[i]I never wanted it[/i] is the first verse of the song of swords. The Countess is more than good enough to tell. Chen's too defensive, her very first move is to use her stance to block and roll backwards, gaining distance, putting the next move on the Countess again. It's not a bad move, it's skilled and its fast. 

Though, if we may make an aside from the dance, that first move isn't as fast as you might have thought, Yue. You might have been taken by surprise and gone "why does everyone have more reach than me?!" while getting hit, but Chen's dodge wasn't so quick that you missed what happened. You could see the Naginata, and Chen's move is a single clean parry going downward and out from the center of her body to put her weight into it, followed by using the force of the blow to roll and re-center further away. In fact, if you think about that later, you might even realize that if Chen tried to parry that huge Naginata with just her arm strength, she wouldn't have been able to do it, which is why she had to be able to put her legs and waist into the movement. 

But back to the duel. The Countess would know immediately that Chen's heart isn't in the victory because if Chen had wanted to win, she'd have moved forward on a parry like that. She has by far the shorter reach and should not have given up that sort of opportunity, but instead she's opened herself to follow up strikes without being able to retaliate. 

When the duel whirls back to her, she dodges without the parry this time, judging the measure of the timing, eyes always on the Naginata. Her response is [i]yes I can be faster[/i] and it's asking Keron to press her, by saying that no single blow will catch her, not when she's balanced and ready. 

Then there is a series of blows, each thundering through the stadium. Chen takes a step back, and uses that momentum to whirl into a parry with the force of her motion, and then ducks under a horizontal strike using her height to her advantage. And here Chen is smiling again. She's smiling a feral smile, with hungry teeth and a light in her eyes. A smile that's just for the Countess.

[i]I never wanted to win, but I want you to see me[/i] The naginata thrusts forward. [i]I want you to see me and know that I see you and that we're both good enough to do something beautiful together.[/i] Chen doesn't move, there's no sidestep or backstep this time, and her hand isn't moving at all, the sword is perfectly still. [i]I want you to know, for just an instant, that if I could find a way to give this everything I have, everything in the whole wide world, that I could be transcendent...[/i]

In a movement that is too fast to see, Chen steps on the blade. She wasn't even looking at the naginata, her eyes were on the Countess' hands the whole time. This is a savant's move, possible only at the last instant, utterly stupid if done wrong. But it's not wrong and her laced up boot slams the naginata to the ground and suddenly Chen is sprinting up the shaft of the Countess' own weapon, crystal sword gleaming in the sunlight.  

And this is where she might have landed a decisive blow but [i]...but I can't give this everything I have. I don't know how. Help me![/i] 

She hesitates. Even as she's running up the shaft of her opponent's weapon with a mixture of pure training and the sort of natural magic that animates the best masters of the sword to superhuman levels, she hesitates. Even as the audience gasps, she hesitates. Because she doesn't know what sort of blow she wants to land. She doesn't remember how to go all out, she doesn't want to defeat the Countess here. And a move like this delivered with anything less than perfect precision opens the practitioner up to a devastating counter-attack. It's only a  question of how the Countess wants to take advantage of her. 

[I rolled a fight here, but the dice result was a 3, so no amount of boosts would help. +1 XP]