25. Tankin’ Time

We didn”t tie ourselves together this time. Instead, I let Annabeth use her echolocation to determine where she was. She stumbled a bit and we couldn”t move too quickly, but overall it was fine. This gave Annabeth more practice at echolocation, which hopefully would result in more confidence when she was fighting.

We reached a fork in the tunnel just as we heard the scuffle of incoming ants. It ended up being a small group of regular black ants racing to escape from two red-eyes. As they came into view, I saw both red-eyes catch a worker that was just a bit slower than the others. The poor guy barely had time to wave his antennae in fright as they tore him apart. The red-eyes stopped briefly to crush his skull and eat something, before they kicked it back into gear and raced after the rest of the fleeing workers.

“Are you ready?” I asked Annabeth as the black ants flowed around us and scurried down the other fork.

“I’m ready,” she replied firmly. “I’m low on magic, so I’d rather not blow them up unless I absolutely have to.”

“That”s okay,” I replied. “I’ll take them out if you can be the tank and hold their attention.”

“Shouldn’t I be the submarine?” Annabeth smiled. “I’m using echolocation after all.”

I didn’t feel stressed, but I must have sounded that way, as Annabeth was clearly making an effort to lighten the mood. Or maybe she was the one that was stressed. Either way, I was happy to play along.

“Sure,” I smiled back. “Or you could be a whale. A killer whale! Using sound to find your foes and smack them into oblivion!”

“Are you saying I’m fat?” Annabeth quipped in mock outrage. I was ready to quip right back, but the two red-eyes had arrived, and it was time to pay them back for their vicious ways.

I deliberately held off using the Flashers and Miners because I wanted to see how Annabeth and I did on our own. I didn’t feel too threatened, as Annabeth was moving well and I felt fantastic. Two red-eyes didn’t seem like much anymore, and if we got into trouble, I could always call in the cavalry.

Annabeth set herself in the earth and smacked the shit out of the first red-eye to reach her. He paused, stunned, as the second one arrived, and then she rang his bell too. They both recovered quickly and attacked together, but it didn’t do them any good. Annabeth and her shillelaghs were more than a match for their frantic attacks and snapping mandibles.

I took a second to appreciate just how awesome Annabeth was. She was a grandmother, of tiny stature and big heart, and yet here she was, playing the role of the tank. In role-playing games, the tanks were the big warriors. They were usually covered in heavy armor and relied on massive amounts of vitality and hit points to survive a fight.

Annabeth was the antithesis of a big burly guy, and yet, she was still getting the job done. Not only that, she was doing it blind! In many ways, Annabeth was more like a mystic monk than a tank, but either way, she was amazing.

Speaking of monks, it was time to get my Wing Chun on and vanquish some monsters. I flowed smoothly to the side of the nearest red-eye and punched him once with my left hand to expose his neck. The other fist sliced down like Wolverine. Just like that, one enemy was laid to rest.

I pigeon-stepped forward to the next enemy, and this time I didn’t even have to make a setup punch. One Saber-Saw cut later, and the second red-eye collapsed.

I Bank Stamped both of them and then paused to evaluate how I was doing.

I felt full of energy and ready to go. I was limber, warmed-up, and not even breathing hard. This was me performing at my best.

“How did that feel?” I asked Annabeth.

She rolled her shoulders and did an internal evaluation of her own.

“I feel ready for more,” she announced. “Let”s put a stop to these assholes.”

I nodded in agreement, and we headed down the new fork together. As we moved along, I checked on our friendly worker. She’d fallen back when we’d started fighting, but now she stepped up to walk with us. Despite having recently lost a limb, she seemed to be moving well.

We battled two more small groups of red-eyes before reaching another intersection. To my surprise, our worker friend took the lead and chose the next tunnel for us. I guess she had somewhere in mind for us to go.

I looked at Annabeth to see what she thought, and she just shrugged.

“One direction is as good as another at this point,” she noted. “Just as long as we have a fresh supply of points headed our way. When we’re ready to leave, I can use the rope to get us up to the same hole as we arrived in.”

