The Siege

Siege was flying directly towards us at impossible speed. Just how was he even moving that fast?

“He must have reverse-tracked my trail!” said Sybille. “This is bad!”

She cast forth several crystal-like shields of magic around us. One after another, they stood high against whatever was coming at us.

Then he came.

Siege descended like a burning meteor. He struck right through all the barriers that Sybille had cast, shattering them like glass, and grabbed my head with his hand. He slammed me down into the ground and accelerated, dragging me through the ruins of the village, then flung me against a tree. My body snapped the tree in half, then fell to the ground along with it.

“Bastion!” Sybille shouted from afar.

“I’m… fine!” I managed to respond.

I somehow got myself unto my feet. That was a surprising attack, but it did not wound me so much.

“DISAPPOINTING,” struck a voice like thunder. “NUMBER BS-8. ARE YOU TRULY MY PREDECESSOR?”

At the center of the village there was another ReConstruct. One just like me, but different.

Number CS-1.

The infamous Siege.

He was around my height, if somewhat taller, but his build was far more complex. He had metal linings reinforcing his body but had no face. There was not a single facial feature in his head, aside from a pair of linings from where red light shone through. On his back, he had a pair of protrusions in similar shape to a bird’s wing. From them, fire seethed out like feathers.

“I have no idea,” I said. “Unlike you, I am no killer.”

Siege turned his gaze towards Sybille.

“SYBILLE ELIA DIAMANTIS,” said Siege. “TRAITOROUS WITCH. BETRAYER. DESERTER. WHY?”

Sybille aimed her staff at Siege.

“I will not be the tool of a murderer,” she said. “That is why!”

“THEN, YOU SHALL DIE.”

Siege burst feather-like flames out from his back’s protrusions and bolted towards Sybille. Just before he could crush her, Leona tackled Sybille out of the way and let Siege crash into a villager’s house past her.

“Bastion, get over here!” commanded Leona.

“On my way!” I responded.

I ran towards them, but I was not exactly the fastest, and Siege had left me pretty far from them.

“This is for the people you killed, you monster!” roared Leona.

She spun her halberd about, then charged towards Siege as the latter pushed rubble off from his body. As Leona was closing the distance, Siege shot a fireball out from his hands and towards her. Leona dodged, and then, Sybille supported her by casting a Wind Blade towards Siege.

The Wind Blade struck, but only sliced the surface. With the rebound effect, what Leona and Sybille could do was limited.

Leona leapt to Siege’s face and rammed her halberd’s spear tip between the glowing eye slits. She did not get far and barely made a dent.

“BEGONE!” said Siege.

He swung his arm towards Leona, who again, managed to dodge, and this time, rolled towards Siege’s back.

There she saw that was his means of flight.

It was as though Siege was wearing a small stone backpack with two wings. From the runes of those wings, fire burst out to propel his movement. What caught Leona’s attention the most was that there was no sign of melting on Siege’s body. For using fire to propel himself, there was not even soot on him.

He must have fire resistance runes too, thought Leona. His body will not even warm up. When I touched his shoulder, it was cold. In other words…

“I SAID BEGONE!” shouted Siege.

Siege spun around and struck Leona, sending her flying across the field. Then, he charged at Sybille.

“Stop!” I shouted.

I crashed against him, slamming my full weight against his, sending us both rolling into the ground.

“Dammit…” groaned Leona.

“Are you okay?” said Sybille, rushing towards her.

“Just heal me already.”

Siege and I stood up as fast we could and stared down at each other. We sized each other up, searching for openings, for weak points, for anything that might prove an advantage.

That man was built like a tank.

I did not find anything I could use against him. Not readily, at least.

“PREPARE YOURSELF, NUMBER BS-8,” said Siege, walking towards me. “I SHOW NO MERCY TO BETRAYERS.”

We came to blows.

It was a tremendous barrage. Each of our strikes would be enough to kill a regular human, yet we traded them off in a flurry. Stone met stone, casting shockwaves through our bodies from each blow. With bodies as cumbersome as ours, it was difficult for either of us to block or deflect, but as our exchange went on, Siege was somehow managing to do it.

