[h3][center]Kirsty Ramaswamy[/center][/h3]

Kirsty stood there dumbly as the Raven ran out into the fight, looking at the object pressed into her hand. [i]A knife?[/i] It looked more like a machete, but a tiny one. The sound of running feet to her left took her attention from the weapon, and for a moment she dreaded having to actually use it. When she looked, however, she saw only Alina, speedwalking away from the action as fast as her stride could take her. [i]Oh, right.[/i] She felt guilty about it, but with everything that happened she forgot Alina was around. She hadn't actually said or done anything the entire time. After the guilt came embarrassment that Alina -and Liam too, actually- witnessed the entire exchange. As much as the didn't want to see what the shadow showed and hear what the shadow said, having those secrets come out in respectable company felt like a punch in the gut. She couldn't imagine what the two might think of her now. [i]If we live through this somehow,[/i] she thought, [i]Maybe I can convince them to not tell anyone. Or maybe prove the other me wrong.[/i]

Before that could happen, of course, she needed to survive. More footsteps reached her from in front of her hiding place, and these most certainly did not belong to frightened college girls. Swallowing, Kirsty stood up and turned to face the incoming threat with her knife brandished, and immediately her heart sank. Four out of the ten remaining Rudras had come for her, two black and two white, all with tridents at the ready. Behind them she could see the Raven facing the false idol, and yell something to make an angelic creature appear to apparently fight at her side. [i]Oh. I guess she's okay then. Wish I had something like that.[/i] The Rudras, however, weren't wasting time watching the spectacle. Kirsty's heartbeat kicked into overdrive once more, and she held the knife out with both shaking hands. “Stay back! I'll...I'll do it! I'll shank you, you...you freaks!” In response, the black Rudras came at her. Gritting her teeth, Kirsty moved forward and to the right, trying to get one in between her and the other. She intended to run at him and thrust it right into the monster's oversized heart, but the Rudra promptly jabbed her with his trident before she could even get close. Kirsty gasped, twisting away like a frightened animal, and staggered backward. 

One hand went to her hip, and it came back wet with a warm liquid. “Oh no...” For whatever reason she couldn't feel anything more than a lancing pain right now, but having this much blood on the outside couldn't be good. Wildly she looked between the black Rudras moving in on her again, then the white ones fanning out to the sides. In another moment she'd be surrounded. [i]Outnumbered...out-ranged...what am I supposed to do against spears with a knife!?[/i] With a wordless cry she flung the knife at the head of the nearest monster, then turned and ran. She fled down the street, one hand trying to hold the blood in, the other pumping wildly. There had to be something else. On a London street there might be construction equipment, tools to swing or bricks to throw, or trash cans to throw down behind her, but this opulent avenue was another matter. She snaked through a sea of dining tables, upending them with adrenaline-fueled strength as she ran by in order to slow down her pursuers. The Rudras moved fast, even jumping from table to table, but Kirsty's meddling caused them to overbalance and fall down. The sound of crashes from behind her give Kirsty an inkling of hope, but she felt herself running out of breath. Running from the hounds earlier already made for a remarkable feat for a soft city girl who never exercised, so by now only seconds remained before her shallow well of stamina ran out. She came to a stop by a fire pit, her eyes on the branches and coals crackling merrily away, and an idea hit her.

Kirsty tore down a length of colorful silk from a nearby arch, and tossed about half of it into the fire. It caught immediately and started spreading up the cloth. “Oh, fooey.” She couldn't use it if she couldn't hold it. She grabbed a jug from a nearby trolley and emptied it over the halfway point on the silk. When the fire reached it, it spread no farther. “Phew,” she wheezed, glad the liquid wasn't flammable. But there was no time to waste; a quick look confirmed the Rudras to be nearly upon her. With a deep breath she pulled the silk from the fire and began to swing it around. Holding the cloth over her head, she spun it in a circle, and as the monsters arrived they stopped short of the whirling firebrand. Impatient, the black ones tried to jump in on her in the middle of the rotation, but despite her own hair whipping her in the face Kirsty wasn't messing around with her spin. The fire batted them, sending up sparks and driving them back with angry snarls. Meanwhile the white ones surrounded her, staying clear of the flame. After a moment one of them held up its trident, and when the flaming silk hit it, it wrapped tightly around. Panicked, Kirsty yanked the silk toward her. While the firebrand held fast, she did lower the Rudra's guard, exposing its heart. With her other hand Kirsty grabbed the first thing that came to hand on the trolley -a bottle of clear liquid- and hurled it at her enemy.

