• āpatantīm — flying toward Him
  Present participle of ā-√pat (to fall toward, approach). The club is mid-flight when Pradyumna acts — a snapshot of present-tense response. Sākṣād-jñāna in combat.
• bhagavān-pradyumnaḥ — the Supreme Lord Pradyumna
  Apposition: bhagavān (the Lord) + pradyumnaḥ. The Bhāgavatam upgrades the title at the moment of His decisive response — bhagavān, not merely kārṣṇiḥ. The verse's grammar marks the elevation.
• apāsya — driving off, deflecting
  Gerund of apa-√as — to throw off, away. Pradyumna does not merely block; He turns the missile aside. A move that requires equal force precisely countered — symbolic of how the Lord meets every asura assault.
• kruddhaḥ-prāhiṇot — angered, He threw
  Compound participle + verb: kruddhaḥ (angered) + prāhiṇot (sent forth). Pradyumna's krodha is dharma-krodha — anger inside dharma, the same emotion Nṛsiṁha bears toward Hiraṇyakaśipu. Bhagavān's anger is doctrinally legitimate; the asura's amarṣa (v.18) is not.

• Where could matching an opponent's exact weapon be more effective than escalating?
• How does same-weapon response actually settle a contest?

Club meets club mid-air — Pradyumna deflects Śambara's gadā with His own and hurls back. The exchange is exact, gesture-for-gesture, before the magical phase begins. Bhagavān's son will fight conventionally as long as the rules of engagement hold; only when the asura cheats does Mahā-māyā come out.