“That sounds good,” I agreed, “but I’m more afraid of getting lost. We don’t want to get too far away from our exit. Paths always seem to look different when you’re headed in the opposite direction.”

“We’ve only had a few turns so far,” Ananbeth said confidently. “I’m sure I can find our way back. Besides, I’m not navigating by sight. I’m navigating by sound, and these tunnels all sound different.”

I wasn’t as confident, but I had faith in her abilities. If she said she could find her way back, then I was willing to trust her. We started down the new tunnel just as another couple red-eyes came at us.

By this time, I’d started using my Flashers and Miners again, as there was no sense in incurring more risk than necessary. They handicapped the two red-eyes, and I dispatched them with little effort. Annabeth collected the points behind me, and it seemed like we barely slowed down on our journey.

It was a good thing we were so efficient because the number of enemies we began to fight increased sharply. They still came at us in small groups of two and three, but the time between groups decreased to the point where we had little opportunity to recover. It seemed like we’d knock out one set of red-eyes only to immediately hear the next group heading towards us.

The tunnel itself seemed to go on forever. There were other passages that split off to the side, but we must have been in the main tunnel, as we were never attacked from those directions. Instead, there were groups of black worker ants that fled down the side tunnels, trying to escape the red death behind them.

We made a special effort to protect any workers we saw, but now we were in the thick of it, we saw dead ants everywhere. The red-eyes were relentless and seemed to be maiming and killing just for the enjoyment of it all. Sure, it seemed like they were rabid and had no choice, but it also seemed like they attacked with extra zeal every time they caught a fleeing worker.

It reminded me of a scene in a movie where the barbarian horde had breached the walls of the city, but then began burning, pillaging and killing in a berserk fury. There was no rhyme or reason to it. They were heinous acts of pure rage.

As we worked our way down the tunnel, I had to wonder where all this was coming from. Why were the red ants spaced out like this? Why were there pockets of black ants escaping? What were they escaping from?

It all became clear when we arrived at the cavern. We heard it first—the whisper of thousands of barbed feet scrabbling for purchase in ichor-soaked moss. The crack of chitin legs being snapped in two like dry twigs mingled with the pop of mandibles crunching through defensive shells. It was the quiet sounds of a desperate battle, and we slowed our progress dramatically as we neared. After all, I had no desire to be surrounded and overwhelmed again.

When we exited the tunnel, I grabbed Annabeth’s hand and gasped. The sounds hadn’t prepared me for the scope of what I saw.

The cavern was huge, easily the size of two football fields side by side, and it was filled with ants fighting. On one side were the black ants, headed by rows and rows of warriors fighting to protect the workers behind them. Tearing into them with rabid fury were the red-eyed ants. Most of them looked like warriors, but a few of them were workers, and some of them weren’t even ants. I saw a giant spider, a couple slug-looking things, and even a normal-sized warthog—which looked weird compared to the huge insects around it. It seemed like this red-eyed disease was no respecter of species. It was able to infect anyone.

Annabeth couldn’t see the fighting, of course, as her sight still hadn’t recovered. She was getting my visual messages, though, and I’m sure her echolocation gave her the scope and frantic pace of what we were seeing.

“This is all too much,” Annabeth said as she gripped my hand tightly. “There is no way I can fight with this much noise and activity.”

“That’s okay,” I replied. “We’ll figure something out. Just give me a moment to get the hang of what’s going on.”

Annabeth nodded, although she still seemed very uneasy. I wasn’t ready to get involved in the fighting yet, so we moved back into the shelter of the tunnel. I could still see what was going on, but it wasn’t overwhelming my partner anymore and it gave us some protection from the hectic fray.

I watched the flow of the fighting, and from a classical battle perspective, the black warriors should have been winning. They fought together, supported each other, and seemed to be doing everything right. I’m sure the Roman legions trained for years to be able to fight with this level of cohesion and precision. However, just like the Romans, they were failing to stop the barbarian horde.

