The Bridge, a magical realm beyond the modern realm of Arcon, was a world filled with countless mysteries, monsters and miracles. To the people of Arcon, The Bridge was their greatest mystery.
Arcon was the home of humanity, all with hopes and dreams of discovering more of the Bridge's miracles. Much had been discovered, but it was only the tip of the iceberg.
In Arcon, A single altar sat in the middle of an intricately engraved stone platform with unknown runes covering its surface. It had been there since humanity had started recording their history and was the only way they knew of to access the Bridge.
Thankfully with the help of ancient crossers from forgotten eras and the current crossers of today, useful information about the Bridge had been discovered.
The most useful piece of information was— well that the realm was a Bridge itself. If you walked to the sides of the realm, you could see giant pillars extending down into a layer of clouds that blanketed the entire world below, as far as the eye could see.
Not only that, but the Bridge was split into sections, all extremely dangerous and with a clear border where the environments, creatures and anomalies become completely different. As for how many sections there were, that was still one of the many— many mysterious still remaining.
The Bridge wasn't all that bad.
In each section of the Bridge there seemed to be a trial, after successfully completing one of the trials by reaching the fountain at its end and bathing in its waters, you would be granted a reward.
Humanity had grown and evolved around the Bridge; new resources had been discovered, rules and regulations had been created while many crossers had gained unbelievable powers.
It was truly the centerpoint for humanity.
***
Trudging along the tall green grass of the Beast Glades was an up and coming Crosser— or so he'd like to think, named Ryan Limton. In all directions was an expansive plain made of lively green grass with a few trees and large rocks sprinkled here and there.
The edge of the plains was nowhere in sight for the young Crosser, only grass and more grass.
There's a lot of grass here.
The Beast Glades wasn't a place for the weak or faint of heart, it was deadly for most people and dangerous for the rest.
Ryan was pretty weak for someone adventuring through the Beast Glades but he had something most others don't— barely any presence. If you were in the same room as him, most likely you wouldn't even know he was there.
Why? He had no clue. It has been like that since he was a child.
While it sucked for making any friends, it was a useful skill to have in the Beast Glades. With the vast amount of beasts prowling, looking for their next meal, his lack of presence helped him sneak by many predators who would have attacked him if he was anyone else.
When he first realized he had this skill, he made sure to make use of it, train it, and earn some money with it. He had honed it through pick pocketing, trespassing and even robbing stores right in front of their faces.
While this skill of his was useful, it wasn't perfect. He still got caught many times and needed to train for years for this skill to be well used and mastered.
His motives might not be for the greatest reasons but nonetheless, he had put effort into mastering this skill and it has been incredibly useful since.
It even helped him complete one of the most daunting tasks, completing a trial. Anyone who had accomplished this task would be someone of importance in the world, and he was now one of them.
While he had only completed the trial of the Beast Glades, the easiest section in the Bridge, he still earned one of its rewards, an Ember.
His Ember was perfectly suited for himself. It was a pretty simple ability, he could turn invisible. Some had theorized that Embers played into the user's personality and life, but like all the mysteries of the Bridge, they couldn't be sure.
To Ryan it didn't matter because his Ember helped him tremendously. Was he just lucky? Who knows.
He wasn't alone during his current expedition, by his side there was a small Scavenger Android, one of the more expensive models he had saved up for.
It was about 3ft tall, built semi-human like but with a wide, squarish body and head. This model did not have any legs because it was floating a foot off the ground using materials found in the third section, the Sea of Misery.
And let me tell you, this thing was a hefty investment. Anything from sections beyond the Beast Glades was an expense, let alone an android crafted from them.
This android had cost him years of money saved up but to Ryan it was worth it. This thing could help earn back the money spent much faster than him doing it himself. The little sucker was an all around handy helper to have for any Crosser, even those exploring beyond the Beast Glades.
It was equipped with many handy features, some more useful than the others. It could store an entire large backpack worth of items inside its chest cavity and it never got tired moving around because it was an android.
Its fingers were equipped like a swiss army knife; it had a lighter, a knife, a screwdriver, a can opener and around ten other tiny little features.
The thing that made it more expensive than the rest was its battery, which was able to be charged through sunlight— very time and money saving.
Ryan's favorite part of the android was its speech capabilities.
“Hey Botbot, what time is it?” Ryan asked the android— and yes, he named it Botbot.
It responded with a neutral robotic voice. “It is 4:36 pm.”
