[i]Zande had indeed stepped in the way he did for a reason. A trap was a trap and it didn't require always stepping on someone's foot. As Zande stepped forth and missed, his right hand darted back to sieze upon the thick handle of Jancro the Great and Terrible, and as Nicoli lowered his arms to, well, arm himself, the tribesman would screw his heels into the ground and twist his torso towards his opponent, putting the full heft of his lean body into a blow of such ferocious vehemence that it would kill a normal man and certainly knock cold a very strong one. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't with his axe that he struck. His gaunt face was contorted in demonic emotion, lips pursed and eyes lethal as he really, as the pros say, "put his ass into it". Zande always attacked with all he had, with supreme and sudden violence.

Assuming that at this point Nicoli was very close indeed, Zande's long left arm (which had been raised) shot backwards, his bony elbow like a burning piston on a crash course for the unguarded left side of the assassin's head, just above the jawline and below the temple so that the chances of a shoulder block or duck succeeding would be slim to none, and the compact speed and manouverability of the attack might possibly quell an attempt to evade or counter by moving closer or further away. All in all it wasn't a fancy technique and was surely imperfect, but it had more than a few strong factors rooting for it, the greatest of which was how Nicoli's arms were down and he was nice and close. A moving body could give away intent, but at this range there was a difference between seeing an attack coming and reacting to it.

The wildman knew that whether or not his attack succeeded in the long run, it was always wise to have a contingency plan. Such would be why he'd have whipped out his monstrous battleaxe by the end of it, the weapon slipping loose not with the creaking of leather but a whisper of death. Armor or no armor, if that savage tool struck a man his life would leave his sundered body and he would cease to be a person.[/i]