Last Bastion

by Rachel Aaron

  It was a lot harder than he'd anticipated. The Naturalist spells he'd learned from the game were part of his muscle memory. He didn't even have to think about how they went together. It just happened like habit, his body going through the motions automatically. Now, though, he felt like he was trying to knit a 3-D shape out of taffy while simultaneously doing long division. Even knowing exactly what he wanted, actually getting the magic into that shape was one of the hardest mental exercises James had ever had to do. If he hadn't had the giant extra Intellect boost from his staff, he could never have kept it all in his head. He still wasn't sure how he actually managed it, but the quickly escalating force of Tina's weight on his chest was a powerful motivator. Somehow, it all came together, and the moment it did, James thrust the magic upward, holding his breath as Tina's shield pressed his body into the soft earth.

  A heartbeat later, the ground around him exploded. Four mighty stone fingers thrust up from the grass like pistons, striking Tina's shield and forcing it skyward. It happened so fast, his sister nearly lost her grip, shooting to her feet as she struggled to snatch her shield back before the rocketing stone ripped it off her arm. Suddenly free, James kicked to his feet, but he'd barely gotten upright before he was forced to dive out of the way as Tina smashed the still-rising stone fingers to rubble.

  Shards of rock flew past as James rolled through the grass. Tina's gauntlet flashed by his head as she made a grab for his shoulder. Her armored hand missed by the thinnest distance as James dodged right, and he came up panting several feet away with his Eclipsed Steel Staff ready in his hands.

  "Dammit, James!" Tina yelled at him as she got her shield back on her arm. "You're really pissing me off!"

  "We can stop anytime you're ready," he told her, grabbing a fresh handful of earth magic out of the air. "All you have to do is agree to read the treaty I brought and--"

  He cut off as Tina started to charge. Leaping to the side, James hurled the magic he'd gathered at her chest, folding the ribbons of power into a copy of the spell he'd used to pin down Lady Siku. The moment the magic touched her, stone hands burst from the ground to grab Tina's legs. But unlike the white jubatus noble lady and her guards, who'd been sitting down, Tina had momentum on her side, and she was a lot bigger. The stone hands barely managed to get around her before she kicked them free, stomping the rock into magically bound rubble as she charged James like a freight train.

  Clearly, trying to stop a half ton of stone with more stone wasn't going to work. Swearing under his breath, James launched himself out of Tina's path, trusting his Jubatus instincts to land him on his feet as he changed tactics and started grabbing up streams of water and life, frantically tying the magics together until he had something that looked like a backward version of the Cleansing Spell. It was like nothing he'd ever tried before, but it felt terrifyingly close to the corruption and poison spells necromancers used. So close, in fact, that James fully expected his cursed staff to wake up and start purring, but it didn't. Now that he was paying attention, the weapon actually felt oddly empty, as if the presence that usually inhabited it was gone.

  That seemed significant, but James had no time to investigate. He was already launching his experimental spell at Tina, who'd stopped on a dime and turned to charge him again, sword swinging to cut his staff in half.

  James got the black metal out of the way just in time, snatching it to his stomach as the twisted life and water magics exploded in his sister's face. Her charge staggered to a halt as she started coughing, and James's hopes soared. Unfortunately, aside from that initial stumble, not being able to breathe didn't seem to slow her down at all. The smile had barely made it to his face before Tina lurched forward again and plowed into him.

  Smashing into her shield felt like falling face first onto pavement. The front of James's body exploded in pain as he flew backward. As always, his instincts came to his rescue, landing James on all fours in the bloody grass, but his head was still ringing like a gong, and blood was pouring from his nose. The world was spinning so fast, James had no idea which direction Tina was in or how close she was, but he could feel the ground shaking under his feet. Taking that as a sign, James picked a direction at random and rolled, getting out of the way just in time as the giant stonekin trampled through where he'd been.

