A lot of people would have been surprised at how much thought Mikoto put into her fighting - at least, so long as they didn't define 'thought' strictly as a verbalised analysis.
So, though she didn't precisely think, 'Between his injured arm and the design of that sword, Yuuichi won't be able to apply his full strength the way I can with Miroku. That should just about balance the fact that he's so much bigger than I am, just like the lighter, faster sword will work to balance my greater reach. The way he pulled it out of nowhere - and that flare of light and energy - mean that the thing has to be an Element, which would suggest a good chance that he has a Child bonded. Miroku could defeat it, likely, but the area might get wrecked and Kenta's still here,' all of those factors and many more were present and active in her awareness as she dived away and rolled back upright with sword in hand.
He had followed, closely, and she brought the blade up and around from the ground to take him in half from the side - without real effect, since he aborted his thrust to angle his own sword to deflect Miroku up and over, then stepped in even closer and ducked under it as she tried to recover. She dropped the hilt and pushed to her left, rotating Miroku around its center of mass into an agressive parry of the full-arm cut Yuuichi aimed at her neck in that narrow window, but had to throw herself back out of his reach to avoid it when he turned the rebound from the clash into a quick, sweeping cut that pivoted back around his wrist and back up from the other side.
The momentum of that motion made it easy to bring her own massive sword back and around and down in a sweeping cut that would have hammered aside any defense he could have made. Despite his obvious inexperience, though, he hadn't taken the bait of her momentarily-turned back, and skipped out of the way then surged back in as the sword went by, with his own blade stretching out before him, point in line with her throat. The posture was badly open - a simple shift in her footing and balance would have had Miroku positioned at the start of a cut nearly as devestating as the one she'd just finished - but inertia would have let him finish his own strike even if she counterattacked, and both of them knew that she couldn't afford to take that risk.
She caught it on the cross - bad form, and usually risky, but effective - and twisted the seeking edge out and safely away. That had turned her edge away from him, and he braced his bad arm against the flat of the blade to keep it that way as, rather than disengaging, he pressed on even harder. Since he did it by placing his forearm rather than his palm, most of the strength in the motion came from his elbow - which had been much less badly damaged - and shoulder - which had been completely untouched - and both had much of his body mass behind them. She shifted her upper hand higher, bracing it against the other side of the sword to spread the impact better, and then his sword's basket crashed against Miroku's guard.
All of the HiME were stronger than girls of their age and size should have been, although most of them rarely had cause to notice it. Whatever had happened, had been done to Yuuichi to let him manifest an Element, though, had given him the same boost, and he was quite literally twice her size and had all his running mass behind him. Even braced and ready she was knocked staggering, and he ducked easily under her desperate, off balance swipe to press his own attack home.
Between the pain and the second counterattack she had to launch to keep him from following up, her balance was just about doomed from the start, and she fell, most ingloriously, flat on her ass. Yuuichi recovered and stepped towards her, then went to his knees as Kenta broke a two-inch-thick branch over his head. He still managed to dodge out of the way of the improvised weapon's second swing, but there was blood running down his scalp and, as he raised his free hand as though to hold his temple in pain, he was visibly weaving on his feet.
"Fuck," he hissed, then turned and ran.
Whee! Action scenes!
Next time, well, wait and see. ^_^ Safe to say that it won't answer all your questions, though.
Just a few.
Ja, -n
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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"