Immediately upon passing through the door, Simon was assaulted by a high-pitched screeching. He had enough time to scan the air around his head before a black and red creature passed right by his head. It left a gash on his cheek that bled unchecked. He wiped at the blood and watched the vampire bat beat its huge, leathery wings to the roof, where it perched on an old beam. It looked down at Simon from the ceiling, and he could tell it was eyeing him as it’s next meal. It was hard to tell from where it hung, but the bat was easily as big as his head. It fanned out its broad wings and dropped, floating down to where Simon stood ready. He unleashed his whip with a snap of his wrist. It snapped and the bat fell to the ground, a triangular hole punched into its delicate wing.

The bat wasn’t finished yet. It hopped on its feet, and ran on all fours, perfectly balanced. The thing tried to hop in Simon’s leg, and if he hadn’t drawn his knife and impaled it on the floor, it just might have. Instead it made the most awful screeching before conceding to death. Simon had a chance to look closely at the thing as he pulled it off his knife. It seemed very unnatural. Not only for it’s gratuitous size, but also the thing had small clawed hands on top of it’s wrinkled wings. And it had large fangs, large enough to be toothpicks.

Now that Simon wasn’t occupied, he finally had a chance to look around the room. This shorter room was almost bare. There was little to decorate the walls and only the occasion full-sized suit of armor broke up the empty space. It was a little hard to see because there was only one light source here, a lantern that hung from the ceiling. There were many harsh shadows that made the room look as if it were concealing more malevolent entities. Whip in hand, Simon cautiously proceeded to the end of the room to a staircase, going down.

After fighting back the bad feeling he was having, he carefully descended the carpeted stairs. When he reached the bottom, he stopped and looked around. He stood on a cement bridge that lead to another set of stairs, this time leading up. There were ornately carved guardrails about waist high outlining his path. He peered over the left side of the chipped railing. Four feet below the bridge, there was water. A drop of blood dripped from his open cheek down to the murk below. It was impossible to see what was in the water as it was as black as night. There was a raised gate at water level. Simon thought it best to keep moving, and not waste time wondering at this strange architecture. He started walking the bridge.

He heard a splash. Before he could react, a hand slammed down on the guardrail ten feet in front of him with the intention of pulling itself up on to the bridge. The hand was green and scaled, and had long nails. Another splash to his left revealed something landed to his left. He turned as he leapt forward and was shocked when he landed. Before him stood a merman. Simon was stunned by what he saw for a good second or two. He couldn’t turn away if he wanted to…

It was roughly five feet tall, trimly built and had webbed hands and feet. The thing’s head was had fins that were streamline to it’s head. There were large, bristly spines coming from its back, elbows and neck. Slitted gills on either side of its neck pulsated. It stared at him with large, slitted eyes. It’s wet feet slapped on the bridge as it approached. There was another splash. Simon lashed his whip out at the slow-moving creature. It leapt straight up and over his head before he could even track it. He turned and knew then that he had to get out of there. Splash.

Simon reared back as if he was going to swing his whip, and the creature hunched down and pounced forward under his arc. He then leapt straight up and over the passing monstrosity. Simon took that chance to start running for the staircase. He pounded the cement as hard as his legs could take him. He glanced back and saw three fish men slowly start pursuing him. ‘HA! They don’t follow very fast,’

thought Simon. As he watched, the lead one inhaled deeply, arching its back. The thing’s cheeks inflated it thrust its head forward. Through intense pressure, a beam of water pounded into Simon’s back, sending him sprawling. He had the wind knocked out of him and possibly a broken rib or two. Seeing starbursts, he still managed to get to his feet and pound his way up the stairs. Simon reached the top and turned, ready to hurl his foot-long dagger into the first thing that he saw.

