The Bandit king charged, and with a brief splitting roar, so did Cruran. Argin sweapt his blade back then over his shoulder to strike down. Cruran sweat his sword back then brought it horizontally, surging the weapon up as Argin brought his down. The two crashed together with the sound of colliding steel titans. Cruran's downward strike cleaed with such force into Cruran's lifted guard, that the whole of the Barbarian's body burst and rippled to life to stop the blow. For the briefest moment Cruran's eyes flashed to the sparks that burst from the colliding weapons. Argin's sword, younger and well maintained, hacked into the jagged and crude edge of Cruran's, bifurcating the darkened steel as the Argin's gleaming edge chopped into it like an axe into soft wood.<br/><br/>Cruran had no time to consider the blow his weapon took for both swords sung as they were yanked apart. Argin's next move was fast, and Cruran's block gave him no angle to strike the man's open guard as he swung the sword around and sweapt it forth to cleave Cruran's midsection in two. The barbarian, however, was not so easy to kill. Instead of retreating and letting the man waste his arms in a frivolous and empty strike, Cruran stepped closer and brought his blade down vertically at his side. Again steel struck steel, and again Cruran's muscles bulged beneath the strike and ground it to a halt. Cruran, now full inside Argin's guard released his hand from his blades hilt and roared like a striking lion and heaved his arm and shoulder back, throwing the back of his solid fist for Argin's exposed face.<br/><br/>A landed hit or a dodge mattered not to the barbarian, whose heel followed, striking forward and low for Argin's knee. Cruran knew well the limitations of the unwieldy weapon he carried. Its potential strikes were limited, but its power cleaved defenses before it and created opportunity for a warrior's true weapon: bare hands ready to wrench and crush the life from all opposition.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>