How do you write action scenes?

[Sylver]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

 

[Eldoria]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

Essentially, in action scenes, especially fights, I tend to narrate the impact of the fight on the characters and the environment to show the consequences of the stakes at stake and maintain tension rather than simply narrating the fight moves.

Readers are more likely to sympathize with your character who is injured, bleeding, or even traumatized when they are attacked by their opponent than just showing beautiful choreography. They are more likely to feel pain (tension) when they see blood, bruises, and broken bones than a supersonic fistfight.

As an author, you need to note every injury the character suffers during the fight and the consequences of those injuries in the fight. This way, the fight will likely be more intense.

For example, if an arrow hits his left arm, he won't be able to use his left hand to punch his opponent.

And it's important to understand that choreography is important to show how the action unfolds. But injuries are the effect.

Perhaps I would simplify the cinematic fight pattern as follows: Action -> Reaction (choreography) -> effect (character injuries and environmental impact).

Well, here's an example of one of the best fight chapters I've ever written (in my opinion, I don't know what readers think). You can see the chapter here:

Vol 2 Chapter 69: The Final Battle Among the Wounded

 

[Lmae]

I have one Magic User vs Non-Magic User in the beginning of Altered One. Casimir uses trickery and brute force to get the upper hand over the mage he is fighting. He also has knowledge of various spells to help him predict and dodge them.

I would recommend watching Mashle Magic and Muscle.

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2181545-altered-one/chapter/2181559/ He wins.

https://www.scribblehub.com/read/2181545-altered-one/chapter/2181562/ He loses.

 

[LiteraryWho]

I'm personally a big fan of the "Hobbit" school of action scenes, where they happen entirely off screen, to other people, except where absolutely necessary for the plot or the character. When I must write them, I keep them brief, and focus on how this big block of words is planning to pay rent.

As a reader, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a fight scene for its action. It is far more important for me for the scene to reveal something about the world or character, and for the outcome to actually matter. If it's just the MC beating up random scrub #738, it should have been briefly mentioned at best, assuming it's not covered by something like, "X spent a few days fighting challengers" or w/e.

 

[FleecedSheep]

Action and reaction can be considered the rule of thumb. What does Character A do, how does Character B react, so on so forth. Additionally, in reality fights tend to be rather short. Boxing matches are a great example, with each major clash being equivalent to a round of boxing followed by a small break to assess damage and reassess fighting strategies.

First rounds are fairly detailed in most cases, with later rounds being glossed over, until the final climax or for important story beats for the fight itself. The Rocky movies are a good example of how fight pacing could be done, with the final bouts. At least, that's my inspiration.

I could probably pull up more specific examples from my writing if you want. Otherwise, I'm sure you can get the idea.

 

[melchi]

Best known method is to structure it in a turned based style, separated by paragraphs.

paragraph 1 :Melee (action) against magic user.

Paragraph 2: Reaction: Magic user, against melee.

The important thing is to _NOT_ mix the character's together in the same paragraph.

Round one:

Magic user,

Melee

Round two:

Melee

magic use

If melee lands a stab, first sentence is that, can have the magic user bleed or whatever. But the focus has to stay on the melee for that paragraph. It is just like essays in high school, paragraphs point to one thing above all else.

 

[Bimbanana]

In my opinion, there's two style of action scene you can deliver:
1. The japanese version, like yu yu hakuso fight where a few minutes duel had tons of commentary and inner talks
2. The hollywood version, fast paced john wick-like, where timing and clarity matters

I use the second.

Here's some that i wrote:

A gunfight + hand to hand combat scene:
The Red Circle Shooting

A fleet battle scene:
Fog of War

 

[TinaMigarlo]

White Death - Chapter 13 – Surprise | Scribble Hub

www.scribblehub.com

hand to hand combat chapter.
The setting :
---an old farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a tiny backwoods town
---the bad guy grabbed the girl and took her
---the good guy has sneaked into the basement, to size things up
---the girl knows he's in the basement, and feeds him as much information on the sly as she can to help him out

you'll read the fight develop, commence, happen, then the immediate aftermath.
this is no bar fight, this is life or death.

it could read a little smoother, but its in a list of things need read and edited again.

 

[Rolanov]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

Well, actually my MC is the only non-magic and non-aura user fighting in the world full of magic and auras,

My style of action is more technical i guess. I like detailed scene, its combination of anime like fight and real life technical.

