“I think my shield absorbed most of the impact,” Eva said after a moment of silence. “I only caught the tail end. Residual heat and such.”
Which was a total and complete lie. The unglassed brick hadn’t been in the shape of a bubble around her. It had been in a person shape. Which meant that her body had shielded the ground more than her shield had. It helped and had probably taken the initial portion of the blast, but her shield had failed early on in the grand scheme of things.
Genoa just hummed, not giving any sort of real response. To be fair, she was fighting, even if it didn’t look like it from her still position at the window. So she probably wasn’t considering anything related to Eva and her demonicness.
Definitely.
“Zoe and Wayne?” Eva asked, switching the topic away from herself.
“Wayne tackled Zoe to the ground. When the light cleared, neither of them were there. I assume he teleported them out of there. Haven’t seen them since.”
“Neither have answered their cellphones,” Juliana added. “Um, do you need a jacket or anything?”
Frowning, Eva glanced down at herself. “I’m a bit raw at the moment,” she said, glancing back up. “I’d rather not have fabric rubbing against my skin.”
“Fair enough,” she said, looking away. “I got your message. Nel is searching for the other hunter. She said that she would call me back if she found anything.”
Eva wanted to groan. Wasn’t Nel supposed to have been watching specifically to prevent something like this from happening? Eva could give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment. After spotting them in the field, she had said that she could watch them without her vision ‘sliding off.’
Maybe they had split up and Nel had been watching the wrong target, unaware that something like this was about to go down until it was too late.
But Nel would definitely be getting a few harsh questions when Eva next saw her.
For the moment, she just moved up to the window next to Genoa.
The fight was still going on outside.
Sparks exploded off the demon hunter’s sword as he danced around the doll’s blade. Danced might not be the right word. He was definitely on the back foot. Eva had only been watching for a few seconds, but she could already tell that the doll definitely had the advantage.
In fact, the hunter was barely able to keep up a defense against the doll.
Unfortunately, he had gotten free of his ice prison. It gave him the leeway to actually dodge instead of just block. But that was all he was doing. The doll attacked in a flurry. One strike of her sword followed immediately after the last in smooth, fluid movements.
He never actually returned a strike of his own.
Arachne circled around the knight, not really attacking but keeping herself between him and any obvious escape paths. With the doll now fighting as well, actually killing him was looking more viable. Arachne was making the right choice in trying to keep him from escaping.
Genoa’s golem was being far more aggressive. Not to the point where it was hammering its fists over him again and again—she was making an effort to keep out of the doll’s way—but every time the hunter blocked with his sword, the golem tried to grasp on to him. He had to dodge immediately to avoid being rooted in place.
More than that, the ground beneath his feet wasn’t quite as solid as it should have been. Maybe it had been going on the entire time and Eva just hadn’t noticed between her poor eyesight and pain-induced lapses in concentration. Everywhere he stepped was more like mud than any kind of glass or brick. Eva could see it sticking to his boots, slowing his movements.
Whatever speed magic he was using allowed him to escape easily enough, but it did slow him down ever so slightly.
Perhaps if Eva had held him still from the waist up, Genoa could have better glued down his legs.
“I tried collapsing some of the earth into sinkholes,” Genoa said, as if reading Eva’s mind. “None of them worked. He moves too quickly. Almost as if he can sense where they are before I actually place them down. A field a mud everywhere he steps is far more effective.”
“I wish there was more I could do,” Eva said.
“The ice hands were good.”
“The ice wasn’t mine,” Eva said, leaning slightly away from the window. “And the hands take a bit more blood than I can comfortably lose during a big fight. Too many and it leaves me full of headaches and lethargy.”
Genoa fell silent for a few moments as she concentrated on directing her golem to attack. Her golem’s hand actually managed to grab hold of his sword. Unfortunately, the armored hunter managed to slice off the fingers in time to catch the doll’s blade on his own.
“They kept him in place long enough for you to convince that doll to work with us.”
Eva frowned, watching the doll flash between her attacks. “I think she is doing this more out of personal need than interest in helping any of us.”
“Eva,” Juliana said, running the short distance over to the window. Again she paused, leaving a small space between herself and Eva. She had her cellphone in hand, hesitating just long enough for Eva to notice her hesitation before she held it out. “It’s Nel.”
“I hope she has good news,” Eva said as she took the phone. Speaking into it, she said, “Tell me something–”
“Rooftop. Near the school but towards the city. She’s watching with a pair of binoculars and keeps flicking them straight towards you even though there are like three buildings in the way of seeing you. Not to mention the building you’re inside.”
“She can see through walls,” Eva said for the benefit of everyone else. “Good to know.”
There was a loud crash on the other end of the phone. Loud enough that Eva had to pull the phone away from her ear for a few moments while it died off. When she finally put it back to her ear, Nel was already talking at a rapid pace.
“–got to go,” she said, pausing for another crash in the background. This one was much quieter than the last. “The hunter on the roof has the idol. Please destroy it this time. It’s… not right.”
Eva ignored the former nun’s concern. She would destroy the idol. Not because of some idea that the Elysium Order had the ‘pure’ version of the idol, but because it was dangerous to Eva and her plans.
Instead, she focused on the noise in the background. It was still going on, but nothing extraordinarily loud at the moment.
“Are you in trouble?”
“Other hunters are here. Ylva is taking care of them. I don’t think–” She cut herself off again. Eva held the phone away, expecting another cacophony to partially deafen her.
None came.
“I’m fine,” Nel said as Eva moved the phone closer. “Got to go.”
With that, she hung up. A simple click on the other end and nothing. Eva paused just a moment before handing the phone back to Juliana.
“Trouble?”
“Hunters attacking Nel and Ylva as well, but Nel thinks Ylva has it covered.”
Which gave Eva a new theory. The reason Nel didn’t call Eva to warn her was not because she had been lazy or skipping out on her auguring. She had her own problems at the moment.
In fact, the hunters—Eva’s hunters—had probably conscripted the ones attacking Ylva specifically to distract Nel long enough to launch their own attacks. It might have been nice to have been warned about that, but Eva could understand the pressure of imminent attacks. Though she apparently had the time to glance over at Eva’s fight with her augur sight.
She might still get a somewhat harsh talking to from Eva when all this ended.
“The other hunter—that’s attacking us, at least—is on a roof towards the city. I’m going after her. She’s the one that casted the light beam and can’t be allowed to do it again.”
“On your own?” Genoa asked just as Juliana opened her mouth.
Juliana snapped her mouth shut, giving a slight glare at her mother. It only lasted a few seconds before the glare softened. “I’ll stay here,” she said. “Make sure mom stays out of trouble.”