A tank stepped out from the gathering of Climbers and stood in their way as they walked down the stairs. He was an altei, and his back was so straight it almost bent backwards.

Nar disliked him on sight.

“Finally moving your ass?” he asked Row. “We’re getting shredded down here!”

Row shook her head. “I told you to stay put. We weren’t ready.”

“And now you are? What changed?” he asked, and glanced at Kur’s party. “Another caster? We have plenty of those!”

“Not her, him,” Row said, and pointed at Tuk.

Tuk waved at him.

The tank caught sight of the rings on Tuk’s fingers and sneered.

“A ring tosser? Are you crazy?”

Tuk grinned and spun one ring, filling it with [Aura].

Nar almost laughed as the tank’s face fell at the sight. He actually even took a step back, slipping on the steps.

“M-Magic!” he stammered, raising a hand to his face, as though Tuk’s ring was dangerous.

Which, Nar supposed, it actually was. After all, it had almost punched a hole through his face. Twice.

“Nope, sorry man. It’s [Aura]. But it’ll do.”

The shock on the guy’s face switched to confusion.

“You can imbue [Aura] into your weapon?” he asked.

Oh! Another manager brat, Nar thought, idly.

Considering the part Nar was about to play on this mad endeavor, he should’ve been nervous. Maybe even worried. Instead, he found that he didn’t really feel much. Perhaps that would all change once he found himself on that bridge, standing at the frontline of it all.

“I can indeed,” Tuk said, grinning.

Row stepped towards the tank and forced the still reeling altei to step back and out of the way.

“We’re taking the front, Sil,” she told him. “And I advise you to stay right behind us, if you want to make it through.”

Sil stammered something, but they walked past him without even a glance. From behind, Nar heard him swear and call out to his party.

As Row had said, no one wanted to go first. They made it to the front by simply asking people to let them through, and they were more than happy to oblige.

Sil’s party followed right behind them too however, and that’s where the commotion started. The Climbers could feel that there was a plan. That things were about to be set in motion for real. Everyone wanted to join in, and nobody wanted to be last, and risk being left behind.

But, just like Row had said, that wasn’t none of their concern.

“Everyone knows the plan, right?” Kur asked. “Last chance for questions.”

He stared from Gad to Tun, Tuk, Cen, Nar and a human woman with short, dull gray cropped hair. The plan hinged on the six of them the most.

“We’re ready,” Gad said. “We have no choice, and we’ll get it done.”

Nar nodded.

“Alright,” Kur said. He looked at Cen. “Ready?”

“Yes,” Cen said, nodding grimly.

The human woman next to Kur had introduced herself as Cor, Row’s caster. And as Kur lifted Cen up to his shoulders, she stared in open jealousy.

“I wish I had someone to carry me. I’m so useless in these kinds of fights, having to stay still to channel my [Aura Projectile]s”, she said.

“It’s okay, we need both charged and quick shots,” Cen said, smiling down at her from Kur’s shoulders.

“We do,” Kur said, eyeing the bridge. “Okay. We’re all ready. Let’s just get this over with.”

Row turned back and shouted at the anxious Climbers, who were even now, still jostling and arguing to get better spots.

“Climbers! We’re going! We’ll be hit and we’ll fight back! This is it! We’re pushing through! Do your best to survive and keep killing those things! And may the Crystal be with us!”

She got a few cheers and shouts, but mostly, the Climbers just bickered harder.

“That was a weak showing,” Jaz said, shaking his head.

“Shut it! Or you’ll get to see what’s down there. Kur?”

Kur nodded.

“Into positions!”

Gad and Tun stepped forward, and Nar right after them.

Now that he stood at the edge of the bridge, the run looked impossibly long, and his previously nonchalance was shattered by his quickly rising heartbeat.

Nar exhaled slowly, trying to keep it under control.

“You alright there?” Tuk asked him.

Nar glanced back at the ring tosser, who stood just two steps behind him.

“Just like always,” Tuk said, grinning. “A fight to the death with impossible odds. You’ve got to be used to them by now!”

Nar snorted.

“Of course, Tuk. Of course.”

“That’s my boy. I leave my life in your capable hands.”

Nar took a deep breath, and gave his sword a few trial swings.

