10 QUICK FIGHT SCENE TECHNIQUES - #8

The “Carnage" fight scene: As mentioned in the “Professional” fight scene, the "Carnage" fight scene focuses on the death and damage created by the fight more than the fight itself. The action verbs match the tone; both attacks and movements “tear,” “rip,” “burn,” etc.  
 
Example: Empress (2007) by Karen Miller
        A spear thrust took his stallion through its throat, it plunged to the sloppy ground and sent him flying. He struck, he rolled, and found his feet. The dead and dying clogged the plain beneath him, he had no choice but to tread upon them as he fought for his life. A glancing knife slash opened his cheek, he felt the blow but not its pain. An arrow struck him in the thigh; he snapped it off and kept on fighting. He knew the faces of the warriors beside him, but he couldn’t remember their names. They lived, they died, they fell or they fought on. Names no longer mattered. All that mattered was victory for Et-Raklion.
       Thrust—slash—stab—scream—over and over and over again. Breath seared and tearing, lungs in flames, muscles over-reached and burning, blood from his breached body slicking flesh, pumping hot. Kill. Kill. Kill.
       He caught a glimpse of Bajadek through the madness, painted in blood and wielding a broad axe. The warlord looked demonstruck, he was weeping, laughing. Four arrows jutted from his leather breastplate and two from his arm; if he felt them his pain did not show.
       Raklion shouted as a Bajadek warrior rose before him. Half her face was cut away, peeled from the skull like the skin of a peach. As he lifted his spear to skewer her like goat-meat her head was shattered by an Et-Raklion slingshotter’s stone. He leapt her body and stabbed a warrior striking for Dokoy Spear-leader’s back.
 
What makes it work:
       The carnage fight scene heightens the severity of the stakes of the battle by focusing the reader on the brutal outcomes of men and women hacking each other to pieces. 
 
Why it doesn’t always work:
       It is easy for this method to turn into a gore-fest if the writer isn’t careful. Moderation is the key to using this technique successfully. If every fight is "Carnage" fight, the reader will simply become acclimatized to the violence and the technique will lose its effectiveness.
 
Neutral observations:
       In the four paragraphs above, none of the attacks or moves are described in detail. They aren't needed. There is no place for finesse in this type of fight.