His mind is devoured by the logistics of their fight, about how his opponent's size will affect him (he isn't quite sure yet, although it will be a pleasant change to meet a foe who will hopefully be just as bulky and cumbersome as Volterra himself; he grows weary of those short-arse bastards with their great agility), and how the surroundings will affect him (sight is limited, but as long as he keeps the other black close it shouldn't be too much of a problem). Contrary to his foe's rather deluded thoughts, he is not more muscular than Volterra - if anything, Volterra himself holds the edge on that front, given his increased stamina and speed through constant battles - and their height difference is negligible. All these thoughts race through his rage-addled brain as he attacks, a thousand calculations put into practice. The battlefield is the only place where the goliath's mind is knife-sharp. His foe steps backwards, and out of the corner of his eye Volterra just catches sight of those wicked, wicked horns as they come towards him like daggers of obsidian. He pins his ears, his body seized by instinct as he lunges to his right; the snow makes his movements cumbersome, however, and he can't move fully out of the way of the attack. Two of his opponent's horns manage to make contact with the left side of his neck, creating two thin but quite deep gouges, and pain erupts through the nerves beneath his flesh. He draws in a deep breath. For better or for worse, the leviathan has trained himself not to feel fear when he's on the battlefield - a rather foolhardy tactic, perhaps, because fear sharpens the reflexes, focuses the mind, and lends the muscles strength they do not usually possess. After all, what else but terror for their lives allows the gazelle to evade the cheetah even when their stamina is depleted and their limbs scream for mercy? But Volterra, a volcano in black fur, channels anything akin to fear into rage. He uses pain as a catalyst to feed the fires of his fury, and he uses his temper to fuel his blows and lend steel to his veins. So it is not fear that floods the great behemoth's mind as he feels the pulse of his wounds and realises that, had Abaddon's horns pierced just a few inches lower, they could have struck his jugular vein and oozed his lifeblood onto the snow. It is not terror that grips him at the idea that his life - so young, so full of potential - could have been ripped from him through one innocuous attack. A sensible horse would be afraid, or would become more cautious as a direct result of this near-miss. A sensible horse would ponder his mortality and ensure he respects his opponent, so it does not happen again. But Volterra is not sensible. Volterra is wrath incarnate; he is impulsive, he is hedonistic, he is rash and loud and explosive. In battle, these traits become amplified through the increased adrenaline flowing through his bloodstream, and when a could-have-been-serious injury is applied to that simmering cauldron of emotion...it is like putting a match to a stick of dynamite. The wounds so perilously close to his jugular do not frighten him, even though they should (and perhaps they do, in some deep, hidden part of his psyche that he crushes down when he's fighting, so as not to acknowledge its perceived weakness); they incense him. How dare this loud-mouthed pretender get so close to causing him a fatal wound? How dare he almost deal such horrific damage? An earth-shattering stallion's roar breaks free from the goliath's jaws, like a lion released from its cage to wreak havoc on its captors. He swings his haunches to the right, aiming to bring himself around to face Abaddon's left side in a T-shape. His hindhooves bury themselves in the snow as he lifts his colossal body into a rear, flailing his gargantuan forehooves in the direction of his opponent's left ribcage. He hopes to shatter bones and crush flesh, to cause obscene levels of pain and leave his foe immobilised; it is rare for the leviathan to fight so brutally in a spar, but this black thing has aroused the beast through his words and his attack to Volterra's neck. His dragons croon amongst the driving snowflakes. They like it when their bonded is enraged. It awakens the dragon in him. _____________ Teaching spar for @Abaddon ! Teaching notes below! ^^ 2/3 - 747 words FOOL ME ONCE, IT'S SHAME ON YOU FOOL ME TWICE AND LET THE WOLVES COME CRASHING THROUGH

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Teaching notes:

Spelling/grammar - I loved some of the prose you used, like 'Abaddon’s pools were full of fiery rage that only brightened the orange hues even further, giving a hellish close to them as it illuminated on the mutilated old flesh on his skull that burned just that little bit in the biting cold.' This was amazing and I definitely want to see more of it!

I noticed a couple of grammar errors/missing words, such as: 'Abaddon was sure that even when the rage from being so cold in the Frozen Steppe that he would be able to culminate some sort of win here'. It seems like there should be another word between 'Steppe' and 'that', like 'Abaddon was sure that even when the rage from being so cold in the Frozen Steppe faded, he would be able to culminate some sort of win here'. Also 'He grunted and shouted at his brutish opponent, the noise rattling around the terraria was he stayed fixed in his position in the hope that his sheer size was enough to put force on his horns that he hoped would cut open the flesh' I think this was meant to be 'rattling around the terraria AS he stayed fixed in his position'?

