Dragon Monarch System Chapter 1276:- Gamble With Own Life

Andris suddenly coughed out a large mouthful of blood. His eyes widened as he looked down at Raiketsu, which had pierced through his back, passed directly through his heart, and emerged from the front of his chest.

The pain was almost unbearable, and he could feel his strength rapidly leaving his body. His health and vitality were decreasing at an alarming rate. Even though he was a Beginner Seventh Order cultivator with an extremely powerful physique, having his heart pierced was still an extremely serious injury.

"H-How... did you...?" Andris asked with great difficulty. His voice was extremely weak, and every word caused more blood to escape from his mouth. He wanted to turn his head and look at Aditya, but the weapon passing through his chest made it difficult for him to move.

Furthermore, his body was already beginning to lose strength. His arms, which had been powerful enough to release terrifying shockwaves only moments earlier, were now hanging helplessly at his sides.

Hearing his question, Aditya slowly opened his mouth. Despite having suffered serious injuries throughout his body, his expression remained surprisingly calm.

"You see, Andris, my weapon, Raiketsu, has a rather interesting ability. It allows me to create invisible sword slashes and leave them hidden in different locations. These attacks remain there until I decide to activate them. In other words, I can use them as traps." Aditya explained while keeping Raiketsu firmly inside Andris’s chest.

Andris listened silently. Although he was having difficulty breathing, he wanted to understand how he had ended up in this situation. Only a few moments earlier, he had been completely certain that he was about to win. Yet now, the person who had been lying helplessly inside the crater was standing behind him with a weapon piercing his heart.

"While we were fighting, I was placing those invisible sword slashes around the battlefield. Of course, I couldn’t create an unlimited number of them. Raiketsu can only maintain ten of these hidden attacks at the same time. However, that was more than enough for what I had planned."

"Every time I moved around the battlefield, I made sure to leave some of those attacks in useful positions. And whenever I needed to change their locations, I could activate the existing ones and create new ones. Since the attacks were almost invisible, you never noticed what I was doing."

Normally, he might have noticed something was wrong, but he was so focused on attacking Aditya that he failed to notice anything kind of strange changes or fluactations surrouding him. If he had remained alert, then this would not have happened.

Hearing Aditya’s explanation, Andris’s eyes widened slightly. He had been so focused on overwhelming Aditya with his physical strength that he had never considered the possibility that his opponent was secretly preparing something else.

"From our very first exchange, I understood that your physical strength was far greater than mine. Even with all my stat-boosting skills activated, I couldn’t match the power behind your punches. So I knew that trying to defeat you through a direct exchange of strength would be foolish."

"However, I also noticed something important. Although your physical strength was overwhelming, I was still able to keep up with your speed. In fact, I was slightly faster than you. That meant I could avoid most of your attacks if I concentrated on dodging rather than blocking them."

Aditya looked at the back of Andris’s head before continuing. "But simply dodging your attacks wouldn’t have been enough to defeat you. You’re a Seventh Order cultivator, after all. Your body is extremely tough, and I knew that landing an ordinary attack wouldn’t necessarily be enough to kill you. I needed an opportunity to strike somewhere that you couldn’t easily defend."

Andris’s expression slowly began changing as he listened. He was starting to understand what Aditya had done.

"So, instead of trying to defeat you immediately, I decided to wait for the right opportunity. I knew that sooner or later, you would become confident enough to believe that you had already won. And once that happened, you would naturally try to finish the battle with one final attack."

He then added, "That was exactly what I was waiting for."

Andris felt a chill spreading through his body. He suddenly remembered how Aditya had repeatedly tried to avoid his punches instead of directly fighting back. At that time, Andris had assumed that the former Crown Prince was simply struggling to deal with his overwhelming physical strength.

He had also noticed that Aditya was not using his teleportation ability as often as he could have. However, Andris had not thought much about it.

