[ She staggers back as he drops her ankle to regain her balance. A special brand of humiliation turns her face hot—he's messing with her, and truthfully, she should have known he had that in him; she's seen Ward fight. But it needles her all the same because this isn't what she'd hoped she'd get out of him, this isn't stress relief, it's causing it.
But only because she's allowing it to. Begrudgingly, she allows herself to privately admit that he has a point about her unchecked anger blinding her, about her letting it get ahead of her in what should otherwise be a controlled sparring match with a concerted goal of some form of release (not, she's sure, the kind he's hoped for).
Although she takes a subtle, deep breath before coming at him again, leveling herself off and tempering that anger (though not subduing it entirely, she hasn't mastered that), she doesn't stop in her insistence for a real fight or at the very least a real sparring match. There's too much instruction in the way he tries to bait her into a passive show of her abilities, too much coaching, and she won't allow him that.
Instead, she comes at him with a kick to the outer side of his knee (atk 25, dmg 4) and follows it with a punch that whiffs past him because she expects him to have fallen from the kick but she's not able to take his leg out from under him effectively (atk 13). She course corrects, and her right fist comes up to catch him in the chin (atk nat 20, 24 total, dmg 8). ]
no subject
But only because she's allowing it to. Begrudgingly, she allows herself to privately admit that he has a point about her unchecked anger blinding her, about her letting it get ahead of her in what should otherwise be a controlled sparring match with a concerted goal of some form of release (not, she's sure, the kind he's hoped for).
Although she takes a subtle, deep breath before coming at him again, leveling herself off and tempering that anger (though not subduing it entirely, she hasn't mastered that), she doesn't stop in her insistence for a real fight or at the very least a real sparring match. There's too much instruction in the way he tries to bait her into a passive show of her abilities, too much coaching, and she won't allow him that.
Instead, she comes at him with a kick to the outer side of his knee (atk 25, dmg 4) and follows it with a punch that whiffs past him because she expects him to have fallen from the kick but she's not able to take his leg out from under him effectively (atk 13). She course corrects, and her right fist comes up to catch him in the chin (atk nat 20, 24 total, dmg 8). ]