Often for a Hero, the greatest reward was drawing breath the next day. When the endless hordes sought your demises every waking hour, defying them and living on was a victory every time the sun crested the horizon. It didn’t put warm food on the table or a solid roof over your head, but fate tends to leave the unimportant details to the side. Crumbs to gather when mortal peril takes a nap.

I tuned out the barrage of expletives from the Guardian to focus on the waves of energy pulsing through the hall. A ritual summoning often targeted demons or devils. This was not something borne of Hell - this was something worse. Eldritch. A wretched abomination drawn from concentrated evil and the nightmares of mankind. That they sought to bring it to life here, in a place once holy, was both something that disgusted me to my core but also felt like the natural way of things.

From a swirling orb of purple energy coursing wildly above the monk's heads - a limb burst forth. Suckered like a tentacle but muscled and sinewy - a large clawed foot extending from the end. Then a second - equal, but this one had waving protrusions like maggots trying to escape an apple.

The body came next - a rough oval of ridged bone surrounding an open maw. From within, a lolling tongue, barbed and slick with some foul substance, drooped forth. Atop the body a small head, nothing but a tumourous growth with two pale orbs to function as eyes.

As if having held itself up in this different planar space, the arms slid forth from the pooled magic as the monstrosity dropped down, landing atop the figure on the altar. Both arms were long and oddly segmented, razor-like bones extending from each joint in a way that reminded me of the vines. Its hands were large and clawed - only having three fingers and a thumb, but able to reach the floor even standing atop the raised platform.

“-ting heavens.” Angelos finished his constant tirade, mostly due to running out of breath. “Now what?”

“We kill the monster,” my sword vibrated with crimson energy. I would be the first to admit I did not have a lot of experience with such creatures. Most anything I could tell would be wrought from the page of a speculative tome rather than from hard-earned experience. Time to write my own chapter; should we survive.

The being let out a course yell that shook the foundations of the building and grabbed one of the monks in a clawed fist. With a sickening crunch, he broke the man’s back and held him aloft, shaking the body to see what blood he could get out. Often was the folly of those who felt they could bring the unimaginable to life and control them. Power consumed you, and hubris seasoned you well.

[Enrage] pulsed through me as I sought to end this thing before it got too close, and I started off in a run. Hopefully, the remaining monks would become a brief enough distraction that I could get a good hit or two in. A swirl of grey energy chased after me and wrapped itself around my blade - a hum of power adding to the endless fury I felt burning in my veins.

I slid to the floor as the spent corpse was thrown towards me, narrowly missing my head as I clambered back to my feet. Clearly making myself known as the biggest threat in the room, I roared back at him. Blazing green shot across the room, the first arrow splintering as it collided with a tough bone protrusion, the second embedding into the softer flesh near where its shoulder lay.

As the monks went to move away, a wall of fire burst amongst them - setting their robes on alight and licking at the altar. The small eyes of the eldritch horror glowed wildly in the light and focused on the Mage. It leaped onto the floor and began to surge towards the group - but I was already right by it.

With a heavy downward swing, my sword screamed through the air, striking the attempted block from its long arm. It bent in odd ways and set me off my footing. The second arm whipped around and struck the flat of my blade as I tried to block it, knocking me across the floor. The flash of [Renewal] hit me, but the adrenaline and anger pulsing through my muscles didn’t allow me to feel any damage I might have taken.

The monster made it closer to them before I could engage it again. My blade carved into its undefended back, and foul blood sprayed out, dark and sizzling where it struck the floor. An arm whipped around, but I ducked beneath it, rolling forward with a slash out at its leg. Another gash in the puckered one - which responded by spraying dark ink over me, briefly blinding me.

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Another [Fire Wall] burst up just beside me, the heat biting at my skin but waylaying the next attack whilst I was undefended. I could hear chanting. The sound of a bow being released and the zip of an arrow. As I spun away from the roving legs of the abomination, I wiped the ink from my face with the back of my arm - my vision now blurred slightly but clear enough to fight.

