Chaos VII
In truth, after Falael got removed from the fight, Aubrey's clones had come to the consensus that victory with the people they had at hand was close to zero.
Even before the ant grasped mana control and refined its combat prowess, the truth was that the rate at which they damaged it was simply too slow, and the rate at which their bodies broke down from their various boosting skills (or Aubrey frying her brain) exceeded the speed at which they dealt meaningful damage.
Hence, she quietly made a choice when Falael fell, and that was to stall.
Not for the arrival of Xander's father, that wasn't even in her mind. Nor for the arrival of reinforcements from the town over, she knew they'd have their hands tied settling the refugees and preparing their own defenses for the ants.
No, she subtly changed the flow of the battle from having the Lunatics deal as much damage as possible to having them waste as much time as possible, in order to stall for the arrival of one person.
