[b][i]Roll for initiative![/i][/b]

But seriously, combat is a lot like typical romance-RP stuff, you do stuff and give the other person an oprotunity to react, otherwise it looks like you're just swarming your partner and don't want them to do anything edgewise, at which point you're pretty much fighting manniquens.

Adding maybe intent of those actions in case things start getting confusing can also help. Adding pre-arranged responses can also speed things along if they do something you predicted they'd do in your previous post (usually to your favor, but sometimes not if you've been batman-gambitted).

Usually, after a bunch of taking arbritrary amounts of pain and damage, and a lot of clever manuvering that forces them to either take damage or look like an unsporting jerk, a winner is usually declared.

Sometimes winning and losing isn't so clear if both players are forced to withdraw, lest the true final boss step-in and kill them.