Then again, it wasn’t hard to see why he was moving so much.
Randal was at the base of the pyramid with him. Large black orbs flew from his fingertips, wilting the grass beneath them as they moved. If they came near any ice or water, it vanished in an instant. Everything thrown at him simply got eaten by the orbs.
Eva wasn’t sure what would happen if one of the orbs actually hit someone, but it probably wouldn’t be a pretty sight for the three camera drones circling over the fight.
“They ran up, flinging spells at each other. I managed to slow them down with a few lightning bolts.”
“And I turned the stairs to a slide.”
“After that, they just decided to fight each other down there.”
“What is that magic he’s using?”
Eva glanced to Anise, half expecting her to respond with some insight gleaned from her hive mind.
Instead, she shrugged and gave Eva an apologetic look.
“Your third eye doesn’t tell you?”
Emily blinked, turning her head. Eva ignored the other girl for the moment.
“I don’t think I can find out without getting closer. I don’t really want to get closer.”
“Fair enough,” Eva said. “It’s demon magic. I can tell you that much. No clue what it’s doing.”
“It’s like a black hole,” Emily whispered with a shudder.
“Demon magic,” Anise said with narrowed eyes. “Friend of yours?”
“He goes to my school. Be back in a moment.”
Eva blinked down again, making sure to land where the black orbs were not. She conjured fire marbles and flung them out almost immediately. They were even lower power than the ones she had first used on Lucy, but they were also surprise attacks on an unsuspecting target’s back.
At least, she thought she had been launching a surprise attack. The student flattened himself against the grass, rolling over to one side.
The marbles flew over him. Several were eaten by one of Randal’s orbs while the rest exploded harmlessly off to the sides.
Eva blinked, putting herself facing the pyramid with the student between it and her. Just a movement to keep him on his toes.
She was about to launch another volley of orbs when a crack split the air. White lightning struck him square in the back.
Eva winced.
He collapsed to his knees, moaning in pain.
As much as she could empathize with him, she didn’t hesitate. Personal experience taught her that as painful and debilitating as it was—and deadly if they meant it enough—he could very easily get up and continue fighting if he collected his wits enough.
She blinked up to him and pocketed his wand.
After ensuring that Eva had the Faultline student’s wand, Randal pointed a finger towards the pyramid.
Eva blinked to him, gripped his arm, and yanked it skyward.
A black orb flew from his fingertip, hit one of the circling drones, and… passed through without hurting it.
Eva shook her head.
“They’re friends,” she said in a rush. She needed to stop him before he killed someone.
He just stared at her.
Conceding the point, she added, “For the moment. I know we should have talked about this beforehand, but what are you throwing around? You can’t kill people.”
“It destroys magic. Most magic anyway. Wouldn’t hurt a person.”
Eva opened her mouth, paused, snapped it shut, and opened it again. “How were you planning on winning against that guy if you couldn’t hurt him?”
“It isn’t the
Eva rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Rachael is already at the top. We should hurry and win this thing.”
“Lead the way.”
Interrior
Eva didn’t sit around to chat with Randal. A more in-depth questioning on what abilities his bound demon gave him could wait until after they had won this thing.
She had a bad feeling. Nothing with any real reason behind it, just a chill up her spine.
Blinking to the base of the pyramid, Eva hesitated for a second. The stairwell was still a smooth earthen slide. Rather than wait and see if Emily would reverse the staircase, she jumped.
The bottom segment of the pyramid was the largest. She couldn’t jump it all in a single bound. She could, however, dig her hands and feet into the wall. After making a sufficient platform for leverage, she jumped the rest of the way up.
And landed right between Anise and Emily again.
Compared to how she had seen them a mere minute ago, roughly calm but worried about Randal and the Faultline student, they both looked at Eva with some trepidation.
Eva opened her mouth to speak.
Anise beat her to it. She clasped the sides of her head with a loud groan. “I should have attacked you. Or your friend. Now there’s two of you and I still haven’t seen anyone from my school. Ah, I wish Chris were here. She wouldn’t have hesitated to attack you.”
