Dragon Monarch System

Chapter 943: Chapter 943:- End of the Trial

It wasn’t like Aditya was holding back. All the stats, boosting skills, and functions of his Mythical Classes were activated and had pushed his stats to a new level. His armour was severely damaged, and two of the three abilities of the armour were no longer functional due to the damage.

’Only Life Guard is now usable.’ His current health had dropped to around 32%. The Golem had given him more damage than all the other previous stages’ foes combined had done to him.

『Function 2 - «Life Drain»

When your health drops by 75%, The Crimson Warlock set will activate «Life Drain». When «Life Drain» is activated, each time damage is received by the opponent with a weapon or unarmed attacks, you will recover a small portion of your health. The amount of health that you will recover is directly proportional to the amount of damage that your attacks do to your opponent.』

’Should I purposely take a few more hits to get my health drop even further?’ He felt the idea was stupid and foolish. At the same time, despite the risk, if it worked, then this could turn the tide of the battle.

Its defence is so good that I haven’t been able to give it any damage from my attacks.’ The number of attacks that Aditya actually landed on its body, excluding the ones that it either absorbed or just released to the earth, was just one.

’I really miss my Adamantite Doomblade.’ The Raiketsu that he was using was very good, but the weapon didn’t recognise him as his master, so he couldn’t use the 5-star weapon’s full power.

’Also, I am running out of time.’ From the beginning, it was a one-sided battle. Aditya was barely holding on, relying entirely on his teleportation ability. And from time to time, even that was failing, and the result was even deeper and serious injuries.

He clicked his tongue and forced himself to stand straight.

’Think. Use your head. Your power is useless if you use it the wrong way.’

He focused his eyes on the Golem again.

The Abyssal Obsidian Behemoth was already moving. Its molten cracks pulsed. The pressure around the battlefield grew heavier. Every breath felt like inhaling hot sand.

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[Stellar Inferno Sight.]

Aditya quietly activated the Innate Skill that he gained after reaching the Storm Marshall class.

’I am not sure if this will even work.’ From the beginning, he couldn’t tell what the Cultivation Order of the Golem was. It had the Power of at least Peak 6th-order. But this was an artificial being. It’s overwhelming. Aura kept its cultivation realm hidden.

His pupils narrowed further. The world around him sharpened.

The darkness, smoke, and heat from the battlefield stopped mattering. All the clutter around him faded like it never existed.

The Golem’s body came into focus like a detailed drawing.

The Golem’s obsidian plates.

It’s molten veins.

The constant release of steam.

His eyes widened slightly as he saw it. He saw the thing that he was hoping to see. There were small circles of light along its massive form.

These small circles of light were present at its shoulders, Elbows and Knees. These were the rune rings that he previously got to see closely.

Four points shone brighter than everything else. Each point was wrapped by runic rings that looked even more complex than the rest. The glow of those rings was stronger, and the colour of them was much Deeper.

『Weak Spot Finder: Active.』

’So my eyes can see something after all. Those cores...’ He wasn’t expecting his skill to work. The Stellar Inferno Sight allowed him to see the weakness of his opponent, whose cultivation was one realm higher than his.

And when he focused harder, he saw something else that made his suspicion stronger.

Each time the Golem shifted its weight, one of the cores pulsed in sync. When it flexed its arms, the cores at the elbows flickered. When it adjusted its stance, the cores at the knees glowed. The cannons along the back still smoked from the last fire, and the cores at the shoulders were slowly dimming, as if cooling down.

’The rings turn before it moves. The core lights up when it attacks. So all of its abilities are tied to those runes.’

’If I destroy those cores, I can weaken its body. Or at least stop some of its attacks.’

But there was a problem.

’I cannot even scratch its normal plates. How am I supposed to break those?’ This was indeed a huge problem for Aditya.

But by then, Behemoth stomped forward towards Aditya.

Booom...!!!!

The weight and the speed of it caused the ground to shake again. Lava and broken stone rose in small bursts around its feet.

At the same time, the runic ring around its elbow glowed. Then the ring at its wrist pulsed. But the ring on the shoulder did not move this time.

’It’s coming.’

Crimson Warp Flash!!!

Swoosh!

Aditya vanished a split second before the Golem’s arm crashed down.

Groundbreaker Fist.