It seemed like this red-eye disease was not only making them crazy; it was also making them bigger and stronger. Some of the ants had a lighter red aura, and they seemed about fifty percent larger than the black ants. Beyond this, as the red became more intense and the size of the ants increased, it also seemed like these deeper red ants had more of their wits about them. They still crashed into the defensive line with all the fervor of the light red ants, but they were quick to withdraw if it looked like they were going to get overwhelmed.

Easily drawing my attention were a few monster red-eyes in the middle of the battle. They were almost as big as a school bus, and their aura was so red, it looked like dried blood. They seemed to be the generals of this melee, as I noticed that the battle seemed fiercest in the direction they were facing.

There were three tunnels behind the black ants’ defensive line, and the workers were frantically scurrying around carrying what seemed to be food and eggs. It looked like they were evacuating their nest as fast as possible and carrying their precious cargo deeper underground.

I only had time to watch the battle for a few moments before the reason we were having a mix of black ants and red-eyes down our tunnel became apparent. The entrance to our tunnel put us at the line of scrimmage between the two forces. When the battle shifted in favor of the red-eyes, some of them would break off from the main fight and head our way. When the battle shifted back again, the workers would scurry around and pick up fallen ants—I guess for food—and carry them back down one of the other tunnels. When the battle shifted yet again, some of these workers became trapped, and their only escape was down our tunnel. That made a few red-eyes break off from the main engagement to chase them, and the cycle started all over again.

Of course, we weren’t going to let our enemies off that easily. The workers hurried by us as Annabeth pulled the red-eyes’ attention and I moved in for the kill. After we took care of a few waves, Annabeth seemed to relax even more.

“I know the ants in general don’t seem to respond to noise as much as we’re used to,” I said, “but I was wondering if your calling ability would work on them like the rats in Otugh’s basement. If so, we just take out manageable groups of them without having to wait for them to chase some workers this way.”

“I can try,” Annabeth replied. “I like the idea of fighting here in the tunnel a lot better than wading into that massive battle out there.”

The Miners and Flashers were already in place, so I gave Annabeth the signal to start.

“Come here, anty ants,” Annabeth called. She sounded rather soft and tentative, though. We waited, but nothing seemed to happen.

“Try again,” I suggested. “This time give it a bit more gas.”

She nodded and cleared her throat.

“Come here, you crazy ants,” she called. This time it was louder and firmer. We waited, but still nothing happened.

“Alright, you bastards. Come and get it!” This time Annabeth really let loose. Again, nothing happened.

“Oh well,” I sighed. “You gave it a good effort. It would have been really nice if it had worked. I’m not looking forward to getting involved in the main battle. I think it will be really easy for us to get surrounded and overwhelmed. Plus, some of those bigger red-eyes look tougher than the ones we’ve faced so far.”

“Yeah, that would have been nice,” Annabeth agreed. “We can’t leave them like this, though. I know they aren’t our species, but we can’t let the red-eyes overwhelm the nest and kill all the babies.”

“They are eggs, not babies,” I noted. That earned me a reproving look from Annabeth. “But regardless, I think we can do something about the battle,” I quickly added. “Let’s see how they like fighting without their feet. Miners, you’re up. Go and do your thing!”

My trusty Miners flew into action, and soon the red-eyes nearest us lost the lower part of their legs. That didn’t stop them from fighting, but it did mean that their attacks were much less aggressive than before. They weren’t used to fighting like this, and for the first time, it gave the black warriors the upper hand.

‘Flashers, hang back,’ I directed. ‘I’m afraid your strobing will throw off the black ants as well.’

I had a lot of Miners by this point, and they swept through the battle, doing as much damage as they could. It created a ripple effect, as the black warriors suddenly had better height and mobility, and they used this to their advantage.

It seemed like it took two or three black warriors to beat one normal red-eye, and now their superior organization brought those numbers to bear. The larger, redder ants tried to turn the battle back in their favor, but they became hampered by the lack of mobility of their own troops.