It was close to Sunset, a good time to head back, Ryan thought.
“Time to head back then. How far are we from the Lodestone?”
“We are roughly 5.1 kilometers away from the Lodestone.” It once again responded.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Not too far but not close either. With the pace he was going at to make sure he wasn't found by any beasts, it would still take him roughly an hour or two to get back.
He sighed and pressed on his chest, a badge materialized out of thin air in his palm. It was mainly black, circular in shape and in the center there was an emblem resembling that of a closed eye. Sprouting out from the eyes' exterior were dozens of vein-like tendrils that completely surrounded the eye and curled over the edge of the badge.
The badge hovered in his hand, not encumbered by the force of gravity. With a simple thought, the badge rotated towards a different direction, now pointing at the Lodestones location.
Ryan grabbed the badge and pressed it against his chest making it disappear just as quickly as it had appeared.
Now with the directions to the Lodestone, he began to head off towards it, remembering to take his time so that at all costs, he didn't notify the beasts of his presence.
He used the tall grass that was up to his knees, which also covered a quarter of the Scavenger android’s body, as his main source of cover for sneaking. He kept low with only his head above the grass to scan his surroundings.
It was slow but for the most part, it was safe. Most beasts mainly found their prey through sudden movement and smell. The former was simple to bypass but the latter was a little more expensive.
The only way was to either risk it— he wasn't ever doing that, or to purchase a special scent concoction through the city. You would spray the concoction over your body and were pretty much good for your entire expedition as long as you didnt wash it off.
He just didn't want to know what ingredients were used to make it but… he could still faintly smell urine.
‘Let's not think about that.’ Ryan concentrated and continued his crawling along the grassy floor.
It was then that a sudden noise interrupted his senses.
BOOOOM!
It was the sound of an explosion, and by the sound of it, not too far away from where he was currently. That was the beginning of a chorus of noise that followed afterwards; shouting, weapons clashing, more explosions and the roars of beasts.
Anyone's first thought would be, What the hells going on? And that's exactly what Ryan thought.
He poked his head up a little further to try and look past the grass and spot where all the action was happening but a small hill in the direction of the noise blocked his view.
This situation intrigued him. It seemed like a clash between fellow humans but a battle at this scale happening inside the Beast Glades, the only section that was still able to be governed by Arcon, must be between powerful groups.
Was it some large mafia family, Crosser factions, or maybe the city itself?
He wanted to know, there were only a few groups capable of breaking the established rules of the sections without getting penalized too harshly by Arcon’s government.
Something important must be happening because while these groups could get away without much penalty, there still were consequences to unwarranted fighting between groups. Depending on how serious and how large the scale of the battle was, the worse the punishment would be.
Against his better judgment— something he never really followed much, he told his android to stay put and creeped closer to the hill, hoping to get a better view of the battle.
As he got closer, the sounds got louder and it seemed as if an all out war was happening. At the edge of his vision he glimpsed upon debris or fire flying about just beyond the hill.
‘Almost there!’ He couldn't hide a smile as he was only a few feet away from peering over the hill.
But before he could reach his goal, something small but rock solid, smacked right into his forehead knocking him back.
He rubbed his forehead where a red spot was and looked around wondering what had hit him.
That's when he spotted a shiny reflection hiding behind some grass just in front of him. He pushed the grass out of the way and there it was, a small golden ball just laying in the dirt.
It was pristine without a single dent or speck of dirt on its body and it gleamed in the early evening sunlight. Whatever this was, it was precious and Ryan knew it.
He didn't even need to think about his next move, he snatched up the golden ball ignoring the battle raging on behind him and ran back down the hill.
He slid on his knees down the sleek grassy hill, landing right next to Botbot.
Whatever this ball was, he knew it was worth some money. Even if it wasn't an artifact of some kind and just a straight up ball made of gold, it'd still be worth a decent amount of cash.
He opened Botbot’s chest cavity where an arrangement of items was stored, and carefully wrapped the ball inside his spare clothes.
“Let's go Botbot.” He motioned for Botbot to follow him as he slowly made his way to the Lodestone, still cautious even though the noise behind him should draw any attention away from him.
‘No rush.’ He thought to himself.
It was then that everything stopped mattering. Fights between powerful factions? Whatever. A golden ball probably worth lots of money? Don’t care.
There was only one reason this could happen, and that would be the anomaly of the first section.
