Last Bastion

by Rachel Aaron

  "I don't think that's a good idea," Killbox said. "PVPers--"

  "PVPers are still players," Tina said sharply. "Old habits may die hard, but surely no one's killing just for the lulz now that this isn't a game. They're clearly nervous about us, and why not? We're a freaking army. But if we don't talk, we're never going to get anywhere."

  She started jogging ahead, and Killbox cursed. "Are you going out there alone?"

  "I don't want to look threatening," she yelled back. "And what are they going to do to me? I'm the best tank left in the game."

  "That doesn't mean you can't still die if you get outnumbered!" Killbox said angrily. "Didn't you learn anything from our duel?"

  She remembered that she'd won. Pointing that out felt like needless antagonism, though, so Tina kept it to herself. "I'll be fine," she insisted. "And I don't want to cause an incident by bringing a big threatening group. Just wait there. I'll be right back."

  She was picking up the pace when she heard heavy footsteps behind her, and then Killbox appeared at her side, his face grim.

  "What part of 'wait there' did you not understand?"

  "The part where I'm not going to cool my heels while you run out and die alone," the Berserker snapped, keeping his ax ready. "You might be a hotshot when it comes to raid bosses, but you're seriously going to get yourself murdered if you don't stop acting like such a goddamn Care Bear."

  "Better they go for me than the others," she said, glancing nervously over her shoulder at the raid. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we've picked up a lot of liabilities, and players are a lot more dangerous than the Royal Knights were. If it does come to an attack, I feel a lot better tanking it out here away from the level twenties and thirties who could get killed by a stray hit."

  "Still no reason to go out alone," Killbox said stubbornly. "Two isn't any more intimidating than one, but at least this way you'll have some backup."

  He was still disobeying orders, but she had to smile at that. "Well, thanks for the support, then."

  "Only smart move," Killbox replied. "Your elf boy would backstab the shit out of me if I let you run off and get killed."

  "SB isn't my boyfriend," Tina said automatically.

  Killbox started to snicker. "Who said anything about a boyfriend? Or SB? All I said was 'elf boy.' The boyfriend stuff was aaall you."

  Face burning, Tina decided to ignore him after that, focusing on the quiet city around them instead as they ran down the road in the direction Zen had pointed. When they reached a square that Tina judged as both far enough from the raid and open enough for a good parley, she slowed to a halt, planting her boot on the edge of the crumbling, dried-out fountain in the middle.

  "Hello up there!" she called up at the silent rooftops. "We know you're watching. We're not interested in fighting you, so how about you come down and talk? It's just the two of us."

  Her words echoed between the empty buildings, and Tina held her breath. For all her talk of friends, Killbox now had her worried that they really would attack. Maybe these players had turned into bandits, pillaging and taking whatever they wanted. It wouldn't be hard, given how much power even a modestly geared max-level player had compared to everyone else, but Tina wasn't a soft target. Surely anyone savvy enough to invest in the Grand Schtump's Golden Binoculars would be able to recognize Dead Mountain raid gear on sight and come out peaceably, but she still kept her shield ready, just in case.

  They were still waiting when a piece of a white stone fronting broke free and clattered to the street behind them. In the quiet of the empty square, the sudden noise made her jump. Then she heard the soft scrape of steel on stone from the opposite side of the street, and she whirled around just in time to see magic light up the shadows.

  In the darkness of a crumbling building, red-glowing staffs lit up the faces of two Sorcerers hiding behind a broken window. No sooner had she spotted them than Tina heard the creak of bowstrings from the roof above. Lots of them. The alleyways filled with shadows of heavy armor as people moved in from all sides to flank them.

  Tina swore under her breath and yanked up her shield. She didn't know her player-versus-player gear as well as she knew her raid loot, but she saw two Berserkers who looked like Killbox clones, and one of the Rangers up top had the Shadowkiller bow that every Ranger in her guild had taken up PVPing to get last year. The pair of Knights cutting off their way back to the other Roughnecks were both dressed from head to toe in the wicked-looking black PVP plate set that Tina had let SB drag her into the arenas to try to earn just because it looked so cool. She hadn't made more than a few days, but it was painfully obvious that the players surrounding them were all serious player-versus-player fighters, and by the scars and grim looks on their faces, they'd already seen a lot of action here in Bastion.

