The Question is old school. He is a scholar and a gentleman, so he doesn’t want to hurt the lady. But that’s no ordinary lady, it’s Lady Shiva. She does stuff like this:

He started out as an Objectivist and later became kinda Zen, but neither his philosophy nor his awesome no-face mask can help him not get his ass kicked.

Fortunately for him, this was the first step down a road to bad-assery and he did what he had to do. Until he died. But neither that, nor this fight was the fault of Bahlactus.