There's no need to run any farther than this, you decide. There is a wizard on the scene to deal with the living shadow, now, and from the way waves of magical power continue to burst against your senses, it's clear that Ambrose has the matter well in hand despite his less-than-dignified entrance. On top of that, the robe-wearing, bland-faced tournament officials are starting to show up in numbers - you count fourteen of them at a glance, and that's just the three groups down on the ground level. It's their show, and they've been running it for decades, in the face of difficulties greater than this one, if Lu-sensei's remarks are at all accurate. Dealing with one humanoid mass of living darkness can't be anywhere near as difficult as putting down a demonic invasion or a ninja uprising, right?
You've barely finished that thought when there is an explosion of black energy on the balcony, which makes your magical senses cringe away from the distinctive presence of necromantic power. You're not sure how big the blast actually is, but it plunges a good portion of the atrium into momentary darkness, and also gives rise to a chrous of all-too human screams of pain. The discharge of life-sapping energy is immediately answered by Ambrose's swearing and then the casting of a less inherently malignant form of magic, which you sense to consist primarily of abjurative magic. Shadows roll out once again, this time not tasting of necromancy, but abjuration inverted from the defensive purposes at which it excels to a specific form of offense. It's met by a discharge of the same power - if you had to guess, the shadow-man just tried to dispel whatever protective magic Ambrose worked on the security team, and the wizard countered it. Successfully, if the monster's angry bellow is any indication.
Putting the matter of the unfolding battle aside, you check on your friends. Cordelia just flinched away from the noise of the battle, so she's out of that fugue-like state that meeting the shadow-man's gaze plunged her into; on the other hand, she's still not saying anything, and hasn't made an effort to get Lu-sensei to put her down. The old man himself doesn't appear to be inconvenienced by his passenger or by your little flight from highly probable doom; he isn't even breathing hard (which you are), something you can only attribute to a lifetime of training and experience, masterful use of ki, and him being a bit of a bastard that way. Briar stopped screaming at some point, and now that you've stopped running for a moment, is trading in her spot on Lu-sensei's shoulder for her usual place on yours - the one opposite Altria, as it happens.
"You okay there, Briar?" you ask.
"Ask me that again when I stop having flashbacks about the Twilight Realm," she groans.
...now there's a notion that hadn't occurred to you.
"This way, boy," Lu-sensei says gruffly, heading away from the balcony and towards the front desk, where a five-man-team of the robed officials has taken up positions. As you obediently follow your master, you look down at Altria, who appears to have gotten her brief fit of hilarity under control. You find that you can't resist poking at her, to see if you can get her going again.
"So how long has Ambrose shared a common weakness with the Wicked Witch of the West?"
Altria chokes back a laugh. "Please don't," she asks you a moment later, forcing her face to stay straight. "It would be very inappropriate for me to start laughing again right now."
You nod wordlessly, while dark magic is unleashed anew above you, this time carrying hints of enchantment. A great deal of confused shouting ensues in its wake, and it sounds like there are suddenly three or four separate fights going on up there. Altria's right; it would be in pretty bad taste to laugh while people are fighting something like that monster.
"For the record," the British girl says then, "I would like to thank you for your assistance. I am not completely certain that I could have outpaced that creature for the entire distance we had to cover."
"You're welcome."
"That having been said, I would appreciate it if you would put me down."