How To Write a Fight or Battle Scene

Part 4 - Multiple Opponents

Multiple Opponents 

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his." - George S. Patton

Most normal human beings will be unable to fight more than two opponents at the same time. For the rest of us mere mortals (or simians) one opponent is usually plenty. However, for the sake of 'hero' (or heroine of course, but I'll continue in the 'he' vein for now) we usually assume that at some point our main action type character will face off against several folk / creatures at once.

This is where careful planning really starts coming into it. If your hero (and they probably will be a hero if they're taking on many opponents, Nigel from accounts only pretends to be an orc at weekends) is fighting multiple characters they're not going to form an orderly queue while Conan the Chunderer gaily picks them off one at a time.

"I say old boy, form an orderly queue, we'll all get to have at him eventually you know, please wait your turn."  

"After you, dear boy." 

"Oh no, I insist, you spent all last night sharpening your sword, it's only fair that you get first hack at the hero."

This is not a line at the post office where the little old lady gets first whack with her handbag (or battleaxe, although she might be one of course, some old ladies are formidable), this is a melee where the bad guys are trying to take out the good guys. This is not the place for the Queensbury Rules. Unless you're doing comedy it should be a desperate scramble for survival; a frantic, brutal and bloody battle, not the queue for the last few breadsticks at the Kwik-E-Mart.

A great exponent of the multiple opponent fight scene is Jackie Chan (see clip). Whether you like him or not, watch one of his films and have a look at it, or have a bimble through the endless clips on places like YouTube. If you think you can describe something like that, then go for it. Choreographing something like this in your head, or on paper for that matter can be done, but you really do need to make sure you've got it straight in your head first.

You also have to keep track of how many have died, or been injured enough that that can't continue...

Work out how your hero can fight multiple opponents: is he stood on a bridge where they can only come at him a couple at a time? Is he in a tunnel or in a hallway? Can he manage a staged retreat until some help arrives? Is he alone with no chance of back up? Keep asking yourself questions. It's unlikely he'll survive if he gets surrounded, as all it takes is one to hamstring him or belt him across the head and he's toast.

Above all though, if he's your main character and you want him to survive, how the hell are you going to get him out of the situation you've stuck him in? Getting your character into a perilous situation is great as it keeps the reader embedded in the story, but you have to know in advance how he's going to get out. Skyhooks are not allowed, and any 'way out' has to be in keeping with the rest of the story, believable, and within the limits of the universe you've set up to tell your story in.