Eva pulled the blood out of a vial and formed it into the pattern for a shield. “Hold your attacks,” she said to Juliana. She waited for the blond to finish her volley of stones before snapping her fingers.
The shield sprung to life around the doorway.
“What is this?” Juliana asked.
Eva shook her head. “Ask later.” She desperately hoped the blond wouldn’t.
Eva waited for a few pings of enemy arrows to strike the shield–no sense getting skewered by something that could penetrate her defenses–and she peeked around the corner.
As Eva expected, the room had filled with skeletons. More entered at a steady pace from the tunnel at the top of the stairs. The skeletons did not seem to care about knocking into each other. Several were bumped over the thin railing guarding the stairs. None who fell into the greenish water ever surfaced.
Several of the skeletons stood in a line around the doorway. They were the only ones armed with bows. One by one they loosed an arrow and casually, almost lazily, readied another.
Juliana, peeking around as well, readied her own attacks. She lined up pointed stones at each of the skeletons and waited to fire.
Arachne ignored almost all of the skeletons unless they dared to get close to her. Lacking fear instincts, most of the skeletons in the room dared. They all were turned to dust by uncaring backhands. She kept her focus on a pile of skeletons.
The thing she fought had at least eight skulls, as many rib cages, and more limbs than Eva could count. Arachne tore into it, breaking bones and throwing limbs across the room. The thing didn’t care. Whole bones would fly off the ground to replace missing parts.
Arachne didn’t appear to be losing either. Two arrows stuck out of her chest but she didn’t even notice. The skeletons swarming her weren’t able to do more than scratch her chitin. Even the ones carrying swords barely got a moment of attention before being knocked away.
Eva pulled back from the doorway. She gave a small nod to Juliana who returned the nod.
Snapping her fingers, the shield vanished. Juliana’s attacks launched away.
Eva reset the shield, adding an extra half a vial to the core at the same time.
All but two of the stone shards struck their targets. Before the skeletons could crumple to the ground, Juliana had conjured two more stones. She lined them up, ready to attack.
Eva pointed up at the ceiling. “Any chance you could hit those guys? They’re still staring at us.”
“I thought they didn’t matter.”
“Yes, well…” Eva glanced back to her master.
Devon sat on the cot. The deeper part of his wound–the inside of his hand–turned an ugly green. The skin around it reddened and cracked. His fingers on his good hand danced with green flame. He seemed to be considering burning the wound with his demonic fire.
Eva shook her head, leaving her master to take care of himself. “The one who thought that is indisposed at the moment.”
Juliana’s face blanched at her own glance at Devon. She turned back to the skeletons and readied another six shards. “Can’t hurt anything I suppose.”
Leaning back inside, Eva brought down the shield long enough for Juliana to fire.
The archers were down. For now at least. Another skeleton started picking up one of the bows. Eva sent a tiny splattering of Arachne’s blood rocketing at it before Juliana peeked around the corner. She snapped her fingers and the bow cracked where it had been hit.
Arachne had changed tactics. The demon had grown to her full size and was laying waste to the bundle of skeletons. That still didn’t seem to be fast enough to counteract its healing.
The attentions of the rest of the skeletons had turned away from her. Either the destruction of the archers or Arachne’s new size made them advance on the small hole in the wall.
“Can’t you tunnel us out?”
“Maybe,” the blond replied as she readied a whole line of earth shards. “Maybe we suffocate before we get out. This room is tiny, if we seal it off and start digging then we might not make it depending on how far off the surface it is. With four of us…”
The staircase tunnel hadn’t stopped pouring in skeletons. If anything it had increased the rate it spewed them out. The only upside was that more were being knocked into the pool of water beneath the staircases.
Eva doubted going that way would be very feasible.
“Get working on it. I’ll hold the skeletons here. We can at least delay sealing this room.”
“You can handle it?”
Eva grinned at the blond. “If I can’t, I’ll be sure to make my death as loud as possible to give you some warning.”
She did not look impressed.
“While you’re back there, tell my mentor that if he wants to save any face at all, he’ll get up here and start helping.”
Juliana didn’t say a word as she left Eva’s side. The rocks floating in midair dropped to the ground at her departure.
