Chapter 193: This Act of Slacking Off is Also an Art
Mizuki had seen quite enough of the Royal Knights and their so-called unity.
Under normal circumstances, his fun-loving, slightly mischievous nature would have been perfectly content to sit back and watch the heavily armored titans bicker among themselves. It was free entertainment, after all. But given the precarious reality of their current situation, he knew it was time to make a move.
Right on cue, as if plucking the thought directly from his mind, Belle turned her gaze toward him.
"Mizu, are we leaving?"
"Yeah. There is not much point in dragging out this stalemate," Mizuki replied, sweeping his eyes over the grand, chaotic spectacle unfolding across the battlefield. "Look at them. Most of these Royal Knights do not even have the will to fight right now. There is zero need for us to burn our energy going all out against a group that is already half-checked out."
"As for ChaosGallantmon's side—"
Before Mizuki could even finish his sentence, a booming voice echoed from the sky, timing itself with almost comedic perfection.
"Run! Get out of here, quickly!" ChaosGallantmon roared from the heavens, his dark armor gleaming as he brandished his demonic lance. "I will hold these guys back!"
His tone was fiercely impassioned, dripping with the tragic heroism of a warrior fully prepared to lay down his life for the greater good. It was a beautiful, heart-wrenching performance.
Or at least, it would have been, if ChaosGallantmon did not look completely unscathed. In fact, he was visibly dominating the fight. Had he actually looked like he was struggling, Mizuki might have been tempted to believe the act.
However, unlike Mizuki—who was fully aware of the theatrical nonsense happening behind the scenes—WarGreymon X lacked that crucial context.
Hearing those desperate, self-sacrificing words, the heavily armored dragon warrior froze. The tragic memories of his fallen companions, slaughtered mercilessly in the past, surged to the forefront of his mind. The golden armor plating on his chest heaved as a dangerous, burning rage ignited within his eyes.
"No! I will not let the past repeat itself! Not again!" WarGreymon X bellowed.
The massive thrusters mounted on his back flared to life with a deafening roar, spewing blinding blue exhaust. He launched himself into the sky like a fired missile, carving a direct path straight toward Omnimon.
His intention was glaringly obvious: he was going to help ChaosGallantmon take down the fused holy knight.
While ChaosGallantmon knew the dragon was acting out of genuine kindness and loyalty, he was absolutely miserable about this development.
Beneath his dark helmet, he desperately wanted to curse.
'I told you to leave, so just leave!'ChaosGallantmon screamed internally, his grip tightening on his shield.'Stop being so damn sentimental! I have actual serious business to attend to here!'
"Omnimon!!!" WarGreymon X roared, closing the distance rapidly, his claws scraping together to generate a shower of sparks.
Naturally, the enraged dragon could not hear ChaosGallantmon's internal breakdown. Left with no other options, the dark knight shot a desperate, pleading look down at Mizuki.
Mizuki simply offered a helpless shrug, his lips twitching with suppressed amusement.
Just as ChaosGallantmon was frantically trying to figure out how to salvage his ruined script, a sudden shift occurred within the ranks of the Royal Knights.
Watching the furious WarGreymon X rocket toward them, Kentaurosmon suddenly perked up. Before Omnimon could even raise his Grey Sword to defend himself, the six-legged centaur knight practically vibrated with excitement.
In the blink of an eye, Kentaurosmon vanished from his position, leaving Omnimon staring blankly at the dashing, armored view of his colleague's back.
"Omnimon! Leave this brute to me!" Kentaurosmon shouted valiantly.
In truth, the centaur had been slacking off on the fringes of this battlefield for far too long. If he did not find something productive to do right this second, and Magnamon caught him idling, the golden-armored zealot would absolutely march straight back to the Digital World and snitch on him to King Drasil.
'Slacking off is a delicate art form,' Kentaurosmon thought to himself, thoroughly pleased with his own tactical genius. On the outside, however, he projected nothing but righteous fury. "You focus on your duel with ChaosGallantmon! Fight with peace of mind!"
Omnimon merely blinked, his cape snapping in the wind. "?"
Hurtling through the sky, WarGreymon X narrowed his eyes as he watched Kentaurosmon intercept his flight path at blinding speed.
"Get lost!" the dragon warrior snarled, his thrusters burning hotter. "My enemy is not you!"
Despite his blinding rage, WarGreymon X retained his sense of justice. He clearly remembered the faces of the Royal Knights who had participated in the merciless massacre of his fellow Digimon. Kentaurosmon had not been among them. That meant this centaur was likely in a similar position to ChaosGallantmon—a knight caught on the wrong side of a terrible war.
WarGreymon X was furious, yes, but he had not lost his mind. He knew exactly how to distinguish his true enemies from the bystanders.
"My only target is Omnimon! Step aside!"
Facing the dragon's fierce warning, Kentaurosmon simply shook his head, his armored visor gleaming in the sunlight. "Regrettably, though I hold no personal grudge against you, I cannot simply stand by and allow you to harm my colleague!"
"Then let us fight!"
Realizing that words were entirely useless here, WarGreymon X abandoned any further attempts at negotiation. He threw his arms wide, drawing in the atmospheric energy around him. The air crackled and warped as a massive, blindingly hot sphere of concentrated power rapidly condensed between his claws.
[Terra Force!]
With a mighty heave, he hurled the miniature sun directly at Kentaurosmon, the sheer heat of the attack scorching the clouds around them.
