Upset that some random stranger had dared to break the normal order and intrude upon his doings, Grumm whirled around.  The clockwork arm flashed by, easily forty pounds of solid metal thrown in a vigorous slap that could have dislocated Morgann's jaw had it connected.  Fortunately, the savage blow fell short, and when he saw that it had, Grumm spewed forth a spray of bile that created a miniature miasma between the monster and the magician.  While he didn't speak, punctuating his attack with an angry sputtering noise instead, the message was clear: [i]back off.[/i]  

Grumm then turned away, with no reason to believe that a simple civilian would persist in the suicidal act of provoking an undead armed with a Living Weapon.  A flick of the mechanical tentacle whose maw was holding Halte aloft flung the former pirate in the ghoul's direction.  With practiced efficiency not completely offset by the sorry state of his body, Grumm brought his axe up in a cruel diagonal arc meant to cleave the incoming Halte in two.  At the last moment, however, Halte brought her boots around so that they were facing Grumm, and from their soles twin blasts of water gushed forth.  They splashed against Grumm's face, disorienting the creature and slowing down Halte's fall enough to avoid the headsman's weapon completely.  Immediately after, Halte landed with both feet planting on Grumm's face, causing him to grumble in protest.  Before he could grab her, however, Halte kicked off, flipping through the air to land twenty feet away in a spray of mist.  

The next second, Grumm leaped into the air, hissing like a sick cat.  More noxious bile spewed from his face as he sailed toward his target.  Halte steadied herself before raising a leg and slamming her boot into the ground, causing a jet of water to erupt from the marble beneath Grumm as he landed a yard away from her.  Beneath her mouthpiece, Halte smiled grimly, only to cry out in pain as her foe dealt her a crushing hydraulic punch.  She staggered away and collapsed to the ground, holding her stomach as if her guts had been liquified, her vehement curses lost in a wave of furious static from her mouthpiece.  Though sopping wet and even more flustered than normal, Grumm had executed his Rot Wrecker without more than a split-second's delay.  Only a few seconds had passed, but it already seemed that the duel had been decided.