But in this situation Gai got Madara on all angles. Before Madara can react. His reaction is faster because it takes minimal effort to make a barrier, Gai got him several times before he could do this.
It relies on thought for Madara, he didn’t get to do that before he got slammed.
As I said, Madara got combo’ed after the 2nd punch(first hit). He was staggered meanwhile, you can see the 4 elephant foot like air pressure holding in place at once.
Combo breaks after 4th punch, the 5th one is a direct contact finisher, requires movement speed straight at the target, Madara again successfully reacts to it with more than enough time to counter attack.
Do you think Gai is moving faster during his evening elephant, than Night Gai? And does Madara react to the latter?