Void Domain, Book 04 полностью

She sighed. It was like trying to scoop out a river with a measuring cup.

Finally deciding to answer her earlier question, Genoa turned to Eva. “It’s probably your imagination. We’re getting tired and wearing down. They are not.”

Eva shook her head. Her long hair no longer flowed behind her in the wind. It was matted and clumped up on her back and chest, stuck to the thin layer of sweat that coated her body.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Eva said. “We teamed up. It might not be sporting in the theater-demon’s eyes if Arachne didn’t gain some extra advantage.”

Genoa considered that. It was true that this was far from the longest or most grueling thing she had experienced–it might be close to making its way to the top five, however. Yet her sword had been getting stuck in the chitin plates far more often lately, forcing her to blink out or yank it out of the creatures.

She had attributed that to nothing more than muscle fatigue. But if the theater-demon was upgrading their enemy…

“We’re going to survive this.” She looked out over the ocean of insects again, sinkholing another who-knows how many. “Cut off the head and the snake–or spider–dies, right?”

“Arachne will be hidden away,” Eva said. “The theater-demon knows that she won’t die even if she is killed. It would be less satisfying to him if she was out here from the start. The question is, where?”

“I was in the bank and you were in the jail. So either the train station or the city hall,” Genoa said, pointing downwards at the building they were standing on. “Or…”

Genoa smiled. Taking in a deep breath, she shouted out, “Arachne! During all of our little duels in the real world, I was holding back in every single one of them. You would have been paste on the floor had I been taking them even the slightest bit serious.”

A faint echo of her own voice was all that followed her proclamation. Even the mass of insects quieted down for a moment. It was ominous enough that Genoa started looking around for any hint of the spider-demon.

Eva, on the other hand, took her eyes off the battlefield. Crossing her arms, she looked up at Genoa with an almost incredulous look in those red eyes of hers. “Seriously?”

“I thought it might make her show up,” Genoa said with a shrug.

“I mean, were you or were you not taking your sparring seriously?”

Of course I was, she didn’t say. They were some of the most intense fights Genoa had fought. Part of that came from the uncertainty regarding whether or not Arachne would bother to stop before she died had she slipped up. And after Juliana had been taken…

Well, both of us needed a good outlet for our frustrations.

Fighting the demon was surprisingly cathartic.

Rather than respond Genoa just smiled.

That smile almost slipped.

She had had Juliana in her arms. Juliana was safe. Juliana wasn’t part of this death match.

Now all Genoa had to do was get out alive. And kick in the strings of that theater-demon.

Genoa frowned as a few vibrations reached her feet. That was all too familiar of a feeling. Another one of those bus-beetles was getting too close.

“Focus on finding Arachne,” Genoa said. She casted one last round of sinkholes, shored up the city hall’s damage, and refurbished the defensive spikes. “I’ll keep us safe until you do.”

With that said, Genoa blinked off the roof. She had a beetle to decapitate.

— — —

Eva watched the older woman dive back into the fray. Part of her wanted to join Genoa. She could. Her stepping would keep her out of trouble. Her hands were powerful and sharp–at least the one that hadn’t been damaged by acid.

Her wounds were holding her back. Most of the injuries on her back had already healed, save for the one inflicted by Sawyer. But she could feel slivers of wood embedded in her skin. Moving too much dug them in further, or caused them to poke out of her back.

Agitating them hurt.

It wouldn’t be a huge issue to dig them out with creative use of blood magic, but it would be time consuming.

Time she simply lacked at the moment.

So Eva merely watched as the retired mage-knight cut down enemy after enemy, offering only a modicum of support in return.

Eva had to admit one thing, Genoa was a vastly superior minion than even a hundred of the cat-vampires.

Maybe not a minion. Genoa was not beholden to Eva or her orders. Though Eva hadn’t actually tried to order her around. Sniping things from the roof while Genoa ran around dispatching the major threats was more of a mutual suggestion with the initial idea given by Genoa.

At the same time, Eva was certainly not Genoa’s minion. They were partners. A somewhat one-sided partnership with Genoa doing most of the heavy lifting.

Most of it.

Not all.

Eva brought her hands together, igniting both. Fire flowed down into a compressed ball.

It was her new preferred method of using her thaumaturgy.

So far, it performed admirably in tearing the insects to pieces.