This wasn’t his first rodeo. Or at least, that’s what Kushiel tried to tell himself. He’d mocked before, he wasn’t a rookie. He tried not to consider that his first and only battle had been with his mother and that he had lost.
It wasn’t healthy, to let that kind of negativity into your life.
As it was, Kushiel tried to keep his face stoic, and sized up his opponent. A little birdie had told him that Flamevein was the Valley’s version of himself. A real man on fire. The gray stallion smirked deeply. Except, Flamevein had pyronkenisis. Kushiel could only assume that meant he could create fire, as well as control it. The Chamber’s governor turned brawler scowled. That bastard. Flamevein was making him look bad. Kushiel could control fire, but he couldn’t create it. At least he’d come prepared, fire blazed down his neck, legs and back.
If Kushiel was being honest, he’d brought the fire just to give the others a good show. Kushiel and Flamevein would all but cancel each other out. Neither would burn, and Flamevein would be able to control Kushiel’s fire just as well as Kushiel could control Flamevein’s. Kushiel tried not to let this get to him.
He’d only signed up for this little romp because he wanted to smoke some poor bastard to kingdom come. Now it looked like he’d have to do this thing for real. He sighed dramatically and nodded to the other stallion in greeting.
“Might as well get on with it, right?” Despite his title as the Chamber’s governor, Kushiel wasn’t always that good with words. He said things when they came to mind and didn’t have much to add otherwise. In this instance, he got right to the point, and rushed Flamevein’s left side.
Kushiel was under the impression that Flamevein would have a lot more experience in battle then he, himself could boast. He hoped the sudden attack, the sudden zero to sixty, would catch his opponent off guard. Kushiel wasn’t sophisticated enough to fight a technical battle, so all that was left to him was brute force. He was young, and stood at 16.2 hands. What he lacked in work ethic he made up for in size and vitality.
Kushiel rushed Flamevein, approaching perpendicular to the other man’s left side. If Flamevein was to stand still, Kushiel would collide with him right at the shoulder in what the less sophisticated would call a “tee-bone.” Flamevein could either turn towards the assault, and try to fend off the attack with his head and front hooves, or he could turn, take the brunt of the attack on his flanks. Kushiel kept an eye on his opponents movements. He hoped the speed of his assault wouldn’t give Flamevein much time to move. Kushiel was prepared to maul the other man in the face, he didn’t, however, want to let Flamevein fire his back hooves.
The purpose of Kushiel’s attack was to aim a vicious bite at the other stallion’s neck. This was a mock, as unlikely as it was that Kushiel could manage to cripple his sparring partner, he didn’t want to get called up for unnecessary roughness. That being said, they weren’t picking daisies here, and Kushiel wasn’t about to go easy on Flamevein. Kushiel had gone easy on his mother in his last battle. That was the real reason he had lost, regardless of what the judges might have said. This time he put his back into it, using his own body like a battering ram and aiming a strong bite at the middle of Flamevein’s neck, about half was down from his crest.
If Flamevein was able to avoid Kushiel’s bite entirely, perhaps he’d at least be jostled a little. Kushiel wasn’t trying to ram the other stallion, the purpose of the attack was to bite, but the speed he was going promised a good deal of jostling of Flamevein didn’t get out of the way. Still, Kushiel didn’t wait around to seem what happened. As fast as he could, Kushiel pivoted left, towards where Flamevein’s head had been during his initial assault. He wasn’t about to turn towards the other man’s flanks. When Kushiel had gotten his perfect, precious face out of the way he grunted with effort, and lashed out with both his back hooves in a bucking kick. He thought the move was pretty slick, it was both defense and attack. Flailing hooves would make it harder for Flamevein to get to him, and if Kushiel was lucky, one of his hooves may hit the other stallion.
Take that you fire creating bastard.
With his opponent supposedly behind him, and a big open world of things not trying to hurt him in front, Kushiel continued his momentum forward. He tried to put as much space between himself and Flamevein as possible. If Flamevein wanted to get an attack in he could chase him a little. Hey, the girls did it all the time.
