Chapter 153 Schemes and Calculations

[Destruction Cannon]

Flamedramon ascended into mid-air, offering no retort to the abuses hurled by Petaldramon below. Instead, he launched a direct assault, unleashing barrage after barrage of energy waves that rained down from the sky toward the ground.

"Boom!"

The blasts struck in succession. Although Flamedramon’s target was Petaldramon, aiming was only half the battle; dodging was the other. Propelled by the immense thrust of the [Jet Rake], Petaldramon’s mobility was far from sluggish. Consequently, the vast majority of Flamedramon’s attacks hit the open ground, failing to inflict any damage on the beast.

Only a handful of blasts actually made contact. Eager to evade any subsequent onslaught, Petaldramon didn't even bother to actively defend against them. Fortunately, since the attacks were coming from above, the heavy pig-costume suit he wore managed to absorb the brunt of the impact.

Witnessing this, anyone would have assumed Flamedramon held the upper hand. Yet, Monitamon’s expression remained grim. He knew that this advantage was merely superficial; in truth, Flamedramon was the one at a distinct disadvantage underneath.

Flamedramon was currently maintaining a fierce fire suppression against Petaldramon. However, a Digimon's attacks were not infinite—every single strike relied on the digital energy within their own body. In other words, Flamedramon was burning through his own internal reserves just to keep Petaldramon pinned down.

Because the vast majority of his attacks were missing their mark, the digital energy contained within those wasted strikes was being squandered. Given that Flamedramon’s baseline stats were already inferior to Petaldramon’s, continuing like this would likely result in Flamedramon exhausting his digital energy entirely, leading to ultimate defeat.

This realization was likely apparent to everyone watching inside and out. Well, perhaps not Petaldramon. Though he couldn't explain why, a strong intuition gnawed at Monitamon. Sometimes, conscious realization wasn't strictly necessary; as long as the right action was taken blindly, it still counted.

Flamedramon’s eyes remained icy and calm. No one understood his current condition better than he did. The reason he was wasting so much digital energy was to set up his final move. He knew he would only get one chance. Therefore, regardless of what anyone else thought—even if Monitamon shared the same doubts—he paid them no heed.

"Boom!"

A moment later, another of Flamedramon’s attacks struck the earth right beside Petaldramon. Once again, it missed, but this time, something changed. With the impact of this latest blow, the ground began to cave in.

"This is..."

Monitamon’s eyes flashed with sudden insight as he took in the scene. He finally grasped what Flamedramon was aiming for. Even he hadn't anticipated this strategy initially.

No matter how complex a Digimon battle might seem, it ultimately boiled down to three elements: favorable timing, advantageous terrain, and harmonious conditions.

Harmonious conditions referred to the combat power inherent to the Digimon itself—an area where Flamedramon fell short of Petaldramon. To win, Flamedramon had to leverage other avenues.

Favorable timing was an elusive concept, essentially amounting to sheer luck. With enough miraculous luck, even a Digi-Egg could theoretically obliterate a Tenth-Tier Ultimate Digimon. (Though, to be fair, such a minuscule probability would require the convergence of all fortune across the entire Digital World to manifest.)

Naturally, if a newborn Digimon were somehow to hatch after absorbing the data of a Tenth-Tier Ultimate, its potential would be terrifyingly vast, allowing it to easily ascend to the Ninth-Tier of Ultimate. Whether it could ever reach the Tenth-Tier would depend on a myriad of other factors.

After all, at the absolute peak of their power, Monitamon and Zerimon treated Ninth-Tier Ultimates as mere trivialities, yet they themselves remained at the Ninth-Tier, never breaking through to the tenth.

Advantageous terrain pertained to environmental bonuses. It was common knowledge that Digimon possessed elemental attributes. A Flame-type Digimon utilizing one hundred units of digital energy in a volcanic region would unleash an attack far more potent—potentially several times stronger—than if it expended the same energy in the middle of an ocean.

The reason everyone had agreed to fight in this specific arena was precisely because it offered zero environmental bonuses, thereby minimizing the influence of external factors. But just because there were none at the start didn't mean none could be created later.

From the very moment his feet touched the ground, Flamedramon had known that the earth, having endured the previous nine battles, was extraordinarily fragile. With precisely placed attacks, he could trap Petaldramon inside an artificial crater of his own making.

Once confined down there, no matter how powerful Petaldramon might be, if he lost his ability to evade and was forced to absorb strikes passively, what did his superiority matter? He would still be brought to his knees!

It was fortunate that his opponent happened to be Petaldramon—and a particularly irritable Petaldramon driven half-mad by intense hunger. If he had faced any other Digimon, they likely would have sensed the compromised state of the ground the moment they stepped onto it, making it far more difficult to successfully trap them.

Ultimately, Astamon’s calculations had backfired. This time, Petaldramon’s hunger would prove to be both his making and his undoing. Yet, whether this gamble could truly secure ultimate victory was something Flamedramon himself could not guarantee. All he could do was give it his absolute best.

None of the spectators had foreseen this development; Monitamon hadn't expected it, and neither had the veteran combatant Digimon present. After all, the ground they currently stood upon was vastly different from the terrain of the past.

Yet, despite everyone’s lack of foresight, Petaldramon’s massive frame began to plunge downward into the collapsing earth. Thanks to Flamedramon’s deliberate and calculated strikes, the resulting cave-in formed a neat, nearly circular crater.

[Overload Destruction Cannon]

On the other side, the biological cannon strapped to Flamedramon’s waist began violently gathering energy. The mere sliver of aura radiating from its muzzle sent shivers down the spines of all onlookers. Yet, Flamedramon still held his fire, waiting until—