<div class="floatleft">(http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj499/MzHyde/Character%20Portraits/Nakaru.jpg)</div><strong>Who:</strong>Shizuru<br/><strong>For:</strong>Henrik, Open<br/><strong>Where:</strong>The Top<br/><br/>"I did not say abandon fear, I said control it. You fail to listen." The demoness' movements were fast, almost too fast to follow. It would take a keen eye to see her summon her sword and draw it. For anyone else, it would look like the blade simply appeared in her hand. With one pair of movements she simultaneously parried his blade with hers and used her foot to step on his scabbard and briefly pin it to the ground. Using the momentum from the parry, she turned and whipped her blade around, striking Henrik in the side of the neck.<br/><br/>A clean decapitation.<br/><br/>Well, it would have been. Between strikes she'd turned her blade, simply hit him with the blunt side of it. What would've likely separated his head from his shoulders simply hit him with enough force to leave a small bruise. It was amazing, the way she'd orchestrated the entire attack. One move had flowed into the next with such grace and precision it was as if she'd practiced in this exact same situation a thousand times. More than likely she had, just on a real battlefield. Experience and skill combined to make Shizuru a formidable opponent. There were cues Henrik could pick up from her style, at least. She obviously relied on instinct and reflex more than thought. As she stepped away, she made a downward flicking motion with her blade, flicking imaginary blood from it before smoothly easing it back into the scabbard. If Henrik knew his martial arts he might recognize the smooth way she'd drawn the sword, struck, and returned it to the scabbard in one movement as Iaido. Perhaps that was her chosen style, or perhaps she simply incorporated it's methods into her way of attack.<br/><br/>"What happens when your opponent is too fast for you to respond properly? Sometimes you have to press the attack. Admitting your shortcomings is one thing, working on them is another. I expect to see you improve quickly." The demoness remarked, "I expect that of all my students, actually. I don't want teaching this class to be a waste of my time."