As it turns out, adventurers can don their gear very quickly when needed. It doesn't even take a minute for all of us to get ready, Kara needs the most time due to the amount of belts on her outfit and the four hidden knives I don't remember her getting. She probably stole them from someone.

She did spend a lot of time away from me in Jacksonville.

I pass around the mirror and point out the hole in the wall, reassuring everyone that I am not going insane and that there is actually something creepy going on.

"Shit," Kara accurately says after looking through the mirror herself.

We cut our time in the baths short and ignore the receptionist trying to talk us into staying for longer, asking if there's anything wrong with the baths. She probably thinks that there is something seriously wrong with the bath that spooked us.

Fleur carefully smashes the mirror, breaking it into six shards. Everyone takes one except Fleur, she takes the last two.

We scour through the city, using the mirrors to search for any other holes or faces that we can't see normally.

There are holes in almost every corner along One and Two, the trade routes crossing to create Brightgate. One trend that quickly becomes obvious is that every empty stand has a hole nearby, and every other one that has a hole behind it recently got bought after a long time of staying empty.

It's beyond suspicious and after crossing the intersection of One and Two, we decide to check the sheriff's office.

We break down the front door, ignoring the people outside who are yelling for the guards. A huge city like this probably needs more guards than a singular sheriff.

We look through the cells, saving the office for last. If there is something here, it will probably be in the office.

The cells are spotless, having seen no use for a while. They have not a single tunnel inside of it.

Screaming makes it way to us from outside, a dozen people yelling in fear before suddenly going quiet.

Everyone returns to the usual yelling of prices and loud talking.

A huge hole takes up half the floor with the desk half-fallen into it. It's a crude tunnel, curving into the middle of the city and downwards. It’s only visible through the mirror shard.

A serpentine neck creeps up and stares at us before quickly recoiling, fleeing into the tunnel.

"Stop right there," two guards yell at us, pointing their revolvers in our direction.

In a silent agreement, we jump down into the tunnel.

I twist my ankle, awkwardly landing on a stone, but I barely notice it as Merah points towards me. "[Lesser Heal]."

My ankle pops right back as the guards walk up to the hole, confusedly staring right into it. We are already running down the twisting tunnels when one of them says "Did they just vanish?"

"Who vanished?"

They continue talking but we are already out of earshot at this point.

The tunnels twist and turn, hundreds -if not thousands- of smaller tunnels sprout off, probably connecting the tunnel with those on the surface.

Vikram is taking the lead with Kara, our only two frontliners. Fleur already strung her bow and is sticking with Merah and me.

A droplet of something falls onto his shoulder, stopping him dead in his tracks.

Kara bumps into him, almost bowling him over. "Vikram, everything alright?"

"I- yeah. Sorry, what were we doing?" He looks around confusedly, scowling at the location.

"Fuck," Merah swears, which causes the rest of us to stop. There is just something about her swearing that's almost as ridiculous as people disappearing and being wiped from memories. "My Patron contacted me, this sounds a lot like a monster they had to take care of back then."

[Siro: Oh yeah, that thing tasted great.]

[Grant: Why didn't you tell me about that?]

[Siro: I didn't think it was relevant. It was weaker than me by miles so you should have no problem killing it and you already figured out that you can look at it through mirrors.]

"Let's go," I order, motioning for Kara and Vikram to advance. "Watch out for the ceiling. I feel like we're getting closer."

The tunnels are eerily silent, a stench of rot filling them.

A serpentine face descends from the ceiling, going straight for Merah. Its maw stretches unnaturally, flesh contorting to a size that'd allow it to swallow Merah's shoulder in one piece. A crown of tendrils sits atop its head, reaching for Merah.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I apply [Deaths Mark] and use [Quick draw] and [Steady aim], piercing through its eye. Reflexes and lucky placement of my mirror saving her.

It recoils and shrieks in pain causing my vision to flash. Tunnels and its head are visible for a few seconds before vanishing. Checking the mirror, I catch the end of its head retreating.

I shoot it again for good measure but the bullet only glances off of the scales, inflicting negligible damage.

Merah is standing in the tunnel with a splash of blood in her hair, looking around and searching for something.

Vikram is the first to catch his bearings. "Run!"

We rush down the tunnel, checking through the mirror for it. My [Deaths Mark] is constantly flickering, telling me wildly varying results, from it being right all around us to not existing at all.

“What’s happening?” Merah is running besides me, somehow keeping up with the cloth of her robe flapping around. She sounds genuinely confused, looking around with wide eyes like a kid.

Fleur turns to Merah, keeping her two mirror fragments angled opposite ways to observe the surroundings. “We are fighting a monster that can apparently erase memories and is only visible through mirrors. Don’t let any blood on you or you might forget what you’re doing.”

The tunnel suddenly opens into a huge cavern that's lit by a bioluminescent moss.

