“You’re expecting me to remember the names of several mortals that are inconsequential, at best.”
Zoe frowned. He wasn’t about to offer up anything else. “Fine,” she said as she turned on her heel. She kept her enhanced senses trained on him as she walked away. Not a single footstep reached her ears. She glanced back before she turned the corner.
There was nobody in the hallway.
With a shudder, Zoe continued to the main entrance.
The defending force was not performing well. The elf was lying on the ground, unmoving. Over him stood the older security guard. One of his arms swung limply as he tossed around an impressive amount of water and ice.
Tiny Ylva was in the thick of things, surrounded by black ash. All of the creatures seemed to be actively avoiding her.
As Zoe was watching, one creature flew out of the air, crashing into Ylva. For a moment, the beetle-like monster sat on top of where Ylva had been standing. Zoe almost ran out to get the thing off of her.
Her worries were unfounded.
Black veins spread across the beetle’s carapace. Smoke poured from the veins for a minute before the entire beetle exploded into more of the black ash. Ylva stood in the center of the settling remains.
Zoe would have liked to say she was unscathed, but her skin had several dark blotches on it.
Following the arc the beetle took, Zoe found a mass of tentacles attached to an innocently smiling woman. One of the security specialists. Like Ylva, she was being given a wide berth. It mattered a lot less to the tentacle demon, however. Her appendages stretched out and grasped anything in their reach.
A massive wall of stone had been built around the entrance to the Rickenbacker. Genoa’s work most likely. She must have been looking for her daughter as well.
There was no Eva, nor any sign of the other missing students. Zoe opened the door and walked outside anyway, heading towards Ylva. The hel would likely be concerned about Juliana and might even know where she was.
For a moment, Zoe entertained the idea of teleporting straight to Ylva. As another creature turned to dust in her grasp, Zoe discarded the thought. Surprising the demon and winding up added to the pile of ash was not a current goal.
There weren’t many creatures between her and Ylva, but enough that she wasn’t willing to risk attempting to run through.
Zoe enhanced her vision to the point where she could pick out the individual strands of the stitchings holding the creatures together. She doubted a lightning bolt would do much good. Most of the creatures fighting the security guards had enough icicles buried in them to fill a large freezer.
Their stitches were a far more obvious weak point.
Taking it slow and steady, Zoe sent out precise blades of compressed wind. Each one neatly bisected the stitching. The insides of the creatures at the point where demon contacted human were… odd.
There were tubes filled with blood, heavy metal clamps at the joints, and more than a few wires. The clamps were drastically more difficult to cut, but it didn’t seem to matter much. Without the wires and tubes, the limbs ceased moving.
Zoe focused most of her blades on their legs. Stopping their movement was more important that actually killing the things. They could be put down at leisure later.
With only three creatures disabled, Zoe had a clear shot at Ylva.
Zoe cut her dagger through the air in front of her. The wind moved, curling around and under her–lessening her weight. Zoe took off at a full sprint.
With the wind twisted as it was, Zoe had a strong gale against her back. Her feet barely skimmed against the ground as she moved forwards. An inexperienced observer might have thought she was flying. She thought the same the first time the technique was demonstrated to her.
Ash and dust kicked up around Zoe as she sprinted through the remains of Ylva’s enemies. A twist of her wrist and the gale ceased. She manipulated the wind into curling away from her, especially her eyes and mouth. Zoe didn’t like the idea of breathing in the remains of corpses.
Cold bit through Zoe’s relatively thin suit. It wasn’t that cold of a day, but the air around Ylva’s little ash field sent Zoe into light shivers.
“You should stay inside. It is unsafe.”
“Unless you’ve seen the mastermind behind all this, at your side is probably the safest place.”
“We have seen nothing but minions.” Ylva paused as another landed right next to her.
The creature lashed out at Zoe, but she was far enough away that it didn’t matter. Charcoal colored veins raced across the creature’s skin.
Zoe shivered again. The air temperature dropped several degrees as the creature turned to dust.
“This army will soon be obliterated. It cannot be stopped. A waste of resources. We fail to comprehend the motivations behind this attack.”
“Eva, Juliana, Shalise, and a few other students are missing.”
“A distraction?”
“I saw Juliana and Shalise just after the attack began. I think they ran off to find Eva, who apparently skipped class today with another student.”