The grass began to jitter and a gentle vibration crawled up Ryan's legs.
‘Oh fuck not now’ Ryan swore to himself.
This was the worst case scenario for anyone venturing through the Beast Glades.
This anomaly was called a Beast Tide and it occurs roughly every two years. This time it had only been 6 months since the last Beast Tide, rather unfortunate but it had happened plenty of times throughout history.
The once luxurious green grass had darkened, taking on a deep shade of red reminiscent of blood. Even the yellow rays of the sun that beamed down onto the Glade, seemed tinged with a reddish hue.
“Shit we gotta run, Botbot keep up!” No longer needing to be discreet, he yelled at Botbot and took off sprinting towards the only safe place he could think of, The Trial Fountain.
Each section was theorized to have a trial. Sections 1-5 have had their trials located and completed. Humanity had only reached up to section 6 but its trial had yet to be located.
The Trial Fountain was at the end of each trial and once you reach it, you know you've completed the trial. The area surrounding the fountain was an area of safety, no beast, no anomaly, no nothing from the bridge could harm you there.
Thankfully the trial of the Beast Glades was extremely simple and easy compared to the rest of the sections trials. All you had to do was get to the Trial fountain without dying.
There were no puzzles, nor traps to stop them— it simply sat in the middle of the Glades waiting for people to arrive. Still for most this was an impossible task with the sheer quantity of deadly beasts roaming throughout the Glade.
But Ryan had successfully done it before, and now with his Ember it was all the more easier.
It was also close to his current location, only around a kilometer away. He wished he was closer to the Lodestone so he could teleport back home, but he would rather not take the risk in case anything happened.
Getting to safety as fast as possible was his current goal.
He activated his Ember and his body, including his clothes and anything he was wearing, began to fade and then became invisible. A perfect Ember for himself he surmised when he acquired it for the first time.
He then ran and ran and ran— not stopping or looking back.
Botbot could track Ryan through a little tracker he had on his person, and vice versa— it was a means to make sure Botbot would never get lost. Unfortunately while Botbot could track Ryan, it wasn't capable of keeping up with his speed.
It glided along the edges of the grass trying its best to catch up to its owner only to slowly begin to lose sight of him. It turned off some of its parts to use any of the spare energy left over to speed up, if only a little, but it didn't help.
There were beasts all around rampaging about but they weren't able to detect Ryan.
Ryan who was up ahead could see the Fountain in sight. A smile crossed his face, he would make it to safety any second but when he peered behind him to see where Botbot was, his smile disappeared. Botbot was still a ways back.
Botbot had all his findings from his current expedition into the Glades; should he lose it, he'd have to continue being out here if he wanted to earn any decent money.
“Shit! Fuck!.. Shit!” Ryan stopped in his tracks, quickly pivoted 180 and ran back to Botbot. He scooped the thing up and then continued his sprint back to the Fountain, only a few seconds delayed.
“I'm almost there. I'm almost there. I'm almost there.” He repeated to himself as he ran, his breathing becoming less stable by the second.
He didn't notice because of his predicament, but his Ember’s invisibility wrapped around Botbot but stopped around halfway across its body, leaving the other half still visible.
Now he was back to only being a few meters away from the fountain and couldn't help but smile once again. He made it, it was right there, he'd be safe and could think over his next plan in peace— he could even wait out the Beast Tide there.
Thump! Crack!
Ryan felt like he got slammed into by a car as his body was flung away like a broken puppet, the sounds of bones cracking and snapping vividly echoed out.
Botbot who was in his arms flew out of his arms and into the Trial Fountain— he wasn't so lucky.
His vision slowed down as he watched himself skid only a few feet away from the engraved stone platform that represented the boundaries of the Trial Fountain.
Trying to stand up, a jolt of pain coursed through his body. His legs didn't work— or wouldn't work because when he looked down, his legs were sticking in every direction but the one they were supposed to be pointing in.
“AHHHH!” He screamed a blood curdling yelp of pain and desperation. His mind could no longer function, only pain filled his consciousness.
As quick as the scream came, it disappeared because Ryan’s head was no longer attached to his body but now inside the body of a giant gray lion beast.
The beast gulped up the rest of his body in the matter of a seconds, leaving only a small pool of blood on the already blood red grass.
The beast, still hungry, ran off somewhere searching for more food.
What the beast didn't see was the water of the Trial Fountain beginning to churn and bubble as something miraculous was happening.