I also found out that my Miners weren’t able to cripple the larger ants. They were fighting a more powerful aura, and the red-eye”s chitin seemed to be much stronger. Still, they managed to hurt about half the enemy, which was no small thing.

“You’re awesome,” Annabeth said gleefully as she watched the battle shift through my messages.

“It just sucks that we won’t get any points for them,” I said mournfully. That’s when I felt a tug from my Bank Crystal.

‘Would you like me to collect the points for you?’ it asked.

‘You can do that?’ I asked in surprise. ‘I thought we had to take out the enemy ourselves and then tap them in order to get credit.’

‘You’ve assisted in the kill,’ the Bank Crystal said, ‘so you will get some points, even if it probably isn’t the full amount. As for tapping the victory markers, I think I can complete the transaction by using the avatar you made me.’

The dragonfly that I’d made for the Bank Crystal appeared in front of me. I’d made it so the Crystal could explore the world on its own, and I’d done it simply as a nice gesture. Now, it seemed like it was going to have a strategic ability as well.

The dragonfly wiggled its butt at me and flew a quick happy loop in the air. Then it zipped across the cavern and touched the nearest fallen red-eye. The black ant warriors had killed it a few moments ago, and now a worker ant had picked it up and was getting ready to carry it back to its nest. When the dragonfly touched it, the red-eye disappeared, leaving the worker holding up nothing but air.

Ants don’t have human expressions, of course, so I couldn’t be certain, but it seemed like the worker was incredibly surprised. Its antennae froze straight up in the air and it paused for a long time. I’m sure it was saying “What the hell?” in antish.

The whole thing was funny as hell, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Actually, it probably wasn’t that funny, but it was the only bit of humor in this terrible battle, so it seemed extra humorous in comparison.

Annabeth caught my update message and laughed too. Meanwhile, the dragonfly continued to fly through the cavern, Stamping all the fallen red-eyes. I loved the points, but this shifted the flow of battle once again. With the fallen bodies out of the way, the stronger and faster red-eyes took the field.

They were at least twice as big and much more hardy than their fallen companions, and once again, the battle turned in favor of the red-eyes. The Miners had done an excellent job taking out the shock troops, but now true monsters were in the field.

“Stay here,” I told Annabeth. “I’m going to go out there and see if I can help. With the ant warriors keeping their attention, hopefully I can take some of these monsters down.”

“Are you sure?” Annabeth replied. I could see she didn’t like this idea. “It’s also possible the regular warriors won’t know you’re friendly and they’ll attack you too. Plus, we haven’t faced any of these larger red-eyes yet. Our regular tactics might not work against them. I’d much rather we face off against them together.”

We stood together for a moment in the relative safety of the tunnel. With the smaller battlefield, no more red-eyes or workers were heading our way.

I wanted to take Annabeth with me, but the battle was just too chaotic. I closed my eyes for a moment and listened. There was so much crunching and shuffling I couldn’t see any way for Annabeth’s echolocation to work reliably.

“Echolocation works by sending out a signal, like a ping, and then interpreting what echoes back again,” I said thoughtfully. “That worked great when you started to learn how to do that back in our empty room. It also worked great in the mostly empty tunnels.”

I paused, and Annabeth nodded in agreement.

“However, you were fighting off at least three ants of your own when we got tossed around. I wasn’t paying attention to sounds at that point, but I think you might have been using more than echolocation. I’m thinking you might have used all the sounds around you to create an accurate picture of what you were fighting.”

“Maybe?” Annabeth sounded both doubtful and hopeful at the same time. She held up a hand for me to give her a moment. I stayed as quiet as possible and let her concentrate on the world around her.

She stopped using echolocation, and instead, cupped her ears with her hands. She changed the shape of her hands several times in an effort to tune into different sounds.

“Maybe?” she said again. “I feel like that’s possible. I just don”t know how to do it.”

Suddenly, I had an inspiration.

