Heron Lake Plateau punch drunk

They were evenly matched in skill and personality, not that he'd admit that any girl was his equal except for, maybe, Niamh; but his attitude was much the same. Ambrose thought he was tough shit. He knew he had skills and he knew he had been the cream of the crop at one point in his life. That carried through to this moment, where he was sparring with some random girl and believed himself to be outsmarting her. Yes, he was quick-thinking, he was tactical, but so was she. 

And when she rose up to counter his efforts with a drastic movement of her own, he was actually surprised. His reaction was slowed by his surprise long enough for Fire to connect — clobbering against his chest and making him lose a step or two. It took a moment for him to recover from and by that point she had the upper hand, a fact that was glaringly obvious when he tried to retaliate with the same close-up maneuvers as he had been using before.