Let me give you example :
MC vs Dragonkin.
MC in training

 

[Dawnathon]

One major component is deciding how much "health" your characters have. Don't mistake that for a literal HP system. Rather, in the back-and-forth, to-and-fro attacks between the combatants, how many attacks should it take to decide the battle? Some people write very prolonged fights where it's the equivalent of several MMA rounds before victory is decided. Other people write very sharp combat scenes where it could only be a couple strikes that seals the fate of anyone involved. Both have their place in different stories, but it decides how you should go about it. Prolonged fights should keep their actions as brief as possible since there's going to be so many of them. Sharp fights really need to sell the weight behind each blow and make it clear why it has the impact it does.

I prefer sharp scenes myself. It might get a bit wordy for how brief the actual timespan is, but it's a trade-off worth making. Just having a character stuck until they pull out a hidden power to save themselves, that's going to kill your readers, or at least grey their hairs early. Having a character cornered and trapped, desperately going through what little they have to work with for a final Hail Mary, gritting their teeth broken bones and hopeless odds to risk it all with this final gambit? Now you have a defining character moment. It could be the exact same literal events happening either way, but the one with the longer word count of the two is what I'd enjoy writing more.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

That's hard to answer, to be honest. I like action, but I'm not always very good at it, I believe. It depends-ish?
Since you allowed it so freely, I'd just put out an example. I'm not even sure if this counts as promotion, since I just said I'm not that good, but at the same time, I don't hate it. It's okay; it portrays the way I use action in my stories pretty well.
-> Prologue of The Crazy Daughter of the Duke's Family

 

[Siegburn]

Essentially, in action scenes, especially fights, I tend to narrate the impact of the fight on the characters and the environment to show the consequences of the stakes at stake and maintain tension rather than simply narrating the fight moves.

Readers are more likely to sympathize with your character who is injured, bleeding, or even traumatized when they are attacked by their opponent than just showing beautiful choreography. They are more likely to feel pain (tension) when they see blood, bruises, and broken bones than a supersonic fistfight.

As an author, you need to note every injury the character suffers during the fight and the consequences of those injuries in the fight. This way, the fight will likely be more intense.

For example, if an arrow hits his left arm, he won't be able to use his left hand to punch his opponent.

And it's important to understand that choreography is important to show how the action unfolds. But injuries are the effect.

Perhaps I would simplify the cinematic fight pattern as follows: Action -> Reaction (choreography) -> effect (character injuries and environmental impact).

Well, here's an example of one of the best fight chapters I've ever written (in my opinion, I don't know what readers think). You can see the chapter here:

Vol 2 Chapter 69: The Final Battle Among the Wounded

Ward

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Every scene is different. I have a mixture of melee combat, magic combat, firearms, and even giant robots.

If you are going to write it, it needs to be important, with stakes. If your MC or whoever you're focused on at the time, is just going to steamroll, you can gloss over that fairly quickly.

Here is a chapter of DEN (161). My MC isn't involved, just perspectives from different allies/enemies of the mech fight. To give context, the antagonist were lured into a cave to battle, negating their mechs' superior speeds and weapon ranges. This is in the middle of a series of 3-4 chapters of the battle, where several characters died.

This is what I meant by stakes. Stakes deserve word count, while steamrolling deserves glossing over.

Spoiler: DEN 161

Star Captain Aaron Radick stood his mech up, trying to get his bearings. Lasers and short-range missiles were peppering his mech from somewhere in the dust, slowly chipping away at his heavy armour. His spotlight was no longer working, and his mechs' running lights couldn't pierce the dust that was now obscuring his vision.

Checking his Star's status panel, he could see the Vulture and the seven Elementals had survived the cave-in, though the Vulture had taken some damage to its back armour. "Wolves, switch to thermals. Saturate the hall in front of us. Just because we cannot see her, does not mean we cannot hit her!"

"Aff, Star Captain." Came the reply, then a wall of long-range missiles and laser fire swarmed past him, disappearing somewhere into the darkness.

He added his own lasers, then throttled up the Gargoyle, loping down the tunnel again at maximum speed. He would find this Stravag and make her pay.

