The Anti-social (Ame)

"Not bad! Hanako thought when Amon first blocked and then decided to deflect her blow. It was the right decision, she would have done the same. Simy blocking outright could have worked, too, but to overpower an opponent required raw strength. You had to know you were able to pull that off. Since Amon and Hanako had never had the chance to go against each other like this yet, he had no way of knowing and deflecting the blow was the smart thing to do. And he had done it. A wild spark of joy appeared in Hanako's chest: this promised to be good fun.

The momentum of her own blow pulled on Hanako and attempted to carry her forward. She could have stopped with sheer power, but she let it happen instead to see what Amon wanted to do.

While her upper body bent slightly forward his knee came up. He let her run right into it.
Hanako exerted some of her spiritual pressure to harden her body against the blow. When it hit she used the momentum from it to turn her hip and make a quick rotating step out of Amon's center line. A good move. As it turned out, because already one of Amon's hands was thrusting upwards for what could have been a painful jap against her throat, had she not evaded.
She extended her step with another full step and then a gliding step, to get farther away from his center and more into his back. She saw his sword move, but wasn't in any danger anymore.

She took her left hand from her sword and jabbed forward with the palm of her hand to hit Amon in his back. It would maybe hurt und make him stumble a bit, but wouldn't do any serious damage. Immediately after she flash stepped a short distance away from him.

"Good, you move quickly and you have the right instincts. But that was too much. You tried to do too much and left yourself open."

She said. It was just a simple observation, emotionless, except maybe the joy over the sport and art of fighting.

"There were two basic rules I had to learn the hard way myself: Don't make any unnecessary moves and always keep the front center of your body towards the opponent. Of course especially the latter gets a bit tricky against multiple opponents, but you get what I want to say, I hope."

Hanako started to move again. Her sword was in both hands again, in front of her body, the tip at approximately the height Amon's throat would be. With quick, short and controlled steps she moved in ob Amon in a slightly diagonal line. When she came close she dropped the sword down and to her left, as if she planned a diagonal cut from her lower right to upper left. It was a traditional sparring invitation, leaving herself purposefully open. Amon probably would see through it, but that would be okay. After all, it was a sparring match.