The land where he had stood exploded upward. Lava geysers erupted. Stone pillars shot up like spears, while volcanic cracks spread in all directions, and the air was immediately filled with blinding dust, intense heat, and flying rocks.

Even with his teleportation, Aditya barely slipped past. A flying stone pillar that was sent flying by the impact almost hit his face if he had not moved to the right side on time.

’That elbow core glowed for this one. It’s a Ground-based destruction. Something like Area control. If I target that, I might be able to weaken its terrain skills.’ At least this was his assumption.

But first, Life Drain.

This is a difficult choice to make. If he failed, then this would be the end of the battle.

He could not win if every trade ended with him taking damage and the Golem staying perfect. He needed a way to heal while he fought. That meant dropping his own health below that last threshold.

’Fine. I will take that risk. But only once. And I will choose how I get hit.’ He cancelled his Lightning Armour and any extra defence that would spread the impact too much.

The Golem did not need an invitation. It wanted to kill from the first second.

The Golem slammed its foot down. This caused the battlefield to crack open.

Bang.....!!!!

Dozens of sharp obsidian spikes shot from the ground and chased his mana presence. Aditya waited half a second extra; too long on purpose.

Swoosh!!

He teleported sideways, but not far enough. But then one spike shot up under his left side and grazed his ribs, leaving a large vertical cut that ran from the rib to the collarbone. The good news was that the spike did not pierce him.

『Life Guard: «Life Drain» Activated.』

He felt something like a second heartbeat awaken around his body.

’Good. Now every hit I land will feed me. But for that to matter, I need my attacks actually to do damage.’ Aditya still had one skill that he had saved up from the beginning of the battle. But using that would mean that he would be out for 24 hours. He would lose all of his senses for 24 hours.

He already knew the consequence. Using that skill meant he would win or lose everything in a single move. But even with that knowledge, he still chose to try one more time with his current strength before committing to that path.

He forced himself to stand again, even though every movement hurt. But this wasn’t the time to give up.

-------------------

The Abyssal Obsidian Behemoth stomped forward again.

This time, it didn’t rush mindlessly.

Aditya narrowed his eyes. ’It’s learning from me, too. Every time I dodge, every time I attack, it stores that information.’

Crimson Warp Flash!!!

Swoosh!!

He vanished and reappeared at the right side of the Golem’s body, near the elbow core he had marked as a priority. He swung the Raiketsu in a precise arc.

CLANG!!!

The blade met the runic ring. But this time, the Golem had already been prepared.

Obsidian Splitter!!

The Golem’s other hand deformed and stretched; the obsidian plates merged into a long, blade-like claw that intercepted his sword mid-swing. The impact sent a sharp vibration through his arms. His arms felt numb from pain.

Aditya dropped the Raiketsu.

Before he could recover, the runic ring around its chest pulsed before the Golem opened its maw and released a deep, vibrating roar.

Shockwave Roar!!!

There was no sound in the normal sense.

The roar caused His mana circuits to jolt. For a brief moment, his flow of mana was disrupted.

”Kh...!”

Blood spilt from his lips again as the internal shock shook his organs. He was sent flying backwards. His health point only continued to drop lower.

[Remaining Time: 01:22]

”Less than two minutes remain.” Frank felt nervous and anxious. He had never wished for anyone’s victory in this trial as much as he did for Aditya.

”Come on, Aditya!!” A part of him already regretted not telling him the weaknesses of the Golem. He did not care about the consequences of doing that. He only cared about this young man winning.

Aditya gritted his teeth and stabilised himself mid-air with a hard flap of his wings. His chest burned. His whole body was in agony.

’If I can’t destroy the outside rings, then I have to hit everything at once. All the cores. All the plates. Everything.’

The Golem didn’t give him room to think for long.

The core at its knee glowed again. The runic ring around its leg spun faster.

Earth Spike Lance!!

The Behemoth stomped down. Dozens of spikes shot out from beneath the battlefield in his direction.

He teleported up to the air. Even then, Several spikes followed the trail of his mana. One of them brushed against his right leg. The force was enough to crack his Dragon scales. The force carved a deep wound along his right leg.

His health fell sharply.

『Health: 11%.』

Life Drain did not work. For Life Drain to work, he needed to deal damage to the Golem.

Aditya continued dodging the rain of Spikes from every direction.