It had turned to level both spined fists down at me, and I held the sword up to defend. My knees buckled beneath the weight of the strike, and I was flattened to the floor, dazed. Still furious, I staggered back to my feet as I could see in my peripheral that my shoulder was covered in crimson. Didn’t matter. Boots took me forward as it again tried to assault my Party.

Too late, this time, I watched as an arm swung out - before striking the grey dome that Angelos had raised in time. It flickered from the strike, and the beast took a couple of steps backward in confusion; ready to try and crack the egg, it now found its prey locked inside.

The right arm extended backward in preparation for the strike and found me waiting. With the thrum of grey energy in my blade, I cleaved the hand from the wrist, growling as I put my all into the attack. Black blood burned across my skin as it sprayed from the stump, and the creature screamed with its odd mouth. I dodged the left arm swinging backward - but then it flashed forward at the dome.

Grey energy flashed around the chamber as it cracked and burst - the body of Angelos was sent backward to collide with the wall. Green blazing energy as the twin arrows found their intended target - both eyes of the creature. The left arm swung wildly again, and the Party scattered, avoiding the blind attacks barely.

Jakob dropped his trap to the floor and kicked it forward, the clockwork mechanism opening it up as it positioned beneath the eldritch monster. It turned to try and face me as I leveled slashes at it. A [Fire Ball] struck the inside of its mouth and remained there for a brief two seconds, the creature recoiling - and stepping one foot into the trap.

As it screamed out in agony, the attacks became more desperate - the stump of its hewn arm swung in a wide arc - sending burning blood across the hall and spattering the humans. With one leg incapacitated, I put all my fury into the next strike - and severed the tendon of the free leg. Now flailing, blind, and incapacitated - it pointed in the direction it thought one was in - and vomited.

Not just the last meal it had eaten but a rotting river of dark blood and snapping teeth. It sank to the floor, and the foul water pooled into the recesses, quickly starting to cover a large swathe of the hall as its body melted to form this last-ditch attempt to consume us.

Against my throbbing ears, heartbeat pounding out a drum call of the furious - the chanting of the Guardian returned. Jakob struggled to find a good target to fire an arrow as he backed away from the blanket of pitch black and hungry teeth. Florence set some of it ablaze, but it just cleared a small area and couldn’t fight against the tide.

Angelos finished his chant and raised his spellbook. The man was still still half-prone, his body slunk against the wall. A wave of faint grey light burst from him, the eldritch blood freezing and turning a deep grey where it had been touched.

“The heart,” I yelled, pointing to the small remains of the body of the monster - in the middle of the pool, there it tried to keep the most treasured thing - the sacrificed heart that had wrought it into existence. Encased in bone, it bobbed about the seeping mass of hungry maws.

We were short seconds away from running out of space to back away - the exit was now blocked by the expanding horror.

Florence let loose fire upon the heart and held it there until the bone surrounding it cracked and began to brittle.

Angelos switched his enchantment to the Ranger’s bow, grey light enveloping both the frame and drawn arrow.

Jakob fired the arrow, splitting through the weakened bone and piercing the heart. The grey energy froze the beating organ, and it paled.

I ran and leaped, sword blazing bright crimson as I landed with a splash into the half-frozen ichor. Immediately, pain, as tiny mouths sunk into my flesh. And then my sword struck the heart, splitting it in half as my blade vibrated from striking the stone floor below.

Briefly, there was silence - and then, with a pained hiss, the energy of the creature dissipated. Like a mist, it evaporated up into the air to vanish, the floor beneath my feet returning to stone once more.

I dropped my sword as pain wracked my body, the enrage fading and allowing me to feel the struggle of my mortal form once more. I looked over to the Guardian, his leg had been broken around the knee, and he was looking especially sour about it.

“Fuck me,” Angelos spat, casting [Renewal] on himself. “I might have to rethink joining you bastards.” He shot me a pained smile.

As the flood of energy from the victory started to fade slowly, the true grim horror of the state of the hall sunk back in.

“The one with the weak neck was much less hassle.” Jakob sighed and pulled his hood over his eyes.