A new day (Soren, open)

[observer]

- Fool! - the devimon's voice thundered as the renamon countered his attack and the battle began. indeed, he was the one at advantage here - he was a flying champion, and far, far more powerful than a mere renamon, and possibly several of them. And his superiority he would show now, by grinding this defying digimon into the dust. The impmon and the human he will deal later on, their pathetic attacks weren't leaving as much as a scratch, and half of them didn't even make it to him at that height.

- Razor claw! - he exclaimed, and plunged into a nose-dive again, attacking from above at the fox, wishing to get in range of a melee attack and tear him apart with his own hands. As a devimon, brutality in battle was his nature, and he would simply destroy the fragile speedster in close-quarters, that he knew for sure. He plunged his wicked claws forward at the vulpine digimon, to slash him apart upon getting in range...

Soren did not pay attention to what the two decided to do - to follow his command or no, he now had a more serious trouble to deal with, trouble that came at him with speed of 300 mph, claws extended to slice through him. He wanted to jump away and evade the attack, but then, did a very bad mistake - he THOUGHT of jumping away instead of just doing it, thus wasting time. Now there was not much time left to do so. Thus only one option remaining...

- Diamond storm! - the renamon exclaimed, summoning an array of sharp gleaming crystals at his whim just as the devil digimon was about to hit him. And launched the attack at point - blank range. The crystals went against the powerful champion, carving and slashing through his flesh, but that did not bother him, not the slightest. The crystal attack had little stopping power, and the devil's attack went straight at the renamon, two slashes across the fox's chest, before the devil rammed his target at full speed, tossing Soren away with the power of the impact. As the renamon was knocked down, the devimon made an arch and soared into air again, preparing for another attack... The girl and the impmon were lucky the devil only considered Soren to be a sufficient threat, and ignored them, otherwise, things might get ... ugly...

[Mirei]

"If only I were stronger ..."

The impmon lamented that he were so horribly mismatched in this fight, if only his attacks were of an element other than fire he could actually deal at least some damage.

"No, I can't give up"

The persistent impmon continued shooting fireballs at the enemy devimon, and at the end, combined all his smaller fireballs into a larger one, which then tossed at the devimon, hoping to hit him. Not only that, he still kept shooting more and more smaller fireballs, they were hardly damaging at all, but the constant fire would distract the devimon and the so many fireballs aimed at him would hopefully blind him due their brilliance.

[observer]

- It is useless to resist, give up! - the devimon called from above to the renamon. In reality, he did not wish for this fight, hence why he bothered the fox with constant warnings, and even offered to join his clan a few times, but alas, it was all for naught. The stubborn fox just denied, ignored all of his proposals, and continued causing hard to people the devimon looked out for. And he would not tolerate any longer. He wanted the desert fox gone, one way or another.

Then he caught light coming at him from a side, with his eyes, and turned around to face the attack. A fireball launched by impmon this time was bigger than usual, and this time it was able to cause some damage, albeit little. The impmon's fires were using dark magic, and the devimon was ... well, of the same type, so dark magic could hardly put some hurting on him. Seeing he cannot evade the attack, he slashed through it with hos claws, the ball of fire disappearing afterwards. A few insignificant burns on his hands - that's all.

- I'll deal with you later. - the devimon stated, but even though he declared it, he gathered dark energy in his hands and shot a beam at the impmon, meaning to fry the little bastard alive with it's sheer dark power. He would leave the impmon to deal with it, and plunged into another nosedive for the renamon, to defeat him once and for all...

... Soren gathered his strength to get up after surviving such a brutal attack. Two long gashes were now on his chest thanks to the devimon's assault, but he could still fight. Though, he would need something with more piercing power than those crystals - they only managed to scratch the devimon, but nothing more. With that in mind, he summoned crystals again, and formed another lance from them - a modification of diamond storm he managed to perfect himself - diamond lance. Unfortunately, he did not manage to launch it, for the devimon was already flying at him by the time he grabbed it.

