As Ana watched the smile creep across Nasiru’s face, she could feel the shire become restless beside her. It seemed that Enzo too could sense the oncoming horde, perhaps had smelled the fiends as they approached in the cover of the tree line. Without another word, the hunter gave her horse two quick smacks on his side with the flat of her hand, and he took off like a bullet, away from the impending skirmish. While a beast in his own right, Anaïs was not willing to gamble his life away over a missed slice of her blade or the trained swipe of a demon claw. Enzo would remain in the vicinity but would only come back when called, and knew to only join the fight if his mistress was in visible distress; fortunately a very improbable scenario now that they had the prowess of a fallen angel on their side. 

Anaïs watched as her unlikely partner unsheathed and brandished those impressive blades, which were once drawn in defense against her not too long ago. True to her training, and properly skeptical of all beings holy and unholy, Ana had launched an assault on him upon their first meeting. Ru had found her at the end of a bloodied trail of bodies, low-level scum that had given her only a modicum of information on her true target. It was only after discovering their shared goal and common enemy did she relent, albeit begrudgingly.

But now was not the time to doubt the immortal’s allegiance. In a matter of seconds, the peace that had blanketed the seemingly deserted neighborhood was shattered as a mob of figures finally burst forth from the cover of trees. Ru had launched into action even before she could count the lot, dashing past her into the middle of the block. Even from this distance, Ana could see that they were lowly, dumb brutes. A bit of a disappointment in terms of their search, perhaps, but easy enough to be rid of.

In a swift, fluid motion, Anaïs reached back with both hands and gathered her long locks into a single rope, using the black piece of elasticated fabric that lived on her wrist to band it together at the top of her head. The hair had barely fallen from her hands before a familiar, and strangely delicious, tension gripped her body. Precise and practiced, she reached behind her to slide the Resalire forged blade from its sheath. It slithered from its hiding place easily, as if eager to come out and play. Indeed, it had been quite a few days since the steel had last seen action. Ana took comfort in its familiar weight as she swung it up and gripped its leather bound hilt with both hands. She held it at the ready as three of the demons darted past Ru to surround her, gnashing their teeth and taunting her with their ugly little yellow eyes.

With knees softly bent and focused gaze snapping in rotation between the bodies before her, Anaïs took slow, measured steps sideways, making sure to keep her back toward the house they had just searched - which she knew to be empty of demons. Additionally, she wanted to keep Ru in her sight line, even though she knew he would be able to care for himself. [i]These were just inferior scum, after all. This will be over in no time.[/i] And of course, just as Ana thought this to herself, she saw yet another figure emerging from the trees.

[i]Ah…[/i] So here was their leader. Anaïs listened as Ru called out to the newcomer. She understood without exchanging words that this was to be their potential informant. Fine. At least they would not leave here empty-handed. They would need to rid themselves of the small fries first, however. Ana would have ordinarily waited for them to attack first, but the smugness in the demon’s voice as it spoke absolutely disgusted her. Though it wasn’t J’zir at all, it felt entirely like a personal assault on her lack of progress in finding the damned demon, and instantly ignited the flame of her fury. 

Without waiting for a signal, Ana let out a loud, shrill cry as she heaved her blade up over her head and charged for the figure on her right. With the might of all the hunters who had trained her coursing through her body, she brought the sword down hard and sank it into the flesh of its exposed neck, grunting wildly as she pulled it clean through. Blood spurted from the exposed stump as the fiend’s head dropped onto the concrete, still wide-eyed and snarling. Anaïs, now breathing heavily with the effort and adrenaline, turned her attention to the next two victims of her steel. Her eyes were fierce and hungry, bordering on feral, as she reset her stance and braced herself for their retaliation.