Burning Bridges

Hannah slumped into a chair by the map table, and that was the first time I'd seen her sitting since she was stapled into that armor. It clanged. Remembering what I had seen in the hallway and the blackboard I joined her, though I didn't drop quite as heavily. My shock and horror scale was still in the middle of some serious re-calibrations and I didn't think I'd start despairing until it caught up with me, hopefully after all of this was over. Maybe her emotions being dulled was actually a bad thing here, as I knew from experience, a bad depressive spiral needed very few emotions indeed.

"I need a drink," Hannah said. "Dude, you can't get drunk," Zack said. "Yeah, that makes it worse," Hannah said. "Hannah, I support you and your feelings are valid, but we need this information immediately," Artemis said.

"Where to begin. First, the blackboards now say that we have to proceed towards the exit,' I said. "Probably the confluence towards East," Artemis said. "That's what we thought. In any case, I doubt we want to be here when time runs out," I said. "There was a devil. And Bowie looks different than I remember," Zack said. "What the fuck are you talking about?" Artemis said. "The more intelligent monsters have been starting to move towards the exit too," I said. "Fuck. Not much chance of not running into them," Artemis said. "Five people aren't accounted for," Hannah said. "We keep a close count, Ms. Hannah, I assure you that with your arrival everyone's here," Clarence said. "Right, that's the other thing. Five people have been surviving in our sector, whatever that means, without the Guild. One of them is a friend of mine," I said. "Fuck. I knew I should have been scouting out farther," Artemis said. "It's really fucking bad out there, but y'know, life finds a way, people survive," Zack said "How?" Artemis said. "I don't know, I mean it's possible, right? With luck and the right resources us six at least could have survived if we stuck together and avoided danger, even if we didn't have the lounge and the Guild. It… it must have just really sucked," I said. "Alex, your friend has survived this far. That means they have a strategy, and it has led them well this far. Let's hope they keep acting smart and run into us on our way to the exit," Artemis said. "Yeah, that's what I'm counting on. Shit, I should worry about the Guild, but…" I said. "Alex, there is literally nothing more important than the people we care about in this or any other world. You worry about your friend, you make sure you find her, and we can have drinks with her after. But don't fucking feel guilty about wanting to be a good friend," Artemis said, then, after a pause continued, "Alright, we will start packing up immediately, Zack, get Bjorn and start helping to get the wounded ready to move." "Artemis, hold on," Hannah said.

Artemis looked around at the fifty or so people sprawled around the Lounge, some still asleep, some groaning in pain, one woman with an amputated left arm crying and scratching at her magically healed stump, where an arm had not grown back. Artemis let out a frustrated breath.

"Why do I keep doing this?" Artemis said. "Doing what," I said. "Ordering people around. I'm not a fucking taskmaster," Artemis said. "Look, Artemis, people need leaders in some situations. A ship needs someone giving orders so that people know what to do. Leadership isn't always tyranny," Zack said.

Artemis looked like she wanted to snap at him again, but with an effort she slowed her breathing and nodded.

"You're not wrong, Zack. But we're not on a sinking ship just yet. I should have asked everyone what they think of the plan. At least give them a chance to raise objections," Artemis said. "So fucking do it," Zack said. "Fuck you," Artemis said, but she gave him a tight-lipped smile and a nod too.

She took a deep breath and stood from her chair. Even in this strange place it was a strange sight to see a tall, skinny punk woman in a ratty jacket and combat boots stand in front of a gathering of fifty people of all walks of life and begin clearly and firmly laying out her vision for the future. I guess that sort of thing happened, here and there, but it was heartwarming and strange to see the diverse array of faces including men in business suits, women with platinum hair-sprayed hairdos fighting to their bitter end against entropy and high action environs and forty other kinds of people look up to her and listen to her intently.

"Alright, everybody, listen up! We'll be moving out soon. If you aren't rested or recovered, we'll put you in the middle of the group to minimize risk, but we'll all have to go. The Tower's thrown a new curve-ball at us again, and we have no choice but to follow its instructions. We have to find the exit in the next 24 hours, or we may very well be dead. I swear to you that I will do everything in my power to keep you all safe, and if you ever feel like you don't need me running things or that I'm doing a shit job, I expect you to tell me, and I will step down," she said.

It wasn't exactly an inspiring speech from a fantasy movie, but we had all been around Artemis for nearly two days now, and we knew she meant it. Even I, having been traipsing around on my own for most of it knew that she was the best for the job and that she was the last person who would abuse the power. So, one by one people started standing up and getting their stuff ready.

That is not to say that there weren't any complaints at all. Mr. And Mrs. Xiang were complaining that they had just got ready to take a nap after working and fighting monsters all day, and that surely a few more hours rest wouldn't hurt. Artemis assured them that they could stay in the middle of the pack and that we would rest as soon as we knew how urgent the timeline actually was. Meanwhile, the woman with the amputated arm remained unresponsive- I didn't know her name. Apparently Artemis couldn't remember it either, and I knew it tore her up a lot more than it did me. Eventually Hannah stepped forward and held out her hand towards the maimed woman, who took it and stood up with her help.

