Tai'Tanu observed the Terran sprinting towards her with disdain. "Going to try and barrel me over with your size??" She thought to herself. As he was running he moved on of the spears to his shield hand. Roughly 20 meters away he surprised Tai'Tanu by switching the grip on his spear, locking up his legs while turning sideways, causing him to slide across the dirt and gravel in the arena, and hurling the spear at her with far greater force than she had ever anticipated Terran's to be capable of. The Terran soldiers on the stands had stopped their chant and stomping, instead slamming their shields into the ground in a steady rhythm.

Only her species naturally fast reflexes saved her life, the spear grazing her shoulder armor before embedding itself in the stone wall behind her with a solid *thunk*. Looking back at the Terran in shock, Tai'Tanu saw him take the second spear from the shield hand and line up another throw.

Deciding not to be an easy target, she started running sideways in a closing circle to get into melee range. If she could get there before he threw his spear, the long weapon would be a severe disadvantage as long as she pressed the attack.

Her thoughts were brought to a halt as she had to skidder to a stop, the second spear embedding itself in the ground a right in front of her, the wooden shaft vibrating from the impact. "Good, now he is out of ranged weapons" She thought and immediately moved in a straight line towards Eirik.

______________

Eirik was fighting a hard mental battle to stay in control, The steady rhytm of the shields was helping though. it gave him an anchor , a tether, to his conscious mind. If the rage was allowed to take over too quickly, he would die. he needed her wounded or exhausted first. He hoped for wounded. That would mean sooner rather than later.

His spear throws were good, but his opponent was faster. He had to be careful. Drawing his sword he got into a defensive position with the shield in front of his torso, his eyes peaking over the shield edge, and started a steady advance. She was coming in fast and Eirik braced for the impact.

At the last moment she changed the direction of her charge and attacked low. Slamming his shield down into the ground to block the attack, he levelled the tip of his sword to the edge of the shield, ready to stab out if she came into view. "Just like the shield wall" He thought to himself. "Block and stab, block and stab"

As her knives dug into his shield, his sword arm moved like a piston, stabbing forward with all his strength. Tai'Tanu weaved around Eiriks blade but Eirik used the bottom of the shield to fling dirt and gravel into the air, towards her face. Not wanting to be blinded, she jumped backwards and got ready to strike again. But before she could, Eirik came towards her, blade flashing in the air. She dodged the blade and thought to take advantage of his exposed position, but instead of trying to get back behind his shield as she had expected, he took another step forward and thrust his shield forward. Blindsided by the attack, Tai'Tanu was bashed with the shield, stumbling backwards.

Eirik kept up his momentum and moved to attack, blade held high. He never got the chance as Tai'Tanu hit him with the same tail swipe attack that Las'Tai had done, only, Tai'Tanu was bigger, heavier and had segmented metal plates covering said tail. Eirik took the hit in the chest and was forced back several steps before dropping to a knee, his sword hand cluthing at his chest, the sword laying on the ground where he had been hit

He wheezed as he managed a breath and felt pain in his left side when breathing. "Thank the fucking gods its the ribs in the shield side" He thought through a haze of pain and rage. His vision was filling with red. "NO!! NOT YET!!!" Eirik fought a desperate mental battle as he tried to get his breath under control. He couldnt loose the rage, not yet!

Tai'Tanu was having her own problems while Eirik was kneeling. The shield bash had mangled both her helmet and some of her armor and she was forced to removed the helmet. Thankfully, it had not deformed to the point where it could not be removed. As she took it off, she heard something rattling inside and looked down. 1 of her teeth was rolling around in the helmet. Filling with rage, she went to throw the helmet, but was reminded of the dented armor and instead worked on removing the part of the armor on her arm and shoulder that had been damaged.

As Eirik got himself under control and Tai'Tanu got her armor problem fixed, Silence had fallen over the soldiers on each side. They were enthralled by the fighting display taking place in front of them. Neither of the 2 fighting were martial experts, but both of them were warriors, their lessons learned on the field of battle.

Both combatants were ready to resume the fight around the same time, Eirik pulling out an axe to replace the lost sword. Tai'Tanu became wary. This weapon was different. Dangerous. The ease with which the Terran handled it made her cautious. Like he had handled that weapon since he was a hatchling. It was the same familiarity you saw in a worker and their tools. His aggressive fighting style had also surprised her. With a shield, she would have expected him to be defensive, but he had used it as a weapon instead. Ingenious, but worrying.

She came at him more cautiously this time. She was ready for an attack. It came, but not as expected.

Eirik threw his shield arm out in a wide arc, turning the shield sideways in the air. Tai'Tanu dodged the shield attack, but Eirik rode the centrifugal momentum generated by his attack and spund around, making a followup attack with his axe. The sound of metal on metal and the loud crack of bone told him that he had hit home. He saw Tai'Tanu cradling an arm, but looking at him with unfiltered hate. As if a switch had been flipped, she screeched and flung herself at him, her wild attack with clawed feet and a good hand with a knife drove Eirik on the defensive, forcing him backwards. Her furious assault lasted almost a minute and left Eirik with a ruined shield. Flinging the useless scraps of wood and iron rim to the side, he drew his knife from the thigh to keep in his shield hand instead.

Tai'Tanu was breathing heavily, the heavy attack taking its toll on her stamina.

"Finally. I can stop thinking. I can let the rage-" All Eirik could see was red. The rage had taken him.