Still in pursuit of the thief and his bag of riches, Ling rounded another corner, Kei up and ready -

Smack in the middle of the alley was a shadow, fists raised. It threw a quick jab at her as she stopped herself. Presumably the grey-black replica belonged to the rogue Nightshade. Ling had to admit, that wasn't something she'd seen coming; she'd expected tricks like the mage obscuring himself from view, or vanishing from one building's shadow into another to throw her off his trail.

"That's how you wanna play this? Fine." Before the shadow could draw the pair of knives its owner had openly carried, Ling bullrushed it, slamming the front of Kei's metal stock directly into its chest. A two-handed blow with a blunt object was stronger, and more convenient, than the silver-inlaid knife she carried on her belt. Plus she would likely be outmatched in a knife fight; she mostly used her own blade for cutting ingredients and taking blood samples when she needed them.

As the shadow staggered backwards from the impact, Ling pulled the trigger, firing a bolt directly into the shadow. At this range, she couldn't possibly miss. With no time to reload before it could recover - or so she assumed - she took another swing at it.

Several sets of footsteps began to echo down the alleys behind her; one of them had a voice to match. [b]"Well...where do I go now? Where is everyone?"[/b]

"Nataly! Over here, give me a hand!"