"Oh, so you don't dodge attacks?" Shooting said, her eyes glinting with a sharp, dangerous curiosity. "Well, that certainly makes things interesting."
She didn't give Darno a second to breathe. Pulling her wooden sword back, she unleashed a flurry of rapid-fire thrusts, the tip of the bokken becoming a blurred needle of cedar aimed directly at his vitals. Darno's expression tightened as he shifted into a purely reactive state. He couldn't afford to be sloppy; he had to focus every ounce of his concentration on slapping the strikes away at the exact millisecond of impact, knocking them off their trajectory just enough to save his skin.
He couldn't afford to swing his heavy arms too widely; if he overcommitted to a parry, he wouldn't be able to pull his guard back in time to catch the next lightning-fast jab. His opponent was a master of speed and precision, and she was exploiting his stationary stance with ruthless efficiency.
