Natalie Vaughn has another trait: when she encounters someone stronger than herself, she doesn't get intimidated. Instead, she looks for opportunities to spar with them. She enjoys giving her all in a fight and finding a breakthrough for her own progress in the strength disparity.
Xavier Preston is a few weight classes above her and a master in his category. Opportunities to spar with such opponents are rare and precious.
When fighting someone like him, she can only choose to attack actively.
At first, Xavier was adopting a gracious attitude, but Natalie's continuous attacks forced him to retreat defensively; his next step would be out of bounds.
Only then did Xavier start to counterattack.
Natalie's skill level is indeed top-notch among her peers, especially her signature move, the spinning back kick, powerful and sharp. But their weight classes are different, and Natalie clearly sensed that Xavier was only using about sixty percent of his strength.
