Harnischfechten

— armored combat

When the cut is caught, the fight changes shape. Now the steel is gripped by the blade, not swung.

Talhoffer's later plates show what happens once the bind has collapsed inward and the fencers are close enough to seize cloth and steel. The sword becomes a short spear and a lever; the pommel is a hammer; the crossguard hooks the neck and the knee. This is where every German sequence eventually ends if neither fencer disengages — past the descending cut, past the bind, into the wrestling of armored men.