Last Bastion

by Rachel Aaron

Tina grimaced at the waste but didn't say anything. Everyone who'd fucked up already knew it, which meant yelling would be pointless. She was much more interested in all the heals and Raise Ally spells that were already going off as the raids picked themselves up. The fast response was exactly what she'd wanted, but the sight of all that mana usage still had her slightly panicked. This was just the opening of a very long battle. If they were burning this fast already, they were going to run out.

  By this point, all the Circles of Thorns that had gone up were starting to fall away, dropping the boulders they'd caught harmlessly to the ground around them. Most fell into the river, but a few landed in the grass directly behind the raid. One smooth-sanded stone plopped onto the bridge just a few feet in front of her, and Tina's face broke into an enormous grin.

  "Well, well," she said, making sure her voice was loud enough for all the knights to hear as she reached down to run her gloved hands over the painstakingly crafted catapult ammunition. "Thanks for the ammo, jerks!" She grinned one last time and stepped back, turning slightly to yell over her shoulder. "Team Shot Put, you're up!"

  "Oh yeah," Killbox said, cracking his knuckles as he led the rest of the strength-based classes forward. "Time to lay the smack down."

  Tina dutifully got out of the way as the Berserker sauntered up to the boulder that had landed on the bridge in front of them.

  Flexing arms that would give canned hams envy, he picked up the beach-ball-sized hunk of granite as if it weighed nothing. "Ready, boss?"

  "Fire at will," Tina said smugly.

  "Hooah!" Killbox ran a few feet down the bridge, hopped the last step, then hurled the catapult stone back toward the enemy army. People whistled in appreciation as the rock sailed through the midmorning sunlight like an artillery shot, arcing nearly fifty feet into the air before crashing down right on top of the catapult line.

  The resulting crash of wood and stone was deafening. Splinters flew so high into the air, Tina had to lift her shield to protect her face. But the attack wasn't over. Behind them, the rest of Team Shot Put was grabbing the not-quite-as-round-or-as-large-but-still-deadly rocks Frank and the others had piled behind the bridge. Hefting the stones like softballs, the massively strong Berserkers hurled them across the river and into the enemy ranks, taking out knights and carts and catapults in a hail of stones. A few enterprising members even ran back to snatch more catapult stones from where they'd landed by the other raids then ran back onto the bridge to hurl them as Killbox had, pummeling Malakai's army under a meteor storm of flying rocks.

  "Whooee!" Killbox shouted as the rocks flew over their heads. "And they used to say I was no good at baseball!"

  "I know, right?" Tina agreed. "Who needs siege weapons? You guys are the most destructive bastards around."

  She gave Killbox a high five that left her hand stinging and turned back to Malakai, who'd been forced to take cover in one of the far buildings as the last of Team Shot Put's attacks rained down. "What do you think of us now, Captain Loser?" she taunted. "Got anything else you want to try, or are you ready to take your own advice and surrender? Personally, I'd recommend giving up now. This isn't exactly going your way, and we ain't even gotten to the real ass-kicking yet. If you and your Buffoon King want to get out of this with any army left, you'd better call it quits, 'cause we can do this all damn day."

  She couldn't even see Malakai anymore through the chaos of broken catapults and injured soldiers, but that was fine. As much as Tina hated the captain, her taunts weren't actually for him. They were aimed at the normal soldiers, the men that--as SB had said--were just following orders. Malakai's hate was such that he'd fight them until he could no longer stand, but normal people weren't half as hard-core. If she could break the enemy's morale, she could end this without having to take another attack. That was her hope, anyway, but the Bastion Army must have been very well trained, because no one broke ranks as Malakai forced his way out of the house he'd sheltered in and started ordering his men forward.

  Shaking her head at the stupidity of it all, Tina lifted her shield. "Get ready for incoming!"

  While the raid got into position behind her, Tina set her stance at the front, shifting her shield nervously as Malakai's soldiers started grabbing debris out of the ruined plaza. Some of the broken beams were so heavy, they had to be carried by ten men. Tina watched in confusion as Malakai waved his hand forward, sending his spearmen and archers rushing out of the safety of the rear streets, across the cratered square, and straight toward the riverbank itself with their armfuls of salvage.