"Aww, so close! You actually took out one of Suzy Q's jump jets with that last one. You should really take a girl out for dinner first before you try and pound the guts outta her." The mechwarrior named Jenny Keys said, mocking him yet again.

"Stop running, you Freebirth scum! You Guards have no honour after dropping a ceiling on top of us."

"We did no such thing, Star Captain. In fact, you should be thanking us! We were just so worried you puppies would turn tail and run, so we made sure to block your escape route. We were very concerned about your honour, you see."

He fired another volley of laser fire down the tunnel, the lasers impacting on the walls of an upcoming curve in the path. "Escape? Why would we try to escape from you? You are the ones at a disadvantage here."

"You're right, we are at a disadvantage. Your mechs can run circles around all of our remaining mechs. All but little ol' Suzy Q here, beating them up from a distance like the big bad wolves you are. Oh, so honourable a combat that would be, not even taking a scratch. But that is out there. In here, I am afraid you lost that advantage, Star Captain. I did tell you this was my dungeon, and Mistress Keys and her two assistants will be sure to thoroughly school you on an old warrior's favourite form of combat. Ambush tactics."

The wall beside him exploded in a shower of bricks as a massive mech slammed into his side, causing his sprinting mech to stumble and fall on its face. His two Elemental passengers went flying somewhere in the darkness, but he didn't have time to process that as another volley of laser fire peppered him.

"Stravag!" He growled. Just as he was rocking his mech back up to its feet, another voice came through his headset, an older man's voice.

"Bad Dog. Sit!" It said, just as a fist from this new assailant's mech slammed into the side of his cockpit, cracking the ferroglass and causing his ears to ring from the impact. He twisted his mech's torso, looking up at a bright green mech that had a very similar design to his own.

Despite the blood running out of his ears, he cracked a smile. He was worried that this battle wouldn't even be a challenge. He had never been so happy to be proven wrong before.

---

Trix was waiting for Jenny to send the signal, hiding in her Hunchback behind the 0.3 metre thick wall of stone that John had cut out of the wall, before the mining crews came in to blow out the rest of it. They had bricked her and James into two of these openings, hoping to catch the wolves in a pincer attack.

With what Mia had told them about Clan mechs, most could move at least 86 kph, if not much faster. Both her and James' mechs could only move at the same speed, or in her case, slower than their slowest mech. They would be at a massive disadvantage if they tried to fight them in the open, his Charger having almost no ranged weapons at all, while she had only two medium lasers outside her massive 203mm big-bore autocannon.

So, they engineered this entire battle to force the wolves into close-quarters combat in this tunnel. That was something the Clans were notoriously bad at, Mia had admitted*, never training in it, as it was seen as distasteful and uncivilised. It would be their only chance at squeezing out something resembling a victory here.

When John said Freddy and Jack had died, she shed a few tears at the loss, but they had said their goodbyes last night. They couldn't eject inside the cave, not without becoming a pancake on the ceiling, so not one of them had expected to survive this battle. They kept most of that from John, the youngest of them, though she suspected he knew what they were planning. They were not coddling him; he wasn't a kid, but he now had a kid and a new wife to take care of. Let the rest of the old folks die while he had a chance to get free.

When she heard Jenny mocking the Wolf mechwarrior on open comms, welcoming them to Mistress Keys' dungeon, she started bellowing in laughter. To think of the little mousy white-haired grandmother as some dominatrix in a black leather outfit, wielding a crop, caused such stitches in her sides that she almost missed her cue.

She counted to ten, then throttled the Hunchback forward, breaking through her 'wall' and striding into the tunnel. In front of her, not fifty meters away, stood the enemy Vulture, along with a handful of those Elementals still attached to it. It had just let a volley of missiles and laser fire towards James’ mech, staggering him a bit from that Alpha Strike. (Firing all your weapons at once)

So much for one-on-one. Not that we asked for it this time.

She announced her presence with a flash and a boom, her 203mm cannon deafening in the close confines of the tunnel. The HEAP rounds slammed into the vulnerable left rear torso of the mech, blowing apart all of the armour there and eating deeply into its internals. Something exploded, blinding her for a moment. When her screens returned to normal, the left torso and arm had been blown clean off the heavy mech, the LRM ammo bins being hit by her shot.

She smiled at that, not expecting the giant autocannon to be so much fun!

I should have asked to be a Hunchback pilot years ago!

