Vic keeps trying to help me hide my emotions better but I really am shocked at that number and I know my shock shows on my face.

“UFH forces?” I ask hopefully.

The elf shakes his head at the same time as the human says, “Busy or something. I’m not sure where they went off to. We’re on our own, at least for now.”

I hold my fingers to my ear and whisper, “Jo, can you call in any help?”

You need to go home. You should not be here. And no, I cannot call for help beyond the standard UFH support requests, which I can confirm are as pointless as the dwarf claimed…

That’s unusual, right? I just don’t know enough about stuff like this.

“Local law enforcement?” I ask in a last fruitless hope.

Local constables are trained for humanoid control, not beast breakouts, and as such their assistance will be minimal…

“Are you kidding me?” I whisper, exasperated.

Before Jo can respond, an elf trots up. He is wearing what used to be a white robe but is now covered in red blood.

He looks tired but pleased as he speaks in a light tinkling voice. “Most of those that were alive are still that way and healed enough to stay so.”

The others smile and nod back at him. The elf says back to him, “No injuries here." He turns to me. “I’m sorry, Miss Aria. Are you injured? I apologize for not asking sooner.”

“No,” I say with a shake of my head and a smile. “I’m well, thank you."

Vic told me to hold that I'm a life magica to myself unless I'm comfortable sharing or in a difficult situation where I feel I must take action. He said my kind is too rare and there are numerous reports of us disappearing to serve somewhere horrific, including in Invader hands.

He really trusts no one. Or almost no one. Well, I trust him so, of course, I do not tell these folks I could heal my own wounds.

What I do is ask about their intentions. “Where are you going now? Can I help? As you have seen, I'm skilled with my crossbow." I lift it up as if to show them how wonderful it is. I’m still not very good at the interaction part of being an operative.

No Aria. You need to go home…

The group looks at each other to respond to my offer.

While they are deliberating, I quickly whisper an answer to Jo with my head turned away. “People need help, Jo.” She is clearly worried but there is no way I'm leaving all these people to face a beast wave. Vic wouldn’t and neither will I.

Turning back to the group I see the dwarves are both nodding, the human looks skeptical, and the elf looks ambivalent. The healer just seems baffled.

The human finally sighs and nods. “Fine. Please join us. But try not to get in the way.”

“I can do that,” I say with a nod.

The human blinks at me and gives me a once-over, up and down. I can tell his gaze halts on my hand with the Quicksilver ring Vic gave me and he just shrugs and moves on. Spatial storage containers are so affordable that just about everyone wears jewelry and accessories nowadays. Sure, that ring is unique with its silver/white flowing color and golden leaf-covered vines swirling around it, but it’s just a ring.

I wonder what his reaction is about. He isn’t giving me a bad feeling but that was really my mother’s forte, not mine. And of course Vic’s. He’s good at fucking everything. If I didn’t love him, I’d hate him out of jealousy.

The elf speaks up again. “Alright, let’s move.”

Aria, please don’t do this. You don’t understand what you are facing…

I can’t move my hand from under my crossbow’s stock to respond in a live fire area. It would mean weakening my reaction time and lowering my accuracy and thus endangering myself and the group. We really need to upgrade my earcomm. Vic had gotten this one for me long ago as a temporary tool to not be out of contact with him and also to be able to speak with Jo. It was supposed to be replaced with a more advanced and secure version, but we just hadn’t prioritized it over everything else that has happened. And, yeah, it’s been kind of busy.

We move forward in a two-by-three line with the dwarves leading, ready to deploy their shields. As we move closer to the noises of crashing and chittering, I scan the area as I had been taught, looking for targets in all directions including above me. This was actually something Grun, my non-biological father, taught me, not Vic or Gina.

“Up too, girl. Look up! What, you think nothing can climb but your mum?" Dwarves, being rather short, do have a tendency to look up more than taller folks.

And in this case, it’s a good thing I do.

“On the walls and ceiling above to the left!” I call hurriedly.

Grum was right. Magica to cling to things is certainly not unheard of. Rare maybe, but not all that rare. I wonder if these folks aren’t used to fighting in an urban setting? Vic told me repeatedly to adapt to my surroundings and to, “Never get used to anything because it always changes." As usual, he’s right. Damn him.

There is a group of three ants crawling on the ceiling of a noodle restaurant to our left. I throw my body to the side as the dwarves react too slowly to block two needles that flow towards me. I continue to roll so I end up on my butt but facing the ants. I fire three times in two seconds and then jerk my right leg up and over and roll again to my left so I end with my back a stone column, hopefully hidden from view.

I glance at the group and find that, luckily, none were hit. The dwarves managed to raise their shields in time to prevent any fatalities. I think the ants targeted me first because I called out the warning. Do ants usually do that? I thought Ranger Bob said that ants use their senses of smell more than hearing but it has been quite a while since I watched that episode.

A glance around the column at the insects and see one on the ground twitching with one of my crossbow bolts in its mouth. Unfortunately, it fell in a way that the team cannot see it, so they are continuing to fire their weapons at the skittering ants, not able to get clean shots on a weakened location. However, I can see the downed one as it is attempting to shake off the stun and return to an upright position.

I take aim and fire three times. One bolt strikes its eye, one its mouth, and the third skitters off its head just to the left of its left eye and embeds itself in the destroyed restaurant’s tiled floor, throwing off purple sparks. After a second, the ant bursts into ash.

The carapace of these creatures is much harder than it should be. At least, I think so. Maybe I need to rewatch that episode.

Just as I change my target to an ant on the ceiling, its head explodes as a projectile strike finally hits a vital spot causing it to join its fellow as ash slowly floating to the floor. The final ant screeches, drops from the ceiling, and charges the group. As it does, the black flames from its spikes grow to encase its entire body. The dwarves change position quickly and shift to a knee while their shields change shape to have a flat bottom with a weird spike facing down. The pair then lift their shields slightly and slam them into The Pike’s stone flooring, puncturing into the floor until only the now flat bottoms of the shields are flush and there is no space.

The elf and human walk up and stand behind the dwarves and raise their projectors so they are just above the now shorter and wider shields. The two damage dealers begin launching mana projectiles in rapid succession. They strike the ant numerous times but none are able to get through the flames and slow it. The blasts seem to dissipate in contact with the black fire. I raise my crossbow and take careful aim as I follow its advance towards the group. I send in a little extra mana and pull the trigger with a slight lead on the encroaching insect. The steel bolt with crackling purple lightning dancing along it catapults from my crossbow, streaks across the seven-meter separation, penetrates the black flame, and strikes the ant at the base of the right antenna.

The creature, only two meters from the dwarven shield line, stumbles and screeches loud enough that the group winces and loses focus. I’m far enough away that it is annoying but only slightly painful. Never having changed my target, I fire three more times in quick succession and all three bolts make contact with the joint between its head and its middle thorax section. Two jam inside and the third skidders off as the ant jerks and stumbles from the force of the blows. The black flames flicker slightly and the human and elf have recovered from the screech enough to take advantage. Striking it in the head, eyes, mouth, and occasionally antennae, the black fire stops a few of the blows but enough get through the flickering to make contact. Shortly, cracks form and the projectiles puncture the creature’s magica-enhanced carapace. I also fire and when one of my bolts makes contact with a hole in its side, the ant explodes in a burst of black fire and turns to ash which floats in the air, slowly drifting down to the now pockmarked stone floor.