[Remaining Time: 00:47]

[Aditya, less than 47 seconds remain.] Aditya’s heart went cold when he heard Frank’s anxious voice in his ears.

[After that, the Golem will become invincible and defeating it will be just impossible.]

Less than a minute remained, yet he hadn’t destroyed a single runic core. The Golem was still moving and continuously attacking as if this were nothing but a warm-up.

’That settles it.’ Aditya wanted to save this attack for the final stage. He thought he would make it to the 6th stage. But now that doesn’t seem to be the case. And his chances of winning against this Golem within the remaining 45+ seconds were less than 0.1%.

’I don’t even know if Stellar Surge itself would be enough, but I have no other option.’ If it failed to kill the Golem, then he would die if there were any seconds left.

There was no more room to hesitate anymore. Till now, he has never used this skill before. This was the first time Aditya was gonna use this skill.

’Stellar Surge. If I don’t use it now, I die here. If I use it, I win, but I will be blind and helpless for 24 hours.’ But there was no other option.

He thought of Julia.

He thought of his wives waiting for him to return.

He thought of his Empire.

And then he made his decision.

”...I didn’t come this far to die in some forgotten underground trial.”

He forced his shaking hands to steady and raised Raiketsu toward the sky.

[Stellar Surge — Activation.]

The world around him dimmed.

The starlight gathered.

It wasn’t real starlight. There was no open sky here. But the power his Void Walker class was connected to responded to his call. Tiny points of pale light appeared around him, like fragments of the night sky being dragged into the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the Golem curiously watched. It had never seen anything like this.

His body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside.

Every meridian burned. His bones ached. His vision shook. His heart pounded so hard that it hurt.

But the power of the vast cosmos kept coming.

Raw, unfiltered cosmic energy converged around the blade of Raiketsu, warping the space around it. The sword looked as if it were holding a small piece of the universe at its tip.

Even the Abyssal Obsidian Behemoth paused for a brief second.

The cores across its body flared at the same time. The rings spun wildly, faster than ever before. It too was preparing to defend against whatever strange attack its opponent was using.

Frank, who had been silently watching, unconsciously stood up from his chair.

The Behemoth roared and charged. The core in its chest pulsed. The cores in its legs and arms lit up together. It prepared everything it had left.

Aditya didn’t move away, nor did he teleport.

He simply fixed his gaze on the centre of its chest, where the true core was hidden deep behind layers of obsidian plates.

He then lowered the katana. The cosmic power surged forward.

A single beam of concentrated Stellar energy exploded out from Raiketsu’s blade. The attack wasn’t wide, nor was it flashy. It was just a straight, pure line that pierced the air like inevitability itself.

The Golem threw everything it had.

Groundbreaker Fist cracked the battlefield.

Earth Spike Lance erupted upwards.

Cannon-cores along the back fired.

Shockwave Roar shook the air.

None of it mattered.

The cosmic beam cut through everything. Spikes, stone pillars, molten blasts, and even the shockwave itself were split cleanly in half as the beam passed through them.

It struck the Golem’s chest.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

CRACK.

A thin fracture appeared along its chest plates.

That single crack spread like a spiderweb. The obsidian plates shattered. The runic rings around its core snapped one after another. The light inside its chest exploded outward in a violent surge, and the massive body began to crumble from the inside.

The four external cores at its shoulders, elbows, and knees shattered together. The molten cracks across its entire body lost their light and turned dull.

The Abyssal Obsidian Behemoth took one last step forward.

Boom...!!!

And then its entire frame collapsed.

The gigantic body fell apart into countless fragments of black stone and cooled obsidian. The battlefield shook under the weight of its fall.

Aditya saw all of this for only half a second.

Then his vision went white.

Right after he fired Stellar Surge, his senses began shutting down.

He lost his ability to see anything.

His hearing blurred into a distant, muffled hum and then vanished.

He couldn’t feel the heat. He couldn’t feel the ground. He couldn’t feel the pain in his ribs or the blood on his skin.

『Warning: All senses temporarily lost. The time until all senses are regained is 24 hours. Another 12 hours to get all senses working back to 100%』

『Stellar Surge — Cooldown: 30 days. Recovery: 24 hours + 12 hours.』

’I guess this is the end.’

He couldn’t hear what Frank was saying, but he knew that Frank had appeared.

The world turned completely silent and empty.

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