More of my punches were being either blocked or deflected, while more of them were landing against my chest and my head.

The bastard also decided to kick my groin. Hard. I have never been so thankful before as to not have anything down there.

Still, I was picking up on what he was doing. He was using mixed martial arts.

He was using illegal moves at that, too!

I had to respond in kind. I could not continue just punching blindly.

It was time for judo. I only took some classes in college, but...

After he landed so many hits on me, Siege was letting his guard down. The first chance I could, I went for a grapple, pressing my shoulder against his arm, and pulled down his hand. As he tripped over my back, however, he grabbed me in return and then flew into the air. We were spinning wildly towards the sky, trying desperately to gain dominance over the other.

“They’re going at it…” said Leona, from the ground. “At this rate, Bastion is going to lose.”

Sybille had just finished healing her.

“My magic cannot aim that well to a moving target that far,” she said.

“I can throw my halberd,” said Leona. “Wait, Sybille! Bless my halberd with frost magic! Fast!”

“What? Siege is using all kinds of fire magic. What good will frost do against that?”

“Just do it!”

She handed over her halberd to Sybille, who then went on to shower it with blue light.

In the struggle between Siege and I, Siege managed to raise his spare arm high and strike my head down with his elbow. Hard, almost like a hammer. He struck me three solid times until he cracked my skull, and sent me falling down to the ground.

“Bastion!” shouted Sybille.

She flung out her wind to catch me, guiding my fall unto a haystack.

Siege meanwhile let his wings of fire fade, trying to go and land.

“Got it!” said Leona.

When she saw that Siege was about to fall, and no longer using his wings, she snatched the frost-bound halberd from Sybille’s hands and chased out for an angle. The moment she saw a good spot, she braked against the dirt, then flung her halberd towards Siege.

The enchanted weapon rammed itself into Siege’s back, bursting out with a swath of ice almost encasing Siege whole. Siege fell down slamming into the ground, coated in pure ice.

“YOU THINK TO ENCASE ME IN ICE?” said Siege. “FOOL.”

He tried unfurling his flames to liberate himself from the ice, and then, his wings exploded.

“What?” said Sybille.

Siege screamed out in agony.

“TRICKSTER FIEND,” he said. “WHAT DID YOU DO?”

Leona smirked.

“Not telling ya,” she said.

His whole body is filled with porous holes, almost like lava rock, thought Leona. By filling those holes with ice, I created a pressure just waiting to explode the moment that the ice turns bursts into vapor. As I suspected, that managed to blow out his wings. However...

She could barely stand. After throwing a blow like that, the rebound effect was just about ready to make her pass out.

But now was not the moment for me to worry about her.

Siege was stunned.

I could not waste any time.

I leapt to my feet and used my runes to bolster my speed and charged towards Siege. I slammed into him once more, this time with the impulse and edge to barrage him with my own blows, not allowing a single one of his to strike back.

“You...” said Siege.

That is when I realized, that he was not fighting back. He was just taking my hits head-on, barely guarding.

“You have to stop him,” he said, in a tone far more human than before.

“What?” I said.

I remained in guard, but still preparing for another strike.

“You have to stop the Master,” said Siege. “Before… YOU!”

Siege seized my arm, then, poured fire into my body. He was welding my joints shut.

“Gurgh!” I groaned.

He was turning my arms into piles of slag. No matter how hard I pulled, I could not get him off.

“Bastion!” said Sybille. “Hang in there!”

Sybille aimed her staff towards Siege, channeling a mighty pool of energy at the tip of her weapon, pulling every ounce of mana that she could muster into her attack.

“Wait…” said Leona. “Sybille! If you do that…”

She was going to die. Whatever she was doing, if that thing hit Siege, she was going to die. Maybe Siege too. However, Sybille’s death would be an absolute certainty in the face of the rebound effect.

Sybille unleashed her spell, letting it hurl as a massive stream of energy heading directly towards Siege.

I pulled Siege away.

Sybille’s spell tore a massive hole through the buildings remaining on her path, leaving burning marks on the ground upon its wake.

“Bastion…” said Sybille. “Why?”

