MPC 62X (60B): Dragon Dance (Ryouta)

Normally, a human wandering around the Digital World with a Digimon would've gotten much attention from others, unless they were the odd 'human-hating' sort, individual or group (see: the residents of ElDoradimon, at least according to Ramona), but as the footsteps got louder, we instinctively turned around to see not one, but 2 figures in view: a very muscular, spiky black haired boy in his late teens, and a Veemon, not too dissimilar to Levi, apart from the muscles and scars that covered his body. He looked like he could snap my own spine in two just by his own physical prowess alone. And the second the duo stepped in, the second plenty of the guards greeted him, including Cassius.

While Skadi and Ramona looked upon the apparent Tamer with a keen sense of interest, I felt a little pang of jealousy inside of me, although it wasn't noticeable to the average bystander. I never had that sort of respect while in school, being written off by teachers and students as a nobody, incapable of succeeding at anything, and yet, here this guy was, simply waltzing in with his Veemon like he owned the place.

He must have been a regular here.

Anyways, as the boy flung the rod on the ground clean into his palm, he chatted to the Dinohumon. My Japanese skills had been improving ever since I moved to Shibuya, but I still feel they need some work. What I managed to get out of the conversation was that there weren't much humans here that day, and that he and this other guy *I  couldn't catch his name) were the only two who happened to fight with the Digimon here, before the boy asked for some training.

I tilted my head in confusion, as I turned to Skadi and Ramona, "Wait, hold up, am I hearing that right? Does this guy really willing spar with Digimon?" Humans fighting dangerous animals wasn't nothing new to me; for example, take the late Steve Irwin, but Digimon were a completely different kettle of fish altogether. Good example: Skadi could punch the ground to summon a powerful earthquake/rock spire combo, and that was a mere Rookie level. 

"Apparently." Ramona replied, "but that's normally extremely rare outside of Spirit Wielders. Most of the time, humans have to rely on their Digimon partners, or barring that, whatever they can use to repel them. But look at you," She proceeded to elbow me in the ribs with just one with her many arms, "I bet you couldn't even beat a Sukamon in an arm wrestling contest!" She let out a hearty laugh at my expense, but neither me or Skadi were laughing. I just glared at her in anger, and folded my arms.

"Shut up, Ramona." I grumbled, but that didn't deter her laughter. 

"Lay off him, Ramona!" Almost immediately, Skadi came to my defence, walking up to Ramona and looking at the man sized creepy crawly in the eye, "I'll have you know that when we were attacked by a wild Arkadimon, he actually did all he could to save me while I was still my In-Training form. If anything, I owe him my life for what he did! Apologise to him, now!" The Kabuterimon's laughter quickly devolved into

"Geeze, fine. I'm sorry, Kenny." She said, sounding annoyed, like if we were the ones who said something wrong. But frankly, I didn't care. I just smiled happily and at Skadi. It felt good to have somebody be at my side, even if was my own Digimon partner.

"Thank you." Skadi crossed her arms, and held her head up high. "I'm always happy to do anything for you, pal!" She looked at me with her own smile. 

As the Veemon pulled out a sign seemingly from hammerspace, seeking a warmup spar and/or a mere chat before sitting himself down on a log, Skadi turned over to me, "Should we go talk to him?" She asked. "He seems interesting. And besides, I don't think having a little spar would hurt." 

I just shrugged, "Hey, I don't see why not.  Just don't get yourself killed, OK?" I leaned down to pat her back,  "If you need me, I'll be talking to Gaston over there. Ramona, stay with me. I don't want to be a sitting duck, what with all these monsters going around."

"Thanks Kenny! I'll see you in a minute!" And with that, Skadi gave me a quick wave, before running over to where the Veemon sat. She stood face to face with him, with plucky determination and a confident smile on her face. "Hey there! The name's Skadi, and I'm a Valaismon" She said, extending her arm for a handshake with the Veemon, "I heard you were looking for a friendly scuffle. I'm happy to say I'll be taking you up on that offer!" She did her signature boastful pose, arms akimbo, chest out. It was made clear as day that Skadi wasn't the one to back down from a potential challenge.

