I couldn’t dodge the arrow. It wasn’t due to a matter of speed. Rather, it was a different matter entirely. If I dodged that arrow aiming for my shoulder, it would definitely go straight through the Beifong patriarch’s head. That, for obvious reasons, was no good. Likewise, I couldn’t let the arrow hit me.

If that arrow struck me, if I bled from that simple attack, then it would surely be a sign that I wasn’t really a spirit as I claimed I was. In short: I was doomed if I dodged it and screwed if I took the hit. That left only one solution. The arrow was coming in too fast for me to catch and reliably react afterwards, so I settled for something significantly less elegant but equally more effective.

With a sudden turn away from Toph’s father – and I really needed to learn his name because this was getting annoying – I extended my fingertips and cut the incoming arrow down. Another arrow right behind it threatened to strike me. This one, I deflected up into the ruined ceiling.