Walking to the middle of the square that Felix had obviously prepared, she took up her position on the other side of the field.
Mac couldn't help it when a smug grin appeared on her face, "So, you really think you're going to beat me?"
"You're going to be my warmup for the others. I can't wait to fight against someone who is good with swords. At any other time, I would have asked you to marry me." Felix snorted, taking a step forward and taking up his attack stance.
Mac took a step back, putting her weight on her rear leg and putting her hands up while exhaling slowly.
The hand that was on the same side as the leg being placed back was balled into a fist, protecting her Solar Plexus.
The other was open, on the same level as her shoulder. Her back was straight and she was calming her breathing and her heartbeat down.
She mustn't be carried away by the adrenaline flooding through her and the emotions that this situation was causing to flare up.
"Aww, you're doing breathing techniques just for me? Okay, just because you're being so nice... first I will punch you to a bloody pulp and then use my knife techniques." Felix mocked, obviously trying to get her to become angry.
She smiled smugly at that, "If I am going to be wiping the floor with you, I want to at least look cool doing it."
With that, she made a taunting motion with her hand—waving him over with a short jerk of her fingers.
Felix took that as a cue to attack her with a fist hit which she avoided easily by taking a step to the side and letting the Mercenary pass by her. When he was beside her, she hooked her right foot under one of his, throwing him off balance effectively and making him fall on the floor.
"If that's all you've got… I'm going to be disappointed, boy." She mocked, walking away casually and taking up her fighting stance a bit further away.
Felix was on his feet and attacking her again seconds later.
She had to dodge his attacks this time. The first blow with his fist was deflected to the side, the kick to her bottom dodged.
Right after, since Felix's defenses were wide open, she placed some well-aimed hits to his abdomen that caused him to stumble back with a surprised cough.
On the other side of the battlefield stood North, watching the fight go on.
So far they were just sniffing around each other: trying to find out as much about the other as possible while not giving away too much information about their own style of fighting.
He could see that they were trading blows and hits, neither of them looking like they had the upper hand.
What was making him restless, on the other hand, was Theta. He had been nervous ever since he had disappeared and that made North feel agitated.
It must have obviously been visible too since York threw him a curious glance, but didn't comment on it either way. They settled on not talking about the Fragments here since they were their aces in the hole when it came to possibly pulling something off to get everyone out of this situation.
'Theta, what the hell is up with you?'
There was no answer to his question, but another wave of anxiousness and nervousness washed over him just then.
'Seriously, you're going to make me angry if you don't start telling me what the hell is up.'
There was no answer from the Fragment, but suddenly, while watching how Mac did a backflip in order to avoid a staccato of fist hits from Felix, he suddenly saw Ala doing it instead.
Ala was the one fighting Felix now.
'Theta, stop that shit. There's no way in hell it's her.' He replied, sounding angry and hurt since this picture in his mind brought up too much hope and memories.
Speaking of those, Theta now provided him with the memories of what had happened when they broke down on the battlefield some weeks ago. It all flooded over him like a fucking tsunami and he stumbled a bit, shaking his head.
This got York's as well as the attention of the others around him, all of them staring at him. They had retreated to the wall so that Mac and Felix could fight better with Tucker and Wash standing beside the sniper now.
North only tapped the space on his neck where the implant was in response to the questioning looks being thrown his way. To any unknowing onlooker, it might just look like he had some problems with his head.
"Having some trouble with my vision. Seeing stuff that can't be here. Like someone from my past." He explained curtly, making it as cryptic as possible so that others wouldn't get any advantage out of overhearing it.
"Yeah… Well about that..." Tucker started, earning a hit against his thigh from Wash who he shot a dirty glare to, "He might as well know it now. The odds of us coming out alive are small enough as it is." The aqua-clad soldier snapped.
"Well… Mac actually is someone you already—" Tucker didn't have the possibility to continue when an ugly cracking sound reverberated through the room.
Felix had managed to land a chin hook on Mac, sending her flying backwards. The force of the hit was strong enough to open the seals of her helmet and throw it off her head.
The helmet came to a stop in front of Carolina's feet, who remained unmoving.
Mac, or Ala, laid on the ground for a moment. She was a bit dizzy, and that gave just enough time for Felix to walk over and grab a fistful of her black hair. At some point her braid had opened.
"So much for making you feel disappointed." Felix said with a smug grin, Mac looking at him with anger in her eyes.
"You are disappointing me, asshole." She replied, pulling out her knife swiftly and cutting off the long mane of hair right underneath Felix's hand.
This action took Felix somewhat by surprise so that he was standing there for a moment, looking at the hair in his hand while Ala was getting some space between the two of them.
Well, now that the beans were spilled, she also could switch off her camouflage and save some energy.
A short while later, her armor was white with blue accents again just as it had been when she had arrived on Chorus.
"Hmm, so it's you." Felix almost sounded disappointed.
"Sorry I couldn't be a princess of sorts who was waiting for their knight in…" she eyed him, "Steel and orange armor." She mocked, dodging another blow from Felix with a laugh.
"Oh come on. That's all you've got? I'm not even going to use my swords for you. How disappointing!" She laughed at Felix square in his face and that made his posture change.
She was getting under his skin.
Drawing his knife, Felix swung at her which she easily evaded. It looked more like a dance to her and that was her goal. Felix should be provoked by her looking so at ease and stuff, like this wasn't a battle for death or life but nothing more than something funny to her.
When he regained his footing after having been thrown off again after another evaded attack, he seemed to change gears and lifted his leg—obviously trying to kick and then stab her.
Ala, being so close to him, decided to surprise him. She had more than enough tricks up her sleeve.
Taking a step forward, she crossed her arms out in front of her. She caught Felix's leg right underneath his knee plating, effectively catching the mercenary off-guard.