As I stood up, I just smiled at Skadi, as I whispered quietly to myself, "Attagirl, Skadi." We then took off to walk over to the late-teen and Dinohumon, "As for you, Ramona, I would appreciate it if you didn't call me a wimp, thank you very much." I still felt a little bit bitter from her remarks.

"I said I was sorry." Ramona grunted in response.

A few seconds later, we approached the muscular stick wielding man, as I waved to grab his attention and called out, "Hey! Muscle boy! Can I talk to you for a few minutes? My partner wants to have a friendly duel with yours!"

Questions still raced through my mind as the muscular man proceeded to settle on a training method with the Dinohumon (named 'Gam-saoirse', or something, I couldn't quite catch that). Not going to lie to you, this guy looked as if he could wrestle a fully-grown adult crocodile and win, with just one arm tied behind his back, to boot. I swear, if he could, he'd probably be able to snap Gam's neck in one clean move, and walk out without a single scratch borne upon his body.
And yet, they wanted to spar at just 65% (of strength)? With his physique? Even Ramona seemed pretty surprised, as she whispered to me, "Huh, you'd think for someone that strong, they'd go the full monty, and go all out." Weird enough for a fellow Champion level to tell me this, considering that to a normal person, Champion level Digimon tend to be absolutely dangerous threats. I still never forgot about Akari telling me about the night she nearly succumbed to one herself. Or the Arkadimon incident. Yes it was just a Rookie, but God did those claws hurt like hell.

The Dinohumon told Steve Irwin here to equip his armour before training when I called out to him, telling him about Skadi's keenness to duel with his Veemon. I said "Uh, yeah. As I was saying, my partner wants to have a friendly spar with your Veemon over there. She seems pretty keen."
Speaking of keenness, the Veemon seemed to share the same sentiment, shaking Skadi's hand. Skadi didn't seem to mind being called a 'newbie' either, a goofy grin on her face, showing her eagerness emanating from her body, making me feel this little warm tenderness inside of me.

God I really love that dag.

The Veemon introduced himself to Skadi (and indirectly me) as Valt, calling himself a regular Veemon. We both already knew what a Veemon was, but 'regular' my foot, he was more muscular than Levi the magic bag-travelling Veemon, and had scars covering his body. She broke off the handshake as he asked whenever she was new here, in which she replied, "Yeah, well, my buddy's new here, he's right over there," She pointed at where I stood, in which I smiled and waved to him, "We figured we needed a little bit more training, so I could protect my partner further, so we decided to do some sparring. I just finished one with Cassius just a while ago" She pointed to the TiaLudomon, waxing his armour from the scratches and grime accumulated onto him. Obviously this would probably raise a few questions, like 'What are you, a Rookie, sparring with a Champion, and one coated in seemingly impenetrable armour of all things?' I was sure me and Skadi could answer this very easily.

Before either me or Skadi could say anything further, and with only a verbal warning, Gam thrusted his sword aiming to strike him directly in the face. My heart started pounding like crazy, and I gasped in shock, while Ramona and Skadi could only look on, agape. I let out a series of panicked 'oh god's as the boy dodged it it by a hair's breadth. Luckily, we all calmed down as we saw him dodge it safely.
While Manus McMuscles yelled out in protest, Gam would go and call him out for leaving himself open to attack. But really, Gam should've called me out for calling out and distracting him. He went back to his duel with Gam, parrying his longsword in their little duel.
"Oh. I'm sorry..." I told the man, my tone seeping a little bit, "I guess you're a little busy right now. I'll talk to you later, when you're done." I walked off back to where Skadi and Valt were, Ramona following me once again. I leaned down to the Veemon's level to talk to him, right next to Skadi. "Uh, sorry about what happened right there, Valt." I said a little sheepishly, "I didn't know your partner was a little busy right now."