After all, every time he attacked, Aditya appeared to be struggling more and more. His injuries continued increasing, and by the time the seventh attack landed, Andris had been completely convinced that the battle was already over.

But now, he was beginning to realise that things had not been as simple as they appeared.

"I also made sure not to rely too much on my teleportation ability. If I had constantly used teleportation to escape every dangerous situation, you would have become more careful about it. You might have started preparing ways to deal with my sudden movements."

"Instead, I wanted you to become comfortable with the way I was fighting. I wanted you to believe that I was struggling to keep up with your attacks and that my only choice was to continue defending myself."

"Of course, I didn’t expect your seven consecutive attacks to injure me that badly. I underestimated just how powerful your physical strength was. By the time I crashed into the ground, I was in a much worse condition than I had planned."

Aditya did not attempt to hide this fact. His entire body was still hurting terribly, and several of his bones remained fractured. Even standing behind Andris and holding Raiketsu was causing him enormous pain.

However, despite those injuries, he had managed to accomplish what he wanted. "But even then, I knew that you would come down to finish me. After all, you had already seen how badly injured I was. Why would you give me time to recover when you could simply end the battle with one final attack?"

Andris remained silent. That was exactly what he had been thinking. When he saw Aditya lying inside the crater, he had believed that the former Crown Prince was no longer capable of putting up much resistance. His only concern had been finishing the battle before Aditya could recover.

And because of that, he had rushed toward the crater without considering the possibility of a trap. "All I needed was one opportunity."

"Just one single moment when your attention was focused somewhere else."

He glanced at the shallow wounds on Andris’s chest. "That was why I activated the hidden Wind Scars at the last moment. I knew those attacks wouldn’t be powerful enough to kill you. In fact, I wasn’t even expecting them to cause any serious injuries."

Aditya’s lips slowly curved into a faint smile. "I only needed them to surprise you."

Andris lowered his eyes toward the shallow cuts on his chest. Those small wounds had seemed completely unimportant when compared to the enormous damage he had caused Aditya. Yet those very wounds had become the reason he was now dying.

"The moment those invisible attacks struck you, your attention shifted toward your chest. You were confused because you didn’t know where the attacks had come from. And when you lowered your head to look at the wounds, you gave me exactly what I needed." Aditya explained.

"One moment! That was all I needed to teleport behind you and pierce your heart."

Hearing this, Andris’s eyes widened in deep horror. He finally understood everything. Throughout their battle, Andris had believed that he was completely controlling the situation. His punches were stronger, his attacks were causing serious injuries, and Aditya had been forced to spend most of the fight defending himself.

From Andris’s perspective, it had been a surprisingly easy battle. He had even believed that he would be able to defeat the Dragon Monarch within a few minutes. However, what he had failed to notice was that Aditya had been preparing a trap while fighting him.

The former Crown Prince had carefully studied his movements, recognised his greatest advantage, and waited for the moment when Andris would become confident enough to lower his guard.

Even the hidden Wind Scars had not been intended to defeat him directly. They had only been used to create an opening for the real attack. Andris suddenly realised just how dangerous Aditya truly was.

It was not simply his overwhelming strength or his ability to teleport that made him frightening. It was his ability to think clearly during a battle and use even the smallest opportunity to defeat someone stronger than himself.

Aditya’s plan had been extremely reckless. Although the trap had worked, there had been no guarantee that he would survive long enough to use it. His injuries were real, and the damage caused by Andris’s seven consecutive attacks had been far more serious than Aditya had expected.

If Andris had been even slightly faster with his final attack, Aditya might not have had enough time to activate the hidden Wind Scars. And if Aditya had been late by even a fraction of a second, the result would have been completely different.

Instead of Andris standing there with Raiketsu piercing his heart, Aditya would have been crushed beneath the full force of that final attack. Considering the terrible condition of his body, another direct hit might have been enough to turn him into a meat paste.

In other words, Aditya had risked his life for a single opportunity to defeat Andris. And somehow, he had succeeded.

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