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Nero observed as Shadow circled his own BlackGuilmon. Not necessarily a bad tactic, but predictable. I thought Rage was supposed to make one's actions unpredictable, the boy mused to himself. No. Not as simple. If the boy's rage was as controlled as he proclaimed, then perhaps he lost that which had given him slight advantage. Rage was unpredictable. Strength, Nero could handle that, it could be calculated after all. However when angered one's actions were much harder to predict. If this were a controlled state of rage, then Shadow was simply upping his strength, there would be no unpredictability to his actions. Nero relished the thought as he raised a hand to command Vincent. Palm opened to his enemy, Nero whispered a single work,"Reverse."
Vincent obeyed instantly, burrowing into the ground once more. Instead of burying himself, this time he was simply throwing dirt up into the air. That was the first move. A setup to the glorious finisher. Then Shadow moved, bringing behind him a trail of flames. Vincent was becoming surrounded by a ring of fire. Nero kept his calm, his digimon reflected that attitude. Immediately the digimon piroutted like a ballerina and began to spin like one as well. He spun in opposite direction of his opponent, taking advantage of the winds whipped up by Shadow's running to increase his own speed. Shadow prepared his blast, and Vincent reacted instantly bending his legs and using his built up speed to send himself flying into the air. He landed a few feet away, bringing with him a shower of dirt, which he had dug out of the dirt earlier. The dirt put out the flames which surrounded Shadow, covering both digimon in a layer of dust. Vincent kneeled, masking his injured leg. One could only do so much to avoid a catacylsmic fall that he had taken. Nero simply hoped that his opponent's were not observant enough to notice. He disliked relying on hope, but in some situations it was necessary, statistics could only care one so far. Curiously, as Vincent kneeled he kept both claws dug firmly into the soil.

[Sorry the post took awhile, school was frantic all week].

Blackguilmon responded to Shadow's attack with a counter of equal force. Fire burned grass, grass grew over rocks, and rock crushed flame. That was dumbing it down a bit, but Nero did not expect his opponent to be a genius. He was a fighter, perfect for pointing at a target and letting all hell break loose. He would become Nero's dragon, whether he wished to or not. When Shadow threw his fireball, Nero reacted quickly, flipping up the card holder attached to his belt. The card pulled out by the boy was rather basic, but it was ideal for this situation. The tamer grabbed his dark purple D-Power, and holding the card in two fingers, slid it through the scanner. "DIgi-Modify, Power Boost," Nero shouted. Strength surged throughout the dark digimon, he dug both blaws into the ground and pulled up a sizeable chunk of earth. The fireball smacked into the wall of dirt, exploding violently. For a few quiet moments, the views of both digimon were obscured. Then from the sky, came Vincent lunging at Shadow from behind. Behind his claws followed streaks of black and purple flames. Nero was still clutching his digivice as he watched the events unfold before him. "If this conflict is starting to bore you, perhaps we should no longer restrict it to the rookie level," Within his card case, a purple card began to glow. It bore the same digital hazard mark that emblazened Blackguilmon's chest.

Nero watched somewhat regretfully as the Guilmon's attacks collided and the resulting blast sent his digimon tumbling across the ground. Nero could not take this anymore, his confidence had cracked at the sigh of his digimon harmed. Wordlessly he drew his precious card, the one emblazened with the hazard symbol and slid it across his digivice. "Digi-modify, Dark Digivolution," The words were a grim warning for what was to come. Blackguilmon's form suddenly surged with the same purple flames that had burned it a moment ago. Bit by bit it's data pealed away, until there was nothing left but a black shadow. The shadow increased in size, taking the shape of a fiercesome dragon. As the data began to reassemble itself on the digimon, it was clear to see which monster Nero had called forth. It was Megidramon, one of the three legendary dragons. Nero stood in front of the colossal digimon, with the same blank expression, but inside he deeply worried for Vincent. Each time a digimon digivolved they lost a part of their personality. Would Blackguilmon still trust him, even after he forced him to digivolve into such a menacing form. "Don't be scared, unlike you I can win graciously, and don't plan on killing you after I've beaten you," He teased, wanting to provoke his opponent even further.

"IKE! Megidramon. Let's finish this quickly," Nero encouraged Megidramon, who flew silent and menacing far over the tamer's shoulder. Nero was not completely cold, unlike the opponent he was facing, he genuinely worried for his digimon when digivolved into this frightening state. Still, there were some sacrifices that needed to be made to further his own ambitions, his digimon were all aware of that and they still trusted him. It would almost be touching if he weren't stuck in the middle of a battle. Nero looked up at his digimon and nodded, hoping the message would be delivered. Megidramon raised both of his arms, clad in digichrome armor, and tossed back his head. The Digimon let out an ear piercing roar, using it's hell howl attack it tried to shock and stun the opponent digimon . It's howling cut off abruptly as the dragon digimon's wings began to beat. It darted through the air, trying to fly past Shadow and slash it with the digi-chrome blade attached to his arm. It was a basic strategy, good for an opening move. Nero nodded approvingly at his digmon.

Nero mindlessly flipped his knife open and shut. He was not longer paying attention to this battle. It was strange, he had thought that this sort of battle would bring about some great feeling of accomplishment or joy. Nero could only feel apathy though. He drew his violet digivice, watching as Vincent took a blow from the attacking digimon. Nero's teeth grit, as he tried to hide his frustration. Nothing would result of this conflict. Nero thumbed the button on his D-arc, watching the data around Megidramon disperse into the air, leaving nothing but a blackguilmon laying stunned on the ground. "I apologize, but Blackguilmon cannot maintain that form for long without losing sanity!" With that the conflict was over. He grabbed the digimon by the claw and began to walk elsewhere. Before the enemy had a chance to react, Nero set off a smoke bomb to cover his retreat. He had other places to be.

They continue trekking through the hot conditions over the dunes.
"Hey! theres that figure again! Blast, it's gone again"
"I told you, the heat is making us crazy, we are in the centre of the desert, open to harm, close to death, easy to turn psyco.."
"Stop! your depressing me, look over there, theres a plane of metal, we can rest there."
They head over to the metal plane, as soon as the ground turned from sand to metal, they collapsed on the cold metal.
"Boy, it sure is nice and cool here, i can finaly chill."
"there's something I have to say to you"
"what's that?"
"the reason we are trekking through this place, is because i hear that there is a treasure, and I wanted to look for it, so i made up an excuse."
"Don't worry bud, I since ive been here ive wanted to explore, but we had to escape the city strait after, so now I'm looking forward to it."
"that's good."
* * *

Jai gets up, spotting an old friend, or maybe, an old enemy.
"Rei?! why are you here?
Jai walks up to Rei, an angry look on his face.
"Jai, who is this, you look angry?"
"an old school mate, we hate each other, wait, he has a digimon too?!
"Dont worry, ill protect you"
"Thanks....friend..."