Solo Leveling: Digispirit.

A/N: Bonus Chapter for reaching 500 Power Stones! I hope you like it. There are still a couple more Chapters set in the Digital World, but I’m already writing the Vitramon arc. Thank you so much for the support!

Takuya’s flames ignited even higher, covering every attack in fire. By this point, Cherrymon had already freed himself from Pumpkinmon’s attack. Using his roots, he tore the burning pumpkin away from his body and threw it aside. He was still burning, but he looked almost unfazed by the flames. Almost. A faint hint of pain could still be seen across his wooden features.

By now, Cherrymon had pulled most of his body out of the ground, leaving only a few roots buried beneath the soil. He used those hidden roots to launch attacks from unexpected points beneath the forest floor, making it difficult for the three of them to predict where the next strike would come from.

During the last month, something interesting had happened. Pumpkinmon’s constant fighting had made him considerably faster, and of all his abilities, his close-combat skills had improved the most. He had begun alternating between his ability to summon fire and fighting at close range with his axe, which, despite not being made of Chrome Digizoid, was surprisingly sturdy. The little Digimon focused on the roots that were already burning, cutting through them much more easily before kicking the severed pieces back toward Cherrymon’s main body.

BlackTailmon, on the other hand, had taken the role of complete support. It moved constantly between Takuya and Pumpkinmon, helping them counter the incoming branches while the three gradually closed the distance between themselves and the giant tree.

Their movements became almost synchronized as they fought together, each covering the other’s blind spots. Takuya had to push his flames to their limits, not only to keep them burning strongly enough to damage Cherrymon, but also to make sure he didn’t accidentally burn either of his two companions. That was proving to be the hardest part of the entire fight.

The three of them were locked in a battle of endurance against Cherrymon. The tree Digimon showed no sign of stopping, and although the damage was accumulating slowly, his roots were already beginning to regenerate. Then, without warning, the cherries hanging from his branches suddenly shot toward them in a surprise attack.

Takuya immediately reacted by gathering the flames surrounding his body and forming a wall of fire in front of them. Pumpkinmon joined him, reinforcing the barrier with his own flames. The cherries collided with the wall and exploded on impact.

It was both good and bad.

Good, because the explosions fed the flames, making the wall burn even hotter. Bad, because the force of the explosions still produced enormous shockwaves that struck everyone nearby. Cherrymon wasn’t spared either. He wasn’t protected by the wall of fire, meaning the shockwaves from his own attack hit him with their full force.

And those explosions were no joke.

Even being generous, the shockwave produced by a Perfect-level Digimon’s attack was comparable to that of a human missile. With multiple cherries being launched at once, several explosions tore through the forest, sending overlapping shockwaves in every direction. Trees shattered, branches snapped, and the three Digimon were thrown backward by the force of the blasts. Cherrymon was sent flying even farther, having received the full force of his own attack.

Takuya immediately took advantage of the opening.

He rushed toward Cherrymon and, after reaching him, stepped directly onto the tree Digimon’s enormous body. Cherrymon was massive, roughly comparable to a sequoia in diameter, although considerably shorter. Takuya planted both palms against his wooden body and smiled.

"Don’t you dare, brat!" Jyureimon snarled.

Then—

BOOM!

Takuya unleashed a Burning Salamander at point-blank range.

The explosion was enormous. Chunks of burning wood were blasted in every direction, and even Agnimon was pushed slightly upward by the recoil. But the moment he landed again on Jyureimon’s body, Takuya immediately began spamming Burning Salamanders at point-blank range. At the same time, he gathered the flames scattered throughout the battlefield and concentrated them above Cherrymon, creating an enormous mass of fire directly over the fallen Perfect.

Jyureimon desperately tried to direct his remaining roots toward Takuya to knock him away, but he couldn’t reach him.

Then he looked downward.

There was Pumpkinmon, cutting through his roots one after another.

The little Digimon was actually singing, a snow white song as he chopped through the tree’s limbs, casually severing one root after another while carrying on as though he were doing some ordinary chore.

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho

Heigh-ho

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho

It’s home from work we go

It was a truly bizarre sight considering how serious the battle was.

Jyureimon looked upward next.

BlackTailmon was harvesting the cherries from his branches and throwing them away before they could be used again.

He was running out of options.

They were reducing him piece by piece, destroying his roots, burning his body, and cutting down his branches as if he were nothing more than an ordinary tree.

He was the ruler of this forest. He had killed countless Digimon, luring them into his territory before harvesting their data.

And now...He was being treated like nothing more than firewood.

It was unacceptable.

But what could he do?

By the time Jyureimon looked downward again, Pumpkinmon had already cut down the last of his exposed roots. Above him, the gathered flames continued burning intensely. Jyureimon was more resistant to fire than an ordinary Digimon, but his body was still made of wood. There was only so much punishment he could endure.

