“I should be fine,” Eva said with a half-smile towards Juliana. She turned to face Genoa full-on before continuing. “The hunter was injured worse than you were far more recently than you were. No offense, but I think I might have a sporting shot against you as you are now.”
“Come at me anytime and we’ll see just how sporting of a chance it is,” Genoa said. Her gaze never left the battle down below save for one brief moment to glance at Eva. “Though now might not be the best of times.”
“Later then,” Eva said with a half chuckle.
Much later. Like around never. She really didn’t want to seriously fight Genoa. Not only might her injuries reopen, but Eva didn’t fancy losing to a cripple.
I need to win against this hunter.
Three punctures to the spine should have been enough to keep anyone down and out for a good amount of time. It had been a few months, but that was far from what Eva had in mind. Shalise had the nerves in her wrist torn out when the zombie bit her. That had taken Elysium Order magic to heal. Without it, she hadn’t been expected to regain much use of her hand.
The holes in the hunter’s spine should have been Shalise’s injury compounded over and over again. She should be paralyzed. If she wasn’t and Arachne had missed ever so slightly, then she still should be too wounded to move around much.
Which meant she would have other ways of defending herself.
“Be wary of traps,” Genoa said, interrupting Eva’s thoughts while echoing them at the same time. “Juliana told me about the room you found the other demon in. Lucy, was it?”
“I know. I was just thinking the same thing.”
All the anti-demon shackles and circles in the apartment room with Lucy had been doubly protected by either wards or enchantments over the walls and floors, preventing them from being destroyed easily.
With Eva’s warding class, she might be able to spot some wards. But this was likely an expert and Eva had only been taking the class since the start of September. Unraveling them was a bit beyond her abilities at the moment.
Still, if she spotted a magical ward making something invulnerable and couldn’t see any demonic shackles around it, it was bound to be some other type of trap. Good to know, at the very least.
“Just keep that hunter here. Even if you can’t kill him. I can’t do much against him at the moment and won’t be able to fight the other one if he shows up.”
“Don’t worry about that. I can handle him. Focus on not dying. I am not interested in finding out how Arachne would react.”
Eva glanced down at the spider-demon. She was now going between a number of pillars that Genoa had created and creating spider webs between them, further blocking in the hunter. The weavings were abnormally thick. Each strand stood out simply because they could be as thick as one of Eva’s fingers. She was really outdoing herself. Arachne’s threads were normally thinner than a single hair.
She must really be worried about the hunter’s sword.
“As am I,” Eva said quietly. She turned away, preparing to head up the stairwell. A quick comment from Juliana stopped her.
“Good luck.”
“Same to both of you,” Eva said without turning. “Stay safe.”
With that, she sprinted up the stairs.
She stopped at the third floor. There were a few things in her room that might help out. And she might not have been entirely in the right when she declined Juliana’s offer of clothing. She needed pockets for vials of blood, after all.
“Aww, I liked your long hair.”
Eva paused with her hand on her room’s handle.
Irene and Saija emerged from the former’s room just in time to catch Eva heading in. Both were staring. Saija was a bit more obvious about it. Irene kept glancing off to the side before looking back at Eva. More specifically, the top of Eva’s head.
Running her fingers through her hair, Eva found a distinct lack of resistance. Not a single strand of hair came away as she dragged her hand in front of her eyes. She was completely bald.
Eva grit her teeth. “Me too,” she grumbled.
That hunter was going to pay.
“Well, don’t worry. I’m sure there is some hair growing magic around. You should worry about your skin.”
Eva shook her head. “No time to talk. I have hunters to kill.” She swung open the door and took a step inside before pausing. “Speaking of, why aren’t you and all the other demons out fighting? You know he’ll come after you next if he wins.”
“With the doll out there?” Saija said as she slipped around Eva into her room. “Not a chance.” She glanced around the place, eying the fairly spartan room.
There wasn’t much in the room. Everything important was over at the prison. As such, Eva just ignored her to focus on finding some clothes and a few spare vials of blood. She wasn’t sure how much help the blood would be. Not if the hunter could just freeze it all.
But best to take it anyway. Just in case.
For clothes, Eva picked out the lightest shirt and skirt that she could find. Things that wouldn’t agitate her raw skin yet still had pockets. Her belt and its pouches that were specifically designed to hold vials—potion vials, but they worked for blood just the same—was gone. Destroyed along with her hair and her old clothes.
“I have to say that I think most of the demons are hoping that the hunter will win. After the doll is dead, then I’m sure some of us will help out. The–”
“Are you still talking?” Eva said as she glanced around the room one last time.
She wished she had time to go get Basila, damaged though she was. Maybe a few spare bloodstones just in case she found a use for them. Unfortunately, they were important things that she kept at the women’s ward. Teleporting was quick. However, Eva had a really bad habit of finding herself distracted.
It would be just her luck to teleport over there only to find out that nuns were attacking again. Or more hunters. Devon, Catherine, Qrycx, and the waxy demon were all over there. They could handle whatever problems had arisen. Problems that Eva was now certain were definitely going on.
Ignorance was bliss at the moment, or so the saying went.
“Excuse me?”
Saija had her hands on her hips and was glaring at Eva. At least, she was until Eva turned to her. A flap of her wings carried her back behind Irene, once again hiding behind the human girl.
“If you aren’t out fighting, I really don’t care what you have to say at the moment. Of course, I don’t know what I expected from a lowly succubus anyway. Run and hide. Just know that humans are fighting while you cower.”
Eva blinked past them, not even bothering to squeeze by or push them out of the way. Nel hadn’t bothered to say which roof, so she had some scouting to do. Even this little detour to collect clothes and blood might have been enough time for the hunter to leave. Especially if the hunter could see through walls.
Not really the scrying method Eva had expected when Srey mentioned it, but it probably counted as being watched. If the hunter saw or suspected that Eva was coming after her, she would probably leave. Or set up more traps.
But she wasn’t in such a rush that she couldn’t stop for one quick moment. She felt a little bad about her words. Eva didn’t feel bad for Saija. But she wasn’t the only one around.
Irene was looking guilty, rubbing her hands together and averting her eyes—not in an embarrassed way as she had before, but just to avoid looking at Eva.
“Don’t worry, Irene. There are real monsters out there. I wouldn’t expect anyone to fight unless they were monsters as well.”
She stayed paused for just a moment, wondering how Genoa might react to being called a monster before shaking her head. It really didn’t matter at the moment.