Chen stands on her tiptoes, her scarf pulled taut against her neck and for a moment her eyes widen and she feels a blush rise to her cheeks. She glances away as if in shame before bringing her sword around with a slash that cuts forces the huntress's hand away and pulls her loose. They break and split, the fresh dirt of the lakeside hills crumbling as they slide apart and take firm stances again. But the words echo: [i]you wanted to save the Scales of Meaning herself from a monster[/i]. She hadn't, she just wanted the Scales to warm to her, to agree to let her follow, to defuse the argument the two were having and calm her emotions. She didn't [i]really[/i] think anyone needed saving and she hadn't thought this hunter was a monster then.

Did she now?

Chen blinks, clears her head. Doesn't take initiative on the next thrust. She could have, and she thinks the huntress a skilled enough swordswomen to know that Chen didn't make a move matching the speed she had shown so far. Was it a feint, a trick? Chen lets out a breath she was holding. She felt a slower but more lasting flush rising to her cheeks as she remembered how it had felt be held by someone with such strong arms. How good it would feel to be all wrapped up in that scarf, her wrists and ankles bound, carried close to that strong body...

Before that vision can overwhelm her, Chen charges, a rushing forward sprint, earth spraying up behind her as she channels her power into a flying charge, too fast for her feet to touch the ground. Surely a feint, a game of chicken, she'll pull back at the last second and go for a fading strike of some sort rather than rush a stronger opponent. 

"I [i]never[/i] thought you a monster" she cries, not pulling back but striking her blade firmly into the blade of the huntress. It's so surprising that for a moment, it throws her stance and crystal light sparks and flies forth in a flash to rival the dawn. And then the air is broken ground between them, both blades flying faster than the eye can follow, blurry after images tracing them like ethereal butterflies. Rose is pressed close, shouting "[i]essan el-heloi[/i]" and if her hearing is good, she can hear Chen's heart thunder in her chest racing to keep up, racing to surrender, racing to be held! 

"Never! I would never damn you!" she shouts and cuts in close. "I'm one of the good princesses!" she changes the angle of her front foot and curls her elbow, bringing the sword in close to her body. "I'm trying to find Yue too, along with [i]everyone else under the sun[/i] because Princess Qiu wants her." The sarcasm is evident, even as she hits the huntress not with the blade but the hilt of her crystal sword, pushing sharply under the huntress's guard and into her stomach. "I can protect her from the [i]small army[/i] Qiu's called down, bring her safely to become a handmaiden, and cut into Qiu's power [i]at the same time[/i]" The blade flashes outward from its backwards thrust, spinning in Chen's grip of its own accord, a masterful showing of her chi to control it so precisely at this speed without hurting herself. Her scarf's two ends both fly upwards from the wind generated, making them tempting targets. "So [i]help me out![/i]" the blade flares and lands a single solid strike on the huntress, Chen hurling herself bodily forward and nearly into Rose's arms to support it past the opposing blade's guard.

[Chen grants Rose's request to fight her to submission by fighting with grace. 1+4+2=7. She is giving Rose the fight she wants [b]flirting or provoking for a string[/b] and [b]seizing a superior position[/b] (that being right in Rose's arms after a show of strength). Rose gets to pick one option in turn.]