Don’t overthink it. It’s just the same thing you’ve been doing so far, he told himself, swallowing hard.

“Cen, start charging,” Kur said. “Cor, as mentioned, hold off until I say so.”

“Got it,” Cor said with a nod, gripping her staff tightly in front of her.

Nar had sort of expected that staffs actually changed size, according to whoever held them, but, as it turned out, they did not. They were the exact same in every aspect, and the staff that was almost as tall as Cen, was just short when compared to Cor’s human height.

The light of an [Aura Projectile] charging drew his attention, and that of the other Climbers. Silence spread backwards into the gathered Climbers, and people resigned themselves to whatever spots they had managed to secure.

Nar took a deep breath. In seconds, he would be in the chaos.

Kur swept everything and everyone with one last look, then nodded to himself.

“Go! Everyone go!”

Kur’s voice echoed in the whispering silence, and Gad and Tun charged forward. Nar sprinted right after them, and he heard Tuk following closely behind.

After him came Viy and the quam with the four short swords, and after them came the two parties’ melee and ranged, surrounding Cor, Row, Jul and Kur, who carried Cen on his shoulders.

Behind them, Sil’s party covered their backs, and beyond, all the other Climbers followed them into battle. There were nearly two hundred of them in total, packed tight into the bridge, trying not to fall off of it.

“They’re coming!” Jul warned.

Gad and Tun kept going, leading the rest of them forward.

Nar’s pulse thundered in his ears.

The small gap in between Gad and Tun stretched on for what seemed like forever. Sil had tried to fill that gap, not knowing all the details of the plan, but Kur had shot him down. That gap was Nar’s, and his alone.

The sound of four hundred feet muffled everything as he ran. The air was hot, burning, as it went down in fast gulps. His eyes ached and scratched, dried of all moisture. He was glad to be at the front. The bridge would soon be slippery with all of their sweat and blood and guardian goo.

“Here they come!” Tun shouted.

The guardians rolled towards them, a tide of black charging against the light gray of the Climbers’ gear.

“Tuk, whenever you want!” Kur shouted from behind.

Tuk spun his ring of gray, hazy light, and waited for the guardians to come into range. Even if his [Aura] made the ring reach them, the farther it went, the harder it was to be accurate and keep the ring under control.

The guardians, for their part, kept rolling towards them, intending on overwhelming them with their momentum. Their plan remained the same, and they didn’t seem to care about the changed formation.

Come to think of it, they are machines. I wonder how they work?

That stray thought was gone before he could even chastise himself for its inopportune timing, and just then, Tuk’s ring flew above his shoulder.

The spinning light devoured the distance between them and the guardians. The ring cut through them as though they weren’t made of metal. Nar couldn’t see how many had gone down, but the guardian's charge broke, with only a few of them still rolling towards them.

Here we go, Nar though glancing up at the ceiling.

On cue, guardians began pouring out immediately, crawling upside down onto the ceiling.

“Ranged! Bring them down!” Row shouted, not waiting for them to get into position to rain death upon the bridge.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Guardians continued to pour out of the lights in the ceiling, and to their credit, the ranged DPS assaulted them as they came out, not giving them time to do anything.

Unfortunately, soon there were guardians coming out of the ceiling ahead of them, where they weren’t yet covered.

However, their party leader had accounted for that.

“Cen, do it!” Kur shouted.

The [Aura Projectile] shone over Nar’s head and exploded in a large haze of light smoke and aura. Six guardians were caught in the gray blast, and they tumbled silently into the darkness.

But more were coming out.

“Cor, Jaz, Lim!” Kur shouted. “Your turn!”

Cor fired her [Aura Projectile]s in quick bursts, with Jaz’s arrows whistling through the air in between her attacks. Lim, another human, who was Row’s second archer, shot in tandem with Jaz, with quick draw and release motions. The arrows appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and Nar gathered that the archers must be pulling them out straight from their inventories.

However, despite the trio’s best efforts, the ceiling ahead of them darkened, and not even Cen’s charged [Aura Projectile]s seemed to do much. The holes she blasted onto the mass of guardians were quickly filled again. They were endless.

Nar looked up at the confusion of limbs above him, as he sensed the first warnings from his [Instinct].