“Try listening with your magic,” I suggested. “You”ve already learned how to make sounds with your weapons, and this is sort of like that. In fact, I think you are already doing it for your echolocation. Human ears aren”t sensitive enough to create a picture on their own, so you have to be listening with your magic.”

Actually, I wasn”t sure if this was possible or not. I just wanted to sound like I knew what I was talking about and help her believe in her own power.

Annabeth”s face screwed up in concentration as I kept going.

“Your magic is all about sound. It already knows what to do, and it wants to help you. You just have to have faith and let it happen.”

I felt like a fairy godmother—you just need to wish upon a star and believe it will come true. All I needed to complete the picture was a sparkling wand and blue dress.

I wanted to chuckle and share this with Annabeth, but it would have ruined the mood.

Annabeth looked hopeful for a moment, like she got it. But then it looked like she lost it again. That’s when I had another idea.

“Try doing your pings for echolocation,” I suggested. “Let the world form in your mind like you have many times before. Then gradually let the pings fade away as you keep the image going.

“That”s a good idea,” Annabeth agreed, and she quickly gave it a try. She pinged twice at regular volume and then she stopped. I started to say something, but she held up her hand to stop me.

She pinged again and then stopped. She repeated this cycle over and over again, biting her lip in concentration.

Then she pinged several times, and gradually increased the time between them. Finally, she stopped, but this time she looked excited.

“I got it!” she exclaimed. “It seems weird compared to echolocation, but now I can see with sound!”

She hopped up and down in excitement and gave me a happy hug.

“Do you feel like you can see well enough to fight now?” I asked.

Annabeth concentrated on the battle for a moment.

“I think I can.” She nodded, but she didn’t look certain. That wasn’t good. If she came with me to fight, the battle was going to be hectic, so I needed to know she could defend herself.

“Seeing with the sounds they make is much faster and clearer than echolocation,” she explained. “When I’m using echolocation on its own and there’s a lot of movement, I get ghost trails. Creating the image from the sounds they make gets rid of that. On the other hand, things that aren’t moving, like the ground, now seem muddled.”

She paused again. I stood there being supportive and gave her space to figure this out.

“What I really need is to use both ways of seeing,” she mused thoughtfully. “Let’s try this…”

She started doing a slow ping, and her brow furrowed as she concentrated on finding the right balance between the two forms of listening and seeing. The pings started speeding up, and her face lit up, like this was a good thing. They sped up so much, it sounded like a machine gun going off. I knew that couldn’t last, and sure enough, the pings slowed down slightly before the volume dropped a lot. The pings were only a whisper when she finally seemed satisfied.

The last thing Annabeth played with was the pitch. The sounds grew deeper, then reversed course and went higher. Finally, they passed outside of the range of what I could hear, although I could still feel them. It felt weird, like tiny bubbles popping against my magic.

Annabeth continued to experiment, and I followed along with my magic. It occurred to me that if I could feel what she was doing, I might be able to use echolocation as well. I already had my magic sight, though, and it provided more information than echolocation or natural sight ever could. Sometimes, it already felt like too much info. I didn’t need another way of seeing the world. At least, not right now.

“I think I got it,” she finally said. “I can see all around me, both near and far. Also, the ghost trails are gone. As long as the red-eyes aren’t speeding like a bullet, I should be fine.”

“If the red-eyes can move at bullet speed, then we have a lot more problems than just seeing what they”re doing,” I laughed. “These new red-eyes are fast, but they’re not that fast.”

“I’m ready to do this,” Annabeth said firmly. “I needed the time to learn how to see better, but now we need to get over there and help the black ants win.”

I looked back at the battle and realized the black warrior ants had been taking a beating. They were fighting defensively, giving their workers time to clear out the nest, but the larger red-eyes now seemed to be fighting even harder. They were smashing into the defensive line, using their speed and mass to knock the smaller ants out of the way. The main difference from the lighter red-eyes, though, was they stopped before they got too far behind enemy lines. Instead, they bit and tore at everyone around them before racing back to the safety of their side.

