The girl is tenacious, which is good, that is what he needs of his soldiers. Regardless of who or what they are facing they must bear their fangs towards them. Even if his soldiers limbs are shattered they should still seek to use their teeth to tear out the throat of their enemy. Despite her youth and rank she represents his ideal, which is no surprise since he has been personally training and raising her. While her age and rank mean nothing in battle her experience and wisdom do and right now that is being laid bare.
Hurdling towards Taro she slashes away at the smoke and wind barreling towards him like a bladed comet that won't leave an impact crater but instead leave the area gouged with deep cuts. However, when she sees the ground at last, where she expects there to be puddles there are none because the water she had been spreading was sent high into the sky upon activation of the spell. Taro purposely swept his hand low to the ground, performing a sort of “uppercut” with the spell as it was spinning up to sweep up the liquid from the ground and send it into the sky. She was never the target of the spell, further more, the red smoke only served as a distraction from this, to hide his true intent.
(大地転踊, Upturned Earth Dance; Viz "Ground Swell Dance")
Relinquishing his hold on Tenran his focus shifts to the same object he targeted initially, her water from the start of this fight and the new water she had been trying to spread by wildly swinging her blade with Senmaioroshi. He leaves it suspended in the air, not allowing it to reach the ground, but this does allow her to reach him faster with her flurry of sword strikes. The grip on his blade isn’t tightened in the moments leading up to their clash. The blade tilts back in his hand as he begins to raise in the fleeting seconds until sparks fly at last.
Unfortunately at this point he can no longer halt any more of the liquid flying from her blade but he has drastically reduced the amount she has to work with at the moment. He meets her blade strikes with a Senmaioroshi of his own. The wild look on his face is still there but his movements say otherwise, each strike is precise and focused. He does not seek to overwhelm her with strength alone but he is seeking another objective in this exchange. He deflects her blade, forcing her into a dance of swords, one wrong step and she might find herself cut to ribbons.
Relinquishing his hold on Tenran his focus shifts to the same object he targeted initially, her water from the start of this fight and the new water she had been trying to spread by wildly swinging her blade with Senmaioroshi. He leaves it suspended in the air, not allowing it to reach the ground, but this does allow her to reach him faster with her flurry of sword strikes. The grip on his blade isn’t tightened in the moments leading up to their clash. The blade tilts back in his hand as he begins to raise in the fleeting seconds until sparks fly at last.
Unfortunately at this point he can no longer halt any more of the liquid flying from her blade but he has drastically reduced the amount she has to work with at the moment. He meets her blade strikes with a Senmaioroshi of his own. The wild look on his face is still there but his movements say otherwise, each strike is precise and focused. He does not seek to overwhelm her with strength alone but he is seeking another objective in this exchange. He deflects her blade, forcing her into a dance of swords, one wrong step and she might find herself cut to ribbons.