The bridge room was a rectangular box fifty feet wide and a hundred feet long. The walls and ceiling were constructed from smooth, glassy tiles that resembled obsidian, fitted together so neatly that no cracks were visible. They formed a series of square panels which lit up with colour any time someone arrived at the entrance or the exit on the other side.
Standing in front of Josh was the lead huldra of the phalanx, and directly beyond him was a great, yawning pit, so deep it vanished into darkness. Josh couldn’t see it clearly because the tower shields the huldra carried blocked most of his view, which was probably just as well. The lead huldra—his name was Zogen—lowered his spear so that it was pointing towards the ground, and then looked over his shoulder at Josh, ready for instructions.
Josh had a sudden fierce wish that he hadn’t offered to help the huldra across the bridge. He wanted to call out that this was a mistake, and could he just turn back and let Katofen lead the vanguard out into thin air?
He had promised them. He had to do this.
He studied the closest ceiling panels, which were five feet long by five feet wide, the same size as the panels that made up the invisible bridge. Each panel displayed several sigils which indicated the height, type and collision of the bridge panel directly below it.
The type of the panel was important. Dura panels were fully solid, Tamis panels were only solid when in contact with material that wasn’t gas, dust or liquid, Contra panels would only interact with material that was gas, dust or liquid, and Aer panels didn’t interact with anything. Muta panels would switch between the other types of panels on a thirty second timer.
The collision types were also important, because that changed which side of the panel had the effect. Double-sided panels meant that, for example, a Dura panel would be solid whether you tapped it from the bottom or the top. One-sided meant Dura panel would only be solid from the top, but act as if it wasn’t there if touched from below. Flipped meant the panel was solid on the bottom but you would fall right through it if you stepped on it from above.
This made everything slightly more complicated, because flipped Dura and Tamis panels had to be treated as if they were Aer panels, which was to say not there at all.
To make things even worse, there were also the occasional vertical panels, indicated by a corresponding set of sigils on the left and right walls. These were usually one-way Dura panels, allowing enemies on the other side of the bridge to shoot arrows or spells, but partially blocking the line of fire from the entrance, where Josh now stood.
The room was twenty panels deep, but the route usually snaked back and forth, so they would need to cross double that distance, if not more. The pattern changed every hour, but that would leave plenty of time to cross. If it took longer than that they would probably be dead long before the hour was up.
In a few minutes this would all be over, one way or another.
In Spiralia Online there had been a player-built web calculator that had the bridge key fully worked out, and because there were a limited range of patterns used, it was easy for players to input a selection of key tiles, and this would generate the correct path through.
A month ago, when Josh had been planning to do the dungeon, he'd decided that a web-calculator took most of the fun out of the bridge puzzle. He’d looked up an old guide on how to do it manually, which was what everyone had been using before someone with coding skills had come along and built the web calculator. In the end the guild group Josh had run the dungeon with had only wanted to use the bridge calculator, because they'd had no interest in solving puzzles. However, all Josh’s preparation now meant that when he glanced up at the ceiling, he understood what he was looking at, and he could see that the first three panels on the left were Dura, and therefore safe to walk on.
“Left panel, three forward,” he said.
The rocky ledge they stood on was three panels wide. Zogan took his spear and poked the air directly beyond the ledge on the left side. It made a solid, satisfying tink sound as it met the Dura panel. The phalanz stepped smartly into a row, with Zogan at the head, Josh directly behind him, and the other huldra following. They adjusted their shields so that Josh was fully covered, and Zogan strode out confidently onto the bridge.
Josh wasn’t sure that he could have made himself do the same if he’d been in the lead, even after poking the bridge with a spear, and knowing that falling to the bottom of the pit probably wouldn’t kill him.
But did he know that?
It occurred to him that maybe there was a maximum amount of damage you could take that prevented you from resurrecting. Previously he’d comforted himself with the fact that if he did fall off the bridge, the drop would be long enough that he would have time to apply all his unapplied experience before he was instantly killed at the bottom. Then he would resurrect somewhere, and yes, that would be a huge hassle and the ruin of all his plans, but not the end of the world.
But what if there were some kinds of deaths that it wasn’t possible to resurrect from? Maybe that was why some players didn’t come back after they died. Maybe the fall would destroy the player core, which he assumed was an implant inside him that linked him to the system. If the core got smashed flat, then the system wouldn’t be able to bring him back.
The more Josh thought about it, the more likely the scenario seemed. The fall was high enough that he would be little more than a smear across the rocks at the bottom of the pit. How would the player core survive that intact?
It wasn’t bravery that made Josh step out onto the bridge. It was fear and embarrassment. The fear of looking like a coward, the embarrassment of declaring he could help and then not being able to follow through—these were the emotions he clung to in order to force himself to take that first step.
