Silence.
Everyone, including the widely experienced Master Makarov, was so shocked by this bizarre, drastic evolution from a skeletal behemoth to a humanoid dragon warrior that radiated a completely different but even more terrifying aura, that they were rendered speechless.
Laxus was the first to recover.
He looked at this... thing who wasn't much taller than himself, then thought back to the skeletal beast.
He was stunned for a moment, then a scornful and mocking grin spread across his lips.
"Hah? That's it?" Laxus pointed at BlackWarGreymon as if he had seen the world's greatest joke.
"It got smaller? I thought it would turn into something even more impressive, but it just shrank like this? Without the advantage of size, with a small body like yours, just watch how I'll tear you apart!"
He didn't know that in a distant Digital World, size was never the absolute measure of combat power.
Countless Mega, Ultimate, and even Champion level Digimon, despite huge differences in size, could fight back and forth relying on their attributes and skills.
Laxus body moved, once again transforming into a golden bolt of lightning that shot out, instantly appearing in front of BlackWarGreymon.
His right fist, wreathed in violent electricity, smashed towards its face.
"Lightning Strike Fist!"
The fist carried a biting wind, the lightning dazzling.
This punch was enough to blast through a city wall.
Then, under everyone's tense gaze, BlackWarGreymon simply raised its black-armored left hand and blocked it.
There was no explosion, no shockwave, no cracking of bone.
Laxus's Lightning Strike Fist, powerful enough to shatter mountains and split rocks, was caught so casually by BlackWarGreymon's single palm.
The moment the violent lightning touched the black dragon claw armor, it vanished without a trace, like a clay entering the sea.
"?!"
The savage grin on Laxus's face froze instantly, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints.
He could feel the force of his punch as if it had hit an immovable mountain, the recoil made his arm go numb.
And his opponent... hadn't moved an inch, not even a flicker of change in its eyes.
Then, before he could react, BlackWarGreymon's fingers, which had caught his fist, suddenly clenched, clamping down on Laxus's fist like an iron vise.
At the same time, its free right arm shot out like lightning.
"Wh—?!" Laxus was shocked.
The magic power in his body surged wildly as he tried to break free and counterattack.
But BlackWarGreymon gave him no chance. It grabbed Laxus and stomped its feet hard on the ground.
BOOM! The ground shattered.
The two figures shot up into the sky like cannonballs, instantly ascending hundreds of meters.
"Bastard! Let go of me!" Laxus roared, his body erupting with countless bolts of lightning that madly cut and bombarded BlackWarGreymon's body, yet they couldn't even leave a mark on the black armor.
BlackWarGreymon showed no reaction to this.
It simply carried Laxus, executed a rapid dive and turn in the air, and then, like throwing a javelin, hurled Laxus viciously towards the ground below.
"Waaah—!!!"
Laxus became a golden meteor, crashing towards the earth at a terrifying speed.
BOOM!
Dust and smoke shot into the sky.
A huge, deep crater was smashed into the ground.
Laxus managed to stabilize himself in mid-air, his body wracked with pain, his head spinning.
If not for the powerful physique of a Dragon Slayer and the protection of his lightning magic, that single blow would have been enough to severely injure him.
He hadn't even fully recovered from the impact when a shadow loomed over him.
BlackWarGreymon descended from the sky, its black-armored right foot whistling through the air as it viciously kicked Laxus in the face he had just managed to raise.
Bang!
Laxus was sent flying horizontally across the bottom of the crater by the kick, crashing into the crater wall again, causing the rock to crumble.
"Ugh!" Laxus let out a pained grunt.
Half of his face was red and swollen, and his vision went black.
An unprecedented humiliation and rage erupted in his chest like a volcano!
"I'm going to kill you!!!"
He barely steadied himself, ignoring the excruciating pain in his face.
His violent lightning magic power compressed and condensed with unprecedented intensity, emitting a piercing sizzle.
The surrounding air distorted due to the high-voltage electricity.
"Thunder Dragon's Heaven Halberd!"
He materialized his lightning into a heavenly halberd.
A massive beam of lightning, dazzlingly golden and containing destructive high-voltage energy, shot out like the Grim Reaper's spear towards the just-landed BlackWarGreymon.
The piercing power and destructive force of this attack far surpassed the previous "Lightning Strike."
Faced with this Dragon Slaying Magic, which was powerful enough to pierce dragon scales, BlackWarGreymon finally moved.
It didn't dodge.
Instead, it stepped forward into the beam of lightning.
Its right fist, covered in black dragon claw armor, met the incoming lightning halberd head-on with a punch.
BOOM!
The claw collided with the Thunder Dragon's Heaven Halberd.
There was no stalemate, no annihilation.
To everyone's disbelief, that terrifying halberd was shattered and disintegrated by BlackWarGreymon's seemingly ordinary punch.
"What?!" Laxus's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
How was this possible?!
That was Dragon Slaying Magic!
Although its power wasn't at its peak due to his injuries and haste, it wasn't something that could be shattered by a single punch.
His shock lasted less than a tenth of a second.
BlackWarGreymon, after shattering the lightning halberd, didn't pause for a moment.
Its body became a black afterimage, instantly crossing dozens of meters to appear before Laxus, who was in a brief state of exhaustion after unleashing his ultimate move.
Then, those eyes burning with cold golden flames locked onto him at close range.
BlackWarGreymon's hands became a black storm.
Left claw, It smashed viciously into Laxus's hastily raised left arm.
The arm bone groaned, and his lightning defense was pierced.
Right claw, It slammed into Laxus's right arm, which he barely managed to bring up to protect his chest.
"Dragon Crusher."
An uppercut struck Laxus's chin, lifting him off his feet, his head snapping back, stars exploding in his vision.
It heavily struck the other side of Laxus's cheek.
New injury was added to old, and blood sprayed wildly.
BlackWarGreymon's attacks were like a torrential storm, hammering Laxus's chest and abdomen.
Each punch made him feel his internal organs shift, the pain drilling into his very core.
Finally, a heavy elbow strike, gathering dark power, slammed viciously into Laxus's stomach.
"Pffwa—!!!"
Laxus spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.
His entire body was sent flying backward like a broken sack, shattering several rock pillars along the way before finally crashing heavily onto the ground a hundred meters away, tumbling a dozen times before coming to a stop.
BlackWarGreymon slowly retracted its arm and stood its ground, its black figure was like a demon god in the swirling dust.
Its eyes, burning with golden flames, glanced indifferently at the distant Laxus, whose status was unknown, before turning towards Ace.
The entire forest fell into a dead silence.
Only the mournful cry of the wind blowing through the ruins and the faint sound of Master Makarov rushing over from a distance could be heard.
------
Can metalgreymon evolve into Machinedramon?