“Take cover,” a calm Charlie states while slowly lowering himself as well.

We all duck behind the mana shields and await an opportunity to counterattack. “Prepare to return fire on my order."

Again, Charlie seems calm and capable. It’s too bad he’s an ass, or he might actually be someone useful to Vic.

In less than a minute I begin to see numerous spiked and flaming ant heads from out of the darkening street ahead.

“Deploying a flare,” Charlie calls just before he appears a white crystal from what I assume is his [Inventory], taps it a few times with his fingers, and tosses it high and far in the direction of the ants. After just a second or two it stops in mid-air and floats there. Then it flares bright white and we are able to see the entire ant formation better than if it was daytime.

“Drake shit!” Sam exclaims. “That’s a lot of ants."

And he’s right. There has got to be at least fifty of the things just in sight range, never mind what is around corners, in buildings, on walls, or under the ground. This is definitely not good.

“Aria”, Sam whispers loudly, “Can the help you said would arrive get here any sooner?"

I shake my head. “It’s out of my control, sorry. We’ll just have to hold out.”

“Stop yapping and start shooting,” Charlie bellows. “Stay in your lanes and fire at will. Watch for return fire.”

I lean over and whisper, “Sam, let everyone know about the antenna weakness.”

“Oh right!” he says to me and then calls out loud enough for the entire group to hear, “The Antennae are a weakness if you can strike them. Particularly where they attach to the head.”

“Excellent!” Charlie says, clearly pleased. “It’s a small target but most of you should be able to make the shots."

And there he goes again. Never mind. The best way to shut him up is to prove I'm not a hindrance.

I power up my crossbow and try to time it so I can take a quick shot and avoid being hit. After a few more moments of judging the strikes on the mana shield, I quickly lean over, take aim, fire and then return behind the safety of the barrier. My bolt misses the mouth but strikes a mandible, skitters off, and slams into the head. It jams in there and sparks purple resulting in the ant jerking and skittering sideways into another ant staggering it. Seeing an opportunity I take another risk. I rise, fire two quick exposed shots, and suck down. Both hit in the mouth of first the stunned and then the staggered ant. Both drop, flash black, and turn to ash.

The mana shield I'm hiding behind then flares brightly as innumerable strikes make contact in seconds.

Shit. Fortunately, the other defenders take advantage of the focused fire and launch their own barrage. My shield darkens back to a normal brightness as a number of ants turn to ash and return fire across the entire defensive line.

Charlie’s calm voice once again sounds. “That worked but is not sustainable without help. I’ll be launching an attack that should act as a deterrent and distraction. Use it."

I turn to watch as Charlie aims the rod in his hand towards the middle of the ant line and a ball of red and yellow flame flies from the end of his casting tool into the midst of the closely packed insectile force. An explosion of red light and hot air, which can be felt even as far as the defensive line, blazes through the enemies, resulting in the sounds of crunching and screeching, the smell of burning and smoke, and flashes of black fire. Ash is floating so thick through the air I can barely see individual enemies, even with the bright mana light thrown earlier by Charlie. Barely any needles are striking the shields thanks to the “distraction,” so I lean to the side and fire an entire cartridge worth of charged bolts into the mass of insects.

I return behind the shield and conduct my normal four-second reload when my unfamiliarity with this crossbow’s particulars causes a minor incident. With my usual weapon, I press the release and drop the cartridge with my left hand while holding the weapon with my right. It has always been a simple, brief, and efficient set of actions. Unfortunately, the habits built on hundreds of hours of practice in the range causes me to depress the release in the same manner and with the same force as with my usual weapon. Yet this weapon apparently requires slightly more pressure and the cartridge jams on its way to falling into my hand.

I blink and turn my crossbow over trying to figure out what happened. Seeing what the problem is, I embarrassedly look around and, as always seems to happen, Charlie looks over and sees me struggling with my crossbow.

His face once again turns red and he screams at the top of his lungs, “What the fuck are you doing? Get the fuck away from the line and back where you belong if you’re too stupid to even shoot a crossbow!" He jabs his finger to point at the group of terrified and cowering humanoids we are protecting.

“It’s just a jam,” I say testily. “I’ll have it fixed in a moment."

And ignoring him, I turn back to my weapon, depress the switch all the way, and release the cartridge. It disappears into my ring as it falls, only to be replaced by a full one in a blink.

Just as I'm clicking it home I hear Charlie’s irate voice again, this time so close I can see his shadow in the light of the floating white mana crystal. “Don’t fucking ignore me, you useless bitch!"

Just then I feel a hand press onto my right shoulder and attempt to pull me around. Months of studying under my sensei (and Vic testing me regularly) has resulted in my reacting to certain actions or feelings of threat in a rather aggressive way.

Moving through with his pull but faster than he expected, I reach across my body and grab his fingers with my left hand and using the principle of Wun, or circling, along with Jaau-Lai, pushing and pulling, I twist and pull the finger and wrist joints against its natural direction while spinning and jamming my right leg into the back of his knee which causes him to fall to the ground. Using his surprised state and his entirely normal reaction of pushing against my hand and wrist pressure, I use the principle of See-Che to jerk his body up with his own push while I bring my right knee into the back of his head. I release him as he collapses face-first onto the street.

As he rolls over, I make sure the first thing he sees is the crossbow in my right hand aimed downward, directly in his eye.

“Don’t ever fucking touch me again, you troll-shit-for-brains!” I growl at him.

I step back and return to my position, aiming my newly reloaded crossbow at the ants which are now starting to reorganize. While I did not overtly look at everyone, I'm not blind. Every one of the defenders, Sam included, was staring at me with a look of shock. The only difference is that Sam’s face changed to a grin that looked pleased, and maybe even a little… proud? He’s totally on team Aria now.

“I’ll fucking kill you, you fucking bitch!" Charlie screams at me yet again while scrambling to his feet.

I’m just about done with this guy. I swap the crossbow into my left hand and hold it out, aiming at his face and speak loudly but only so I can be heard over his yelling and the chittering ants. “Before you take another step or try to raise that tiny little wand of yours…” my snide tone makes it obvious what I mean with those words, “…you should think about doing your fucking job and protecting these civilians instead of focusing so much on a woman who just kicked your misogynistic ass."

Ignoring his sputtering, I swap my weapon back to my right hand, turn to the team, and call out, “The ants are regrouping. Help is on its way but it is still a few hours out. We need to last that long or these civilians are ash along with us.”

I see nods as the group returns to their positions and take aim at the enemy.

I draw in a deep breath and look back to the human who is shaking with rage. “Charlie,” I say calmly. “We could really use your Magica against these ants." I point to the screaming and now even more terrified innocents. “All these people need us. If you can’t get over your hurt pride and your attitude towards me then I’ll just report it to HQ and take command of this post. Either help or leave; make your choice.”