Chapter Thirty


    Ambrose opened combat up by imbuing Akaroth using his [Hellfire Manipulation] skill and throwing it at the anubian guardian.  A spinning vortex of blazing fire, shining with arching blue lightning, slammed into the guardian’s chest.


    He expected a burst of blood or at least knock it off balance, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, he raised its spear and took a single lumbering step toward him, clearing more than half the distance between them. It thrust its spear at him, and it was as if it were thrusting an entire building. That was how big it was.


    He tapped his newly upgraded [Infernal Aegis] skill, and instead of a barrier of flame surrounding him like he was used to, mana poured into his armor from his core, and the metal lit up like living lava. Heat poured off of him as his armor became like a living creature of hell, blazing bright like a crimson star.


    Slamming into him like a sharpened battering ram, Ambrose was flung back, and as he was, he opened a hellfire portal behind him…right into his hellcat challenger. Rocking back against the seats, he closed the portal and opened another one.


    At the same time, he tapped his skill once more, pulling the required mana from his core. He infused the challenger, and like a living thing, he roared through the portal and onto the sand and rock of the ruins that once was the Valley of Kings.


    Roaring like the creature it was named for, the car was wreathed in spectral flames of burning red and eldritch green.


    Give me some storms, Akaroth.


    Responding with a growl in his mind, the axe flew up from his grip, and in time with her mental roar, the sky itself answered. Clouds of blackened gray swirled above, thunder rumbled, and a boom echoed throughout the sky as if an angry god was hammering on the anvil that was the world.


    Looking up, the anubian guardian raised a hand. A shining yellow barrier seemingly formed of golden sand wove into existence before it just as lightning shattered into it with an electrifying detonation. Unharmed, the spear swept forward in an attempt to slash Ambrose and his car to scrap.


    His core flared as he pushed his mana into the car. Metal glowed with carmine light as the spear tip made contact. He felt his skill strain, but more mana took care of it, successfully repelling the attack. Above, Akaroth’s storm raged, lightning crashing all around like bolts thrown from the Almighty himself in an attempt to smite the monster.


    The anubian guard’s shield splintered but held against the onslaught.


    Ambrose frowned as he unleashed his spirit upon the creature, only to find it didn’t do anything to it. He encountered no spiritual resistance, and yet clear as the day was before the storm above, his spirit did nothing.


    He couldn’t exactly stop and analyze why, either. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Turning the wheel sharply, he avoided another slash. With its other hand, the creature began to form what Ambrose could only call a ball. It was swirling wind and dark power.


    It was also huge, like a model globe but perhaps a hundred times larger. So big in fact, he wasn’t sure he could avoid it.


    Luckily, he didn’t think he needed to.


    As the Sector Lord threw the globe of wind and darkness at him, he pulled on his connection to Akaroth through his mana. Rotating through the air, Akaroth slashed through the ball and promptly absorbed all of the wind within it.


    This did take nearly all of the power out of the attack, but not all of it.


    He couldn’t do anything about whatever aspect the darkness that made up the globe was.


    He allowed the attack to hit him, his spiritual skill shielding him from the worst of it.


    Deciding on a different approach, Ambrose used [Hellfire Manipulation], and this time, he flooded the mana through Akaroth and into the storm above. A swirling gate of hell opened in the air above and lit the sky aflame.


    It was beautiful, in a way, as if the dawn had mixed with the storm, creating a living pastel of dark gray, iridescent blue lightning, sanguine flame, dark green light, and subtle pink veins highlighting it all. With it came a deluge of power.


    Lightning straight from Hades blasted the golden shield apart as fire rolled down from the sky in a tide sent forth from the very heavens.


    The Guardian wasn’t done; with a wave of its massive paw, rubble and stone lifted of their own accord, and they flew together like massive puzzle pieces. It managed to block some of the fire, but it was simply too much power for it to ignore.


    Ambrose wasn’t idle as he did all of this, either. He pressed the accelerator and tapped [Infernal Sanctuary], sending out spectral chains of gleaming dark fire. He flew through the anubian guardian’s legs and, turning the wheel to the right, he willed the chains to wrap around the legs of the monster.


    More stones rocketed up, but this time seeking him out like homing missiles. It blasted itself apart like shattering glass upon his enhanced vehicle.


    Chains continuously wrapped themselves around the monster as Ambrose opened a hellfire portal, roaring through it just as a truly massive stone head of some ancient pharaoh collided with the earth where he had just been.


    Writhing like tentacles, the chains dug into the monster.


    Sometimes, even in a world like this one, physics has its say. With a thunderous crash, the anubian guard was brought to its knees, sending a wave of sand and air in all directions.


    Ambrose turned the wheel again and blazed from the right and right up the anubian’s back. Sending his chains forward, he wrapped the spectral chains around the Sector Lord’s neck as the car launched itself into the air off of its head and to the right.


    At the same time, Ambrose tapped another ability of Akaroth’s, and the axe pulsed with power. Suddenly, it shifted and Akaroth was an axe no more. Instead, she was in her true draconic form, the massive blue dragon, the mother of storms.


    She roared with fury, and the hollow of her throat lit up with electric blue power as she opened her mouth. A beam of destructive lightning arched out in a concentrated force that blew through the anubian guardian''s head like a rotting pumpkin that had found itself in a hurricane.


    Blood, brain matter, and other viscera coated the ground like droplets of rain. Above, the storm abated, the lightning died, and Akaroth returned to her axe form, whirling into Ambrose’s hand.


    [You have defeated the Sector Lord and, as a reward, have earned enough experience to advance to level 165.]


    Ambrose stopped the car in front of the monster’s corpse and stepped out.


    That was well-fought, hatchling. I do not mind having been in my true form, either.


    Noelle sent an image of her stretching in satisfaction at a job well done.


    He had many points to spend, but before he got to that, he opened a portal, returned his challenge, and then returned to the dungeon. He took a deep breath and entered the dungeon, taking a step down the path of closing another Incursion.