Yasuko tightened her grip on her sword which was still red with her father's blood. She pointed her sword at Sturla and shouted, "Sturla Yinglisson! Your head is mine!"

Blithely, Sturla replied, "I go by Wuying these days and you should be addressing me as 'Your Majesty'."

Sturla scoffed at her boast.

The Imperial Guards all struck the floor with the butts of their spears and turned toward Yasuko. Unlike the assassins Sturla sicced on her at Heigangcheng, the Imperials Guards weren't complaining about their wounded pride being set against a lone girl all at once and they weren't turning their blades on each other in a bid to monopolize on the reward either. No, they were going to do exactly as they were ordered without a moment's hesitation.

Even against one Imperial Guard, Yasuko couldn't afford to let her guard down, so facing so many, she didn't feel any obligation to be sporting.

Sheathing her sword, she plucked two grenades out of the pack, activated them and tossed them to her left and her right. Before they could detonate, she took another and went long, slinging it as hard as she could, aiming for the Phoenix Throne. The grenades were the concussion type. Unless they were damaged, hulls and bulkheads wouldn't be breached, but any soft body within the kill radius was sure to be pulped. The casualty radius pretty well encompassed the entire throne room, which of course included Yasuko.

Yasuko was thrown back, slamming into the door where she came in. She was glad she was wearing ear protection or else her eardrums would've been blown out. For that matter, if it weren't for the armorgel in her protector, she'd probably have broken most of her ribs too. Even with her armor absorbing most of the impact, it still felt like she'd been hit by a truck.

She didn't have time to wallow around, though. She picked herself up and threw her last grenade toward the throne for good measure. If that didn't kill Sturla, she didn't know what would.

And yet, damn... She honestly wasn't that surprised, but she was definitely disappointed to see that Sturla was still standing. How did he manage it? Did she not throw the grenade far enough to get him in the kill radius? Maybe the Imperial Guards acted as meat shields for him and took most of the blast.

He wasn't completely unscathed, though. He was unsteady on his feet and when he pulled off his helmet, she could see he was bleeding from the ears and nose. At least now she knew that he did in fact bleed.

Yasuko didn't plan on giving him an opportunity to recover. She took aim with her Triple-Seven, charged the shot and blasted him. Unfortunately for her, the shot burst against the shimmering shell of an energy shield. Energy shields weren't that common among the Celestials, but it'd figure that Sturla would have one. She'd probably drain her energy pack before the shield failed. If she could get inside his shield, though...

Sturla sprinted down the dais toward her. It was subtle, but Yasuko could see that he was unbalanced. He was skilled enough that he didn't make it too obvious, but because Yasuko knew how precise his movements usually were, the difference was unmistakable. She may not have killed him outright, but he wasn't at the top of his game. She might just have a chance.

She would have to use both hands if she wanted to try to meet a swordstroke from Sturla, but even that would be a losing proposition. Even with all her enhancements, she couldn't hope to match Sturla's strength. She needed to take advantage of her speed and agility, avoid his attacks, then get inside his defenses, past his shield, and use her Triple-Seven to put a hole in him.

She poised herself before darting at him. She couldn't afford to surrender the momentum to him by retreating and he would enjoy her going on the offensive, maybe even enough to let his guard slip. The smile he flashed her and the mad look in his eyes was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. It may have been that she only succeeded in making him more dangerous.

As they closed the distance between each other, Yasuko narrowly dodged Sturla's first stroke, worked her way in close so she could take aim with her Triple-Seven and fired. Even unbalanced as he was, Sturla didn't fall for such a straightforward move, twisting his body to avoid the shot and following up with a slice that was like he was trying to take off the top of her head.

Sturla brought his sword back down quicker than Yasuko could properly defend against, so out of instinct she blocked wither her arm to protect her head. Were it not for her Triple-Seven, though, the blade might've gone right through. She managed to avoid losing another arm to Sturla, but he hit so hard that it sounded like something broke in the Triple-Seven. If he kept pressing her, she'd be overpowered, so Yasuko deflected his momentum to get away. She quickly hit the release catches on the Triple-Seven with the thumb of her swordhand to detach it and kicked it away before it could decide to explode or something.

She recovered her stance. She could now use her sword two-handed, but the power difference between her two arms would be a problem. Maybe she should've converted the other one while she was at it. Too late to think about that now, though.

She needed to come up with some sort of advantage. She couldn't beat him like this. Should she just kick in the overdrive of her suit and her sword and hope that she got through? What other choice did she have?

The longer this fight was dragged out, the greater her disadvantage. She activated the overdrive of her suit, then did the same for her sword. The next exchange would decide it, one way or another.

Sturla straightened himself up, then took up a guard position to meet her.

He was guarding high. He knew her best shot was to go for the head. Should she trust her armor and take a hit so she could land the deathblow? There was a chance he wouldn't be counting on her to abandon all defense, but if she miscalculated, it would be over. It was probably her best bet, even if it meant going down with him.

Her muscles tensed like a coil as she subtly lowered her hips before springing forward, throwing all her momentum into a thrust that'd go right between his eyes. Unfortunately for her, Sturla was faster than she was expecting, batting her down with little effort. Her armor managed to save her like she was counting on, but Sturla didn't leave it at that. Before she could get back up, he pinned her to the floor with the point of his sword and then shifted his weight to driving it through.

