The Bridge (Part 2)

Kaladrian began to speed up and in a moment the whole group was moving forward at a light jog. Shouts resolved into words as the group drew close.

“Quit wasting your mana we’ve got to-!” one man shouted.

An answering shriek cut him off, “I’m killing them aren’t I? Shut up and get back in there!”

The argument continued back and forth, and through it Idris could hear one voice he recognized. Conrad was halfway across the bridge, stabbing incessantly past the big shoulders and wide shield of Karno.

“PUSH!” he shouted, over and over. The men and women around him seemed to be trying to listen but rather than shoving forward, the whole mass of them pushing back the hoard of insect monsters, the ones in back were looking only for holes to shove their own weapons through.

After a few more seconds the press of insects became too great and the whole group was pushed back onto the Irondale side of the bridge. The bug men came spilling forward but as they reached the foot of the bridge the whole press of them slammed into the wall of the node. They scraped, scabbled and bashed against it but couldn’t move forward. A few adventurers with longer weapons stepped up and began thrusting through the barrier at the exposed creatures, killing them easily.

But most of them hung back. The longer it went on the more insistent the calls from the other adventurers became, telling the front runners to pull back.

And then the wall blinked out of existence. The growing press of insects flowed forward all at once, engulfing one man with a long two handed sword.

The energy wall blinked back into existence, cutting into pieces many of the creatures stuck halfway on each side.

The adventurers rushed forward then and the few dozen monsters that had gotten through were taken down once all of the congregated adventurers had space to move and fight. When it was over the man with the two handed sword stood up from out of the piled dead. He looked shaken, but as he brushed insect parts and goo off he got a couple playful slaps on the back and looked ready to try it again.

“They almost got across but there’s so many,” Idris said, “With all the people we’ve brought I think we can do it.”

Kaladrian just shook his head as he took in the scene. The adventurers were forming once again into a group and the tension Conrad must have been feeling was leaking through his orders as he tried to get the gathered adventurers to work together.

The townspeople moved forward but stopped short of joining the group, instead finding busy work tossing insect bodies into the river or bandaging the wounded.

“It won’t work,” Kaladrian said, voice tired, resigned.

“What do you mean?” Eana asked.

“Adventurers,” Kaladrian said, almost spitting the word, “Don’t know how to fight as an army. They’re strong on their own, even good in their bands, but try to bring them all together in a unified force and they go to pieces. Look at them. Conrad is trying to get them to move as a shield wall, to push across the bridge and create space where they can do their best fighting but the only ones moving as a unit are the Seekers.”

He was right. Adventurers with ranged skills or magic hung back, slinging projectiles into the masses of the bug men that no doubt brought down some of the weaker ones among them but did nothing to push the line forward. Every enemy they killed was replaced instantly.

The Seekers pressed forward with a couple of spear-wielding adventurers helping on their flanks, but as they got closer to the other end of the bridge the Hive creatures began to climb along the sides of the bridge and attack from the flanks. As the adventurers turned their attention to the attacks from the side, the support they offered to Conrad and especially to Karno with his huge tower shield was diminished.

In another minute of fighting they were pushed back to the wall of the node again where the scene from before played out exactly as it had the first time. The man with the two handed sword, having learned his lesson, held back with the main force.

“Conrad!” Kaladrian called, striding forward. Not knowing what else to do, Idris, Eana, and Graham all followed.

Conrad looked back from where he was organizing another push. Exhaustion was clear in his sweat covered face.

“Give it a rest,” Conrad said to the Seekers, who had all gathered in close. The rest of the gathered adventurers looked confused. Unsure what to do, they joined the townspeople in the busy work of clearing out the battlefield and handling the occasional insect breaches through the node.

“Glad you could make it,” Conrad said, looking them over, “Reinforcements were a good idea. Not sure how much good it’ll do us though.”

The words sounded like Conrad, but it was a caricature of the man. Gone was the customary confidence, the carefully cultivated attitude of nonchalance and mastery. Even to Idris it was evident that his mentor was putting on a facade for the sake of morale. And it was beginning to crack.

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“Maybe if we’re lucky they’ll earn a little XP and invest in skills that make them at least a step or two above useless,” Kaladrian said. He reached out, hand and symbols on his armor glowing gently, “Don’t lose heart. There is still hope.”

Instantly light returned to Conrad’s eyes. He glanced down at the hand on his shoulder, took in the glow from Kaladrian and said, “It’s a spell. I feel…” He laughed out loud, “I feel like this whole night hasn’t happened. Do it for the others too. What is it?”

Kaladrian nodded and moved among each of the other Seekers and, like a priest, laid his glowing hands upon each of them.

“Just a simple spell for mood. Hardly counts as a buff but in times like this everything helps,” Kaladrian said, and continued, “I have an idea, and I believe I’ve brought the key to our escape from this nightmare.”

He gestured to Eana.

