I mean, if it's the aura technique you taught your niece, I wouldn't be that impressed either, since the shield from said aura wasn't enough to protect her.
Especially the fact that swords are strength multipliers, but still it depends somewhat, speed is great but moving too fast is no good if the stamina can't follow, and considering there's aura shields too, speed is less important I guess, having the power to break through defenses should be just as important, as even an unarmored strong swordsman will have great defensive capabilities, strong monsters and creatures too will have their own defenses that are just as good if not better, so yeah