Raven's Watch Back when the earth, sun, and stars all aligned

She complained further, calling him stupid (which wasn't wrong), before finally lunging purposefully at him. Revui didn't even try to block her attempt because he did not anticipate much from her; however, she collided face-first with the crux of his neck and shoulder, briefly startling the breath from him.

He felt the pinch of her teeth. A flare of pain — the taste of blood in his own mouth somehow — and then, with a wheeze, he pivoted and pushed off the earth. The momentum forced his shoulder in to her cheek in an effort to overwhelm her jaws; if nothing else there would be strain and she would undoubtedly struggle to get a proper breath, which might distract from her footwork.

He did not fight so much as react much as he had with Astara of the Valley. When the shadow had attacked him out of nowhere, he had grabbed her and thrown her against the dirt wall of Ikkalrok's den and been done with her. This woman, by contrast, appeared much the same to him: a threat out of nowhere, something to toss aside like the vital tissues laying discarded in the mud.