  Scrambling to his feet, James hurled a sloppy healing spell onto himself. It didn't fix much, but the euphoria blocked the pain from his ribs and chest, clearing his head just in time to see Tina turn and leap for him yet again.

  So overpowered! James dove for safety, cursing the unfairness of it all. Even poisoned and having to contend with the physics of moving hundreds of pounds of stone, Roxxy was still more agile, faster, and quicker to react than he could ever hope to be. He didn't know if it was just their gear difference or if stonekin had a natural advantage now that the balance mechanisms from the game were no longer in play, but he was in a seriously bad position. Magic was the only edge he had, but she kept coming at him so fast, he never had a chance to work up a really big spell. He needed to buy himself some time, and when she backed him up toward the river, James got an idea as to how.

  Flinging out his arm, James grabbed as much water magic as he could. There were tons of it moving in waves above the swiftly flowing river, so he didn't even have to shape it that much before throwing it at his sister. The result was a geyser of water that hit her in the chest like a blast from a fire hose. It wasn't enough to stop her, but the water's pressure and the mud slick it was creating in the grass under her feet did slow her down enough for James to stop running and start building the spell he actually wanted, sweeping his staff in giant arcs across the sky as he pulled down ream after ream of bright-white air magic. He piled it up as long as he could, wrapping the magic around itself while Tina struggled in the mud. Finally, when she was almost in grabbing distance and her face looked furious enough to crush his skull with her anger alone, James unleashed the power he'd been piling up, striking her in the chest with the brightest, biggest bolt of lightning he'd ever seen.

  The resulting explosion threw them both across the field. Soaked and covered in conductive metal, Tina took the worst of it. James was only slightly singed when he pushed himself up again, but his sister's whole body spasmed as the electricity flooded through her into the ground. It went on for so long that James began to sweat. He knew she had tons of health, but it still felt wrong to straight-out blast her. He was hoping the electrocution would at least have temporary paralytic effect and buy him some breathing room to heal up, but that dream died as Tina planted her sword in the ground and pushed up, electricity still crackling from her armor as her enraged eyes locked on him.

  "James!"

  His name came out in a roar, and James flinched back. He'd never seen her this angry, including the day he told her he'd dropped out of college. She was literally steaming from the overheated water as she bent down and grabbed a basketball-sized rock to hurl at his head.

  "You are dead!"

  He dodged the rock by the breadth of his whiskers, but the second one hit him dead in the leg, snapping his bone like a twig. Pain exploded through his entire body as he dropped to the soggy grass, gasping and heaving as the nausea of the intense agony hit home. He knew from the shaking ground that Tina was almost on top of him, so he grabbed the first magic that came to hand, which turned out to be water and earth. He had no idea what he was going to do with that combo, but if his sister reached him, it was over, so he bundled the magic together and threw it, hoping for something useful. What he got was a miracle.

  The moment the magic touched it, the riverbank, still sodden from his earlier water geyser, began to slide. Turned into sludge by the flood, the rich river dirt ripped free of the net of the grass's roots and gave way in sheets, and Tina's charge only made it worse. Between her pounding feet and massive weight, the ground simply couldn't hold. Even her godlike strength and agility weren't enough to keep her on her feet as the mudslide took hold, sending her careening l
ike a tractor-trailer on ice down the hill toward the bloody river.

  James stared after her in shock for several heartbeats before he realized how stupid he was being. Grabbing his staff, James greedily swept together the biggest healing spell he could hold. It dropped into him with a magical high that made his head feel like it was floating away. Normally, James hated the feeling of being that high, but he was desperately glad of the euphoria now, because the spell also popped his leg back together, repairing the shattered bone with a stomach-churning crunch. His skin was still closing back over the former compound fracture when James staggered to his feet, but while the pain was nonexistent now, his whole body felt exhausted, a sure sign that he was running low on mana. He was using it up too fast like this, but James had no idea what else to do. Martial arts were out. Tina was way too big to take down with the grapple he'd used on SB, and she wouldn't even feel a punch.

