[OOC: Strictly speaking, Azzuen wouldn’t be able to see Aurelius crash into Lace, because Lace was attacked before Azzuen was.]

The small stallion was panting as the pain spread from where he had been hit by Azzuen’s weight. It was just his luck that his spine had not been hit, but instead the soft part between ribs and hip on the right side. He felt the tissue swell, a nice hematoma forming under the skin and impairing his gait slowly but surely, blood dripping down his side from where hooves had cut through. Aurelius’ sight was now restored completely, and as he cantered on, he tried to relieve his aching right side from some of the weight. Inside his skull, his brain felt like one big, throbbing mush, and his rump had been seared, a big chunk of his once full tail burned away. Left was the cherry-red skin, blistering and tight, wet with blood and plasma and with chunks of burnt hair sticking out here and there. It was probably lucky Aurelius could not see, or he would’ve possibly passed out; the pain had nearly done that for him already.

Suddenly a dragon dropped from the sky above and turned its ferocious face towards him. The glimpse of fire within the frothing jaws was enough to make him shiver inside. Hell no, you won’t get me twice! The dwarven steed thought, hearing Azzuen shout commands from somewhere in the sky above him. So, he has not given up on me yet, he thought, knowing now to watch out for attacks coming from above. Gathering his thoughts, he made a sharp left in his wobbling gait, knowing better than to turn back in the same direction. Mauja had warned him to stay away from the dragons; now he certainly felt on his own body what the consequences of disregarding that command had been.

Suddenly, his headache intensified extremely, making him feel like his head was splitting in two. The dwarven steed screamed in pain, feeling close to blackening out for real this time. KEEP GOING! he shouted at himself voicelessly; if he halted now, it could very well be the end of him. It was pure instinct of survival that kept him moving, the strongest, most basic reflex in a flight-animal. As long as he was moving, he would be alright; that was how mother nature had made him. His gait had slowed to a stumbling trot, vision blurred by sheer pain this time, his world spinning.

The stirring winds from large wings being flapped above him caught his attention, and as he forced himself to fight the headache and look up, the spear was coming right at him. Luckily, as he was still moving, so Azzuen’s aim was considerably weakened, and Aurelius managed to dodge to the side in a nick of time. A nick was what he got on his shoulder from the spear, seeping blood slowly as he bucked up and flung his sturdy hind legs at the pegasus as the black steed was ascending again. The pain from his strained loin made him yelp in pain, but soon enough, he was off again, turned around and kept waddling in hopes to get lost in some of the confusion.

He felt his headache recede slightly, allowing him to think more clearly. It’s okay, nothing is broken. You can do this, keep on moving, one hoof in front of the other. The group with Faelene, Descaro and LEANDER was coming up ahead and the small steed saw his chance to make some sort of damage, even if he was injured. Trotting up behind slightly to the right of LEANDER, Aurelius aimed a hard bite at the stallions thigh above the hock, hoping to hit and draw blood. Stepping back a few steps, he tried to get out of range of kicking hooves, always keeping his attention divided between the present situation and any lurking danger from other sides. The hurt from his loin, the burn and his nicked shoulder made him considerably slower to react than usual, weakening his aim a little.

[664 words]
[Summary: Was burned on the croup by Fajira pretty severely, much of his tail seared away as well. Azzuen’s attack resulted in a hematoma to the muscle tissue in his loin, aside from a bleeding gash, rendering his gait wobbling and considerably slower. Sees Kiba and decides to head in a different direction, thus not trapped as Torasin had hoped. Regains his sight just in time for Azzuen to increase the pain of his headache, which slows him down further and makes him disorientated with pain. Luckily, he avoids the spear-dive barely, getting his shoulder nicked. He bucks and kicks at Azzuen’s legs as he takes back to air, then waddles over and aims a hard bite to Leander’s thigh while said pegasus is busy fighting others.]