Conrad stared at her for a few quiet moments. He looked around at the node, the gathered people, and the bridge and before Kaladrian could say anything more Conrad said, “No. It’s too dangerous. I don’t know how she’s keeping it in check but it’s plain she is or you wouldn’t have made it here - they’re everywhere in the node, and the only thing keeping them from swarming up behind us is there’s still killing left to do in town.”

“I’ve brought you an idea and the means to make it work. What other alternative is there?” Kaladrian said, voice even, “Would you like to spend more time pushing across the bridge, slowly grinding down what force we have left?”

“What are you talking about?” Eana asked.

Graham put a hand on her shoulder, “I’ve got the same question.”

Conrad, seeing Kaladrian was waiting for him to explain what he thought the plan was, went ahead and started talking.

“When Eana uses magic, it does things. And we’ve all been working on the theory that one of the things it does is damage the node,” Conrad said.

Jibs cut in, “It’s true then? Everybody was right and there’s something wrong with the girl?”

Kaladrian turned to the man, eyes cold, “Wrong is a matter of perspective.”

“But she is, actually, the reason the node is breaking down?” Troy asked, unbothered by Kaladrian.

Kaladrian looked to Eana. “I know that casting spells makes the drones… crazy,” she said.

“That’s the least of it, seems like,” Karno said, eyeing the sky.

“Whatever the case may be,” Kaladrian said, “I believe Eana is our way out.”

“Right, I was getting to that,” Conrad said, “We can’t make any headway on the bridge because the further we get, the more bugs they have to attack us. Not to mention getting this lot to fight together is like herding cats. The only time we’re able to put a dent in them is when the node breaks down and they come flooding through.

“We’re better than they are, any one of our guys is worth a couple dozen drones, and a few of us together can take down the Soldiers and the Eaters - the ones with the mouths like… well you’ve seen them. The point is, if we have space we can fight them with our full strength. We can win. But we can’t make space and no matter how much killing we do the Hive is able to replenish their numbers too quickly.

“If we can kill enough of them quickly enough on ground that we can work on, open ground where we have the advantage, then we can push across and out of the range of influence the Hive has before it can send more to shore up the hole.”

“So how do we do that? Big spells or something?” Idris asked.

“No,” Conrad said, “For one, magic is expensive and nobody here has an area of effect attack strong enough to do what we need done. All of our ranged attacks combined can’t seem to make a large enough dent in them.”

“And the node is keeping them from flooding across onto ground where you can fight them,” Graham said, “And no fishermen in Irondale, so the bridge is the only place we can cross.”

“That’s right,” Conrad said.

The whole group was silent a moment and Idris began putting the puzzle together. The node, which was keeping them from being overwhelmed, was actually giving the Hive time to build and rebuild its forces. Ironically, the best chance they all had of winning the fight wasn’t to play it safe and use their natural defenses to overcome the much greater numbers their enemies had. That was the plan at the Inn, which Kaladrian had referred to as “losing slowly.”

Since whittling down the numbers of the Hive monsters was impossible - it would just generate more and more replacement creatures, and so far it didn’t seem to have any sort of limit to the number it could command - their only option was to kill enough of them at once that they could clear a hole to escape through.

But they couldn’t do that because of the bridge and the node. All of their advantages were working against them in the kind of fight they needed to have in order to escape. So what was Idris missing?

Kaladrian had said he brought the key to their escape. He was talking about Eana, but how could…

“Oh,” Idris said, “Not a good idea.”

“I don’t like it either,” Conrad said.

“Do you think it will work?” Eana asked.

“It’s the best chance we’ve got,” Kaladrian said.

Graham shrugged his shoulders and put up his hands, “Mind spelling it out for me?”

Eana cleared her throat and crossed her arms, voice raised to cut across anybody who might try to speak over her, “If I use my magic, I might be able to damage the node some more. If it gets bad enough, the hive will spill across the bridge onto open ground. Then the adventurers can have their battle in the open and we can all get out,” she said.

“That could work,” Troy said, “A lot of us have skills that we can’t use in tight quarters. Friendly fire. But out here we could kill enough of them to clear the bridge long enough for us to get out of here.”

“But you can’t control it,” Conrad said to Eana, “Can you?”

Eana shook her head, “I can hide from them, but I’m almost out of mana as it is.”

“Then there’s no time,” Kaladrian said, “Give the wounded a better chance, let her heal them, and let the rest of us take our chances with the Hive.”

“One problem,” Idris said, “I trust me to be OK around Eana when she’s using her magic, but everybody else?”

Eana nodded, “You idiots will lose your minds.”

“Hey!” Graham said.

Conrad laughed, “Isn’t that the truth. Kal? What about it?”

“I’ve experienced it once. I think I should be able to manage myself. And with my magic, I think I can keep the rest of our people, at least the ones closest to us, in check.”

“Something like you did for us a minute ago?” Troy asked.

“Something like that,” Kaladrian replied, “Pass the word then, get everyone as ready as we can be. Eana, conserve your mana but don’t use any other spells for now. I’ll assist Conrad in getting everybody ready.”