D’Angelo could see that his words were having no outward effect on Jahar, which was a pity. The words, while filled with heat had truth in them as far as he was concerned. Yet, he knew that his truth would not be Jahars truth. 

When Jahar’s claw came up and intercepted Kardia, twisting to lock it in place one of D’Angelos questions had been answered. Yes, enchanted weapons could stand up to the superiority of adamantine. He silently cursed magic for making things an even play ground, without that enhancement he likely would of carved straight through the claw and into his opponents hand. He knew It was a double standared.

Jahar had been partially right when he compared D’Angelo to an assassin. The man had trained extensively in the same weapon-set and skills as most classically trained assassins. He watched for the small tells a body gave. It was more than the rudimentary watching swordsmen did as far as body position, hand and foot placement; it was the shifting of the eyes, twitching of the nose and perspiration that almost always occurred.  He watched so that he did not fall prey to his own style of combat, one filled with deception and tricks.

Of course, such a skill was far from full proof and could be tricked or countered. One way D’Angelo made up for that was by wearing a small bracelet around his left ankle, hidden inside his boot. That bracelet held seven out of eight possible charms, one of which vibrated with the use of magic within a hundred feet of him. It was not perfect, but in close combat situations such as this it had often proved the difference between life and death.

With his body square to his opponents D’Angelo knew he presented a large target to be struck at, all of the classical points on the body were ripe to be aimed at.  Yet, it appeared that Jahar chose to attempt to hack his arm off below the shoulder. D’Angelo shifted his stance, stepping further to the right with his right foot and bringing his left quickly in line after that. Because his long sword was locked in place he had to turn his body to more of a fencer’s stance, only presenting his right side to Jahar.

The step would take him out of the Khopesh’s path so that it never neared his torso or head. His short sword was snapped out and down to block any follow up strike if Jahar attempted to reverse the downward motion with his one handed grip and swing it up, or level it off to a larger broader horizontal strike.

If Jahar still decided to unleash his blast of pure light then he would find D’Angelos left hand retracting from it and his head turning to the side, eyes closing as his opponent. It wasn’t a fear of being blinded, but rather an attempt to get away from what D’Angelo assumed would be a weapon erupting in a sheet of flame. 

The result of the weapons blinding flash would be that the left side of D’Angelos face  would be a bright red, as if sunburned, the rest of his body was protected by clothing. However, the blinding flash, while disorienting, would be mostly avoided by D’Angelos preemptive actions. He had the charm on his left ankle to thank for the briefest of warnings as well as his opponents tell-tale sign to avoid his own attack. 

Either way there would be no counter attack from D’Angelo.