Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead

Chapter 268: Littel Rabbit

Soon, the environment began changing. The endless dunes slowly disappeared, thinning beneath their feet until the sand hardened into something more solid. Dry cracked soil emerged from underneath the desert layer, and then patches of grass began appearing between the splits in the ground. Bushes followed, sparse at first, then thicker. Small trees rose from the uneven earth, their leaves trembling under the wind. Even the air itself felt different, less baked and dry, as if the desert had drawn a line and decided to end there.

Christy frowned as she looked around. "What the hell..."

"The biome is changing," Hakim said quietly.

Ahead of them, the desert simply ended, and a massive ravine split the earth apart. Kael stepped forward slightly and looked down. The drop below was abyssal, filled with nothing but darkness thick enough that even his enhanced sight could easily pierce it. Connecting both sides was a long hanging bridge made of old rope and wooden planks, its frame swaying gently over the void.

The bridge creaked softly with the wind. At the other side, barely visible through the misty distance, waited the final beacon.

The old man’s eyes widened, then slowly narrowed as an idea formed in his head. His heartbeat accelerated while he stared at the bridge, then at Kael. Three survive. Only three. The message from the tower repeated inside him like a command, like permission, like justification.

Too heavy.

Too dangerous.

Too strong.

And suddenly, a perfect opportunity appeared before him.

The old man forced out a nervous laugh. "Well... that thing looks unstable."

Kael observed the bridge silently, taking in the ropes, the planks, the distance, and the way the wind moved through the ravine. "It’ll hold," he said.

"Will it?" the old man replied quickly. "You’re huge. If anyone crosses first it should be me."

Nobody answered immediately, and the old man hurried to fill the silence before anyone could question him too hard. "Think about it! I’m the lightest one here. Christy’s leg is injured. If she slips while testing the bridge she dies."

Christy frowned, clearly not liking how quickly he had used her injury to support his point. "And you?" she asked Hakim.

Hakim glanced at the bridge. "I can cross whenever."

"See?" the old man said quickly. "I should test it first. If it’s safe then the rest follow one at a time."

Kael looked at the old man for several long seconds. The stare was flat, heavy, and difficult to read, and the old man forced himself not to panic beneath it. Finally, Kael nodded once.

"Fine."

Relief almost made the old man collapse. He quickly stepped onto the bridge, and the first plank groaned beneath his weight. The wood creaked, the ropes swayed, and the entire structure shifted over the darkness below, but it held.

Step after step, he crossed further. Then faster. Then faster still, until fear of the bridge became less powerful than fear of the people behind him. Finally, he reached the other side and turned around.

For a moment, guilt flashed across his face. It was small, fragile, and almost human. Then fear consumed it again.

"I agree with you..." he said shakily.

Christy frowned. "What?"

The old man grabbed one of the support ropes. Tears welled in his eyes as his fingers tightened around it. "I’m sorry," he whispered.

Then his expression twisted. "But I have to survive!"

He pulled a dagger out and slashed at the rope with all his strength.

The blade tore through the rope. For a fraction of a second, nothing happened, and that tiny delay made the act feel even worse, as if the bridge itself needed a moment to understand the betrayal. Then the entire structure violently lurched sideways, the remaining ropes snapping taut with a harsh groan that echoed over the ravine.

"FUCK!" Christy shouted as the wooden planks beneath her feet tilted sharply. Hakim immediately leaped backward off the bridge toward Kael’s side, landing low and steady on the cracked earth, while Christy threw herself forward and barely grabbed onto the remaining ropes. Her fingers clenched around the old fibers hard enough to burn her palms, and her injured leg dragged uselessly against the slanted planks as the bridge twisted beneath her.

The bridge groaned under the sudden imbalance. Wood snapped in rapid succession, each crack sharper than the last, and one entire side collapsed downward into the abyss. The broken half dropped with a stomach-turning swing, vanishing into the darkness below as pieces of plank and rope spiraled after it. On the opposite side, the old man stumbled back, breathing heavily, still clutching the dagger in his shaking hand.

