"You really need God here. Maybe he mad you killed him? But that was long ago. I will talk to him. ...I say good, I do not want a broken arm."

Nicole raises an eyebrow. "I personally do not recall killing God, but I will look forwards to you talking to him for us. Want to try hitting me with that sword again?"

There's something weird going on but Gabriel is probably going to figure it out, or has already and is just waiting for a good time to explain, and Nicole thinks Iomedae will be best served right now by less talking and more swordfighting. Nicole is accustomed to doing a great deal of observing before talking, deferring politely before figuring out what to push back on, and pushing to focus on the topic at hand; that's how she survives being a human ambassador to the stranger parts of the fae, and it's also pretty useful for navigating email lists and making committee meetings take less than seven hours.

She makes a small beckoning gesture with her sword. 

Yes she wants to try hitting her with her sword again!! As many more times again as she can get away with!

" - well, she's happy, and she's making friends."

"I don't like your coworker. Is he - married, does he have kids, how'd he end up being a sports coach -"

"I don't think he's married, but I've known him for years, really nice guy."

"Mmm."

When Iomedae swings at her, Nicole nudges the sword away and jabs a thrust out just to keep her at a distance.

Distance is nice. Intuitively it might not seem like distance is her friend, since Iomedae on her feet outranges Nicole on her knees, but it's easy to block a swing at max range; the attacks are telegraphed and the very tip of the sword is relatively easy to redirect. Nicole is having a nice sit-down rest while she bats away Iomedae's swings, and could happily do so all day.

Once Iomedae realises this is fruitless and actually steps in for a more forceful attack, Nicole will immediately lunge to catch her on the hip on the way in. She stays low, so that it's difficult for Iomedae to actually drop her hand down far enough to do a normal straight block. 

That feels like a glancing blow but now Iomedae's much less sure how to call things. Maybe it would've caught her soul where it's closer to the skin and there'd be lethal blood loss. "...not sure."

"It's good to say if you're not sure! I hit you a little light there, too. If you say light, it's giving me permission to hit you harder, and if you say good, it isn't. It's a hard shot for me to get power on from here - see how hard this is for my hips to engage on?"

She shows Iomedae the body mechanic of the shot, which requires her crossing her arm over her body and snapping it out to catch Iomedae's sword side. It looks tricky to execute without the ability to step and crunch into it; Nicole does it partly with hand speed. 

"You should not - not hit me hard to be nice? Not learn that way. I think...light."

"Okay, light, I agree."

Nicole doesn't think people learn any faster from being bruised to hell and back. If she's showing someone where she saw an opening, that lesson can be taught just as well with a pointer finger or a feather as it can be with a murder. But she recognises that there's people who need a little pain to drive the point home. 

She sits back on her heels and takes a high guard again. "When you're ready." 

"If was really trying to kill you and you no move but great man at sword, I step away and -" she mimics firing a bow. 

However that is clearly not the point of the exercise so they can keep swording.

"Really? And are you keeping the bow in your pocket, or perhaps tucked inside your breastplate?" 

"In car with legs."

"A.... car? With legs?"

Nicole points to one of the cars in the parking lot with her sword point. "Like.... that kind of car?" 

"No, that has wheels. With legs....legs?" she gestures at her own.

"A.... horse? You mean -" Nicole makes a pretty good impression of a neigh. 

"Yes!!!"

"Well, alright, yes. If you have a horse and a bow and arrow and I can't move, the best thing you can do is go get your bow and shoot me. Though I might crawl away and escape while you're not looking. If you're in a big battlefield and you hit someone in the leg, often the best thing to do is to leave them and go kill someone else who's more of a threat, and come back later with more friends to finish them off. In a tournament, though, you should try to kill me with your sword, because we're trying to decide who wins the tournament."

Yes, all right, she'll get back to trying that. It is a very quick way to learn where your mistakes are, in any event.

Nicole is happy to show Iomedae various mistakes she is making! That attack was at long enough range that Nicole only really had to lean back out of it to make sure it'd glance off her, that one was telegraphed by Iomedae looking at the place she wanted to hit, that one was just a little slow... that one was almost very nice but Nicole is very experienced and has very fast hands.

She pretends (with her brilliant poker face) to have her sword knocked upwards out of the way when she blocks that one, so she can flip the point down and poke Iomedae straight in the face when she comes in for the kill.

"Good."

- okay, she's going about this the wrong way. You'd think the major advantage you have over someone who can't move is reach, but lots of people are skilled at fighting when they have less reach than their opponent and any woman knight is going to have to be. And the duchess Nicole can still land hits totally adequately while on her knees. The thing to do is the exact opposite, to get right up in front of her and - she's not allowed to knock her over, but she can prevent her from getting any leverage -

Oh, clever girl. Most new people have to be explicitly told about that idea; it's counterintuitive. Iomedae really does have some great instincts. 

With Iomedae crowding into her personal space, Nicole's field of view is suddenly all full of shield. On her knees, she's only about as tall as Iomedae's shield anyway. She could try shuffling backwards to get away from Iomedae, but she's never going to be able to do that faster than Iomedae can walk forwards.

So she leans backwards and cranes her neck back and holds her hands above her head to present any kind of defence, and that's tiring. Now she's on a timer where she has to kill Iomedae before she gets enough lactic acid buildup in her shoulders that it starts to slow her down; she's fit and she'll be fine as soon as she can shake her arms out, but she can't shake her arms out without dying.

Nicole is still a very, very good fighter. She can keep her sword tilted back over her head to protect herself from the scorpion shots, and block four things by ducking into her shield, and then wait for Iomedae to look for that big overhead wrap and pop her in the elbow. But it's suddenly actually visibly hard work for her, and she drops her arms immediately after Iomedae calls good so she can rest her sword and shield on the ground. 

"Great thinking! Yes! That's exactly how you do it!" 

But it didn't work! Though she has some ideas for how to use the advantage better -"...again?"