Aria, Vic would be so proud of you. That was very brave…

Despite my disgust with him, I really do hope Charlie decides to help us. I’m no expert, but I'm pretty sure that there are too many ants for just our group to defeat. We might be able to hold out for when Vic arrives if we have Charlie’s Magica as damage and support. I refuse to think if he arrives.

I turn back to the ants, fire another salvo, and, despite shaking with adrenaline from both the physical and verbal disagreement, cause six ants to either stagger or turn to ash.

Without looking back, I call out, “So, Charlie, are you in command or am I?”

I don’t hear any response for nearly ten seconds and assume he has decided to leave.

Then I hear, “Fine! This is my command and I’ll be reporting you for insubordination, incompetence, and putting civilians at risk."

I nod. I can live with that. Vic might lose his shit a little, but that isn’t my problem right now.

Charlie’s voice is back to its neutral tone but I can definitely hear an undercurrent of something that wasn’t there before. “We need to hold until whatever backup is coming, comes. That means we stay defensive if possible and target any enemy that crawls closer than ten meters. Let the mana shields do their job on those missile attacks." Looking back at the civilians he calls out, “That means you all need to stay down.”

Then back at us, he says, “I’ll be monitoring your mana shield charge remotely and providing new stones as needed. Let’s hope I have enough."

At least this time he didn’t seem to have any particular focus on me. Maybe I got through to him.

Aria, I have gained access to the mana shield controllers and will be monitoring their status. Only two other defensive positions are under a similar assault. It seems quite unfortunate you happen to be at one facing such an offensive…

Of course I'm at one of the few bad ones. That’s just how our lives go. Despite the bad news, it is a relief having Jo back with me. For her nano attack protocols, sure; but mostly because having a friend and someone I can trust offers a lot of comfort.

Charlie’s plan is actually a good one as far as I can tell. If he can add his own power we may just hold out long enough for “help” to arrive. Thinking about seeing Vic is making me jittery but I know I need to concentrate, so I work to control myself. My love is hours away and thus I need to focus on tonight’s battle more than anything else.

Adjusting my position, I see my and Sam’s shield flash again as a few spikes strike it. The ants have returned to their version of organization and are attacking from range once again. Four ants begin moving forward through their front ranged line, one in my firing lane.

“Wait until they breach ten meters so you can fire with the highest possible precision. Halfway, no sooner."

As the insectile firing line appears to be about twenty meters up the narrow side street, I can understand how he figured halfway is the right amount. It will give us time to shoot or dodge but still be accurate. And if we miss, we may have time to take another shot or two before help is required. The ants are also not currently being super speedy – more like an average human jogging rate.

Waiting patiently, I judge a break in the fire and go for a quick lean-out, shoot, and lean-back approach to killing the ant in my lane. In this case, I'm able to strike it in the mouth with both purple sparking bolts, and the ant staggers and collapses onto the ground. The fire surrounding it dims but it doesn’t turn to ash.

“Shit!” I exclaim out loud. “Sam, you got a shot? I’m not clear." Too many flaming needles are striking my shield for me to take the risk.

He calls, “Got it” and I see a red flash strike the downed ant in the head which shatters followed by the ant’s ashes floating back towards its compatriots.

“Thanks, Sam," I say with a smile.

“Sure. You’re paying after all," he reminds me. I hear the laugh in his voice though and I smile back. But the humor leaves his voice when he continues, “Seriously though, this is going to be a long night. I hope your help comes like you said.”

Shield power at 50%…

I let out a big sigh before saying, “Me too, Sam. Me too.”

***

“That is my last shield recharge people! If shields start to fall we’ll need to collapse the formation behind the powered ones. Launching another AoE."

Charlie’s call is heard by all but then is overwhelmed by another red explosion in the midst of the enemy group. As the hours have passed, his attacks are becoming less and less impactful. The ants appear to have adapted somewhat to his method of attack. They are grouping fewer together and not becoming as disoriented when he does strike. He also had to replace the mana light twice, allowing us to see the field of battle.

It has been a long three hours with nothing on Vic. Unfortunately, tactics and defensive combat are not something he had the opportunity to teach me. Meaning, I really have no idea what, if anything, can be done to help our situation other than getting more people to shoot as well.

The entire front line of the ants has moved forward to the ten-meter line so Charlie cleared us to engage at will. I feel like I must have killed at least a hundred ants by now but who knows what the actual number is? It is a damn good thing Vic bought me hundreds of bolt cartridges.

