Raising her arm, Eva skipped the explosions entirely. A stream of sticky fire flew from her fingertips.
The wave caught Lucy square in the chest.
Or it should have.
Lucy split again. The bulk of the fire passed straight through her, landing on the trees and brush beyond her body. A good amount still splashed around the edges of the hole, clinging to her body as Eva had intended.
Still, it was enough of a distraction to let Eva blink over to Anise.
Unlike Emily, Anise was wrapped up with so many tentacles that almost nothing of her could be seen from the neck down. Slicing through the thick bunch of tentacles would be not only impossible, but also cruel. One or a few, Eva could give herself a pass on. Not a full tree trunk’s worth.
“Can’t you blink or teleport?”
Anise, eyes wide and pleading for release, shook her head.
With a groan, Eva blinked out of the way of another group of tentacles.
Despite telling Lucy that she would be going easy on her, Eva really didn’t have all that much else she could do. Her fingers traced along the scales of the snake wrapped around her wrist. But she shook her head. Basila probably wouldn’t be too helpful at the moment. Not against Lucy.
Anything else she could use wasn’t something she wanted to reveal on camera. She did have her dagger with her, but it was hidden inside the lining of her jacket. Arachne had helped to create the hidden pouch. It wasn’t easy to get to, but her fingers should be able to sever the lining if there was a desperate emergency.
And, while she did have one other trump card, she really wasn’t willing to play it without being in absolute mortal peril for fear of being disqualified.
Emily, though freed from her entrapment, wasn’t much help. Her concentration was solely on avoiding being recaptured. She ran circles around the area, using her earth magic to create pillars to jump off or to boost her around. Never once did she try sending even a single blade of earth towards Lucy.
Comparing them side by side as earth mages, Eva would much rather have Juliana at her side. While Emily was proficient in spell casting, she didn’t have much in the way of a tactical mind. She couldn’t win without attacking. If she wasn’t going to attack, she might as well run away and remove the danger of being recaptured.
She wasn’t even that good of a distraction with how Lucy could split her concentration and tentacles between the two of them.
“Alright Lucy,” Eva mumbled to herself as she conjured another eight marbles of unstable flame between her fingers.
Unlike her first volley, these might actually do a bit of damage. Still not to room obliterating levels.
She held onto them as she sprinted around, using her blood sense to keep one step ahead in dodging tentacles. Every second that passed, another bit of magic poured into them.
Once ready, Eva flung them one-by-one at the tree truck of tentacles holding up Anise. Each rumbled the forest with the noise as they tore into the tentacles.
“Stop,” Lucy cried out just after Eva released the fifth bomb. The tentacles holding onto Anise withdrew, dropping the nun a few feet down to the ground.
Eva half expected her to jump to her feet and start flinging around white lighting. Instead, she got to her hands and knees, gagging and retching on the ground.
While Emily stopped by her, patting her back with a pitiful expression, Eva kept her eyes on Lucy.
A very quickly retreating Lucy. The tendrils, those still attached to her, had all pulled back to join with the main body.
Eva tried to tell herself that the sobbing she heard was just her imagination.
I’ll have to apologize after this, she thought with a sigh as she turned to her companions.
She flung three three remaining bombs between her fingers over her shoulder as she walked towards both them and the camera, not looking behind her as they exploded in the background.
“Are you alright?”
Emily gave a shallow nod of her head.
Anise spat against the ground another five times before pulling a wand from the pockets of her jacket. She touched it to the tip of her tongue and closed her mouth. A few seconds later and she was spitting out a mouthful of water.
She repeated the process half a dozen times before Eva had enough.
“We’ve wasted enough time,” she said, hooking her hands underneath the girl’s arm and lifting her to her feet. “Let’s go. And maybe next time we don’t try banishing the tentacle monster that already has you in its grasp and, therefore, has its tentacles near your mouth.”
Anise gave a few rapid nods of her head, still not talking and still filling her mouth with water.
At least she was on her feet and moving.
Chapter 010
“And there goes group indigo.”
“A shame,” Zoe said with a shake of her head. “They looked like they were doing so well.”
“When the tail swiped the… elf into the tree, I think the other two lost their nerves.”
“Indeed. Dragonkin are not to be taken lightly. Their scales can take a beating that even the finest suit of armor would have trouble holding up against. The students got a little overconfident when they managed to push it back. But if they would have stuck to their attacks rather than turning to flee, they might have forced it into a retreat. Especially the water mage, he should have used water rather than ice. Dragonkin don’t like their scales getting wet.”
“Right,” Hank said with a quick nod of his head.
Zoe doubted he really understood. At least, in general. Her previous statement had been simple enough. But the idea that it would be better to fight many of the things out in the forest rather than run probably didn’t mesh with his general worldview. Or that of most mundane people for that matter.
If they saw something scary, their first instinct would be to run. Even if they were running from something that was obviously faster than them.
Hank did manage to act like he knew what he was talking about. The narrations he gave were mostly play-by-plays, repeating what he was seeing on screen. It gave him the illusion that he was talking about something important, even though everyone could see what he was saying on their own screens.
He let Zoe handle explaining most magical aspects of the fights, of course, and asked intelligent questions when something was particularly odd to him.
“Still, getting slammed into the tree like that had to have hurt.”
“Probably,” Zoe admitted. “But the medical team is already on site and none of the three students were hurt too badly. They’ll be able to patch up any injuries in the blink of an eye.”
“That’s true. I think I’ve seen high school wrestling matches with worse injuries,” he said with a chuckle.
Zoe wasn’t sure if she believed that, but maybe he was trying to play down the violence for the viewers.
Even though more violence would probably mean more viewers. Humans were… attracted to that sort of thing for some reason.
“For those of you who are just joining us or otherwise missed out,” Hank said, sitting up straight as the cameras switched to them now that there was a lull in the action, “you can catch the replays and highlights on the website listed at the bottom of your screens. A quick recap of where each school stands.
“With the indigo group’s summary defeat, five students have been removed from the event. Isomer Holy Academy is down to a single student, currently in group violet. As is Mount Hope, their single student also in group violet. The Nod Complex is down to two students. Brakket and Faultline Academies are the only ones still at full steam.