As the man lunged at you from the air, you barely had time to react, drawing both of your weapons just in time. You were prepared, but his lunge was faster than expected. Nothing you couldn't handle. Having two weapons was always better than one. Time to show this guy what you were made of.

You parried his spinning strike with your main saber, deflecting it to the side as you lunged with a stabbing motion toward his exposed chest. However, after his failed spin attack, he used his own momentum to kick your blade away, deflecting it upwards and opening your guard. He was fast and strong.

This was bad. Your guard was open. Still, you had a few tricks up your sleeve, you just had to avoid his sword. Luckily, it was far away from you still after his failed spin. You could still lift your weapons in time to block his next swing, though you had to give ground as you were forced to step back-

Something tackled you from behind. It was the man who had been sleeping next to the altar. The sounds of screaming and fighting had finally woken him and, in his startled state, he bolted upright and ran straight into you, making you stumble forward. This… this damned civilian got in the way!

The caped swordsman completed his spin. He tried an ascending slash this time, concealing his attack behind his own torso. You… couldn't see where it was coming from. You blocked in front of you with as wide an 'area' as your two sabers allowed. Would it weaken your defense? Definitely, but it was either that or gambling on a direct hit to your body.

The slash never came. Instead, the man lunged at you with his back turned toward you. Was it a… reverse tackle? What? Why did he fight so strangely?

You tried to deflect his tackle with your sabers, but they had no real momentum behind them. Your edges touched his body, yes, and his Aura flared briefly, but not enough to count as a clean hit. He opened your guard, and this time his slash did come. You did what instinct told you. You moved your Grimm Arm forward to block the attack and cover your face.

SLASH!

There was no Aura in your arm. Well, maybe just a trace, but not nearly enough to absorb the force of the blow. It sent you flying, streaks of black and reddish blood spattering across the altar as the wound split open across your Grimm appendage, the liquid forming a thick arci n the air. It… didn't hurt as badly as you'd expected, but you couldn't assess the damage yet. You spun in the air, ignoring the pain and trying to avoid slamming into the building behind you. You barely managed it, landing with both feet on the wall and pushing off into a more stable posture.

"…Yuck." The man spoke as he swung his arm to the side, flicking your blood from his blade. The sound of dripping liquid came from your arm. You took a look at it and… well, to put it bluntly, it was almost as if your wrist was barely hanging from the open wound. Was it painful? Yes, but not terribly so. Still, that hand was going to be impossible to use. You grabbed your remaining saber, the less battered one, with your only good arm. Damn. This was a serious wound.

"You're quite resilient for something with such a nasty surprise hidden away. Most humans I know would be screaming and shitting their pants with a wound that bad. I would." He started to slowly walk forward, resting his sword on his shoulder. "Now throw away your weapon, and I'll make sure your end is as painless as possible, you freak."

You looked at your arm. Faint black stitches were slowly appearing like tiny spiderwebs across your mangled wrist. It would regenerate. Good, but it would take time. Now, how to deal with this guy? Maybe… maybe you could talk to him. Surrendering was a no-go. You wouldn't simply gift your life away. But defeat him? How? This was a bad position to be in, and it had all happened so suddenly.

"Attacking Huntresses so randomly is surely bad karma. What do you even want from me? I'm not interested in a fight." Half lies, half truths, all stalling, hoping your arm would heal a little faster.

"Bullshit. As far as I know, you're a freak that needs to be put down. You know what's worse than a mindless beast of destruction? One that isn't mindless. Having the gall to disguise yourself as a dead Huntress? Lowest of the low."

He dashed again, trying to stab you while you were weakened. You rolled out of the way, leaving a trail of black blood as you put some distance between you. The building's front wall lay in ruins, the sheer force of his lunge had driven him back inside as the destroyed wall covered everything in a cloud of dust and rubble.

"I'm not a Grimm!" He thought you were a Grimm wearing a human body as a disguise? That… didn't sound too far-fetched for what an advanced, rare Grimm might do. So he had something of a point. He was wrong, of course, but his logic wasn't baseless. "I'm not a shapeshifter or anything like that! I am the real Shelly! I got turned into this because-"

You couldn't finish your sentence. Your heightened hearing caught something extremely fast approaching. A faint wave of light appeared from the darkened interior of the ruined building, cutting through the lingering cloud of smoke. A ranged slash. Its trajectory was… difficult to read, but the early warning gave you just enough time to dodge.

