Brennus’ thrust went wide, cutting a neat groove across his enemy’s stomach, but not opening him up as he would have liked. Reacting on instinct and training, the Iceni warrior began to pull his weapon back, before realising his opponent was trying to stifle the retraction. He turned anti-clockwise at the torso, lifting his body straight as his right hand pulled back the shaft of his spear to the left side of his body and crossed over the front of his left arm. This had the effect of not only retracting his weapon far faster than the chained man might have expected, but also swerving it wide of his strike. Brennus was left in a momentarily awkward position with his spear held up almost to his neck and his arms crossed into an X in front of his body.

However, there was a surprising amount of power to be found in that bunched up position, as the Iceni was keen to demonstrate. Pulling his right leg back past his left, as his right arm unfolded and shot down to his right, he was able to spin his spear in a tight arc that saw the point move first up, and then to his left, before shooting back down with surprising force in a diagonal cut to Brennus’ right. The point of the spear would cut a nasty path across the front of the chained man’s face, quick and powerful, it could easily blind him in his right eye or simply disable him outright as the soft flesh was rent by cold steel. 

This cut served a dual purpose, as it also allowed Brennus to return to an effective striking stance and make some distance from his closer ranged foe. He’d end up left foot forward, right back and slightly turned, ready to thrust again.