Diarmuid flicks his spear into the air for a moment so his hand is free, and then playfully waves a finger at her, before catching his spear again on the way back down, "Flattery implies insincerity and that is far too close to lying for my taste. No, my compliments are exactly that. Compliments."

As she advances, Diarmuid drops into a more defensive stance. Interestingly enough, while he does, he changes spears. Gae Dearg vanishes from his hand, replaced by the shorter Gae Buidhe. It is the spear he uses for defense and is more comfortable with it in hand when blocking. That much will be very obvious to Alyosha's close gaze as he moves to block her strikes.