  "What are they doing?" SB whispered.

  Tina had no idea. It looked like they were about to charge her bridge with a bunch of random garbage. Before she could figure out how to deal with that, though, the enemy stopped just short of the river and started throwing down the debris they'd picked up. Broken catapults and hunks of stone were piled on top of each other in crisscross stacks, forming a wall of cover for the archers to squeeze between as they started firing at the players on the bridge.

  "Crap," Tina said, hunkering down behind her shield. "Arrows incoming! Get to cover!"

  The others were running before she'd finished, sprinting toward the makeshift walls at the Camp Comeback end of the bridge just in time as the shots started raining down. Of everything the enemy might bring, archers had been the most predictable, so she'd had CraftyJohn build them a shelter. The piled stone walls made a hefty barricade, but the splashes of golden-and-green light showed that too many arrows were still getting through. She'd wanted to save their limited ammunition and mana for the inevitable bridge fight, but the healers would run themselves dry long before the enemy ran out of arrows at this rate, so Tina set her jaw and gave the order everyone had been waiting for.

  "Ranged attack, go!"

  A cheer rose up from behind the makeshift wall, then spells and glowing arrows began to pour around the edges of the barricade as the Roughnecks' Rangers and Sorcerers unloaded. Tina and Frank--the only two players with shields that could protect them from the arrows and thus the only two who'd stayed on the bridge--were forced to hit the deck as fireballs and acid shots screamed over their heads to explode along the enemy line.

  It wasn't anything Tina hadn't seen before, but it was still a damn glorious sight. The Roughnecks' ranged smashed through Malakai's makeshift barricade like a boot through tissue, blasting it apart and crushing the soldiers cowering behind it. Men screamed as poison arrows dissolved their flesh, and still more were sent running as the Sorcerers' fireballs caught clothing and wooden debris. The smell of charred flesh drifted back on the wind as the other side of the river turned into a raging inferno. When all the enemy arrows had stopped falling, Tina lowered her shield with a whoop.

  "Yeah!" she shouted, stabbing her sword into the air. "That's how it's done! Everyone back into position!"

  Cheers rose as the Roughnecks rushed back onto the bridge to obey. Seeing them running to get back into position made Tina want to cry. It was so different from the Deadlands. Everyone was listening and doing their part, obeying her orders without backtalk. This was what a raid was supposed to be, and they were going to crush anything that got in their way.

  "Should we charge them?" Killbox asked as he got back into place behind her. "They look pretty toasted."

  The opposite riverbank was indeed a sea of fire and broken bows. Wounded and dead archers littered the ground, while terrified spearmen tried to drag the injured to safety. It was the perfect chance to push the line, but Tina shook her head.

  "We can't abandon our spot," she said quietly. "We're badasses, but most of the other raids are still just barely coordinated mobs. If we move out, we'll roll what's in front of us, but Malakai will send men in behind to take out our allies. We have to hold."

  "We've held like bosses so far," NekoBaby said happily. "Let them keep trying. They have to get tired of banging their heads against the Roughnecks sometime."

  That was in fact the plan, but though they'd wrecked ever
ything Malakai had tried so far, it wasn't a fraction of what he'd brought with him. The black-and-gray-haired elf was already back on his feet and calling in reinforcements from the side streets, waving his arms toward their bridge in violent gestures as the cavalry moved forward.

  "Here come the ponies," Tina muttered, glaring over the edge of her shield as the armored riders formed up on the other side of the bridge for a charge. "Listen up!" she shouted, standing up straight. "I want Rangers on the riverbank to the left of our bridge. Sorcerers, you're on the other side. Make sure you have a clear shot at the enemy's half of the bridge. Frank, you're with me. Melee, get behind us. Pack it in!"

  Frank hurried to her side as the rest of the raid scrambled to rearrange itself. Tina noted that her fellow tank had a few arrows stuck in his armor, but otherwise, he looked all right--slightly terrified, but that was pretty normal for him.

  "Ever thought you'd have to stop a cavalry charge, Frank?" she asked with a grin.

  "Can't say it's crossed my mind," Frank replied nervously, peering over his shield at the wall of armored mounts that was about to launch at them. "Um, do we even have the mass to stop horses? They got a lotta force on their side."

