The first few steps onto the bridge were not easy.

Each step on the bridge of orange light jerked Myles’s body forward at an unnatural rate that didn’t quite match up with his normal stride, making him feel as though he were being pushed or falling forward despite landing on his foot each time.

Within a few steps, he was well over the void and able to look back at his island. It was the first time he had seen his dream from the outside, and the level of detail would have made his father proud.

The dreamscape looked like it was taken straight from a bakery’s storefront. Each tree, each boulder, each tree, and edge looked overwhelmingly delicious. Perfectly detailed down to the last dollop of cream cheese frosting on the branches of the cinnamon bun trees, Myles stared in awe at it all. No wonder they wanted to settle there. The dream was warm, inviting, and even from this distance, smelled delicious.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t invite trouble smelling so good.

“Most denizens of Somniums can’t smell in the physical sense,” Nod explains after Myles voiced the concern. “We seek the quality of dreams and memories, not any physical sensation.”

The answer made sense, so he didn’t question him further. They’d wasted enough time already with Sindra.

Each step seemed to take the [Monster Tamer] hundreds or maybe thousands of feet across the bridge into the void. Without any real points of reference, it wasn’t exactly easy to judge distance, but before Myles knew it, his island vanished into the nothingness of the horizon.

Step by jerking, wild step, his group continued their approach to the end until something came into view on the horizon.

The bridge ended at what must have been Mitchel’s dreamscape, but it was engulfed in a glowing white barrier. The barrier was gleaming and bright, like a tiny star, but it didn’t hurt to look at it. It was as if the light wasn’t meant to do anything more than signal its existence.

Myles and company got as close as they dared to the border between realities, feeling no heat or any other sign of danger as they got close enough to touch. Everyone knew better and before even laying a hair on it, Myles and company did as thorough a check as they could from the safety of the bridge.

Thankfully, it was as benign as it looked.

“It seems fine,” Myles said after a few moments of inspection and attempts to use his skills on it. Despite the pain it would cause, Myles even reached out to Silpha to get answers, but all attempts to contact her failed as soon as he tried. Here, the connection felt strained, distant, not gone, but unaccessible as he boarded the dreams of another.

“Seems is not the same as is,” Ashra reminded him.

Squishy was the closest of them all, her nose threatening to touch the glowing barrier before Myles’s attention on her made her pull back.

“I didn’t touch.”

“I know,” Myles assured her. Feeling an itch at the back of his mind, he turned to the culprit. “Nod?”

“The barrier is harmless for us, but I’m not sure if we will be able to cross over with you. We have a connection to him through you, not to him directly, and frankly, the logic here doesn’t operate the same for each dreamer.”

“How do we get in?” Myles asked.

“There is an easy and a hard way to breach a dreamscape,” Nod explained. “Which would you prefer?”

“Easy,” Myles said simply.

Easy was good.

Easy was usually simple.

It was harder to mess up easy things, but easy things didn’t always mean comfortable.

Taking in the situation, Nod gave him an appraising once over and moved closer before picking him up and throwing him into the barrier.

The barrier wavered for a moment, barely slowing Myles’s momentum before swallowing him into the glowing sphere with an audible slurp. Before anyone could react, the barrier snapped back into place as if nothing happened moments later.

Ashra glared, ready to attack the [Shardking’s Shield] before he spoke again. “He did ask for the easy way.”

***

There were always three things that were constant in combat.

Danger.

Sound.

Chaos.

You had to be ready, you had to defend yourself and those that you loved, and I took to it like a dwarf to a keg. From the day I first met Uncle Dalf, the famous [Barrier Sage], I knew what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be someone my friends could count on.

I wanted to be someone others could look up to.

I wanted to be a Runner.

I wanted to be a hero.

I wanted to fight, and damn, I was good at it. I didn’t have the spark of aether he had, but from the day I could hold a shield, I’ve been following in his footsteps and enjoying the shadow of his experience until I could step out of it.

When that day came, I would do my family proud.

“Mitchel! To the front.”

And today wasn’t going to change that.

“Got it, Boss!”

Sindra was always sharp enough to know where I was most needed, so of course, I couldn’t ignore it when I got advice. I could feel her warm smile on my back as sure as the heat from the sparks that rained down from the blow, but I’d done what I needed to.

A rain of magic and a stinger of steel pelted the beast before it fell and dissolved into the aether. The smell was always rancid, but it was worth it to see my friends safe.

But when I turned, there was nothing.

“Guys?”

There never was anymore.

“Guys!”

Sindra, Micha, Rinas… All gone.

It wasn’t the first time I’d lost them, but whenever we turned to fight, I could count on them. Rinas would joke about me being dense as my armor. Micha would just be spouting something about purity or making a dirty joke about Rinas, and Sindra would radiate warmth and confidence as she tried to hide the fact she was looking at my ass.

That was the way the world should be.

Slowly, the jokes stopped.

The banter ended, and the warmth ended in favor of swords and magic.

As time went on, it just seemed like that was all there was.

The days grew longer, and the nights darker as we fought again and again. We couldn’t rest, we couldn’t break.

We had to fight against the endless tide or be devoured by it.

Then, the screams began.

Screams of children, of other Runners, of people I barely knew asking for help, and we had to answer to call.