It was an effective strategy, and every charge left a few dead ants and several injured in its wake. I gave Annabeth a fierce grin. It was time to take the battle to the enemy!

We were ready to head out, when our worker friend came over and spit on us. It was more of a spritz than a loogie, but it still shocked the hell out of me. Then I caught a thought from our Connection and realized what was going on.

“What the heck?” Annabeth sputtered. “Did she just sneeze on us?”

“Sort of.” I laughed and shook my head. “She marked us with her scent so the black ants will know we are friendly.”

“Oh,” Annabeth looked down at her Super Suit and then back at the ant. “I guess that’s okay then.” She gave the ant a pat on the head like she was a nice puppy. This time it was the ant’s turn to look confused.

“Ready?” I asked, getting us back on track.

“Ready,” Annabeth replied, and we raced into battle.

I could already see the difference with Annabeth’s movements. Her steps were sure, and she had no trouble running over the moss.

We swiftly reached the battlefront, and I pointed out the nearest red-eye that looked like it might charge soon. We were on the side of the battle, so we only had to maneuver around a few warriors before we reached the front lines. The ants looked at us in what seemed to be surprise, but they quickly accepted us and moved out of the way. It seemed like our friendly pheromones were working.

I reached the front line first, just as our targeted red-eye made his move. I was shocked at how fast he was. I didn’t have time to set myself before he slammed into me and knocked me aside. He had much more weight and power than I was expecting, and he sent me flying through the air.

Fortunately, Red and the Hex Network had the force rune to cushion the impact. Rather than a crushing blow, it felt like I’d gotten hit by a truck covered in pillows. Instead of being stunned, I bounced off one of the black warriors and landed on my feet.

Annabeth had been an ant-length behind me, and she had an extra second to react. She used that time like the warrior queen she was to set herself in the earth. When the red-eye reached her, she met its charge with a double overhead shillelagh-earth-smash.

It was an awesome move, and I cheered as the red-eye’s head slammed mandible first into the ground. If he would have been a regular animal, he probably would have tumbled ass over teakettle across the floor and maybe broken his neck.

He had six freakin’ legs, though, and crazy levels of control. So instead, he just froze and came to a complete stop. Actually, all the black ants around us froze. I think everyone must have been shocked to see our tiny Annabeth stop a charging monster.

I didn’t stop, though. I already knew what Annabeth could do. I landed on my feet and raced for his neck. Annabeth hadn’t frozen either, as she kicked it into overdrive and started beating on the red-eye’s head like she was in a hard-rock drum circle.

Without adding a sonic element to it, her blows weren’t hard enough to get through his reinforced forehead. But they were enough to stun it, and that gave me the extra second I needed to reach his neck.

I hadn’t faced this level of red-eye yet, and his neck segment was shorter and fatter than I was used to. I sliced down and discovered I could no longer cut through it like butter. His chitin was tough!

I got through part of its neck, though, and its front legs started thrashing. I was in an excellent position, so I anchored myself in the earth and took the hit. I Saber-Sawed again, but this time I was expecting the resistance. I swiped fast, but firm, and kept the nanoblades going once the cut slowed down.

I was lucky that Annabeth had been able to stun it so badly. It kept the red-eye relatively still and gave me the time I needed to keep cutting. About five seconds later, his head fell off like a meatball on a wobbly plate.

I gave Annabeth a high five as the dragonfly swooped in and Stamped the body, collecting our points. I was going to congratulate her on a job well done, but another red-eye was already headed our way. This one was slightly bigger than the last one, and it fought differently.

Instead of trying to charge us and knock us over, it stopped as soon as it was within range and used its mandibles to bite us. Both of us had anchored ourselves in the earth, expecting this time to be like the last one, and as a result, we couldn’t dodge. Instead, we did the only thing we could, which was smash the heck out of it.

