Given how he'd seen her fight, he should've expected Shepard to cling onto him like a particularly nasty rash, the more he tries to shake her. The show of teeth is honestly a little surprising, but more so is the sudden kick that follows it, earning her a startled wheeze as he fumbles back to catch his breath. He's pretty sure his mule kicks softer than that, having now sampled both.

It's not as if he has a reputation to uphold here, and there's probably a rule somewhere about gracefully letting a lady win a fight, but he's just as sure that Shepard would beat him twice as bad if he so much as tried that. His fighting style is admittedly, more for swords, staves, and things with reach, that keep an opponent from getting close enough to cling on or throw out savage kicks.

"Not bad," he coughs, trying to shake it off. Okay, so faster strikes, keep her at a distance, he notes, and whatever you do, don't let her cling on like that again.