There were no more words between us, but there was still support. It didn’t break my body or my spirit, so that worked for the most part, but I couldn’t keep it up forever. I wasn’t my uncle, and soon, Sindra, Micha, and even Rinas weren’t covering my back.

Blows came from all sides, and my shield could barely catch them. Sweat pooled in my armor and my muscles screamed, but I fought on.

I fought on, and I started to miss. Blows rained down in a torrent as the monsters didn’t fall back. I triggered every ability I had to drive the latest group off and give myself some time to breathe.

I could already hear the next group coming.

“Mitchel, save us!”

“Save us!”

“We need you!”

“Help!”

Every muscle in my body screamed out. Body be damned, I wouldn’t let people suffer if I could help it…

But I needed help.

I couldn’t take the brunt forever.

Clashing steel stole my hearing for a moment as my arms ached from another impact.

“Alright, let’s go!”

I could keep going.

I had to. How else could I call myself an [Armored Wall] if I didn’t?

***

I don’t know how long I held it back, but it was long enough that I couldn’t remember what the world was anymore. All that mattered was my shield and what was trying to beat through it.

The world narrowed.

Everything blurred to the point that I could barely make out the beast in front of me. I’d like to blame tunnel vision, but it could have been the blood loss and pain from my fractured arm or the growing concussion I more than likely had from one of the many times the clubs knocked my shield against my helmet.

Six bulging arms with six massive clubs kept coming despite my screaming muscles, but I refused to give it an inch.

Once.

Once I had the beast and I called out, but my friends didn’t come.

They hadn’t for a while now, but it was reflex by this point as the monster recovered.

Now, it just laughed like grinding boulders before a guttural roar echoed across the world, and two clubs came crashing down.

Reinforce triggered as metal collided with metal, and my defense held as the force of the impact washed over me. I could only look on as the clubs continued to come at me.

Crack!

The noise of my shield reaching its breaking point heralded my loss as the laws of gravity changed.

One second, I was standing, and the next that I remember, the ground dug into my skin and dented my armor as dirt and rock sprayed around me. I did my best impression of a farmer’s plow through the earth before I slammed into something hard and stopped.

I didn’t break, but as I focused, I saw the worst of the damage. My shield was cracked nearly in half and the front of my armor looked like I’d taken a punch from a strength elemental.

Taking inventory against the stone, I could feel the pain setting in. My breathing was about as steady as it could be as I felt the dent in my chest. It wasn’t good. It really, really wasn’t.

In the furrow, I looked into the darkness. I tried to focus, but the shadows kept me in the dark.

There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t see what it was or where it was coming from, but I knew the end was coming if I didn’t stand up.

Muscles betrayed me as I tried again and again to move, to prop myself up against the boulder behind me as the ground shook with the monster’s steps in time with my shoulder leaving its socket.

“Get up!”

“We need you!”

“It’s coming!”

If only they knew.

I wanted to. I wanted to so badly, but it was all background noise against the pain. I could barely lift my good arm.

This couldn’t be it.

There had to be another way.

What wasn’t I thinking of?

What would happen to those people if the monster got past me?

If Sindra and the others weren’t back there already, who would protect them?

At least the rock was warm from the sun.

I closed my eyes, and steeled myself, trying to force myself to stand again. If I was going to die, I was going to die on my feet.

“Sorry it took so long.”

Then, everything changed.

Pushing my weight against the rock, I nearly sunk inside as it softened into something like a heavy pillow. The smell of fresh bread choked my nose, and something clicked into place. Someone new was here, but it was someone I remembered, someone who I could count on for help as he came into focus.

“Myles?”

“Glad to see you’re still with us.”

My new team leader seemed out of place on the battlefield as the world came back into focus under the sun. We were in a city square, next to a bakery of all things, and the six-armed monster finally came into true focus. It was a big thing, lumbering like a drunk ogre. Its body looked to be carved from living stone as it moved. Cracked, pitted, and otherwise fleshless, its chest heaved from the effort of its movement.

Each arm wasn’t holding a club though, they were clubs. Huge, hulking things with what looked like fingers coming from each side to form grotesquely useless-looking hands. Those eyes, those bright, green emerald eyes, bore into me, into us, and its expression was anything but smug as blood dripped down its back and scalp.

The monster looked about as confused as it did pissed off.

I mean, I would have been.

Mists, I was as confused.

For his part, Myles looked around, no worse for his effort, and gave me that confident smirk he always wore when he had a plan.

“Think it needs to breathe?” he casually asked.

I smiled right back.

“If it doesn’t, we’ll figure it out, boss.”

“Let’s go do something stupid,” Myles said, and a staff flashed into his hand.

With that, the focus on the end of the staff began to glow, and the giant boulder of dough rose, pausing just long enough to let me slip back before Myles spoke again.

“Cover me.”

I was surprised that I managed to stand under my own power let alone move. Maybe it was having a friend at my back again, but I was feeling better than I had a few moments ago. I would have agreed even without my shield, but something about it caught my attention. The crack along with the rest of my body had been taken care of.

Was Will taking cover nearby?

Well whatever happened, I couldn’t stop smiling. Myles was damn right that I’d cover him.

We had people to save, after all.