Your spelling seemed flawless though which is the sign of good proof-reading, so well done on that front! :D

Emotion - I got a definite feel of Abaddon's character in this post, his supreme confidence and his bloodlust, but I'd love to see more! You touched on the fact Abaddon seems quite exasperated with Vol's choice of fighting venue, but I'd love to see you add more to this in your other posts and really play on it. You could say how it's irritating him, how that makes him want to pound Vol into the ground even more, and add more layers to his hell-boy persona as well, the fact he loves battle and is confident of victory. Overall, though, it was a good post emotion-wise, so keep it up! <3

Attacks - You have great ideas for attacks - I loved Abaddon using his horns, they're his best asset and he can definitely do some damage with them! So the basics are definitely there, it's just your wording that needs working on, as it was quite confusing.

Try to be a bit clearer about where exactly on your foe you're attacking. You say 'ready to try and pierce the top part of the charcoal brute's neck', which to me implies the area just behind the poll, however getting to that given their positions would be almost impossible. You say Abaddon takes two steps backwards, then moves forwards. Because of Vol's charge, this would make them chest-to-chest, as Abaddon hasn't moved to either side. Given this, it'd be difficult for Abaddon to twist his head enough to spear Vol in any part of his neck - from what I gather his horns are quite long, so it'd be hard for him to bend his head around to either side of Vol's head to access his neck. After a couple of re-reads I think you may have meant Vol's throat, which would be a bit more accessible given their positions, but make sure you specify this! Try to use correct terminology if you can (like if you're attacking a leg, say whether you're aiming for the fetlock, knee etc) so the judge can easily picture what's happening.

You then say Abaddon tears to his left, which makes me think he's on Vol's left (given they're face to face) and is moving to bring them closer, but there's no mention of this in your post. Make sure you're really specific on your positioning, whether you're opposite your opponent, parallel, facing their left side etc. What I normally and shamelessly do is act out the fight with my hands to get a grip of left and rights....which results in some funny looks when performed in a library, I can tell you >.< But it really helps me determine where the characters are in relation to each other, and I always think that if I can picture it clearly, the judge hopefully can too!

Also, be careful with how you word things! 'Whilst he was flinging his horns into the flesh of the creature' could easily be taken as a GM/PP, as it sounds like his attack has already hit. Always use words like tried/attempted etc when you attack, so the judge knows that you're not assuming it hits :)

Damage taken - As far as I could see, you didn't take any damage - this was an honest mistake because of the mixup over the dice rolls so hopefully the judge won't penalise you, but be sure to wait for the roll in future! ^_^ I'm not sure how familiar you are with how damage is calculated but I'll explain anyway, feel free to slap me if you already know haha! The damage is rolled on a dice between 1 and 6 - 1 being the lowest damage, 6 being the highest. In other words, 1 rolls are your small bruises and mild cuts, and 6 rolls are seriously damaging hits that impact your character throughout the fight, like broken bones or severe bruises/cuts. However, your opponent's damage stat also affects how much damage you can take. If a character with a damage stat of 3 rolls a 1, it'd probably only be the tiniest of cuts or bruises. However, if a character with a damage stat of 8 rolled a 1, it'd hurt a lot more even though the roll is the same, so you'd be looking to take maybe a deeper bruise or more severe cut, depending on your opponent's attacks. Both Vol and Abaddon have damage stats of 7, which is pretty high, so their hits will always hurt even if they only roll 1s and 2s (which ironically they both did lololol). For example, as Abaddon rolled a 2, in my post I had Vol take two cuts to his neck from Abaddon's horns - had Abaddon's damage stat been a 4 or 5 then I'd probably have only taken light cuts and maybe only one, but because his damage is 7, I increased this to be moderately deep.

As Volterra rolled a 1, you should have taken fairly light damage. Given his high damage stat, if I was you I personally would have had Abaddon step back (as you did) then have Vol's chest slam hit to cause a light bruise, using the reasoning that the step back took away some of the momentum. I would then have had him swing his head to the left to avoid Vol's bite, then swing his head to the right to perform your counter - so your attack idea was really good, it just needed a bit more clarity!

Your dodges were quite unclear - I wasn't sure exactly what Abaddon did even after reading it several times. You say he took two paces backwards, but this doesn't explain how he avoided the bite; the bite isn't actually mentioned at all! Make sure you always mention all of your opponent's attacks and whether they hit or not. You then say 'just as he unknowingly had the brute's puffed out chest upon him' which implies Vol's chest slam hit, but there's no mention of any damage.

Basically, you have to look at the damage dice roll and use that to determine how much damage your character takes. You can decide how your character took that damage (so say your opponent attacks you three times and rolls a 5 for damage; you don't necessarily have to take damage from every attack, you could just take heavy damage from one attack and avoid the other two, it's up to you! You could also take damage from the environment, such as falling over, if your opponent rolls high but their attacks don't seem to warrant you taking that much damage) but you have to make sure you take it, and acknowledge every one of your opponent's attacks even if they don't hit.

Other - I liked that you mentioned the surroundings and how they'll affect you - I picked quite a tricky set of weather and terrain, but I always find that's more fun to incorporate! Later in the fight I imagine the snow will make our fighters tired, so you could then begin to mention tiredness setting in and saying how the thick snow is taking its toll.