Probably for the best. They wouldn’t have done enough against the massive horde approaching her shield. The shield itself, even powered by Arachne’s demonic blood, would only hold a few seconds under the skeletons’ assault without additional blood.
Eva had better ideas.
Without Juliana at her side, Eva felt more free. She pulled the blood from the remaining three and a half vials into a large orb floating in front of her.
The skeletons beat down on her shield. They piled up, each trying to get a swing in. They hit themselves more often than her shield, but it didn’t matter. Every skeleton that fell was replaced as a new one stepped in.
Eva twisted and tore at the blood, pulling and shaping until it looked like a wire ball. She grinned and thrust both of her hands into the ball from opposite ends.
Two large hands, each the size of Arachne, appeared in front of her. The shimmering black hands crashed into each other, crushing all the skeletons between them. With a sweep of her real arms, the hands swept out into the room. They left a trail of–sadly, unusable–black blood and bones in their wake.
They vanished along with the blood-wire ball in front of Eva. Skeletons and a few of the closer pews continued with their momentum, crashing into more skeletons and knocking a good number into the green pool.
Her demonic friend noticed the giant attack. Noticed it enough to be distracted. The skeleton pile got in a strike across her chest. Her own black blood leaked out as she howled at the skeletons.
“Arachne,” Eva called, “dump that thing in the pool of water then get back here. Master’s worthless and I’ve only got one good attack left.”
The demon did not respond. Not unless you count more howling and slamming her entire abdomen into the skeletons. The thing shattered and flew. It was already pulling itself back together.
Arachne crashed into it again. Not before an arm swung a sword and took out one of her legs.
“Arachne!”
The demon swept her abdomen across the floor. Bits of the skeleton pile flew off towards the watery pit. Arachne kicked some extra parts in with her remaining legs. Then she waited. She watched. She picked off any of the regular skeletons that came within reach.
The skeleton pile didn’t reform.
Slowly, the demon turned around. She looked far more exhausted than Eva could ever remember seeing her.
Arachne looked at Eva and grinned.
It wasn’t the best grin Eva had seen. Her sharp white teeth were marred by Arachne’s own black blood. The demon wandered back to Eva’s shield, shrinking as she went. She stumbled the last few steps and leaned against the wall.
Eva ran up to her, half-formed blood ball following at her shoulder. She placed a hand on the demon’s chest where a deep gash oozed blood. The two arrows that had pierced her stomach and shoulder had broken off at some point, leaving just stubs.
“You’re hurt,” Eva stated the obvious.
“Your blood wards did more damage to me in Florida. I’ll be fine.”
Eva frowned. She doubted that but didn’t know what else to do. Potions wouldn’t work on Arachne. They barely worked on herself. The demon had her own healing. Eva walked Arachne back into the small room and set to finishing her next spell.
“Why’s your arm off?”
Arachne’s question almost ruined the spell as Eva whipped her head around.
“Decided I didn’t like it no more.” Her master’s arm was lying on the bed, completely green and rotted. “Your friend didn’t get injured, did she?”
Eva shook her head. “Don’t think so. Neither of us got hit by anything.”
“Bah. I doubt it’d work on you. I’ll keep an eye on Arachne, given its injuries, but I don’t think anything will happen for the same reason as you. I’d just hate for our tunneller to come back a zombie.”
Eva frowned as she felt a ping against the shield. “Arachne, fetch Juliana. I’ve got one attack left and then we’ll seal the door. Hopefully we get out of here before we suffocate.”
Arachne nodded and started up the tunnel.
The shield had another ping against it. And another. The skeletons were gathered again.
Eva finished her spell and waited. And waited. When the skeletons gathered and the shield was down to its last threads, Eva struck again. The skeletons once again were crushed and thrown across the room.
“What was that?”
Eva sighed internally as she turned to the voice. “Not something I can do often,” she told the blond. “If you can seal a lot of the main room, more air for us. If not then we’ll have to make do. We’re all out of fighting.”
She nodded and a thick stone section rose from the ground, plugging the entire short area where the steel plate used to be.
“I think I’m almost at the surface.”