  "Well, shit," Killbox said, putting his back to hers as the circle tightened. "Nice knowing you, Roxxy."

  "It's not over yet," Tina said, trying not to panic at just how fast everything had gone wrong. "Maybe we can just surrender. The Roughnecks aren't that far away."

  "Still too far to help," he said, baring his teeth. "But I ain't going down like a punk."

  Before Tina could ask what he meant by that, the Berserker stepped forward, pounded his chest with one fist while raising his ax with the other. "Listen up, assholes!" he shouted, his huge voice booming off the buildings. "You have us outnumbered, but know that I am Killbox! Grand Victor from Colosseum Seasons Two and Three and first in the world to earn the 'You've Killed How Many?!' achievement! You wanna fight us? I'm gonna kill half of you before I go down! So who's first?"

  He finished with a wide swing of his ax and stepped back into position by Tina, who was staring at him in awe.

  "Holy shit, dude," she whispered at him. "Are you for real? I didn't know you'd done all that stuff!"

  "Fuck yeah, I'm a badass at my half of the game," Killbox replied with a grin. "Why else did you think I volunteered for suffering through a Dead Mountain raid? It was the only gear left in the game that was better than what I could earn in the arenas."

  Tina shook her head in wonder. "How'd I beat you in that duel, then?"

  He snorted. "You got lucky. I didn't know the new rules back then. If I'd understood we weren't limited to game mechanics, I would have smoked you."

  Given how much damage she'd just seen him do to Malakai and the Royal Knights, Tina believed him. But any further conversation was cut off as an enemy Berserker stepped forward. He was a giant human with shoulders even bigger than Killbox's, wearing a suit of crimson plate armor decorated from head to toe with metal skulls. Instead of the Berserker's usual ax, he had a long-bladed spear that glowed a bloody red, which he pointed at Killbox's face. Behind him, a scrawny elf Assassin lurked with a pair of lightning maces that crackled and sparked, keeping his eyes on Tina. But while she was scrambling to remember the strategy SilentBlayde had taught her to use against Assassins, Killbox started to laugh.

  Driving his ax into the dry fountain with a deafening clang, Killbox tossed his arms wide and ran straight at the crimson-armored Berserker. Tina's heart leaped into her throat as she braced for him to be impaled, but the enemy dropped his spear as well and grabbed Killbox in a huge bear hug.

  "KB!"

  "Cinco!" Killbox cried back, his voice sounding delighted.

  Tina, still in fight-to-the-death mode, blinked in confusion. She had no idea what was going on, but the two giant men were hugging like long-lost brothers, grinning and crying manly tears of joy as they slapped each other on the back.

  "Fuck, dude," the red-armored Berserker said when he could speak again. "I thought you were dead! You were raiding the Dead Mountain when this shit went down, so we all thought you were zombie food. Thank god you gave that boss speech, or we'd have slaughtered you. It's hell to recognize anyone without nameplates."

  "Same to you, dude," Killbox said, wiping his eyes. "I didn't know your ugly face from anyone else's, but then I saw your spear. There's only one asshole
left who's still hardcore enough to keep using the Blood Fang spear for three years running just because it has an attack speed exploit."

  "Hell yeah, man!" his friend said proudly, tapping his glowing spear on the ground. "This beauty's saved my bacon a lot these last few days."

  They both started laughing again at that, which would have been fine if the rest of the players weren't still ready to attack.

  "Um, Killbox," Tina said, moving a little closer. "Mind introducing me to your friend?"

  "Oh, right," Killbox said, grabbing her arm and pulling her forward. "Roxxy, these are my old gladiator pals! This is CincoDeMurder, current arena champion. And the Assassin behind him is Shankfest."

  "Oh hell no," Shankfest said, jaw dropping as he lowered his lightning maces. "That's Roxxy?! Ooohhh shit, guys! We almost attacked the Roughnecks!" He whirled on CincoDeMurder. "I told you the female stonekin was weird, boss!"

  "How the fuck was I supposed to know it was Roxxy!" Cinco shot back. "I heard everyone at Dead Mountain Fortress died!"