- Gah! Eat this! - the renamon yelled as he made a stabbing attack right at the course of Shaitan's flight. The spear hit, although glancingly again, and left a gash on the devimon's side, but it did not stop him. The flying devil knocked him from his feet again, slashing his body with it's claws. The spear was knocked out of the renamon's hand and broke into crystals upon falling to the ground...

[Mirei]

"Ahh!"

His attacks hardly caused any damage on the devimon and all he obtained for his troubles was a powerful dark energy attack that he futilely tried to weaken using his fireballs. He had in mind the idea of dodging it, but he would get caught by the splash damage anyway so as much he had to try to soften the impact.

As one would expect, he received the full brunt of Shaitan's attack and was knocked out a few meters away from the impact site, and while the impact was direct, his woulds were only moderate due how the devimon half-baked it, not thinking about the impmon like a real challenge.

"Soren!"

Irmgard managed to stand up again and the very first thing he saw after recovering his posture was the renamon getting slashes by the devimon's huge and sharp claws. Unless they did something, Soren was going to die against this superior warrior.

"Irmgard, help him before that ugly devil kills him!"

"I try and try, but I nothing works!"

It was really frustrating for Irmgard to be so useless in battle, that surely was the price he paid for fighting so little, and to make it worse he was completely losing in the elemental affinity game: the enemy had very high endurance against the kind of skills he had and even the most powerful of impmons would hardly be of any challenge for the desert devil. In the middle of their despair for being mere witnesses of Soren's unavoidable death, the digivice within Manabi's pocked shone and Irmgard began to feel a surge of energy within his body.

"This ... thing is shining and reacting with you ...."

"Manabi ... something is happening ... I think I finally have the power to stop Shaitan!"

The girl then took the digivice out of her pocket and looked at Irmgard in are as he began to shine as much as the digivice. His vaguely visible silhouette become bigger and strangely his old impmon clothes faded away as the ones covered his now larger and stronger body. Once the light of evolution faded away the impmon was no longer there and instead he was replaced by waay cooler and badass wizardmon, who was radiating with newfound power.

"Hang on, I'm going to help you!"

The now wizard digimon immediately took flight and went straight after the devimon, releasing a powerful lightning elemental ball of pure magic power at the evil digimon as he went towards the two desert dwellers. Unlike the puny flames he previously used, that bad boy was bound to cause significant damage if hit its target.

[observer]

The battle was practically over as soon as it began. The devimon was far more powerful than these two could have ever been, the renamon was soon to die and the impmon never were much of a challenge. The fox was knocked on the ground, and the devil, who towered above him, delivered a hit after hit after hit. The renamon's body was slashed everywhere, he even took one across the face, and was in little to no condition to retaliate...

- I gave you a chance to choose, several times actually. You chose ... poorly. - the devimon almost sounded remorseful, as he rose his crimson claw to deliver one final blow, and destroy the pest than gave him that much trouble over time once and for all... But he did not do it. Just before he could impale the renamon with his claw, a thunderball attack came straight at him, sending a powerful electrical surge through the devimon's body. The creature groaned in pain as it was tossed away from its victim, but it was not out quite yet.

- WHO DARES? - the devimon roared, and, upon spotting the wizardmon and the human from his height, charged the energy in his wings, to deliver a very potent Evil Wing attack at both of em, and grind them to dust for daring to interfere with his "fair" fight. Well, technically it was 1 on 1...

... Soren had no thoughts as he was pummeled to the ground by relentless barrage of attacks. He felt he would disintegrate into data really soon, and the only thing he felt was ... fear. At the beginning of the fight he figured that it is better to meet his end now than tomorrow, but when he got so close to deletion ... he reconsidered. Death was scary, especially for ones whose consciousness was not clear. The renamon feared what would happen after he dies... And he did not want to find out.