"I gotta admit though," Skadi added with a shrug and a grin, before turning over to Gam and the muscled boy, "Burly here's got some serious moves. I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Heh. I'm sure he will." I replied, as I looked over with her. I turned back to Valt to properly introduce myself to him. "Anyways, I don't think I've introduced myself properly. I'm Kenneth O'Hara, but you can call me Kenny, everybody basically does, anyways." I said with a chuckle, "And that goat... ram.. thing over there is Skadi the Valaismon. She's my partner, and my friend." Upon saying that, Skadi came over, and threw her arms over me for a hug, while I scooped her close to me with one free arm, and blushed slightly, "She's... pretty affectionate towards me." With my free arm, I pointed up to Ramona, "And that's Ramona. She's a friend of ours."

Ramona just lifted her arm, "Hey."

Me and Skadi quickly broke off the hug as she talked to Valt again. "As I said, we're here for some training too. And just recently, me and Kenny found this Digimental of Friendship the other day while we were out. I do want to give it a little test run. I mean, I get to turn into a dragon for this one! Isn't that sweet~?" The prospect of digivolving into Weatherdramon again seemed to clearly excite her, judging by her excited expression and clutching her fists in glee. Sure, we both knew it was merely just an armour, but it still did feel cool, nonetheless.

For God-knows-whatever reason, Gam overheard whatever Ramona whispered to me, and proceeded to answer her little remark, informing us that full power on a human for over 10 minutes at a time was clearly not a good idea. Ramona started to grumble to herself, hoping that nobody heard her again, "Well, excuse me for being impressed by how crazy strong that human looks..." I had to nudge her with my elbow to shut her up, lest Gam overhear her again.

"Ramona! Ixnay on digging yourself deeper than you have already done." I whispered to her, "He's a professional. Just please put your pride aside, for once." She complied, before muttering even quieter to the point of incomprehensibility. The clearly ripped man then implied that while with enough time and training, especially in the Digital World, anybody would get this (crazy good, IMO) physique, he was after all, still human. "I mean, shame, really." I replied, turning back to the sparring man, "You look like you could beat him at full strength in 10 seconds flat." Having grown up around the time Steve Irwin, the famed crocodile hunter who, despite lacking the pecs of this guy, treated crocodile wrestling as merely second nature, he didn't seem so keen on his own skills.

After telling him about Skadi's intention to spar with the Veemon, Valt, he gave his blessing, before informing us about his habits. 16 years of experience? I had only known Skadi for just a while, and as basically a hatchling, to boot. But she was crazy strong, from what I could tell, just ask Arkadimon. I gulped slightly on what we were getting ourselves into, but I spoke clearly, "Oh yeah, that sounds good. I'm sure Skadi would really need the experience from an expert."

Meanwhile (surprisingly enough), instead of questioning Skadi about the TiaLudomon practice, he complimented her instead, calling her 'spirit' great and herself a 'responsible Digimon'. Skadi blushed slightly at that, and rubbed her hand behind her head, "Aw, it's nothing." She said, "Just thought that I needed to beef myself up, is all. I'm gonna be a big, strong Digimon one day, and I'm going to be a great hero and protect the Digital World from evil Digimon!" Her spirit started to build, mainly thanks to Valt's words, and so her eagerness too.

But after that scary longsword close call, the muscular boy tried to deter the blame from me, even after I apologised and walked away to where Valt and his little sign sat. But I was pretty sure I was at fault. "Um, that's OK, man! Sorry about that."  I said. I still felt like shit for letting this happen, but it was true. At a young age, I was often at fault for things that weren't at school, forcing me to apologise for whatever I did wrong. Now I tended to apologise for anything I felt I did wrong, even when people pointed out things that they felt weren't my fault.

Valt told us that it was merely just Gam's little modus operandi at play, his 'brand of love' akin to the Veemon's own. How'd he do the same to Matt McMuscles right there, and how multitasking was a must in battle, lest they be left open. All of us looked pretty surprised by that.

"Wait a minute, you mean you literally fight your own tamer to train him?" I asked, my head spinning a bit from that statement. The closest thing I ever had to a proper fight with my Digimon was that impromptu pie fight I had with her, and that was just one paper plate and a can of whipped cream, not flat out combat. "I mean, I wouldn't blame you, you seem like a pretty good teacher, at least according to your tamer."

