"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
For bragging rights or a friendly visit, whatever you prefer.
Terms:
- Two posts each.
- Two attacks/counter attacks per post.
- Four days between posts (I'll try for three though, this is in case school gets crazy earlier than I think it will. ).
- Reasonable extensions allowed.
- Traits allowed (though I can limit Lyris if you like, I don't know if Emmerly has traits).
- I don't really care who goes first.
She takes her time getting to the battle grounds, trotting only enough to loosen her muscles but conserving as much energy as she possibly can. It’s hard to contain her excitement, though. It’s difficult to slow the blood pumping quickly through her muscles when she thinks of the fight awaiting her. It’s been far too long since she’s engaged in anything more than her own training – more than chasing her adopted son around the Gates, really – and she can’t wait to remedy this fact.
When she enters the grounds, her pale blue eyes immediately scan for her opponent. Spring has made the earth lush and bright with new grass, but it has little effect on the actual challenging area. The earth here is so densely packed from decades upon decades of trampling hooves that nothing can ever hope to grow. The dirt backdrop makes it easy to spot Lyris, however. As she sizes up her opponent, Emmerly notes that they are of a similar build. I’ve an inch or two on her, she thinks, not enough to really make a difference in my favor or her’s. The woman has no obvious traits, at least none that the paint girl can see. But then again, they had both agreed that traits are to be allowed – surely some ability lies beneath the surface of the Amazonian’s skin.
Em bows her head once in acknowledgement before moving forward. The sun is nearly directly above the warriors, noon fast approaching, so it does not hinder either of their sights. She can see the other mare clearly as she moves closer to her at a swift canter. Emmerly doesn’t expect that Lyris will remain stationary at her approach, but she tries to position herself so that she remains just in front of her at all times. When she’s within a few feet of the mare, she jerks left, intending to run at a 45 degree angle alongside the mare. Emmerly loses some speed for her ducking motion, but she hopes it positions her where she needs to be to attack. She momentarily slows even further in order to kick out with her right rear leg, aiming for the appaloosa’s delicate belly. There’s always the chance that Lyris has ducked to her left, in which case, Em’s blow will be hardly more than a glancing one. If the mare has chosen to dart forward instead, the kick might land further back, hitting the equally sensitive flank or more muscled hindquarters. She hopes it has made its’ mark where she had intended, though.
She is still moving off of the appaloosa Amazon at an angle after her attack. Quickly, she bends to the left to circle back towards her opponent. Emmerly doesn’t want to lose too much ground – doesn’t want to stir the red clay into the air around them with no way to escape it, either – so she tries to minimize the distance between them. For her second attack, the paint girl completes a full circle (her left front leg leading as she canters back towards Lyris) and approaches the other mare’s hindquarters head on. Assuming the Jungle fighter has moved from her original position, Em has to adjust her own movements accordingly. Once close enough, she plants her rear hooves in the dirt and heaves her upper body into the air. She keeps her knees tightly pressed together as they lift upwards, intending to drive them up and into the shorter mare’s haunches. The area is highly muscled, Emmerly knows, but she hopes to unbalance Lyris with her push more than anything. Perhaps it will give her more time to anticipate the Amazon’s next attack. If the femoral or gluteal muscles underneath the girl’s spotted coat are bruised and sore as well, she’ll consider it a bonus. Emmerly’s second attack should work at least somewhat to her advantage unless Lyris has moved and evaded it. If she has jumped forward, Em’s right knee will likely be the sole driving force into the last muscle of the haunch – the semitendinosus. If injured, a hit here will decrease Lyris’ propulsion power when she attempts to move her weight forward. Emmerly falls from her half-rear, her front hooves sending a puff of red dust into the air as she readies herself for the other’s actions to come.
By the time she reaches the challenge grounds, she’s full of excitement.
She’s never actually done a proper challenge before and she’s interested to see the result. Oh she’s fought before - mocks and little spats with randoms that thought they could take her on - but never an actually challenge with consequences. It will be rather interesting.
When she finally finds Emmerly, she stops to size up her opponent. The scarred buckskin tobiano is probably actually the first opponent of hers to be of a similar size - though Emmerly still has a couple inches on her.
But she does not have the time to dwell on anything else - Emmerly is bowing her head in acknowledgement, and the battle has begun! The tobiano mare canters towards her, enacting an attack that Lyris thinks she knows well. She paws at the ground, readying herself to wheel to the side … when the Gate’s soldier swings to Lyris’ right. “Shit!” She tries to swing herself out of the way (to her own left), but Emmerly’s hoof still makes impact. It’s more of a glancing blow, but Lyris still winces - it’ll bruise. Clearly she got ahead of herself here - she anticipated the wrong attack.
