So Eva just stood still. She spent a moment, listening to the heavy breathing of the hunter behind her. Each breath came in strained and sounded as if he were gargling blood with every exhale.
It was a wonder he was even standing.
“Tell her to stand down,” he hissed into Eva’s ear as he dug his blade deeper into her throat. It was still not quite cutting. He held it at just the right angle to where most of the pressure came from the flat of the blade rather than the edge.
Even if he did twist his arm, Eva doubted it would be that troublesome to deal with. Small cuts could be healed in an instant. Even deeper gouges could be repaired or at least contained with assistance from her dagger.
In contrast to his already fast heartbeats increasing in speed, Eva was the epitome of calm.
She had a plan.
She just needed a few more seconds.
To be fair to the doll, her languid approach might possibly be an attempt to give Eva the time to escape. Eva wasn’t sure if the doll would or even could think along those lines, but the only other option was that she was moving for intimidation purposes.
Smelling the rancid stink of sweat pouring out of the hunter’s armor, Eva doubted that he needed anything more to intimidate him.
Tapping her leg, Eva gave the slightest jerk of her head towards the hunter. Just moving her neck a fraction of a hair in the hopes that the doll might hurry up.
While she could escape, as she had already considered, doing so would just continue the chicken chase around the arena.
The doll apparently got the message or got tired of waiting. She kicked off the ground, sending a wave of black blood high into the air as she rocketed forwards.
Eva felt the hunter tense through his armor. She wasn’t sure if he tensed to run or to slice her throat.
Shedding the larger portion of her crystalline claws to avoid jabbing herself in the face, Eva snapped her regular claws up to the hunter’s arm. She clamped down, holding his arm, and the rest of him, in place.
The dagger he had half stuck into her neck didn’t even factor into her concerns.
She was too busy watching the doll.
Once the doll raised her sword to strike, Eva released the hunter and blinked away.
A clang of metal on metal echoed across the battlefield.
Eva wasted no time, she turned and blinked straight back behind the hunter.
The hunter had both arms in the air. One still held his dagger, dripping with Eva’s blood. The other crossed his dagger, using both his armor and the blade to catch the doll’s sword. Despite stopping the doll’s blade, his own dagger had been half buried into his arm.
Bending her wrists, Eva moved the remainder of the crystallized blood into place. A single spike on the end of each arm. She pulled back and jammed both straight into the hunter’s armpits and pulled away, leaving the spikes in place.
He let out a cry. Knees buckling and arms weakening, it wouldn’t be long before the doll beheaded him.
Eva didn’t give her the opportunity.
Blinking away, Eva clapped her hands as she moved. She didn’t even turn to face the hunter when her hands touched.
A spray of warm liquid hit her back.
She waited for just a moment as more blood rained down, joining with the black demon blood.
Eva let out a long sigh before finally turning around.
The doll stood to one side, covered in red with her sword angled downwards at her side. Eva half expected her to be caught in the blast. If she had,
As for the hunter…
His legs were still there.
Some of his torso as well. Everything from ribcage and up was simply gone. His armor had split apart like a soda can that had been left in the freezer. One of his arms was lying a good distance away, sticking out of the black blood. Scanning the area, Eva couldn’t see the other.
Or a head, for that matter.
Despite the lack of head, Eva felt quite confident in proclaiming him deceased. The jury was still deliberating over Sawyer, but this man had not been a necromancer.
In fact, now that she thought about it, she wasn’t sure that she had seen him cast a single spell.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, Eva just about sat down for a rest. She did take a quick moment to patch up the hole in her neck before she remembered something.
“Arachne,” she hissed to herself as she whirled around.
The spider-demon was still lying on the ground. Still grasping the sword. Still on Earth.
Eva blinked over.
Arachne was staring up at the sky with her teeth set in a grimace. The moment Eva stepped over her, that grimace turned to a smile.
“Don’t worry,” Eva said before the spider-demon could try to speak. “I’ll take you to the nurse right away.”
That smile immediately slipped back into a grimace.