It's crudely carved out of stone, connecting dozens of huge tunnels. The centrepiece of the cavern is a colossal serpentine body coiled around two stalagmites in an eight shape. The sleek, scaly body is covered in a mottled hide, scales of every colour ranging from ebony to a sickly green span it, giving the entire thing an aberrant aura.

It has a giant maw on the front of its body, and multiple sets of razor-sharp teeth line its gaping maw. Hands and faces sprout from its main body, connecting it to dozens of tunnels and allowing it to skitter across and hold onto the stalagmites.

The faces are connected to the main body by long necks and some of them end in thin planes, portals. If it can maintain multiple portals, it can probably stay here and attack all over the city. One of the heads is bleeding a sickly green.

That must be the one I hit before.

It skitters across the stalagmites, climbing high and facing us, dozens of heads descending and roaring a challenge towards us.

The entire thing turns visible as it roars and I use the opportunity to use [Identify] before it disappears from our view again.

[false hydra - lvl 61]

Fleur holds one piece of the mirror with the same hand as her bow, aiming it towards the false hydra. She shoots two arrows in quick succession, nailing two hands to the stone. "[Bursting arrow]!"

The two arrows burst into shrapnel, completely obliterating the hands as it retreats behind the stalagmites and dozens of the heads surge forwards or into the tunnels.

Vikram rushes forwards, activating Skills I can't hear and slashing through necks, flipping and vaulting across any obstacle with single-minded determination. Kara follows shortly after.

Merah starts casting some complicated Skill, a long prayer accompanying a holy light emanating from her.

I angle my mirror to look at Merah, predicting that it will attack her again. It somehow knows that Merah is keeping us alive and already targeted her earlier.

Two heads descend on her, forcing me to defend her and shoot them. I use both of my revolvers to repeatedly shoot at the heads while charging a bullet in one of my tendrils with [Elemental Infusion].

Merah gets splashed with blood and gore but continues praying.

Kara turns around and starts running towards Merah upon noticing me shooting. "Grant, shoot the body, not the heads!"

I turn around to the false hydra and unload another magazine, using my tendrils to reload it while shooting the second revolver, cycling between the two to keep a constant assault.

Kara jumps up and grips something, stabbing her daggers into the head of it, revealing it for a moment. She bites into the head, grimacing as a torrent of green blood flows into her mouth, coating her.

The grimace is quickly replaced with a manic grin as she jumps to the ceiling and smashes another head into the tunnel, blocking it.

Vikram reaches the false hydra and starts cutting through the hands and heads going for him, his curved blade gleaming in the light of the moss. He doesn't appear to be using the mirror to see the approaching heads, rapidly spinning around to cut off heads and hands circling around him. Probably Skills at play to warn him that allow him to dodge so flawlessly.

Fleur shoots arrow after arrow, trying to restrict its movement by nailing it to the stone and gouging out chunks of flesh while barely dodging the heads herself, getting glancing strikes.

The false hydra leaves its cover and flees as Kara sprints towards it, clawing through heads and feasting on chunks of it. She leaves Merah completely open, abandoning helping her in the reckless pursuit of blood. She discards the mirror, somehow sensing it.

Before I can do anything, Fleur starts protecting Merah, slicing through anything attacking her and rapidly turning to see any angle.

"...Bless us, O Goddess of Life, with vitality and purpose, with strength and speed,

As I walk this mortal realm, guided by your grace," Merah finishes her prayer. "[Prayer of Strength]!"

A burst of holy light fills the entire cavern, strength flooding into me as I notice the rest redoubling their efforts.

Fleur starts taking shots at the false hydra whenever she has a second of time to spare, getting healed by Merah. Her hands are turning into a blur as she rapidly swaps between her bow and rapier.

Vikram gets grabbed by the hands and quickly gets pulled towards the maw at the front, desperately clinging to his sword.

No matter how much I shoot at the hands or try to disrupt it, it doesn’t let go of Vikram.

Its movements turn frantic as Kara rushes through a head, tearing it apart without slowing down. Fuck, she's terrifying when she drank blood.

A head suddenly bursts from my blind spot and whips me against the wall, causing some of my bones to crack.

My eardrums burst, a ringing completely replacing my hearing as blood trickles out of my ears. I can't hear anything but the ringing, no shrieking, grunting or Kara ripping through the heads.

The entire false hydra is visible to me without the use of the mirror, with stumps of the necks hanging from the ceiling and slowly regenerating into two heads, like a Hydra. The maw at the front opens up into a toothy void. Vikram gets thrown inside, the hands impaling themselves on the teeth as it snaps shut.

I yell out his name, but can't hear it myself.

My hearing returns in one burst and the false hydra disappears, Merah having healed me. She crouches down next to me and helps me up, scowling "Who's Vikram?"