After the attack Aulus felt a swell of disappointment from what he was viewing in front of him.  Clearly the first attack was a distraction, but he had hoped that she would outsmart him realizing that the distraction was the prelude to a real attack.  Rather than jump above the whips range she allowed it to ensnare her in a mix of bruises and small cuts along her thigh.  Perhaps she wasn’t as clever as he had accredited for based on what he had seen.  In fact Mars if he were here but laugh at the lack of parrying or even dodging from his puppet’s toy.  Time proved however that she had different plan in mind; after all she couldn’t allow him to stand so proud after he just humiliated her with a simple tactic.  From what she analyzed so far he was currently in a long-range combat state, so in order to break he had to get closer, but any attack with her charging would only put her in the fray of his whips.  No he needed to bring him to her.  Aulus watched as the female gladiator unraveled his hold on her thigh taking the coiling whip into her free hand pulling back the whip so as to drag Aulus closer to her.  The young soldier could feel his feet drag themselves against the loose sand pulling him closer and closer to her.<br/><br/>To add some tension to this game of tug and war she poised her blade directly at Aulus while her body remained in a sideways stance so as to allow more strength to be transferred to reeling him in like a fisherman to its treasure.  Aulus knew at this rate she would close enough where she could strike him with ease and with his weapon in hand he would find it difficult to fight her on equal terms.  Perhaps now it seemed that it was time to unveil exactly what it was that made this man so dangerous.  A young soul twisted by the will of Mars was something that no person would like to face, for those blessed by the God of war carried with them experience and ferocity in order to win fights.  For gladiators it was about glory, for soldiers it was about blood and the next enemy.   Aulus tried to escape this vicious cycle of Mars’ will, but even here in a Ludus his reach was expansive and unavoidable.  Now it was time for Mars to throw away every measure of this woman’s hope that he had a chance of winning.  If Mars could speak to the woman he would note that the time for games was over.<br/><br/>With that thought in hand Aulus changed his positioning.  Originally he held the whip by the long handle collected at the center, but with a simple twist the handle broke apart into two sections.  The formally one now two handles stretched out as another cord of whip emerged from the prison of the long handle.  He then flipped the new thread of the whip around the back of his neck allowing his shoulders/arms to wrap around the whip to provide him more control.  With his one free arm, the whip came to life as it coiled around his arm with part of the end grasped in his hand.  He looked at her with a smile, almost as if to mock her as he let his left arm attacked.  The whip came to life shooting forth like a striking cobra traveling on a straight path towards her wrist bearing the sword wrapping around the flesh leaving small pinching and cutting sensations in Ryann.  Now with both of her hands/wrists in his possession he pulled back with his left arm so as to dislodge the locked position of her armed hand.  If successful he then could proceed with a means to stun her.  He couldn’t go close range combat now that he snared her with a mid-range attack, but he could do something that could guarantee a hit.  Both of his arms coiled by his weapon of choice pulled back in a spread formation then came down to the ground in a violent manner.  It wouldn’t be his hands that would attack but the coils of the whip.  The energy used in the flailing attack was enough to send the same feed back towards the female captive, causing both of her arms to flail back against herself.  She had a choice to accept the fist bearing the sword or on the other hand which would only be met by a fist.  From her it would be clearly obvious which one she’d rather take, but if successful it would create a small gap of opportunity much like when Aulus had used a palm strike against her chin/jaw to stun her and respond with a counter attack.  Aulus’ plan however called on a more powerful attack then a simple shoulder push. No Aulus had something bigger in mind.  Depending on the attack would go, especially if she went for the fist he could precede with his final attack.  His body spun in a 180 degree turn while at the same time using his arms still holding firm to his whips to pull down her body in a downward diagonal direction to plant her into sand face first.  It would difficult to counter since the momentum of attack shifted at a rate and direction that seemed almost unavoidable.  Whatever the consequences, if the attack was successful, it would be difficult for anyone to recover from such an attack.<br/>