She seemed the Shalise-type of girl. At least, Eva found herself reminded of Shalise. Timid, perhaps not very strong magically, yet earnest and willing to work hard if necessary. Her concerns about monsters, working together, and Eva’s slip about keeping Anise alive were all perfectly valid. Things she could imagine Shalise worrying about.
At the same time, Eva couldn’t imagine Shalise’s heart rate remaining relatively steady. Even while walking through the forest and discussing relatively uncomfortable topics such as ambushing one another, Eva couldn’t recall any change in Emily’s heart rate that couldn’t be attributed to the normal physical exertion of walking through a forest.
The moment the light disappeared, her wand slipped into her hand from somewhere up her sleeve. Her face hardened as she looked through narrowed eyes at both Eva and the nun.
But she didn’t attack.
The hairs on the back of Eva’s neck stood on end.
But neither of them attacked.
After standing perfectly still for upwards of five minutes, Eva broke first. They were wasting time. Good time. The vampire had undoubtedly eliminated his partner and would already be heading towards the goal.
“Well,” she said, dropping her guard almost entirely. She would still be able to blink away if either of them moved towards her. “We’re wasting time.”
“We could glare at each other until the event passed us by,” Emily said slowly.
Eva grinned. Probably not the best thing she could do given her teeth, but she did so anyway. “Right. And I’d like someone who isn’t the Nod Complex to win this thing.” She held out both hands, one to each of her temporary companions. “Truce? For real this time?”
“You mentioned something like that before,” Emily said. “What’s your deal with them?”
“Just a little bet. Well, that and a
Anise only hesitated for a moment before reaching out to grasp Eva’s hand. “If you aren’t lying, I can definitely agree with that.”
“No lie. After the Nod Complex is removed from the playing field, we can fight all we want.”
“Fine with me,” Anise said. She tried to pull back her hand, but Eva held on.
Eva glanced towards Emily. She lifted her hand up ever so slightly, further offering it to the girl.
“Your hands are creepy.”
“Sharp too. Not the kind of claws you want on an enemy.”
Emily narrowed her eyes at the threat. Eva couldn’t bring herself to care. She already had the anti-vampire person on her side. If Emily continued to waste time, she would just pick up the girl and chuck her back towards the ward line. Leaving counted as disqualification, or so Redford had mentioned. Making someone leave probably worked just as well.
But the girl swapped her wand to her other hand, leaving her left hand free to grab hold of Eva’s claw.
“Excellent,” Eva said.
As she spoke, a drone dropped down, swooping around them in a full circle before flying back up overhead.
Anise tore her hand out of Eva’s grip, barely managing to avoid mangling herself, and buried her face in her hands.
“I am
Eva couldn’t help but to chuckle.
For a second.
Releasing Emily’s hand, she made the first steps towards the rest of the arena.
“We’ve some lost time to reclaim. I hope you can keep up.”
With that, Eva took off. She didn’t use her legs to their full potential. Losing sight of either of her companions could wind up with them being ambushed. Or ambushing her. But she fast ran enough to push them to keep up.
“I’m coming for you, vampire,” Eva muttered under her breath.
Tentacles!
The red light flickered out.
Garbed in white, the boy from Isomer unleashed his spell. Five minutes of doing nothing but pouring magic into his wand manifested itself as a field of ice. It spread around him, flash freezing everything in a small bubble of space. Plants and insects alike died in droves. Even tiny drops of water in the air crystallized and fell to the ground in an explosion of snow.
Standing next to his fellow red marble holder, the other boy should have been caught within the ice as well.
“Frostbite is no laughing matter in the short-term. Not particularly painful as it tends to numb the senses, but it would make moving difficult. With proper application of ointments and potions, all but the worst effects can be reversed before permanent damage is done.”
“He–He doesn’t seem affected by it at all!”
The vampire shook his head with a chuckle. A few flakes of snow fell from his hair as he moved.
“You know,” he said, locking cold eyes with his companion, “I was perfectly willing to honor our truce. But after that, I think a light snack is in order.” A feral grin spread across his face.
The Isomer student realized his mistake as soon as he saw the two sharp fangs dangling from the smiling mouth. He tried to conjure up a wall of ice between the two of them, but the vampire was behind him before the wall could grow more than a few inches.
