Herzer flickered the tip of his longsword forward and was rewarded with another one of those nasty spin and catches, the haft of the axe clanging into his blade then the head sliding down to trap it. Before he knew it, the butt of the axe was hammering into his shield and he leapt back, disengaging his blade with difficulty.

“Think you’re tricky?” Herzer panted.

“Very,” the man said. He began spinning the axe overhead, clockwise, moving back and forth lightly on his feet. “Trickier than you, Major. As you’ll learn when I kill you.”

Herzer knew there was a reason to the motion but he couldn’t divine it. The axe could slam down but with all that momentum there was no way that his opponent could use it for an effective block. Especially if he came in low. He circled to the left, then lunged forward in a shield bash, his sword held low at his side, point angling upward to slip through chinks in his opponent’s armor.

It took him a moment to realize what was happening as the axeman brought the spinning circle of steel downwards and neatly kicked the sword out of midline. The axeman rode the shield bash backwards, actually loosing contact with his axe as it spun around the fulcrum of Herzer’s useless sword. Then his shield was wrenched outwards as a tremendous blow struck him on his chest armor.

“Kill point,” the judge said. “Break.”

“Kill point?” Herzer protested, looking down at the blue mark. The axeman had first pulled his shield outward, then used his own energy to hammer the reverse point of the training axe into his armor. He supposed it would have punctured the armor and given him a wound. But he’d had, and fought with, far worse.

“In space,” Colonel Carson said, pulling off his helmet, “that would have opened up your armor and vented your atmosphere. It’s a kill. Trust me.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not going along on your mission, then,” Herzer said, grinning. “On the other hand, I can think of two or three counters to that move. All of which would leave you disarmed, or dead, or both. How many do you have in your bag of tricks?”