Snippet #1473944

Talae knew right off the bat that attempting to win a contest of strength would be completely pointless, but she was no so familiar with this sort of combat that the answer to the problem was immediately evident, and she had to think through it rather than reacting on instinct. "I suppose," she answered Caine's question in a deadpan, "I'm going to disengage and try to hit you from behind." She was still an assassin, after all, and flanking people was the best way to go about killing them without getting cut to ribbons.

She leaped sideways, disengaging as suddenly as possible, which would hopefully have more of an effect on his balance than simply easing away. The slight scrape of steel on steel echoed in their clearing, but she scarcely took note of it, trying to focus only on what mattered. Her maneuver put her in a fairly good position, all things considered, and she took the perhaps too-obvious opening at his back, realizing only after she had committed to the swing that it would probably be apparent to him that she would do that. And predictability meant that there was probably some way around it.

Of course, it didn't help that she'd definitely just told him what she was going to do, but that particular piece of idiocy was forgiven by the fact that this was instructional in nature and she also didn't actually want to kill him or anything. Right, just keep telling yourself that, Talae. she resisted the urge to roll her eyes at herself only because it wasn't exactly an appropriate time to lose sight of her opponent.

Still, she couldn't well try to stop her momentum now; not only did she risk wrenching something in her arms, but it would make her position that mus more vulnerable. Instead, she shifted to the balls of her feet and adjusted her footing slightly- when the counter came, she'd be ready to deal with it in as many different was as possible. Options were always good.