  He was still searching for a solution when he spotted Tina clawing her way back up the mudslide. She was down on all fours, using her sword and shield to dig into the soft, sliding earth and pull herself up hand over hand. From the fury on her face, James knew better than to let her reach him, but he had no idea beyond that. He couldn't run, couldn't fight her hand to hand, and his magic was almost gone. Whatever spell he cast next would probably be his last. If he didn't figure out how to win in the next move, he'd lose everything--including Tina. She'd never respect him if she had to drag him back to her raid, and James would never forgive himself if he let her go through with whatever horrors she was plotting with wind-fire powder. No, for everyone's sake, no matter the cost, he had to end this now.

  With that, James steeled his resolve and dropped low, clutching his staff to his chest. Across the destroyed slope, Tina finished her crawl up the landslide and turned on him again, her muddy face murderous. It was a look that would make anything with a brain want to run, but James stubbornly stayed put, holding his ground as she started to charge with her shield up and her sword behind it so he wouldn't know what angle she was striking from until it was too late.

  If he'd still been fighting, that would have been a real problem, because she moved too fast to dodge at close range. But James wasn't fighting anymore. This was now do-or-die, so he let her get right up on him, crouching low on the shaking ground as she got closer and closer, sword finally snaking out to attack his left side.

  When the red-runed blade was close enough to kiss his painted leather armor, James leaped up with all his strength. His body uncurled like a spring, launching him high into the air. Glaring at him, Tina shifted automatically, swinging her shield up to protect her head from another grab like the one he'd tried at the start, but James knew better than to bother. Instead, he planted his feet directly on her rising shield and jumped off it, using her own strength to launch himself up and away.

  When he was high enough to see Xthr looking at him curiously from across the rooftops, he straightened up and looked down at his sister, far below in the sundered field. There was no chance of a safe landing from this height, but he was fairly certain even Tina's monstrous strength couldn't get her stonekin up this high. For the next few seconds at least, he was safely out of her reach, and that gave him the chance for an attack that was impossible on the ground.

  Feeling slightly crazy, James threw out his arm to grab one of the truly enormous streams of air magic that floated high above the ground, the ones he normally never touched. Grabbing it gave him all the lightning he could ever want, plus a lot more he didn't, but he knew it was all or nothing. He grabbed as much as he could, ignoring the smell of burning fur as he wound the magic into a bolt the size of an old-growth tree and hurled it down at the stonekin standing directly below.

  The whole island blazed white as lightning arced from his staff into Tina. It had to be enough electricity to power a city block, but James still knew one bolt wasn't enough to take his sister down. He needed more, so he transferred his staff to his right hand and started yanking in magic with his left, feeding the torrent and burning all the mana he had left as he funneled more and more lightning down the spell until his vision whited out and the whole sky smelled of ozone. Then with a jolt that ran from the tips of his toes to the core of his soul, James's mana suddenly ran dry.

  As fast as it had come, the blinding light vanished. A heartbeat later, the ground met him with a wet crunch. Since he'd fallen from so high, even James's jubatus instincts couldn't do a thing to save him. He cratered into the mud with enough force to crush a normal person like a tin can. But as undergeared as he was, James was still a level-eighty player. Lots of things broke, leaving his body a ball of pain, but he didn't die on impact. He was trying to feel happy about that when he realized he couldn't see Tina.

  Coughing and gasping, James forced his body up, looking around frantically until he spotted his sister kneeling in a smoking crater ten feet away. She was absolutely still, frozen in a defensive position with her sword and shield crossed above her head. She didn't even seem to be breathing.

  For a horrifying second, James thought he'd gone too far. Stonekin turned back into stone when they died, and he'd never seen Roxxy look more like a rock than she did now. Even her copper hair was gray and still where it had fallen over her face, making him panic. He was trying to crawl toward her when the monochrome grayness covering her body began to fade away.

