Well - this was unexpected. The axes found purchase around the guard of the sword, and Martin felt the grip sliding out of his hands. At the last possible second, he pressed the button to begin the polearm transformation again, which would, if his opponent didn't catch on, do one of two things: either the guard retracting would pull the axes out of her hands (or just enough to give him a moment to collect himself and consider options, or so he hoped), or would cause the axes to lose their grip and send Saffron stumbling backwards. In doing so, though the extending hilt/haft allowed him to (just barely) keep his grip on his weapon, the accompanying kick from his opponent caught him off guard, and sent him sprawling to the ground. To Martin's dismay, the fire Dust clip chose that moment to eject (as the polearm form had no Dust function, and the clip was spent besides), and dropped on his forehead.
Well, that'll leave a mark come tomorrow, he thought,
as if the rest of this fight wasn't going to do that already... Haven't been this on my toes since Vytal. He told his opponent as much (or at least the last sentence). "
You're giving me a run for my Lien, Saffron. Atlas must have some good teachers." He grinned broadly, and dropped to his hands and knees, assuming a runner's start pose before lunging head-on at Saffron full-bore.
(Aura: 88%[the clip hurt a bit ]
Lunge: If you've read Martin's bio, the fact that I haven't put a % depletion here should be the clue as to what I'm planning, but I'll be messaging Kingnoname1 to clarify a bit, since the result depends on Saffron's perceptiveness)(EDIT: I sent the message I mentioned in the last bit, but I don't know if it didn't go through, or if the site has stopped tracking 'Sent Items' for some reason, or if I'm just being stupid and not clicking something to have a copy saved to my outbox or something...)