I always wonder if there's some kind of benefit from that one hit after the parry but before doing the heavy. I never do it and I go straight to the heavy after parrying. I see a few youtubers do that and I wonder if there's some hidden benefit that I'm missing.
least hits is 6 by domino and so is fastest time. If you want least hits, turn on suicides and use parries at the start. My R4 colossus has done this fight in 26 hits