The bridge panel felt solid under his feet. It didn’t even feel slippery. The leather soles of his boots gripped it comfortably. He tried not to look down, but instead orientated himself using the panels on the walls and the ceiling.
The phalanx shuffled forward.
On the opposite side of the bridge, the Northcrag guards were just realising that this was an invasion attempt, and not a regular crossing. An arrow thunked into Zogan’s shield, but even as it did so, the second squad of huldra, who had stayed at the entrance, drew back their bows and released. There were vertical panels blocking the way precisely to prevent this sort of thing, so they had to aim in a curve. Since the panels only blocked one way, Northcrag guards suffered no such penalty, and were free to shoot at the huldra using whichever flight angle they thought most likely to hit.
Still, enough of the huldra arrows got through that the guards were forced to retreat out of range.
Zogan was looking questioningly over his shoulder at Josh again. They had reached the third panel, and now the direction changed.
“Turn left, six panels,” Josh said, double checking the sigils. He heard the tink tink tink as Zogan tested the way, and then they were moving left.
There was nothing below Josh’s feet but a yawning pit of darkness. Before he had even stepped onto the bridge he had resolved not to look down under any circumstances, but he couldn’t help but be aware that the wall, which he could see out of the corners of his eyes, plunged down and down and down. The pit he was struggling not to look at asserted a strange and terrible gravity on his mind, constantly tugging at him, as if it wanted him to flick his eyes at it, just for a single moment, but if he did that he would see his feet standing on nothing but thin air, and underneath them…
He wrenched his mind away from the drop and double checked the next set of symbols.
“Turn right, down half a panel.”
They descended two and a half feet down onto the next square, the huldra maintaining the shield wall. Thanks to the covering fire from the huldra at the entrance, only one or two arrows were coming their way, but already the shields had several shafts embedded in them, and they were still only at the beginning.
The next few panels took them down half a panel each time, until they were standing ten feet below the original level. The Northcrag guards, seeing that their arrow fire was ineffective, had retreated briefly, but that only meant they were planning some other method of attack.
Josh and his protective band of huldra needed to get as far across as possible while the opposition had temporarily died down. The next section required them to turn back on themselves, and then immediately rotate towards the right wall for six panels. However, those six panels were Muta, which switched between all the different panel types. Josh craned his neck and studied the ceiling panels for the changing sigils until it showed the first safe panel in the sequence, Dura. It would be Dura for thirty seconds, then Tamis for another thirty, which gave them one minute to get to the next set of panels before the floor disappeared.
Even though crossing six panels would only take seconds, the moment they stepped onto them Josh felt panicky and anxious. The safe panels were only a few strides away, and Zogan had nearly reached them when there was movement at the far end. Two had guards appeared at the exit, flanking a man who gestured with his hands, and made a pushing motion.
A mage.
“Down!” Zogan called, and they all dropped to the bridge.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
But these are the vanishing panels! Josh thought desperately. He was still counting in his head. It had only been five seconds. They had fifty-five seconds left. Even as he crouched, a powerful wind came howling towards them. If they had been standing they would have had to brace into it to stay upright. They were flat against the bridge panels, so although the wind at tore their hair and clothes, it passed harmlessly over their heads.
What it did achieve, however, was to scatter the hail of arrows fired by the huldra at the entrance, leaving the guards flanking the mage to shoot at Josh and the vanguard on the bridge.
The mage was using the Wind Surge spell. Josh recognised it from Spiralia Online. In the game it had never been considered particularly useful, because it took so long to cast, and drained so much energy from the caster. There were other crowd control options that were cheaper and faster, and therefore better.
Right now, however, Wind Surge seemed to be working just fine for the Northcrag side.
Josh ended up looking directly down without meaning to, and his stomach turned inside out. He could see the walls narrowing inwards towards the vanishing point, before the light grew too dim to see. It was a long way down. He realised he was hyperventilating, and tried to take deep, calm breaths. His lungs didn't want to listen.
Forty seconds left.
The moment the wind let up, Zogan sprinted onto the next section, which consisted of Dura panels. Josh tried to follow, but had to duck as something went flying overhead. It was a small clay pot. Whatever the Northcrag guards were aiming at, they missed, because it went sailing down into the void.
Thirty-five seconds.
Josh lunged for the Dura panel, but before he made it, another blast of wind hit them. Everyone flattened themselves again.
Twenty-five seconds.
Josh threw himself onto the panel next to Zogan. He was safe, but the five huldra behind him were still running along the section of Muta panels. Twenty seconds now, before their floor disappeared.