She looked at her ammo, then remembered why she didn't want to be a Hunchback pilot.

Nine more shots. Hopefully, I don't need them.

The remaining two Elementals quickly recovered and fired SRMs at her, then activated their jump jets to close the distance. The missiles slammed into her, doing some minor damage to her torso.

"Oh, no you don't!" She said, ignoring the missiles and firing her two medium lasers at one of the Elementals, turning the little beast into slag. The other one landed on her shoulder where the autocannon was mounted. She stopped, then side-stepped her mech, slamming her right side into the wall repeatedly. She took several volleys of laser fire from the now recovered Vulture, but ignored it and the low armour warnings from her computer, until she saw the corpse of the now flattened Elemental fall to the ground at her feet. She stomped on it for good measure, then refocused her attention on the mech in front of her.

"Smile!" She said over the comms, letting rip with another autocannon salvo.

---

James closed his hand actuator on the last Elemental, pinning it in place, then slammed his fist back into the now standing Gargoyle. The two little gnats had started to crawl over his mech, distracting him from keeping the Wolf mech from standing back up. He didn't have much choice when they started to claw their way into his cockpit.

The little guy splattered under the power of a 80 ton assault mech's swing, crumpling against the other mech's left shoulder.

Now to finish this-

*vvrrrRRT- B-B-B-BOOM!!!*

A deafening noise, even louder than Trix's Hunchback's autocannon, assaulted his ears. He was blinded for a moment when the dim tunnel turned as bright as the noonday sun. Warning sounds were going off in his headset, but he was disoriented enough that he couldn't make out what they were saying. When he opened his eyes, he blinked a few times, trying to make sense of the screen in front of him. The autocannon on the Gargoyles' arm blew the entire left torso and arm off his mech with one shot, taking two of his small lasers with him.

My armour was fresh there. The Charger is lightly armoured for an assault mech, but still. One salvo?

He jammed his throttle forward, slamming his fist back into the other mech with all his strength. He had to try to break that weapon at all costs.

"Jenny, go for its arm. That Autocannon needs to be disabled!" He said on their secure comms. At least he hoped they were secure.

"I will do you one better. Give him a push back in five seconds."

He wasn't sure he had five seconds before that thing reloaded, but he would do what he could.

Laser light lit him up as six lasers shot out of the Gargoyle, the autocannon remaining silent for a moment. They peppered his mech, doing fairly superficial damage, but that wouldn't matter if that gun went off again. He stepped forward then, shoulder-checking the other mech, causing it to stumble backwards.

Out of the darkness behind the Clan mech charged Suzy Q, the armour on the mech having nearly been completely stripped off from repeated laser fire, leaving mostly open structure. Even the cockpit top had been sheared off, making Jenny look like she was driving some sort of weird convertible mech with its top down. She threw the Jenner into a powerslide, smashing the back of the stumbling mech's legs, firing her lasers and missiles as she did so.

She has to be the best pilot I have ever met.

The Gargoyle tipped over yet again, this time falling on its back.

"Thanks for dancing with me, pup! It's been a pleasure!" She said on open coms. She gave James a salute just as a wall of 20 LRMs slammed into her mech, engulfing it in fire.

Those LRMs were about to slam into my mech. Well, let's not let her sacrifice be in vain.

He picked up his blown off arm from the ground and strode towards the still prone Wolf.

He was going to beat that mech to death with his own torn-off arm as a club.

---

*CLANG!*

"Star Captain! Wake Up! Star Capta-"

*B-BOOM*

*SHHICCTIK*

"Hun? What happen- NO!" Arron Radick said, gaining his bearings from yet another fall. He was bleeding in several spots now, and might have a concussion, but that didn't matter. The readouts on the screen showed him the Vulture had just fallen, the Guard's Hunchback finally breaking through its armour and disabling its engine. It had turned its sights on him now.

The Charger was standing over him, slamming... its own arm down on him. He hadn't broken through any armour yet, but there wasn't much left. It was possible that Hunchback could disable him in a single shot now.

"Star Captain Aaron Radick of Clan Wolf. You have fought well. Surrender now, and you may become a bondsmen. If that is unacceptable, then I, Captain James Kearney, will allow you Bondsref." A male voice said over the comms.

