For a moment, Jack simply stared at the creature standing in the middle of the room. It was definitely a she. The monster had a feminine body and was dressed in something like a long robe. The cloth was torn in many places, and her rotted flesh that was so dark it was almost black could be seen through numerous ragged holes. Jack couldn’t see her face, because she had her back turned to him. However, he could see that the monster was bald and had two long horns, growing from the front of her head and curling back along her skull. In her right hand, she held a staff decorated with a skull of some horned animal.

At that moment, she casually turned and seemed to look toward one of the corners of the room. Now that she was halfway turned in his direction, Jack could see that just like the mutants he’d been fighting in the catacombs, she was blind and had long, pointed elvish ears. The two large horns grew from where her eyes should have been. Most of the flesh on her face had rotten and flaked away, revealing the yellowish skull. Her lips and most of her cheeks were missing, putting rotten teeth on display.

The monster kept staring in the same direction. At least she seemed to, but having no eyes she couldn’t see anything. Shouldn’t have. Still, something definitely attracted her attention, and Jack turned his head to look in the same direction.

At first, he didn’t notice anything of interest. Here and there were pillars, but other than that, the room appeared to be empty. However, when Jack looked around more carefully, he spotted bodies of dead mutants scattered around the room. The room was large and dark, and that was the reason he hadn’t noticed the dead bodies before.

The monster raised her staff and gave it a slow wave around the room. Some kind of magical energy flowed from the horned skull at the tip of her staff. Immediately, from different parts of the room came the sounds of the mutants getting up from the floor.

A notification flashed before Jack’s eyes.

The quest has been updated.

Jack called up the description of his current quest. Its objective had just changed.

The witch’s dark magic causes killed enemies to rise from the dead. You need to kill the witch to destroy her spell.

So Jack now knew what he needed to do to complete the quest. But before attacking the witch, he decided to use his identification spell on her. It didn’t tell him much about her, though. The only thing that he learned about her was that she was an epic enemy. It was the first time he’d encountered an enemy of this rarity. All the creatures he’d fought so far were common. Jack had a feeling that the fight against the witch wasn’t going to be easy.

Raising his sword, he began to walk toward the witch. He was sure he produced little to no noise while he walked, but the witch heard him nonetheless. She spun toward him, raising her staff. Her jaws opened much wider than a human mouth could, emitting a deafening shriek. Gritting his teeth, Jack burst into a run toward her, but before he could reach the witch, she pointed her staff at him.

A burst of magical energy dashed from the tip and slammed into him. The force of the impact was devastating. Jack felt as if he’d been hit by a freight train. He flew a few feet backward and collapsed to the stone floor with a dull thud. A few nearest blind mutants immediately picked up on the noise he’d made and raced toward him. By the time Jack got to his feet, he’d been surrounded by a few mutants.

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He swung his sword at one of them, slicing the monster diagonally across its body. The mutant took a couple of shaky steps toward him before tumbling down. Jack ducked when another mutant tried to grab him and dodged a third enemy’s attack. All those points he’d put into Agility were really paying off. He was too fast and agile for the mutants to hit him. After evading another mutant’s claws, he pierced his enemy through its heart, killing the monster instantly. Jack immediately turned to face another enemy that was about to attack him.

It took him less than a minute to deal with the mutants the witch had revived. As he already knew, they would soon rise from the dead again, so he wasted no time sprinting toward the witch. She opened her mouth wide, screeching in rage upon seeing him deal with her minions without much trouble. She pointed her staff at him again, but this time Jack was ready. He jumped to the side with the speed and agility of a cat, and the wave of magical energy passed through the air, missing him completely. The witch screeched in frustration.

Jack held out his left hand toward her and utilized the fireball spell. His hand burst into flames, and a fraction of a second later, a fireball flew from his hand. The magical projectile struck the witch in the chest, the force of the explosion shaking her, almost knocking her off her feet.

The witch didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all. She screamed in rage at him unintelligibly.

“Did you think you were the only one who could use magic, huh?” Jack retorted.

When he got within a sword’s reach of her, he lurched forward in an attempt to pierce her through the heart and bring the battle to an end. However, just before the tip of his blade would have pierced her flesh, the witch struck her staff against the floor and disappeared in a brief flash of crimson light. Carried by his momentum, Jack almost lost his balance. Spotting a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, he glanced in that direction and saw the witch materialize several meters away from him.

He sprinted toward her, outstretching his left arm toward her and casting another fireball on the run. The witch raised her staff again. He expected her to eject another wave of magical energy at him or teleport out of harm’s way again, but she did something else instead. She waved her staff in the air, and a spherical energy shield materialized around her. The fireball hit the shield, weakening it. Jack launched a few more magical projectiles at it before it was finally destroyed, leaving the witch vulnerable again. He ran toward her, raising his sword, getting ready to swing it at her. The witch neither launched a wave of energy at him nor teleported out of the way, probably because these spells hadn’t recharged yet.

When Jack got within an arm’s reach of the witch, he swung his sword at her. The witch raised her staff, attempting to block his strike, but it didn’t do her any good. The blade slashed her skeletal arm, slicing through flesh and bone with ease. The severed hand still holding the staff dropped to the ground. The enraged witch screeched at him, but her scream was cut short when Jack’s powerful swing detached her horned head from the body. A spray of dark, almost black blood gushed from the stump of her neck. The headless body collapsed to the ground while the head flew sideways, hitting the ground and rolling away.

Jack quickly looked around, but the mutants he’d recently killed hadn’t risen from the dead yet. And now that the witch was dead, they most likely would never do so. Jack sheathed his sword just as a notification popped up in his vision.

You have completed the quest. You can now pick your reward.

Jack was about to do just that, but he then heard a strange voice behind him. He spun around, drawing his sword again, ready to fight whoever was about to attack him. However, there was nobody behind him. It took him a moment to realize who was talking.

The familiar screeching voice was coming from the horned head of the witch as her lipless mouth moved. She was muttering some strange words.

A sinister message appeared in his vision.

You have just been cursed.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jack snapped in frustration. “It’s not fair!”

After uttering the curse, the witch’s head went silent. She was dead for good now.