Another pot came sailing over. This one crashed on the panel in front of Zogan, a thick sticky black mixture splattering across the invisible surface. The acrid smell hit Josh’s nose. Tar. Two more of the huldra crowded onto the Dura platform with them, but then a third blast of wind came hurtling down.
By the time it let up, there were ten seconds left.
Zogan leaped up, and jumped across the tar-smeared panel to the one beyond, beckoning Josh urgently. He obeyed, stumbling on the other side, but Zogan caught him with one hand, the other holding the shield out behind him to protect them from arrows.
All but one huldra made it to the safe platform before the glyphs changed, and the Muta platforms switched from Tamis to Contra. Contra was the one that would only support gas, dust or liquids. The last huldra, not counting as any of these things, fell through. Josh shouted in alarm, but his two comrades were ready, and they caught him. They pulled him up beside them.
This left five huldra squeezed onto a panel that was only five feet wide.
One of them went to leap across the tarred panel to join Josh and Zogan, but as he did so a series of flaming arrows blazed all around them like falling stars. Most bounced off the hastily erected tower shields or missed entirely and fell away into the darkness, but one found the patch of tar, and the flames spread across it, slowly at first, then rising higher.
The guards must have been trying to block them from moving off the Muta panels, but their aim hadn't been good enough.
A second hail of arrows, normal ones this time, arrived from the Northcrag guards, and everyone hunkered down underneath the shields. Zogan and Josh had only one of the tower shields between them. He angled his own small round shield as best he could to make it overlap with Zogan’s and hoped the shots would miss.
What if Josh got hit by an arrow but didn’t die?
Now that the wind was gone, the huldra at the entrance took up firing again. Meanwhile, the huldra who were huddled five together on a single square laid one of their tower shields down over the flames so they could cross.
Josh looked ahead. They were still less than halfway.
“One square forward, turn left, then three squares,” he said.
There was a scream of pain from one of the Northcrag guards as a huldra arrow found its mark. The unfortunate guard was dragged away by his fellows, and the rest stayed well back back as the huldra at the entrance maintained a steady barrage.
Josh looked back, and saw the second huldra phalanx march onto the bridge. The last huldra in the vanguard had been signalling the path back to Katofen, who would now guide the second team across, followed closely by the remaining huldra forces.
If the Northcrag guards managed to kill them all now, it would wipe out an entire generation of adult huldra, nearly everyone in the village who was capable of bearing arms. They had only one chance at this.
“Turn left, half a square up,” Josh said. They repeated that motion three more times, until they had climbed back onto the same level as the exit. The Northcrag guards hadn’t re-appeared, but the next section included more Muta panels, and he was sure they would attempt something then.
“The next section alternates one safe square with one Muta square,” Josh told Zogan. “The next one is Muta, then it goes Tamis, Muta, Tamis, Muta. On the last Muta panel we turn right, and that’s a Dura. The only problem is, the Muta panels are staggered. So we need to go, then stop, then go again.”
Zogan seemed unfazed. He simply nodded.
“We will cross four at once, then three after.” He glanced over Josh’s shoulder at the huldra behind them, who acknowledged the order, then back at Josh again. “Tell me when we go.”
Josh was watching the sequence of glyphs on the ceiling.
“Go!” he said.
Zogan walked rapidly along, tapping with his spear as he did so, Josh and the others following behind. One of the other huldra called out something, in an urgent tone of voice. Josh looked at the exit and saw the mage was back.
Josh made for the Dura panel. He didn’t want a repeat of the last time. But even as he reached the last Muta panel, a powerful blow slammed into him. He felt himself start to tip, and knew he wouldn't be able to catch himself. He looked down with a terrible sense of inevitability, his arms windmilling frantically, but there was nothing to hold onto, and then he toppled over the edge.
He jerked to a stop, dangling upside-down in mid-air over the terrifying, dizzying heights of the pit. Zagon and one of the other huldra had managed to get a grip on his ankles. Josh flailed helplessly, while the black hole below him swayed back and forth.
His two saviours hauled him slowly back up, until he was lying across the platform, gasping for breath. His throat was sore and he realised he’d been yelling loudly.
They were still on the Muta square. How long had it been? Josh had lost count. At any moment now it could turn insubstantial beneath him and disappear. One of the huldra further behind shouted something, and Zogan looked around.
“Down!” he said.
His hand flattened Josh to the bridge panel as a strong burst of air went rippling overhead. The mage must deliberately be trying to pin them down on the Muta squares, knowing the sequence could change at any minute. He was repeatedly throwing a smaller variant of the wind spell at them, one that was quicker and easier to cast than Wind Surge, and more suitable for a single target. In Spiralia Online it had been called Air Burst or something.
