Bullets fly past and through Balen as he drops beside her, reaching under the table for a short shotgun. Nil pulls him to the side of the doors to check his wounds, but he grabs her hand. "Save your magics for them!" Peaking around the corner Nil sees a group of masked, slender figures in dark leathers armed with an assortment of weapons, and she rises sword in hand. "Tight space for your two hander," Balen picks a bullet out of his chest and examines it, "Enchanted, radiant energy, clever Drow." "Dark Elves? Eddie sent his friends then." "Dealt with them before, didn't know they were with him now," He looks up with eyes gone dark as her own, "Go left, I'll cover from the right." "Monster time," Nil yanks a bone charm from her ear and crushes it in hand. As Balen peaks to shoot she slides out blowing the dust into the long hall and takes cover opposite him. "That pixie dust the best you got?" Balen frowns, reloading. Footfalls approach and then cries of pain fill the hall as the Drow are assaulted by skeletal arms reaching out from the surfaces around them. "It's definitely up there." "They're not dead." Balen, unimpressed, returns fire. "So impatient!" Nil rushes the first wounded Drow and impales them with her sword then twists it to slash at the next. They block with two shorter blades and step closer, denying her space to properly swing. Rude to assume that would save them. Nil blocks a few strikes, takes a few others, then seizes an opportunity to reach out and grab their throat, boiling the blood within their body. The Drow screams and she shoves him out the hall. As he stumbles into the lobby the others open fire. A few rounds strike Nil before she has a chance to conjure a shield of membrane from the gore. Then the inflicted Drow explodes in a burst of blue-green flame that consumes the lobby. Dropping into a dark meeting room, to the left as ordered, Nil wills her flesh to push out the burning bullets, thankful she doesn't bleed anymore because the floors are quite nice. Hearing heavy boots on the otherside of the wall she readies herself, aims the blade, listens, strikes, and misses. The Drow retaliates with a shotgun blast through the wall that knocks Nil on her back. Through the door she sees a pool of blood from one of the fallen and she pulls it towards her fingers in thin ribbons. As the last Drow enters they take aim and with a flick of her wrist the ribbons crack like a whip, rising up and around the Drow to cut them pieces. As Nil pulls herself to her feet she hears Elvish from the Drow's radio ordering a retreat, but as she reaches for it the signal becomes static. Shambling past Balen who has stood to drink from a flask. "We need to have a longer conversation, Annie." "Do NOT call me that again," Nil marches past, metal falling from her gut, then turns to add, "I'll swing by later, sorry." With a blink she's outside, standing upon the window in a mockery of gravity. A van pulls out of an alley and Nil sprints across the building then leaps into the night air, turning midair and crosses her arms over her chest, cursing herself for leaving the blade in the wall. Ann is falling with her, smiling, then she reaches out to Nil's throat and her pink eyes go black. "[b][i]YOU SHOULD HAVE KILLED HIM![/b][/i]" Impact, broken steel, flying glass, screeching tires, the world is spinning. Nil rises from the concrete, bones snapping sickeningly back into place, wounds mending themselves, then shambles like a zombie towards the van while mentally assessing herself. Body: fabulous, she pulls a bit of metal from her shoulder. Feathered cloak: plucked, it was a bit much anyway. Sword: Balen should keep it, a shard of glass from her head. Mind: in the shitter, might need help with that. A single Drow crawls out of the flipped wreckage, maskless she's a mess of pale blue skin and white hair both stained as red as her wild, fearful eyes. Kinda looks like Winter. She goes for a gun but Nil tosses another bit of bone at her and it expands, wrapping around her torso to bind her arms, forcing her to the ground with its weight. Nil lifts the Drow by her throat. "Dead or alive, you're gonna tell me-" she manages to rasp before the van explodes. With another blink they are lying upon the cold stone floor of the undercroft, only slightly crispy. The Drow falls unconscious first, then Nil joins her. ~~~ "[i]Wake up.[/i]" Then Nil rises yet again. The Drow is dead, she can tell not by the body, but by the wet mess on her chin. No sense whinging over spilt blood, Nil qucikly reaches for her satchel and the materials to conjure their spirit, but discovers them already set up. She says the words and lights the candles but nothing happens. "I know something you don't know." Nil looks up and finds herself surrounded by the cacophony, all but one, all staring past her to the coffin. Autumn smiles beneath that damned hat.