The Shadow no longer has a face. Rotting nectar spills down its neck as it lurches towards Persephone and Yvette, one hideously-long arm sweeping across the room —

Persephone's next two rounds slam into its chest. 

With a sound like a glass shattering, the shadow collapses inwards and dissipates. A broken sphere of bone scatters on the floor. 

So that's what a shadow looks like when it dies. Yvette is torn by wanting to never see that again and also very much wanting to see that again several more times right now please, how confusing. This is a completely absurd thing to be thinking right now, why is she thinking this right now, she should instead be keeping out of the way of any danger and also looking for a good chance to imbed her knife into a heart or an eye. So she does that.

Persephone waits two heartbeats, then steps around the corner, gesturing for Yvette to follow. 

Yvette follows, of course.

The hallway outside is filled with eyes. They blink from every surface, long strands of shadow linking them together like a spiderweb.

Persephone advances through the darkness, reloading her pistol as she goes. 

Yvette swallows the urge to screech and flee, and instead follows Persephone and focuses on halting the shaking in her hands so her aim won't be off if she needs to throw her knife.

A swarm of cat-sized shadows turns the corner as Persephone reloads, their spindly fingers and toes scratching on the hardwood floor. 

Mouths open in the floor, swallowing whole most of the swarm - but a few lucky shadows escape, leaping through the air towards Persephone and Yvette. 

Yvette has the urge to throw her knife at the nearest one, but that would be stupid, she might need it later. Throwing it at something makes it difficult to retrieve and throw later. She will if she has to, but will not jump the gun, and will instead rely on the bodyguard.

Does she have to?

Persephone clearly has martial arts training. She kicks one of the oncoming shadow-cats into one of Ishmerai's mouths, then smashes a second in midair with the butt of her pistol. 

The third one scuttles around her while she's occupied. Yvette could try throwing her knife, but it's small, fast, and between her and Persephone.

Not going to risk it. Maybe she could kick it, though, in a pinch. Is there an Ishmerai mouth around?

There is a rather distressingly large number of Ishmerai mouths around.

Don't be creeped out, don't be creeped out.

If the shadow gets too close without Persephone dealing with it, Yvette's going to kick it into an Ishmerai mouth.

A hulking mass of bark and dripping oil lumbers around the corner. 

Persephone slams another magazine into her pistol, and starts shooting at the bigger Shadow.

Yeah, okay, fair enough, Yvette will just handle this herself while Persephone deals with that.

Yvette attempts to punt the cat-sized shadow into an Ishmerai mouth.

The small shadow darts aside from her kick, and tries to grab her ankle. 

She's fast enough to avoid its attempt, but sort of at a loss at what to do to kill it. She doesn't have much practice killing things.

Uh. Back up a little, attempt to stomp on it?

After a few tries, she manages to squish it under her heel. With a cracking noise, the Shadow dissipates, leaving behind a broken bone marble.

Well, on the general scale of victory against enemies, that was kind of - pathetic, but whatever. She'll get better. Provided she lives.

How's Persephone doing against the bigger Shadow?

The shadow bleeds ichor from a set of neat holes in its chest. It swipes at Persephone with broad, gelatinous paws: she darts and ducks around it, avoiding each attack by the barest hairsbreadth. Every now and then, she manages to score a cut with her golden blade. 

Are there cat-sized Shadows that are attempting to sneak up on her and throw off her balance, and is the big one leaving openings for Yvette to take advantage of with a lucky strike?