Malkor had saw the silhouette of the gargoyle roll out to the side of the swing as he brought the blade down,but the  force of the strike had caused a huge plume of dust and sand to kick up and make visibility close to zero. The orc brought up his blade when he saw glint of steel fly out of the area where the creature's shadow was seen. It was aimed at his lower left shoulder and he had shifted his body angle so the the knife would deflect off it useless on the ground. Had Malkor had not have experience with projectile fighters, he would have been too slow to react and the knife would have severed the leather strap that attached his shoulder piece and his chest plate. Malkor has learned though that to avoid serious injuries from projectiles, he needed to learn to move as little as possible and as precisely as possible so that the projectile either bounced off of missed, and over the years in the furnace he did just that.<br/><br/>The orc had closed his eyes, he heard the roars of the crowd and two sudden cries of despair, but he did not care, he was killer right now, and he needed to act like one. He tuned out the roars and cries of the crowd and focused on hearing the sound of shifting sand or flapping wings, to anticipate where the gargoyle would come from next. He would tighten the grip on his blade as he heard something, he turned to face the direction of the sound, straining his ears to detect the slightest sound of movement. He stopped turning, he seemed to be a statue, not moving, not even visibly breathing. His eyes suddenly opened as he suddenly turned and brought the blade down in a right to left diagonal slash, from where he had heard the sound of the gargoyle.