"I-I had to do it..." he muttered, though the words sounded like they were meant for himself more than anyone else. Christy looked up at him with pure disbelief, her fingers still wrapped around the rope that had almost become her last lifeline.

"You fucking bastard!"

The bridge continued breaking apart section by section, the strain traveling through the ropes like a dying animal’s final convulsion. Kael moved instantly, grabbing Christy’s arm and pulling her back onto stable ground just as another set of planks tore free and vanished into the darkness below. She hit the ground hard beside him, coughing as dust and splinters scattered across the edge of the ravine.

Silence followed, but there was nothing empty about it. The remaining half of the bridge dangled uselessly against the cliffside, swaying in the wind like the corpse of their only path. Their route was gone, cut away by a man who now stood alone on the opposite side, breathing, alive, and terrified by the fact that he had actually done it.

Kael slowly stared at him. He was not angry, not shouting, and not rushing forward in some blind rage, which somehow made the old man feel even worse. The absence of immediate violence gave fear more room to grow.

"I said I was sorry!" the old man shouted desperately. "I-I couldn’t risk it! You people would’ve abandoned me eventually!"

"No one said that," Christy snarled, pushing herself up with shaking arms, her face twisted with pain and fury.

"You didn’t need to!" the old man shouted back. "I’m not stupid! I know how this works!" His eyes darted toward Kael, and the words came faster now, spilling out of him because fear had already broken whatever restraint he had left. "You’re the strongest! If it came down to it everyone would choose you! Then Hakim! Then her! I’d be the one left behind!"

Kael walked toward the edge of the ravine and looked down. The abyss stretched endlessly beneath them, swallowing the fallen debris before sound could even return. The distance between both sides was absurd, wide enough to make the ruined bridge seem more like a cruel joke than a real crossing. Even for climbers, it was too much to treat casually.

Christy looked at Kael, then at the gap, and despite her anger, the question came out with a thin edge of hope. "You can jump that... right?" she asked, though even she didn’t sound convinced. Hakim silently turned toward Kael too, because if anyone could do something unreasonable enough to matter, it would be him.

Kael observed the distance carefully. He studied the wind, the loose edges of the cliff, the uneven landing area on the other side, and the way the broken bridge still swung against the stone below. Then he shook his head. "No."

The answer came immediately, with no hesitation, and that made it worse than any uncertainty would have been. Christy’s face paled slightly. "Seriously?"

"I can probably make the distance halfway," Kael said. "Maybe more if I destroy my legs doing it." He looked down into the abyss again, his gaze following the darkness that seemed to have no bottom. "But there’s no room for error. And if I miss..."

Nobody needed him to finish that sentence. Even Kael would not survive a fall like that, and everyone understood it at the same time. The old man’s expression slowly shifted as the realization settled in, and relief began to crawl across his face. It was horrible, ugly relief, the kind that looked almost like joy but came from something rotten.

He really did it. He survived. The beacon was behind him now, and all he had to do was run. Just run.

"You..." Christy pointed at him furiously. "You doomed all of us!"

"No!" the old man snapped immediately. "No, I saved myself!"

Hakim finally spoke, his voice quiet but heavy enough to cut through the wind. "You betrayed the only people keeping you alive."

The old man clenched his jaw, and something in him hardened because turning back now would mean admitting what he had become. "And I’d do it again."

That sentence lingered heavily in the air. Kael looked at the broken bridge quietly, then toward the old man, then toward the beacon behind him. Something felt wrong. Too easy. His eyes narrowed slightly as the minimap remained open in the corner of his vision, and then he noticed it.

The beacon itself had something inside it.

Kael’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly. "...Interesting," he muttered.

The old man took several steps backward nervously, clutching the dagger like it still mattered. "What are you looking at?"

Kael suddenly stepped away from the cliff, his face calm in a way that made Christy glance at him with immediate suspicion.

"Run, " he said calmly.

The old man blinked. "What?"

"You wanted to survive, right?" Kael said. "Then run to the beacon. Run little Rabbit... Run"