"And me!" Skadi piped up, still relishing the 'great spirit' compliment like if Valt told her the location of some lost treasure, "I can't wait to show him what I know!" I just ruffled her hair in response.

"Woah, calm down there, girl. Save your energy for the actual battle, ok?" She just smiled at me and nodded. 

Skadi's little remark about the Dinohumon-sparring-human's skills seemed to grab the latter's attention with a bit of kudos, albeit with a comment about the burly comment, as he continued fighting the Dinohumon. Only for him to, after missing a flank slash, shoot a laser beam out of nowhere to hit the Dinohumon clean in the chest, only for him to somehow shrug it off, like if he lightly poked him, but got him retreat anyway and sweet God, Buddha and Arceus what's going on? My jaw dropped in surprise, while Ramona and Skadi could only watch, only blinking.

"Buh- wha?" I cried out in shock, throwing my hands in the air, "You, laser beam, he- did nothing, what, where, laser beam what!? I thought you said you were an ordinary human! Ordinary humans don't just shoot laser beams from out of nowhere what's going on!?"

Skadi was just as lost as I was, "Your guess is as good as mine." She said, deadpan in tone.

The Veemon introduced himself to us as Valt, and told us the name of his tamer, one Ryota Noguchi, to boot, before bringing up our desire to fight with armour. Skadi turned to me, "Hey Kenny, what do you think we should go with for this?"

I just shrugged at her, "Eh, why don't we go with the armours for now. We do need a little bit more practice with Weatherdramon, I think." She nodded at me, and gave me a thumbs up.

"Good thinking, pal!" She turned back to Valt, "I think we'll settle on the armours for now. Like Kenny said. And besides, great minds do think alike, you know?" Her arms were akimbo, her chest was puffed, and that keen, Skadi-brand of confidence was apparent for all to see. "So how 'bout it?"
She ran over to an empty field near to where Valt sat and waved happily, eager to start on the word 'go'.

Meanwhile, Ramona flew over to where she stood, as she remarked, "Don't worry about me. I'll just be sitting out here. Just watching." She took herself a seat on a bench herself to watch the upcoming fight, looking quite relaxed and content.

While I called out to Ryota, again, "Hey, Ryouta, we're ready to go now!" But as I walked over to the bench with Ramona, Skadi had one of her little ideas again, as she started to call out herself.

Oh God, here we go...

"Hey, before we start, how about a friendly bet between us? You see that small pond over there?" She pointed at the shallow pond, large enough to immerse a human or a large Digimon like the Dinohumon, but not large enough to drown them, "Winner gets to throw the loser into the pond! After all, it's pretty hot today, and-"

Quickly, I ran up to her and clamped her mouth shut, before she could say anything further, "Uh, please disregard what she just said. She's just getting a little overconfident, is all." In reality, I didn't have a change of clothes on me, and being tossed into the water, even if it was a little warm today, was a little embarrassing, but Skadi persisted.

"Aw, come on, Kenny!" She insisted to me, "Win or lose, it'll be fun! After all, if we never try, we'll never know!" She seemed pretty keen on the idea, but she was really looking for Ryota and Valt to say something. "How bout you, Valt? Sound good?"

It was a good thing Gam was actually being quite mature about this, most likely borderline biting his tongue lest he call Ramona every word for 'bitch' in the English dictionary and then some, because he managed to keep his cool, and explain a bit about the longest boxing match in history, before proposing to Ryouta about fighting without breaks.
You know, if I was him, I'd easily agree with that statement, but I just looked a little startled about that comment. But said nothing, lest Gam suggest something crazier. (Truth be told, I knew I probably wouldn't last 5 seconds against him, no matter what percentage he was at.)
Then Ryouta, in a vain attempt to deny my claims, had been interrupted by Gam pointing out how one could pull it off. "Yeah, he's right. This is starting to get a little disturbing..." I agreed with the muscular man. Besides, this was getting a little to dangerously close to home, especially for me.

