pyr min solemnly swears he is up to no good (twinclaws) wrote in emillion,
Pyr didn't miss the way she kept an eye on him as she nodded. Such a thing was considered rude, and for Juliette to be intentionally rude... The previous week's spar must have still been on her mind. Did she think he would attack her mid-bow if she averted her gaze? Pyr may believe in taking an unconventional approach to sparring, but attacking in the middle of the salute was just low. Still, it was amusing, and it gave him an idea. If she was so ready to believe he'd pull any trick, it would be easy to let her believe what she wanted to believe and mislead her.
Juliette gave him no time to plan, though. As soon as her perfunctory salute was over, she launched into a flurry of kicks and punches no doubt meant to put him down before he had a chance to do anything. He recognized some of the combinations from the books about hand-to-hand combat his mentors back home had forced him to read. Her attack was so standard it was boring. She got a couple of glancing blows in, but the force behind them wasn't enough to throw him off balance. He dodged all the rest.
If she was going by the book, there would be a few places she would not target: hitting the head, for example, was discouraged in sparring, to avoid any serious injuries. Knowing this, when she launched her next kick aimed at his chest, he bent his knees to get in under the kick, at the right height to give the illusion that she would hit his head. Her eyes widened, seeing this, and she tried to pull her kick before it connected. He could have stepped out of the way of her foot, but the fact that she'd tried to stop herself gave her credit. Pyr almost felt sorry for using that chance to knock her off-balance and take back the initiative. Almost.