(Sofia POV)
I felt the unsatisfying click of my handgun refusing to fire any more. In retrospect, her arrival should have been obvious and I should have brought an extra magazine or three in preparation. Every incursion eventually has her showing up to protect any gains. As an artist of the same medium, I admired her and her work. I was not above rubbing one out to the sight of her finished scenes. My admiration for her came even more so in her combat abilities. She was good and scrappy. Always great at scratching an itch.
“Vikky! You Bitch!”
Victoria was her real name and the name she preferred. As such, I made sure to never use it. Her face was now visible in the moonlight atop the jungle gym. She was crouched with her arms raised in a defensive posture. I hoped to catch her off guard and get a lucky shot. She obviously had not lost her sharp edge and easily swatted the tiny caliber. I dropped the handgun on the ground, placing it in my waistband would only slow me down. I readjusted my footing and held out the large bowie knife towards her. She spoke first.
“Well Sofia, I see you're still as persistent as ever. And here I heard Roxane lost your sorry ass somewhere in the mountains.”
Victoria stood from her lowered position and folded her arms, careful to not cut herself on the long steel claws that she wore, and shrugged. Her face read with annoyance and disgust. I honestly thought it was a little rude. I’m not that ugly am I? There were far worse people that could have come to ruin her night. I at least had fun. Victoria shook her head and sighed. I guess Vikky disagrees. I responded to her displeasure.
“You’re always so judgy for a girl who’ll fuck or eat just about anything.”
She raised an eyebrow and unfolded her arms. Oh yeah, that one annoyed her. I braced a foot backwards as she jumped from the heightened structure. In a long swing motion she came down on me with her right claws. Those were easy to dodge as I leaned backwards with the support of my footing. She followed swiftly with a swing from her left at a vertical angle. I held the bowie knife up and caught all the claws easily. Her right hand landed on the ground and used it to push backwards and gain some distance as I went for a kick towards her face. She managed to dodge the kick and land on all fours a meter in front of me.
She was like an animal. She crawled on all fours with knife-like extensions to her fingers from the gloves she wore. Her eyes held the same intensity of a starving wolf. It was always fascinating to watch as she would go from wild-eyed looks on all fours with drool leaking from the corners of her mouth to a bourgeois personality whenever she stood on her two legs. It would be incorrect to call it two different personalities, but the switch was so quick depending on how she stood that we often just referred to it as such. A wolf-mode and a civilized-mode, always the same bitch though.
But like a hungry wolf, she wasn’t patient and didn’t even try to let me attack first. She charged on all fours. For most people, this would be a disadvantage. For Victoria, this was when she was at her best. She launched herself upwards and swung in an uppercut with her right claw which forced me to jump backwards. I took the opening as her right hand swung by to reverse my retreat and push forward. My knife would easily push forward into a vulnerable chest cavity. But instead, her left hand caught the blade and stopped it from taking a wound. Her fingers were wrapped around its sharpened edge and drew blood.
I was vulnerable in this state though and she quickly attempted to use the chance to land a fatal scratch on my neck. Allowing that to strike was a bad idea. I spun the edge of the blade in her hands forcing her to recoil. Her grip loosened but I couldn’t use it to attack. I jumped backwards and dodged her attack. She stayed on two legs as I kept the distance between us. She looked down at the cuts on the middle knuckle of her fingers. Her gloves were leather and sharp steel at the ends, but the insides were only leather. A fact that allowed for greater movement for attacking but a small vulnerability if cut. It wouldn’t harm her ability to attack me but it would normally be an annoying cut that would limit her movement.
That is if Victoria was normal. She licked the blood leaking from her fingers. This wasn’t just licking to stop the bleeding, she was lapping up all the blood that had rolled down her hand. She wanted to get every bit of red liquid she could. I should’ve used the opportunity to attack. But seeing a freak in action was just so entertaining I didn’t want to stop her. There was a slight flush to her face as she drank her own blood. After a few seconds of this though, the bleeding had stopped and Victoria’s wounds closed as if they never happened. She moved her appendages freely to make sure of it. Once her display was over, she looked back towards me. She gave a little smirk with her newly rosy cheeks.
“Pervert.”
“Kinky bitch.”
After the quick exchange of insults, we both charged. She threw a large sweep as she lunged on all fours that I parried before slicing at her lowered position. She was easily able to side step it and could acrobatically dodge as I pursued with a kick. She was annoying to fight and frankly I was losing my patience with a game of dodging and parrying. Her lowered position made it difficult to find an opening while also avoiding any low swipes at my legs. Any injury to my ankles wouldn’t be fun and importantly hamper my movement. I still needed to find Roxane and the longer I mess around with Vikky the better chance that Alan will find her first. I’m not worried that he’ll win any race to find her. I’m worried she’s gonna paint a wall with his innards.
I ran a mental calculation. Risks were necessary to gain an opening in this situation. Neither of us could land a fatal or critical blow. We were evenly matched physically. I jumped backwards as she performed a large sweep with her right claw at my feet. She looked up at me with her wild chaotic eyes which flickered like a starving flame. I didn’t give her a chance to charge and instead leaped at her, but this time at an angle. She was forced to quickly readjust to prevent me from gaining an advantage by flanking her. She leaned back on her hind legs and held up her left hand to defend against any strikes. Instead of attacking, I feinted and forced her to use her right hand to block the knife heading straight for her stomach.
She managed to avoid catching the blade and instead caught my hand. Her right hand was now holding my knife by the hilt. What she did not seem to notice was that my left hand was pushing it into her. I switched my grip while jumping backwards. But now, my weapon was held by her and her left hand was free but at an odd angle. She couldn’t strike my neck or any vital organs, but my side was free.
I watched as she sunk her left claw into my side. Blood shot out before falling to the mulch ground. Victoria’s face twisted into a wide smile at the direct strike. Her eyes held that same feral nature that shook them violently within their sockets. I saw a line of drool roll down her chin as she saw my blood coat her hand. I felt my body shake at the attack. I couldn’t help but smile.