Chapter Sixty-Three

“You want us to go on, seriously? After that!” A man called. His eyebrows were raised, and he shook his head slightly in astonishment.

Ambrose rubbed the side of his face. He wasn’t a people person, and addressing the crowd like this was beginning to drain his mental battery. Isn’t this what I have Andrea and others for? Regardless of how he felt, they were looking to him to speak.

“We can go back if you want. We have a graveyard in Avalon with plenty of room.”

The man’s jaw fell further downward.

“What?”

Other people began muttering, and Darren gave him a look that was meant to convey that he thought Ambrose’s sanity was shot. Ambrose gestures to the corpses of the lizard monsters that littered the sandy beach.

“Do you think that was hard? That was nothing—a warm-up at the very best. The things coming for Avalon are one hundred times harder than this. So, sure, if this is too much for you, we can go back. But you may as well have Darren here prepare a wooden box because you’ll be in one soon enough.”

More than a few faces sobered at that. A few embers of fear kindled to life in some eyes as the muttering picked up, and people shifted from side to side.

Ambrose sucked in a breath through his nose, blowing it out. Alice would say I’m being a dumb lug. I need to show a little empathy.

“Listen, I know you’re scared. I know some of you watched your friends die just now, and more brutal than you would have imagined. I get it. But I saw the determination in some of you and your desire to be stronger.”

Ambrose gestured at the dead monsters again,

“This is how.”

Jaws firmed at his words, and fists balled, knuckles whitening as their nails dug into their palms. Grips on weapons tightened, and fire-like burning coals shone behind many eyes. Ambrose nodded in approval.

“Let’s move out.”

_______________

Zombie-like corpses with glowing eyes the shade of crystalline ice on a winter day swung axes at his group of warriors. Ambrose’s [Infernal Sanctuary] was putting in work, chaining most of them down as his group hacked, blasted, or beat the creatures to death.

The cave nearby rumbled as if an explosion had gone off in its depths, and from its black mouth burst another corpse-pale creature. Its eyes blazed with frost-fire, and it wielded a massive two-handed sword.

Ambrose used [Insight] on it.

[Draugr Housecarl-Level 128]: Draugr are buried warriors from the Norse world of Migard. Death Knights or Necromancers raise them.]

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Ambrose wasted no time chucking his axe after tapping [Infernal Smite] at the creature. Ice and wind, as if summoned from a high mountaintop in a land of ice, billowed forth from the creature's sword, and it batted away his axe faster than Ambrose thought possible.

He raised his eyebrows. That was new. His eyepatch swirled, and Ambrose could see threads of dark mana connecting from the creature, extending deep beneath the ground. Ambrose tugged his lips downward into a frown, cocking his head slightly.

Shaking his head, he manifested Noelle. The white arcane tiger bounded forward, lightning arching over her sleek form as she engaged with the other zombies, helping the Knights of Avalon. Darren roared, and just as Noelle pounced, he bounded forward with her, fist crashing into a draugr as lightning the color of the ocean on a calm day detonated against corpse-gray skin.

Ambrose called ghostly chains of midnight-painted fire to him to block the slash of the draugr housecarl ice-covered sword. A clang, the roar of fire clashing with ice, split the air in a fantastical boom that echoed against the cave’s rocks.

The draugr parted its mouth in a groaning howl at him. Ambrose used [Infernal Recall], his axe flying on a path that ended with its blade biting deep into its back, blade protruding from its chest.

It did not react in the least. It merely brought its giant sword around in another chilling attack. Ambrose blocked it again and began sending his mana into the ground around it. Infernal mana shot through the ground, veins of pulsating fire that glowed with soft-ember light.

Much as he had done to the lizard lord, Ambrose shifted the earth, dropping the draugr into it. At the same time, his axe slapped into his hand with a flash of golden orange and black fire. Noelle let out a growling roar, lightning rumbling from her paws, eating away at the monsters.

Ambrose growled to himself as he came to understand the problem

None of the creatures were dying. The draugr that had been immobilized or hacked to bits flowed back together as strands of black mana reattached their limbs, fixing their bodies like broken dolls being repaired. Men cursed some shouting.

“They’re regenerating! We can’t win!”

He was partially correct. We can’t win if whatever is raising them is alive, Ambrose realized. The threads led below into the cave. Using his eye patch, he could follow the threads below and kill the thing binding the draugr to its will.

“Do your best to hold them off! I’m going below!” He called out.

To Noelle, he told her to stay and help the others. At the same time, he swept his axe forward, beheading the draugr housecarl.

Which did not kill it. The thing’s eyes were still cold orbs of shining ice. Ambrose’s eye patch allowed him to see the threads of black mana, even now attempting to pull the head back to the body to reattach itself. Using just his axe this time, Ambrose cut a deep hole into the ground some ways away from the body and dropped the head into it.

The battle raged around him, Noelle raking the draugr apart with lightning-wreathed claws.

Ambrose entered the cave, navigating its rocky slopes, which spiraled around and around, deeper and deeper into the earth. At this point, Ambrose felt like an old hand at delving into earthly depths. The fire of his infused axe lit up the darkness around him.

Finally, he came to a stone door covered in ancient-looking symbols. They reminded him of runes from a game that Alice used to love to play—something with a war god.

Unfortunately for the door, Ambrose was in no mood to solve a puzzle. He held out a hand, his mana lashing out from him, sinking into the door, cherry red lines crisscrossing through it, sun bright and reverberating.

Ambrose clenched a fist, using [Infernal Recall] to cause the wall to burst inward. It shattered with the sound of thunder, fire, and cracking stone. Ambrose walked through the opening that had resulted.

On a throne sat a man Ambrose would have sworn was carved from ivory. His features reminded him of a dagger, all sharp edges, ending in a pointed chin. His eyes were slanted things, black through like the heart of space, with a single pin-point of frost-purple light. He wore armor the color of bright moonlight, runes of swirling golden yellow emblazoned on its surface.

The man sat on a throne of gray stone on a dais.

Ambrose used [Insight], and for the first time in a long time, all he got was:

[???]

That hadn’t happened to him in a while. Ambrose wondered if his wisdom stat or his level was not high enough. The man on the throne chuckled,

“It seems a little rat has wandered into a lion’s den. Hello, little rat. I’m Vathwin. I have a proposal for you.”