: don’t let that beam hit you.”

“I’m sure we’ll all be careful to keep that in mind,” said MetalDragonterramon as he swung back around behind the enemy and launched his attack at the foe’s back. Knighthramon swooped past the foe, flying the width of his chest, slicing with his sword, leaving a trail of ice, which caused the flesh to contract in two directions and split. Black ooze welled up in the wound immediately and began pulling it closed. Nothing seemed to be able to hamper the process further, not fire or ice.

ViralManipulamon swung his tentacles at Knighthramon, who managed to dodge all but the third. He turned just in time to lift his shield up, braced by his sword, but despite his efforts the shield was knocked away, sent spiraling through the air, and he was thrown to the ground. He crashed, dropped his sword, and slid a good twenty feet before he finally stopped.

“Knighthramon!” I cried. I ran to him, but he stood, saying, “I’m alright.” He seemed to be telling the truth, except that he was favoring his left arm, which was obviously broken. Despite this, however, he ran forward and grabbed his sword off of the ground and jumped into the air, ready to attack again.

MetalDragonterramon fired a barrage of fireballs right in ViralManipulamon’s face. They exploded with bright flashes and loud bangs, and while they didn't do any damage to the immense Digimon, they did disorient him and draw his attention away from the injured knight. This gave Knighthramon a chance to get close. He ran, building momentum, and jumped up and stabbed his sword into the creature’s gut, pulled up, using the sword as leverage to launch himself, feet first, all the way up to the foe’s head. He kicked ViralManipulamon in the jaw, and then fell back down, grabbing his sword, and slashing back and forth across the creature’s torso as he fell back to the ground. Between a second strike to the head, and the flurry of attacks, ViralManipulamon actually stumbled.

At that moment, MetalStaliamon and TechnoFillimon circled around and flew at the foe. MetalStaliamon fired his Metal Hoof Blade attack, and TechnoFillimon called, “Tech Filli-Beams!” firing beams of light from her hooves and a beam of static from the tip of each of the metal “wings” attached to the triangular structure on her back. Her beams combined with the beams launched by her ally, and the fire from another of Birdramon’s attacks. The large amount of heat and energy hit ViralManipulamon in the gut. He stepped back even further and then dropped to one knee, his head and tentacles drooping. I thought for a moment that we'd actually managed to injure him, but he rose again as quickly as he had fallen, waving his tentacles wildly, firing wave after wave of compressed air at his four flying targets, my two Digimon once again forgotten, allowing them another chance to try something else.

Knighthramon ran at ViralManipulamon and summoned up ice beneath his feet, skiing upward, through the air. He wove between ViralManipulamon's snapping tentacles and leaped right at the larger Digimon's face, sword raised. ViralManipulamon had learned from his mistakes, however, and reached up with a tentacle and swatted the already injured Digimon out of the air. Knighthramon lost his grip on his blade and it flew into the path of one of ViralManipulamon’s attacks. The attack hit the icy weapon, causing it to shatter.

MetalDragonterramon tried to get in close and catch his ally, but he moved too recklessly, forgetting to watch out for incoming attacks. He flew right into the path of a swinging tentacle, and was forced to use his shield to deflect the blow, as he was too close to dodge. The force of the blow caused the metal arm to splinter and hang limp, its internal machinery destroyed.

Another tentacle hit MetalStaliamon in the side, denting his armor, destroying one of his boosters, and severing one of his side mounted blades, and knocking him out of the air. All the while the black ooze was pulling the few wounds that we'd been able to inflict on ViralManipulamon closed, and sealing them almost as fast as they had appeared. If not for the one busted tentacle, it would have been impossible to tell that we had hurt him at all. I needed to come up with something, but so much was going on, and the enemy existed on a scale that I could barely comprehend.

“Well,” I said frankly, “this could be going a lot better.”

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