He chuckled at that. While he and his mech were indeed beat up, they were not out of the fight yet. Instead of answering, he set his mech upright, and after taking a quick aim, he activated his Ultra Autocannon*. The mechanism spun up, about to send 200 mm slugs rapidly firing out of its barrel. Just as it was firing, the Hunchbacks cannon flashed.

*vvrrrRRT- B-B-B-BOOM!!!* *B-BOOM!*

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Typically, at least for most of my current projects, I write them on my phone, then edit them with a partial AI software package to add sound effects and music before publishing to Pocket FM.

Oh, you don't mean the real-world mechanics? It depends on the story and how complicated I need the scene to be (primarily in the number of characters involved). If it's a simple, small-scale thing, like a duel, then I just go in with an idea of who will win and how, and just run with it. Other times, I roughly block it out with a list of events I want - or need - to happen and "write around it."
An example of the latter is

The retort of the pistol temporarily deafened everyone in the room.
The two uninjured minotaurs and two others who ran up to investigate the noise cleared the bodies out of the way while Malcolm took a defensive stance, Carol moved to the middle of the room, and Liz moved to protect David.
While they were shuffling around, Sandra and Zark began exchanging blows. The massive humanoid was better at using his shield than his actual weapon - but he was good enough that she had to work to avoid his blows - especially when he decided to try to disarm her first. The chain of his flail proved a good choice for such tactics, and she almost lost her blade twice before she managed to strike a blow to the weapon itself that cut a deep gash in the chain; unfortunately, this meant the spiked ball at the end of the chain bounced off of her forearm, causing a lot of pain - her armor kept the bone from breaking, but only just.
At the other end of the room, Liz was doing her best to hold off two minotaurs, but she was losing ground steadily - both had axes and she was hard pressed just to defend. Malcolm managed to dart in a few times and land solid blows on them with his martial arts, but it was only enough to slow them, not hurt them. He stepped back, and tried to think of a way to be more useful. A minotaur in the back suddenly tossed a spear - it removed the ear of one of the minotaurs fighting Liz, fley past them and struck Audrey, who managed to turn enough to keep it from scoring a fatal blow on her, but she was bleeding pretty badly.
Suddenly several pieces of kitchen wear rose into the air and joined the fight against the minotaurs, darting and weaving and striking, seemingly at random. This gave Liz enough of an opening to take one of the monsters down with three swift blows; she took a glancing blow from the other and darted back.
“This is getting brutal,” she commented.
As she moved back, the minotaur lunged not at her but past her to attack Carol - and then screamed.
“I’m guessing you’ve never had pepper spray in your face, bull brain?” Carol replied, a small can visible in her hand. Liz managed to knock the monster out before it recovered, only to find herself imeediately facing another.
Meanwhile, something pushed Thellissandra’s foe forward, forcing her to stumble back in response. As she regained her balance, the creature’s weapon slammed into her left shoulder, and her arm fell to her side, useless. She was inside of its reach, though, and close enough to stab it using her good arm - and Zark fell to the ground, dead - only to reveal a smaller, gray furred minotaur with a bald patch between his horns behind it. He pointed at Sandra and a violet beam that looked almost like a spider web erupted from his finger tip. Sandra dodged, but her limp arm flailed up and directly into the blast - and began to wrinkle and dry up
“Withering blast - they have a mage or a witch doctor!” Malcolm exclaimed.
David spun around and saw Thellissandra’s condition. He took out the orb Anika had given him and saw the effects around her - he quickly tried to tap the right runes to counter it but found a force was impeding him - the balding minotaur was staring at him, its eyes glowing with a silver radiance, images flickering around inside of them. As quickly as David was able to form a counterspell, it made a new spell, or countered one of his - they were locked into a situation he had only seen in the game twice - a spell duel. Unless something interrupted them, one combatant was likely to either die or be stripped of all ability to work magic - if they were interrupted, just about anything could happen, from nothing at all to a massive explosion.
The first time he saw one in the game, Malcolm’s older brother was the player who started it with an NPC, and one of his friends, who had not been paying attention, assumed he was caught in some kind of mind control and shook him, resulting in an explosion that killed the two characters in the spell duel, as well as the one who disrupted it in a gruesome, fiery display. The second time, an orc wizard had challenged his own character - and ended up stripped of all power and memory as a result.
Dimly, Dave recognized a song playing in the background, and realized Malcolm had pulled out the magic lute.and seemed to be playing Carl Douglas’s “Kung Fu Fighting.”
The minotaur’s focus seemed to waver, and David struck, ceasing all attempts to counter and going for an all-out strike of Fire and Air.
He did not see what happened, just knew that his efforts to stop the spell on Sandra were no longer opposed and he quickly ended the Withering Blast; he then ran to her - he had saved her life, but her arm was useless and she was barely conscious.
Then he heard Carol’s voice: “We got this wave. Get out of my way and I think I can heal her.”
Numbly, he complied and glanced around. He saw several dead minotaurs, and a small creature that might have been a baby one. He moved toward it, and heard Carol scream.
He spun around, expecting another attack, but saw that she had taken all of Sandra’s injuries upon herself and had not been prepared for the pain that would cause.
Slowly, her arm repaired itself as Sandra’s eyes fluttered open. “Thanks, Carol,” David said. “We owe you.”
Malcolm put a hand on David’s shoulder. “We can rest a minute, but then have to get moving. You … babified, I guess the word is; turned him into a calf or whatever they are. Was kind of awesome and kind of disgusting. Mostly disgusting.”
“So, I guess we won?” Audrey said, her voice strangely weak. Everyone but Carol and Sandra turned to her.
She looked very pale and unsteady, and was holding her side with both hands. Malcolm rushed over and she went limp in his arms, blood dripping from her side - clearly the spear wound struck deeper than it had seemed!
“Carol! Liz! Do something! Audrey…. I can’t lose Audrey! Malcolm wailed.
Liz walked over and helped set her down. Her breathing was shallow and she was growing paler.
“This wound is bad,” she declared, sadly. In a fully equipped hospital with an assistant or two, I could do something but here? Carol?”
Carol walked over and examined the wound. There were tears in her eyes. “I… healing Sandra took everything I had. I could ease her pain, but anything more and you would be burying me and probably her as well.” She sighed sadly, trying to hold back how much this weakness was hurting her, for Malcolm’s sake.