The mare is circling around, so Lyris stays where she is, orange flecked eye following her with considerably more caution. This isn’t a serious challenge, but it’s still a challenge. She needs to be more careful.
Emmerly is eying Lyris’ rear end as she circles, and Lyris readies herself. She gathers the winds to her, creating a small, swirling vortex about her body. It isn’t too strong - she doesn’t want to seriously injure the mare - and not too high, only rising at about chest level. And when the tobiano rises on her hind feet to strike out, she releases them. The winds expand outwards, rushing and whistling through the air. If they catch Emmerly (and hopefully they will - it’s difficult to manoeuvre during a rear after all) the winds could overbalance her. At the worst, they could cause her to fall. Or they could simply cause her to stumble. Either way, if they make contact, it will leave the tobiano vulnerable.
And at the very least, the winds prevent Emmerly’s hooves from making contact.
Her counterattack completed, Lyris readies herself for her next attack. With a little hop, she plants her front hooves in the red clay and hoists her rear end into the air, lashing out towards Emmerly with both hind feet. If the winds have indeed caused the mare to loose her balance, she will make an easy target indeed. Though, how she has fallen will greatly influence where Lyris’ strike falls. If Emmerly is still facing Lyris straight on, Lyris could hit her straight in the chest. While it shouldn’t break any bones, it could bruise the chest muscles, leading to a hematoma. And those certainly aren’t pleasant.
If Emmerly has fallen to the right or left however, Lyris could hit a shoulder, bruising the muscle beneath and restricting the mare’s movement. Which would certainly be helpful in this battle.
Of course, she could miss entirely. Which isn’t outside the realm of possibility considering Emmerly’s evident past battle experience (the mare is covered in scars) - she could be prepared for such an attack. But finding out will have to wait.
The moment Lyris’ rear hooves once again touch the earth, she’s off, dashing away from her opponent. She doesn’t want to give Emmerly an easy opportunity for a counterattack.
I tried to tag you in an ooc post but I don't think it worked. I'll probably need one day extension (will be up tomorrow night most likely). Sorry, it's been a rough week for me.
Emmerly outmaneuvered Lyris for the first attack, but it seems the other is wise to her ways the second time around. As she’s rearing, her legs pressed tightly together at the joint, she can feel the winds start to swirl around her. The dried clay rises up in little red tornados, particles hitting her legs as Lyris pulls them towards herself. It’s an annoyance at first, but as time seems almost to slow, the paint mare realizes that far more is coming. The weather-manipulator lashes out then, the full force of her gathered gales rushing at Emmerly. She’s still in mid-air at this point, still vulnerable because of her unsteady position. She can tell that her attack will be useless now, and truly, she’s more worried about saving herself from tipping over at this point. Fortunately, she had never meant for her hooves to strike Lyris – only to push her pressed knees squarely into the mare’s hindquarters – so her legs have never been fully extended. The winds force her backwards into an awkward, quickened fall, but cause no other damage.
Lyris immediately begins her second attack after Em’s hooves hit the ground. She’s surprised when her opponent hops forward even further, however. Emmerly had already been targeting Lyris’s hindquarters before, and combined with the distance the wind had created between them, she’s not sure how far the mare’s kick can possibly reach. It does catch the paint off guard, at least. Because they are still mostly perpendicular (though Em has fallen a little to her right, closer to Lyris’s flying hooves) the mare’s attack manages to connect. She grunts when she feels the sting of hooves against her right shoulder. The blow is harder than she’d thought possible, given their positioning, but it is not marrow-shaking or a cause for retirement. It’ll certainly be sore for weeks, though.
Lyris streaks off once her buck-kick is completed. Emmerly tries a ginger step, wincing when she flexes her soon-to-be-bruised right shoulder muscles, before she picks up a canter after her. Her movement is not as smooth as it had been before, but she doggedly tries to keep up with her opponent. When she thinks she’s near enough, Emmerly reaches forward, snaking her neck out towards the ever-advancing figure of the Amazon mare. She opens her jaws as much as she can, aiming a bite at the croup region just above her tail. Where and if her teeth connect, Emmerly creates a small flame in her mouth to hopefully accompany the bite with a burn. It won’t be much of a burn – she can only manipulate tiny bursts of fire – but it might be enough of a distraction to make Lyris pause.
