The shriek was still reeling from the blow when he moved in again, his falchion a blur as he swung a vicious slash across his body, the shriek's twin blades pinning it with the squeal of grating metal as its rusty blades slid down to his guard. Cormac's arm trembled with exertion as they locked in place, fetid waves of stench rising from the darkspawn face just inches before his own to churn his stomach. In a blur of motion the shriek broke the block, whipping forward just as Cormac leapt back, the creatures blades clanging together in the empty air where Cormac's neck had been moments before. As the darkspawn lurched forward, thrown off balance by the lunging strike, Cormac smashed the spiked pommel of his falchion down onto the creature's sharp shoulderblade. The shriek buckled to its knees and Cormac let his arm follow through, the momentum swinging his blade back up into the air to slam down on the shriek's exposed neck. His keen blade bit deeply into the back of the shriek's neck, severing all but the smallest scrap of skin at the throat, and Cormac leapt back away from the spraying blood, kicking the darkspawn's limp corpse over with one foot as the thick black blood coursed from the stump of its neck to flow along the ground in ebbing waves.
His breath tore in and out as he turned to check on the others in his group, hearing the sounds of fighting still searing the air around them. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, and shook the stiffness from his shield arm. Where there were shrieks, there would be other darkspawn, and he wouldn't let his guard down for a moment.