Vector

The youth remained motionless atop his mount. He didn’t reach for his
sword or for his combat belt. What’s more, when the girl saw how
nonchalant he remained when challenged to battle by a good-looking young
lady who gave no reasons but showered him with a murderous gaze, a tinge
of consternation rushed into her expression. Letting out a rasp of breath, the
girl struck with her whip. The weapon was made from intertwined
werewolf bristles painstakingly tanned over three long months with
applications of animal fat. A direct hit from it would sunder flesh.

“What the?…”
The girl leapt back, her expression changed. Her whip was supposed to
strike the youth’s left shoulder but for some reason, just at the instant she
saw it hit him, the whip changed direction and shot instead for her own left
shoulder. The youth had reversed the vectors of the whip without the
slightest injury to himself and turned the attack back upon its source. To
grasp the speed and angle of that black snake striking so fast it escaped the
naked eye, and have the reflexes to do something about it, was something
that defied description.

1 - Chapter 1