If you've ever fantasised about donning a suit of medieval armour, flicking down the visor, and laying waste to your fellow human being with a two-handed axe, then historical combat — or "buhurt" — might be for you.

But what makes it a sport?

A bout of buhurt — a word fittingly derived from the Old French term for "wallop" — is typically a group fight with two teams, and can be a simple two-on-two fracas, but can go up to five on five.

The warriors are armoured, armed with blunted weapons, and are pitted against one another in an arena called a "list". 

Julian Hewet-le Forestier is the president of Team Kraken, a Melbourne-based buhurt club. He has been a buhurt warrior for more than seven years.

"Basically, the aim of the game is the competitors are trying to put the other team on the ground," he says.

"It's last man standing."

You have to force your foe to make three points of contact with the ground, and there are multiple ways of doing that.

"You've got throwing someone over onto the ground," Hewet-le Forestier says.

"Pulling their legs out from under them, pushing them in the back.

"And then there's making them not want to stand up anymore, so that's where you see the big two-handed axes come into play.

"You give someone a big knock on the head, or a knock on the chest, and they're not feeling so hot."

Fighting fair in controlled chaos

Of course, this isn't a total free-for-all, there are rules to protect the fighters, and things you can and can't do, like any combat sport.

And it's the rather ornately costumed marshals, buhurt's umpires, who enforce these rules.

Remy Wilson is an Australian Medieval Combat Federation national marshal, and acts as one of three marshals that usually officiate a bout of buhurt.

"We've got a line marshal, who is on the outside of the list," Wilson says.

"Then there's a field marshal [who is inside the list] and a knight marshal.

"The knight marshal is the head marshal of the entire thing … they make the final call."

There are some areas you can't hit. And if you do, the marshals can warn you, sit you down, or even disqualify you.

"You're not supposed to hit anybody at the back of the knee, the back of the neck, or the feet, and the groin obviously," Wilson says.

"It can get high-tension and aggressive, but we're looking for people who are able to weather that.

The marshals have to keep these skirmishes lingering on the edge of chaos, and it can be a perilous task.

"It can get a little bit difficult," Wilson says.

"You're looking at this, and you're looking at that, and at the same time you've got to make sure you're not in the fighters' way.

"Because I'm not wearing any armour, and if they hit me, that's it, I'm out."

A suit of armour can cost thousands

Of course, the weapons and armour are crucial to the sport, and there are rules governing what you can wield and wear.

"You'll see a lot of swords, in the fashion of falchions," Hewet-le Forestier says.

"One-handed and two-handed axes, in the form of hatchets, all the way up to pole axes.

"And then also shields as well. You'll see people using shields on their off hands. And a lot of the time they get used in a very offensive manner as well."

Armour sets usually weigh around 30 kilograms and resemble those from the late 14th century to the early 16th century, Hewet-le Forestier says.

"That is the golden era when it comes to protection and mobility," he says.

The designs are historically accurate, but there are some modern upgrades. Hewet-le Forestier wears a brigandine (chest piece) made of titanium — a metal derived from an element that wasn't even discovered until the 18th century.

And the armous is expensive.

"My gear … was about five grand," Hewet-le Forestier says.

"It is a barrier to entry for most fighters because it is a prohibitively expensive up-front cost.

"But to mitigate that we, as a club, have a lot of spare loaner gear that we've either made or has been retired from proper competitive fights."

Buhurt 'was the same price as going to the gym'

Cat Leonard is a Team Kraken fighter who only recently took up the sport.

"I had a couple of friends who did it [buhurt], and it was the same price as going to the gym," she says.

"And I never really planned to compete until someone commented, 'Yeah, you should not do this, you''ll get hurt.'

Leonard says the sport's not just for men.

"I do train with all of our big, burly dudes … we do have a couple of girls at Team Kraken," she says.

"And then it's also really exciting when we get to go to competitions and I get to fight a bunch of girls.

"Training all together just makes everybody better because they (the men) have to learn how to hold onto somebody that's flexible and slippery and cunning."

That's not to say Leonard isn't also a fan of the more direct approach.

"I'm finding I enjoy a small buckler, a little shield, because you can punch with it," she says.

"And that's really fun."

This is no LARPing matter

At a glance, all this can seem like an elaborate live-action role-play (LARP) exercise.

But if you watch a fight in full, hear the clangour of axes and see the sweat drip out of the helmets, you realise how serious a sporting endeavour it is — and one with a growing competitive scene.

Team Kraken came second at the national tournament in September, narrowly missing out on the chance to represent Australia at the International Medieval Combat Federation world championships in Spain next year.

But whether you're an expert or a novice, it's the feeling of combat that has compelled so many of Team Kraken's fighters to pick up the axe.

"Oh it feels great," Marcus Huber, another Team Kraken fighter, says.

"Even when it's happening against you because you get hit, you hear 'ooh' [from the crowd], and in your head you're like, 'Nah, that was nothing. I can take 10 more of those.'"

Albert Chompff is a new fighter and is yet to buy his own set of armour.

"A lot of the spectators have been asking me, 'Oh, is it (the armour) heavy? Does it hurt?'" he says.

"One, yes, it's absolutely heavy, and two, it doesn't hurt at all. You don't feel a thing."

The thrill of battle aside, it's clear there's strong sense of camaraderie here too — fighters who have just been landing concussive blows on one another are moments later, after the bout, embracing and all smiles.

"There's a fun saying in our sport," Hewet-le Forestier says.