As he tore through the forest like a man possessed, MetallifeKuwagamon repressed the urge to yell out to AtlurKabuterimon, wherever he was. 
Experience had long since taught him that it would only draw the wrong kind of attention, and so he kept silent. Or as silent as he could be with the speed he was moving through the thick gathering of trees, at the very least

He had been travelling steadily north for an hour; by now, he was well within the confines of the nastier parts of the great woods, where the ferals roamed freely. 
Everything was silent, however; eerily silent, beside the sound of his own movement. Any other noise was either non-existant or too quiet to be heard over his movement; thus, ferals were unlikely to be nearby. 
However, here and there, there were signs of a struggle; signs of a struggle that MetallifeKuwagamon knew full well could be from his friend. Trees were uprooted or even smashed, the ground was blackened in places, and the air stunk of death and decay in others. 

MetallifeKuwagamon was not a being pre-disposed to caring about others; but the slightests hints of concern began to creep up upon him as he went further and further into the woods, and found these traces of a struggle more and more common.
And then, one and a half hours after he had set out, the air was finally filled with noise.
____________________________________________________________________
[i]Pain.

That was all the great lion could comprehend as the flames consumed it, its mind too panicked for it to even scream as it was attacked. 

The lone figure moving through the woods had scared it- and in its moment of fear, it attacked the interloper without a second thought. But as the flames it blasted the lion with ravaged it and tore it apart, it wasn't even given the chance to register its folly.

The pain was intense, but lasted only for an instant. The fires burnt strong and fast, and within a moment, the lion was nothing but ashes on the wind, with not even a scream to mark its demise.[/i]
____________________________________________________________________
MetallifeKuwagamon pressed forwards, a sudden roar in the distance spurring him on.

That was the characteristic roar of a SaberLeomon; a common feral Ultimate in these parts. Whilst dangerous, they were weak, with a Perfect of MetallifeKuwagamon's calibre being able to dispatch one with only a small difficulty. And if the roar of SaberLeomon signified a confrontation with AtlurKabuterimon, the work of two skilled Perfects would cut it down with swift brutality.

Convinced his friend was ahead, MetallifeKuwagamon prepared to call out-

Before the roar of SaberLeomon was drowned out by an even greater roar; and before that roar was drowned out by a powerful flash of light and heat. 

MetallifeKuwagamon froze.
That [b]definitely[/b] didn't come from AtlurKabuterimon. 

He composed himself, backed away.
Whatever that flash was, SaberLeomon was now gone. Whatever it was, the Ultimate-level feral had been obliterated in an instant.
MetallifeKuwagamon was suddenly all-too aware that whatever caused the flash was utterly beyond his ability to combat; even he, famed for his hardheadedness and stubborn aggressive behaviour, was frozen stiff at the thought of whatever it was that caused this.

Despite everything, he was a man of the woods; even he knew that when an insurmountable threat presented itself, it was best to retreat.
Quickly, he turned, swallowing his pride. If he moved quickly, perhaps he could avoid being noti-

"You there."

MetallifeKuwagamon froze once more, his stomach dropping into the icy pits of the ninth circle of hell.
The forest descended into silence once more, the only sounds violating that silence being the sound of MetallifeKuwagamon turning around.
And the sounds of footsteps upon the forest floor.

From the thicket of trees ahead, from the smoky clearing burnt away by the flash of light, a figure emerged. 
And from this figure emanated a chilling sense of death. 
It stood no taller than any of the other humanoid Digimon that MetallifeKuwagamon had ever encountered, and yet there was something deeply, deeply unsettling about it. 
It was not the appearance; certainly, even if its appearance was terrifying, it would have no effect with how the thick brown cloak enveloped it in its entirety. 

Rather, it was the aura of death that hung about it.

MetallifeKuwagamon recognized it from before; it was the same feeling he'd experienced when he'd found those signs of struggle earlier. Whatever this thing before him was, it was responsible for those signs of struggle.
Those signs of utterly one-sided, hopeless struggles. 

"Are you looking for something?"

The figure spoke again; and this time, MetallifeKuwagamon registered the voice as masculine. Deep, but smooth. 
It- he drew back his hood, raising his head to stare directly at MetallifeKuwagamon, revealing a head with a fiery shock of hair and a horned helm that covered the top half of his face, and left his eyes fully visible. 
And if his stomach was already in the icy pits of hell, it suddenly found a way to drop even deeper as those eyes bore straight into him.

Those eyes were cold, focused. They were the eyes of a killer. MetallifeKuwagamon was no stranger to these kinds of eyes; but even he flinched as they stared straight into his soul and out the other side, as if judging him and finding him wanting. 
He was nothing before this monster. Those goddamn eyes alone were too much for him; the total overwhelming sense of death seeping out from the figure was drowning him in a freezing sea of fear. Adrift in a frigid ocean of terror, without anything to protect him from the cold.

For a few moments, those eyes stared at him, cold, baleful, judging.
The figure blinked.

And then the aura of death just seemed to fade away.