While the former, the true seat-of-the-pants style is:

“Hursk, son of Marik, greets you. Are you prepared to die?”
“Thellissandra, Daughter of Nyreen, returns your greetings. It is a good day to die, though I doubt it will be mine.”
This was met with a low, rumbling, laugh and: “Spoken well. Prepare to defend yourself!”
She simply replied by drawing her sword and tapping two gems together. Her leather armor suddenly seemed to gain a metal shell.
The minotaur simply roared and rushed at her, swinging his axe widely. Sandra ducked under his attack and struck at him with her weapon.
The larger monster moved slightly and her strike impacted his bracers harmlessly.
The minotaur made a barking laugh, and struck with the hilt of his weapon instead of the blade. Sandra managed to roll with the blow but it still hurt.
She rolled away, avoiding two of his strikes and deflecting a third with her sword, which seemed near to breaking from the impact.
“Your weapon is ill suited to this type of combat,” Hurak observed
“Which will make my victory all the sweeter,” Thellissandra challenged.
“Ho! I like your spirit, human. Surrender and I will take you as one of my wives. I promise to be as gentle as you need.”
“Surrender and keep your wives,” came the reply, as Sandra leapt away from where they had been locked in.
The minotaur laughed. “Even if the impossible happens and you win, I thank you for this battle. It is already one of the best I have had in years…”
“It may yet break the top ten for this month for me,” she replied.
“You talk a better fight than you give - and you fight well,” Hursk replied, a touch of admiration in his booming voice. He stepped back, and began a complicated spinning swing that managed to slip past Sandra’s defense and strike the mystically reinforced armor on her forearm - the segment struck shattered and cracks spiderweb bed across the rest of her magical armor, as the bardiche itself let out an agonized wait - it had almost tasted flesh and was getting frustrated!
Sandra stepped back and narrowed her eyes. As Hursk recovered from his own, powerful swing, she leapt up, onto the head of the axe, using it as a spring board; she performed an amazing aerial flip and thrust her sword down, into where her opponent’s head should have been - but Hursk was too experienced a fighter to fall for that and he had moved slightly to the side. Instead of cutting into the giant’s skull, the sword pierced a spot on his shoulder between two pieces of armor!
As blood spurted out of the wound, and Sandra regained her feet behind her foe, spinning and ducking fast enough to avoid his counter attack, the minotaur.made a pained cry, and then appreciatively stated: “first blood to you. Again I say surrender, join my harem and I will give your team their time to explore.”
“Tempting, but I am already promised to another,” she replied. “Surrender yourself, and retain command of all your holdings.”
The minotaur laughed. “Even if I wished to - and I do not! - Ziy’alkrik would never permit such an act! Defend yourself!”
On the sidelines, Liz suddenly swore. “Ziy'alkrik. I should have recognized it the first time - The Howling Blade! “
“Ah, from one of the anthologies?” Carol asked, a vague memory coming to her. “Didn’t that thing…”
As they spoke, the minotaur had begun spinning his weapon like a drum majorette would spin a baton. A glowing ball of light appeared at the center of the spin, and when he stopped, the glow slid along the handle, lit up the head of the weapon, and then, as when made a wide slash, shot out as a cone of lightning as the weapon again emitted an agonizing wall.
“... throw out lightning bolts…” Carol finished her sentence, in a more subdued tone.
