The massive armory echoed with the scraping of heavy boots against stone.
Weapons of all shapes and sizes lined the vast walls, ranging from chanical spears to thick iron shields.
Natsu charged first, gripping the red hilt of his Fire Blade. He channeled his physical energy, and the lacrima core roared to life, casting a bright, flickering glow across the dark room.
He leaped into the air, bringing the heavy sword down in a fiery arc.
Knightwalker didn't flinch.
She spun her weapon, the sleek blade shifting and expanding into a massive, dense halberd. "Ten Commandnts: Gravity Core!"
She swung the halberd up to et Natsu's strike. The impact was deafening. The sheer weight of Knightwalker's spear easily overpowered the Earthland mage.
Natsu grunted as his arms shook, the physical strain of fueling the magical sword already taking a heavy toll on his body.
With a swift kick to his chest, Knightwalker sent Natsu tumbling across the floor. He crashed into a weapon rack, gasping for air as swords and shields rained down around him.
"You're weak," Knightwalker sneered, resting the heavy halberd on her shoulder. "Relying on a cheap black-market toy. You're nothing without your natural magic."
"He isn't fighting alone," Agunimon's deep, tallic voice rumbled.
The crimson armored warrior closed the distance in a flash. He threw a heavy right hook, wreathed in swirling flas.
Knightwalker swung her massive halberd to block, expecting the dense iron to crush his arm on impact.
Instead, Agunimon's gauntlet collided with the tal of Gravity Core with the force of a falling teor.
A shockwave shattered the stone tiles beneath their feet. Agunimon didn't budge an inch. He didn't tire, his muscles didn't ache, and his power didn't waver.
"What?!" Knightwalker gasped, feeling her arms tremble from the intense kinetic feedback.
Before she could recover her stance, Gatomon launched herself from the top of a tall weapon rack.
"Lightning Paw!"
The tiny white cat beca a blur of razor-sharp strikes. She tore across Knightwalker's silver breastplate, leaving deep, jagged gouges in the polished tal.
The Fairy Hunter cursed, forced to drop her heavy stance and jump backward to avoid getting her throat slashed.
She landed near the center of the armory, breathing hard. She looked at Agunimon, her sharp eyes narrowing. "Your magic is dense. But I know how to handle unruly spells."
She spun her weapon, the heavy halberd shifting into a sleek, double-bladed spear that glowed with a strange, nullifying light.
"Runesave! This form cuts through magic itself!"
Knightwalker dashed forward, swinging the glowing blade directly at Agunimon's chest.
Agunimon didn't try to dodge. He gathered a massive sphere of fire in his right hand.
"Pyro Darts!"
He threw the concentrated fireball point-blank.
Knightwalker smirked, swinging Runesave with flawless precision to slice the magical attack in half.
The blade passed through the flas—and did nothing.
The fire didn't disperse or vanish. It exploded right against her armor.
Knightwalker scread, blasted backward in a cloud of smoke and cinders. She rolled across the stone floor, frantically patting out the flas that clung to her red cape.
"How?!" she coughed, staring at her spear in sheer disbelief. "Runesave cuts all ethernano!"
"My fire isn't made of ethernano," Agunimon stated, walking slowly toward her.
His flas burned brighter, fueled by pure, self-contained digital data.
"Your toys don't work on ."
Natsu pushed himself up from the rubble, panting heavily. The Fire Blade in his hand flickered, the flas shrinking as his physical energy depleted.
"Damn it... this sword eats way too much stamina. I don't get how you just keep going, Ace."
"I'm built differently, Natsu. Save your strength," Agunimon said, his eyes locked on the enemy.
Knightwalker realized she was outmatched in a head-on brawl against an opponent whose power broke the established laws of Edolas.
She gritted her teeth, her sharp gaze darting across the room.
She spotted Wendy, Edo-Lucy, and Wizardmon standing near the entrance of the armory.
"If I can't cut your magic, I'll just slaughter your weak links!" Knightwalker snarled. Her spear shifted once more, returning to its aerodynamic, lightweight form.
"Silfarion!"
She vanished in a sonic boom, bypassing Agunimon and Gatomon entirely.
She reappeared high in the air, directly above Wendy, thrusting her spear downward for a lethal, blinding strike.
"Wendy!" Natsu yelled, too exhausted to reach her in ti.
Wizardmon stepped smoothly in front of the girls, raising his sun-crested staff.
"Thunder Spear!"
A jagged bolt of lightning shot upward, intercepting Knightwalker's descent. The Fairy Hunter grunted, forced to twist her body mid-air to dodge the electric blast.
She landed gracefully on a thick stone pillar, ready to launch a second diving attack.
But Wendy didn't wait to be rescued.
She took a deep breath, stepping out from behind Wizardmon. She raised her fists, the silver Air Shatter Vambraces catching the pale light of the armory.
"I'm not a weak link!" Wendy shouted.
She threw a double punch toward the pillar.
The vambraces whined loudly, sucking in the surrounding air and releasing a massive, compressed shockwave.
The invisible wall of kinetic force slamd into the stone pillar, shattering the masonry into a hundred flying pieces.
Knightwalker lost her footing, tumbling out of the air with a shocked gasp.
Agunimon was waiting for her. He leaped off the ground, spinning like a fiery drill.
"Pyro Tornado!"
His flaming heel caught Knightwalker square in the chest. The devastating impact launched her across the vast armory.
She crashed through a heavy wooden weapon rack and slamd violently into the far wall, cratering the solid stone!
The armory fell silent, save for the crackle of Agunimon's flas and Natsu's heavy breathing.
Knightwalker slumped against the broken wall. Her helt was gone, and her sleek silver armor was charred, dented, and fractured.
She coughed up a trail of blood, struggling to push herself up on her hands and knees.
She glared at Agunimon, her eyes burning with a hateful, desperate defiance.
She knew she was beaten.
"The King... will crush you," Knightwalker hissed.
She reached out and grabbed a volatile, glowing explosive lacrima from a broken crate nearby.
Without a second thought, she slamd the crystal into the cracked stone wall behind her.
"Look out!" Wizardmon warned, throwing up a magical shield over Wendy and Edo-Lucy.
BOOM!
The explosion was deafening. The blast tore through the foundation of the armory, collapsing the ceiling and sending massive chunks of debris raining down.
Thick, choking dust filled the air, blinding everyone in the room.
Agunimon stood his ground, letting the falling rocks shatter harmlessly against his crimson armor to protect Natsu.
When the dust finally settled, the back half of the armory was blocked by an impassable wall of collapsed rubble.
Erza Knightwalker was gone, having used the explosion to escape deeper into the palace to warn the Royal Army.
Agunimon reverted to Ace in a shower of digital light.
He brushed a layer of dust from his coat and looked at the ruined wall.
"She got away," Natsu groaned, leaning heavily on his sword.
"Let her run," Ace said, his voice calm. "She's battered and her armor is cracked. She won't be eager to fight us alone again."
Gatomon padded over, shaking the debris from her white fur.
"She's probably going to warn the other captains. The security up top is going to be tight."
"We can handle it," Wendy said.
Her hands were shaking slightly from the adrenaline, but she stood tall.
Edo-Lucy stared at the collapsed wall, then looked at the strange group of Earthland mages. Her skepticism was gone.
"You guys... you actually beat the Fairy Hunter. She's been terrorizing our guild for years, and you just sent her running."
Ace turned toward a large, ornate set of double doors on the opposite side of the armory.
The doors were marked with the golden crest of the Edolas King.
He walked toward the heavy doors and pushed them open, revealing a grand, spiraling staircase that led upward into the heart of the royal palace.
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