Yasuko swung at Sturla's shin. It was going to come down to whose armor failed first. A few seconds passed and Sturla must've figured he had the worse of it as he jumped back to get clear of Yasuko's sword. He wasn't going to give her the chance to recover, though, as he came right back in to kick her in face like her head was a football. She quickly put her face down and used her arms to shield her head before the kick could connect. She was wishing she still had her helmet at this point, but she was able to bear the force of the kick. Her armor kept her bones from snapping like twigs, but she needed to get out of there before he could try stabbing her again.

After taking a second kick, she rolled to the side several meters before springing back to her feet. She didn't even have the chance to get reoriented when Sturla was on her with a thrust to her chest. Once again, her armor saved her life, but instead of all that force going right through her, it sent her flying back. She struggled to recover her footing before his next attack. Only that was a luxury he wasn't going to give her.

She tried to parry his swing, but he feinted, sweeping lower to hit her in the ribs He realized that even if he couldn't get through her armor, he could still smack her around and he could keep doing that until her overdrive failed. How long did she have? It couldn't be much longer. She started thinking about how the courtesan Hongxia died, baked alive her an overheated suit. She wondered if the Imperials had higher safety standards than that. The overdrive might just shut down automatically before it got to that point. She had to finish it before then. She'd already wasted too much time.

Sturla must have been thinking about how the clock was on his side because he slacked off on his attacks. He took up a theatrical stance like a matador. If he had been wearing a cape, he probably would've taunted her with it.

Sturla sighed.

His head snapped up as he shouted her name. There was a mad fury in his eyes unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Had he gone off the deep end? Was his smug facade hiding a cornered animal and the mask finally slipped? There was no time to think about it because Sturla came at her with everything he had. For every strike she parried, two more would connect. This wasn't like the time he beat her within a sench of her life. It was savage, yes. Brutal, yes. But all the while, there was a precise control to his every move. How else could he so expertly break her bones one by one? That control was gone now or rather only a shadow of it remained from what had been beaten into his muscle memory from all his training. It was just a thrashing in the most visceral sense of the word.

Yasuko's training. Her strength, her speed... Even her anger couldn't compare. She thought about the time Tío Jorge was killed by the Celestials, how it was like something possessed her so that a ten-year-old girl with no training could kill two professional soldiers. Whatever that was, she couldn't summon it now. Wy not, now when she needed it the most?

She continued to lose ground, kept off her balance, until Sturla knocked her on her back. He stamped on her swordarm to hold it down, then stabbed at her heart.

Then, immediately after.

And again.

What was she going to do? She tried to get her arm free, but even with its built-in enhancements, it wasn't enough to overpower Sturla. If her suit's overdrive was still working, maybe, but now...

In an almost certainly futile act of desperation, she started punching at Sturla's blade with her free hand. If she could just get the damn thing to move. Once... Twice... It wouldn't budge even a millimeter. Her natural strength just wasn't enough.

She then saw out of the corner of her eye something roll up beside her. It was a needlepoint armor piercer like the one her father had pulled on her. She didn't think about how it got there. With bare seconds before Sturla skewered her, she snatched up the armor piercer and stabbed Sturla in the heel of his trailing foot. He couldn't help but cry out from the pain. His balance faltered, diverting all the downward force of this sword and loosening his hold on her swordarm, giving her just enough of an opening to get free.

She thrust at his stomach, knowing she couldn't get through his armor, but the goal was to push him back while he was off-balance so she could get back on her feet. He swung at her, but it was surprisingly clumsy for him and easy to dodge. He pointed his sword at her to ward her off while he seemed to be thinking about whether or not he wanted to risk giving her an opening while he removed the armor piercer.

Keeping his sword pointed at her, Sturla swapped hands so he could stoop down and pull out the armor piercer. Yasuko wanted to attack, but until she could activate her sword's overdrive again, she would just be swinging around a metal stick. Let him take the time she needed. The damage was done. Even if he tried to ignore the pain, he wasn't going to be moving as freely anymore. Of course, after the beating she'd taken, Yasuko wasn't going to be so spry either.

Yasuko was so focused on Sturla and he so focused on her that neither one of them noticed until it was too late. Before Sturla could straighten himself back up after pulling out the armor piercer, an Imperial Guard came up beside him and stabbed him in the neck in the narrow space between the collar of his muscle suit and his jaw. The blade went through and came out his cheek on the other side. Sturla's eyes widened in disbelief as he and Yasuko both looked to his assailant.

It was Yasuko's father.

Her father said nothing, but the glare he gave Sturla spoke volumes.

Even if it served no other purpose than spite, Sturla saw the wound left by Yasuko's sword in her father's stomach and using all the power his muscle suit provided, he drove his hand into the wound, all the way up to the wrist. Her father coughed up some blood, then yanked the sword out of Sturla's neck to a burst of bright red arterial spray. Overwhelmed by the sudden blood loss, Sturla topped over.

Her father was just barely managing to stay on his feet. His face was ashen and it seemed like he couldn't really see anymore.

The sword fell from his hand and he collapsed. Yasuko went to his side, crying, "Papi! Papi!"

She abandoned him once. She wasn't going to do it again. She rolled him onto his back and started working on getting his armor off, all the while trying to get a response out of him.

Yasuko couldn't let it end like this She couldn't just leave her father to die twice, not while there was still something she could do.

Yasuko lifted up her father in a fireman's carry and said, "Papi comes first. Show me the way."

Although he had been the object of her hatred almost since the moment they first met, Yasuko didn't even give Sturla a second look. She had a chance, however slim, to save one of the lives caught up in her quest for revenge. Maybe if she succeeded, it would be a step toward making it all worth it.