Crystalle did not in fact speak to him as though they were equals. This was not Crystal but Crystalle, and she did not have the slightest doubt that she was his superior. Confidence was a good trait, though. It was fully obvious to her at this point how things were going to end; How they'd always end. With her standing and her opponent lying flat on his back. She did not fear Shin for she had no reason to.

As the beast moved forward, she brandished her blade like an oversized kitchen knife. Glowing crimson lines like circuitry etched into its face and split along them into eight more copies, each possessed by the sword spirit. As Shin would launch his assault Crystalle would level her primary weapon at her side as though preparing to unsheathe it. Violet eyes met Shin's for a brief moment. Simultaneously, her sister blades would orbit her in reactive and uneven rotations, meeting the spires tip-first in a shower of sparks to intercept them. If they rapidly changed direction, the blades would follow suit and appropriate their trajectory. It would make for quite a hellish scene.

Meanwhile,  Crystalle would focus on taking the path of least resistance to her target; the straight line. In her iado stance, she would disappear like a lost memory, and then reappear just a fraction of a second later a little past his left side in that exact same position. In that short time, she would have 'unsheathed' her blade, bisected him at the waist, and returned it to its resting place all in a single, masterfully executed motion. Ishtalle would be honed to chop through his defense as well, honed specifically for this weapon through repeated blows. Throughout her entire flight, whatever flechettes he could send at her would be met by her Blade Barrier, which now orbited her waist to become a Blade Skirt.

It was a novel technique she'd invented called the [i]slide step[/i].  By creating a thin, solid panel of air beneath her feet and manipulating the current, she had invented a true, much cheaper version of [b]super speed[/b]. It had the benefit of being abominably fast, even moreso now that she was unchained by her mortal coil. Shin had also closed the gap between them, so the short distance would be travelled even quicker. The room for response was incredibly limited.

Would her uses of air ever end!?