I keep my face still. Eyes locked on his.
'This idiot thinks I'm a rookie. Attacking that openly without a plan.'
The instant his leaf-blade deflects Eventide upward and to my left, I twist my torso with everything I have, riding the same direction his deflection pushed me. The attack wasn't an attack.
It was a feint.
I launch into a butterfly twist in the same instant. My body rotates parallel to the ground, my legs sweeping through a horizontal arc, the cape of my own movement carrying me sideways through the space where the counter-thrust was supposed to land.
Cassio's spear passes a hair's width from my cheek and the line of my neck. The leaf-blade kisses my skin and draws out a thin red line under my jaw. I feel the cold of the steel before I feel the cut.
In mid-air, while the rotation is still in motion, I activate Pressure Steps. Three consecutive ignitions. My feet detonate against nothing, redirecting the momentum of the twist into a single point of force.
