Gaucho could hear Azucar’s wails echoing across the slate of the Basin; obviously Mara had made her way onto the filly - and the brute assumed that she knew what she was doing. One bite from Mara, and the filly could experience dizziness or blurred vision. Given Azucar’s size and ambiguous heritage, she might even pass out all together...but then again, Mara was young as well. As Azucar bends to stab her horn into the ground, Mara tried to wind herself tighter around the spiraled horn, which ultimately protected her from being flattened into the ground; given that a unicorn could not touch the ground in the triangular-area around their horns, as long as Mara stayed within that, she ought to be okay. Given her state of focus, Gaucho was unable to tell if his bonded had been able to successfully bite at the young filly or not, yet he could sense that she was alright, and hadn’t been dislodged. Gaucho felt his hooves only graze the filly, and he wondered how he had managed to kick so high, but he supposed that given she was only a yearling, it was possible he had aimed too high. Then again, he hadn’t anticipated the filly being smart enough to try and get rid of the snake, so perhaps when his back was turned to buck, her flailing had saved her from the full force of his hooves.

As Gaucho veered in a large arch to the right, he could hear Azucar’s hooves pounding the slate, and he probed Mara’s mind to ensure that the bond was still there. But Mara was no common snake, her species was quite literally the fastest snake in the world. Coiling her body, Mara propelled herself away from Azucar with uncanny speed, able to move 3 meters per second, which would only increase as she aged, while Azucar was busy throwing what appeared to be a temper-tantrum, as she tried to squash the snake without success. Mara’s gun-metal body disappeared in the moonlight, finding some small crevice to hide in until she could access her place in Gaucho’s antlers.

Gaucho could hear Azucar charging after him, due to her small hooves striking the ground, and Gaucho wondered why she kept trying to attack his left side, especially given that the right side of his body was currently facing her, as he arched around. Perhaps she simply wanted to add to the damage of her horn-scrape and bite to his left side? Or had he really grunted so much in pain that she became aware of the previous bruising from Sno’s kick earlier in the day? If she had, it was sloppiness on his part for showing such weakness.

Given his previous spars with unicorns such as Valentine and Sno, and even the tactics employed by this filly, Gaucho had come to realize how often they liked to try and spear the length of his body, as if the war paint which adorned his bay-coat were like targets to be aimed for. Assuming that once she caught up with him, she would turn to the right, since she was attacking on his left, to try and spear him, Gaucho attempted to counter. From the glowing beads in his dream-catcher, a bluey-silver mist poured out, materializing into a great hulking bear, nearly the size of Azucar. As the filly neared, the bear floated to Gaucho’s left, somewhere before her, running directly towards her, snarling and slashing at the air. Taking the opportunity which was afforded to him, Gaucho spun with a battle-practiced grace on his hind end, throwing himself around to the right, almost perpendicular, as Azucar passed. He could feel her horn nick his shoulder, but given his turn it was no more than a scratch. As her nose reached out to bite at his left thigh which was now before her, he took the opportunity to buck, hoping to kick her squarely in the jaw, or chest before her teeth connected. Continuing to pivot to the right, now somewhere behind the filly on her right, Gaucho lunged forward, ears pinned with fury. Hurtling himself forward, Gaucho lowered his antlers to give her a dose of her own medicine - he aimed his intimidating rack for her right shoulder, meaning to knock into her as he galloped by. He did not kick out, as his left leg was now dulling throbbing with pain, but assumed his antlers would be sufficient.

His steely gaze was trained to the ground, looking for Mara in the moonlight, as he kept his ears trained back on Azucar, listening for the sound of her pursuit on the slate.

[WC: 797 Attack 3/3. M&C 2/2 Closing Defence 0/1. Gaucho is using buffs bulk and swift.]