Unfortunately for Mordem, the blade was extending from the back of the gauntlet rather than the front, and his sword's progress came to an abrupt halt at Bloodshot's wrist, where it sandwiched itself between the flat of the gauntlet blade and the back of the mercenary's hand. At the instant this happened, Bloodshot twisted his arm and wrist down and back, aiming to disarm the other man of his primary melee weapon. 

On another front, or rather in Mordem's front, the step-crouch forward had brought the man nearly nose-to-metal with Bloodshot's now-retracted staff, and all that would be required to strike him in the face was a simple twist of the wrist. Given the backward force being applied to the man's sword, however, Bloodshot decided to go one better and add a full swing to the blow, to compensate in case the man let Bloodshot's attempt at disarming him pull him backward. If all went well, which it rarely did, the blow would strike Mordem square in the face and that would be the end of it.