When me and Harold left the pocket dimension it became immediately obvious that something was wrong. A siren echoed all throughout the town and Harold didn’t hesitate before putting on his helmet, unsheathing his sword, shoving me out from the vault and sprinting out from the mansion.

I watched him run off before shrugging. The siren clearly meant something was wrong, just how wrong was still up for question. I quietly walked my way out of the mansion where a scene of fire and death awaited me. The town was ablaze, and a dozen different monsters were running from building to building and slaughtering the occupants.

The one closest to me was humanoid and currently dragging a dozen or so human heads tied together with bloody ropes behind it. It didn’t have any eyes, and the sockets where they should have been were disturbingly large. There was no hair on its body, and its jaw hung down loosely.

It turned towards me, it’s empty eye sockets seemingly staring directly into my eyes as its face formed into a toothy open-mouthed grin.

After a short moment I sighed, “Fuck.”

I slammed the door closed and slashed my spear along the ground. The blade of my spear didn’t leave the floor as I began to run through the mansion.

I wasn’t about to sit and wait for it to come after me. It had clearly killed a fair amount of people, and the people of this town should be fairly capable. At least to the point that a dozen or so of them dying to a monster can give a rough picture of the things' strength.

I heard glass break behind me. Which meant that it had just broken through a window.

I willed the plants now growing behind me to impale the monster, and the order was immediately followed by the sound of wood splintering throughout the room.

I didn’t wait to see if I’d damaged it as I ran into what appeared to be a grand dining room, and almost immediately the wood paneling on the leftmost wall splintered as the monster crashed through the wall. Small cuts and bits of vine were impaled into the creature, and despite its lack of eyes it stared towards me with undisguised hunger.

I didn’t hesitate before pulling out my pistol and emptying the magazine towards the monster, but it simply sidestepped out of the way of each shot. It wasn’t that it was fast enough to do so, it was more like it was reading the trajectory of my bullets and making the necessary movements to dodge before I even pulled the trigger.

I immediately tossed the pistol to my side and gripped my spear with two hands.

“Alright you eyeless bastard, let’s try this.”

I stabbed the blade of my spear into the ground and cut a circle into the flooring around me as the monster sprinted towards me from across the room.

There are several ways to kill a monster, but the best was to predict its actions and react accordingly. I’d learned that lesson many times. This particular monster wanted my head, that much was obvious, and it wasn’t going to get it without getting closer.

So I let it.

I crouched down low to the ground as vines shot up all around me and formed a dome that covered me. I waited a split second before I felt the vibrations of the monster tearing away at the plants that surrounded me.

I could only grin in response, “Let’s see how you handle this.”

I grabbed a grenade off my belt as the vines formed a fist sized hole near the floor. I quickly rolled the grenade through the small opening and braced myself for the incoming explosion.

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The monster’s blows didn’t let up as I counted away at the seconds.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

I smiled, “Boom.”

The room shook violently, and I quickly willed the vines to recede all around me. Off on the far side of the room covered in cuts and shrapnel was the monster. Blood trickled down its body and it was holding one of the disembodied heads in its lap.

Its fingers were long and bony, and in a fraction of a second they’d plunged into the flesh of the disembodied head. The monster tore out the eyes of the head alongside great clumps of flesh and brain matter before shoving them into its own eye sockets.

I was already sprinting towards it, and quickly jumped atop the long dining table separating me from it. I ran towards the edge and jumped off, poised to bring the blade of my spear down atop the monster’s skull.

But it wasn’t to be, because in the next instant its arm slammed into my chest and I was sent rocketing into the far wall. I couldn’t even follow its movements; I’d seen nothing but a blur.

I shoved myself off the wall and forced myself to stand on shaky legs, the taste of iron had filled my mouth and the blade of my spear sunk deep into the ground beneath my feet.

The monster didn’t seem to be acknowledging me for the moment. It was much more concerned with fitting its new eyes into its skull, carefully shoving stray bits of flesh and brain matter into the recesses of its eye socket.

I willed the vines to shoot towards it and it quickly dodged out of the way. Then its form blurred, and in the next instant its hand was inches from my neck, barely restrained by vines gripping onto the creature.

Cold sweat trickled down my forehead, “You’re rather fast.”

Vines shot up all around me and the monster moved to retreat, and it very well could have. If I’d actually been aiming for it that is.

One by one the heads it was dragging behind it popped like balloons as the vines wrapped around them and constricted.

The monster paused in shock for a moment, before turning towards me with rage filled eyes. They stared deep into mine with anger only a madman could muster, but there was nothing it could do anymore.

Like always, I’d won.

------------------------

Thirty minutes ago.

The caged man stared at me with conflicted eyes, “You want me to put this in you?”

I was holding the gorgon head, my hands carefully covering its eyes.

“Of course, is that going to be a problem?”, I asked.

He shrugged, “Well it’s clearly not fresh. I can smell that from here, which means the effectiveness is going to be thrown off. Not to mention that these eyes are only meant for use in the dark. I’d have to mix it together with your current eyes if you ever want to walk out in the sunlight again.”

My smile faded slightly, “How effective would it be?”

He shrugged, “Well you won’t be able to turn anything to stone, but you should be able to stun whatever you make eye contact with for a good five seconds or so.”

After a short moment of deliberation, I handed the head over to the biomancer with a smile, “That should be more than long enough.”

------------------------

My eyes shone a golden yellow as I stared into those of a dead man. The monster stood frozen in place, and I didn't hesitate before carefully lining up my spear with its neck and lopping off its head in one swift movement.

It fell to the floor with a wet thud, and I immediately walked over and took a seat at the shrapnel ridden table.

I took deep, calming breaths. This was bad, the town was going to fall and I hadn’t even gotten a decent meal out of them yet. Although, I suppose this was the reason I’d gotten my map and spellbook the second I’d arrived at this place.

My eyes shifted to the corpse of the monster not two feet from me.

I grimaced, “Disgusting.”

I stabbed my spear into the corpse, and in the next instant thousands of roots shot out from all over its body, tearing it to pieces and sending chunks of flesh shooting across the hardwood floor.

There was no need to risk it somehow living through a decapitation. There were much weirder things running around in this world than a headless monster.

I leaned back in my chair. With that done I had a choice to make. There were many, many monsters outside and it was only a matter of time before some of them started to make their way in here.

I could try to escape, to make a mad dash for the only exit that was no doubt swarming with monsters far outside my capabilities. Contrarily, I could try to kill as many as I could, and with more than a little bit of luck maybe survive this ordeal.

Or, I could take the only real option, number three. Loot the ever-living hell out of this mansion and then switch to plan one, escape.

Out of all of the plans, plan three seemed the best.

Afterall, If I was going to die, I may as well do it while stealing from the elderly.