Another came, and you dodged again with a jump to the side. Another. And another. Multiple Aura slashes tore through the cloud towards you. You couldn't dodge all of them, and you were forced to parry a few. You managed, with difficulty, but when the barrage finally stopped you needed a moment to recover. Your sword arm, the healthy one, felt numb. It shook. Parrying and dodging those cutting, Aura-charged attacks had been brutal, even with your enhanced strength. You could see your saber growing more and more chipped with every deflection.

"Yeah, if I were a shapeshifting, skin-stealing, soul-sucking monster, I'd say that too." The man stepped out of the rubble, his greatsword over one shoulder and your other, half-broken saber in his free hand, turning it over as he inspected it. "Drop the act, alright? A Grimm pulling this kind of stunt makes my skin crawl. Grimm that talk? Ugh, just the thought is enough to make me shiver." He was cocky about it, even fake-yawning. This sharp-tongued bastard was toying with you, all because of one lucky blow.

Then you spotted Cerise behind him, half-hidden in the dust and rubble. She was gripping a plank with both hands. She was breathing hard. She was staring at him with pure rage. She… oh no. She was going to try to sneak attack him. The stupid idiot. She was desperate, she could see that you were losing.

> Try to stop the fight and signal Cerise to stand down. Even on the back foot, you won't let her get hurt. Try to reason with him.
> Don’t let her finish that sneak attack, but don't stop it either. You don't want her to be hurt, but it’s either this or death. A gamble. Strike the moment she distracts him. You've been fighting with one weapon for the past few hours. You're not completely disarmed nor uncapable of fighting.
> As painful as it would be for both of you, maybe using your Semblance is the right call. Draw him away from the fight, up to the rooftops. You're far better in the air, and up there, gravity works in your favor.
> Other (Write in)

>>6407780
>Try to stop the fight and signal Cerise to stand down. Even on the back foot, you won't let her get hurt. Try to reason with him.

>>6407780
> Try to stop the fight and signal Cerise to stand down. Even on the back foot, you won't let her get hurt. Try to reason with him.

>>6407780
> Try to stop the fight and signal Cerise to stand down. Even on the back foot, you won't let her get hurt. Try to reason with him.

"Stop!" You slowly lowered your weapon, not enough to stop pointing at the guy or leave yourself wide open, but surely enough to send a message. Not only to him, but to Cerise.

You saw them both falter for a bit, Cerise especially. She didn't know if this was an order aimed at her or a general thing for both of them. The man lowered his weapon for a bit, but then he started laughing as he kept walking forward through the dissipating cloud of rubble.

"What, getting cold feet already? So you do feel fear." He lowered his weapon to his side, not to rest or yield, but to prepare for another lunging attack.

"I don't want to fight you. Stop." You had to convince him somehow, but your words were cut short as he lunged towards you again, Cerise was left behind in the middle of the battlefield, her body falling due to the sudden surprise of the Huntsman jumping.

He threw another series of attacks with his sword, holding it one-handed as he tried to overwhelm you. You dodged the attacks you could and parried the rest. You'd be able to hold on like this for a while, but not forever. He did outskill you in melee fighting for now, due to various circumstances.

A particular blow from his sword, trying to push you off-balance, was blocked by your saber. Your body skidded across the ground as you kept your posture, leaving a trail of dust that rose in the air as the distance between you two widened again. Your arm felt numb, but the feeling disappeared. If you focused entirely on defense, it would be very hard to break you, even for him.

"You're pretty good, but you can't win a fight if all you do is block, missy." He kept walking forward, resting his sword on his shoulder as you saw Cerise grab a bottle from the ground, ready to throw it at him.

Your auditory sense caught something above you. The dangling of something breaking. You quickly reacted, splitting in half a large plate of wood and metal that fell toward you, the sign of what appeared to be a restaurant or a tavern. The guy lunged again, taking advantage of this sudden slip and turn of events.

Another clash of blades. This time, his strength against yours, as he tried to push your saber away to open your guard while pushing you backward. You held on, barely moving even against his constant push. He was strong, quite strong, but somehow, he was struggling to open your guard.

That's when he took advantage of the fact that your only available arm was locked with his blade. He lunged with a punch, and there was no real way for you to block it.

POW!

Your face reeled to the side as you tasted an acidic tingling inside your mouth. He tried again to push your saber away, but you held on. He growled and pushed again, trying to force you against a wall.

But then, his aura flared for an instant as an empty bottle hit him in the back of the head, breaking into many shards on the ground below you both. He glanced backward, finally noticing Cerise.

You used this moment to push with some footwork and a spin of your torso. He got distracted for a bit and was surprised by your raw strength as he skidded across the ground this time, holding his posture as the distance between you both grew again.

