First thing I took notice about my current situation is that she was obviously used to fighting bigger opponents, I was pretty sure I'm slightly taller than she is though and that works in my favor to a small degree.
I wasn't fighting the Mercenary, but the Monster Hunter, one knew how to fight humans, the other didn't. She was aiming for very specific parts of my body, all of them being small targets, making the task of dodging her blows easier for me. Neck, heart, or head, everything else in her eye was just a waste of time... now if only her attacks were aimed to kill.
That might sound weird, but it seemed from my perspective that Red wanted to make this fucking painful for me. Not only that, but the quantity of attacks is a factor here, she threw a LOT of those and even if they were meant to cause me a ridiculous amount of pain and not kill me while my pain threshold isn't by any means small... I still couldn't afford to take those without getting sluggish.
To put it simply, this was a manhunt for her. At some point, I'm going to get hit, and she knows it... and maybe if she wasn't angry and tried fighting me like she usually does, I would have been hit already.
Ducking under a swing of her bladed weapon, I parried her gun with my own while she pulled the trigger, making me flinch from the sound that just had to go off right next to my god damn ear.
Using the momentum from my parry, she spun on her heel and rose her left leg, a spin kick right in the ribs that I managed to block with my forearm... wait, where are her weapons?
She suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders with her now free hands, and I felt myself being pulled. Thinking quickly, I lowered my body and spread my legs to keep myself grounded, which worked to some degree.
I felt pain on my knee and felt myself going lower than I wanted to. I glanced down with wide eyes to see she had kicked my right knee to force me to bend down. I glanced at her and saw her weapons falling from the air, she threw them up while performing that spin kick?!
She was reaching for her gun, making me realize she decided to send her plans to make me suffer to hell and back. Thinking quickly, I let my whole body fall to the ground while grabbing her right arm and raising my left leg up on her abdomen, using my limb like a spring to throw her behind me while landing on my back.
Quickly getting up, I backhanded her weapons away and rose my... where the hell is my gun? I looked at my now empty hand and then back at Red, rising from her fallen position, with Solemn Penitence in hand.
Well... that's actually lucky.
I dashed forward without even thinking of dodging an attack that won't come while raising my right fist. She was already up and aiming at me, but that was a mistake. Her hand suddenly slumped, and her body flinched, making her drop the gun, her single widened eye met mine.
And then my fist met her face, her hood moved just enough for me to see the lack of everything her face had, well lump of flesh would be more accurate to what I saw. I think those are scars, but the number is so big, she may as well just have flesh without skin.
I reached for her hood and her body suddenly jerked upwards. Her head hitting me on the chin and would have knocked me on my ass if I hadn't backed away, but I still felt my legs get shaky from the hit.
Not deterred from the hit, I let my hand grab her hood and yanked her towards me, bringing my knee to her stomach, which she stopped with both her hands. Taking the chance, I bend down and wrapped my arms around her abdomen, and then I carried her.
Rising her all the way up and bending my back all I could, I brought her whole weight and mine down. Yes, I just pulled a power bomb.
Her back hit the metal floor that caved in under the impact, forcing Red to let out a chocked gasp. I took the book from her hood and jumped back, while my butterflies took Solemn Penitence back to my coffin.
She got back up, clearly slower than before but not deterred at all... if anything she looked even more angry than usual. Her body was a blur of red, but I simply rose the book in her face and she tried to pull the brakes on her dash. The moment she stopped, her single eye tried to develop laser's to try and kill me in that spot.
"This... is proof that she wanted better for you." I said, punctuating my point by shaking the book in front of Red.
A growl escaped her lips, but held herself back from doing anything stupid.
Sighing at the response, I relaxed my body, "I don't know your granny, but you do. So why don't you entertain the thought, if only for her?" I was playing a dangerous game here... but it may just be worth it.
After a brief moment of silence, she scoffed and took the book from my hand... well, more like yanked the book from my hand, "I'm not stopping, not because someone that thinks he's right told me too. Much less because he thinks what's best for me." She stomped towards the edge of the room, clearly angry.
But I gave her a curious look, "That wasn't a no."
She didn't take that well, "Fuck off, I can't cool down with your emotional ass here." But she never said she wouldn't... progress, I guess?
The room flashed green, and I gave Red one last look before walking out of the chamber... that was productive, if I do say so myself.
Said thoughts about my small victory died a horrible and painful death. The moment I actually exited the chamber... only to see Rober giving me a flat stare filled with 'what now?' energy.
"Trigger, if you are going to pull these kinds of stunts, you should probably warn your superiors"
And then there was the slightly amused but more aggravated voice of Malkuth, to which I had the perfect response.
"I can explain." Maybe not.