Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-96.233.74.45-20140413040730/@comment-24144063-20150114035458

Semblances are not passive abilities, they need to be activated. He took the first punch as normal (I guess his defensive aura had already been depleated at that point in the beating), but then his swell of determination and confidence triggered his semblance and deflected Cardin's punch back at him. I guess it also gave his aura a second wind too because he had it during the Ursa fight, or maybe it just recharges fast like in Grimm Eclipse.