The demon was reading him.
Not immediately. The first several exchanges had not given the demon enough information to read him clearly, the pace of the engagement limiting the time available for assessment. But Aurog's style was not complex, and complex was not what made it work — what made it work was pressure and speed and the specific quality of physical commitment that did not give an opponent's analysis time to express itself as advantage.
Against Grade Three, the analysis had time.
One of the students watching, a Year Four who had been in Aurog's supplementary combat class for a semester, saw it before anyone else did. The demon's posture shifting slightly, the weight distribution changing between exchanges in the specific way of something that had identified a pattern and was positioning to use it.
She watched.
Could not do anything with the watching except watch.
