Devon actually seemed interested about the new dagger. Despite his protests to her watching, he watched closely as Ylva gripped the handle and the sheath. Eva couldn’t see the gold. The black of the void metal bled into her vision from Ylva’s hands. Almost like ink being poured over an invisible dagger.
The dagger had only been in her hand for an instant before Devon snatched it out. He started weighing, measuring, and writing down all kinds of notes. Eva shouted at him when he started trying to scrape the metal. Trying ended up being the key word. He couldn’t make a single mark on the smooth surface.
Her master seemed especially interested in Eva’s ability to perceive the metal without using blood. The skull was the same way. Ylva offered the knowledge for free. Eva was at least partially demonic and Ylva made both items for her. The void metal considered Eva its owner.
Eva didn’t feel that explained much, but Devon nodded along.
Just as she started to sheathe the dagger, a circulatory system appeared behind her. Its arm already raised to attack.
Eva dived out of her chair. Her desk flew across the room.
She didn’t bother to uncork one of her vials of Arachne’s blood. One broke as she landed. She quickly whipped the loose blood up into a shield just in time to get hit by another attack.
“Where is she?” the voice yelled. The person didn’t wait for an answer. Two more blasts hit Eva’s shield before she even had the next vial uncorked.
A ball of blood shot towards the woman. It splattered against something just inches from her body.
A shield. Eva cursed. “Where’s who?”
She poured another vial into her shield.
Another few attacks struck.
“Don’t play coy with me, Eva. I know you sent a demon to attack her.”
Two vials left, attack or defend? Attack, obviously. She couldn’t count on any reinforcements. Even with the strengthened detection wards on the dorms, it might be too late.
Her shield drained at an alarming rate. The woman wouldn’t let up. Attack after attack.
Eva punctured her wrist with her dagger. She poured her own blood into the shield while she worked on her big attack. With a swift motion, she sheathed the dagger on her back.
The two vials of Arachne’s blood twisted and pulled into a wire frame ball.
They’re going to make us change rooms again, Eva thought as she plunged her claw into the ball.
A massive construct of her hand materialized in the room. The claw launched at the woman. The needle-like fingers made of blood squeezed her.
Not her. The woman’s shield.
Eva felt it crack.
Almost there.
The pinky of her blood construct passed through a hole in the shield. Eva watched as it pierced her leg.
It wasn’t enough. The construct dissipated.
Not willing to give the woman the time to rebuild her shield or to attack, Eva stood up. Her own shield wouldn’t last long with just her weak blood powering it.
She still had her claws.
Eva dashed across the room.
She tried to.
The moment she started her run, Eva realized her mistake.
No toes supported her as she tipped forwards.
The hard dorm floor lifted up to meet her. She hit the ground and skidded forward.
Eva rushed to heal the minor scrapes she got on her cheek as she tried to regain her footing.
A crack in the air sounded just as pain jolted through her right shoulder. Eva’s arm spasmed and she hit the ground again.
Eva screamed. The scorching in her shoulder increased despite the attack ending. It spread through her chest.
The woman–Sister Cross gripped her hair and lifted her head. She slammed Eva’s face down against the ground.
“Eva. Where is she?”
Eva tried to claw at her. She stomped a booted foot down on Eva’s upper arm. Something cracked.
Eva screamed again.
“I will not ask again.”
“I didn’t touch Shalise,” Eva cried out. “I don’t know where she is.”
“What?” Sister Cross ground her heel into Eva’s arm. “What happened to Shalise.”
She roared.
“I don’t–”
A second circulatory system appeared standing just across the room.
A pregnant moment passed as the newcomer took in the scene. Without warning, an announcement, or even a movement, he launched an attack.
Heat raced over Eva’s back. She could feel it through her clothes, through the pain of her shoulder. The heat created a sound. A roar not unlike the engines of the jet that took her to Brakket.
Sister Cross tried to take a step away.
Eva’s good arm shot out around her already injured leg. The needles of her claw sank into the nun’s flesh.
The nun’s shield didn’t impede Eva. She was too close. It did stop whatever Wayne Lurcher launched at the nun.
He didn’t like that. The stream of heat intensified over Eva’s head.
Sister Cross kicked Eva in the stomach. Her hand reflexively released its hold over the nun’s leg.
Eva skidded across the room.
Eva’s back–her shoulder hit something. She wasn’t sure what. Almost all of her flecks were concentrated around the nun.
Wayne Lurcher didn’t let up. He activated his own shield as the nun threw lightning in his direction.
Eva could tell it fractured. The sound of breaking glass echoed through the room. His shield wasn’t even a quarter as strong as the shields the nuns used.
Still, it didn’t shatter.
It did take its toll.
Eva could see his entire body strain to repair his shield without letting up his attack.
He didn’t hold on long enough.
Sister Cross fired three bolts of lightning at the same time. One obliterated his shield. The second and third hit both of his legs.
The blood in his legs reacted oddly. It warped. All the veins and arteries twisted in on themselves before snapping back to normal.
Eva hadn’t been paying attention when she had been hit to know if that happened to her.
Whatever it was, it didn’t help him. Wayne cried out as he fell to his knees.
None of that stopped the heat in the room. Wayne continued his attack.
Sister Cross hit an object out of his hand.
The heat faded.
For a second.
Something popped out of Wayne’s sleeve and the heat resumed. Hotter than before.
Eva liked heat, but this… she could be standing on the sun for all she knew.
Sister Cross’ heart rate picked up. Eva could almost hear the fractures forming in her shield. The roar of whatever made the heat overpowered any actual sounds.
She tried to knock Wayne Lurcher’s new focus out of his hand. Her lightning pinged against his newly formed shield. Unlike Sister Cross’ shield, his did not survive the strike. The sound of glass shattering echoed though the room.
“Stop!”
Eva noticed a third circulatory system rush into the fray. She dashed straight at Sister Cross.
The nun turned to face her. Her heart skipped three beats.
Wayne Lurcher managed to shut off his attack just as Shalise tackled Sister Cross.
“What are you doing girl?” Wayne Lurcher shouted.
“Stop fighting!”
Even without being able to see, Eva could tell there were tears streaming down Shalise’s face.
“W-Whatever it is, it is a mistake.”
“Shal.”
Wayne gripped his wand–if that was what he held–his jaw clenched. He seemed like he wanted to continue fighting. When he raised his wand, Eva thought he was about to attack.
The door slammed shut with a motion of his wand.
His teeth grit together hard enough that it was a wonder his teeth weren’t cracking. “What is going on.” He didn’t ask. He ordered. His jaw didn’t move in the slightest.
“She attacked me,” Eva said. Pain flared up in her shoulder as she tried to point. She bit down the burn and glared at the nun. “Without warning or provocation. I was sitting at my desk. My back was turned.”
Wayne’s head turned towards Eva’s bed.
Eva didn’t have her full range of vision–her flecks were still centered around Sister Cross–but she could imagine there wasn’t much left but splinters. A brief thought wondered if Basila had been destroyed. Eva didn’t know how hardy those sculptures were.