The carcass of poor Charley was a fun obstacle, and Hershel didn't have too much trouble dodging it in a dramatic sort of fashion. Heiji's attack was much more of a problem, and he had to square his feet and put his other hand on the shinai's handle to properly meet Heiji's swing with his own. Of course he wasn't used to using both hands so the block was sloppy at best.

"I can't say I'm surprised you seem to prefer offense to defense." He answered in amusement. There was no way he was going to beat Heiji, he could tell that already from exchanging blows and his own lack of skill at two handed swordplay, but hey he could be competitive too and not go down without making it a challenge, buddy.

So he pressed back again, managing to send one of the stools flying as he did. He feigned going for a more defensive stance again, waiting to see if Heiji was going to attack aggressively again. If he did Hershel decided throwing caution to the wind this time was best, pressing forward with a few straight jabs in hopes of finding a hole in Heiji's defense was probably his best shot at actually doing anything. Of course he didn't want to actually hit Heiji, but a tap to the chest was fine right? He sure missed foils, you didn't need to worry about stuff like that when they couldn't hurt a fly.