I got a close-up look at his mandibles as they flashed by my face, and it left a healthy appreciation of just how deadly they could be. They were longer than daggers and as thick as broadswords. The inner edge was serrated with backward facing grooves. Not only would they tear and rip flesh, they would also hook into bones and chitin to keep its prey from getting away. If this thing got through our shields and managed to get in a solid bite, we would be out of the tournament for good.

The thought had just flashed through my mind when the red-eye shifted his attack and lunged at Annabeth. She pulled back, but not quickly enough, and his mandibles closed on her arm. Her shield charm made a horrible squealing noise as it kicked in and tried to protect her. Annabeth jerked, but she couldn’t free herself.

Her charm wasn’t going to hold out against this crushing pressure for long, so I reacted on instinct and grabbed both sides of its mandibles and tried to pry them apart. The red-eye had the better leverage, and it strained with all its might to close its jaws and take out this pesky human.

Annabeth’s charm and I fought back, keeping the jaws apart. The whole thing was surreal, as the monster and I were almost literally eye to eye. Its multifaceted surface glared at me with cold, alien intensity. Its antennae probed my hair, and I got a feeling of rabid maniacal hunger. This thing wanted to rip off my limbs, dip them in the sauce of my blood, and eat them like breadsticks.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Not now.

Not ever.

With a loud pop, Annabeth’s charm gave out, and the red-eye’s mandibles closed slightly. Annabeth twisted and tried to pull her arm free, but the barbs on the mandibles held fast.

“Don’t!” I yelled. Annabeth could probably rip her arm out, but she’d leave chunks of it behind. We couldn’t afford to do that.

The red-eye changed tactics and tried to toss its head and throw us in the air. We were grounded in the earth, though, and we weren’t going anywhere. It then tried to headbutt us and knock us back. That wasn’t happening either, and I quickly realized why it was trying so hard to break this stalemate.

While we’d been fighting, the black warriors hadn’t been idle. They were tearing into its legs, its underbelly, its back segment—basically anywhere they could reach. While their jaws weren’t as strong as the red-eye’s and they were having trouble with its chitin, there were still a lot of black warriors. Together, they were having some success. Some of them even climbed up on its back and tried to tear it apart from the top. Basically, the red-eye got swarmed, and it quickly changed its focus from attack to defense.

Its only problem was that I still had its jaws and I wasn’t letting go. I was grounded in the earth, and the power of rock and stone flowed through me. I was locked into position, and I glared into its eyes as the black warriors took it apart.

Annabeth tried to help, of course, but she didn’t have any leverage—either to pry the mandibles apart or to get in a good whack with her shillelagh. I’m sure it was frustrating and scary, but the only thing she could do was wait for the red-eye to fall.

I saw one leg come off—then another and another.

We were going to win this!

Suddenly, I had an idea. It was a bit late, as I just needed to hang on until this monster was toast. But still, it was worth a try.

My soul creation, Spike, came out of my knuckles. But that was only because I’d been using my punches. There was nothing to say he couldn’t come out anywhere on my body—including my palms.

I communicated what I needed, and Spike and the Knuckle Crew got to work. They shifted focus and started stabbing out of the palms of my hands. Even with the red-eye’s extra tough chitin, Spike still punched through it with ease.

The holes weren’t big, but they ruined the structural integrity of the mandibles. Spike and his Crew shifted and punched again.

And again.

Finally, the red-eye’s jaws couldn’t stand the pressure any more, and they snapped off.

Annabeth was free.

The stubs of the mandibles were still left, and I held onto them as long as I needed to. The warrior ants continued to tear into the red-eye with a vengeance, and in less than a minute, it was over.

“Are you okay?” I asked Annabeth anxiously. She nodded, but she looked shaken.

“I almost lost my arm,” she growled. She was trying to sound tough, but there was a tremor in her voice.

“You were too tough for him,” I said soothingly. “He needed to do something, so he tried to make you nice and h-armless.”

Annabeth just stared at me like she couldn’t believe I’d make a pun at a time like this.

