For many people, their homes are places of safety. As a Villain, your residence is an invitation for assault from waves of do-gooders. It was no wonder so many of us had been crazed and paranoid. A self-fulfilling prophecy. You needed traps and minions to keep yourself protected - making your den an even more enticing dungeon for adventurers to conquer. Filling your place in the world.

“That’s a more straightforward plan than I had expected.” Florence looked disappointed.

I shrugged in return. “The Alchemist isn’t physically very capable, and he would be away since we are here in the daytime. Subtlety would fall flat as soon as a homunculus noticed one of us - probably you. We should just assault him with full power, head-on.”

Basil rolled his tongue across his teeth. “While Victor is correct, I do believe we should be a little more clear on the details.”

Florence was still a little twisted over the insinuation that she would be the one to break our cover. In truth, it would be more likely to be me - my large silhouette wouldn’t exactly hide behind small shrubbery too well. Her fiery red hair and temperament didn’t help, however. Jakob had his eyes focused on the building.

“Alright,” I relented. Why they had to complicate matters, I wasn’t sure. Perhaps this was my prior privilege of outranking everything talking. “On the approach, we will need to dispatch the monsters as quickly as possible so that the Alchemist has less time to prepare.”

If it were just the handful of shadows they could see, then that wouldn’t be too bad, so they nodded their agreement.

“How good are your flames, Florence? Could you set fire to the building?”

She narrowed her eyes at the structure. “I, well… yes.” She gave me an affirming nod, her casting hand clenched into a fist.

I knew what that meant - yes, but it would hurt. She had made the choice. “If you can get it inside one of the windows, we will try and smoke him out.”

My memories rolled around in my head, trying to recall the inside of his house from my last visit. There was the main door and then a smaller one out the back. The inside was covered with bottles of mysterious liquids and odd ingredients. A large bench in a horseshoe shape sat at the closer end, where he did all of his work.

“I have a bear trap, if that helps,” Jakob offered, still focused on the glowing lights of the inside of the lair.

“Perfect,” I ran my fingers through my beard. “Assuming we can get to the building without any issue, we will trap the front door and then stake out the back door.”

Basil exhaled. “And if he puts the fire out or knows of our presence?”

“I’ll kick the door in and cleave his head off.” I shrugged. The combat potency of the Alchemist was a mixed bag. In melee combat? There was no contest against any of us. But some of the potions and bottles he kept to hand were strong acids, hallucinogenic smoke bombs, or fire in a bottle. Hence my plan of getting into his weasely little face as soon as possible and to end things before he got the upper hand.

“Sounds good to me,” Florence smiled nervously. Jakob just nodded.

I met the gaze of Basil. There was something like excitement or pride in his eyes. Of course, this was his idea, after all. It was no surprise that he was interested in seeing how it bore fruit. Perhaps I was too - although out of the pair of us, I had lost the most in attempting this little game.

“Alright, let us kill the Villain.” I withdrew my sword and leveled it towards the building. In another era, that would have sent some kind of malady to destroy it; here, though, it just boosted morale. A funny thing, that.

Boots against the dried and cracked ground, I began the charge forward. My sword began to glow a deep crimson, knowing when narratively it would look most impressive. I had prized it so much in my early years, despite having no other benefit. Oftentimes showmanship and visual effects could tip the scales in your favour. A vampire with a glowing sword? Steer clear.

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As I was now, I looked more like a barbarian. Loose shirt barely covered by a leather curaisse, and slacks covered in dirt and boar blood. Footsteps behind me brought back old memories. I had minions before - a legion - companions - thralls, but had acted in solitude for an eon.

An arrow zipped past in the air and struck the first shadowed shape. The five homunculi turned as they sensed our presence and began to slurp and hobble our way. Weaklings, probably even more so than the boars.

The first, with the arrow embedded in their jellied body, turned a single blue eye towards me - a slimy appendage reaching out to grasp at me. I lopped it off with a flourish of my blade and then flickered with a backswing to cleave the monster in twain. A second one burst and deflated like a punctured balloon as an arrow pierced it. Basil and Florence held back their powers for now - they would be more important once we reached the house.

