Chapter Thirty-Nine

Ambrose dodged a slash of dark red-purple energy that Mordred sent his way. The dark knight kept sending pulsing slashes at him, which Ambrose either dodged, deflected, or was hit, and his shield absorbed the worst of it. Mordred taunted him the whole while.

“Your wife was one beautiful woman. You were a lucky man. I’m almost jealous, can’t help imagining what might have happened if I saw her first? I think she’d enjoy going down on my-”

Ambrose threw his axe after using [Infernal Smite]. Mordred easily deflected it, but that wasn’t the point, Ambrose used the time it bought him to rush forward, closing the distance between them. He dropped low at the moment Mordred brought his sword around in an overhead swing, the air hissing from the passing of the blade. Ambrose activated [Infernal Infusion] sending his mana into the ground around Mordred. The black obsidian shone, red flame blazing around Mordred.

Ambrose flung himself backward, taking a hit head on from one of Mordred’s pulsing red-purple slashes of power, his [Infernal Aegis] blocked the worst of it, leaving him relatively unharmed. Once he was some ways back, Ambrose activated [Recall] and the obsidian ten feet around Mordred exploded as if someone had shot a rocket into it. Splinters and knife-like needles of the black stone arched outward like a glossy black tornado.

Ambrose had his shield built into [Infernal Aegis] so the shards did nothing to him. Mordred wasn’t concerned about the shards either, but he did have to be concerned about the hole Ambrose had opened up around him.

Ambrose summoned his axe and dove once more on top of Mordred who had fallen with a loud clang into the hole. Ambrose activated the key and teleported them above, to the frozen cavern he had fought the yeti in.

Mordred growled,

“What is your obsession with hugging me, Knight?”

He shoved Ambrose away and rolled to the side as he brought his axe down, smiting the area around him. Ice shattered like glass from the blow.

Noelle sent him her desire to be manifested, but Ambrose shoved it aside.

“I’m done playing with you, Knight.”

Mordred held up a hand and his sword shot into the air above him. It began to reverberate with ugly light and power the precise shade of a nasty bruise. A blade of this same light extended from the sword, widening into a massive, ugly blade carved from wounds, infections and dark writing tentacles. The very air seemed to be poisoned with horror.

Mordred was putting a whole lot of mana into the skill, whatever it was. Ambrose wasn’t about to stand there and let it happen, either. He hefted his axe and prepared to hit him with a smite, when Mordred smiled at him.

A slithering thread of light shot forth from Mordred’s mind and into Ambrose’s own.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Ambrose clenched his jaw, and Noelle joined her mind to his, wrapping around it like a blanket, shielding him from the worst. He would not be subjected to tortuous memories again. Whatever skill the dark knight was using, Ambrose wasn’t sure his shield could stop it. It was a lot of power.

There was no dodging it, either.

But there was a way to avoid it.

Ambrose’s mind raced. The problem with this fight was there didn’t appear to be a reliable way to harm one another. Ambrose’s shield protected him from some of the worst things Mordred could do to him. With Noelle, his mind tricks were relatively useless, though he was sure that if Mordred had a lick more power than he did, the arcane white tiger would be powerless against the mind attack.

His smites and axe throws were easily deflected by Mordred’s sword, which seemed to respond to his will. Now, he had this skill powering and reality itself seemed to be trembling at it. Ambrose needed to assess what his advantages were in this fight.

There was really only one.

The key. He had been using it to teleport around, trying to take advantage of the environment. The problem was, Mordred was too resilient and he no longer had a lake of lava to plunge his problems into.

He did, however, have a mountain.

Ambrose waited until Mordred flicked a hand. His sword and the blade forged of nightmare light that extended from it began to descend toward him in a crescendo of the end.

Just before it touched down and most assuredly killed him, Ambrose used the key and vanished to the summit where he had killed the wyvern. He quickly noted the furthest ledge, gave it a count of five and teleported back to just behind Mordred.

The devastation from his skill was plain to see, broken and annihilated ice and stone lay across the cavern as if a demolition crew had gone through it. He paid it no more mind than that, merely lifted a plated boot, and kicked Mordred in the back after using [Infernal Infusion].

At the exact same instant, Ambrose teleported them to the ledge of the mountain that overlooked Avalon. The result was him delivering a full powered front kick infused with abyssal fire and D-Grade strength to Mordred’s back while they stood on top of the highest peaked mountain on the island.

Mordred had no answer for that. He was flung like a rag doll out into the open air. With a cold, hard gaze, Ambrose watched the dark knight plummet towards the earth. His body collided like a miniature comet. Ambrose couldn’t even see the body, but he did see the collision. His D-grade wisdom put in the work on that front.

Ambrose teleported with the key to the collision site. A crater as wide as and as round as a large table had been blasted into the earth. At its center lay Mordred. It was a testament to his power that he wasn’t dead. His arm was at an unnatural angle, his legs looked like broken twigs, and he was moaning.

Ambrose walked over to him, looking down at him with a one-eyed steady gaze.

“Di-did-didn’t expect you t-to do that.”

Ambrose said nothing.

“Ju-just wa-wanted my father to ack-acknowledge m-m-me.”

Ambrose reached down and pulled Mordred up by the neck with one hand. He held his broken body up to eye level. The wind swayed, ruffling their hair and carrying on its breeze the scent of anticipation.

“Like a weed, Mordred.”

With a deft twist, Ambrose broke the dark knight Mordred’s neck.

Just like that, Ambrose had finally lifted the curse.

[You have lifted the Curse of Avalon by defeating Mordred the Guileless Son-Level 115. As a reward you have advanced to level 105. You may pick two skills from options generated based on your path so far. Your Knight of Avalon profession has advanced to level 30. You have unlocked further protocols on Avalon by freeing it from Mordred’s curse.]

It was a lot to go over. It’s one more step. One more step towards Eric. Ambrose thought, looking at the sky. The clouds were shifting, the ugly red and black light that had covered the island was vanishing, like a dark blanket being lifted.

It felt like the dawn of a new day after a seemingly endless night. The island was rejoicing, coming back to itself.

Ambrose Severen felt none of it.