Dueling Under the Warped Night - Part 3

Both sides lowered their stances, although for opposite reasons, and the first clash of metal ensued.

Anna still had no way to match her foe’s speed, but she knew that, and her style was based on such too. Instead of meeting the incoming assault, she only stood her ground. Using the least movement to avoid or parry the onslaught, half-basing her movements on the oracle skill as much as she could.

Each of her steps was perfect as she predicted all her enemy’s moves and answered in the same perfect way. It was to the point that Corsair almost had no chance of using her pistol since it relied on openings to work.

The rotating antique musket acting as both a gun and a spear was always in motion. Deflecting attacks and rotating to further force the dragon lady into fighting safely. And that was without considering the threat from the flashy and powerful spell Anna was always keeping on her musket's bullet. She was too wounded to take head-on whatever the inquisitor was charging on the musket, and both of them knew that.

No matter how fast the pirate lady went and no matter what move she tried, all she could manage were small wounds. Small wounds that would take down any normal person, of course, but that were shrug-offs to the redhead.

Even her chances of using her flintlock ended with the gun being pushed away by a shotgun shell.

Still, with all the drugs and electricity, Anna's body was almost fully numb, and her healing was failing to keep up. Her weapons were wearing out too, the shotgun for one was close to breaking apart, so she was on a timer. As things were going, she soon would end up unconscious.

Worse even, she lacked enough bullets to keep this going forever. In fact, she already had to reload her shotgun, and she only had two extra shells on her. So, the moment the magical pistol became ready again, she would need a second plan.

If she had the time, breaking her remaining seals would be an option, but it would take too long in this situation. They were bigger and more complex than the ones in the arms, to begin with, and the one on her neck was straight-up dangerous, but if it was necessary...

Throwing away her trump cards was better than losing, even if it meant being out of combat after that.

Either way, as soon as she thought it was time to step her game up, the chance she needed appeared. A perfect alignment and a perfect attack from her foe allowed, in a mind-blowing way, for the redhead to connect both her bayonet and the short sword.

Her move slid both blades together, allowing for just enough movement to deflect the attack and set her aim point-blank on Corsair's chest. She would get a shot back in response due to that. Getting this close wouldn't go unnoticed no matter what, which was fine.

Anna would win as long as she got a clean shot, but her opponent wouldn't.

But before she could shoot, and for less than a moment, the whole world seemed to waver and wobble. Nothing happened due to that, but the feeling took a glint of the inquisitor's attention away. Not enough to make her lose the shot or to create a critical opening, only enough for the dragon to dodge the shot.

She was sure it had something to do with whatever her fox companion was doing out of her line of sight, but she was out of sight. Or at least, she should've been. For some reason, even if she was sure the kitsune was on another part of the ship, the inquisitor could see Minako doing something in the corner of her eye.

Anna still managed to fix her aim somewhat, managing to at least connect the shot, even if not where she wanted to. It ended in a very gruesome gaping hole on the pirate's shoulder, but it wasn't a mortal wound as it should. And as a trade-off, she got a brand new bullet hot on her belly right before the two disengaged.

And right as they jumped away from each other, the area in which they were fighting a moment ago blew up. Certainly a side-effect of all the fires and the periodical stray bullet from the fleeing cruisers.

Not that any of it seemed to affect the two duelists.

“It seems the first exchange is mine.”

“I say it’s a draw.” The redhead snarked back while reloading her double-barrel with inhuman speed with the last two shells she had pocketed. “Ain’t sure if this arm of yers good fer fighting anymore.”

If she wasn’t by her lapse of judgment, the hole would’ve been in the middle of bluehair’s chest, but this much was still something. How Minako was crouching somewhere Anna thought she wasn't before was a little worrying, but dealing with Corsair was the priority.

And again, right as she decided to ignore the kitsune and focus on the fight, the whole world wavered and she heard a shot sound she thought was lost. Then, as if to prove it wasn’t a mirage, something on Anna’s body had changed. It was somewhat minor, but she could feel she was healing slower at the expense of being in slightly less pain.

But more than that, as she thought about it, she somehow remembered only using four of her elixirs instead of five.

There was no time to think about it though, and her foe was already sparkling again and setting herself to another charge.

“Not reloading your other weapon? Is it wise?”

“Worry ‘bout yerself, ‘kay? I’ve no need fer powder or a proper bullet if it’s all ‘bout firin’ a point-blank spell.” She spoke while using her second unwillingly acquired skill. The one she got from her nominal partner to turn her energy into something close enough to a gemstone, which could then be used as a bullet. “I’m already ready fer ya.”

Another charge from the electric dragon, and once again, another bout of almost perfect dodges and parries. The weapons connect, the electricity went through Anna’s body, and the pistol was deflected by her bullets. But after the second shot, her rhythm started to fall.

What once were near missed became partial hits, and her movements were getting sluggish due to losing blood faster than she could recover. She was collecting cuts and smaller wounds only to keep her stance set now.

In fact, when the obsidian pistol got its next chance to fire, the inquisitor was already forced to use her next huge trick.

As another absurd feat, Anna forced her body to move as fast as possible and blocked the enemy gun with her own, the two of them firing almost at the same time. It was a waste of her spell, but what mattered was blocking the attack right now. And as a secondary effect, the shot made the smaller of the two weapons blow up in a rain of debris.

Not powerful enough to cause too much damage, but enough to wound and open space to disengage. Which was what the redhead did right away.

“That’s some impressive aim… Are you sure you are a human?” Corsair rested her body at a close wrecked wall as she spoke again and drew her remaining flintlock. “Unless you’re the hero, this is way too much, girl.”

“I ain’t no here, and I’m mostly human fer sure. This one’s one of mah’ last resort tricks, y’see?” Anna explained as she showed the cracked sides of her musket and tried to recover a little. “Are we callin’ this one a draw too?”

“Sounds good to me… Shall we go for the last one? I have to avenge my beloved gun.”

Anna smirked as she threw her now useless shotgun away, and pulled off the bayonet from the remaining gun before resetting her stance once more.

“Go on.”

She was focusing on everything she had left on this last exchange. From the corner of her eyes, she could see the damage on the battlefield growing and sailors fleeing. She could see the lights of the cruisers moving farther and farther away. And she could see a kitsune opening her eyes with a pained expression right after finishing a prayer.

All was moving as slowly as it could in the inquisitor’s eyes. Her body was unable to keep up with it, but it hadn’t to. All it need to do was move to the right position at the right place and she would be able to parry the initial strike. And by then, it was only a matter of luck…

The luck that her ally wouldn’t die before managing to hit her shot.

And so, Anna counter-charged her enemy while feeling the world waver again and again. The movement was just enough to throw Corsair a little bit off, but a little was more than enough to force her shot too soon and to make her blade miss.

The bullet still ended up lodged in the inquisitor’s leg and she barely managed to parry the blade at the expense of losing all feeling in her left arm, but that was enough.

It was enough to get the dragon lady to try and dodge the musket being thrust into her chest. Enough to make her lose focus when the charging port of this same musket blew off and the weakened bullet failed to do much. And enough for Anna to shove her dagger into the open wound on Corsair’s shoulder.

But more than anything, it was enough to give a clear shot to the shrine maiden holding a machine pistol and aiming at the stunned pirate.