Combat drama!
In this case, both Leo and Jimmie were aiming for the same thing; a certain tangled charm of clay and wire and glowing letters that unpleasantly writhed on the charm as you watched. Jimmie saw it first, and turned his sword-slash into a sudden chop that hacked at the place where the charm and the elemental’s fiery flesh met. Leo meanwhile shifted to the left, trying to keep the elemental off-balance.
That helped, Jimmie saw as he pulled back his blade for another chop, but it wasn’t helping enough. The fire elemental was probably being compelled to protect the charm, whether it wanted to or not; if a single cut wasn’t going to be enough to sever it from the creature’s body, it would force the ‘wound’ closed. That would weaken it, some — but Jimmie didn’t want to do this all day. And wasn’t even sure if he could.
No help for it. He activated the doohickey again. For a moment nothing happened, and that made Jimmie almost happy; but then eight crossbow bolts fired. Possibly the volleys were a little ragged, but he understood why. It’s kind of hard to calmly fire into a melee that your boss is in, even if he did just tell you to.
If you aren’t willing to call in fire support on your own position, you aren’t willing to win.