Charlie's heightened demi-titan senses saw the Egyptian's attempt to unbalance him with his staff, but he had sparred against both spear and staff wielding opponents before and understood their methods of offense. when the Egyptian tried to strike at him from behind, Charlie gripped the central part of his blade and used a half-sword technique to block the blow and kicked the Egyptian right in the chest. he then aimed a thrust at the boy's chest. one of the tenets of the Atlas style was the concept of defending and counterattacking immediately to catch his opponents of guard.