As he stood, the seconds passed and he heard no flapping of scaly feet. His arm dropped a little as he strained to listen. A few seconds more and then a few bodies splashing into the water. Then silence. Simon sheathed his knife and came to the conclusion that these creatures can’t possibly live outside their watery home for longer than a short time. Just long enough to pick up a meal. Simon knelt, and felt his back where the watery projectile connected. He estimated that there was no actual damage other than having the wind knocked out of him. By the time he rose and started looking around, he had caught his breath.

He stood in a long hallway. The light provided by the sconced candles couldn’t even illuminate the ceiling. There were large window twenty feet tall with the same red curtained motif as before. They hung loosely and for the most part not covering the windows as they were tattered and shredded from time.

The marble floor must have been sparkling at one time. Now they were just a resting-place for cracks and dust. After a cautious glance down the stairs to ensure their vacancy, Simon slowly made his way across the slippery floor. It was eerily silent as his boots scuffed down the hall.

At this point, Simon was ready to spring at anything that was unlucky enough to move. His eyes carefully scanned everything. No detail escaped his vision; not the cracks in the wall, not the statues raising arms that weren’t there, not the moss that seemed to grow sporadically. He eventually came to the end of the room. There seemed to be a large black mass in the corner, above a staircase leading to a door. Easily the size of a man. He squinted it. Now he could make out a large set of claws near the bottom. As far as he could make out, it was a large bat. Easily the largest bat in the world. And as he drew closer he could make out its face and what scared him was that it had been staring at him the whole time.

Simon waited for it to come. It didn’t move a muscle. He guessed that it didn’t think he knew it was there. Most normal people wouldn’t be able to see it. So, he used this time to look for something to throw at the monster. He noticed that something was stuck in one of the piles of moss. It was a handle. He gave the bat a careful glance. When he saw that it was still motionless, he proceeded to the wall where the handle was. He pulled on it. It came out easily. It was an axe. Not just any axe, but a double-headed axe used for chopping large trees. Now at least he could pin it to the---

Something smashed Simon to the floor, hard. He spun as he went down, dropping his newfound weapon. He looked up to see the huge wingspan taking the bat into the darkness above. Simon stood, albeit disorientated from his collision. He looked around again to see the open wingspan of the giant bat closing down on him, fast. It wrapped itself around Simon. The only thing he could do in reaction was put his hands in front of his face. The bat bit his hand, sinking its teeth through Simon’s hand. Simon lost his balance and fell on his back.

The bat-thing began to suck his life force from his body. He could feet its paralyptic saliva making his muscles tense up. Spasms gripped his entire right arm. He opened his eyes and looked into the shiny black eyes of the bat. He felt he was loosing this battle and he would end up dead here on the floor. Simon gritted his teeth and howled wildly. Summoning his anger to try and get this thing off him, he could feel his adrenaline countering the paralyzing effects of the saliva. The bat, sensing it had stirred something it couldn’t handle, began to let go and try to get away. Simon snatched up his axe and heaved it. It caught the huge bat in the back and bore it to the ground. It thrashed about, trying to remove it.

He walked over to the monster and put his boot on its back, to get some leverage in removing his axe. He pulled hard and it came out, along with a lot of dark blood. He hefted he axe over his head and neatly chopped the head off the bat in one keen blow. The axe bounced off the marble floor and was jarred from his hand. Simon opened his backpack and started to bandage his already-healing hand. After picking up the axe, he slung it on his back and walked over the staircase, where he flopped down. ‘Well,’ he thought, ‘That went well.’ He looked at his hand again, which was ceasing to ache. He opened the bandage to see the holes in his hand seemed to be a lot smaller, and were not bleeding at all. Even as he watched, the red flesh started to turn pink and skin started to grow over the holes. He shook his head.

‘If that’s the case, maybe my odds aren’t as bad as I thought. I didn’t even know I could do that. Who knows what else I might be able to do?’ Simon mused. "Hmm." He stood and walked up the six stairs covered in rich red carpeting. He paused at the door, taking time to adjust his armor and draw his short-sword. ‘And yeah,’ he thought, ‘I just hope they don’t get any bigger.’ He pushed on the light wooden door. It opened easily.