  Tina grinned at that. "It's okay, guys," she said, sheathing her sword. "Times are crazy." She held out her gauntleted hand. "Roxxy of the Roughnecks."

  "CincoDeMurder," the red Berserker replied, giving her a crushing handshake. "Guild leader of the Red Sands PVP guild."

  "Weapons down, people!" Shankfest called to the players surrounding them. "We're cool!"

  The other players obeyed at once.

  Relieved, Tina let out a breath as staffs were extinguished, bows relaxed, and swords sheathed, but they weren't in the clear yet. "I'm happy you guys are reunited," she said. "But I have to know something before we can be friendly."

  CincoDeMurder's toothy smile slid off his scarred face, replaced with flat-pressed lips. "Oh yeah? What?"

  There was no nice way to put this, so Tina just spit it out. "Why were you about to attack us? If you guys are bandits and IRL player-killers, I'm not cool with that."

  Shankfest butted in. "Yeah, well, we have to ask you the same question."

  "The fuck does that mean?" Tina demanded.

  "Our scout said you left Malakai's death camp escorting player prisoners," Cinco replied, square jaw set stubbornly. "We don't tolerate turncoat assholes."

  "Then your scout must be blind, dude," Tina said with a snort. "We trashed the whole camp and freed everyone. Go take another look at my raid if you don't believe me. How many prisoners do you know who get to walk around carrying weapons and not wearing chains?"

  Cinco and Shankfest exchanged a look of embarrassment. "Our Ranger is nearsighted, actually..."

  "I told you letting him use my binoculars wouldn't fix it!" Shankfest said.

  "Yeah, well, I couldn't let you scout anymore," Cinco snapped back. "Not after the incident."

  Shankfest looked unrepentant. "Those legs were worth it."

  "Yeah, well, we've got a whole damn army hot on our heels, so we have to keep moving," Tina said, getting them back on subject. "You guys seem pretty together. Want to join my guild? PVP and PVE are one and the same now, after all."

  "Thanks, but no," Cinco said, shaking his head. "I'm not giving up my Red Sands, not even to the Roughnecks. But I would love to team up. It's been tough as hell surviving out here with just us."

  "I can respect that," Tina said with a smirk. She was about to put out her hand to shake on it when Cinco turned to Killbox.

  "What about you?"

  "What about me?" Killbox asked, crossing his massive arms.

  "You're a Red Sands man," Cinco said. "You should stop playing with the raider Care Bears and rejoin us."

  "Hey!" Tina snarled. But before she could deliver sharp words about poaching her people, Killbox laughed in Cinco's face.

  "Ha ha! Nice try, Thomas, but I'm an important officer 'n shit in the Roughnecks now. No way I'm going back to being your grunt."

  "Damn," Cinco said. "Well, have fun with all that tanking-and-spanking there, Star Symbol."

  Tina choked. "Wait," she said, whirling on Killbox. "Your name is Star Symbol? Like, for real?"

  Killbox glowered at Cinco. "Yeah, and not the words, either. My IRL name is the fucking keyboard symbol for a star." He turned up his nose. "See, this is why I don't want to work for you anymore, Cinco. Even when you're being nice, you're an asshole."

  "Hey, you star-ted it," Cinco said, snickering.

  "Wow, dude," Tina said, boggling. "No wonder you wanted to go by Killbox. Your parents were dicks to give you a name like that."

  "Tell me about it," Killbox grumbled.

  "Well," Tina said, slapping Killbox on his Atlas-sized shoulder. "Whoever you were before, you're Killbox, the Roughneck's mighty and terrifying Berserker officer to me now."

  Killbox stood up straighter at that. "Damn right, I am."

  Tina wasn't above giving Cinco a competitive smirk after that, and the other guildmaster huffed. He was still grumping about it when one of the Rangers on the roof, who was wearing a pair of golden binoculars around his neck, started gesturing frantically.

  Cinco cleared his throat. "Yeah, well, now that we're cool and all, would you mind sending word to your people that you're not in danger? Your army is getting pretty close, and they look as trigger happy as all hell."

  That was news to Tina since she'd specifically ordered them to wait, but sure enough, when she glanced down the street, Frank was only two blocks back with Zen and all the Roughneck's best ranged right beside him. It was bad form to be mad about well-timed backup, so Tina just grinned and waved her arms, motioning them forward with exaggerated "come here" gestures until they lowered their weapons.

