Eva appeared healthy for the most part. There was a darker mark around her neck, roughly in the shape of a hand. A few cuts and scrapes dotted her skin and the carapace of one of her hands was damaged. All in all, things could be worse.
With a light twitch of her head, Arachne was back to focusing on their current enemy.
She readied herself by spinning a few quick threads. Thin yet long ones.
Arachne charged forwards once again as Eva blinked around the room. In near perfect sync, they attacked.
As expected, the woman dodged Arachne’s limbs.
The thread trailing off her fingers and legs weren’t quite so easy to dodge. Swinging her arms quick enough, she managed to loop a section around the woman’s body. With a flick of her wrist, Arachne pulled the threads tight, tying off her movements as Eva came in with the dagger.
A ring of ice formed around her neck just in time to block Eva’s dagger.
Not having any of that, Arachne used one leg to lift up the woman’s shirt and another three to plunge into her spinal column.
Eva took matters into her own hands. She went above the woman’s neckline, digging and dragging the dagger through her red hair. Eva didn’t try to cut the bone of the skull, but she didn’t need to.
Blinking away, Eva stared for just a moment.
Arachne pulled her legs from the woman’s back, letting her slump down to the ground.
The moment she hit the ground, the woman vanished. Nothing but the faint scent of sulfur remained.
A clapping sound echoed through the room just as she vanished.
Looking up to Eva, Arachne tilted her head. “Did you get her?”
“I don’t know. If she comes back anytime soon, I’ll get her right away.”
“Good,” Arachne said. Shifting awkwardly, she flexed the spare legs from her back. “I doubt that she’ll be back soon. If she can ever walk again.”
Standing there, Arachne didn’t know what to say. Looking at Eva fresh out of a battle—sweating and panting with her hair thrown in disarray—Arachne found herself at a loss. Before dying at the hands of the nuns, they hadn’t been on the best of terms. Mostly due to the Genoa incident.
What to do? What to say? Such a treasure in front of her and yet…
The decision was taken out of Arachne’s claws.
Eva blinked over to her, wrapping both arms around Arachne’s body.
“I missed you.”
Arachne stretched one arm and several legs around Eva, forming a protective net as she returned the hug.
“I missed you too.”
Banishment
Just before the bull slammed into him, it stepped on a bit of rubble. The rubble moved, causing its hoof to slip.
Clement’s fist, and the ring on his finger, went straight over the devil’s head.
Using the enchantments on his boots, Clement hopped back before the bulk of the bull could crash into him. He shook off the brief sensation of nausea—a sensation that had been getting worse as the fight went on—and took a moment to catch his breath. The devil being far enough away and still picking himself up off the ground gave Clement a brief moment to think.
Taking the hit and letting himself get bashed into by the devil might give him a chance to backhand the creature, but just the same, he might simply be crushed before having a chance to fight back.
If he got crushed without managing to tag the devil with the ring, the devil would be free to find Gertrude.
And Clement somehow doubted that he would be able to hit the devil.
Zagan
The first time that the devil had lost his footing and slipped right under Clement’s fist, he might have chalked it up to coincidence. The second time was a little strange, but perhaps this devil was just extraordinarily uncoordinated.
Ten times? The monster was toying with him.
Panting and sweating, Clement wasn’t sure how much more he had in him. Only about twenty minutes had passed. That didn’t sound like much, but considering most fights were determined in the first two minutes, twenty might as well have been forever.
Worse, his equipment was broken and shattered. Several of Gertrude’s enchantments had failed along with the armor, including ones that enhanced his endurance. The suit of armor no longer supported itself. All of its weight was up to Clement’s natural muscles to carry around. Taking that into account, it might be good that several chunks were missing.
His boots were still intact. Without the speed granted to him by his boots, he might as well have just chopped off his own head. They were pretty much the only things keeping him alive at this point.
It was only a small consolation to know that the devil before him wasn’t having a good day either.
Zagan had been taking pains to avoid the sword entirely as well as the ring. Not that long ago, he had been accepting of small cuts and even a handful of larger gouges if it meant being able to toss Clement around like a rag doll.
