They came at her together.
Serena's first instinct was to retreat. Her feet carried her backward two steps before Thane's instruction caught up to her reflexes and overrode them. She planted her back foot, picked Calder as her target because he was closer, and drove forward.
The move was ugly. The execution was graceless. She stumbled on the transition from retreat to advance and nearly dropped her blade on the pivot.
She also ended up exactly where Thane had described, inside Calder's guard with Thane behind him, and Thane had to pull his swing to avoid hitting his own partner.
"Sloppy," Thane said. "Effective. Do it again."
They reset. She did it again. The second attempt was faster. The third was faster still. By the fifth, Serena was picking her target before the captains had finished their approach, committing to the gap with a lateral burst that put her inside one guard and behind the other before either captain could establish a coordinated angle.
