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Basic Trope: After blocking or dodging attack, a retaliation attack can be used, usually hitting for more damage than normal.

  • Straight: Bob parries a sword-wielding Mook before retaliating with a slash that inflicts a critical injury.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Bob waits until the mook uses the strongest slash they can. He then casually deflects the attack, knocks the sword out of their hand and runs them through, killing them in one go.
    • Counterattacks are a standard element of combat in the setting.
    • Bob's counterattack is countered, which he then counters, which is then countered again. Repeat ad nauseum.
    • Counterattacks are guaranteed to do a One-Hit Kill. People are either unwilling to attack at all lest they get killed back immediately from a failed attack or killing each other with one attack.
    • Bob's counter attack is only at its best if Bob attacks exactly at the same time in which his opponent attacks. Not even a single nanosecond of leeway is given to this countering technique; It MUST have the exact precision and timing for it to be at its most effective.
  • Downplayed: Combo Breaker
  • Justified:
    • Having committed to an attack, the enemy leaves a vulnerability which may then be used against them. The attack doesn't need to be any stronger than usual to do more damage, and the enemy is in no position to avoid it.
    • Bob is a professional fencer, a combat sport that is almost entirely reliant on parrying and riposting.
    • Not only is the enemy opening themselves up for said counter attack, they're throwing in their weight against Bob's counter attack, making it even more devastating than normal.
  • Inverted:
  • Subverted: Bob parries an attack, but doesn't retaliate...
  • Double Subverted: ...until the Mook's back was turned.
  • Parodied:
  • Zig Zagged: Counterattacks are favored in the Bob's swordsmanship school, but what they truly prefer is that you hit and kill first instead. Later on, Bob faces a Heavily Armored Mook that he can't ever hope to kill or even realistically injury with his sword, but the cumbersome armor tires out the mook so much that Bob manages to defeat him by only blocking and waiting for the mook to exhaust himself.
  • Averted: Bob does not use any counterattacks.
  • Enforced: The writer does not want to look like he's encouraging aggression, so Bob pretty much only ever counterattacks his adversaries.
  • Lampshaded: "You were defeated the moment you decided to attack me."
  • Invoked: Bob stays put at the beginning of a duel and taunts his opponent while watching their movements.
  • Exploited: Reasoning that Bob will probably put him down fast with a powerful counterattack if he attacks Bob head-on, the Big Bad instead attacks anyone else that Bob relies on.
  • Defied: Bob refuses to rely on timing his attacks in case he encounters an enemy that hits too hard or fast to retaliate against.
  • Discussed: "Anyone who waits to counterattack against their foe lacks initiative and makes themselves vulnerable to the enemy outmaneuvering them."
  • Conversed: "After a while, you wonder why someone ever makes the first move."
  • Deconstructed: Bob is left completely open to other enemies as he delivers the counter-attack, and suffers a grievous wound.
  • Reconstructed: Bob waits to use a counter-attack until there is no opportunity for the enemy to respond.
  • Played For Laughs: Bob decided to discipline a mook by parrying every attack and then slapping him with a newspaper. The poor guy never learns, and is newspapered to death.
  • Played For Drama: The Mook counters the counter. Bob and the Mook then desperately try to ward off eachother's attacks and land a hit before they are forced to deal a fatal attack.

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