Chapter Fourteen

Cutting apart the last root knight reminded Ambrose of the invasive blackberry he had to remove on his property when he and Alice moved in. He had power tools then. This was harder.

The root knights posed almost no trouble to him any longer. They couldn't land an attack on him. Ambrose simply cut them into pieces, not giving them any time to make any moves. His newfound level and attributes that were reflections of that level were just too much for the plant like knight creatures to handle.

Ambrose hadn't felt the familiar surge of power from leveling yet, so he supposed that the kills no longer benefited him as much. He stood amongst the carnage of destroyed black bark like roots. With the battle over, Ambrose began to turn towards Jenny and Darren when Andrea shouted,

“Look out! Oh God, what is that thing?”

Ambrose turned slowly, his knuckles whitening around the handle of the axe.

A living bruise rose up from the fallen thing Ambrose had at first defeated. Or thought he did anyway. It was a pulsing, writhing, twisting mass of red, purple and dark blue. It's skin was moist, and it moved like oozing liquid. It was nightmare fuel given form. With no eyes that Ambrose could see, or a clear head, the only recognizable thing about it that Ambrose could see was the gaping maw that opened before him.

Razor sharp black and purple teeth lined its maw like jagged daggers. It made a pained, moaning like roar that reverberated the air around them all.

“FREE ME!” The words came from somewhere within it, echoing around it in a moan of absolute pain. Ambrose suppressed a shudder. He had seen a lot, dealt with a lot, but nothing prepares you for horrors and abject terror made flesh. He almost didn’t want to know what this thing was, but Ambrose used [Insight] anyway.

[Cursed Horror-???]

Now I know. It doesn’t help. Ambrose twirled his axe and set his stance. I’m going to need a drink after this. The moaning monstrosity slid toward him like a fast moving slug, maw open wide to swallow him whole.

“FREE ME!” It moaned.

Ambrose activated [Shield of Conviction] as he darted to the side and lashed out with a mana infused axe, cutting into its slimy flesh. As soft as the flesh of it was, the axe did not cut into it. The blade passed through as if he were trying to cut water. The monster shuddered, and morphed, like an amorphous blob that lunged toward him.

It didn’t seem to care about momentum at all. Ambrose had not been prepared for it to do that, and it flowed around him like a wave engulfing a rock. Suddenly, he found himself inside of it.

“Oh, Jesus Christ, it’s eating him.” Andrea cried from the far side of the room, widening her eyes in absolute disgusted horror.

The black, violet, and red oozing blob had indeed swallowed Ambrose. Whatever was inside of it was stronger than acid, it hissed and bubbled as it tried to eat away at him. However, Ambrose’s [Shield of Conviction] kept it at bay, blue mana flaring like sparks, repelling the acidic goop that was the thing’s insides.

Ambrose held his axe steady and didn’t move. He kept funnelling mana into his shield, watching it drop by fives in his head as he activated [Sanctuary] and used a full eighty points of his mana pool. The skill did its work, immediately sensing the monster's hostility.

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It screeched in agony.

“FREE ME! FREE ME!” It groaned as its amorphous, horrific body shuddered, and undulated from the debilitating effects of Ambrose’s skill. This cursed horror seemed to lack intelligence, in that it kept trying to do one thing, and one thing only. Kill Ambrose.

His [Sanctuary] wouldn’t allow it, and punished it severely. Its moaning cries echoed around the room in a symphony of tortured sound. What the skill could not do, was kill it. Ambrose didn’t need it too, he hefted his axe, and activated both [Mana Infusion] and [Smite]. White silver fire lit up the axe as a halo of clear blue surrounded it.

Ambrose dismissed [Sanctuary] as soon as he swung with the axe, smiting the creature’s inside with a power strike. White flame burst into a contained explosion that washed over everything. If the cursed horror had been in agony before, it was now experiencing a whole new level of pain as Ambrose relentlessly cut his way out of the thing's body, its liquid-like skin passing over him as he fell out of it and rolled to his feet.

Silver and white fire ate at the horror blob. Ambrose didn’t stop, either. He kept smiting it, even as it tried to eat him, his shield repelled it. It had no way through his defences, and no way to stop the flame that consumed it, harming whatever twisted spirit it had.

“FREEE MEEE!” It roared. Ambrose answered with more slashes of his axe.

“Free me…”

The moan began to fade as the smite skill did its work. Like water down a drain, the creature became less and less until it was no more, burned away by the merciless silver white flames. Ambrose stood over it, eyes cold and hard, like green emeralds in winter.

[You have defeated a Cursed Horror-Level 65. For defeating a D-Grade creature you have been awarded the Giant Slayer Trait which gives a 5 percent boost to all stats. You have advanced to level 55 and may choose two skills from a list of options available to you.]

D-Grade? Ambrose wondered as he took a deep breath. Slipping his axe into his belt, Ambrose turned to Jenny and Darren.

Darrens face was one of terror and grief. Ambrose saw why as his gaze took in the blood soaked clothes of the little girl, whose eyes were closed.

She wasn’t moving.

________

Darren’s eyes met mine, and they were hard bitter orbs of anguish. He clenched his jaw tight, as if chewing on a tough piece of meat.

“Fix her.” He growled out.

Ambrose looked down at the little girl, who’s eyes were clenched shut, her tiny arms tight with tension as her father held a ripped piece of fabric to the wound in her side. Blood stained her clothes, and the ground below, her tiny chest working like a small bellows.

Ambrose said nothing as images flashed through his mind at a rapid pace.

Alice’s dead eyes. Gunshots, all of her blood soaked into the bed they had shared together. His wife laughing, his wife looking at him with adoring eyes as he placed a hand on her pregnant belly.

Darren’s voice cut through it like a hot knife,

“You did this. I told you that trying to escape would have consequences. You made the decision anyway. FIX THIS!” He roared at Ambrose.

He closed his eyes to Darren’s words. I can’t do anything. All of this new power, this new strength, and it’s all useless here. Another memory played through Ambrose’s mind like an old black and white movie.

His father is in a hospital bed. Cancer eating away at him, breaking him down into a broken machine, parts barely functioning.

“All this training, all of it to prepare me, and what now Dad? What does it do for me here?”

Raylen just smiled at him, a weak and pathetic smile.

“Sometimes, kid, those of us with the most power are the weakest.”

“Owie. Hurts. Owie. Dad.”

Jenny’s weak and pained voice tore apart the memory as Ambrose came back to the present.

Darren stroked his daughters hair with his other hand as he gazed down at his daughter.

“I’m here, princess. I’m here. Daddy’s not going anywhere.”

Ambrose stood up, even as Andrea walked over.

“She isn’t going to make it,” she said dully, staring at the little girl.

Ambrose clenched his fists and sucked in a breath as he hardened his jaw, his eyes blazing.

“Yes. She is.”

He turned away from Andrea and called out into the cavern.

“Misaq! I know you’re watching! Come here! I want to make a deal!”

With a faint pop, the devil appeared, a glass of red, red wine in his hand, which the devil gently swirled before taking a sip. His suit was still immaculate, and his red skin appeared to glow despite there being no light.

“You rang?”