“Low on munitions,” sounds in my ear. “Anyone have any air affinity stones they can share?"

That came from the gnome, Flaro, on the opposite side of the crescent formation from me.

“I do,” I call back. “I have one of each of the four basic affinities though I’m not sure what their essence count is.”

Tapping my choker, a gray stone appears in my hand and I pass over to Sam who passes it down the line.

It transferrs hand to hand to eventually reach the Gnome who calls out, “Thanks!" This is closely followed by, “Sproket Crack!" I wince thinking it probably is almost empty of essence. “Thanks, Aria, this has a lot of essence. I’ll be good for a while now.”

“Really?" I ask, surprised.

When Vic gave me four mana stones and told me to hold them in my storage collar for emergencies, I didn’t really understand why but figured, as always, that he had his reasons. Apparently, he had.

“Here, Sam” I say to my partner as I withdraw a fire stone and hand it to him. He is about to thank me when I wave him off and call out to the rest of the group, “I have earth and water left. Who needs them?"

The elves each get one and that’s that.

Vic knew what he was doing it seems. I was doubtful but he was proven right in this case…

I mutter, “He usually is.”

I refuse to acknowledge that. Do you have any idea what kinds of plans he comes up with?…

“I know Jo,” I whisper with a sigh. “I miss him too." Damnit when is he coming? “Do you have an ETA?"

I said that out loud and in the open so Sam looks at me funny but I just shake my head at him.

I am afraid not. Your shield is at 50% again…

Shit.

“Shield at 50%, Sam."

I tell him that so he can call it out. He does and a few members of the team swears because ours was the second most recently charged, which means theirs are definitely getting low.

I take out a pair of ants which begin crawling up the walls of the buildings to our sides. That is the greatest risk recently and where most of my and the gnome’s kills come from. If they are able to use the walls to pass over us, we and our civilian wards are ash.

“HQ, we are at risk of being overrun. Where the fuck is our backup?" There is clear exhaustion and I think I can detect just a hint of fear in Charlie’s voice for the first time. I’ve heard him calm and collected, been a victim of his anger and disdain, and even some frustration and jealousy that I'm actually a really good shot with my crossbow. But this fear is new and does not make me feel great. If a Special with his experience is struggling, we might have a real problem.

I have not spoken a single word to Charlie since he threatened to report me hours ago. We’ve been using Sam as our go-between to avoid conflict, but I decide to take a chance.

“Charlie, can you drop the walls of the buildings on either side of the street?"

His glare at me is almost like a blow it holds so much unadulterated hatred.

Sam speaks up before he can berate me. “It could work, Charlie.”

“She’s right. It could slow them down." Blyannar, the elf next to Charlie, says.

Then Flaro adds his two coppers from the other walled side. He’s my opposite number on the line and has experienced the same problems I have. “It will also stop them from using these walls as an attempt to get on top of us.”

Charlie’s head moves from speaker to speaker and I can practically hear his teeth grinding with the frustration of my female idea receiving the approval of others.

“Fine!" he spits through his gritted teeth. The next statement is in a slightly more subdued tone. “But, I need some time between attempts to build up enough mana to damage enchanted walls. And it risks collapsing onto us as well so I’ll have to fire farther away. Assuming it works, we’ll still be responsible for those in front of the collapse.”

Fair enough. I nod and return to shooting a pair of ants off the wall on my side.

***

Ten minutes later the ants have gotten closer and are coming in groups as large as six at a time on the walls. I’m able to kill or knock them off myself but Flaro needs some assistance as the ants have a higher resistance to mana projectiles than solid ones thanks to their flames.

“Firing at the left wall in five,” is called from Charlie. That’s the gnome’s side.

“Here we go,” whispers Sam next to me.

A bright yellow and orange ball of flame zooms over the defensive line and into the narrow street. I really hope this works and doesn’t kill us all.

When the flaming mana strikes the gray stone wall, I see a bright flash, hear the deep boom of an explosion and feel air pushed around me. Crashing and crunching sounds along with chittering and screeching filter through gray clouds of dirt and stone dust. The cloud flows towards us and veils the ants from vision.

Well being blinded wasn’t in the plan.

“Eyes sharp,” I call loudly. “This dust will hinder vision.”

Charlie’s furious rasp follows my call for caution. “Do you see the risk you put your team in now?"

This time Sam spits back, “Shut up you dumb fuck! You were sitting there with your thumb up your ass for an idea. We all agreed to the plan, including you. Last I checked, you were the one who fired the flaming ball."

