<strong>Mathius Vairo<br/>Woodland Clearing<br/>Somewhere North of Ostagar</strong><br/><br/>A quick diagonal slash aimed for the neck area, immediately followed by a downwards slash at the knees of the beast did not confuse and disorient the darkspawn as Mathius had hoped. This one seemed to be more adept than its cohorts in battle and easily parried the strike at its neck, and then lowered its shield to block the low strike. The contact  of steel onto the blackened wood shield made Mathius’s weak hand tremble and nearly drop Fate from his grasp. And the Antivan staggered back up wearily, and noticeably gimping on his leg.<br/><br/>The darkspawn must have saw this, for its soulless eyes fixated on the bandaged up wound upon its opponents leg. It stepped forward, pressing the issue against Mathius now and unleashed a flurry of strikes. In doing so it left many openings for a killing blow, but Mathius was too weak to land one, so he kept backpedaling and dodging or blocking every attack. Until finally, the darkspawn had worked to within close range, and drove its shield directly at Mathius’s leg, making it buckle and give out. He cringed in pain as he went to one knee.<br/><br/>As he looked up, the darkspawn was standing above him, ready to let a killing blow fall. And as its crude and misshapen long sword began its downward swing, Mathius reached deep inside himself and found strength. He raised to the balls of his feet and leaped forward and to the back of the darkspawn, tumbling over his back. The darkspawn’s blade crunched into the ground, and as Mathius was falling over onto his back, he swung Grace around and slash the back of one of the beast's knees. It screamed out and staggered, rearing around and slashing at air in anger. By then, Mathius was back on his feet and retreated out of the darkspawn’s reach for the moment, to catch his breath.<br/><br/>Mathius regripped his twin swords after wiping sweat from his palms and brow. He got into a counterattacking stance with his weapons close to his body for defense and his offhand foot positioned farther back than usual to protect his leg wound. The enraged spawn rushed forward again, noticeably limping, and Mathius deflected his overhead slash and forced the beast to stagger forward and lose its balance. The former Templar used the opportunity to bury Grace halfway into the side of its ribcage, in a spot that was loosely armored on the darkspawn. For good measure, he used Fate to sloppily stab at its neck area, of which he didn't cut directly into the neck but grazed it enough to assure the beast would bleed out. Mathius yanked Grace free of the beast and tainted blood splattered onto his chest and waste as the Antivan staggered back and the darkspawn fell to the ground, seemingly dead.