Here we go!

“Stay close!” he shouted to Tuk. “Or I won’t be able to cover you!”

The poisoners shot first. Gad and Tun looked out for themselves as best as they could, hiding behind their shields and potentially praying that their extremities were safe. Nar’s job was just to protect Tuk, who was critical to their success. Well, that was half of it at least.

He deflected the bolts aimed at him and Tuk with a precision and calm that surprised even him. His [Instinct] covered him, and since they were so close, it sort of covered Tuk as well. Though, he needed his [Sight] and [Hearing] raised to the max to catch the bolts that were not directly aimed at him.

Tuk, from the relative safety that Nar provided him, kept his ring flying, making sure that nothing got too close to the tanks. That allowed them to focus on just charging forward, taking bolts and the brunt of the explosive rounds aimed at the front of the column. And from the safety of the center of the two parties, the ranged DPS did their best to ensure they weren’t overwhelmed, though it was a losing battle.

After what felt like only seconds, a klaxon blared, deafening Nar. He had not been expecting it, and for a split-second he panicked, losing track of the [Hearing] input being fed into him and his [Reflex].

“What was that?” Tuk asked, as Nar tripped and stumbled around him to keep him alive from the flurry of bolts he had nearly let through in the fright.

Guardians exploded onto the ceiling, and in the distance, the tube from where the normal guardians came out of, turned into a tap of black.

“They’re coming up from the sides too,” Kur shouted, no doubt warned by Jul. “They’re climbing up from the sides!”

“It was going too easy!” Tuk shouted to Nar.

But Nar couldn’t reply. The sheer amount of bolts thrown his way was maddening. The guardians must have identified correctly, that their whole strategy hinged on Tuk, and that he was the one making sure that the guardians coming from the other side of the bridge never reached them. Due to this, their surround and smother in numbers strategy was failing. And so, it felt as though more and more guardians were turning their sights at Tuk.

Nar spun. He slashed. He reached. He pulled. He hit. Powered by his attributes, he was a never stopping blur. He was a whirlwind, stopping the hundreds of bolts flying at Tuk.

The few glimpses he caught of the fight was of Tuk throwing his ring so fast, back and forth, that it looked like two rings instead of one.

For a moment, it looked as though they would hold. As though it would work.

Then, the adjutants poured in from the sides. The little guardians climbed up and ambushed them.

Nar heard Kur and Row shouting orders, but he couldn’t make them.

This was where the second half of his already impossible work began. He had to cover himself, Tuk and the two tanks’ backs from the little guardians.

His world was a cacophony of [Instinct], [Sight] and [Hearing], that threatened to drown him.

He pulled more of his attributes, not knowing if there was more to pull from. But he needed it. More [Speed], more [Agility] and [Reflex] and everything else. Still, he was not enough. He couldn’t keep himself, Gad and Tun’s backs, and Tuk, safe from that relentless assault.

Lines of fire scored his body, as the fight went past the threshold of his capabilities. The little blades didn’t look dangerous, but they were razor sharp. And a single one of those adjutants was enough to end him, or any of the others, if it managed a hit on a critical spot.

Damn… There’s too many! he thought, as panic welled within him. He couldn’t keep them safe anymore.

Just as things seemed lost, a spear burst into his field of vision.

The weapon was blur, thrusting back and forth, slashing and smashing through the crowd of adjutants that surrounded Nar and Tuk.

“Move!” she shouted. “We need to help them!”

Nar glanced at the two tanks. They were being beset by the enemy. The gap in between the two of them was supposed to have been left for Nar, so that he could help them, in case some of the guardians coming from the other side ever reached the tanks.

However, they had clearly underestimated the numbers that the Crystal and the System were about to throw at them, and he had his hands full just on those bolts and adjutants coming up the sides of the bridge. He briefly had a moment to consider himself lucky that no explosive rounds had made his way yet. The ranged must be doing a great job, hunting them out of the mass above him.

He spun and cleared the way for her to come through. She dashed past him like an illusion in a world of bolts and gleaming blades. All he could do was keep her back safe as well, while she helped the two tanks keep going.

