Rather than send out her blood in plain sight or in large flashy attacks, she formed up a few balls and sent it out slow and low to the ground. If she could get some underneath his armor, she could bypass all his defenses.
The blood didn’t make it far. With no indication that the knight had even noticed, her blood froze solid a few feet away from his legs. The balls rolled along the ground aimlessly, no longer directed by her magic.
Eva grit her teeth. The other one
But from where and why weren’t there icicles raining down on Eva?
“Nel,” Eva rasped out. She grasped for her cellphone only to have her fingers brushing against bare skin.
Not that it would help now. A bit late for that.
The wall around her separated Eva from most of the plaza between the dormitories. It was open towards the Rickenbacker. If she wasn’t being attacked as she was, then the other hunter might not be able to see her.
She still couldn’t see well enough to pick someone out on the roof of some building.
She needed to get a message to Nel.
Wayne and Zoe, if they survived the initial attack, were probably evacuating students. Or keeping them away from everything. Or in the infirmary if they had been injured.
Genoa was fighting along with Arachne, though Eva wasn’t sure how much concentration that golem took. Probably best not to try to get her concentrating on multiple things at once.
But Juliana should be somewhere around. Eva couldn’t see any attacks that might be from her, so she had to be free to act. And she should have a working cellphone.
Glancing up towards the glass windows of the stairwell where they had been watching the doll from, Eva couldn’t see a thing. Both the glare from the glass and her own fuzzy eyes were contributing to the problem. Eva was counting on her still being there—or on Genoa not letting her daughter out of her sight.
Using her own blood, she formed it into a quick message.
She held it steady for a few seconds before wiping it away. Juliana hadn’t given any indication in return, but Eva wasn’t sure what she would say anyway. She just had to hope that Juliana got the message and would do something.
Just in case the first attack had been a fluke, Eva sent out several more orbs of blood. All from different directions.
As the marbles rushed towards the hunter, Eva pulled out another strand of blood. She considered making a clone of herself for just a moment, but the nauseating side effect was just too debilitating. Instead, she went with her tried and true spell of enlarged blood-fists.
Even if it did end up freezing, like the orbs she had just sent out, it might be enough to trip him up. Arachne and Genoa could capitalize on any opportunity she could create.
Peeking over the wall again, Eva aimed her spell and pressed her hands into the wireframe ball. Two dripping replicas of her claws manifested around the knight. They immediately started icing over, but their size meant that the ice had to work to encompass the hands.
So she still had some time.
Eva used her time to wrap her hands around the knight’s legs, leaving him exposed and stationary. Her hands were still freezing.
As she thought about it more, it might not be such a bad thing. Her control was failing. However, he would be stuck within several tons of ice.
Genoa’s golem hesitated. Arachne did as well, glancing towards the golem in a brief moment of confusion. The golem didn’t glance back.
It was just a golem.
Eva doubted that either had known that she woke up. Well, they did now. Both recovered quick enough. The golem slammed one fist down then the other again and again on the immobilized hunter.
Arachne stayed back for just a moment longer, not wanting to get in the golem’s way. When she did finally act, it was only with her thread. She took care to not touch with her hands or legs, just trying to tangle him up in a makeshift netting.
Squinting her eyes, Eva realized why. Two of Arachne’s legs were little more than stumps. One looked like it had been cut off, but the other looked more like it had been melted.
Eva should have expected that. The knight was the one who left behind the metal that injured demons. The same stuff that Juliana had collected. It would actually be more surprising if the metal didn’t hurt demons.
Shaking her head, Eva pulled her hands out of her spell. The blood hands had long since frozen over.
A stiffness in her fingers had her glancing downwards.
