One atmospheric perspective increase later that will not be too noticable without putting them side by side (I'll play around with it more but this version is a possibility):

Aside from redoing the knives (man, I did not like them before XD), I added some subsurface scattering to her coat between her legs - I kinda like it, but opinions are welcome.

Some Concept Sheet work-in-progress:
The pauldron and back-view are pretty much placeholders for now.
I'm not sure whether to have the sword ortho views or a side-view of her torso and head (the sword is pretty visible in the front view anyway), but I suppose it'll come down to mostly how much time I have left to work on it.

Happy Holidays, everybody! ^^

Possible final update time and almost made it for Christmas
I worked on something else a couple of days ago and when I came back to the illustration here, I realised I don't quite like some things... So after adding some more elements to the pauldron and arm, warping parts around, so on and so forth - here's finally a possible final submission (not like I'm not gonna decide to change a hue or something in a couple of days, but it's the thought that counts, right :D)
Concept sheet:

Illustration:

@rgdraw Thanks, man! It was pretty fun to do
@innocent Thanks a lot, the value check I do with the black layer in color mode (I think it has the same effect). I didn't know about the curve one though, pretty awesome, thanks! I'll play with it next year (and thus the puns began :D)

Ok, I updated my first post with the final images and included some more backstory (everybody likes walls of text, right guys :D)!

Some questions: (that might be moderator worthy, sorry if they've been answered elsewhere)
1) As the submit entry button doesn't work for some people, I decided to just manually update my first post, is everything fine with that?
UPDATE on 1) I tried the submit button but clicking 'next' in the cropping part doesn't work, so I guess the 2 images in the first post will have to do.

2) We don't have to put FINAL in the name of the topic like last year?

3) When I was updating the first post, I noticed it says 'uncategorized', but that's how the automated 'join contest' button (or something along those lines) made the topic in the beginning and the topic shows in the Art War 2D category, so is everything sorted correctly?

Thanks @aeguilrod @spxcrs16 @matiaskandali @granfaloon (cuz I forgot to actually say thanks before XD) and everyone before that, it means a lot and the sense of community does make the contest a true delight to be a part of (plus - awesome characters everywhere)!
Good luck, everyone and may we meet again next year ^^!