More alarming than the state of the room were the walls themselves. Beads of black blood sweat from the walls. Each droplet dripped down, joining with other droplets to pool along the edges of the room. The pools were drawn into thin streams leading towards the middle of the room.
Eva stood amidst a whirlwind of blood. She had her void metal dagger clenched in one hand as she glared with burning eyes at a woman on the opposite side of the room—just to the side of the window.
The woman had a small patch of ice around her feet. Any liquid blood that dared to venture too close wound up frozen solid.
Arachne had no idea who the woman was. She had never seen the woman before. Or, if she had, she couldn’t remember. The woman wasn’t Genoa and she wasn’t the professor at the very least.
It was clear that she was an enemy of Eva.
What more motivation did Arachne need?
Leaping over the half destroyed wall that might have been a window at one point, Arachne sprouted extra legs from her back.
Swinging three legs and a hand, Arachne raked her razor sharp limbs through the air.
The woman ducked and rolled, freezing the blood around the floor and walls as she moved.
“Another one? How many of you must I kill before you stay dead!”
Neither Arachne nor Eva responded. Arachne was far too focused on watching the woman’s every move.
Whether she had heard Arachne or had picked up on some tell from Eva, her dodge wasn’t unexpected. Eva would have killed someone weaker without issue. Her blood magic was strong enough to defeat most foes.
Therefore, this person was somewhat exceptional.
But still a mortal.
A mortal that wasn’t dressed like the nuns. Unless she had decided to attack out of uniform, that meant that Arachne wouldn’t need to worry about their horrible lightning.
Arachne didn’t pause for a moment. Pushing off the wall with her legs, she lunged forward.
Her hand caught the woman right in the stomach.
Arachne snatched her hand back in shock and pain. The tips of her fingers had crumpled, her carapace cracked.
The woman had a tee-shirt on. Nothing fancy. Simple cotton. And yet, Arachne’s fingers slammed into it as if they had struck a brick wall—something harder than a brick wall. Her claws could tear apart solid stone if she was trying. The only evidence that she had even touched the woman were a few dark pinpricks on the shirt.
Grinning, the woman stepped forwards as Arachne stared at her fingers. She grabbed hold of Arachne’s hand, ducked under a set of swiping legs, and used one of those legs as a brace for Arachne’s arm. Giving only a slight push, the woman managed to shatter the chitin on both Arachne’s arm and the leg it had been braced against.
“Arachne!”
Eyes blazing brighter than before, Eva charged forwards. One hand brandished the dagger while her other lit up in flames.
The woman raised her guard, conjuring a set of icicles as she moved away from Arachne.
As Arachne went for the icicles, slashing them out of the air, Eva blinked behind the woman. Dagger already raised, she brought it down, aiming for the woman’s neck.
Just as she did when Arachne attacked, the woman had something of a sixth sense about the direction Eva was striking from. She moved to the side, ducking just enough to fit her head between two of Arachne’s limbs. A swipe of her legs knocked Arachne’s legs out from under her.
Arachne had to use her extra legs to grapple onto the wall, preventing her fall.
While Arachne was busy catching her balance, Eva’s dagger did not slip by without resistance. The tip of it scraped against the woman’s arm as she dodged, just enough to draw a thin red line from her hand halfway to her elbow.
Eva immediately blinked back to the other side of the room. She let out a short, satisfied hum as she clapped her hands together.
A bright flash filled Arachne’s vision.
Arachne jumped back, not wanting to be anywhere near someone who could break her arm with her bare hands while blind.
Her loss of vision lasted only a moment. She hadn’t even landed on the ground near Eva before things returned to normal.
Normal for her, at least. The woman wasn’t quite so lucky.
Red blood dripped through her fingers as she clutched at a ragged stump. Her hand and part of her arm was lying on the floor at her feet. Face set in a grimace, she glared out with one red eye and one green eye.
“You’ll pay,” she said as ice started to form over the stump, cutting off the flow of blood.
Under other circumstances, Arachne might have indulged in a little meaningless banter. She had done so with the carnivean during their first encounter.
Grinding her teeth together, Arachne stole a glance to her side.