I leveled a kick at a third, more fleshy beast, a spin of my blade decapitating him - although that didn’t seem to stop his approach. Two drooling mouths at off angles tried to latch onto my arms, but I slammed the pommel into one of them, breaking teeth. As it recoiled in pain, I ran my blade along his side, flicking the tip to gash along his front.

A small orb flew past us and struck a new group of enemies that had lumbered out from hiding places - eight further. The small monster caught aflame and sat whining as it burned away. We risked getting bogged down if more came out to surprise us. While they weren’t very well armed or armored, they would tire us down - enough to give the Alchemist the advantage.

Part of me didn’t care; I wanted to kill. Bring on more. That was the bloodlust talking, and I shook my head as I skewered another creature, twisted, and withdrew the sword with a sickening pop. I must keep a cool head.

“Hit it now,” I growled in a hushed tone at the Mage. We were soon to lose any manner of surprise anyway.

The woman held out her hand, aimed at the open window closest. I dispatched another monster and saw the pained grimace on her face, her fingers twitching in pain as the ball of fire formed and grew stronger. With an illuminating glow that painted the drab area in a streak of amber, the beam of fire coursed across the sixty feet of space and expertly threaded into the small window.

For a moment, we all paused in silence. A heartbeat of suspense as we waited for the outcome. Then, a shattering of glass and tirade of curses, followed by an explosive blast of bright green energy that shook the area and beamed from any gap in the building.

Another arrow struck an approaching homunculus. “We need to get to the building.” Using my wide strikes, I herded the remainder of the creatures away from us, allowing the rest of the Party safe passage on my left side. Basil reached out and cast a minor healing spell on the Mage, her surprised thanks illuminating her pale face as her fingers stopped smoldering.

The door of the lair burst open, multicolored lights stretching out across the desiccated forest floor - green fire, luminant pinks, and oranges - all silhouetting a hunched figure grasping at a belt of glass bottles.

“Foolish interlopers!” He cackled, throwing a bottle towards us and taking an arrow to the shoulder in return.

“Evade!” I yelled as I rolled across the mulch of decaying leaves, thankful to see the rest of the Party obeyed the command. Freezing was a common reaction to immediate danger and was the top reason fledgling adventurers never came home.

The glass shattered, sending a pool of green acid out in a wide area. Immediately the ground began to smoke, an acrid smell that fizzled away at the very earth itself. Nasty stuff. I stood to my feet and went to step forward, but something had wrapped around my right boot. I looked down at a half-formed human, a melted puddle of flesh, and blind eyes. Its singular large hand had grasped on my heel.

A quick swipe rendered it from the short arm, and I glanced around to see that the surprise group of homunculae had been just the early birds. I saw… twenty-eight new opponents beginning to circle around behind us. Trying to pin us in. Rage in my eyes, I turned back to the Alchemist as he deflected a fire bolt with a magical shield.

I ran. As he focused on lobbing another bottle towards Jakob, I gained distance on him. End it quickly, I reminded myself. A protracted battle weighed in his favor - he intended to tire and whittle us down. It would just take one mistake, and he could break us - well, not me.

His glassy eyes turned my way on seeing me approach, the eldritch flames lapping at his lair, painting the scene in a hellish light. “Not so fast,” he cooed, withdrawing a flask in each hand.

I hadn’t the time to scour my memories for what they could be - nor turn to see if Jakob was alright. If I had to have a Party, I needed to trust they were able to look after themselves. There were few options left to me as I sprinted towards the incoming attack. If I rolled out to the side, I would lose momentum and possibly be caught in any splash. If I slid along the floor, I could take both bottles to the face. If I surged forth…

His arms drew back, foul liquids sloshing around as he tensed to throw them.

And then the anger in his face switched to brief confusion. “You?” He paused briefly, unable to understand.

Bright crimson arced through the air as my sword split his head from his neck, my feet sliding across the floor to a stop as his body dropped to the floor.

“Yes, me.” I spat.