It wasn’t really an excuse. She really did need to find the other hunter. But hopefully the doll would let her go.
“Don’t worry,” she added after a moment of silence, “I’m not leaving the area. And even if I do, I’ll be back here eventually. You can proclaim me innocent then.”
“That remains to be seen,” she said, turning back to the hunter. This time, rather than just glancing over her shoulder, she actually turned her entire body.
She charged out of the Rickenbacker’s lobby in the blink of an eye, joining the fray.
Unfortunately, her first sword strike was intercepted by the armored hunter’s sword. A shame as it would have taken off his head otherwise.
Eva turned to the stairwell, hoping that Arachne wouldn’t find herself on the end of either of the blades. But for the moment, there wasn’t much she could do to the hunter.
To
Course of Action
“Eva! You look…”
“Terrible. I know.”
Eva let Juliana run up to her. She expected some help. Maybe assistance walking or a potion that probably wouldn’t do all that much for Eva.
But she stopped just short of Eva with a face full of uncertainty and fear.
Without having a mirror handy, Eva couldn’t tell exactly how terrible she looked. For her appearance to have stopped Juliana cold, Eva was now thinking that it was worse than she had expected.
“I’m surprised you survived,” Genoa said from the window, not taking her eyes off the fight going on outside. “And yet you’re climbing a stairwell.”
“Not actually feeling that bad anymore,” Eva said. Which was true, but only relatively. Compared to the pain she had woken up in, what she was experiencing now was significantly less hurtful. Though she did notice that unless she was careful, each step jolted her body and sent short spikes of pain everywhere.
“I think my shield absorbed most of the impact,” Eva said after a moment of silence. “I only caught the tail end. Residual heat and such.”
Which was a total and complete lie. The unglassed brick hadn’t been in the shape of a bubble around her. It had been in a person shape. Which meant that her body had shielded the ground more than her shield had. It helped and had probably taken the initial portion of the blast, but her shield had failed early on in the grand scheme of things.
Genoa just hummed, not giving any sort of real response. To be fair, she was fighting, even if it didn’t look like it from her still position at the window. So she probably wasn’t considering anything related to Eva and her demonicness.
Definitely.
“Zoe and Wayne?” Eva asked, switching the topic away from herself.
“Wayne tackled Zoe to the ground. When the light cleared, neither of them were there. I assume he teleported them out of there. Haven’t seen them since.”
“Neither have answered their cellphones,” Juliana added. “Um, do you need a jacket or anything?”
Frowning, Eva glanced down at herself. “I’m a bit raw at the moment,” she said, glancing back up. “I’d rather not have fabric rubbing against my skin.”
“Fair enough,” she said, looking away. “I got your message. Nel is searching for the other hunter. She said that she would call me back if she found anything.”
Eva wanted to groan. Wasn’t Nel supposed to have been watching specifically to prevent something like this from happening? Eva could give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment. After spotting them in the field, she had said that she could watch them without her vision ‘sliding off.’
Maybe they had split up and Nel had been watching the wrong target, unaware that something like this was about to go down until it was too late.
But Nel would definitely be getting a few harsh questions when Eva next saw her.
For the moment, she just moved up to the window next to Genoa.
The fight was still going on outside.
Sparks exploded off the demon hunter’s sword as he danced around the doll’s blade. Danced might not be the right word. He was definitely on the back foot. Eva had only been watching for a few seconds, but she could already tell that the doll definitely had the advantage.
In fact, the hunter was barely able to keep up a defense against the doll.
Unfortunately, he had gotten free of his ice prison. It gave him the leeway to actually dodge instead of just block. But that was all he was doing. The doll attacked in a flurry. One strike of her sword followed immediately after the last in smooth, fluid movements.
He never actually returned a strike of his own.
Arachne circled around the knight, not really attacking but keeping herself between him and any obvious escape paths. With the doll now fighting as well, actually killing him was looking more viable. Arachne was making the right choice in trying to keep him from escaping.