  "Well, I weigh as much as a horse, so maybe?" Tina shrugged. "Won't know until we try."

  Frank did not look reassured by that. "Anything I should know before this starts?"

  "Yeah," Tina said. "Keep your head below your shield. They're going to be coming in high. If you put your head up, you're liable to get a lance through your face, so stay down."

  "If I'm not looking, how will I know when to brace?"

  "You won't," Tina said. "But it's better than getting speared through the head. Just try not to get knocked over. Our job is just to stop the horses. The others will handle the rest."

  "R-Right," he stuttered, bracing his shield in front of him.

  "It'll be fine," Tina said, reaching out to grab his metal shoulder. "These guys aren't any scarier than what we fought at the concentration camp."

  "That was pretty scary," Frank said, putting his visor down. "I ain't sorry we did it, but it's not an event I'm eager to repeat. Maybe it don't bother stone people like yourself, but I've never seen so much blood in my life."

  "Yeah, their blood," Tina reminded him pointedly. "We were all fine until--"

  A thunderous noise cut her off. On the other side of the bridge, the enormous unit of cavaliers had finished forming its two-rider-wide column and was starting the charge. The clatter of hundreds of hooves on stone was louder than anything Tina had ever heard, shaking the bridge under her feet. The movement brought Frank's force comment back to mind, and Tina suddenly was no longer so sure she could stop a charging horse on her own after all--or at least not a hundred horses.

  "Change of plan!" she yelled, hunkering down behind her shield. "Melee, move in to brace the tanks!"

  She wasn't sure if they'd heard her over the roar until she felt Killbox's iron-gloved hands land on her back. Reassured he had her back--literally--Tina shifted into a lunge stance: right leg forward, back leg wedged against the Berserker's massive boot. When she was lodged in place, she sheathed her blade and put both hands behind her shield. Next to her, Frank did the same, leaning so close, his tower shield bumped into hers. Behind them, all the other melee did the same, hunkering down against the tank line's backs as they all braced for impact.

  The wait was one of the most harrowing things Tina had ever experienced. She kept telling herself that this couldn't possibly be worse than Grel, but blindly hiding behind her shield while hundreds of armored riders thundered toward her had to be one of the most intimidating moments of her tanking career. Not knowing when she'd be struck was the worst part. The bridge was only thirty feet long, and the horses were moving at a full gallop, yet it still felt like years before the first hoof landed on her shield, almost knocking her over despite the wall of muscle braced against her back.

  "Steady Ground!" she yelled, turning the bridge beneath her feet into solid bedrock.

  She landed the ability just in time. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than a tremendous weight landed on her shield, banging the edge of it into her forehead. The tip of a lance passed through the copper dreadlocks on the back of her head a second later. Tina could feel its edge like a razor sliding over her scalp, but it did not pierce her stone flesh, and she did not fall.

  More horses crashed into her, their iron-shod hooves clattering on the wall of her shield as their weight came down. Riders were sent flying as their momentum suddenly stopped, launching over her head into the melee behind her, where they were quickly hacked to bits. But the charge didn't stop. Since she didn't dare look over her shield, Tina had no idea how many horses had crashed into her, but the sheer mass of them was piling up her shield. The sunlight vanished as armored knights and kicking horses were pushed over her by the sheer force of the charging men behind them.

  Tina spluttered as hot blood poured over her, struggling not to fall to her knees. This was nothing like Grel's attack. His blows had been powerful, but at least they'd been fast. This felt like she was being slowly crushed, and it just kept coming. By the time her Steady Ground faded, Tina couldn't see a thing. There had to be thousands of pounds of men and metal piled on top of her, making her armor groan. Screams of pain and the sounds of weapons clashing were the only signs she had that the fight was still going. Then Killbox's hands vanished from her shoulders, and the weight on top of her got even heavier, the whole mass moving in bursts and shakes, as if the Roughnecks were climbing over it.

  Then just when Tina was sure she was going to be crushed under the combined weight of every horse in Bastion, someone roared in fury. It sounded like a Berserker, but it was ahead of her, not behind, which was all wrong. As the tank, Tina was always supposed to be the front line. If someone was out ahead of her, that meant she was failing her job.

