No no, sorry. I probably didn't word that quite right. He's holding the weapon like a spear, but the bladed edges of the weapon are essentially horizontal meaning that if he were to follow up with a sweeping attack, it would strike like a sword being dragged across Ryu. I don't know how else to describe it, so I'll do a small illustration later if I'm still leaving a lot toto be desired.

So he strikes forward with the spear-like Attack, and the rest of the descriptions are follow-up actions that are only tentative in nature.