Valt explained to Skadi that there was nothing to worry about for this battle, just for her to have fun, and to learn. This was, for lack of a better term, something we both needed to hear. We just listened carefully, and smiled when he said that. After all, after several stressful incidents we had to endure so far (see: Arkadimon), it was nice to enjoy a nice, friendly battle with a equally friendly tamer. Valt then went on to compliment Skadi after her bold heroism proclamation, telling her to just keep going forward. With Skadi being, well, Skadi, I knew she was going to take it to heart, as she stood proudly and proclaimed "I will, Valt!" I just smiled and patted her head.

Valt explained the reason behind why he would often spar with Ryouta: to get him to defend himself properly, and to ensure he could fight alongside him. His comments made me rub my arm awkwardly, and Skadi just looked up at me. Ramona on the other hand, just looked at Ryouta, then at me. That brought up my bad memories inside of me. Skadi had always ragged on and on about how she was going to protect me and be a great hero, but in our first battle together, I couldn't really do much to Arkadimon, I could only buy time for her to keep her safe, and look where that got me. All I could tell to Valt was that, "Oh, yeah. I understand where you're coming from, Valt. Thanks for telling me." I just gave a small smile just to assure I was OK.

That thumbs up and keenness on Valt's end didn't go unnoticed. Skadi gave a thumbs up back, showing she was more than ready.

My shock concerning the the sudden laser beams was clearly not lost on either Ryouta or Valt, but his snickering was practically drowned out by Valt bursting out into laughter himself, like if they were saying 'yes, it is perfectly normal for humans to fire random laser beams'. I glared a little lightly at Valt, and Skadi was ready to speak her mind, before he explained it was just a harmless projectile, nothing more. I just blinked, before me and Skadi just burst out into laughter ourselves, me rubbing my head awkwardly in turn and Ramona ribbing me while chuckling. "Ehahahahahaha. Sorry, Valt. I'm still trying to get used to, you know, all of this. Like, never before in my life I'd think I'd see humans suddenly fire laser beams completely out of nowhere. Silly me." I just chuckled at my prior act. I admit I was acting a bit silly in my shock. Seems I still have a lot to learn about Digimon and the Digital World.

"That's OK, Kenny." Skadi smiled at me, still giggling a bit, "Still, it just goes to show you that the Digital World is still full of surprises. I actually never seen this happen up until now."

Finally, it was time to battle. Shame Ryouta wasn't going to watch. To my surprise, Valt accepted the bet willingly. Sure, it was nowhere near as bad as putting your own life on the line, but no matter what he said about how his own experience wouldn't mean much in this battle previously, that proclamation of 16 years worth of it still lingered in my head. "Skadi, I really hope you know what you're doing right now." I just muttered to myself. 
As Valt called to Ryouta to evolve him to his armour form, strong winds started to hammer the area, before Valt's small but muscular form transformed into a much more beefier version of himself, with white scaley armour and glowing patters over his body - Cardinaldramon.

Just as Cardinaldramon declared himself, a giant wind-dome started to cover the area, and subsequently, all of us. Me and Skadi looked in awe at the giant muscular wind drake towering over us, muttering a quiet "Wow..." It was hard to believe that was still Valt at this point. Still, at the very least, Skadi didn't seem too fettered by this, only just turning to me and saying, "Our turn." I subsequently complied, activating the Digimental of Friendship to digivolve Skadi herself, as a bright light engulfed her.

Her fluffy cotton body had turned into a decently large cloud, in which a Japanese style sky-blue dragon emerged from it. Her horns were now long and pointy, her body was now long and scaley, the latter trait not unlike Cardinalmon's, she wore a darker blue mask, with a red-and-yellow sun engraved on it, and she held an orb in her left hand, gripping it tightly.



Skadi looked at Valt dead in the eyes as she declared herself as, "Weatherdramon, the Electrifying Entity of Friendship! I was going to call myself 'the Storm of Friendship' instead, but I just recently found out that one was taken!" She sounded a little sore on that point, earning a snicker from Ramona.

"Hey, you gotta admit, at least 'Electrifying Entity of Friendship' rolls off the tongue a little better than 'Storm of Friendship." I called out.

"Point."

