The armor's darkness fed her information. She could feel the way Zebelon's weight shifted before he moved. She could sense the arc his sword would take by the tension in his shoulders.
Small things.
Things that a less perceptive fighter would never notice, things that even a Sage might not realize he was telegraphing. But Jeci noticed everything, and she forgot nothing, and every exchange taught her something new about the way this man fought.
The wave-blade carved toward her midsection. She had seen this exact combination before, twenty seconds ago, and she had taken a hit from the follow-up rising cut. This time she didn't block the horizontal sweep. She stepped into his guard, inside the reach of his sword, and drove the butt of her spear into the underside of his jaw.
Zebelon's head snapped back.
It was the first clean hit she'd landed. It was not devastating to a Sage, but it was clean. His teeth cracked together and for a fraction of a second his eyes went unfocused.
