He can't teleport, he's trained himself out of it by now in the Arena, and so his reaction to the root is a dive sideways instead of a bamf behind their barky foe. The name doesn't ring a bell but the sapient tree knows his name and that is enough to give him pause, to keep talking.

"If you know me, you know I have more tricks than just teleportation." Like trying to pull whoever this Black Tom is' attention on him entirely instead of terrorizing Gary yards away. He's starting already to understand that the supplies are forfeit. The only goal now is escape.

Scrabbling on the ground for a moment, Kurt finds a solid branch and wrenches it up from the forest floor, brandishing it like a saber at Tom with his stance mimicking those late-night swashbuckling movies he loves so much. "If it's a fight you want, then fight!"