The bottle shattered on impact, its contents flying outward, and when they touched the flames the monster disappeared into a brilliant fireball. Kirsty stumbled backward into the trolley, and one of the black Rudras jumped at her. She hid behind the trolley, using it as a shield, and shoved it onto the monster to force him back. One after another she grabbed and flung the bottles, some of them breaking into shards that sliced up the monster's heart and others just thumping it soundly. After a few seconds the wounded Rudra got a little too close to the spreading fire and went up like matchstick. [i]Two down![/i] Kirsty's mind cheered, simultaneously disbelieving and euphoric she'd done it. Then the remaining Rudras closed in on her all at once. The prongs of a white trident stuck into the flesh of her right thigh, immediately compromising her leg, and the black one leaped to plunge his into her chest. 

One to cut off her escape and one to finish her—a sound strategy, except that Kirsty instantly plopped over to the right, and the black Rudra's trident instead pierced the heart of his partner. Letting out a confused, angry bellow, the white one immediately jammed his own weapon through the head of the traitor, and both slumped over. Only Kirsty remained alive, but not for long. She couldn't get up, and the fire overtaking the area that snapped up two of her assailants would soon devour her as well.

Meanwhile, the false idol shrugged off the cursed energy that unmade two of her minions, and sneered at the Raven's Persona. “Ah, so you've made peace with your inner self. Now I understand why you seem untroubled when faced with certain death. Yet I still wonder why you choose to die for that insipid cow. She has no will, nor power, nor identity. All she is, is what others deign to give her. When I eat her the world will be better off. Am I not generous in my mercy? My providence?”

Latching herself to another high point with her grapple, she let her persona loom over the street with a wolfish arched back. It drooled, and all the while the Raven grew impatient of the shadows impurity. "Save the goddamn dramatics for after I shove my foot up your arse." The rattle of gunfire from her promontory dropped another Rudra to his knees. "I've seen you things before, all you do is just talk shit. Hurry up and die so I can move on to more important things!" 

In reply, the false idol zoomed upward, avoiding the spiraling darkness as she drew even with the Raven's perch. "Then let us not waste time." She raised her hands, forming between them a concentrated ball of dark energy, then allowed it to surge forward. A heavy shockwave of dark force expanded outward, fragmenting stone, crushing windows, and scattering tiles. Despite the Raven's attempts, she dove to the side to dodge. Unfortunately, her reactions had faltered too far. In motion, the energy clipped her torso, tossing her aside and against the pavement with a heavy thud. The pain shot through her body, bruising her and bloodying her cheeks. Of course it wasn't going to play around. She remembered never being quite so good at following through with her threats. "What part about die did you not get?" Rising to her feet with an unsteady gaze, she pointed her handgun forward and pulled the trigger, sending a volley of bullets the shadow's way. Her strength had wearied under the influence of pain. As the clip ran out, she called upon her persona a third time. However, on the thrice barrage, she beckoned a different approach. From beneath the shadow, a strange rune forming in the road beneath her lit up, and from underneath an attempted rising storm of the curse tried to undermine the creature. 

Sighing, the false idol drifted back down to street level. The Raven's barrage left a number of holes in her robe and golden skin, but her overall vitality remained high. She approached the Raven without looking beneath herself, oblivious to the forming curse geyser until it exploded upward beneath her. "Hnng," she grunted, frowning at her newly-disheveled silks and hair. "Your element of choice..so unfortunate. You should be grateful it does not heal me. Such curses make mine only more magnificent by comparison. Behold."

The shadow started channeling. A wave of black spread across the ground beneath her, expanding to cover the entire plaza. It broiled and bubbled, plainly about to erupt much like the Raven's own spell. In the last couple seconds before the blast, a small patch of ground cleared itself directly behind the false idol for her minions to stand on, though not quite big enough for all of them. Then, a forest of dark pillars erupted from the blackened ground, laying waste to the whole area and everything in it.

Through the entire battle, she hadn't really been paying too much attention to Kirsty. She had no time to even think about her. This was like the old times. A do or die situation with the stakes being her life or the shadows. It was an obvious answer for her to choose. And as she became more wounded by the assault of the shadow's violent staging, the whispers of the coarse mind began to return. Not here, they said, over and over again. Not here. Not here. Only when it's done. Not here. The hunger that she'd tried to ignore tempted her adrenaline, giving her a burst of energy and focus. She moved precisely and her expression became far more aggressive. "Step aside!" She screamed, noticing a patch where they all decided to seek safety. Firing her grapple into one of the minions that hid and yanked it back into the fray. Alternatively, her persona lunged forward, physically grabbing two more and tossing them to where she hid. Whilst forcing herself into the safe zone, she reloaded her firearm and fired in bursts to the minions that tried to force her out as well, acting in crowd control rather than for killing blows. 

In the aftermath of the attack, the false idol found her enemy unscathed and several of her minions pushed out into the danger zone instead. Now she opposed the Raven alone. “Loathsome thing. That mercy was not yours to take.” She turned around to face her foe, the rest of the street at her back. “When I am done, that ungrateful voice of yours will be begging my forgiveness.” She floated up and then slammed down, releasing a dark wave across the ground.