She fell to her knees, then collapsed to the side.

“Sybille!” I shouted.

Leona crouched down to check Sybille’s pulse.

“She’s still alive!” she said.

Siege weighed down his body’s weight against my grasp.

“You… YOU!” said Siege. “YOU DARE SHOW ME MERCY?”

“It wasn’t for you,” I told him.

Siege’s grip on my arms tightened, casting cracks through the molten rock.

“I WILL NOT BE SPARED BY THE LIKES OF YOU,” said Siege.

He pushed me down into the ground, and then, with a force threatening to split me in two, he pulled both my arms to the side, and tore out my right arm whole.

“Argh!” I screamed.

For the first time in a long time, I felt pain. True, unfiltered pain.

“I WILL SEND YOU TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM,” said Siege.

He flung away the arm he tore from me, then pummeled my face with his fists. I could not even swat his strikes away. One after another, he struck devastating blows into my fractured head, with each one just why of breaking through the skull.

“Dammit…” groaned Leona.

She could barely stand. Nonetheless, she got up, and forced herself to approach Siege.

One second, she thought. If I can just buy Bastion one second…

She stopped.

From the sky, a bolt of lightning hammered down towards Siege. The bolt forced Siege back, making distance away from me.

“WHO GOES THERE?!” shouted Siege.

“What? Someone’s coming?” added Leona.

From the top of the hill, a party of four emerged. It was Rocksplitter and his group.

“Bastion!” shouted Rocksplitter. “We were nearby when we heard you came here to hunt down the golem. What you know, then we see you already duking it out! Were you trying to leave us out of the fun?”

His party walked down from the hill, keeping their weapons and spells at the ready to fight against Siege.

“Rocksplitter!” I said. “Run! He is a ReConstruct like me! You will not be able to kill him!”

Rocksplitter scoffed.

“A ReConstruct?” he said. “A little headache won’t stop be from breaking some rocks!”

The rogue unleashed her arrows against Siege and the mage her spells, both of them bolstered by the magic of their cleric. Their ranged attacks landed on Siege, knocking him some steps back, but barely just wounding him.

“I will split you in two!” shouted Rocksplitter.

He charged head-first to Siege and brought down his pair of axes against him. Siege blocked with his arms, but not without the axes cleaving out a chunk of stone out from them.

“Rocksplitter…” I muttered.

Leona arrived at my side.

“Can you stand up?” she said.

“Barely…”

I somehow managed to get to my feet and stumble my way towards the fight before Leona grabbed my hand.

“Hey, hey!” said Leona. “Do you think you can fight?”

“No,” I said. “But I will have to.”

They would all die if I were not to help them. As strong as they are, the rebound effect would keep them against delivering a fatal blow.

My knee gave out. It must have been damaged from the fall. Now, I could hardly even stand at all.

“Here,” said Leona.

She handed me over a small magic crystal. I clenched it into my palm, crushed it, and with that, just managed to heal me knee to walk.

“Thanks,” I said.

“That will not be enough,” said Leona. “You are not in fighting condition.”

“Leona…” I said. “You can’t be suggesting…”

“We escape,” she said. “Every instinct I have as a warrior tells me that if we try to fight Siege right now, we will all die. Rocksplitter’s party will not hold out for long. If they have to protect two, no, three wounded people, they will be in even more danger than they already are in.”

Rocksplitter pushed Siege back, sending him away a distance, but he was already showing sign of wear.

“Bastion!” said Rocksplitter. “Listen to that lioness! If you are not going to be helping, leave!”

“But then you will…!” I went.

Rocksplitter laughed.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” he said. “My name is Rocksplitter! I was given a name by prophecy, as were all those in my clan. And tonight, I will do my name honor.”

“Rocksplitter…”

“Go!” he said. “Go, and if this monster escapes us, then you go find it next time, and win.”

“I am sorry.”

I walked over to Sybille, picked up her body, and hurried over to our wagon and horse. The horse was in a panicked state, trying to free himself from the tree it was roped to. I put Sybille on the wagon, Leona took the driver’s seat, and together, we left Greenvale, and the battle behind.