She hopes it is, because her shoulder is throbbing madly at her attempt to keep up.
The red dirt churns below eight sets of hooves naturally, unlike before when Lyris’s trait had pulled it from stillness. Both of the mares waste energy playing chase, so by the time Em is able to form her next attack, she hopes she isn’t the only one slightly out of breath. She manages to come alongside the appaloosa’s left side, running parallel to and just behind her. The Gates warrior springs forward, throwing her weight into her front legs and raising her hindquarters into the air in order to kick out with her hooves. She leans heavily into her left front shoulder, trying to spare her aching right shoulder any further grief. The maneuver still hurts, though. She grits her teeth and tries to power through it.
Her unevenly distributed weight is reflected throughout her entire body, and results in an uneven kick. She unwittingly pivots a little, her right rear leg reaching further out than her left. Emmerly aims for the mare’s ribcage, hoping to strike an area with high probability of damage. There is muscle covering the region, but a very low amount of protective fat. A hit here could result in a cracked or fractured rib, severely limiting Lyris’s movement and ability to pull a large quantity of air into her legs for battle. She’s further behind the appaloosa’s movements than she’d like to be, though. Em thinks if anything, her right hoof will catch Lyris on the flank, further back than the ribs. This area, too, is sensitive and if hit, will probably swell. She imagines they’ll have matching bruises more than anything, but she has to wait to find out.
She’s rather pleased when she feels her hooves make contact with the mare’s flesh. Yessss, first strike.
She feels a little smug as she races away, but not for long. Without warning, a set of teeth sink into her croup, accompanied by a burning sensation that is most decidedly not from teeth. “Ahh!” Emmerly has clearly caught up with her.
The surprise makes her stumble, but unfortunately for Emmerly it does not check her overall pace. Instead, it spurs her forward to even greater speeds, fuelled by a rush of adrenaline that makes it easier to ignore her aches.
But eventually she does tire (adrenalin doesn’t last forever after all), and that, combined with the dull ache in the right side of her belly (from Emmerly’s kick) and the burning in her croup, causes her to slow. And of course Emmerly catches up with her once again. Out of her left eye, she can see the mare running along slightly behind her.
She expects another bite (it seems the most logical choice, considering where Emmerly is), but she’s once again surprised. Emmerly suddenly dashes forward, throwing her weight into her front legs, and lashing out with her rear hooves. Lyris has only seconds to react. She draws the winds back in towards herself, and desperately pivots herself to the right, using the winds to steady herself. It’s a good effort, but not quite good enough. Emmerly’s right hoof still makes contact Lyris grunts at the sudden pain - the kick wasn’t strong enough to have cracked bones, but the sharp pain tells her that it’s left a sizeable bruise. Great, another one. She’s not fairing too well - a bruise on the left flank, a bruise on the right side of her belly, and a burned butt. Lovely.
She’s tired out now and her bruises are stinging, so she decides to turn down the physical theatrics. Both mares are now facing away from each other at right angles, and Lyris isn’t in a good position to lash out with her feet, she instead she rocks back on to her hind feet and wheels back around to her left, using the winds to help push herself in the right direction, and make up for the awkwardness of throwing her weight around so quickly, allowing her to stay balanced. As she pivots, she stretches out her neck, hoping to score a bite on Emmerly’s right thigh or buttock before the mare moves out of reach. It’s not an attack capable of causing any great damage of course, but it’ll pay the mare back for the burning sensation in her croup.
Then, for her final attack she pulls out a move that she’d used on Lagertha to admittedly little effect. But, Emmerly does not have the natural armour formation that Lagertha does, and therefore shouldn’t be able to make herself heavier to withstand the force of the wind.
She turns and canters away from Emmerly, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. As she canters, she heats the air close to the ground, and cools the air that’s closer to the clouds that are beginning to form. Then, using the last vestiges of her energy, she pulls the cold air down from the sky and draws the warm air up, causing them to converge. The resulting funnel that forms is a small one in the grand scheme of things - arching down from the clouds to the dirt. She could’ve called up bigger, has called up bigger, but she doesn’t want to actually seriously injure Emmerly. Just knock her around a bit.
Then, with one final push, she sends the funnel in Emmerly’s direction. Hopefully it’ll hit - might be funny to see the tobiano get knocked on her ass.
If either of you want it, I can probably work on a critique later. Overall though, I just felt like Emmerly's attacks were more planned out / methodical than Lyris' attacks.
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