Tuk’s ring kept flashing in and out of Nar’s peripheral vision. It was moving at an unimaginable speed, though more than once, when Tuk flung the ring back out, Nar felt tiny splatters land on him, across his face and the back of his neck.

But he didn’t have time to think about it. Even in that madness he was in, he could feel that they were slowing down. He couldn’t even spare the attention to look at his HP or stamina, but he knew he couldn’t maintain that level of tanking forever. Perhaps, not even for much longer.

An [Aura Projectile] flew above his head, mere inches from him, and he saw it exploding against the guardians on the bridge. Suddenly, they were on the move again.

Tuk kept shooting and more [Aura Projectile]s followed the first. He couldn’t tell whether they were Cen’s or Cor’s anymore, but the result was undeniable. It was also undeniably dangerous. In their desperation to not get stuck on that bridge, they were risking those projectiles exploding on the two tanks and Viy’s faces.

Plus, with the two of them redirecting their focus, it meant that more bolts and explosive rounds flew at them from the front.

Predictably, Viy was forced to fall back behind Gad by the violence of the explosions, and Nar feared for their tank. How many had she taken? How many more could and would she take before this was all over?

But there was nothing they could do but keep going.

Not even praying would do them any good. They were in this mess because the Crystal willed it so. And with every drop of sweet, stamina, blood and pain, they paid back for their sins.

Nar grit his teeth against the dark clouds threatening to form in his mind. It didn’t seem fair. It felt so beyond anything he felt justifiable, and bit by bit, he lost the battle in his mind.

His sword slashed and cut and crushed. A viciousness took over his movements, leant an edge and speed that was beyond what his attributes could give him

They advanced and advanced. And they advanced some more. Slowly, the thousands of feet became hundreds, and the hundreds became a hundred. And then the chasm was gone.

No more bolts fell on Nar, and no more little guardians attacked him. In front of him, there were only the normal guardians left.

Crazy, how months back, a single one of them had almost meant the end of their entire party. Now, Nar left Tuk behind and waded into them as if they were nothing. Nothings that still hit and cut at him, melting his HP… But his sword! Crystal, his sword!

The weapon burst them apart like old, crumbly aetherium. He cut, slashed and swung his sword without a single hint of swordsmanship in his movements. But it didn’t matter.

The Crystal wanted him to pay for his sins, and he was paying for them. Guardian after guardian. Point of HP after point of HP.

He eradicated anything that came in sight, and the others climbed up the stairs in the wake of his rage.

Sometime later, he heard a voice calling out to him.

“Nar! Nar!”

The voice came from far away and it sounded as though it had been calling him for a good while now.

“Nar! Get back!”

Kur’s order finally breached through the haze that had overtaken his mind, and he saw that he had gone too far into the guardians. The line of Climbers was a good 30-feet behind him, and he could see Cen’s and Cor’s staffs shining to the point of blinding him. They were ready to erase the remaining guardians and end it, but Nar was in the way.

He quickly cut his way back to the line, dodging and pushing back guardians.

“Now!” Kur shouted, just as Nar reached the Climber line.

The two casters held nothing back. After those initial charged projectiles, they unleashed streams of the small, quicker ones, and along the line, more and more casters joined them, pouring their anger and desperation into massacring the last guardians blocking their path forward.

The battle was soon over. The one-sided aura offense obliterated the guardians crowding the near full-circle room that mirrored the one they had departed from. And eventually, new ones stopped coming down from the tube.

Nar stood, shaking, and breathing hard.

His lungs and throat were raw from the hot air, and his entire body was wet. His hand gripped the sword so strongly that it hurt, his arm spasming out of control.

“Crystal…” someone whispered next to him.

Nar turned his head and found Row’s quam staring at him. He looked at him with such an intensity that it was almost hostile, and for a moment, Nar’s pulse surged. Ready.

“Keep going!” Row shouted, breaking their staring. “We need to let the others come up. They’re still fighting at the back!”

“I’ll help!” Tuk volunteered.

“Only one ring, Tuk!” Kur shouted. “Don’t think I didn’t see it!”

Tuk grimaced but he nodded, and pushed backwards against the crowd to reach the stairs. Without hesitating, Nar chased after him, wanting to make sure that he was safe, and he noticed that Cor followed after him.