  When the Roughnecks reached them, Tina did a quick round of introductions. Several of her players seemed to recognize the Red Sands guild, but no one except Killbox actually looked happy to see them. Apparently, the PVP guild's reputation as griefers was widely known and well-earned, but they needed more max-level geared players too much to be picky, and in the end, no one complained about teaming up. At least, not out loud.

  "Okay," Tina announced once introductions were over. "We've still got a bunch of pissed-off NPCs after us, so we need to keep moving toward the bank. Once we're safely forted up, we'll discuss what to do from there. Now everyone march!"

  At her command, all the Roughnecks started forward. At Cinco's nod, his people started moving as well, merging into the main raid's column. After instructing Frank and Zen to keep watching the front, Tina hung back to resume her position at the rear, eying the smoky shadow of the castle high in the distance over the rooftops as she waited for everyone to shuffle by. When Cinco walked past, though, she caught the corner of his armor.

  "I need to ask you something."

  "Shoot," the other guildmaster said, giving her a cocky smile.

  "Shankfest said everyone who was at the Dead Mountain Fortress dungeon died," Tina said, careful to keep her voice down so the passing raiders wouldn't overhear. "How do you know that if you were all in Bastion?"

  "Because one guild got out," Cinco said. "Richard's Ruin was in the middle of the dungeon when things went down. So far as we know, they're the only ones who escaped."

  "How?" Tina demanded.

  "They'd downed a boss right before the wham-spin-wham, so they were alone in an empty room when it hit," he said. "Once they recovered, they shut the big-ass doors and sealed themselves in. They said they could hear the other raids dying outside."

  Tina shuddered in horror. Now that he said it, she realized she'd actually heard the same thing. Right after she'd drunk the pan elixir to get herself out of the sensory overload, she remembered hearing screams drifting on the wind from the Once King's mountain fortress.

  The memory made her feel terrible. She hadn't even thought of the other players then, hadn't considered how they would have been trapped and helpless in the Dead Mountain, surrounded by insurmountable odds. She'd just gathered her raid and run, leaving them all to their fate. But even as the guilt ate at her, she knew there was nothing she could have don
e. They'd barely managed against Grel even with the Order fort. If they'd gone inside the Dead Mountain Fortress, all they would have done was die with the others.

  But while that was slightly comforting, there was still a part of Cinco's story that didn't make sense. "If Richard's Ruin was trapped in DMF, how did they get out to tell you all this?"

  "Pure stupid luck," Cinco said with a shrug. "You know how Richard's Inferno was the number-one guild in the world before the Once King fight broke them? Well, Richard's Ruin is what was left over. They didn't have enough people left to make progress on the dungeon anymore, so they just were focusing on doing achievements."

  Now she understood. "They were trying for 'A Spell On The Wind,' weren't they?"

  "Yup," he said. "You just have to beat the second boss, but you need twenty-five Sorcerers in your raid to make it work. So when the shit went down, they were trapped in a boss room with twenty five teleports, which turned out to be just enough mana to portal a raid back to Bastion."

  "That's lucky as hell," Tina said with a whistle. "So where are they now? I assume you met them here."

  A haunted look flitted across Cinco's face. "They're in my guild now. What's left of them, anyway. Lots of people found ways to portal into Bastion that first day, but the Royal Knights had the Room of Arrivals camped. Malakai and his assholes were killing everyone as soon as they popped through the portals. Richard's Ruin was the only serious raid to show up, so they managed to break out, but a bunch of them didn't make it. We attacked to help since it was the best chance we'd gotten to try to knock Malakai down, but we had to retreat. I only managed to save a few before we were forced to run."

  That was grimmer news than Tina had hoped for. It also explained the extensive bloodstains she'd seen back at the portal room. "Glad we came through late," she said. "The Portal Keeper's Sanctum was empty by the time we got there."

  "That's 'cause the portal keepers shut everything down and put up a ward against player portals. They magicked away the gibs, locked the place up tight, and moved on to deal with other problems." He looked at her with narrowed eyes. "How'd you manage to get here, anyway?"