Descending the stairs I was met with the option to go left down a hall or right to a door.

Since it was already open to the air and I didn’t have to worry about being shot by a skeleton from it, I headed left down the hall for twenty or thirty metres before it simply stopped with a small alcove closet or some kind resided and sighed when I was forced to walk back and open the door.

“Shit” I cursed as I shoved and kicked the door, finding it was stuck.

I was about to shoulder charge it when I got the feeling I should put my ear to it and see if I could hear what was behind it. I could hear shuffling disantly echoing on the walls through the door. Not sure if I was prepared to wait for something to come along and open it up for me considering everything was dead I gave in and charged to the door-

Crash!

Wood splinters flew everywhere as the door exploded inwards showering the room in shards of wood.

My steps bounced off the small room I found myself in, it was domed with an altar against a wall and a few pews shattered and long forgotten.

I almost swore out loud when I caught sight of those beady red eyes and green pointed ears peering at me from around the corner of the room's exit to the left of where I entered, the creature was diminutive standing no taller than waist height before it scurried away.

Looking around the small church room I thought about the other creature I’d seen on the other floor, wondering whether they were the same or if I’d seen them before and to my surprise I when I thought about even just that great entry hall and the dining hall there had been a handful of them hiding in the shadows-

“That can’t be right? I’m sure I didn’t see anything else…” I murmured with a frown creasing my brow as I eyed the banner behind the altar that looked exactly like those in the two larger halls.

“Argh!” I let out a frustrated growl smacking my head straight. “It doesn’t matter, I just need to find my way out.”

With that I found myself at another junction with again a long hall leading away on my left, a fairly decent sized room which I could hear something shuffling around in and some kind of pantry that a open door looked into right in front of me.

I hadn’t needed to eat so far and moreover I’d not eve thought about it since arriving in this place so I ignored the pantry for now and once again headed left.

Down the hall I found the it opened up to a room and then tightened back into a hall again at the end of which was a normal wooden door on the other side of which I could hear the loud scuffle and clatter of an armour clad skeleton likely meaning it was one of the strong ones like the one that decapitated me going by what I’d seen so far.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I didn’t really want to waste time but considering the last time I found one I fell to the next level this seemed to be a fair bet in itself.

So I opened the door as quietly as I could and found the armoured skeleton with a melted head staring at the wall opposite the door. The whole room was a nest of gore, those small green creatures dead and carved apart by a butcher and strewn about what looked like it once held beds.

Despite my best efforts to creep forward to try end the fight before it started I failed to estimate how much noise I would make with my armour and the skeleton spun on me at which point I lashed out with the sword in my hands, a soft glow emanating from it as I swung down on its head.

I didn’t kill it but slicing half of the skull through sending fragments of bone everywhere stunned it long enough for me to follow up with a horizontal slash aimed at its neck-

“Crap!” I cursed in irritation as the skeleton raised its arm in time to block my follow up, but it wasn’t angled well enough to stop the sword from cleaving the arm from its elbow joint scattering the decaying limb across the room as I backed off.

Whipping its longsword around flippantly I easily evaded the attacks and dived in aiming for the unprotected legs of the skeleton.

Smashing straight through the right femur of the undead I stumped it causing it to topple and barely be able to put up a fight.

“Bastard” Gritting my teeth I berated myself mentally for letting my guard down and trying to approach it like the fight was over and found myself short a foot as well.

Thankfully I kept my balance and quickly struck down into the remnants of the skull obliterating it and carving my hand up with the errant bone fragments that dug into my forearm as the rest bounced off the armour.

“How the fuck am I meant to work with this?” I questioned the empty room as I stared at my detached foot and ankle of the boots I was wearing.

With some thought and a dark sense of solution I didn’t have to work hard to pressure my blade against my own throat as I toppled my head from my own shoulders to reset myself.

Bouncing on the cold stone tile, the last thing I saw was the rest of my body crumpling.