She and Tuk added their attacks to all the other ranged DPS still stuck on the bridge, and slowly, more and more of the ranged DPS that had managed to cross over joined them, shooting destruction from their higher position of advantage.

With the added cover, the Climbers continued to make it out of the bridge.

Not all of them made it, but most did. The unlucky ones were mostly those that brought up the rear. There, soldiers ravaged with almost impunity, and explosive rounds wrecked the poor Climbers.

“Crystal!” Tuk shouted, his eyes brimming with fury.

At his side, Nar clenched his jaw. The people at the back were being massacred. It was like the guardians had realized that the end was coming, and they wanted to make sure that they brought down as many Climbers as they still could.

Nar felt bile rise at the back of his throat.

It was disgusting!

It was enough!

How could They be so heartless!

What kind of atonement was this? In what kind of way were they supposed to show their faith and loyalty, when they were presented with such a sight?

Tuk screamed in powerless rage, and disobeying Kur, he pulled out a second ring.

Watching the two lights zip back and forth, Nar finally realized that Tuk had, at some point in the fight, started using a second ring. Nar almost told him to stop. He was risking injury and worse. However, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. Climbers were being killed with impunity right before their very eyes.

Word must have reached the Climbers that had made it to safety, and more and more ranged DPS kept showing up, swelling, unleashing their fury on the guardians still coating the ceiling, and on the ones chasing the Climbers from the back.

Between that, and the Climbers killing the adjutants by the score in their despair, it rained guardians.

Tuk screamed a strangled cry. He had shifted his aim at the last moment, elbowing Nar as he did so, throwing his second ring just as soon as it came back. But as Nar followed it to its target, he saw that it would be too late. The guardian shot its explosive round, and below it, a Climber was blasted on the face, and burst into flames.

She was dead before she even hit the floor of the bridge.

A morsvar screamed so loudly at the sight that even Nar heard him, all the way from where he stood, and across the chaos of the battlefield. The sound of it tore his heart into two.

At his side, Tuk screamed.

“Tuk!” Nar shouted.

It hadn’t been his fault. Nar wasn’t sure what had happened, but Tuk must have spotted another guardian about to shoot, and hadn’t made it in time.

At his other side, Cor, with tears streaking down her face, unleashed her [Aura Projectile]s with abandon.

Nar clenched his fists.

This was wrong. This was all so wrong.

It should’ve been their moment of victory. Of celebration! Instead, they were being slaughtered.

Eventually, the last of the Climbers made it off the bridge. She was crying and screaming, as two others dragged her forward. Her hand was stretched out onto the bridge, and she cried out something that must have been someone’s name. However, on that bridge, only the orange flames moved.

Nar covered his eyes from the sight.

At least thirty people had died in those last few minutes. Maybe more. It had been so cruel. So unnecessary.

What atonement was that? Death?

He felt Tuk silently shaking next to him.

“Come on, let’s go back,” he told him.

In the aftermath of the battle, with his frayed senses finally dialed back down to normal, everything sounded muted around him, even his own voice.

Tuk didn’t reply and Nar stored his sword, and passed a hand over his shoulders, guiding Tuk away from the grief and the burning and broken bodies that littered the end of that bridge.

He remembered Cor, and reached out a hand to her.

The weeping caster silently took his hand, gripping it tightly, and Nar guided the two of them back to their parties.

Around him, all he heard were the muffled sounds of crying, and of moans and screams from the wounded.

It all felt so distant in the stifling hot air they all shared, as Nar bumped and was jostled on his way back to their parties.

Inside of him, everything was silent.

Dead and spent.

And because he had let go of his enhanced senses, everything blurred around him, as though it wasn’t real.

Over there, a Climber had lost an arm. And there, one was bleeding from the hollows where his eyes had been. Someone cried and wailed over a corpse, while someone else laughed hysterically, tears streaking down their face.

Nar kept going, dragging the other two with him.

He should’ve cried, he thought, in the silence that had taken his mind.

But as he walked, and the more he saw, and the more he replayed those last minutes on the bridge, the more the silence was driven back. Inside him, a low scream grew and grew and grew, until it was all that he could hear.

Inside, he screamed and screamed.

He couldn’t stop.