The sheath of lightning covered too much space for Sandra to dodge completely, so she maneuvered so that her still-protected arm and side took the brunt of the blast.
It still sent her flying, in great pain, and shattered the enchantment augmenting her armor entirely.
David started to step forward but Liz poked him with a yantok to the chest. “No, she must do this alone. We interfere, I doubt any of us leave here alive,” she warned.
Glumly, David nodded that he understood. “Come on Thellissandra,” he said under his breath. We need this win and I need you!”
As if she heard him, Sandra glanced his way, and smiled. Then, to the surprise of all, she returned her sword to its gem form, and stood in a low crouch.
Malcolm recognized the stance as very similar to one he knew from aikido - a defensive position that was ideal for using an enemy’s strength against them. The minotaur approached her cautiously, suspecting a trick.
She simply smiled.
Then the bardiche let out a low whine, like a frustrated puppy, and Hursk charged her, his weapon upraised to strike.
Though what happened next went by too quickly for the observers to follow, to the two combatants, it seemed to move in painfully slow motion. Sandra stood there, waiting until the last possible moment before ducking, twisting and spinning around just beneath the swing of her attacker; with one hand she managed to grab the haft of the minotaur’s gigantic weapon, with the other his wrist, and her spin used his momentum plus her strength to send the massive beast sprawling to the ground!
He momentarily lost his grip on his weapon, and during that brief second, Thellissandra retrieved her sword and, in one swift motion, severed his hand.
The minotaur howled in pain and rage, and swung at her with his remaining hand. She caught the blow on her shoulder, rolled with it as much as she could, and ended up inches from his face. His eyes opened wide, and through his pain, he grunted: “Do it. I die knowing I fell to one at least my equal.”
Sandra nodded and thrust her blade into his head, he gasped loudly, and as she removed the blade, he fell forward on his remaining hand and stub, and then dropped to the ground, gasped, and breathed no more.
His brides made a loud wailing noise in unison, and then one came forward, picked up Hursk's weapon and stared at Sandra as if in challenge.

 

[Bald-san]

I'll be publishing a chapter tomorrow that's a duel between a Magic User and a Non-Magic User, with the overall theme being Might versus Magic.

But I'm trying something new with how I convey my action scenes on chapter so it got me wondering how you guys write your action scenes?

You can explain how you do it, or feel free to self-promote and share some of your chapters that have action scenes

I gauge how strong the opponent is to tell if my MC should use her strategies more or more of her own brawn. The moves, sequences will follow naturally

 

[DoodTheMan]

I'm a very visual person, so I don't know if this will work for you the way it does for me. I tend to imagine the action scene in my mind as a comic page, first and foremost. I do my best to give a detailed description of each panel as they appear without gish-galloping and going on too long. Informative and succinct. Plot out a well paced fight scene which flows seamlessly, don't rush through it, but also don't fill it with too much description. If it's a long fight scene, it might be prudent to cut away to another scene, and come back to the battle later so as not to bog your chapter down.

The first half of this chapter is an action scene, so I think it should work for a good example: Pursuit

 

[onehunter]

I love the RDJ Sherlock style. Analyze, plan, fast action, then off to lunch. Not sure how readers feel about it, though.