[h2]Tyaethe[/h2]

"Really...?" Tyaethe asked, eyebrow cocking at the attempted stab. Feint or not, it hardly mattered: her sword neatly cut through the spear's shaft, leaving the injured spearman without any effective means to threaten her... or defend against the way it flicked up, its weightlessness to its wielder eerily deceptive as it transitioned into a throat-piercing stab. For all the effort the paladin seemed to put in changing its course, the zweihander might as well have been made of air and it was easily pulled back to rest over her shoulder.

Which left the shield.

Whatever he was expecting, it undoubtedly wasn't for the vampire to whirl around and counter his charge with a [i]punch[/i], mana blazing a bright red as the two collided. It was hard to tell which really got the worst of it; the shield absorbed the blow admirably and its wielder merely had to brace, no matter the emphatic dent made upon it. Tyaethe, on the other hand, seemed to have broken not only her knuckles but her wrist, although those were visibly restoring as she set both hands upon her blade's hilt once more.

"If you're not going to co-ordinate," the girl wondered, enthusiasm dampened and body lowered, telegraphing for anyone with the slightest combat experience her intention, "Then we're done; this won't be fun after all."

The broad slash was obvious. There was no way it [i]couldn't[/i] be, Tyaethe had even paused in position before starting the attack. The question was, what could common soldiers do against it? Veterans or not, common sense would dictate using one's shield or armour, maybe trying to deflect the blow entirely. [i]Common sense[/i] assumed that you weren't trying to block dwarven steel fuelled by unnatural strength, fast on the heels of an injury that should have barred raising that sword at all. All that common sense gave you was an instant to appreciate your doom.