“You shut the fuck up!” I can barely see Charlie raise his rod at Sam through the dust cloud. “Just because you want to fuck that little pussy elf bitch, you think you can disrupt my team?”

Sam is about to leap at the Special when “Enough, Charlie” comes from the elf next to him. That one is named Hynoda. “Focus on the enemy and recharge for another attempt.”

“What?” Charlie asks, shock clear in his voice. “You want to do it again?”

“Actually, yes," The elf says while nodding.

“Why the fuck would we want to blind ourselves?”

“Because it worked and it's not just us that are blinded. Didn’t you notice that fire on the shields has ceased since the dust cloud swallowed the ants and us?”

The other elf, Bryannar, adds, “Even a short break will help our shields recharge some. Every mote of mana counts.”

“And the number of ants that the wall can support is lower now,” Sam piles on. “Parts might even collapse onto them under their weight if they send too many.”

I hear a chittering and turn towards where I believe the source of the sound is.

“Possible contact” I call out.

Everyone returns to their positions and I fire when I see a flicker. A screech follows and then I see a flaming ant charging towards me. I let fly a bolt into its mouth and another into its antenna and it collapses and flashes to ash. Compared to before, a single ant is child’s play for me now.

Unfortunately, another immediately takes its place and I fire again. Another two yells of “contact” ring out from my teammates and we begin to fire at the charging ants.

Vic is on his way, Aria. Hold out for eight more minutes…

My face might have just split in half from the size of the smile on it.

I call loudly, “Backup will be here in about eight minutes."

I probably look a bit scary with my massive smile and laugh as I launch bolt after bolt into the ants charging towards our line. Every one of the defenders are heavily engaged now. It looks like the ants have decided to drop the missile combat in favor of a full charge in melee range. There are still a lot of them and, despite our growing kill counts, we are going to be overrun soon. The melee combat does not favor mana projectors and for whatever reason Charlie has not attacked.

After another few minutes, our defensive line has backed up and is nearly at the civilian group which clumped up as much as they could against the back building’s wall.

Sam says frantically, “We need to blow that wall so the civilians can escape. Where the fuck is Charlie?”

That’s a good question. I haven’t seen or heard from him in a while.

“Fucking drake shit. Did he run?” asks Flaro.

“If we live through this...”

But I never hear what Hynoda would do if he lives through it because he is impaled through the abdomen by an ant leg. The leg isn’t on fire so he doesn’t turn to ash but he is about to be bitten by mandibles as the leg brings him in. I let loose two bolts and Bryannar lets another few mana projectiles go as well. The ant’s head collapses but before it dies and turns to ash the leg upon which Hynoda is pierced by jerks to the side and he is flung away. I quickly turn back, fire four more bolts, two each at two ants that are too close for my comfort, and run to the body of the thrown elf.

“I got him,” I yell. “Keep them off us for as long as you can.”

Our group knows I can heal by now and adjusts their position slightly to make up for my absence on the defensive line.

“Hurry, Aria,” Sam calls. “We’re almost out of ground to give. I can’t die here.”

I skid to a stop in front of the injured elf and press my hands to the bleeding wound on his stomach. My life magica enters his body and I can tell he has blood loss, a punctured small intestine, and a torn kidney. I direct the golden energy there and his body responds and begins knitting itself back together. A few more seconds and the organs are back to rights and then, after a few more seconds, so is his skin.

This is the first time I’ve worn this armor while healing and I can understand why they call it healer’s armor. That was faster, easier, and took noticeable less mana than a healing of that magnitude should have. Despite the reduced cost, I back off and sit on my rear, a little tired. It was not as draining as without the armor, but healing always takes energy from me.

“Thank you," Hynoda says with a genuine smile that makes me smile in return. Then he says, “We should return to the line."

He stands, picks up his gun, and runs back to the line, firing the entire time.

“I’ll be right there,” I call back. I struggle to my knees when I hear Magica in my ear.

Help is here…

Seeming out of the black sky there is a flash and a familiar azure blue light is falling straight down into the midst of the ants. A moment after the light vanishes there is a whooshing sound, a bright flash of purple, a deafening crack, and the ants in front of my team begin to flash a glowing light purple, shudder and explode into ash. Ant after ant explodes before us and the world is filled with only ash on the silent wind.

I fall back into my ass, close my eyes, tilt my head towards the sky with a smile and send a flood of love and thanks through the ring on my finger. He’s here.

That is my last thought when I feel a cold touch on the side of my neck and then know nothing but darkness.