"Two against one, is it..." Mystogan murmured.
He still had a vast amount of magic remaining, but facing two opponents with complementary abilities and extremely strong combat instincts, it was no longer possible to suppress them as easily as before.
Moreover, the young summoner in the distance might have more tricks up his sleeve.
"Then... I suppose I'll get a little more serious."
He made a grasping motion with his right hand, and the fallen staff flew back to him.
Holding a staff in each hand, he slightly lowered his stance.
In the next second, WereGarurumon attacked first.
It dropped to all fours and transformed into an afterimage, closing the distance in a rapid Z-pattern, trying to get in close to leverage its melee advantage.
Mystogan's eyes sharpened, and he pointed his right staff forward—Multiple Magic Beams.
Dozens of magic beams, thin as fingers yet incredibly condensed, rained down like a pear blossom storm, covering WereGarurumon's path.
Each one was powerful enough to pierce through rock.
While sprinting, WereGarurumon rapidly changed direction, rolled, and even leaped briefly, evading most of the beams with astonishing agility.
However, a few still grazed its shoulder and hind leg, charring its icy blue fur and leaving bloody marks.
But its charge did not slow; its eyes were fixed only on its target.
Just as it was about to break into Mystogan's ten-meter range—
Swoosh!
GrapLeomon moved.
Unlike WereGarurumon's wild charge, its movement was more like an instantaneous shift.
It pushed off with its feet, causing the ground to sink slightly, and its figure appeared on Mystogan's flank, unleashing another fierce Lion Wave Slash in a diagonal strike.
The energy blade cut through the air, aiming straight for the neck.
Mystogan seemed to have anticipated this.
He blocked with the cracked staff in his left hand while his body floated backward like a phantom, narrowly avoiding the slash.
But GrapLeomon's attack was relentless.
The first strike having missed, its footwork changed, and it stuck to him like a shadow, its fists becoming a blur of golden afterimages that enveloped him.
A flurry of fighting blows; each punch contained the power to shatter stone tablets and carried a concussive force that could disrupt the flow of magic.
Mystogan was forced to focus most of his attention on GrapLeomon's fierce close-quarters assault.
He brandished his right staff, setting up layers of magic barriers in front of him while casting small, instant-cast spells to interfere.
His speed was astonishing; he often made precise dodges or blocks at the very moment a fist was about to land, his movements almost prophetic.
But GrapLeomon's punches were cunning and seasoned, its attack rhythm relentless, forcing him to retreat continuously and putting him on the back foot for a moment.
Just then, WereGarurumon finally broke through the beam blockade and attacked from the other side.
Its sharp claws, carrying a chill that could freeze the air, tore downward. Kaiser Nail.
'Attacked from both front and back.'
Mystogan's eyes turned cold, and the magic within him erupted.
A storm of dark purple magic suddenly spread out from him as the center.
The storm contained various negative effects such as confusion, sluggishness, and gravitational anomalies.
GrapLeomon's punches faltered, and WereGarurumon's pounce also slowed by half a beat.
Seizing this gap, Mystogan crossed his staves in front of him, drawing a perfect circle.
Within the circle, space distorted slightly, forming a small dimensional portal.
He leaned back and merged into the distorted space, leaving only a faint ripple where he had stood.
The two Digimon's attacks hit empty air.
In the next second, Mystogan's figure reappeared atop another stone pillar thirty meters away, his breathing slightly ragged, but he had temporarily escaped the siege.
He glanced at the two Digimon below, who were on high alert, and then at the nervously watching Ace and Lisanna in the distance.
'Not only are the Summoned Beasts powerful and their coordination flawless, but the tactical command is also quite outstanding...' he assessed internally.
'This guy has what it takes to make it to the end. But...'
He looked up at the sky.
On the holographic map, the golden circle had shrunk to one-third of the island's size.
Among the five remaining light dots, two were rapidly moving toward the stone forest—it was Erza and Gray, and Mirajane and Elfman.
They had obviously noticed the intense battle fluctuations from the stone forest and were coming to investigate, or... to take advantage of the situation.
"I can't drag this out any longer," Mystogan decided.
He formed a hand seal, and his two remaining staves (including the cracked one) floated up and began to rotate around him at high speed, the runes on their bodies flashing with unprecedented brightness.
"You should be proud for pushing me this far."
Mystogan stood still thirty meters away, his remaining staff floating before him, its tip pointing upward.
He formed hand seals, his mask moving without wind, his sleeves billowing.
With him at the center, the magic power within a hundred-meter radius was seized by an invisible hand and gathered frantically.
"Five-Layered Magic Circle: Mikagura."
Beneath the calm declaration was a raging torrent of boiling magic.
Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong!
Five tremors that seemed to originate from the depths of the soul boomed from the void.
Five enormous Magic Circles, each over ten meters in diameter, unfolded in layers above Mystogan's head, like an inverted golden pyramid.
In the sky, the phenomenon caused by this terrifying convergence of magic attracted the attention of the entire island.
At the edge of the western jungle, Gildarts put down his wine gourd and squinted toward the five-colored pillar of light rising from the stone forest.
"Hoh? Getting that serious? Did the masked man run into a tough nut?"
Above the eastern swamp, Laxus hovered amidst lightning, his golden pupils reflecting the distant magical brilliance.
A corner of his mouth curled into an intrigued smile. "Interesting... Who could make that guy use magic on this scale?"
At the center of the battlefield, the one under the most pressure was WereGarurumon, directly beneath the Magic Circle.
"Ugh... ROAR!"
It was forced to crouch low, as if carrying a mountain on its back.
It wasn't just simple gravitational pressure; it was a composite force field generated by the five overlapping Magic Circles.
Mikagura emitted a slumber-inducing wave that reached straight to the soul, madly assaulting its will.
The icy blue energy on its body flickered violently as it tried to resist, but it was steadily pushed back by the continuous suppression of the five-layered formation.
The feeling of sleepiness was like a frog being boiled in warm water, slowly numbing its nerves and eroding its will to fight.
'Ace...' A pained thought, intermittent yet filled with unwillingness and struggle, came through the mental link.
'WereGarurumon!' Ace's heart felt as if it were being squeezed.
He watched his partner's figure struggling painfully in the five-colored light, watched the icy blue glow gradually dim.
'Wait.... weaponization...'
A flash of inspiration struck Ace's mind.
He remembered the special reward he had obtained before, something that appeared in the rebooted version.
It, along with MetalGreymon, had obtained a Weaponized form.
'WereGarurumon! Show them your brand-new form! We still have a long way to go!'
VMMMM—!
On WereGarurumon's body, the icy blue energy that had been flickering violently to resist the pressure suddenly underwent a qualitative change.
The fur on its back transformed into four pairs of mechanical wings, with detachable laser blades extending from their tips.
WereGarurumon: Sagittarius Mode!
Through Weaponization, it had specifically compensated for the agility lost during its evolution, gaining a new form with high-mobility aerial combat capabilities and powerful long-range strike options!