Alitia: Crown of Ash

XLVIII: Aries

Briyana and Eros stalked towards Surion after they had managed to open a path through the Shadows. The leaths around them continued to fight with incredible ferocity, and Briyana commended them for it silently. However, she was going to end the battle once and for all, and that involved sticking her sword into some crucial part of Surion's body and watching the life fade from his eyes. After all of the suffering that he had caused the leaths of Igni, this was the least that she could do. It felt like perfect justice to her, and she was already looking forward to it. 

Surion glared in her direction as she grew closer. "Who are you?" he questioned. There was a tension to his body that Briyana had to admit that she welcomed. After everything that he had done, he was finally being left at a disadvantaged position where he would be forced to accept the power of his foes. He was weak by comparison, and that was just the way that Briyana liked it after all that he had done to make her and so many others plain miserable. 

"My name is Briyana Frazier, and I am the agent of your demise," Briyana replied. She had put her bow away, and the weapon in her hand was a magnificent blade. Eros stood at her side with flames dancing across the surface of his axe. It was impressive to Briyana that Eros had managed to contain his anger for so long once his target was in sight, but she knew better than to divert attention from the fight and tell him such a thing. 

Surion snarled in her direction before he took a step backwards, pressing his back against the nearby wall. The earth began to shift soon enough, and Briyana recognized what he was doing before he could come close to acting it out. The wall parted to show that she was right, and Surion took off running as he created a new tunnel in front of himself. It was far from being an ideal escape route, but it wasn't as if that was going to stop him. Surion was reaching his final hour, and desperate adrenaline was starting to settle in. He wouldn't be able to escape as far as Briyana was concerned. 

She wasn't the only one who continued to chase Surion deeper into the underground tunnel system. Eros was at her side, and Briyana could hear distantly that another few sets of footsteps were raining on the ground. She couldn't bring herself to care. They weren't Shadows, and that was all that mattered. Reinforcements could have been helpful. Surion was growing desperate, and he had finally been cornered, but that didn't mean that the ensuing battle was going to be a walk in the park. 

In truth, the people who were trailing after her were none other than Nebula, Anneliese, and Cerise. Nebula had noticed the path opening behind Surion while flying in the area earlier, and Anneliese had flown with her over the crowd of Shadows to breach the tunnel. Cerise had done the same, though she lacked the instinct of defensiveness that Anneliese and Nebula had for one another. Instead, she was merely drawn in by her hatred of Surion. 

Briyana allowed the girls to continue trailing after her, understanding that telling them to turn back would be pointless when there weren't any other reinforcements coming as far as she could tell. They wouldn't be able to spare many extra hands because of the Shadow infiltration taking place in the underground arena. This was as much as Briyana was going to get unless some stroke of a miracle happened to enter her life as she continued to chase Surion through the endless tunnels beneath the city. 

~~~~~

It was less of a miracle and more a stroke of luck. 

Iris had been staring firmly down at her palmtop computer, trying to figure out where Nebula and Anneliese were going. The girls had suddenly changed course to start running directly towards them, and Iris frowned to herself. She had stopped moving when it appeared that Nebula and Anneliese were moving in the direction of a dead-end that would coincidentally lead directly into the hallway that she and the other members of her group were passing through. Everyone followed her lead, and Iris held up her hand to make sure that they didn't do anything rowdy.