As Gaucho spun around, feeling the pleasurable sensation of having flung Valentine with his antlers - for that was how it felt to him, he briefly wondered if this stallion he was sparring with, was disfigured. As his body pivoted to follow alongside Valentine, and he lashed out with his left hoof, aiming for Val’s shoulder, he felt the frustrated woosh as his hoof connected with nothing but air. By this point, his jaw had already been opened wide to grab a mouthful of neck-skin, and yet he came away with thick black hair instead. As he spun around to buck, he at least felt reassured that some part of the grey stallion was where he thought it should be.

Charging forward, Gaucho flicked an ear back, listening to the sound of Valentine’s hooves on the flat Throat terrain. Given their relatively equal sizes and builds, Gaucho could hear when Val’s hooves left the ground. The image of that blood-red horn piercing his coat was still fresh in Gaucho’s mind. As the sound of only one thundering pair of hooves resounded in his ears, Gaucho slammed on the breaks. Dust flew from his hooves as all four legs fought to come to a screeching halt, digging deep into the dry firm surface of his homeland. He could felt his body swaying, as his front hooves tried to steady himself. Shooting out his wings to try and aid with the stabilization would be, in hindsight, a mistake.

As Valentine crash-landed in the dust next to Gaucho, his horn had been ready to pierce the muscly flesh of his right thigh. However, given that Gaucho had dramatically slowed down his forward movement, Valentine’s jab had missed it’s mark; but it had not missed. With an infuriated scream, Gaucho craned his neck around in time to see Valentine’s horn piercing through the soft flesh of his wing tip, about 3 inches in. Scrambling forward so as not to give the unicorn time to further impale his appendage, Gaucho grunted with a paralyzing pain as he pulled his wing off of Val’s horn, only to hear the stallion’s teeth snapping after him. Although the wound was bleeding a little, in fact it was not so bad - but it felt far worse. Since there were so many nerves close to the surface of the skin which was flayed, the injury hurt far more than it should have, and Gaucho favored it close to his flank as if the wound had been much deeper.

Spinning round, with his right wing tucked to his side, his blue-gray eyes had time to see Valentine stopping and lowering his horn defensively. The pain which seemed to flair all through his wing-joint prevented any rational thoughts of ‘going easy’ on Valentine. They were after all, in the same herd, and this was just a friendly spar. But Gaucho was not the most rational of creatures, and right now, the blood lust which was boiling inside of him was threatening to spill over.

And he wasn’t about to stop it.

Angrily, furiously, Gaucho let his magic spill out of his antlers, causing the beads in his dream catcher to glow. In a large wave of smoke, the face of a grizzly bear began to form, followed by it’s hulking shoulders and body. It glided over Valentine in a shimmer of spirit-mist, before landing and taking a firmer shape behind him. Roaring with a fury that Gaucho felt, the massive bear moved towards Valentine, it’s jaws snapping.

Hoping that Valentine would be distracted by the bear flying overhead, he charged forward, lowering his antlers defensively. He would settle for hitting the stallion in the neck, but would crash into him head-first if he was stupid enough to meet Gaucho’s charging massive frame at a standstill. Roaring again, the bear moved closer, it’s massive paws swiping precariously at Valentine’s haunches, as if daring him forward. (Either hitting or not..) Propelled forward by his momentum, as Gaucho passed Valentine, he aimed a kick to the left side of Val’s body, aiming only haphazardly - he would be satisfied regardless of where the kick landed, so long as he could feel the stallion’s body beneath his hooves.

As his hooves touched the firm Throat ground once again, Gaucho grunted tiresomely. The heat had taken its toll on his large dark body; My-dus had told him to take the afternoon off, to begin patrol tomorrow. As he raced away from Val, the naturally occurring lake glimmered before him. While he wouldn’t take the afternoon off - he surely would take a dip before continuing.

[Attack 2/2: Spirit-bear. Charges at Val with his antlers, kicks at him as he passes.]