Ruchette held back a smile as blood burst out of his gaping wound, but despite taking what should have been instantly fatal damage, it was apparently anything but when he managed to land on his feet rather than crumble down into a rolling heap of worthless flesh that would have been the desired outcome. She missed his heart from this range? This guy was good to force such a miss as a result of her rushing her shot by dodging and attacking at once to beat him to the punch. She had thought he had drawn close enough to negate this problem, but apparently that was not the case, and it put her in quite the predicament. To think that she has subconsciously underestimated someone yet again and not gone for a different, safer approach like she knew she should.

Having faith in her ability to take him out quickly like most enemies before, she didn't have as good of a follow-up plan should she fail in her attack. The sword stabilizing herself from falling over was useless where it was, and even with the sword able to move upwards as if it was a part of her own body, it was still just as limited in speed, so could not go shooting upwards fast enough unless she had charged it up like the previous shot (although even then it would shoot up too fast to reliably block). In hindsight, it would have been best to create a weapon or shield in her left hand to begin with, but of course now was not the time in the slightest to mull over such details. She only had a split second to react instinctively, her eyes widening at this sudden change of fortune.

She let herself continue her dodge from the ball, only now accelerated into a freefall backwards as her sword slide out of the small cut it had made in the dirt. Her opponent's blade slit the skin of her neck open, spraying blood across it but not cutting deep enough to hit the major blood vessels that had been his intended target. Her back hit the dirt with a thud a second later. Her right arm began to swing her blade as quickly as possible to take out his left leg right below the kneecap.