But there was something I needed to get off my chest, pretty much almost immdiately, "Wait a minute, does that mean if I lose, then that means I'm going to be pushed into the lake myself?" I questioned my wingless wind drake.

"Probably." Skadi shrugged, "But as I said, it'll be fun, win or lose! After all, it's all in a bit of fun." She had a goofy smile on her face. And that was pure, unfiltered Skadi right there; this was probably not my idea of 'fun' myself, but time made me soften up to her antics, no matter how silly. And besides, I just smiled to myself; it was certainly better than having to fight to keep ourselves safe from danger, so maybe if Valt did say yes, I'd go along with it.

So Valt was going to give Skadi the first move? For someone who emanated a hot-blooded battler aura off him, he did seem to have a bit of a gentleman-y side to him. "Why thank you I'll make sure to use this wisely. Prepare yourself." She smiled. Almost immediately, flame-like streams of energy started to form in her mouth, before she called out "Divine Breath!" The light blue energy burst out of her mouth, and flew over to Valt, threatening to hit him in the chest.

Meanwhile, using my D-3, I attempted to scan Cardinaldramon with my upgraded scanner, in order to check some basic info about him. Quietly, I just whispered to myself, "Good luck, Skadi." 

---

Skadi digivolves to the Armour!Champion level Weatherdramon, and takes advantage of the first move, offered graciously by Valt. She starts off by using Divine Breath to attack him, opting to save some of her move powerful attacks for later.
Divine Breath: Fires a stream of light blue energy from her mouth at the enemy. (No cooldown)

Meanwhile, Kenny scans Cardinaldramon!Valt with the Improved Scanner to get some info about him.
Improved Scanner: An improved scanner that subtly displays a Digimon's combat information on your screen. If given a post to clearly scan a Digimon, you learn their name, attribute, type, and family, along with a quick description and two of their signature moves

ALL RELEVANT PASSIVES
Cloud Travel (Non-combat Passive): Skadi can float in mid-air in this form. Nothing special, except she can reasonably avoid earthquakes and ground attacks.

Weatherlocked (Passive): In this form, Skadi takes less 20% less damage from non-Ice elemental attacks. However, her reptilian form means she takes 10% more damage from Ice attacks.

Lightning Rod (Passive): If any Digimon uses any non-physical electric attack, they get redirected at Skadi, whenever they were trying to aim at her or not. She then absorbs the attack, which changes the white cloud black and increases her attack by 30% for the next 3 turns. However, once active, she cannot absorb another electric attack outside of using Orb of Reflection.

Before we had started our battle, Valt had told us that the Ki Arts were useful for more than just a toy, and suggested that we could pick it up at the Terminus Mall sometime. After seeing Ryouta use it as a distraction against Gam in his little spar, I couldn't help but silently agree with him. I just smiled and nodded in agreement while mentally making a note to revisit the mall sometime to probably pick it up.
After all, if it worked for Ryouta in an innocuous spar, I could probably use it to intimidate a wild Digimon attacking us.

Speaking of the battle, I had managed to successfully scan Valt-as-Cardinaldramon, and as I went to look at the data displayed on the Digivice, I caught something surprising interesting about this Digimon, and my eyes widened in shock. Cardinaldramon was an Armour Ultimate. and Skadi was merely an Armour Champion. If Valt didn't toss Skadi around like a mere ragdoll in the wash, I wouldn't be surprised.

I just looked up and called to Skadi, "Uh, Skadi, I don't want to alarm you, but Cardinaldramon's an Armour Ultimate, and you're only an Armour Champion. Should we just call off this battle and jump in the lake right now?"

Skadi didn't seem at all faltered by this. Instead, her stance seemed more confident as ever as she replied, "Are you kidding me? I absolutely adore a good challenge like this."  She had a small, but very confident smirk on her face as she said this. Of course, this being a friendly spar didn't seem to deter her at all.

Ramona just called out herself from the sides. "Well, when Valt smashes your head against the concrete and knocks you out in one hit, don't come crying to me." 

We both ignored that.

