His opponent abandoned their wrist grab, just as Tablurath had foreseen. The Cardinal edging so that the Torm remained on his right. The mage then raised his left forearm to intercept the cloned sword by bracing against the Cardinals own right forearm. Placing the blade safely beside his opponent's head. Khazna’s response to this was to simply open his palm at the moment of contact, allowing the newly caught sword to fly over the mage’s left arm. Simultaneously his left had dropped down as he snapped his fingers in one smooth motion; that hand falling to Mercy's grip.
The choices made by his opponent now had been calculated and planned for. The simple switch of swords seemingly benign on its own would suddenly bear fruit at his opponent’s expense. The materialized weapon would suddenly burst apart in a sudden though small explosion directly beside and the left of the mage’s face. Obscuring mist with smaller fragments of still deforming Starlhrim bathing his face. They existed for only a few seconds, but lasted more than long enough to pepper his opponent’s face considering the near point blank range.
The normally nonlethal effect was anything but this close up as it coated Metz’s face in nanites, covering it in a black mask and effectively blinding him as mibs covered his mouth and nose, possibly obstructing his airways. The A.I’s within the mibs seeking to cling to a surface in the face of the incoming winds. Added with the sharp fragments would pose enough threat to damage the soft tissue of the man’s eyes- even puncturing the thin skin of his eye lids this close. The blow back swept toward Tablurath inevitably. The fragments bouncing off and denting parts of his skull helm. It's mocking smile perhaps the last thing his opponent might ever see. This clever ploy was quite similar to the Cardinals attempt during his last match. However, lacking the momentum and range of an explosion born from a true grenade it did not possess the exact deadly potential. The winged knight had literally blown that plan away during the last bout. His current opponent likely possessed no such luck.
Exploding pain from countless fragments lacerating most of his face could very well cause the Torm to flinch, creating an opening if only for a moment. Meanwhile at the same time Tablurath used his left hand to push down on Mercy’s handle. He had placed his body previously so that the mage came at him from the right side of his body. Predictably he lunged for where he believed Tablurath’s armor was at its weakest. When the knife's tip hurtled forward and met resistance, however, the sound of metal on metal sounded. The sheathed Mercy was brought up like a lever as Tablurath pushed down it with his left hand, deflecting the stab at the last moment, cutting into the scabbard belted at Tablurath’s right side. Causing the knife to deflect upward with its momentum, shifting the stab into a cut across the ceramic plate’s scales against Tablurath’s lower back. The knife's edge now coated in a layer of mibs once stored in the sheath. Before his opponent could hope to recover from the sudden blinding effect from his nanite trap.
Tablurath pushed off his left leg and into the mages guard in a sudden rush of speed. Seeking to pin the man's knife arm between them. His now free right hand tucking inward - grabbing the Torms left forearm and pulling it to Tablurath’s own chest as he swing his upper body to the left sharply, using his elbow to strike a savage blow at the rattled mage. Aiming for his chin as he combined speed, strength and momentum to create enough force to sharply twist the mage’s neck sharply from the blow. Enough power behind it coupled with the plated elbow pad to snap his spinal cord and break his jaw, at worse killing him, or at best knocking him out.
Had the mage flinched away from the blast seeking to at least save his right eye- and breaking eye contact with the Cardinal- the blow would instead be aimed at the man’s throat. The sledgehammer blow more than powerful enough to crush his windpipe as the Cardinal twisted with the muscles of his waist. All this in a three tenths of a second.
It was time to test his opponent’s survival instincts.
