Neither did she want to fight.
So instead, she simply stood still with her arms crossed. Even as a bundle of tendrils wrapped around and snaked up her leg, Eva didn’t move. The tendrils lifted her up, swinging her upside down. Eva kept her arms crossed.
And just glared at the main mass that was slowly approaching.
— — —
“T-tentacles?” Hank said with a nervous chuckle.
Zoe pressed her face to her palm, not willing to meet his eyes. “She’s actually pretty nice once you get to know her,” she said slowly.
“That’s… a she?”
“She’s employed by Brakket Academy as a security guard. Or was in the past. I believe her contract expired. I’m guessing that Wallace picked up her contract for this event.”
“Ah hah ha.” Again with the nervous laugh. “Well, precarious situation for our young ladies.”
— — —
“Eva!”
The cheer filled voice came from the main mass of tentacles, filled with far more gurgles than Eva remembered. Of course, she couldn’t see a humanoid body formed in the mass, so she was probably just forming up a mouth in the middle of it all.
“Lucy. I think you have some explaining to do.”
Before the tentacle demon could even start to respond, Eva’s head snapped to the side as she heard rapid chanting from the nun.
“Stop!” she cried out.
But Lucy was already one step ahead. A number of tentacles pressed into Anise’s open mouth and wrapped around her tongue.
The way Anise’s eyes bulged and she started choking almost had Eva feeling sorry for her. Almost.
She tried to keep her voice as firm as possible. “Don’t banish my friend. Please,” Eva added after a slight pause. “She’s not going to hurt us. Right Lucy?”
The main mass of tentacles quickly formed up into the familiar shape of a more humanoid Lucy, Brakket security uniform and all. Mostly. From the waist up. Below her waist, the mass of tentacles remained as it was. Eva wasn’t too surprised. A good portion of her body was still spread out across the forest floor.
“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head left and right far further than anyone with a proper skeleton could manage. “Wally said that no matter how much I get attacked, I can’t break anyone.”
Wally? Eva thought with a confused blink of her eyes. They’re on a first name—no, nickname basis?
In a hushed whisper, Lucy added, “He’s scary.”
“How long have you been healed for? I visit you every other week!”
“I… don’t know. A long time. Wally wanted me to pretend,” she said. “After seeing me, he asked if I could stay pretending to heal until he had a job for me.” Her face rippled like a drop of water in a smooth pond, goofy smile turned to a sad frown along with the ripple. “It was so boring. But the nurse was nice. She played with me sometimes.”
“That’s great and all,” Emily shouted from somewhere around, “but since she’s your friend, think you can get her to let us go?”
Eva, still hanging upside down, looked up to her feet. Emily was stuck in the middle of a web of tentacles. Her hands were empty, lacking the wand that had fallen to the forest floor.
“Good point. Lucy?”
The tentacles started to lower Eva down. They didn’t make it more than a few inches before Lucy paused.
“I forgot,” she said. “I’m supposed to take anyone I find out of the wards.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
Though it struck Eva as odd. Whoever Lucy found would almost assuredly be ejected from the match. She wasn’t really the kind of thing that even a group of sixth years could face. Eva had only personally seen Lucy fight on one occasion, back when the half-demon half-zombie golems had attacked the dormitory. Even then, she had only seen her fight for a few moments.
Though she had effectively torn apart her target at the time.
Of course, Irene had told her of two other times Eva had missed Lucy fighting. Once during the same incident, tearing apart and flinging the golems at Ylva. The other time had been more recent. Enigmas within Eva’s domain had escaped through her dormitory room. They made the unfortunate mistake of treading on Lucy.
From Irene’s description of them being peeled apart like an orange, Eva had no doubts about Lucy’s strength.
Even limited to not harming anyone, she would easily be able to capture anyone just as she had captured Eva and her companions. It was as simple as walking out of the arena from there. The only one who might stand a chance at facing her was Anise, and that was simply because of her ability to banish demons. Even her lightning probably wouldn’t do too much damage to such a disembodied creature. Maybe others if they could blink.
Unless Redford wanted her to thin the groups no matter who she came across, he had probably told her to retreat under certain circumstances. Maybe managing to run away.
Maybe…
Eva blinked out of Lucy’s grasp, righting herself using the blink. She appeared right in front of Lucy’s main body.
Her fist went straight into Lucy’s face, sinking in without much resistance. The tendrils making up Lucy’s head started to constrict around her fist as expected.
Eva’s hand burst into flames.
Lucy’s face split in two, avoiding the fire.
It probably wouldn’t hurt her. Lucy was constantly covered in a greasy sheen. A little flame might dry her out, but not cause any permanent damage. She was a demon, after all.
But the way she avoided the flames had Eva smiling. Almost confirming her theory.
Eva blinked a short distance away.
“Alright Lucy. Let’s fight.”
“F-Fight? But–”
“Or you can let my companions loose.”
The two halves of her head twisted to independently look at each of her captives.
Anise glared with her burning eyes only enhancing the menacing look. The effect was somewhat ruined as tentacles still filled her mouth. Not to mention that she looked about ready to throw up.
On the other hand, Emily actually looked interested. Her eyes were following Eva with rapt attention.
“I can’t,” Lucy said.
It was probably part of her contract. Eva would have to free them or they would have to escape on their own.
Perfectly acceptable conditions.
“Alright,” Eva said with a smile. A wide, teeth-filled smile. “Since you can’t hurt me, I’ll go easy on you.”
Eight marbles of explosive fire appeared between each of Eva’s fingers. None were high-explosives. She had only put a small bit of magic into each one, enough to make them unstable. Nothing compared to the room-destroying explosion she had used to free Lucy from the hunters’ trap.
She pulled her hands back, crossing her arms over her chest with each hand open and clawed around her shoulders.
So long as that drone was hovering around overhead, she might as well be theatrical.
She flung her arms out, throwing the marbles as she did so.
Before the first even touched Lucy, Eva blinked away.
Reappearing in front of the main branch of tendrils holding Emily up, Eva lifted her claws high and swiped downwards. The sharp tips of her carapace didn’t quite cut through the entire branch of tentacles. She only made it about halfway through.
It was enough. Emily dropped out of the main mass of tendrils.
Several explosive pops sounded behind Eva as she bent to flick the wand upwards. Emily caught it without issue.
She started casting as Eva dove to the side, avoiding another bunch of tendrils after her.
Looking up at Lucy’s main body again, she was actually smoking. A number of black scorch marks marred her skin—or the masses of tendrils that were pressed together to appear as skin.
Eva felt a little guilty. More about cutting off some of her tentacles than anything else. But her fingers weren’t Elysium Order lightning or cursed with whatever was on the demon hunter’s sword. She should be able to regenerate a few severed tentacles with relative ease.