"This is how I die?" Jyureimon muttered as he looked at the three Digimon surrounding him.

There weren’t many options left.

Actually...

Was there even an option? He couldn’t find one.

His gaze shifted toward Pumpkinmon and BlackTailmon. Both were wounded, and neither was at the Perfect stage, yet neither of them looked like easy prey anymore.

Then he noticed Takuya walking toward his head. The Agnimon stepped onto his wooden body and looked down at him.

"Yes," Takuya said. "This is how you die."

Those were the last words Jyureimon heard.

Takuya fired a Burning Salamander directly at him.

The last thing Jyureimon saw was a sea of flames and the silhouette of the fire Digimon standing above him.

Then his body dissolved into data.

Takuya landed on the ground as the data scattered through the battlefield, dividing between him, BlackTailmon, and Pumpkinmon. With the battle finally over, Takuya gathered the remaining flames around himself and sent them shooting upward. The fire exploded above him like a massive firework before fading away, leaving the charred forest below covered in smoke.

There was no reason to keep the forest burning. Doing so would only make it harder for new life to return here, and that wasn’t what they wanted.

The three of them looked at one another and sighed.

Then Halloween suddenly began dancing.

Takuya recognized the dance immediately.

It was the Toothless meme dance.

He still had no idea how Halloween knew so many references from the human world. Having him around was genuinely entertaining, he had to admit, but Pumpkinmon’s knowledge of these completely useless things was strangely extensive.

The three of them checked their condition. All of them looked pretty battered after the fight, but none had suffered any serious injuries. They were exhausted, but they could keep moving.

Slowly, the three of them left the forest.

On the way out, Takuya took some food from his inventory. They had meat, among other things, because in the Digital World there were apparently trees that grew strange fruits, meat, burgers, and practically anything else one could imagine. Sometimes, quite literally, food grew on trees.

As they walked and ate, the three of them took the opportunity to talk. Over the past month, their friendship had grown considerably, and even BlackTailmon had been opening up to them more and more each day.

"So, you still can’t evolve?" Takuya asked BlackTailmon.

The little Digimon wasn’t walking. Instead, she was sitting comfortably on Takuya’s shoulder. She pondered the question for a moment before answering.

"Actually, not yet. I think one Perfect more and I’ll be done." She paused, then shook her head. "No. Just one. I can already tell I’m close."

"I see. So maybe our next target will be enough. Orochimon, right?" Takuya asked.

"Yeah, that should do it. After all, he’s the one where we have the biggest advantage after Jyureimon. He’s almost always alone and attacks pretty much everyone he sees. However, among the evil Perfect-level Digimon on the island, he’s also the one who lets the most Digimon escape. Mostly because he’s always drunk, so it’s easier for them to get away."

"I see. So, worst case scenario, we can just run away. Sounds good to me."

"Yep, that’s the case. However, I think we’ll have more problems than we did with Jyureimon because Orochimon lives in a pseudo-lake. Your fire will be at a disadvantage there, so we’ll have to rely on physical attacks more than anything else."

Takuya nodded. It made sense. The problem was that none of the three had the power to directly kill a Perfect-level Digimon without relying heavily on Agnimon’s flames. That was a problem. Maybe BlackTailmon’s claws could hurt a Perfect, Takuya didn’t even know exactly what they were made of. Whatever the material was, however, they were certainly more than sturdy enough to cause serious damage.

Who knew what kind of data those claws were made from?

Whatever it was, they were definitely stronger than they looked.

After several hours of walking, the group finally spotted the Trailmon station ahead of them. There was no Trailmon waiting there, but it was the first time Takuya had seen the station since arriving on the island. The tracks stretched into the distance, disappearing toward the other parts of the island.

The three looked both ways before crossing the tracks and continued onward.

They passed the station and moved farther south, entering another section of the forest. It was a different path from the one Takuya had followed when he first arrived on the island. Eventually, they made their way toward what was essentially LoaderLeomon’s territory, the same area where the Drimogemon were currently living.

It would probably take them more than a day, perhaps two if they maintained a slow pace, to reach the lake they were looking for. Maybe even longer if they took plenty of breaks. And for now, they had no intention of speeding up. Rest was important if they wanted to defeat Orochimon.

At the same time, as the trio finally left the forest behind and entered another stretch of woodland, two Digimon noticed them emerging from what they usually called the Forbidden Forest.

Both Digimon stared at each other in disbelief.

No one entered that forest.

No one came out.

It had been that way for as long as they could remember.

And yet, now they were watching three Digimon casually walk out of the place, talking to one another as if nothing had happened.

For the first time in a long while, more Digimon began to venture toward that part of the island.

And from that day onward, slowly but surely, Digimon began returning to inhabit the forest once again.