"Wouldn't be smart telling you," Ludwig replied as he moved closer. "After all, you could easily adapt. So..." Ludwig said as he placed his sword next to Akro's face. "Who are you?"
The blade hovered a hair's breadth from its cheek. Ludwig watched the eyes. The thing's pupils were wrong, too still, too confident for something pretending to be wounded prey.
"Nothing a dead orc needs to worry about!" it said and lunged.
More like, its neck elongated like that of a bounding serpent toward Ludwig's face. With his jaws opened wide enough to gobble up ludwig's entire head in one bite. The motion was obscene, vertebrae stretching, skin tightening, the grin turning into a maw. The air snapped with the speed of it.
However…
Ludwig's hand snapped forward, faster than the creature's ambush. He struck with the bottom of his palm at the lower jaw of the creature, forcing his snout to shut, and then in the same motion, he clamped tight with the same left hand on the snout, closing it.
