He grinned. She'd made the error he was hoping she'd make. Now he just had to hold out before she pinked him.
He kept up on the offensive, launching ripostes and thrusts as often as he could, to force her to tire crossing blades with him or in trying to get out of the way. But as she was surprisingly quick he didn't get to launch as many of those as he might have liked.
So he changed things up. When he crossed blades with her - and he did at every opportunity - he used his superior strength to beat her blade aside, to force her to have to pull her blade back in line before launching her next attack.