  The fury over that thought brought a burst of new strength. With a roar of her own, Tina heaved against the pile weighing her down, pushing up with her shaking legs until the mass started to slide. Tipping sideways, she crashed into the bridge's stone railing and clung to it for balance as the whole mess slid off her shield with a wet, sticky sound. As the light returned, Tina had never been gladder to be a stonekin. If she'd been human, she would have lost every lunch she'd ever eaten as a dozen crushed knights slid off her block into the river below.

  As it was, the sight of so many defeated enemies just made her shake with triumph. The charge had stopped. All of the enemy's momentum was spent, leaving just a bunch of knights on horses facing off against her melee line--Killbox and Frank specifically since the bridge's narrow span bottled the Roughnecks just as much as it did the knights. None of the other close-quarters-combat fighters could get past the front line without risking losing a limb, but while that was definitely a problem, it was also the entire point of this plan.

  "Good job, guys!" Tina yelled, throwing the last knight off her shield into the bloody water below. "Keep them there!"

  Killbox nodded and swept his ax through the knight he was fighting on the bridge. Satisfied the line would hold, Tina turned to wave her arms at the Rangers and Sorcerers she'd sent to the riverbanks. While hand-to-hand fighters couldn't go more than two abreast down the stone bridge, the ranged damage dealers didn't have that problem. From their position on the sides, her Rangers and Sorcerers had a clear view of the knights piled up on the bridge, exactly as planned.

  "Open fire!" Tina yelled, pointing at the opposite side of the bridge. "Concentrate on the back lines! Don't hit our people!"

  The rest of the Roughnecks waved back, then the whistle-thunk of arrows filled the air once more. The roar of flames followed, dousing the knights' back line in an explosion of orange fire. But while the ranged had clearly gotten the "Attack!" part of her orders, they seemed to be having trouble with the rest. Tina was forced to duck as an arrow sailed right past her face to land in the chest of the knight Frank was currently hacking at. When an
other shot almost pierced her fellow tank's head, Tina decided to shield up behind them so the front-line fighters didn't get one in the back.

  The rest of the players on the bridge hit the ground as the close shots came in, and just in time. The ranged were getting caught up in the bloodlust now, turning the knights' half of the bridge into an inferno. Packed in so close together, the enemy didn't even have a chance to retreat before they were shot to bits or burned to cinders. It got so thick that even Frank and Killbox were forced to stop swinging and hit the dirt. Tina took that as a chance to reclaim her place at the front, but by the time she'd squat-walked past Killbox, nothing on the bridge in front of her was moving. The whole span all the way back to Malakai's side of the river was now a singed wasteland of blood and burned body parts. It was so horrific, even her stonekin stomach turned, forcing her to swallow as she lifted her arm in the air.

  "Cease fire!"

  The barrage of arrows and fire puttered to a stop, leaving her standing in the deathly quiet of the slaughtered bridge. "Well," she said happily, "so far, so good."

  "Says you," Frank muttered, looking down at his gory armor. "I think I'm gonna barf."

  Tina was pretty bloody as well. Her newly cleaned armor was now soaked in blood. Man or horse, she didn't know, but it didn't bother her as it seemed to bother everyone else, and she used that to her advantage. "Take a break, everyone," she ordered. "We've broken all their toys, so now we wait and see what's up next. I've got the bridge. You guys take five and mana up."

  The others made grateful noises and shuffled away from the horrifying bridge as fast as possible. Even SB left, covering his eyes as if he couldn't stand the sight of it. Grateful there was something good about being a stonekin, Tina strode out into the middle of the blood-soaked span and lifted her hand to her face, shielding her eyes against the high sun as she studied her enemy.

  It wasn't a good view. Despite the carnage they'd unleashed, it looked like they'd barely made a dent in the army's numbers. Malakai was already yelling for the next unit to move forward, but while the knights obeyed without hesitation, Tina was happy to see that the common soldiers no longer seemed so eager to listen. The spearmen and archers were especially leery of entering the front half of the plaza, which was within player bow range, and the yellow-coated city guards seemed to be in open revolt. Malakai turned to scream at their commander as Tina watched, stomping his feet and even throwing things at the poor man.