Seeing the devastating sphere approaching, Kentaurosmon did not hesitate. He raised the massive, ornate Holy Shield strapped to his arm, planting his hooves firmly in the empty air.
"Come at me!"
[Odin's Breath!]
A freezing, absolute-zero blizzard erupted from the centaur's shield, crashing head-on into the burning sun.
The violent collision of these two extreme energies—one absolute cold, the other blistering heat—triggered a catastrophic explosion in mid-air.
A massive shockwave ripped through the sky, generating a howling gale that tore the clouds to shreds.
Caught in the blast radius, Omnimon's tattered white cape fluttered wildly, snapping like a flag in a hurricane. Shielding his eyes from the glare, he stared through the smoke at the dark knight hovering before him. After clashing weapons for so long, the gears in his mind were finally starting to turn. He was beginning to notice the glaring inconsistencies in this battle.
'ChaosGallantmon...'Omnimon thought, his grip on his sword loosening slightly.'What exactly are you plotting?'The dark knight's strikes were heavy, but they lacked lethal intent.'You clearly possess power far greater than mine right now. So why are you still tangling with me? Why haven't you finished this?''Do you not want to change all of this? Do you not want to protect that human from the other world?''What are you trying to—'
While Omnimon was deeply lost in his philosophical inner monologue, ChaosGallantmon saw an opening. Without a shred of hesitation, the dark knight pulled his arm back and delivered a brutal, armor-denting punch straight to Omnimon's face.
The heavy impact sent the fused holy knight spinning backward through the sky like a skipped stone.
Seeing Omnimon suddenly put at a severe disadvantage, Magnamon gritted his teeth, a sinking feeling settling in his chest. Things were rapidly spiraling out of control.
With LordKnightmon's recent betrayal fracturing their ranks, if even the mighty Omnimon was no match for ChaosGallantmon, it would be entirely impossible to detain these sinners with their current group.
Though his pride fiercely resisted the idea, Magnamon knew he had no other choice. He immediately transmitted a distress signal, calling for heavy reinforcements from the Digital World.
Just as the signal was sent, his sharp gaze shifted downward. The tiny figures of Mizuki and his partners reflected clearly in Magnamon's golden pupils.
'I must stall them before the reinforcements arrive,' Magnamon calculated coldly.
With a blinding flash of golden light, he vanished from the sky, reappearing directly in the path of Mizuki's group.
"It is a Royal Knight!"
Seeing the golden-armored warrior drop from the sky, MetalGarurumon X instinctively dropped his center of gravity, assuming a fierce combat stance.
While this particular knight had suffered constant failures in their previous encounters—giving off a rather weak impression—MetalGarurumon X was not foolish enough to underestimate him. No matter how weak he appeared compared to his peers, he was still a Royal Knight. The gap in raw strength between him and an ordinary Mega-level Digimon was still an impossible chasm.
"Sinners who dare to defy King Drasil's majesty!" Magnamon's voice rang out, echoing with metallic authority. "I, Magnamon, will not allow you to escape!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the golden knight lunged forward, closing the distance with terrifying speed.
Reacting purely on instinct, MetalGarurumon X decisively raised his heavy Gatling gun. The barrels spun with a mechanical whine before unleashing a deafening torrent of high-caliber fire directly at the charging knight!
However, the armor-piercing rounds—munitions capable of leaving deep gouges in even WarGreymon X's Chrome Digizoid plating—sparked harmlessly against the golden knight. They failed to leave so much as a single scratch on Magnamon's miraculous armor.
"It is useless! An attack of this level cannot even tickle me!"
Completely ignoring the hail of bullets, Magnamon plowed straight through MetalGarurumon X's line of fire. He closed the gap in a heartbeat, delivering a brutal kick that sent the cyborg wolf skidding away across the dirt.
Without missing a beat, Magnamon continued his relentless charge directly toward Mizuki.
In the golden knight's tactical assessment, the priority of eliminating this human anomaly was infinitely higher than dealing with his Digimon partners.
"Although we hold no personal grudge, your very existence has already threatened the balance of this world!" Magnamon declared, his voice dropping to a cold, dangerous register. "So, die..."
He curled his armored fingers into a lethal claw, thrusting his hand forward to crush Mizuki's head.
However, just as his golden fingertips were mere millimeters from touching Mizuki's skin, a sharp, crystalline cracking sound echoed through the air.
Without a single warning, countless shining, jagged crystals violently erupted from the gaps in Magnamon's armor, bursting outward from his very core!
In a fraction of a second, the mighty Royal Knight was frozen in place, completely immobilized and transformed into a beautiful, grotesque crystal sculpture.
While Magnamon's eyes widened in absolute, stunned horror at his paralyzed state, Belle's sweet, mocking voice drifted over from the side.
"Since I cannot affect you from the outside, would it not be much better to just start corroding you from within?"
Her heels clicked softly against the ground as she casually strolled up to the crystallized knight.
"Crystal Revolution... I have to say, that bastard's technique is actually quite useful," Belle mused, a dark smile playing on her lips. She slowly raised her heavy pistol, pressing the cold steel barrel directly against the center of Magnamon's golden forehead.
Her eyes, usually warm when looking at her partner, were now devoid of all mercy.
"Although I have no personal grudge against you... since you wanted to harm Mizu—"
She pulled the hammer back with a sharp click.
"Then, please die."
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