Can cats "bluff" their way out of trouble?

Cats can def. bluff their way out of confrontations. That's why cats fizz up and turn to their sides when they're scared or in a fight. They're trying to make themselves bigger so the other cat/animal will leave them alone.  Our house cats may not fizz when they fight each other but the body language/sounds they make says the same thing. "Leave me alone"

When I lived at home, Ghibli the youngest and partial feral cats always loves to pick on the two other older cats. Tasja the oldest, she's a grumpy old cat and she as the sharpes claws I have ever seen on a cat and the personality to match it. We didn't nickname her BuzzSaw for no reason. Luckily, she's calmed down since she's turned into an old lady but still Ghibli learnt that she's not the one to torment so Yoda, the lovable blockhead is the main target.  Usually Yoda just hisses and runs from him but everyonce in awhile when Ghibli can't take the hint, he gives it to him.    One time, Yoda was laying on the brick platform that our fireplace sits on and Ghibli decided that he wanted to cause trouble when Yoda was already at his limit. So Ghibli went to attack and Yoda with one massive paw and in one swift movement pretty much grabbed the back of Ghibli's head and slammed it into the the brick platform....that was the most deliberate action I had ever seen Yoda make and Ghibli was stunned for a couple seconds after the face and now tends to leave Yoda alone when he's laying on the brick platform. LOL 

My old cat Spunky used to always bluff his way out trouble whenever my uncle brought his old dog Kirby over. Kirby was a big fat beagle, and if he went to sniff Spunky (siamese for the record) spunk would just hiss or swat at him a bit and get all hunched up like he was about to attack. It would  send Kirby running and then Spunk would just calmly lick his paws... practically saying "that was easy!" Spunky lol (sorry I always wanted to use that emoticon... 

I definitely agree with Brandy-Neka, some cats can seem very impressive when frightened. The aggression some cats can show when scared is very impressive. It certainly can be enough to make an animal or human back down.