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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 2 of 2))
It was an obvious strike, far more obvious and flashy than Hector remembered her attacks being. She probably intended for him to block it, as a kind of warning attack.

So he did. A suit of iron armor clapped around his whole body instantaneously, and he caught the blow with Haqq's shield.

"See?" she said. "I'm holding back. I didn't coat my blade in my shadow."

She wasn't aware of the properties of Haqq's shield and probably thought it would be as easy for her shadow to cut through as his iron was.

Hector didn't feel like correcting her.

Lynn pulled her sword back and relaxed a little. "Nice armor, though. You couldn't make that so quickly before, could you?"

"Er. Yeah. Listen, just--hold out your shadow for a bit. Away from your body."

"Like this?" Lynn launched a long string of purple out from her hand and let it hover there.

Hector "loaded" up an iron bullet in a parallel thought process. "Yeah, that'll--"

Her shadow twitched and leapt toward him at a right angle.

He stepped out of the way, having expected her to try something again. The shadow bent in midair and tried to skewer him another time, but it splashed against his shield.

Lynn had gotten behind him. "Don't you think this scarf of yours is a liability? I could just grab it, you know."

Thanks to said Scarf, however, Hector had sensed her there beforehand. He'd been able to tell from her movements and posture that she wasn't trying to attack him, so he hadn't done anything to repel her, instead wanting to know what her intentions were. It seemed like she'd just wanted to spook him, though.

He didn't turn around to face her. "Do you really want to spar?" he said through the metallic tinge of his helmet. "Or do you just wanna keep trying to sucker punch me?"

"Heh, I'm just testing your reactions. You don't think our enemies will take it so easy on you, do you? It's important to keep your guard up, Hector."

Ugh, she was reminding him of Zeff all of a sudden.