His vision blurred after he recieved a slash across his face, three bloody marks appearing where the claws went, and he figured he had enough. Not seeing what tossed the devimon away, what made him stop, or what happened to the impmon, he ... gave up. For real.

- S... stop! I ... I yield... - the defeated fox managed to sigh out, as he groaned and struggled to get back on his feet. He summoned a lance again, but this time not to fight with it, but to support himself like with a crutch. He still was not able to see any comprehensive visuals, it was still too blurry. The renamon looked horrible. He was half-surrounded by particles of his own data, which barely were kept together. It took great resolve just to keep standing.

- You wanted me ... to go away? I will ... just stop...

The energy charge on the devimon's wings stopped.

[Mirei]

""

Out of the blue Soren simply gave up and the battle abruptly ended, which was very strange because he could've resigned himself to leave the desert from the very beginning instead of being the source of needless drama. The wizardmon, at loss of words from the sudden change of heart, simply flew towards Soren and stopped next to him once the devimon ceased his attack due the renamon's decision. Then he put one of Soren's arms on his shoulder and looked at the devimon.

"Can we go now?"

Now he was powerful enough to face the devimon, however he still preferred to leave without having to fight. Soren was now an useless load and Manabi had to be defended, so even if he wanted, Irmgard simply couldn't fight without the danger of risking everybody else's lives as both of his companions were helpless in this situation.

[observer]

The devimon was quite as amazed at the renamon's sudden decision. From what he heard before the fox was determined to fight to the end if only to defy him, and now, he simply ... gave up? Tch, looks like Soren was not quite the stalwart the devimon thought him to be. If only he knew that a little violence was all that was needed to break him, he would have done it a long time ago. By "little violence" he meant beating the fox to half-death.

Soren, however, did not think about what consequences his surrender would have, he could barely hear or see anything, and just accepted the support of a friendly shoulder. His pride would get wounded after he regains normal consciousness. Again, he was never as brave or strong as he wanted to be, or thought he were, and that was one of many reasons for defeat.

- How ... much time I have...

- Exactly one day. - a cold answer came.

- Too little... I need to gather stuff from my safehouses...

- Only from the one closest to you. Others were already looted by my men upon my orders. - when the devimon said that, the renamon's eyes widened and he regained full consciousness for a little while, though he still needed the support of the wizardmon to keep standing. In his eyes was much anger at the moment.

- That's MY stuff you son of a...

- Not anymore. - another cold reply put the renamon back to his place. He was the defeated one here, and was not in position to demand anything. He should be grateful the devimon kept him alive and even allowed to take some stuff with him. Only as much as one could carry. Still, Soren felt humiliated now. All his earning, taken from him just like that. Still, he had no word in this one.

- Fine, you win... - now that the consciousness was slowly returning to him, so did the realization of what happened here. His fight for remaining in the desert and call it his home ... was not forfeit. From a retrospective, his surrender worked out better in the long run - they could have never won this fight, even with wizardmon at their side. He should have surrendered from the beginning...

- All of this could have been avoided. One day, that is all. Make use of it. - the devimon replied, and fled the battlefield...

[Mirei]

"It's all over .."

The wizardmon was glad that the incident with the devimon was finally over, although felt some pity for the renamon who was now being forced to abandon the desert despite he wanted to strongly to continue living there. Looking on the positive side, he could finally move to a better place and being a new life.

"Soren, get all your belongings and let's leave before that devimon returns"

Regardless of what the desert fox had to say, the wizardmon carried him to the entrance of his hut anyway, they were close and he had to restore his energies before they could continue. As for Manabi, she was still impressed by Irmgard's transformation and how sudden was solved the situation, she too joined them in the hut and requested to know what happened.

"Now you actually look decent, and I think we can thank this strange device."

"All digimon eventually evolve and while I'm interested in checking that artifact, that's not what matters now. More importantly, we have to take care of Soren, that devimon really hurt him."

