This one appeared first in the Digimon: New Century game, and we're using its art from the game rather than its official "Digimon Illustration" because the former is a bit cleaner looking.

Xiquemon is a new evolution for the classic child-level bird, Piyomon, but this one is based on both a magpie and a fish, having a scaly blue fish tail instead of a normal bird tail. It can both fly and swim, hence the goggles it's always wearing, and its main attack is to fire a fish-shaped missile from its mouth, though I'm not sure what that looks like.

This is actually based on the peng from Chinese mythology, a huge bird that can transform either from or into an enormous fish!

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Xiquemon's dedicated Perfect stage, then, is a gigantic fish with only a subtle dash of bird in the mix, and it's an awesome looking fish! Its metallic, armored head has a vicious beak reminiscent of a snapping turtle or a Dunkleosteus, it has just enough gold elements to stand out nicely against the cool blue elements, and all its various fins and frills are in hues of pink, fading in intensity like flower petals. Besides the presence of a beak, it alludes to its bird origin with pectoral fins clearly formed out of feathers!

This actually follows descriptions of the Peng's fish form quite closely; a beaklike mouth and winglike fins. In fish mode, the creature is called a Kun, but collectively the species is sometimes referred to as Kun-Peng.

I'm going to give this a 5 just because it's such a pleasantly designed mythical fish monster.

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The final stage is dragon shaped, which is a bit predictable for a Digimon, but for a Digimon based on Chinese legend it's the only sensible choice. Interestingly enough however, Xiangpengmon is classified as a Holy Bird Digimon, rather than a dragon, which I think is pretty cool! It also succeeds at striking a more even balance between bird and fish; its scaly blue body and finned pink tail are fishlike, but with four taloned legs, its upper body is dominated by a pair of huge bird wings whose individual feathers have a color and shape more like fish fins, and it has an armored, beaked head similar to Huankunmon but slightly longer, a little more in the shape of a bird's face.

The fish form is my favorite of the line, but all three are pretty nicely designed, the finale is really beautiful looking and I really like the way it shifts between fish and bird before settling on something that's essentially both, but neither.

These evolutions do feel tailored almost directly to Swimmon rather than a bird, and I'm sure Swimmon is meant to be a viable option here already, even if it was only just given that badass Flying Fish evolution, which of course can also lead nicely into Huankunmon, and Huankunmon even fits as a Perfect stage for Regalecusmon! They've really been spoiling fish fans lately.

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