They were still lying on a Muta panel.
“We have to get onto the next square!” Josh cried.
“Crawl,” Zogan said.
It was more like an uncoordinated scramble, but they made it.
“Do we wait here for the next Muta panel to switch to a safe one, or should we hop over to the Dura panel?” Josh asked. They were now on a Tamis panel. The Dura they were aiming for was diagonally across from them.
“We go Dura.” Zogan checked the enemy mage, who was currently being shielded from huldra arrows by his companions. “Now.”
This required Josh to look down at his feet. Which were standing on nothing. But he had passed from terror into some kind of numb acceptance. The whirling nightmare of fear inside him was still present, and it was still making his hands shake, but it felt it had been going on for so long that he had become detached from it. When it was his turn, he stepped across, concentrating on the feel of the bridge beneath his feet, and pretending as hard as he could that he was standing on a sheet of glass.
Zogan called instructions across to his team, and one by one they began to leap across the Muta panels on to the safer Tamis panels in between. They hopped like gazelles, keeping a wary eye on the mage, who sent a few Air Bursts their way, but they evaded him with an agility that put Josh’s scrambling to shame.
It was notable, however, that the person the mage really wanted to push off the bridge was Josh. Scythe after scythe of air blasted across him as he crouched down, with Zogan ahead of him and the remaining huldra filling up the panel behind. They were on the last stretch, with only one L-shaped section to go before they got to the other side, but the barrage of Air Bursts mean they had to stay low to the bridge.
After the sixth or seventh gust of air across his back, Josh realised that force of the wind spells was growing weaker. The mage was tiring. Zogan must have felt it too, because he shifted, as if getting ready for the final push.
The Northcrag guards had been using the time the wind mage bought them to prepare. They now had a phalanx of their own lined up along the ledge at the exit, with long pavises interlinked together, bristling with spears, which all pointed at the final stretch of the bridge.
The remaining panels were all Tamis or Dura. Josh explained the layout to Zogan, who gave quick instructions to his men. They all nodded, their expressions serious and intense. Zogan handed his spear to Josh. This was the point at which Josh wished he had brought his magic training staff, but he’d been afraid he might drop it during the crossing, so it had been left behind.
Zogan and one of the others unwrapped chains from around their waists and stood, throwing their shields off the bridge. Josh couldn’t help watching as the shields tumbled into the void, clattering off a wall as they went. It felt like a symbolic gesture. It was all or nothing now.
There were multiple teams of huldra on the bridge, and the storm of arrows from the entrance continued, until the Northcrag pavises looked like pin cushions.
One of the vanguard crouched by Josh, ready to defend him if necessary. Zogan and his remaining warriors stood, and then ran the rest of the way. As they approached, the chains lashed out, tangling with the spears. Only one huldra had kept his shield, and now he knelt, the shield tilted back at an angle. The last of the vanguard approached the shield at a run, leaped onto it, and was catapulted up high. He somersaulted, drawing two long, curved knives in mid-air, and came down behind the Northcrag line, most of whom had their spears tangled in chains.
The Northcrag guard screamed as they died, and the huldra let out ululating war cries. Somewhere at the back a male voice was bellowing at the guards: “Hold the line! Hold the line!”
More huldra came running past Josh, and he realised that the second huldra phalanx, Katofen’s team, had already caught up. Katofen dropped down beside Josh, while the rest of his huldra sprinted towards the one kneeling with the shield, so that they, too, could be thrown into the enemy backlines.
One of the guards, realising the danger from behind, pushed forward onto the bridge, using his entangled spear to pull Zogan off-balance. They grappled, the guard’s face flushed and snarling with battle rage, while the single flash Josh caught of Zogan’s expression showed him as fiercely exultant. They jostled back and forth, neither quite managing to get the advantage.
The voice that had been shouting at the Northcrag guards to hold the line cut out abruptly, and the melee on the ledge at the exit lessened as the last of the guards crumpled. The one who had pushed out on the bridge must have realised that he was the only one still alive. He yelled something wordless, staggered forward and grappled Zogan in a bear hug.
Then he pitched them both backwards off the bridge.
Josh reflexively lurched towards them, even though Zogan was more than twenty feet away and hopelessly out of reach. The huldra who had been guarding Josh grabbed hold of his arm to steady him, but he had been watching the fight just as avidly. He said something that sounded like a prayer.
And then Zogan was gone. The last sight of him Josh had was that of a doll-sized figure tumbling into darkness.
Huldra were streaming past Josh and Katofen now, pouring off the bridge and into the tunnel that led to the city of Safirbai. The Northcrag guards had either retreated, or were dead.
The huldra had won the day.
The bridge was theirs.