He is only using a fraction of his energy, but it's less because he wants to go easy on her and more because he's trying to test her, gauge how much she can already do. So far what he's got is that she's capable, would be able to hold her own against an opponent who was -- similarly unskilled. Anyone with training, anyone who's a soldier, she seems quick enough on her feet to maybe get something in if she's lucky, but if she's only ever been taught to go for the head, then. That might not get her anywhere.

Still. She doesn't have technique, but he can tell from the way she goes at him, from how familiar she is with the knife. She has fought before. She has attacked before.

"It won't work here so well -- Heads are hard to get to." The same is true even when it comes to guns. Go for a shot to the head if you can get a clean one, sure, but otherwise it's the center of mass, the most vital targets all in the same much larger much easier to hit area. "Why's that what you go for, back home?"

He's tended not to ask about her home, but he might like an idea of what she's used to fighting if he's going to try and teach her. He pulls away again, getting a few steps of distance between them, gesturing her forward once more.