Blithe was not in the mind to let Gunnaya retreat easily, pursuing Gunnaya's steps backwards as quickly as she could, though Gunnaya did make some headway backwards, until Gunnaya planted herself to strike. A full bodied blow required wind up in body and weapon. Blithe noticed the tell tale signs and lunged forward, already having forward momentum from her pursuit, shield first. If Gunnaya were to retreat and maintain distance, her body weight would no longer be behind the swing. If Gunnaya stood her ground, the shield would catch the staff before the swing was complete, preventing the leverage of the haft from working to her advantage and making it a straight contest of weight and strength.

Of course, because Blithe was lunging shield first while in an already defensive stance, this left her weapon to far out of position to do anything in this particular exchange. Hoping to switch to a more aggressive stance and launch more lethal minded attacks, after the lunge, presuming all went well, Blithe, brought her right foot forward, switching to a more neutral body stance, rather than her previous defensive one, while Gunnaya's staff was on the shield size.