But what to do? Eva could step around all day, especially because Cross was clearly injured and not thinking straight. Running away wouldn’t be an issue either. She could step straight back to the school, or even just far enough to get out from under whatever wards Sister Cross had erected.
But that left an angry nun running around. More than angry. One that wanted to kill her.
Having used up most of her stores of blood in the spar with Zoe, Eva was doubting her ability to effectively fight back. Her fireballs wouldn’t do much good. Not when Wayne had troubles with this same nun while the nun wasn’t fighting at full strength. Her claws wouldn’t be much use either. The shields employed by the Elysium Order were almost as strong as shields formed out of demonic blood.
Her hands had connected with Sister Cross’ head just a moment ago, but that had been before her eyes were lit with the white fire.
Had she memorized the pattern for a transference circle, it might have been possible to lure Sister Cross over the top of one and drop her into Eva’s domain. She would probably calm down, at least a little, with Shalise in front of her. And if not, she would at least be contained.
But she hadn’t memorized it.
That left only one good option.
Negotiation.
“Sister Cross,” Eva shouted, twisting around a spew of white flames, “calm down!”
The nun snarled. Using both hands, she brought two sets of electricity whips around to where Eva had been standing only seconds before.
“You need help and–”
Sister Cross whirled rapidly, orienting every bit of electricity and flames that she had in Eva’s direction.
A good portion of the forest was actually on fire now, limiting the available safe places to teleport to. And not nice red flames, but the Order’s white magic. Eva wasn’t able to manipulate the flames with thaumaturgy.
Eva spun on her heel, spotting and stepping to a far fresher section of the forest.
Cupping her hands, she called back towards Sister Cross as loud as she could. “And Shalise is safe!”
Either the nun failed to hear or she didn’t care. Sister Cross charged full speed through the woods. She kept her arms fully extended as she ran, down and slightly behind her hips. Electricity trailed behind her, licking at the ground and trees she passed. More flames cropped up in her wake.
If Eva didn’t end this soon, there wouldn’t be a forest left. As it was, she needed to find Zoe and have her teleport a water mage in.
Did water even put out white flames?
Zoe would probably have some idea if not.
But this had to end soon.
“I can take you to your daughter, but not while you’re trying to kill me.”
Eva teleported away just as Sister Cross reached her. Not quite fast enough. One tendril of electricity coiled around her wrist.
Pain coursed through her body when she reappeared on the opposite side of the forest.
Letting out a cry of pain, Eva teleported away again. Three rapid steps put her far enough away to give her a moment of time.
Black liquid oozed out of the cracks in her carapace. Right around her wrist were several lightning-shaped marks burned into the chitin. A small segment of the armored plate had come off entirely, revealing the meat underneath.
Eva clamped her good hand over her wrist, putting pressure on it. It didn’t help the pain; it was much like biting down on a bit, the pain was there but something else drew attention from it.
In the distance, Sister Cross continued her maddened charge.
Forget the forest, I’m going to be the one in trouble if this doesn’t end soon.
Eva uncorked her solitary vial of Arachne’s blood. She had to be careful with it. It was all she had.
The blood bobbed in the air around Eva as she weighed her options. There was only so much she could do with so little.
Before Sister Cross reached Eva, she wrapped the blood around her fist and teleported. Leaving her blood behind would be detrimental.
Or would it?
Eva split the blood off into two small globs before teleporting again. She made no move to attack with the blood. Not even the slightest intention crossed her mind. Based on all of her previous experiences in seeing the Elysium Order’s shields in action, she had a theory that they worked off of actual attacks. That was only compounded by the fact that Sister Cross had to push past stray branches as she pressed on in her pursuit.
Sister Cross, unseeing or uncaring, charged right into the blood.
Her shield did not so much as flicker.
It was possible that it was because she had moved into them, rather than Eva attacking her with the blood. Still no real proof of how the shield worked. However it happened, the two balls of blood landed on her tattered shirt.
Some of the blood was immediately rendered unusable because of the frankly disgusting amount of dirt on the woman. Eva redirected the rest of the blood. One glob went straight up her nose while the other wrapped around her mouth.
The electricity hanging off of Sister Cross’ fingers vanished as she brought her hands up to her mouth. Her fingers pried at the liquid clinging to her face.
As Sister Cross’ ungainly fingernails started to dig their way into the seams between her lips and the blood, Eva dug the blood into her skin. Tiny little barbs pierced and latched on.
Finding her efforts stifled, she tried a similar tactic at the blood blocking her nose.
This time, Eva unblocked a single nostril.
Sister Cross drew in a deep breath as fast as she could with only half a nose.
The moment she finished inhaling, Eva blocked it again.
“Now,” Eva said, “you–”
A lightning bolt hit Eva in the hip, spinning her around and knocking her to the ground.
Eva’s efforts to get up were interrupted by a weight landing on her back. A punch against the back of her head had her eating dirt.
“Killing me won’t make it stop,” Eva groaned out as she spat out a mouthful of grass. “Even if you cut an air-hole in your throat, you won’t see Shalise again without me.”
The pressure on her back increased, but there was no actual attack. Through her blood sight, Eva could see the woman’s heart beating faster as she attempted to heave in more air.
“If you get off of me right now, maybe I will let you have a small air hole.” Eva kicked back, trying to knock the nun off of her back.
That only sent a jolt of pain through Eva’s body. Taking a look at her own body through her blood sight revealed quite the disaster around her midsection. About an inch of meat was missing entirely from the edge of her hip inwards. Based on how the blood was flowing, part of the bone was missing as well as some of the carapace from her legs.
Not a good sight to see. Too big of an injury to heal away as she often did with smaller cuts. Warm blood was pooling on the forest floor, soaking into her clothes, and smearing over Sister Cross’ thighs.
It took almost a full five minutes before Sister Cross finally got off of Eva. It was less ‘got off’ and more like she slumped off to one side, but the end effect was the same.
Gritting her teeth in preparation for the pain, Eva withdrew her dagger and jammed it into her side. She carefully kept herself from bleeding out using her control over her own blood. A small portion flew over to reinforce the blood around Sister Cross’ mouth.
Though the nun didn’t need it. Her eyes were closed and her heart rate, while still elevated, had dropped.
Eva moved the blood from her nose. It hung off of her face like a mustache, but cleared her nose entirely.
After a heart-wrenching moment of fear that she would have to perform mouth-to-mouth on the woman just to get her breathing again, Sister Cross’ body took over with a sudden lurch of fresh air.
With a small sigh of relief, Eva kept a careful eye on the woman. No sign of her being conscious surfaced. If she was awake, she was doing a very good job of playing possum.