It was the battle of the gods! She was a lot stronger than he anticipated so he lost some...ground? water? when he felt her sudden fight back.

There was a moment where his stubbornness kicked in and he redoubled his efforts. But then there was a little part of him that glanced back and seeing how hard she was pulling, that little part said, Let go.

So that was exactly what he did. After pulling back as hard as he could...he let go. Now how will the physics of momentum work?