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Everywhere bags were filled with loose supplies, the ever-refilling fridge was emptied of all the food in it and divided among the remaining backpacks, sleeping people gently nudged awake. I was surprised that people still managed to sleep after everyone was surely startled awake by the school bell, but it's not like I hadn't felt like curling back into a ball and ignoring the nightmare going around us several times in the last two days.

Slowly, the Adventurers Guild came awake and ready, and if I was being honest it was a significant improvement over how I had left them. We didn't look like soldiers marching to war, or rugged adventurers setting out to take on a difficult quest, but we didn't exactly look like a pack of terrified refugees pressed together by desperate circumstances. Everywhere people were picking up weapons and strapping on armor. The aforementioned Xiang family each had a spear with a long blade, nearly a glaive, and I noticed Mrs. Xiang pick up my old spellbook, reading the contents carefully.

The core party- I didn't know if we still were the most competent group in the Guild anymore, to be honest, but I still thought of us as the core- seemed the most confident of all. Even Artemis, rushing back and forth putting out figurative fires had a calm, collected look on her face, while the rest of us looked like usual, if a bit harder. Hannah was stoic, Clarence- professional, Chimo had a smirk on his face, Zack was swaying slightly but smiling and chatting with another Guild member and I was, well, wild and jumpy, riding the line between hobo and wizard in my torn up trousers and ridiculous shirt… robe… thing.

"Everybody listen up! Marching orders! Alex and Clarence will be in the front, about ten feet ahead of everyone else. Clarence will see any danger, and if he warns you, you throw up the barrier to buy us some time. Then retreat behind the front lines. Rested, uninjured folks with spears, shields, or both, you are the front line. I'll be with you with Hannah. Mid-ranged and ranged folks stand behind them and kill whatever threats we have. If you're injured or too tired to fight effectively stay there. Bjorn, you're with them. Zack and Chimo, you take the rear. Zack, I know you'll be able to distract whatever's coming at us from behind long enough for us to reverse the formation," Artemis said without fumbling once. Damn.

"And what if we get attacked from both sides at once?" Chimo said. "I can handle that. One time, at least, with Hannah's help. I have this staff and I can store a bunch of barrier spells in it. I can cover the whole hallway and unless they have dispelling magic, or really high damage attacks, I can hold them off," I said. "You sure about that? What's the catch?" Artemis said. "Two catches," I said, then realized, "wait, fuck, three catches." "It sounds like there may be more," Chimo said. "Okay, three I know for sure. Number one, I take one tenth of the damage dealt to the barrier. Irrelevant with smaller monsters, but it doesn't matter if I'm hit by a cannonball or one tenth cannonball. I'm dead if something that big hits us. I can split the damage with Hannah if she's alright with it," I said. "I can take damage, dude," Zack said. "No. I'll do it," Hannah said. I hadn't actually seen Zack fight, and I knew that he had some sort of berserker thing going on, but it wasn't nearly enough to convince me that he was better than Hannah at this. "Thanks. Second is dispelling magic, or disruptive weapons. I haven't faced anything like it, but it's in the description. Would be just like the tower to start throwing dispelling magic at us just when I grow confident about the barrier," I said. "I have a dispelling spell. Rank one," Mrs. Xiang said. "There you go. A rank one wouldn't dispel my barrier, but if dispelling magic exists, I'm sure we'll see it soon. Third danger is conjuration spells. I hadn't thought of it, because I use conjuration and it works like a really good combo with the barriers because I can cast the spell from any point that I can see, and the barriers are see-through. So, anyone using conjuration magic could bypass it," I said.

"Still a good plan. Alright, so we have a plan for most eventualities excepting a pincer attack coming simultaneously from both sides with a conjuration or dispelling specialist spellcaster, or cannons on the Eastern side. It'll have to be good enough," Artemis said. "Cannons behind us wouldn't be amazing either, I cannot survive a cannonball. Probably," Zack said. "Dodge," Artemis said.

Zack laughed, and when he did, everyone else felt like it was safe joining in with at least a chuckle to break the tension. People formed up, just as Artemis had indicated, and I walked up to Clarence. His suit hadn't been magical, which was starting to show at the frayed and scorched cuffs and a couple of torn buttons, but he still stood with the same straight-backed confidence that he had in all but the most desperate of times. He gave me a professional smile, and said: "Shall we, Mr. Vorhal." "Indubitably," I said, and followed him out the door.

Behind us the rest of the Guild followed file by file, and I recognized that we were now a significant force. At the same time I also recognized, that I could block them off with a barrier spell and kill most of them with my conjurations. And if I could do it, so could any decent abjurer or conjurer. Regardless of what Chum had said, or how it had felt for the first two days in the Tower, it had been holding back after all. I sincerely doubted that I was becoming the most powerful human being alive, much less the most dangerous monster in the Tower.

I looked behind me and saw Artemis and Hannah in the middle of the first rank of melee fighters. They were incredible, and had saved my life a handful of times each. Higher level than me and wielding powerful physical enhancements, they would take down almost anything I had seen in the Tower so far on their own. But I suspected that, as far as keeping everyone safe, I might be the best chance that we, the fifty odd people here, had. And so, I fell in next to the rogue attorney and we began scouting ahead for the Adventurers Guild's vanguard.

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