  Shuddering like an old engine, Tina shook her head and lowered her arms. The color of her armor, hair, and eyes blossomed back as she rose out of her crouch. Still sizzling slightly, she wiped the blackened soot off her face and turned on James.

  He lurched back. His sister looked as mad as a bear woken in winter. The ground trembled as she roared and charged at him, but he couldn't get out of the way. He'd broken his leg again in the fall, and he had nothing left for a spell. No more deep-blue mana resided within him. All he could do was scoot backward across the ground pathetically as she skidded to stop in front of him, sword already coming down to skewer him through the chest.

  Panicking, James threw his arms over his face in terror, but the pain he'd been waiting on never came. Instead, there was a metallic clang and a crunch as the blade sank into the churned-up dirt beside him. Then Tina's massive gauntlet seized him by his leather armor and hoisted him high into the air.

  "What is wrong with you?" she bellowed, lifting him up until they were at eye level. "You made me use Earthen Fortitude, you jackass!"

  His response was to raise his one good, shaking hand and punch her in the face. Fresh pain exploded up his arm as his broken fingers hit stone. The hit slid off Tina's cheek without even making her blink. It was the weakest punch he'd ever thrown bar none, but it was all he had left. He was working up the nerve to do it again when Tina dropped her head.

  Her shoulders began to shake. James couldn't blame her. If he hadn't been the one hurting, he'd probably have laughed himself sick at that sad little punch too. A few seconds later, though, James realized his little sister wasn't laughing at how pathetic he was. She was crying.

  "Why?" Tina whispered, her stone fist shaking against his neck where she held him up. "Why are you fighting me so hard? Do you hate me that much?" she demanded. "I was just trying to keep you safe! Why is it that every time I try to help you, you blow it up in my face?" Her stone voice dissolved into sobs, making her sound very much like the old Tina again. "Why are you always against me?"

  The tears in her voice hurt worse than the broken rib poking his left lung, but as bad as the pain was, it gave James hope. If she was crying instead of killing him, that meant she still cared. And if she cared enough to ask those questions, maybe she'd actually hear him this time when he answered.

  "I don't hate you, Tina," he said, leaning into her grasp. "I love you and I'm doing this to save you. I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you when we were kids. I'm sorry I broke your arm and ate your cake. I'm sorry I spent all our family's money then flunked out of school anyway. I'm sorry I ran away to FFO. I left our family with a giant debt and r
uined credit, and I didn't even stay at home to help. I just worked a crappy job and made minimum payments and played FFO, and meanwhile, I left you--a teenager--to deal with the fallout all by yourself. It's my fault you had to make an FFO video channel to pay for college. My fault Mom and Dad had to constantly work overtime and were never home for you. It's all my fault, and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Tina."

  There was nothing in that outpouring that James hadn't said to her before, but it wasn't until this moment that he realized how hollow his earlier apologies must have sounded. It was easy to say "I'm sorry" when you weren't doing anything to fix the problem. With the exception of playing FFO with her, James had never actually spent time making things right with his sister. Hell, even in FFO, he'd only helped her with the activities that amused him. When she asked for his help with raids or dungeons--things Tina actually cared about--he'd always found excuses not to go. Because he didn't want to. Because he'd rather zone out and have fun than spend a few hours helping his sister. No wonder she'd thrown all of his offers to "do anything to make it up to her" back in his face. Because whenever she did ask him for something, he flaked. He always let her down.

  Well, no more. James was a different person than he'd been five days ago. A better person, and he was determined to prove it. He'd kill himself being the brother Tina deserved if that was what she wanted. Before he could figure out a way to make her believe that, though, Tina's head shot back up.

  "If you're so sorry, why are you still doing it?" she demanded. "You say you're sorry, but you're still not on my side. You ran from me to go join forces with the guy who wants to kill us all!"

  "But he doesn't," James said frantically. "That's what I've been trying to tell you! King Gregory--"