The unfamiliar swordsman strikes the knife away, but the split second he wasted proves his undoing.
The familiar swordsman slices his arm off, slashes his throat and runs him through, pushing his body limply into the shallow water, where it sank as though in the ocean.
It was then two things were more apparent. Firstly, that they were standing on the pond, not in it, and secondly, that there seemed to be very thin air in here.