"I assume that was a rhetorical question, big guy?" Claude asked.
"Of course it was," Sooga II confirmed. "I will end your lives, companions of the Hero."
"Then why show yourself?" Kronya asked.
"Because killing you without offering you a chance to fight back would bring me no honor," Sooga said.
"And what does a Yiga assassin know of honor?" Impa asked, appearing out of nowhere atop the Vault's entrance.
"Lady Impa," Sooga said. "This is not your fight."
"Regardless, if you intend to kill these two, you must first kill me," Impa told him.
"Killing a feeble old woman would bring me no honor," Sooga said. "But so be it."
"Feeble?" Impa asked, clearly offended.
Sooga said nothing more, and drew his longsword. Impa was unarmed, but she took a fighting stance.
Faster than the eye could follow, Sooga charged at Impa and slashed at the old woman with an ascending diagonal cut. The blade connected with Impa's ribs...
And then Impa was in the air, landing a couple of meters from Sooga, completely unscathed.
"What?" Kronya, Claude, and Sooga all said as one.
"This will not work, Sooga," Impa told him.
In lieu of a response, Sooga attempted to bisect her with a wide slash. However, instead of being cut in half, Impa moved with the Yiga warrior's blade. She bent herself around it, and planted her feet on the ground once more, totally unharmed.
"Did she somehow dodge the blow?" Claude asked.
"No...no, Sooga hit her, both times," Kronya said.
"But that's impossible! She should be dead!" Claude said.
"What manner of trickery is this?" Sooga demanded.
"There is no trick," Impa said.
Sooga slashed at a nearby tree, cutting through its trunk effortlessly. Seeing the result of his strike, he attempted to stab Impa, hoping to impale her. However, the attack only pushed Impa back, without harming her any more than the previous blows had.
"How are you doing this?" Sooga asked. "How am I unable to cut you?"
Impa smiled. "It is simple. You are far stronger than I am, Sooga, son of Sooga. But that is why your sword will not cut me. Not as long as you are stronger."
"That makes no sense," Sooga said.
"No, to you it would not," Impa said. "You are strong, I am weak. But there is strength in weakness, a way for the weak to overcome the strong through skill and perseverance." She stepped close to Sooga, and jabbed her fingers into his abdomen.
Sooga was sent flying. Where Impa had struck him, he was bleeding. "How?"
"Your sword can cut wood and stone, iron and steel, and diamonds as well, perhaps," Impa said. "But can it cut water?"
"No," Sooga admitted.
"No," Impa agreed. "Because water would offer no resistance to your blow. I flowed with your blows, absorbing the energy of your strikes and redirecting it at you."
"I was wrong," Sooga said, raising his sword. "Defeating you WILL bring me honor!"
Sooga began striking at Impa with weaker blows, but Impa kept taking them as effortlessly as she had his stronger ones. However, eventually he had an idea. Instead of trying to hit Impa with his next blow, he feinted a blow towards her and tripped her with his foot and grabbed her. He raised his sword to her throat. "No space to move means you cannot flow with the blow," he said. "Meaning you cannot absorb the weight of the blow."
"True," Impa agreed. "If only you had realized that sooner." She struck his arm multiple times with her fingers, and slipped out of his grab, then struck him again with an open palm strike, sending him flying once more. "You've lost, Sooga."
"So I have," Sooga agreed. "But I swear, this will not be the last time we do battle. I will find your vulnerability, Lady Impa, and I will defeat you!"
Impa grinned. "You can try."
Sooga disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"That...was...amazing!" Kronya shouted. "Please, teach me how to do that!"
Impa seemed to think. "Perhaps. I may teach you...if you can convince me that you will not misuse my techniques, Kronya of the Agarthans."
Kronya grimaced. "You were listening in, huh?" She hung her head. "All I want is what's best for my people, Lady Impa. I just want them to be able to live free. And I see now that under Thales, my people won't ever live free. Not even if we succeed in conquering the surface. But I don't think it's too late for us to live in peace with the rest of the world."
Impa nodded. "Perhaps not."