Anger flared in the swordsman’s face when his first slash missed. No matter, he couldn’t dodge for long. The boy was fast, but also surrounded. He raised his sword for a follow-up attack, just as a brown blur passed by the corner of his eye. He paid it no mind, until it was too late and two sets of rodent-like claws reached around from behind to tear at his vulnerable neck. The swordsman shrieked and gurgled out in pain as the claws dug deep into his flesh to send warm blood streaming down the attacker’s hands. The cuts went as deep as his windpipe and would soon cause him humongous trouble breathing, but the feral was too enraged to care. His sword was still raised, so he spontaneously spun around counter-clockwise to make a wild diagonal swing at his attacker.

Meanwhile the dagger-wielder had kept his distance because he hadn’t gotten an easy backstab opportunity. In fact, the boy he meant to backstab was now coming for him. He stood ready to fight the boy when he approached, but wasn’t prepared for his first attack. Finn managed to kick him right in the wrist, which made him involuntarily open his fingers and sent the dagger flying out of his hand to skitter onto the ground a few feet away. But when Finn went for the dagger, the feral wasn’t so slow to react. When the boy ducked down to grab the dagger, he would try to kick him right in the ribs with his right leg. If successful, he would kick again in the same place, trying to shove the boy to the ground.

Further back, the hatchet-wielder was climbing to his feet, ready to attack despite his heavily injured chest, when Braud’s second projectile hit. Just as effective as the first one, there was another [i]crack[/i] as the feral was shoved off his feet. The hatchet fell on the ground with a metallic [i]tunk[/i], while its owner was growling angrily on the ground. Despite having taken damage to the chest that should have killed him, he scrambled into a crouching position and turned his eyes towards Braud and Mr. Sunshine. Suddenly he seemed to have forgotten about his weapon as he dashed forward on all fours, with an awkward but surprisingly fast gait. He ran past the other combatants who were occupied with each other and leapt towards Braud like some kind of enraged chimpanzee, planning to tackle him to the ground.

At the same time, the knight grunted as his sword missed its target. He began slowly advancing towards his opponent with his shield up, only to see the elf launching his fireball attack. The fireball bounced across the ground to be caught against the knight’s shield, where it burst apart and set fire to the old dry wood. There was now a patch of fire in the center of his shield, slowly expanding, but he paid it no mind. Instead, he went on the offence by charging straight towards the unarmed elf, trying to interrupt him before he could fire again. If the elf moved to the right, he would try to slash at him with his sword. If he moved to the left, he would attempt a shield bash with his burning shield. If the elf didn’t move, he would simply slam into him with his armored body, hoping to stun the elf or knock him down.