[Sunder the Gold]

Originally Posted by Akiyoshi

But this is one of the few times a fight was completely skipped yet people take said fight as the base for their arguments xDU.

Including Yuuno's fight against Arf and also his fight against Vita.

No one has yet seen a need to argue about Arf's two fights with Zaphira.

Originally Posted by Akiyoshi

We also lack solid evidence of Deville NOT using his short jump during that match.

True, and I certainly can't argue that quick teleportation in the middle of a fight is impossible, given that we saw Yuuno do that PLUS force-teleport Arf away with him.

So, it may be that Short Jumping in the middle of a fight is not difficult to execute, but pointless. Or at least pointless against someone as fast and mobile as Fate.

Nanoha was not able to detect the teleport happening; she didn't react until Deville had already appeared behind her. Unless Fate has superior extra-dimensional senses, she's probably not able to sense where Deville would re-appear either.

What she CAN do is anticipate where he'll reappear next. And HE had to choose his destination by anticipating where SHE was going to be in the next half-second, which is difficult considering how fast she can move.

And as soon as Fate sees him disappear, she can Sonic Move away from her last position really fast.

It's like Fate's playing Whackamole with a machine that shoots a baseball before popping out a mole. She doesn't always know where the ball will come from, but odds are good that she'll smack it before it hits her, or dodge while swinging at the mole before it disappears again.

Nanoha's Fortress didn't block Deville's blow, it was Fate(the Fortress utterly fails to protect Nanoha aginst Deville).

Ah yes. My bad.

One moment, Deville saw a clear opportunity to cut Nanoha down, and then half a moment later he's surprised by this blonde mage appearing out of nowhere so fast HE thought SHE teleported.

This seems to lend credence to the idea that Deville's teleportation simply isn't a match for Fate's reaction and movement speed.

He'd probably give Subaru, Ginga and Nove a lot of trouble, since their Wing Roads make their paths predictable enough for him to counter, even given their speed. And while they're canonically faster than Nanoha (I think), there's been no comparison to Fate's speed yet.