I continued reading on for more important details about Cardinaldramon, revealing 2 very important details about his abilities: first, his 'Ultima Break' ability could break shields, and that could pretty much include Skadi's Gale Barrier. Second, the wind dome was all Cardinaldramon's doing, referred to as the Aeolus Field, a 50 meter radius that would increase all wind attacks by 30%. And since Cardinaldramon's description said that his attacks involved the winds, she would need to be careful. 

But as Skadi fired off her Divine Breath, Valt dodged it with ease. Thank god Ryouta and Gam had the good idea to get out of the way while they could. Of course, Skadi's focus was on Valt, and Valt alone. She blinked in shock, before clutching onto the orb in slight frustration. Of course he let Skadi go first, so he could dodge that. But quickly, she calmed down. Both me and her knew that she had like, a million opportunities to hit Valt again. 

Valt would then make a comment about Skadi's 'straightforward but not bad' attack. Smiling, Skadi replied, "Oh, that's nothing. You haven't seen what I'm truly capable of yet." Classic Skadi.
Valt's wind blades then spread out, like a giant eagle taking flight, the green needle shining like a magnificent emerald. "That's not good..." I heard Skadi mutter. I had to agree with her there, looking at the needle, before calling out, "SKADI, GET OUT OF THERE!"

As Valt called out his attack, the dome started to form a massive bout of wind pressure. Immediately, in a fit of panic, Skadi called out "Gale Barrier!" while holding out her orb. Almost immediately, a barrier of heavy wind emerged from the orb, aiming to protect Skadi as much as possible. With her free hand, she tried to shield herself as well. Just in time too, as the wind smashed onto the ground before transforming into a powerful current, en route Skadi's direction.

It seemed to do the trick, slightly, as the first set of winds hit onto the shield, Skadi blocking them quite well, but straining in the process to survive the barrage. Unfortunately, this was a defensive Champion-level shield on an Ultimate-level attack. Eventually, something had to give, and eventually, the shield broke, lashing at her viciously, and her roaring in pain a bit, as the winds pushed her back, ironically, getting her closer to the edge of the dome.

Still, Skadi was stalwart. Looking over at Valt, she proclaimed to him, "Is that the best you got, mate?" 

---

Skadi takes damage from Storm of Notus, which she attempts to block with Gale Barrier. Thanks to that and the Weatherlocked passive, this increases her defence against it by 70%. But thanks to Aeolus Field, it's reduced by 30%, capping the total to 40% of the attack blocked.

Gale Barrier: Skadi summons an barrier with her orb to protect her and others within a 5m radius. This barrier deflects 1 Champion level attack, all Rookie (+ lower) attacks, and halves 1 Ultimate attack by 50%. Any ranged fire attacks that hit the shield will instead by dissipated by the winds, which will not break the shield. (3 post cooldown)

ALL RELEVANT PASSIVES
Cloud Travel (Non-combat Passive): Skadi can float in mid-air in this form. Nothing special, except she can reasonably avoid earthquakes and ground attacks.

Weatherlocked (Passive): In this form, Skadi takes less 20% less damage from non-Ice elemental attacks. However, her reptilian form means she takes 10% more damage from Ice attacks.

Lightning Rod (Passive): If any Digimon uses any non-physical electric attack, they get redirected at Skadi, whenever they were trying to aim at her or not. She then absorbs the attack, which changes the white cloud black and increases her attack by 30% for the next 3 turns. However, once active, she cannot absorb another electric attack outside of using Orb of Reflection.

COOLDOWNS:
Gale Barrier: 0/3

Was Ryouta regretting the fact that he accidentally digivolved his partner to the wrong Armour form? It seemed he did, I noticed, and was now trying to fix it post haste, only for Valt to stop him... for some reason. Why? Why would he insist that Skadi fight him in a form she couldn't even reach yet? I just looked on in confusion. Again, Skadi tried to look unfazed, but that windstorm, even with her shield, roughed her up quite a bit, if her wincing were anything to go by. Poor girl.

Even if I could do jack and shit to help out physically, I could still call out words of support to Skadi, "Walk it off, Skadi, walk it off! Don't let that overgrown shiny Dragonite get to you!" She just turned to me, and while the pain was still apparent, she still managed to flash me a grin.

