Eva couldn’t help but to chuckle.
For a second.
Releasing Emily’s hand, she made the first steps towards the rest of the arena.
“We’ve some lost time to reclaim. I hope you can keep up.”
With that, Eva took off. She didn’t use her legs to their full potential. Losing sight of either of her companions could wind up with them being ambushed. Or ambushing her. But she fast ran enough to push them to keep up.
“I’m coming for you, vampire,” Eva muttered under her breath.
Chapter 009
The red light flickered out.
Garbed in white, the boy from Isomer unleashed his spell. Five minutes of doing nothing but pouring magic into his wand manifested itself as a field of ice. It spread around him, flash freezing everything in a small bubble of space. Plants and insects alike died in droves. Even tiny drops of water in the air crystallized and fell to the ground in an explosion of snow.
Standing next to his fellow red marble holder, the other boy should have been caught within the ice as well.
“Frostbite is no laughing matter in the short-term. Not particularly painful as it tends to numb the senses, but it would make moving difficult. With proper application of ointments and potions, all but the worst effects can be reversed before permanent damage is done.”
“He–He doesn’t seem affected by it at all!”
The vampire shook his head with a chuckle. A few flakes of snow fell from his hair as he moved.
“You know,” he said, locking cold eyes with his companion, “I was perfectly willing to honor our truce. But after that, I think a light snack is in order.” A feral grin spread across his face.
The Isomer student realized his mistake as soon as he saw the two sharp fangs dangling from the smiling mouth. He tried to conjure up a wall of ice between the two of them, but the vampire was behind him before the wall could grow more than a few inches.
Taking hold of his victim’s shoulder and head, the vampire made room for his head and dipped his fangs into flesh.
He didn’t drink for long. To the Isomer student’s credit, he managed to coalesce a few icicles and toss them towards the vampire, over his shoulder.
The vampire was fast enough to dodge. He did end up releasing the other student.
Clutching his neck, the Isomer student spun around. He conjured a large wave of water rather than ice, attempting to push back and wash away the vampire.
The vampire didn’t even get his feet wet. He jumped out to the side, planting both feet on a tree. The entire trunk cracked and snapped as the vampire kicked off. Splinters of wood fell to join the snow on the ground. As he flew overhead, the vampire grabbed hold of the stunned student’s collar. He gripped tight as his feet hit the ground and used his continuing momentum to fling the boy out of the ward.
Hank winced, making an audible note of empathetic pain as the kid slammed into a tree. It didn’t shatter like the other one, but this tree hadn’t been flash frozen either.
From somewhere inside his pocket, a faint red glow lit up the Isomer student’s white uniform. The same pocket that had held his marble, if Zoe remembered correctly.
The student wasn’t done, however. He staggered to his feet. After shaking his head, he charged forwards, ice flowing around him as he prepared another attack.
Crossing his arms, the vampire just smiled. A few drops of blood still stained his teeth red.
Ice and a body hit the invisible sphere of a ward a few paces away. Blood drained from the Isomer student’s face as he tried slamming a shoulder into it. Anger bled away to worry as his fists pounded into the ward. Icicles hit, glancing off without leaving a single mark in the air.
“Thanks for the meal,” the vampire said with a wave of his hand. He turned and ran into the forest.
And left the Isomer student disqualified.
“Wow,” Hank said softly. “Two students have already been taken out of the game.”
“In less than two minutes,” Zoe added with a smile.
“Isomer Academy and Mount Hope are both down one student each. But will we see a third?”
The screens changed from the medics rushing up to the Isomer student to Eva and the rest of the violet group.
“A tense standoff by the looks of things,” Hank continued.
Zoe wasn’t so sure. If Eva hadn’t attacked them by now, they would probably reaffirm their truce.
“Both groups of three have no pairs from the same school. Which means that as soon as one person attacks another, they leave their backs open to possibly getting attacked in return. I doubt…” Zoe trailed off as Eva held out her hands to the other girls. She started speaking as well.
It was a mere moment before both girls were shaking her hands.
“Ah, see. They’ll have to betray each other later.”
“Well, no third then,” Hank said, sounding almost disappointed. He perked up almost instantly as a voice came over the earpieces saying that they were going to display that previous battle again. “But, with how far apart the students are, that gives us time to go over those two fights. Let’s start with the most recent.”
The screen flicked backwards to a still image of the ice spell.
Except it wasn’t a still image. Zoe leaned closer, watching the snow form in the air in slow motion.
And extremely high resolution.
“It is a very beautiful spell,” Zoe said, deciding to voice her thoughts aloud. “Not something a student would likely be able to cast in an instant. He had probably been preparing it for some time.”
“I’m slack-jawed watching this footage again,” Hank said, only exaggerating slightly, “but it didn’t seem very effective.”
“Against a human, I imagine it would have instantly incapacitated them. Even if he hadn’t known that he was walking with a vampire, he should have realized that things aren’t always what they seem with the Nod Complex. And,” Zoe started, doing her best to hold in an exasperated sigh, “he really shouldn’t have stood around doing nothing after his first attack failed. The vampire taunted him for a good ten seconds during which he could have done plenty more.”
The footage on the screen sped up until the vampire’s fangs were half into the human’s shoulder.
“He was a vampire then?” Hank asked with a slight somber tone to his voice.
“It seems I was wrong earlier,” Zoe said slowly.
Given that, largely thanks to Wayne, most of the mundane world believed that vampires had been responsible for the incident in Lansing, they were likely to be a somewhat touchy subject. Though it had been more than a decade ago, an entire city had been wiped off the maps. Family and friends of those who had perished were probably watching the broadcast right now.
Zoe wasn’t sure if she should say something. Or what she should say, even. Some platitude about how all the vampires involved were dead? That wasn’t even true. She knew of at least two survivors, though one was a victim and the other hadn’t had anything to do with the incident itself.
Not to mention that such a statement wouldn’t make anyone feel better. Knowing what had happened from first-hand experience didn’t make her feel any better about it. Had it not been for Wayne, she would have died along with her parents.
Zoe pressed her lips together into a tight line. Saying something would be crass. Politicians and spokesmen for magical societies could say more careful words at a later date.
Thankfully, or perhaps noticing that Zoe had gone silent, the image switched to the first fight.
“Ah, this was a particularly interesting fight in terms of air magi,” she started with a smile. Air magic was a safe topic and, best of all, she could talk about it for a few minutes at the very least.
“I’ll say,” Hank started. “The way the student from Faultline moved…”
Perhaps she could become an announcer at events like these when she retired. It was a lot like teaching. Going over uses of magic and the like. That and the slow motion lightning bolt was a beautiful sight to see. She could definitely get used to seeing magic performed in front of high quality cameras.