Crossword Genius

Fighting with no rules, shot untrained revolutionary by a lake (5,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

total war

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fighting with no rules' is the definition.
'total war' can be an answer for 'fighting' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'with no rules' bit.

'shot untrained revolutionary by a lake' is the wordplay.
'shot' becomes 'tot' (I've seen this in other clues).
'untrained' becomes 'raw' (I've seen this in another clue).
'revolutionary' says the letters should be written backwards (letters revolve around).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'lake' becomes 'L' (geographical abbreviation).
'raw' reversed gives 'war'.
'a'+'l'='al'
'war' put after 'al' is 'alwar'.
'tot'+'alwar'='TOTAL WAR'

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I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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