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JAIME FONTOYA

Justice is the eleventh card of the Major Arcana in a Tarot deck. It indicates that the fairest decision will be made. Justice is the sword that cuts through a situation—it will not be swayed by outer beauty when deciding what is fair and just.

Tony and I rushed as fast as we could towards battle at the main gate. The gunslinger lagged behind so I had to slow myself down to keep him from straggling entirely.

"Hurry up, Susan!" I yelled back. "At this speed, there won't be enough bandits left for us."

"Don't use up all of your stamina right now! You'll be out of breath when we get there!"

"I am saving my stamina. This is my slow run."

"Oh," he panted. "Well, go slower."

From the distance, a brown spec in the sky grew towards our direction. The staff he carried and the pointy hat on his head made it obvious who he was.

Ilias shot a burst of air in front of him, slowing down his momentum so he could land upright. "Status on Florence?"

"She's out of commission. Her Stand could accurately shoot bullets from its hand so we had a hard time, but we took her out. How about Vienna, what was her ability?"

"Out of commission as well. She was able to control body temperature."

"That's it? How were you having trouble with someone that only controls body temperature? It looks like I'm the stronger one."

"Well, I fought Vienna and Montgomery. That's two unique abilities so I win in that."

Tony finally caught up. "What's the status of the battle?"

"It's almost over. Askeladd and Mondatta are at the front gate finishing off the last of the bandits there. The twins and all the platoons are heading to the cave to protect the non-combatants. We suspect that the remaining bandits are headed there as a last resort."

"See? You're too slow! There are none left for us," I yelled at Tony. "Wait, so we won?"

"We're winning, but we haven't won just yet. There's still one more problem—Messina. He hasn't shown himself and he's the one that has a personal grudge against this village. He's got nothing to lose so his absence scares me."

"What was the big boss' order?" Tony asked.

"All he said was to check up on how you two were doing. We should head back to them and see what our next course of action is."

Ilias gestured towards the main gate with his head before heading into a slow jog.

"Wait," I called out. "We might as well use them to get as much of an advantage against Messina as we can."

Reluctantly, they followed me to where Tony and I tested out Clash. In one of the emptied-out houses were the horses that belonged to last night's raiders.

Tony began preparing them to be ridden on.

"Hey, Tony, you don't have to ready all of them," Ilias said. "Jaime doesn't know how to ride a horse so she'll ride with me."

"I'm preparing them for Askeladd and Mondatta. I'm sure they'd appreciate being on horses."

"There are plenty of horses at the main gate."

A calm voice spoke out as we helped Tony saddle up the horses.

"Florence and Vienna promised that they would convince you to leave this village," the person the voice belonged to approached us from behind. "And if you decided to fight them, they promised to keep you busy. Vienna vowed to keep half of you incapacitated without taking a life and Florence said she would kill the other half to make herself stronger. Yet here you stand which means your wills are stronger than theirs. But not me—for I have the strongest will out of anyone here."

Ilias and I readied our weapons, positioning ourselves ready to fight.

We didn't know his abilities and out of the three of us, Ilias is the support, Tony is the long-range shooter, and I'm the brawler. It's me who has to face him head-on.

But I have Clash. That's all I need.

Tony put himself between us and the elf who had vowed to wipe out this village, hovering his hand over his pistol. "So you've finally revealed yourself... Messina!"

He approached us carrying his sword, but not in a way ready to attack. Messina let it hang by his side. The armour he wore yesterday had been replaced by his brother's.

That sword... it's a cursed artifact.

Ilias' eyes were fixated on it and he had the most sensitive gates out of any of us. I was right. Messina's power will be coming from that sword.

Messina scoffed at Tony's pistol. "Do you really think something as slow as a gun can kill me?"

"What do you want?"

"I want you to leave this place and turn your back on the killers of my brother. Let me have my justice with them and don't get in my way."

"My Tarot card is Justice as well," I told him. "But what you speak of isn't justice—it's vengeance. It has consumed you. You haven't taken any of the villagers' lives which means you haven't yet fully crossed the line. It's not too late to retread your steps."

"I have crossed the line. I have taken step after step until I was as far as I could be from that line. Those steps have taken me here. Nothing you say will change my mind. That is set in stone."

Tony stepped forward. "And if we say no?"

"I don't care what you say, just don't stand in my way. If you raise your weapons at me, I will see it as an act of hostility and you will be branded as my enemy. To me, you will become another one of the villagers. For that, I will have to take your life." Messina stared at Ilias and I. "You raised your weapons out of instinct, but you haven't attacked yet. I will allow this misstep. Lower your weapons."

That demand only made me grip my sword tighter.

Tony's hovering hand came down on mine—a sign he didn't want any conflict. He held up his hands, lowering himself. "It isn't worth it, Jaime. Look at his eyes. He's the most driven out of any of us."

I returned Clash to its scabbard.

"No tricks," Messina said.

"None," Tony reassured, pointing to the pistol on his hip. "I'll throw my gun to you so there's no possible way for me to attack. After that, let us take the horses."

The elf nodded. "Don't test me."

Tony slowly took out his gun, throwing it to Messina's feet and dumping all of the extra bullets onto the ground. "See? No tricks."

While all of this was happening, I noticed roses growing behind Messina a good ten feet back. Earlier in our fight against Florence, Tony confessed that he wasn't the type of person to shoot bullets into the ground ahead of time.

There was no way he could've known that a confrontation would happen here and, for his ability to activate, the bullet must be fired from its casing. We would've known if he secretly shot his gun.

How could his roses be growing there?

I get it!

It wasn't Tony who planted those bullets there, it was me! Those bullets were from yesterday—when he and I were testing out if Clash could deflect gunshots.

