“I want to be a part of this too. With the gloves, I can be here for whatever this is too.”
Eva sighed. “The gloves aren’t exactly meant for actual combat. I don’t know what this is, but I might have an idea.”
“Which is?” Zoe asked.
“Wait until we’re at the forest,” Eva said as she continued out of the amphitheater.
A few students glanced in their direction as they walked out. Partially because they were heading away from the dorms and partially because they had Zoe with them, Eva assumed. So long as none of them followed her, she didn’t care.
At the tree line, Arachne popped off Eva’s chest. She skittered around behind a few trees and immediately grew back to her humanoid form.
“There’s another demon out there,” she said before her face had even formed fully.
“Demon?” Shalise and Zoe echoed together, though Shalise stuttered it slightly.
“Out on the outskirts again?” Eva asked.
Arachne shook her head as her hair tendrils sprouted from her scalp. “Closer.”
“Are you really going to make me ask how much closer?”
Arachne opened her mouth to answer. Instead of the demon’s voice, Eva heard a scream coming from the direction of the amphitheater. Several more shouts and screams followed.
Zoe Baxter vanished with a bone chilling blast of cold air.
“So? What do we do?”
“I guess we go help Zoe Baxter,” Eva said. “Shalise, you–”
“I-I’m going with you.”
Eva heaved a greatly exaggerated sigh. “Arachne, keep out of sight with Shalise. Only jump in if there is no one around or I’m in trouble.”
“But I want to fight.” Her needle-like fingers spread apart and clasped back together. “It’s been so long.”
“Stand by what I said.” Eva uncapped her vials of blood and drew out five marbles into a large sphere near her hand. “Let’s go.”
Eva turned and ran back to the stage. Arachne followed behind at a far more dejected pace with Shalise behind her. The poor brown-haired girl didn’t have the powerful legs to keep up. Luckily for her, the amphitheater wasn’t far.
Chaos reigned in the amphitheater. Students were either running or cowering. One lay in a pool of her own blood. Zoe had taken up the defense, putting herself between the retreating students and the demon.
The demon itself was a shorter thing. It came up to about half Zoe Baxter’s height. Three stubby fingers capped each of its hands. A spaded tail sprouted from its backside along with two stunted wings.
Eva doubted they could support the imp in any kind of flight.
Not taking chances with her relatively weak order shield, Zoe intercepted its green fire with large gusts of wind.
Despite its small stature, the imp kept Zoe from launching a proper attack with a mass of fireballs flowing from each hand.
“Shalise,” Eva called out, “try to get the kids who are cowering out of here. Arachne, keep an eye out for a summoner.”
Her orders given out, Eva didn’t bother to ensure they were carried out. She’d trust her friends.
A fifth of the glob of blood in Eva’s hand separated and beelined towards the imp. She had enough blood to do two of the larger disembodied limb attacks; they were far too visible and left too much residue to clean up.
The blood formed a ring around the imp’s arm.
With a clap of Eva’s hands, the blood obliterated.
An arm slapped against the ground as the demon let out a frightened scream. It hopped backwards, turned, and ran.
Two more globs of blood separated from her sphere, leaving a much smaller ball behind.
Before they could impact with the fleeing demon, a bolt of lightning pierced through its chest. Blood and flesh boiled away leaving a six-inch gaping hole.
Once Zoe Baxter raised her dagger to cut off the stream of lightning, the imp collapsed. Its knees hit the ground followed by its face.
Eva frowned as the imp’s body dissolved and sank into the ground.
“You shouldn’t have killed it,” Eva said. “We could have asked it who sent it.”
“No time.” Zoe spun on her heel and ran towards the injured student. She clasped her hand around the student’s shoulders and both vanished.
Eva wandered back towards Arachne with the two globs of blood trailing after her. Rather than replace them in the vials, Eva kept them orbiting her. No sense getting complacent when another attack could occur.
“That was it?” Arachne asked as Eva neared. “I could tell it was weak. I didn’t expect it to be
“I know. I barely did anything save give Zoe an opening.”
“Lynn isn’t going to like this,” Shalise said after she jogged up. She nervously rubbed her hands together. “Where did it come from? W-why did it attack?”
Eva shrugged. “It had to have been a distraction for something.”
“Why a distraction?”
“Because,” Arachne drawled, “that imp was pathetic.”
“Unless it was specifically targeting the one student who was injured,” Eva said. “It didn’t accomplish much else.”
Arachne drew in a deep breath. “I don’t smell any unusual demons around.”
