Eva needed to get close enough to Zoe, just long enough to drop off a little blood. Then she needed to escape before the hunter decided to strike at another, far easier target.
“You’re going to have to try harder than that,” Eva shouted back to the charging hunter. “But first… Kneel.”
There Can Be Only One
Across the entire ritual circle, everyone reacted in some way or another. Well, everyone except for Saija. Being passed out apparently afforded her some protection against Eva’s command.
Zoe, being already on her knees, didn’t react much either. Her head bowed down. Not to the point where it hit the floor, but just a nod. Which was perfectly fine with Eva. She had no desire to cause the woman any further pain.
The two most affected were Catherine and Srey. Both hit the ground hard enough that they would have made Eva wince had she not been focusing on their other guest. It was a good thing that they were demons; a human would have cracked their kneecaps. Hopefully Catherine would forgive her considering the circumstances.
As for the charging hunter, she fell to the ground in a heap. Yet, Eva wasn’t sure she had actually tried to kneel. Her momentum was at fault. The command had disrupted her legs just enough, just a twitch, that she hadn’t been able to place one foot in front of the other. With all the force of her charge, she soon started rolling across the floor.
Eva didn’t have time to stand around and admire the work of her command.
While the hunter pushed herself up, her arm burrowed into the ground.
Eva threw herself to the side, just in time to avoid the arm coming up just in front of her. As she flew through the air, ten little orbs of blood formed from her fingers. She flung them out, seemingly at random.
While the hunter had to roll to one side and immediately froze five of the blood spheres, leaving a portion of her arm behind as a parasitic worm—which Eva immediately started flinging more blood at—two orbs scattered to the winds. The final three landed almost right on top of Zoe. Eva hoped the professor would get a clue and dip the stub of her arm into the conveniently bowl-shaped puddle. She couldn’t spare the thought to actually direct it around while her own blood was hurtling back towards her as razor-sharp spears of ice, but she would be able to harden it to prevent a total bleed out.
As for the icicles racing at her, Eva snapped her fingers. A shower of snow rained down around her while she advanced on the hunter.
A little trick. The hunter only froze liquid. So by turning the core of the orbs of blood crystalline, she retained full control. It might not have been wise, blowing her secret so soon, but the look on the hunters face made it worth it.
Oh yes. She was going to enjoy this. Her catharsis in beating down the hunter had yet to be satisfied. She had to be quick though, and couldn’t be careless. Rage and minor feelings of immortality had led to her defeat before. She could have easily ended it then had she simply torn out the hunter’s throat. If she got the opportunity, she
The hunter didn’t stay stunned for long. In fact, she had already started moving before her expression fully solidified into shock.
Eva flicked her arm to one side, extending a blade of crystalline blood out just in time to catch the hunter’s curved sword. She didn’t stay in a blade-lock for long. A slight shift of her footwork and a liquefaction of her own blade sent the hunter’s sword harmlessly through the air.
She froze the droplets of blood, of course. Fast enough that she had probably enchanted her sword—or her person—with some liquid freezing spell. Not fast enough to catch her sword.
Which left Eva to thrust forward with her now shortened blade of blood.
The hunter didn’t even change her expression as an inch-deep gap appeared in the muscle of her human arm—should she even have that much muscle after being bed-bound for half a year? Her arm simply twisted, angling her blade and thrusting upwards in a move that Eva had to dodge by blinking behind.
Dodging put enough space between her and the hunter that Eva felt safe enough to split her attention for a half second.
Zoe, displaying perhaps the natural human reaction to a puddle of blood next to them, had not dipped her arm into it. So Eva did it for her. The black pool lurched out, wrapping around her arm. Zoe let out a slight yelp of surprise, then one of pain as Eva pinched and crimped the end of her arm with the rapidly crystallizing blood.
A clipped chuckle forced Eva to turn back to the hunter.
Who had her eyes locked on Zoe and her arm already in motion, stretching out towards the professor.
Eva nearly blinked inside Zoe in her frantic haste to get to her. Far less gently than she should have, Eva shoved Zoe out of the way.
“Tele–” was as far as she got before the hunter’s hand wrapped around her.
