Tom grunted as the knee caught him in the chest, its momentum carrying him instantly skyward. A blow like that wouldn't even have slowed down upon striking a normal human, leaving their upper body splayed across the landscape as the assailant continued by. For Tom, it was exceedingly uncomfortable, but little more than that. Most of the force of the strike was transferred through his body and directly into upward and backward momentum, rather than rebounding throughout his chest cavity where it would cause the most damage. Regardless, the effect was that which his opponent intended, and both participants found themselves in the air as the boy prepared to unleash his second attack.

It was at this point that things would cease to progress as expected, owing to the fact that once he was airborne, Tom took control of his own trajectory, raising his left arm to block the impending attack and locking himself in place just as the overhead blow crashed down on him. If his suspicions were correct, the boy had no innate control over his own inertia, not like Tom himself did, at any rate, which meant that all he needed to do to turn the attack on its head was block it and not move. The boy's own strength would be turned against him as his vastly enhanced muscles encountered a force they could not immediately move, then went for the next best thing and launched his own comparatively paltry weight skyward at incredible speeds. 

Tom would watch with a small smile as the boy was reduced to a tiny speck in the sky. "See what being reckless gets you?" There was no way the boy would be able to hear him, as high as he was, but Tom went ahead and spoke anyway. When gravity finally took a secure hold on him and he began to plummet once again, Tom would maneuver himself to the point where he would impact and take a position a dozen meters above the impact point, readying his staff like a baseball bat. When the boy came in range he would take a mighty swing, twice the speed and force of his previous one, aimed at his opponent's center mass. Should he find some way to alter his trajectory on the way down, Tom would simply re-position himself to the new touchdown location and continue his attack as planned, though if it turned out the boy could fly he would have to scrap the whole thing.