Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ambrose found himself in the pit of hell. Or at least that's what it looked like. He was on a shore of black stone that gleamed in the light of the lava that spread out in a vast lake before him. The air was wobbling and warping from the heat that permeated it.
The lava sloshed and roiled gently, and in the middle of the lake of fire was a small black island platform. On the platform was a black metal lever. Ambrose swept his one eye around the area, looking for not just threats but for a way to get across the vast lake of flame.
He found what he was looking for quick enough. A boat carved from polished obsidian gleamed on the shore. Stone oars rested on either side of the boat. As it was clearly the only way across, Ambrose got into the boat, careful not to touch the lava.
If he had to, he would use his shield skill, but he wasn't certain it would protect him from the liquid fire. Or at least if it did, the drain would be constant and he would run out of mana before long.
Ambrose pushed off from the shore with an oar, which was surprisingly not burning hot, and set his eye on the island. It was a decent distance away, but he could get there with a solid ten minutes of rowing.
The lava was hard to push through with the oars, but he was D-Grade and his stats were decent. He didn't have too much trouble.
That ended when the lava began to move. Not in the slow, lazy sloshing way it had been before. But in the there's-a-shark-in-the-water way. Ambrose activated two skills at once as red tentacles with suction cups burst out of the lava and wrapped around the obsidian boat.
[Shield of Conviction], and [Infernal Infusion] worked in tandem to protect him as Ambrose dropped the oars into their holders, and called his axe from the bag of holding at his belt. Abyssal fire blazed around him like a personal vortex of flame and Ambrose infused his axe before hacking at a tentacle.
A screech of rage came from under the lava, causing the molten liquid to bubble as the tentacle sprayed blood as it was cut in half. The ruby droplets stained the black stone of the boat, and Ambrose prepared to sever another tentacle.
Except whatever the monster was, didn't feel like waiting around for Ambrose to harm it. The tentacles around the boat constricted and began to pull the boat, and by extension, Ambrose, beneath the lava's depths.
Ambrose did not want to be turned to ash. He was sure his shield would hold. However, it wasn't something he wanted to test in this situation. He used [Infernal Smite] and hacked at another tentacle. The smite erupted over its slimy flesh in flames that looked like they were born from the surrounding lava and rock. The remaining tentacles shuddered as the anguished screech filled the air again.
Ambrose wasn’t going to make it. There were too many tentacles covering the boat and even as the flame of his smite did its work on whatever spirit this thing possessed, more tentacles shot out of the lava and covered the boat, pulling it down. Lava began to sizzle, hissing as it dribbled into the boat, creating pools of the golden, molten fire.
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Ambrose felt his heart begin to beat out a rapid drum beat, threatening to burst from his chest as his breath came a little quicker. It didn’t matter how many lethally dangerous situations he had been in, or how many nightmarish creatures he had already dispatched. When you’re about to be swallowed whole by a lake of freaking fire, you’re scared.
Ambrose closed his one eye for a second, the burnt out husk that was his left eye socket throbbing with the beat of his rapid heart. Ruthlessly, he crushed his panic with a mental fist, beating it over and over again into submission and kicking it down a deep dark hole with the recesses of his mind. His heart settled, his breathing returned to normal and his hands ceased clenching the axe handle so hard he thought they were going to break.
This was going to happen. He couldn’t stop it. All he could do was prepare. He pumped mana from his core into his shield while also pouring more into his [Infernal Infusion] skill. The blazing black-red flames of his shield grew more depth as it expanded around him like a dome. Just in time too as the boat sank deeper and deeper into the lava. Ambrose kept hacking at tentacles all the while. He wasn’t just going to stand by and wait while he was pulled under. He intended on doing as much damage as he possibly could. Noelle sent fierce approval as Ambrose cut tentacle after tentacle, blood burning as the droplets fell like crimson rain onto the lava.
Here we go. Ambrose thought as the boat was completely pulled under. Lava came together in a rush…and was repelled by his shield. Ambrose felt his muscles relax as tension bled from him like a burst cyst. Just because the lava was not immediately going to turn him into burnt barbeque, did not mean he was out of the clear entirely.
The liquid fire was still popping and hissing against the flaming shield around Ambrose, and he could even feel his mana dropping now. He eyed it, and saw that it was dropping by five every couple seconds. He had time, but he didn’t want to stay in the lava that was certain. He had another problem, the issue of how to move.
It was easily solved, Ambrose simply brought the shield tighter around himself, so he had a thin layer of abyssal flame all around his body. As the lava enclosed around him, encasing him in a sea of endless, shifting red, he began to push forward, literally swimming through the thick, molten liquid. He didn’t move very far as tentacles lashed themselves around him and yanked him deeper downward.
Ambrose could see the suction cups sucking in and out like creepy plugs. Unable to see the creature that held him, Ambrose used [Infernal Sanctuary] and fed it a chunk of mana. Ghostly chains lashed out and a single screech cried out, reverberating through the molten liquid. Ambrose felt the tentacles go limp, sliding off of him as his skill caused the creature an immense amount of pain while immobilising it. Ambrose put his axe away and grabbed a tentacle, pulling it, and the creature it was attached to along.
More than ten minutes later, Ambrose burst from the lava and pulled himself up on the black island that had been in the middle of the lake of fire. He gripped the tentacle in both hands and heaved with all of his D-Grade strength, pulling the immobile, twitching creature out of the lava and slamming it over head into the ground. The black rock shook and rumbled as the huge creature impacted it like a sack of bricks.
It was a kraken. A demonic looking kraken, but one all the same. Formed from a writhing mass of brimstone tentacles, with a bulbous, alien-like head and a sharp, blacker than the void and gleaming like the stars, beak. Ghostly chains were wrapped around it, pulsing with black fire that snaked around it like a living serpent.
Ambrose took out his axe and twirled it once as he stalked toward the creature. He looked down at it and used [Insight].
[Fire Kraken-Level 82]: Fire Krakens dwell in deep lava lakes usually found deep under planets. They are very hostile towards anyone encroaching on their territory.
He nodded,
“Now I know what you are. Always good to know the name of the thing you’re killing. Good bye, Fire Kraken.”
Ambrose brought the axe down into the bulbous head, splitting it apart like firewood on the chopping block. Blood sprayed forth from it like juice from a ripe fruit. It stained the ground below it as it writhed once, then twice, and stopped moving all together.