Solenne moved her feet.
That was new.
Arthur didn't let himself think about it. He closed the distance fast, driving low, and threw a combination at her center, left, right, left, with a force behind each strike that hadn't existed thirty seconds ago. The Retrograde pulse hammered through him in clean cycles. Flex. Release. Flex. His skin ran hot. The frost ring beneath his boots widened.
She blocked the first two. Not parried. Blocked. Her forearms took the hits and he felt the impact register through his knuckles and kept going.
The third punch pushed her back a step.
One step. But it was a step.
'There it is,' Vexis said.
Arthur came in again immediately. No pause, no reset, just pressure. She angled left and he followed, cutting off the angle, forcing her to absorb another combination rather than redirect it. She took it across the guard and her heel dragged back through the frost for half a meter before she arrested the momentum.
She looked at him differently after that.
