"That's it Nathan! You're doing it!" Dracus said.
Nathan was practicing his magic, strumming a sitar as best as he could.
"Ngh...Okay, I think I've got it..."
With one final strum, he swung the sitar upwards, causing a torrent of water to rise up from the ground, attacking the taget in front of him.
"You did it! Now, let's try something else."
Dracus walked over to Nathan and began showing him different chords to try. Meanwhile, the other soldiers were busy sparring with each other. Jack looks to the pair before returning his attention to his opponent, Kyle.
"Hey, let's take a break for now." he suggested.
"Oh, sure. I needed one anyway."
The two sat down on the grass, watching the other fights. Jack glances back to Dracus and Nathan, wondering something.
"So, why do you think these guys recruited Nathan?"
"What? Don't you like him or something? He's a pretty cool guy!" Kyle said.
"No, it's not that! Of course I like him, I'm just wondering why they recruited another soldier, that's all."
"Well, we're only like five people. You can't really call that an army, since it's only just us, even if you counted in those Null Dimension guys."
"Yeah, you're right. But still, I feel sorry that more people are getting involved in this war..."
"But then again, it might not be so bad."
The two look up and see Mary, sweating lightly.
"Just look at us. At the moment, all of us are physical attackers, more or less. So they're adding Nathan and training him in magic, so it can balance out our strength." she explained.
Later, in the Room of Repose, everyone was enjoying their relaxation time. Sean and Steven were having a staring contest, with Kyle watching. Mary and Jack were chatting with Nathan, who was strumming his sitar.
"Nathan, practice is already over. Why are you still playing that thing?" Mary asked.
"Oh, I'm just playing it for fun right now. I'm not really practicing anything, just testing out the different tunes this thing can make."
After a couple minutes, the doors opened with Wolfy at the door.
"Hey there gang!" he said gleefully.
The soldiers all lined up in front of him and saluted, as usual.
"Now now, at ease everyone. I've got some news for you all. We're all gonna be in a sparring tourney to see just how much we've improved. It's all of you against us!"
The beast soldiers began talking and mumbling to each other.
"Anyway, head down to the courtyard once you're all ready. We can't start until everyone's present."
With that, Wolfy left the room. There was excited chatter filling the room as everyone began running over attack patterns and techniques in their heads.
Down at the courtyard, the beast soldiers stood at one end of the area, with the Null Dimension's inhabitants at the other. Wolfy stood at the center, looking at both sides expectantly.
"Alright everyone! All matches will be a one-on-one battle! If you can no longer fight, or if I believe that your life is in danger, the fight will come to a stop! I will be the referee of all matches! Now, I hope you've all gotten stronger since your last training session! Don't disappoint me!" Wolfy called out.
With that, Wolfy stepped to the side and shouted out two names. Jack the Lizard and Veemon the Adamant Mountain stepped up to the middle of the courtyard. Jack held onto dual swords as Veemon summoned up a huge axesword.
"Ready? Fight!"
Jack ran up close to Veemon, preparing to swing. Veemon stood his ground, and blocked the attack. He quickly swung his weapon at Jack, which he nimbly dodged. The teams were all cheering for their current fighters, shouting words of encouragement. Veemon slammed his axesword onto the ground, causing a large rock to come up from the ground.
"Have a taste of my earth magic!" he shouted.
With a quick swing, he shattered the rock into pieces, all hurtling towards Jack. The lizard quickly dodged as best as he could, swatting away any rock he couldn't dodge in time with his sword. For a counter attack, Jack began running towards Veemon, then stepped to the side when he was close. He ran around Veemon, trying to find a hole in his defenses. Choosing his left side, he swung. Veemon blocked the attack again, forcing Jack to back step away.
"Wow, that weapon may be heavy, but it's surprisingly fast..." Jack mumbled.
"Heh, let's try something even worse than flying rocks."
Veemon threw his weapon up into the sword. Jack looked up, watching it fall back onto the ground. He expected a thud, but the weapon suddenly bounced towards him! Surprised, he barely had time to dodge the attack when the weapon began heading towards him again. Jack tried to swat the axesword away, but only scratched the surface before it struck him hard in the chest. He fell onto his back, the wind knocked out of him as the weapon bounced towards Veemon, who caught the handle. Wolfy walked in and announced Veemon the winner.
"W-what! I can still-Agh!"
Jack held onto his chest, feeling a couple broken ribs.
"No Jack, a strike like that would have broken some of your rib bones. I heard the crunches." Wolfy said.
