The Head Collector resembled an emaciated Pygmy, except it was over six feet tall, with long arms ending in sharp, bony fingers. Its skeletal frame was covered in pale—almost translucent—skin, which gave off an eerie glow in the dim torchlight.

It turned toward them.

Its stomach-mouth was huge, and uncannily human in appearance; with fleshy pink lips and flattened, omnivorous teeth. The mouth opened wide, and a guttural scream emanated from deep within the creature's torso. The scream morphed into high-pitched pig squeals. One branch-like arm pointed and gestured at them, adding emphasis to its unintelligible words.

The severed heads glowed. As one, their eyes rolled toward the group. Their decomposing jaws fell open, and they added their screams to the Head Collector's.

Chloe's heart was a war drum in her chest. Her skin prickled with cold dread.

A prompt flashed in her vision.

[Room 2 of 3: Wave 1 of 1 approaching.]

A horde of Pygmies, Marauders, and Boar Riders charged toward them from both sides of the room. Their fierce shrieks joined the cacophony, making Chloe's brain throb. The ground shook beneath her feet as they closed in, their claws and tongues raised and ready for bloodshed.

A crowd control mark assigned by Tess shone above the closest Boar Rider. Chloe focused her mind and channeled her fear toward the target. The [Fear] spell connected with the Boar, and a wave of sensations and thoughts crashed over her. It was hungry and angry. It was also afraid of the imposing Iron knight it was charging toward. Chloe latched onto that fear, and amplified it by visualizing her father brutally smashing the Boar's head to a pulp with his Flail. She added an image of the knight feasting on a juicy roasted pig leg.

The Boar's emotions surged back through the mental link. Chloe gritted her teeth against the animal's fear. "It's not real. It's not real."

When the [Fear] reached its peak in the Boar's mind, Chloe applied new spells: [Migraine]; [Heart palpitations]; and [Intracranial hypertension]. She allowed the mental tether to magnify each ability. An icon for [Tachycardia] appeared, indicating that the empowered [Fear] had caused heart damage.

Chloe was literally scaring the Boar to death.

"Brad, start!" Tess yelled.

Brad began beatboxing. He created magical looping beats in the air, then rapped along to [Without Me by Eminem] changing the 'me' to 'we'. While he performed, a buff appeared above everyone's head: [Job for We: XS.03 bonus damage while clearing the Dungeon].

The Head Collector let out another piercing shriek from the back of the room; possibly it took offense to Brad's suggestion that the Headless monsters should go round the outside.

Chloe triggered another [Tachycardia] spell onto the Boar, and its heart seized. It crumpled to the ground mid-stride, bowling its Headless Rider into a stalagmite.

A wet, squelching noise drew Chloe's gaze to the impaled heads. All of them stared directly at her, their glazed eyes radiating malice.

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"Freak," one rasped at her. The others joined in.

"You're sick and twisted."

"Everyone is scared of you."

"They'll never accept you."

"Everyone wishes you would die."

The words' impact was physical as well as emotional; they pulsed with intense psychic energy that slammed into her. As the wave submerged her, she sank to her knees and clutched her head with both hands.

Within the depths of Chloe's mind, countless neighborhood faces screamed venomous words at her, flooding her skull with pain. The pressure built up. Blood trickled from her nose.

Warm hands wrapped around Chloe's head. A green glow broke through the haze. The pressure eased, and she was able to open her eyes.

Finn was beside her, his healing magic fading from his palms.

Her father was desperately trying to fight through the monsters and reach the Head Collector. Her mother was going ape-shit beside him, mauling anything she could touch.

The screaming heads continued their abuse.

"You're ugly and fat."

"Everyone hates you."

Brad crouched beside Chloe; he was still rapping [Without Me by Eminem], except he changed 'me' to 'she'.

A buff lit up in Chloe's vision. [Job for Me] changed to [Job for She: XS.03 bonus to psychic resistance].

