Once Luca and and Ariett reached cover, the boy had a sudden moment of clarity. [i]I'm the glim.[/i] He didn't know what a [i]glim[/i] was, but he knew what it meant. "Wait here," he said. 

He poked his head out in time to see Fortune and Amelie stricken with the metal. In his mind, based on his experience so far, he assumed they were going to die shortly -- of course, if he were thinking clearly, he would have recognized that Ariett was not at all dead even though she had also been stricken. But his confusion on the matter only served to give him extra motivation. [i]I have to stop this [b]now.[/b] I'm the glim. Be the glim.[/i]

[i]They need me.[/i]

'They,' in this final thought, did not refer to his comrades. It referred to their assailants.

Luca broke cover and ran towards the pavise knights. One of their number had fallen, with an arrow in the visor. He ran at her corpse and slid into it, quickly locating among her armaments an arrow bearing the electroplating compound cylinder. He snatched it up and bolted to his feet.

"HEY!" he shouted, hoping to get everyone's attention -- which admittedly might have been difficult amidst the continuing battle. "HEY!!!" 

He held the arrow an inch away from his own throat. 

"Knock it off! Or the next one to die is your biometric pass!" [i]Priority one is to protect human life.[/i] "I mean it!" He was almost certain that he really did mean it.