He was faster than he had once been, before he had grown accustomed to the starlight in his blood and bones. He no longer struggled against a body remade and new to him, slowing his reactions and leaving him uncharacteristically frail. Now he moved with a smooth confidence, shifting his height and muscular bulk with a ponderous grace that was surprisingly swift when the occasion called for it.
Too swift, sometimes.
Again he fell for Flora's feint, pulling the trident free of the send with a flex of his arms and spinning it to block the thrown dagger that he saw leave her fingers. But the blade did not slice towards him as he expected; instead she recovered it and dodged past him. Instead of a slice of red fire along his side or arm, however, he felt a playful tweak of his braid and a rumbling laugh escaped his iron focus as he turned to face her, dropping a hand from his trident to hold it up in surrender. Now, at last, the feathered armour regained its full shine, but he deactivated it with a thought and it retracted into the bangle on his bicep once more.
"Enough. I yield." He closed his eyes in a brief prayer to Safrin, activating his dome of healing so that it washed over them both before he regarded the Doubletake again with quiet approval. "You have been practicing."
Too swift, sometimes.
Again he fell for Flora's feint, pulling the trident free of the send with a flex of his arms and spinning it to block the thrown dagger that he saw leave her fingers. But the blade did not slice towards him as he expected; instead she recovered it and dodged past him. Instead of a slice of red fire along his side or arm, however, he felt a playful tweak of his braid and a rumbling laugh escaped his iron focus as he turned to face her, dropping a hand from his trident to hold it up in surrender. Now, at last, the feathered armour regained its full shine, but he deactivated it with a thought and it retracted into the bangle on his bicep once more.
"Enough. I yield." He closed his eyes in a brief prayer to Safrin, activating his dome of healing so that it washed over them both before he regarded the Doubletake again with quiet approval. "You have been practicing."