I deflected his first set of bullets into the ground. He then fired his second set along with the roses the first set had bloomed into. After I deflected the second set of bullets, we got carried away with a conversation.

Tony never turned the second set of bullets into roses!

The roses were silent as they pointed at his back. Messina never saw or heard them coming.

"Shooting me while my back is turned," Messina scoffed. "So you really are as lowly as these farmers."

Everything after Tony fired his shots was instantaneous.

For a moment, Messina was gone, allowing the rose bullets to pass through his afterimage.

Not a second after, Tony collapsed to the ground with holes in his chest. Messina stood over him with his pistol.

Messina has a gun? Did he shoot Tony?

Why would he use a gun over his cursed sword?

"Ugh..." the elf groaned, throwing the pistol to the ground.

No... he picked up Tony's gun?!

My eyes were on him the entire time. When did he do that?

The gunslinger choked as blood gushed his wounds.

Messina approached. "I hate fighting with things slower than me. But it fits you. The invincible Tony 'Bullet-Tooth' Bennet who survived getting ambushed and had the bullets he tanked turned into a tooth—biting the bullet!"

I grabbed my sword. "TOOOOOOOOOONNNNNYYYYYY!"

Ilias held me back. "Jaime, no! Don't take out your weapon!"

Messina walked past the dying Tony.

How did he dodge the rose bullets? And when did he pick up that gun?

Ilias whispered into my ear, "I can fly us out of here, but you have to take off your armour. It's too heavy. We need to figure out what his sword can do and warn the others."

I began undoing my armour, throwing each piece to the side so as to not give Messina a reason to attack.

As we backed away, Tony, still clinging to life, began to grow roses from his chest. Before Messina's bullets stopped, he was able to imbue mana into them.

No... Tony, you have to stop.

All we have to do is defeat Messina and Ilias can heal you right up. Just hang on. You know basic healing jynx so use your energy to close up those wounds instead.

Please...

One of the roses aimed at Messina's head fired. It bounced off.

"You're going to die soon, Gunslinger. I can feel it. Your ability rises with the sun and it should be at its strongest right now, but your bullets are weak. You managed to shoot me in the head, but all it did was break skin—barely at that." Messina rubbed his head. "And look, it has already healed up."

The remaining roses in Tony's chest missed Messina, hitting the horses instead. They whinnied in a panic before galloping away.

Messina watched the horses run off. "You couldn't even aim at me. I guess you wanted to use up the last of your strength to go out with a bang."

As the roses on his chest wilted away, Tony's fading eyes found themselves fixated on Ilias and me, their gleam beginning to disappear. The holes in his lungs made him incapable of speech, but I could read his lips. "My final Guns And Roses bullets..."

Those were his last words.

While Messina was distracted, Ilias wrapped my arm around his shoulder and boosted us up into the air, propelling us in the direction of the main gate.

Messina didn't even bother running after us. He just watched before vanishing.

"Why?" I asked Ilias. "Are we just going to leave him there?"

"Tony sacrificed his life for us to get away. Staying there and getting ourselves killed would utter it useless."

"Then why did he shoot Messina? Tony wouldn't do something so pointless at a time like this. Why couldn't he have saved that energy for himself."

"I agree. His last actions have to mean something—" Ilias gasped suddenly, dropping our altitude for a couple of seconds before stablizing.

"What happened?" I asked.

He shrugged it off. "Tony was trying to tell us something. It was a message. The best one he could give us. We have to figure it out—for his sake." Ilias' eyes bulged as he glanced back. "Could it be... Was Tony able to figure out what Messina's ability is?"

"It's the sword he's holding," I told him. "You felt it too, right? The source of his ability is his sword. A cursed sword only activates if you're gripping it, so all we have to do is knock it out of his hands."

"But getting close to him without knowing what he can do is a death wish. We have to figure out what it can do first so we can figure out a way to counter it. Brute strength doesn't win battles, information does. Which means Messina is winning!"

"Tony figured it out, so what was he trying to tell us?"

But why shoot the horses?

Could it be that Messina's ability and something about horses is connected?

What's one word that describes a horse? That must be it. That word must be connected to Messina's ability.

Tony shot the horses and caused them to bolt away.

Tony shot the horses and they bolted away.

Horses bolted away.

Bolted away.

Bolt...

Horses are pretty fast.

!!!

Impossible! Could it be?

"I've gotten your message, Tony!" I clutched my sword. "Tony told us loud and clear. The true power of Messina's sword is speed!"

"So that sword makes him fast?"

"No, that's just a side effect. The sword speeds up his body. Earlier, Messina said the gunshot wound on his head has finished healing."

"Is that really what Tony was trying to tell us?" Ilias asked.

"It makes sense. It's how Messina was able to dodge those rose bullets and pick up Tony's gun instantaneously."

"Are you sure?"

"We can test it out right now. He's not going to head to the cave while there are people outside of it that can fight him. Either he's following us or he's on his way to Askeladd and Mondatta. Both paths should lead to the same place."

"How do you want to test it?"

"Stop time and look for him. Speed doesn't matter when everything is frozen. If you spot him and he's gone once time resumes, his true power is speed."

"You won't feel this," he warned. "Epitaph!" Ilias instantly grunted in shock. "You're right. I spotted him and he was gone once time resumed. He's trailing behind us. We'll get to Askeladd and Mondatta first, so we have to be quick."

The two of them were barricading the main gate, readying themselves to head to the cave.

If Messina heads into the cave while we're still around, we could corner him and finish him off. Which means he'll have to take care of us first. Everyone there doesn't know what he can do and they'll be caught off guard.

It's up to us four—Me, Ilias, Askeladd, and Mondatta—we're the last bastion!