A burst of speed, and the hulking dragon sped through the wall of dust. The cloud parted like a desert before a nuclear blast, but the knight was used to the apocalypse. Only a second, maybe two to react, but at this speed, it was all the time in the world. Daniel of Columbia clenched his teeth and stood his ground, pivoting his stance down and close, bringing his sword close to his body in a one-handed fool's stance. All he had was a sword, a shield, and grit, but he was going to use them to take the kill if he had to rip it right from the dragon's claws. And that was exactly what he was planning to do.

As the wind from his opponent's wings started to batter him, Daniel noticed a thin crescent of bone fly up into the sallow air, the blade spinning in tauntingly slow arc in comparison to the ferocious assault of its master. It was something to watch carefully in this window of movement, but Daniel had bigger problems. Specifically, almost half a ton of red death was hurtling at him, and it made a snarling grab at the lip of the knight's shield. His eyes narrowed behind his visor as he remembered his last opponent trying the same cheap tactic; they never learn. Daniel allowed the dragon to wrap its foul claws against his shield, nice and tight, easy bait easily taken. It seemed to want to shove his tower shield into the dirt, but the distraction would be to no avail. Daniel obviated the setup by simply pivoting into the dragon's charge, throwing all of its focused weight to his left as he turned like a door, and forcing its momentum back against the pillar behind him. With any luck, the exchange would occur faster than the dragon would be able to collect itself and change tactics, considering that the wicked looking blade it was holding with its tail looked so ready to skewer him. No, Daniel intended to let the dragon keep as much momentum as possible when it decided to commit to latching onto his shield; even if he couldn't win a contest of brute strength, Daniel could definitely manage to yank the dragon back if he had the element of surprise. There was no time to think, but muscle memory honed by rad-scorpions, deathclaws, and super mutants moved Daniel like a machine; as the knight spun to allow the dragon to hit the monolith behind him, he made his riposte in the same moment. The knight had been keeping careful stock of the snakelike bite of the third blade in its tail, the cruel razor of bone the dragon had pulled from its spine. It was meant to be a stinger blow to the vitals, but his well timed change in positioning meant that a blade that was intended to spike through his entrails would have ended up clanging harmlessly against the iron monolith instead. 

In that fluid movement of forcing the dragon to impact the wall behind him, Daniel followed up on his attack by sliding his right foot forward and stabbing outward into the dragon's exposed armpit. His sword of course was still in his grip, and in this trade of instants, the Knight of D.C. deftly aimed his own bid to make a shishkebab. As it was, the dragon might have been extended past its center of gravity, ideally with its knuckles pinned right above a packet of itching octanitrocubane. If the lizard had the presence of mind to simply let go of the shield as Daniel made his single move, the initial yank forward would leave it still quite close enough to have a personal meeting with the last foot or so of the sword Manifest. Furthermore, the pivot meant that Daniel was standing within arm's reach of the dragon, facing the dragon's bicep just past the crook of the elbow-- it was an excellent position if the dragon were in the mood for a hug or knew offensive clothesline magic, but not so excellent if it wanted to mount an effective parry to Daniel's sword. The knight had intercepted the complicated series of movements in the time it took for the dragon's discarded sword to drop, and by the time it hit the ground next to the humming iron of the monolith, Daniel would have been watching a dragon bleed for at least three seconds. There would be no last minute jumps this time.