Then she looked at me like of course I’d make a pun. I just grinned back—happy to have the mood lightened a bit.

“On the other hand, maybe he just wanted a taste of that granny magic.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

“You’re terrible!” Annabeth smacked my shoulder, but I saw the start of a smile.

“At least you know how they might attack now,” I said as seriously as I could. “After all, you know what they say. Forewarned is forearmed.” I tapped my forearm for emphasis.

That got me another smack and a real smile this time.

“At some point, I’ve got to get a better shield,” she growled. “This charm is okay for basic stuff, but it sucks in situations like this.”

“I agree,” I said sympathetically. “Still, it”s all you have right now. Do you have enough magic to recharge it?”

“I do,” she replied, “but I feel like it’s running out fast. I think I have enough to recharge this three more times or do about five more sonic blows. That isn’t much, considering what we’re facing.”

I nodded in agreement. That wasn’t much. I briefly wondered how the other teams were doing. Surely there had to be some way they could recharge during a round?

“I really wish I had your shield,” Annabeth said wistfully. “I’m sure Red would have kept me safe.”

“Actually, you can,” I replied. “When you were riding backpack, Red and his fellow Hexagons expanded to protect you. Do you want to go back to traveling that way again?”

“Do you mind?” Annabeth asked. “I know it’s a lot more work for you, and I like moving around on my own. But these monsters are crazy good. I’m now scared that we’re going to get separated and one of these things is going to try to tear me apart. I’ve seen you recover from some pretty bad injuries before, and I have no desire to go through something like that myself. I’m a much better nurse than I am a patient.”

“You”re a wonderful, caring, and supportive caretaker,” I agreed. “Believe me, being chewed up in battle and having to recover is not fun at all. So hop on board and let Red protect you too. This stallion is ready to go!”

Annabeth laughed and wasted no time hopping up on my back. The magic rope did its thing and tied us together just as the next red-eye charged.

This red-eye acted like the first one and tried to run us over. I was ready this time, though. I set myself in the earth and punched it to a standstill. Then I grabbed its mandibles and locked it down.

Annabeth had some ideas of her own, and she reached over to whack on its antennae. The red-eye went bat shit crazy, knocking the black ants away and almost breaking free. But then the damage seemed to take effect, and the red-eye started acting like it was drunk.

It waved its legs around, like it was trying to keep from falling over, and its head tried to twist to the side. The warriors took advantage of this and swarmed it again. About a minute later, the red-eye turned into points.

We took out four more red-eyes like this, and I started feeling like we were a four-armed warrior from the comic books. Between the two of us, we were stopping the red-eyes and locking them down.

Despite our success, we were being aggressively defensive as much as possible. That sounds like an oxymoron, but we took our health very seriously. The red-eyes tried to drag Annabeth off my back, sweep my legs, and tear my head off. We shut that shit down. We weren’t losing any limbs today. No way, no how.

It wasn’t until we were on our next red-eye, when I started paying attention to the larger battle again, and realized it still wasn’t going our way. We were winning our little section of the battle, but elsewhere, these larger red-eyes were just too much for the black warriors.

‘We need to do something,’ I messaged Annabeth, including my impressions of what was going on.

‘I agree,’ she messaged back. ‘Maybe we could pull the red-eyes faster? There are gaps between when they charge in.’

“It’s worth a shot,” I said out loud, now she had the basic concept. Messaging really was fantastic for conveying an entire thought. “When you tried to get their attention before, we were mostly in the tunnel. Maybe it will work better now we’re closer.”

We finished off that red-eye, and Annabeth made her attempt.

“Alright, you naughty slackers!” Annabeth yelled.

The fighting paused, and every red-eye looked in our direction.

Uh-oh.

“You smell like dirty socks, and your mama kisses roaches!” Annabeth taunted.

As taunts went, it was more grade school than bloody battle, but it sure got the job done.

It got it done way too well.

It seemed like every red-eye glared at us and hissed in our direction.

Then the entire army of red-eyes lost their shit and charged us.