Oh, and by the way, earlier i forgot to mention this, but you can be slashed, and as long as none of your critical muscles get cut, or limbs hacked off, then you'd be able to slash back, and do the same, you'll both probably die if it's deep enough within a few minutes, but battle servers don't have infection or blood loss after the fight is over to kill you, so it'd still be realistic if you only get flesh wounds.
-Ulrek-