Baldwin did the correct thing, which was to hit the new arrival immediately and hard, before it settled — and he came at her with the same strike that had been throwing Ronan around the field like furniture.
Alice caught it on a blade of red-gold light that formed in her hand as she raised it.
She did not move backward. Her heels stayed where they were, the mud under them cracked outward in a short ring, and Baldwin's sword stopped dead against the light.
Behind her, Finn stood up out of his crouch.
Ronan said, "*Oh.*"
Alice answered.
The counter came with her whole wingspan behind it and took Baldwin off his feet and three meters through the air into the churned ground.
He came up fast. He was still Baldwin, and he was still wrapped in something out of the earth beneath Caerleon, and he came at her again with everything the red light gave him.
She stayed on him.