It wasn't very original, but Brad's intention changed the buff, and the added protection was no joke. The putrid heads kept shouting at her, but their voices were muted, and she was numbed to the waves of psychic energy.

Chloe struggled to stand. The toxic words pushed into her, trying to draw her attention again. She needed a barrier against the mental attack.

Class instinct kicked in. Chloe visualized her brain, and she searched for a way to keep it safe. Her home flashed into her mind. She was standing in her old bedroom; the last safe place she had known.

The room's walls were weak and made of straw. Her bedroom window framed the screaming heads floating outside in the dark. The heads levitated toward the glass, pulsing with magic. Their scabbed mouths formed more vitriolic words.

Chloe hunched and braced herself.

The bedroom window exploded. The straw walls shook and disintegrated. A blizzard of glass swirled around Chloe, leaving deep lacerations on her hands and face.

Even as she screamed, she frantically rebuilt the wall in her mind. She mentally reformed her broken window. She stood and faced the heads outside.

The heads screamed, and their psychic waves crashed against her newly built walls. This time they held.

Chloe opened her eyes; she had left her bedroom and was back in the fight.

[Congratulations! You have reached a deeper level of understanding with your class, and unlocked a one time class gifted ability: Mental Bastion. Caretaker System.]

The heads screamed their vile insults, but they were relegated to the background of Chloe's mind.

She stood. Crimson cuts streaked across the backs of her hands. She lifted both hands to her face; her fingertips found sticky warmth, and were red when she pulled her hands away.

Chloe was numb to her injuries. Though fortified, her brain was weary and mushy from the constant psychic barrage. Beneath the physical and psychological pain, a new emotion simmered in her core.

The Head Collector paced along the back of the room. It waved its spindly arms at different heads in-turn, like a grotesque conductor weaving its symphony of abuse. Icons from Hana's sickness spells glowed above its head, but the Collector seemed to shrug away any resultant damage and debuffs.

In a moment of rage, Chloe unleashed her [Epilepsy] attack and aimed directly at the Head Collector's mind. The force of her anger propelled the spell like a mental whip; it lashed into the monster, and it roared in pain.

Chloe felt herself being pulled into its mind, and she drove forward with all of her willpower. Her thoughts were angry and clouded as she replayed over and over again the horrific things the severed heads had yelled at her.

The creature tried to erect mental walls to push her out, but Chloe pushed harder. More memories spilled forth; the meals in high school she skipped because she hated her body; crying alone in her room; the hateful things cruel kids had hissed at her in the school halls and on the hillside.

Chloe screamed as she ripped through the Head Collector's mental walls as though they were paper. She drove the [Epilepsy] spell deep into its brain as if she were planting a flag. She felt it take hold of the monster's brain matter and nervous system. Her mental anger rampaged through its body.

Chloe dropped the mental connection.

The decapitated heads were silent and limp on their calcified spikes. Their eyes rolled back.

Their Headless master writhed and convulsed on the ground.

Chloe swayed. "Go for the heads while it's down!" She hoped someone heard her. She staggered, and struggled to stay conscious.

Target symbols appeared over the decapitated heads.

Chloe slumped to the ground.

In the dim light, she watched Amber launch into a stunning display of acrobatics, using a rock shelf as a launchpad for a flawless backflip. Her arms crossed her body in an X-shape as she flipped through the air. Her razor-sharp Daggers gleamed.

Amber soared over two decapitated heads; her arms snapped out and delivered swift stabs to each temple. They let out soft gasps and slid from their perches, smearing gore on their way down. One had a relieved smile on her face.

The last Headless creature fell under the group's relentless attack. Amber took out the remaining spiked heads.

A painful splinter spiked through Chloe's brain. Her vision darkened at the edges.

Just before she lost consciousness, her mother charged toward the twitching Head Collector and savaged it with a ferocity that left it screaming in agony.

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