Reaction speed

He gave the same booming, manic laugh I’d heard in the cellar when he’d beaten on the table with his fists. The vartek straightened its legs, rising up before us, and opened its jaws even wider.

Something hit my shoulder, and I fell sprawling onto my side, somehow managing to keep hold of the Starblade. As I struggled angrily to my feet, I saw that it was Alice who had pushed me.

But then I looked at the place where I’d been standing. The grey sand was bubbling and steaming under a globule of acid: the monster had spat it out so fast that I hadn’t seen it coming.

Starblade Book 2 Chapter 20