[observer]

- So this is like ... to be damsel in distress... Figures... - the snarkyness was returning to the renamon as he was carried farther away from the battlefield. He still did not think much about anything - all in due time. For now he had to concentrate on actually surviving these injuries he was put under. For now, he just felt ridiculed, but that was not quite the most painful part of the realization. That will come later, when he'll regain the ability to analyze things properly.

- And there's not much I would take with me anyway... I just felt sore my junk would now belong to those bastards... All I need is my cloak, and ... bandages... - the renamon groaned after making his way to the stash of "medicaments", which were a bunch of old worn bandages he picked up, and started putting around himself, slowly. That was the best he could do with what he had in this situation.

- And I guess I now owe you... Better start returning it now. The wizardboy did not stare at you during sleep. That was a mean joke on my part. You can bitchslap me now, he-he-kho- *cough* - the renamon confessed before started coughing again...

[Mirei]

The once proud and snarky renamon now was ... a shadow of what he used to be, it was hard not to feel pity for the completely defeated digimon as he walked around the hut using a crystal spear as clutch and self-pitying himself. How low had the proud fox fallen, that humiliated by his rival could only gather what little remained of his belongings and become a mummy after covering himself with bandages. If there was something good that came out of this disgusting situation was that he finally confessed lying to make a fool out of Irmgard.

"I won't hit you and, umm ... I owe Irmgard an apology"

"Apologies accepted, now we have to leave this place immediately or else night could fall on us and devimon will honor his promise and kill Soren for still being here"

The wizardmon once more offered his shoulder to the renamon and carried him out of his hut, this time there was no obstacle in their road and should finally leave this place of danger and bandits for real.

[observer]

Soren just kept wrapping up a layer after layer of bandages around his body, since there was not an inch that was not slashed by the ferocious enemy. Legs, hands, torso, even the face got "mummified", in order to keep the damage in check. But there was another reason for doing so - these bandages would also cover his mark of an exile. So nobody outside would chase him, thinking he is just an unfortunate fellow who got himself in harm's way. In retrospect, the renamon should have thanked devimon for giving him this idea... When he was done ... well, it was hard to recognize him - he indeed looked more like a mummy than a renamon now.

- Wait, there's one last thing I must do before I leave... - the renamon said and returned to the hut on his own, limping heavily. Once inside, he started breaking the pots he kept oil in and started spilling the black liquid around the place, and did not stop until everything, everything was covered with it. Then, he left the building, and ignited a small blue flame in his hand.

- If it shall not belong to me, it shall not belong to anyone.*cough* - he said, and with that tossed the little blue flame inside the dark hut. Moments later what was his home was now caught in flames, but he did not go away, he just stared at the flame for a couple of moments, indifferently. The heat from the inside damaged the rickety hut, and soon it started collapsing on itself.

- There. Nothing to return to here. I was not planning to go back to the ... outer world anytime soon, but God sees it is not my fault here... Let's go. - the renamon said, and they went forward, him still limping and relying on wizardmon's shoulder...

[Mirei]

"Was that really needed?"

The wizardmon simply sighed at the renamon's decision to burn the last of his huts. True, he was now preventing those goons from using them as hideouts, but it could've also been used by wanderers who happened to pass by the desert who unlike the wizard digimon and human duo, were prepared to traverse the dunes of sand and knew how to avoid bandits. Nevermind, maybe that was the best choice after all.

"*giggle*, you look like a mummy now"

To add more salt on the injury, the renamon now looked like a mummymon and was completely covered with bandages, even Irmgard found that amusing and couldn't help but laugh a little for the fox digimon's choice of clothings. He wasn't really THAT hurt as to need so much bandages, but he was the expert so he had to really need them to cover his wounds.

Once the small lighthearted comedy sketch was over, the trio finally hit the road again and this time left the desert for real, all they had were bad memories of their experience there, so at least the duo of wanderers weren't going to miss that place at all