"Is that better?" The figure started up, staring at MetallifeKuwagamon in the same way, but yet without conveying a single fraction of the overwhelming sense of destruction they had just a few moments before, "I apologize for causing you any distress, though I'd honestly have expected a man of the woods to be of stronger character than this. This world still has a few things that can surprise me, it seems."

The aura of death gone, MetallifeKuwagamon found his stomach rise from the pit of ice it had sunk into.
And alongside it, his infamous temper.

"The fuck's your problem!?! Who the hell are you and what are you doing here!?!"

The figure before him didn't even blink at the sudden shift into anger.

"That's not important right now. Are you looking for something?"

"Answer my question, goddammit!!!" MetallifeKuwagamon replied, his anger overtaking the common sense and sense of self-preservation that had risen up within him just moments before.

This time, the figure did give a palpable reaction; as the gigantic insect before him grew angry, he merely sighed. 

"Are you looking for something or are you not? I think that's a simple enough question; or am I in for another surprise?"

For a few moments, MetallifeKuwagamon just glared at the figure before him, visibly gauled by the figure's attitude and the way he barely even reacted to his fury.
But then, with an aggressive sigh of his own, he gave in. He evidently wasn't going to get anywhere like this, and the niggling sense of fear left at the back of his mind let him know just how much chance he stood of forcing the information out of the figure.

"I'm looking for an AtlurKabuterimon. Big blue motherfucker, about the same size as me."

"Is he the same way you are?"

"The hell is that supposed to mean!?!" 

"Just answer the question. Is he as dim as you are?" The figure asked, his eyes assuming a piercing glare; just for a fraction of a second, but enough to unsettle MetallifeKuwagamon and coerce him into compliance. 

"You piece of- Alright, yes, fine. Fuck it. He's a big stupid idiot like me. Too much of a soft touch to do much with it, though. Happy now?" 

"Why would it make me happy?" The figure replied to MetallifeKuwagamon, ignoring his mounting frustration, before he turned to point to the east, "But this may make you happy; I encountered an AtlurKabuterimon a few hours ago, and he headed off in that direction. If you keep going that way, you may be able to find him."

And with that, the figure turned to leave. 

"... Thanks," MetallifeKuwagamon said to the figure, sounding at least a little grateful to him as he swallowed the anger that had been choking him moments before.

"Think nothing of it," The figure said offhandedly, before he disappeared into the woods and was felt no more.

"... The fuck was that about?" MetallifeKuwagamon muttered to himself, feeling thoroughly disturbed as he began to move in the direction that the figure had pointed out.
____________________________________________________________________
[b][u]Half an Hour Later[/u][/b]

After the encounter with the mysterious figure, the dark atmosphere of the woods was almost comforting to MetallifeKuwagamon. The silence was at least less terrifying than the aura of death that had hung about the red asshole, and he was at least making progress towards finding AtlurKabuterimon.

But, in the silence of the trees and his fixation on his strange encounter, MetallifeKuwagamon failed to notice the real threat.
From the darkness of the undergrowth, several gold tendrils crept towards the gigantic insect, silently and stealthily, calculating and careful.
And when they struck, it was as quickly and brutally as could be.

And as MetallifeKuwagamon was pulled into the aether with a tremulous roar of horror and rage, the last thing he saw was a flash of blue.
____________________________________________________________________
[b][u]Elsewhere...[/b][/u]

Kazuya didn't want to admit it, but he was lost. 

Muttering various curses under his breath, the 19-year old sat down on a nearby stone slab and pulled out his phone.
He had all day to get back home, but he still wanted to get back sooner rather than later. For all his quirks, he at least tried to keep some semblance of a personal routine, and getting lost on one of his bloody 'weirdo walks' (as his little sister had so kindly termed them when she discovered them) wasn't exactly conductive to that.
He'd heard about the abandoned buildings in the industrial sector of the city and had come all the way out to check them out; only to find that they were sealed off, having been snapped up by a bunch of hopefuls who had quickly decided to protect their investment from trespassers.

And that was all well and good in Kazuya's opinion, except now he'd come all the way out here for nothing, and the absolute lack of familiarity he had with the area meant he wasn't exactly sure which way to go to get back. The place was sprawling, almost labyrinthine, and there wasn't anyone about to ask for directions. 

His only salvation was his phone; he'd never quite worked the stupid thing out, and he had the feeling that his older sister had given it to him as a joke at his expense, but it finally seemed as if it was going to have a use; he could get a connection in this part of the city, and he'd be able to use that to check his location and find a way back to the parts of the city he knew, and from there back to his apartment. 

It seemed a sound plan as he loaded up the device and the GPS on it. 
It was only unfortunate that fate seemed to kick him in the shins with delight as the internet on the phone suddenly and unexpectedly cut out.
Kazuya's eye twitched, his frustration at the situation mounting.

And then the phone went completely haywire as the air around him began to crackle with electricity. 
As a gigantic metal shape fell out of the sky and smashed hard and fast into the ground in front of him.

"-ERFUCKER!!!!!!" MetallifeKuwagamon roared, the sheer volume of his voice knocking Kazuya flat on his ass in combination with the sudden shock of his arrival and impact.