Eva contracted with demons in the past. It wasn’t her favorite thing, preferring powerful blood magics and simple runes. Yet most of them ended up being nothing more than an exchange of words laced with magic for the binding aspect. A blood contract was something special. A blood contract like that…
Another bolt against her shield shock Eva out of her stupor. She quickly drew her dagger and cut a long slit in her arm, adding fresh black-red blood to her blood shield.
“Are all your contracts like that?” Eva asked.
The sharp toothed grin was her only response as the spider-woman was already changing, growing and sprouting extra legs to support her additional mass. “Prepare some spells. Go for quantity over quality. Distractions. I’m sure I could survive a lightning bolt or few, but I’d rather not have to, if possible.”
Eva nodded. She touched her dagger to the fresh cut on her wrist and drew several marble sized beads of her black-red blood. She looked back to Arachne when twenty of them hovered in the air in front of her.
Arachne had grown to nearly three times her original size. She contorted her upper body around her round abdomen and folded her legs beneath her to keep as much of her as possible within the shield.
“Ready,” Eva shouted. She sent five of her blood marbles arching towards the nun. They spread out and approached from different directions, hopefully the nun would be distracted with repairing her shield or just plain unable to block all of them.
Arachne leapt after the marbles, crossing the distance with amazing speed for her size.
Eva paid her little mind. She launched a second volley without waiting to see the effects of the first. And the third. By the fourth volley launched, Arachne reached the nun. Eva began drawing out a much larger droplet of blood.
Arachne struck. Her front two legs as well as her human arms and their sharp fingers all lanced towards the nun at frightening speed.
The nun didn’t even flinch. A light blue bubble materialized around her, just inches from her skin.
“Demon. Sathanus, subcategory: Asmodeus. Designation: Jorogumo. Response: Banish.”
Arachne continued pressing against the nun’s shield, adding another two pointed legs to the process. “Jorogumo?” She laughed. “Don’t compare me to those
The nun frowned and began mumbling to herself.
“Not going to happen.” Arachne laughed again. She withdrew all her limbs and slammed them into the nun’s shield.
Fractures appeared around the shield and the nun flinched. Now looking panicked, she began chanting faster and louder.
As Arachne pulled back for another strike, Eva attacked. A baseball sized orb of dark blood launched itself straight at the nun.
The nun’s shields shattered at the blood’s impact and Arachne’s limbs continued to their target unimpeded. Four legs pierced the nun’s torso until they poked out the back, dripping with viscera. Still the nun continued to chant, strained and weak though it was.
Arachne launched a hand into her throat, ripping and pulling flesh. Her chanting gave way to gurgles. Blood spilled down her front. It stood out to Eva against the bleak surroundings.
“Try to banish me with no vocal chords. I dare you.”
The nun’s only response was to slump forward. She fell to her knees as Arachne withdrew her limbs. The spider-demon launched one last leg at the fallen nun, piercing her spinal cord.
She turned with a grin, melting back to her human form as she walked.
Eva snapped her fingers and the blood shield vanished along with the blood on the ground. She set the blood on her arm to healing the gash as she made her way to her master.
He stopped marking the wall, instead turning his attentions to a partially healed leg. “She dead?” At Eva’s nod, Devon began healing his leg in earnest. “Damn sisters, bet she just wanted the boon for herself.”
Devon continued to prattle but Eva stopped paying attention. She studied the large, nearly complete summoning circle her master had been drawing. When she turned back to him, the look in her eyes brought his whining to a halt.
Far more calmly than she felt, Eva said, “You were going to summon a cerberus. Do you have three cows hidden under that trench coat or were you planning on us being its sacrificial snack?”
Devon flinched at her tone. “I was planning on dominating it, if you must know.”
“That’s even worse.” Eva pointed at the circle. “You don’t even have shackles set up. It would have eaten everyone in the alley before you could even think about dominating it.”
“I was getting to the shackles,” Devon ground out. “Let me remind you that I am the demonologist here, not you. This isn’t my first time summoning a dangerous creature.” He ignored Eva’s huff and extended his hand. “Help me up. The Elysium Sisters never work alone, others in the area would have felt her death.”
A cracking of knuckles came from behind Eva as she helped her master to his feet. “We could rend them to bits just as easily.”