There was a second of shock at her action that Mac used to push him back.
"Try again, that was weak." She mocked, faking a yawn as if she was bored.
Felix's posture took up more and more that of a bull who soon was going to charge headfirst into a battle just to get the opponent injured.
Felix attacked again, this time from a bit further away… but Mac was also prepared for that. Her leg attacks had been her strong point back on Earth when she hadn't had a metal arm, and so she also knew how to dodge them.
Surging forward, she hooked her right arm under Felix's right leg, right in his knee pit. She used her speed to press her body upwards and make Felix fall backwards.
While the mercenary was making a surprised noise, Mac lunged out. She gathered all her strength in her left arm and practically rammed the soldier in steel and orange armor into the ground.
His already dented and damaged helmet couldn't take such a blow and simply split in two, both parts flying away in different directions.
Mac always was a fair fighter and so she took some steps backwards, waiting for the mercenary to get back on his feet.
At the moment, he was puking his guts on the floor—coughing up a mix of blood and gastric acid. She must have broken at least some ribs with that blow. Her left arm was fucking awesome.
"Fucking bitch." He growled, furious dark brown eyes settling on her.
She only snorted at that, walking up and down casually just like Felix had done so many times before.
"Oh, did the poor baby get hurt?" she mocked, observing him stumbling to his feet.
He was angry, but not to the point where she wanted him to be.
Before she was able to tease him more, however, he drew his knife and threw it in Tucker, North, and Wash's general direction.
She could feel her feet moving on their own with her armor using energy for the Speed Unit, racing over to catch the knife.
In the last second possible she managed it, although the knife went directly through her mechanical palm.
Looking at it, she laughed, "Looks good. It a piece of art, seriously, but that's not practical for a fight." With that she pulled it out and squashed the blade in her left hand.
Felix stared at her in disbelief before his face went dark with anger. His undercut had grown out and he was in desperate need of a shave. He could do that when he was dead for all she cared.
"Fucking cyborg bitch."
"Wow, ever so colorful. But I must correct you. I'm mechanically enhanced, not a cyborg. It's only the arm. Always nice when not everyone knows all your secrets." She mocked, looking at the squashed knife in her hand.
"But I must say, you've improved a lot since you started using that."
Felix's face didn't move at that, but she knew that he would react to the next bit of information she was about to give out, "Given that you made an attacker fall off the water tower by hitting him with the butt of your knife when you actually wanted to pull a cool knife throw stunt at the warehouse near the quarry back in New Seoul. And that only to impress Sam... Real smooth, Isaac." She commented, standing there casually.
Her defenses were down and she was putting her all into her mocking posture towards the mercenary now.
At first, said man was utterly shocked. His eyes went wide and he looked at her in utter disbelief.
That was until the rage took over his face.
"I don't care where you got that information from… but now you're in for something, you fucking bitch!" With that and an inhuman cry, he lunged himself forward and crashed into the woman, effectively being able to get ahold of one of her swords in the process.
Getting some space between them, he regarded the weapon in his hand.
"Interesting. I could get used to this. I'll probably make it my favorite weapon after I've gutted you with it." He babbled on with a maniacal grin on his face.
Mac could see that he had definitely snapped now. The last piece of sanity had flown out of his head the moment that it had collided with the ground.
Pulling out the other sword, she again got into her fighting stance.
"Let's see what you've got, Isaac-baby." She teased, letting the mercenary attack.
He was uncoordinated, used to using a knife and not a longer sword. The moment he was inattentive and his hand was out too wide to protect, she grabbed at the opportunity. Her sword soared down, severing his left hand off his body.
Felix screamed, the sword falling to the ground with a clatter where Mac took it up and kicked the hand to the side.
"Stick to your knives, Isaac-boy." She stated, taking out her knife that she wasn't so trained in but-oh-well.
She had to win. Or at least save the others.
Felix pulled out another knife from somewhere in his armor, attacking again.
Unfortunately for Mac, he didn't seem to be feeling the pain from his severed hand all that much.
That fucking dick even used it to his advantage by lunging at her, making her close her eyes at the sudden spray of blood hitting her face.
She had her other side to the crew, the one with her flesh arm, so the only thing they saw was how he had gotten through her defenses.
Mac, however, felt the hot steel enter her body right underneath her left armpit. Immediately she felt that breathing became harder and her left arm had started to get heavy.
Fuck… that was the lungs and the mechanics! Biting back a scream, she could hear herself groan in pain.
She could live with only one part of the lungs, but not fight. She had to be extremely quick now. She was done with the asshole, anyways.
Feeling blood run down the left corner of her mouth and out of her nose, she pulled the swords out of her sheaths, readying them.
"Now this is going to be interesting." Felix laughed manically.
"Not for you." Mac surged forward towards Felix, who put up his defenses for an incoming attack to his head, reacting to her lifting the sword as if she wanted to cut off his head.
In the last possible second, she fell on her back and slid in-between Felix's legs. Her Katanas cut into the space where the legs join the crotch.
An ugly spray of red erupted from both of the cuts.
Getting to her feet, she rammed one sword through Felix's heart with all her force.
He made a surprised gurgling sound, looking down at the blade sticking out of the armor. The gurgling in his lungs matched the sound of her lungs when she drew a breath.
"I'm making sure you're staying dead this time." She muttered into his ear before pulling out the sword from his chest and cutting off the mercenary's head with a scissoring motion of both of her swords.
The man was dead before he hit the ground, his head rolling away some feet to the opposite side of the group.
She took a few steps towards her friends while sheathing her swords.
The black-haired woman could already see her vision narrowing down, dark walls closing in on her.
Oddly enough, she felt herself smile.
At least they were safe.
"Theta, use the shield." She muttered as loudly as she could before she broke down.