"I won't. But keep an eye on Valt for me, will you? I could do with an extra set of eyes." I nodded, before looking at the giant muscular Digimon. It was clear that Skadi needed all the help she could get, and while I was obviously of no physical condition to fight a giant, I still wanted to help in some way. After all, she was my partner, and I knew I couldn't just sit around and wait for the problem to solve itself.

As Valt complimented Skadi's Gale Barrier technique, a secondary windstorm started to build, before striking down on the ground once again. Staying calm despite the pain, she cried out "Orb of Reflection!", as she raised the titular shiny orb in the air. As the wind lashed at Skadi once again, she shut her eyes winced in pain, albeit not as much. Half of the winds were absorbed into the tiny orb, while the other half still lashed at Skadi, pushing her slightly further back. It still stung a bit, but she seemed to take it calmly, breathing in and out in a bid to stay calm.

And that's when I realised as the gears started to click in my brain: Cardinaldramon was practically reliant on the dome. Those windstorms were part of the dome. And I was sure that those windstorms were only usable in the dome. If Skadi managed to escape the dome, Valt would have no choice but find a way to drag her back in, and despite the power differences, Skadi was still tough of nails, and she wouldn't be forced back in without a fight. But how to tell her this?

Honouring Skadi's request, my eyes were locked on Valt, who was just now starting to charge at Skadi, firing the wing blades on his back at her. Quickly, I called out "SKADI, LOOK OUT!!" She opened her eyes, only to be greeted by the sight of the overgrown shiny Dragonite coming at her, his blades flying towards her. To my relief, she listened, dodging the blades in time. But it was clear that Valt wasn't going to call it quits, giving chase as she started to float off as fast as possible, moving her away farther from the edge of the dome, all the while inquiring about how was she going to handle this.

As he started to catch up with Skadi, she had but one answer, which she said with another confident smirk as she stopped in her tracks, "How about I give you a little taste of your own medicine?" She responded. With that, she held out her orb, as the winds she absorbed from earlier started to blast at Valt, aiming to hit him squarely in the face. 

Meanwhile, as I was watching all of this, I could only whisper to myself, "Good thinking, Skadi." I was sure she couldn't hear me, but I didn't care. Did she figure out Cardinaldramon's connection to the dome too? This may had been a little ballsy, but a risk was a risk, and a risk Skadi was more than willing to take.

---

Skadi manages to reduce the power of the second barrage of Storm of Notus to a measly 10% thanks to using Orb of Reflection to absorb the winds, and the Weatherlocked passive to reduce attack. (50% + 30% - 50% - 20% = 10%). She manages to dodge the Blades of Anemoi, before trying to blast Valt in the face with the winds she absorbed. If hit, it will do unboosted air Champion damage + 30% more damage thanks to Aeolus Field's effect.

Orb of Reflection: If being attacked by a ranged/energy attack, Skadi can instead opt to absorb that attack instead with her orb. She can then fire the attack back at the enemy with the same amount of damage the original attack was going to inflict, including any boosts or passives the opponent has active. If used against Ultimates, then the attack power will only be on par with an unboosted Champion level attack, and only 50% of the attack can be absorbed. This attack cannot be affected by the Lightning Rod passive. (3 post cooldown)

ALL RELEVANT PASSIVES

Cloud Travel (Non-combat Passive): Skadi can float in mid-air in this form. Nothing special, except she can reasonably avoid earthquake and ground attacks.

Weatherlocked (Passive): In this form, Skadi takes less 20% less damage from non-Ice elemental attacks. However, her reptilian form means she takes 10% more damage from Ice attacks.

Lightning Rod (Passive): If any Digimon uses any non-physical electric attack, they get redirected at Skadi, whenever they were trying to aim at her or not. She then absorbs the attack, which changes the white cloud black and increases her attack by 30% for the next 3 turns. However, once active, she cannot absorb another electric attack outside of using Orb of Reflection.

COOLDOWNS
Gale Barrier: 1/3
Orb of Reflection: 0/3