"Oh, there will people out there who will judge you for striking back with prejudice, but I certainly won't. They..." she turns around, ruthlessly slamming with a foot the head of a Shadowhunter once against the ground. "...did start this."

Nuwa removes her foot, the Shadowhunter doesn't lift their head. Knocked out, or did the blow kill them? Who knows. Nuwa sure isn't going to check.

"A lot of people would say to be merciful towards the low-level grunts and focus your ire on those they serve, but it's hard to feel merciful when they obviously wouldn't show you any mercy"

She has seen them attack people because of the weapons they hold, out to outright kill those cursed weapon holders. If it wasn't for that, maybe, and it's a huge maybe, she would consider holding back, but that's unlikely.