"I said stop! Both of you." You completely lowered your guard, leaving yourself wide open. You'd barely won this contest of strength, but he was mostly undamaged. You glanced at your Grimm arm. The wound was still there, healing. It would take a while to regenerate.

The guy didn't smirk this time, nor did he crack a joke or make a snappy remark. "For something that's supposed to eat people and destroy everything in sight, you're awfully hesitant to fight back."

"She's not a monster!" Cerise screamed as she ran towards you both.

"Stop, Cerise, he's dangerous!" You yelled at the top of your lungs as the man's attention flickered between you both, wary of you trying to distract him. But you had no intention to attack this time.

Cerise stopped for a bit. Her body struggled to move, but she kept walking forward, fighting against your directive almost as if an unseen force was clamping down on her. "I… I must help you! Miss Shelly, please, let me help you!"

"No, stop! That's an order!" Cerise finally subsided after listening to you one last time. She was distressed, badly. She was shaking, and she started scratching her arm, then her neck, then her head with both hands as she reeled back against the feeling of going against her unholy 'programming'. She was suffering, breathing fast and gasping for air as she kept scratching her head violently.

"The hell is going on with her…" The man started to look more confused by the second, but after a while he decided to ignore Cerise, focusing on you again. He lifted his blade forward as his expression showed disgust. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing! It wasn't me!" It was the complete truth. "Please, stop this nonsense. She's like this because she feels I'm in danger. Let's stop this fight."

But he didn't lower his weapon. If anything, he kept walking to the side as he circled you, the tip of his sword constantly aimed at your chest. You felt the emotions radiating from him. Fear, disgust, anger.

"You're sick. So you're the one behind all these people being like this, huh? They listen to your orders? You put something in their heads? They were people, and now they're just your puppets?"

How would you explain things to him? Your hand holding your saber shook for a moment as your conviction faltered for an instant, but you recomposed yourself as fast as you could. "No, it wasn't me. Please, stop. I don't want to fight you. Let's talk, I'll tell you what I know."

"Cut the crap! A monster like you doesn't get to talk about mercy or doing the right thing. You're just like her, hungry for control, hungry to destroy. If you really mean what you're saying, then drop your weapon and surrender. Make it easier for me to end this."

Cerise started sobbing while she scratched herself, completely overwhelmed by her feeling of wanting to protect you but being unable to do so due to your previous order. The man lifted his sword once again in a fencing posture, walking forward. He was ready to start fighting you again, and this time something told you he was no longer going to play games. After all, he thought you were a monster, that you were the cause of all this. Why would he show mercy this time?

> Throw your saber to the side and do as he says. He thought you were behind all of this, that you were lying in trying to stop the fight. You weren't lying, and you'd prove it right now. If he were to attack you… well, it would be far harder to defend yourself, but maybe you could do something? You were unsure.
> Try to explain the context of things. How Cerise followed your orders because of the girl who revived you, what happened at the Black Sheep's underground base, why you have a Grimm arm, the reason for undead people being here and there, and most important of all, that you were a Huntress and you could prove it.
> You wouldn't yield. You couldn't, either. Cerise's life, and yours, was in danger. You just had to stall, find an opening, do something to turn the tables. You should fight for real this time. Not only for you, but for her. Tap into the power of who you were, the combat prodigy from Haven, the girl who hadn't lost a fight yet, the girl who always won through sheer skill and willpower.
> Other (Write in)

>>6410360
>Try to explain the context of things. How Cerise followed your orders because of the girl who revived you, what happened at the Black Sheep's underground base, why you have a Grimm arm, the reason for undead people being here and there, and most important of all, that you were a Huntress and you could prove it.

>>6410360
>Try to explain the context of things. How Cerise followed your orders because of the girl who revived you, what happened at the Black Sheep's underground base, why you have a Grimm arm, the reason for undead people being here and there, and most important of all, that you were a Huntress and you could prove it.

>>6410360
>Try to explain the context of things. How Cerise followed your orders because of the girl who revived you, what happened at the Black Sheep's underground base, why you have a Grimm arm, the reason for undead people being here and there, and most important of all, that you were a Huntress and you could prove it.

Gonna need a dice roll. A mix of combat and persuasion. Same rules as always, 3d10, best of three, DC 19, Crit 24

Rolled 2, 5, 8 = 15 (3d10)

>>6412720

Rolled 2, 6, 1 = 9 (3d10)

>>6412720

Rolled 10, 5, 5 = 20 (3d10)

>>6412720