Going easy, was not something that Gaucho was particularly used to doing. While of course even his primitive mind could understand the importance of not causing irreparable, or undue injury to a fellow herd-mate, especially a sar-gent during a spar - even a friendly one - it was hard not to let his primal nature take over. In his most primal mode, he was a killing machine; as he had been during the invasion. But this was a different arena, and he neede to be mindful of that.

Turning to face him, rather than keeping her slender blue ass pointed his way, his antlers gorged against Aryel’s right shoulder, and he wondered for a brief moment if his bone collar had also nicked her? The brute hadn’t quite figured out the sensation of the collar in relation to his opponents yet, as this was only the second time he had worn it into battle. Perhaps given the angle of his antlers, his shoulders had not touched her at all. But things were moving far too fast, for him to scrutinize the situation now. As his hind-legs flew out behind him, he couldn’t tell what part of her body they had struck - was it her rump? And yet, even though Aryel was rather slender, it felt far too small to have been that. Had she turned? He recalled from their last spar, her incredible speed and agility - perhaps she had spun around as he passed, and it was her nose he had caught? Silly Aryel He thought; she was making it harder for herself for him not to injure her, but it also told him that she was following behind him.

Training his large ears back hoping to place her based on the sound of her hooves hitting the dusty ground, he could both hear and see her charging up on his right. The brute assumed she would aim for somewhere behind his shoulder, lest her face pull away from him, bloodied by his collar of spikes. A small smile played on his maw as he made zero effort to change his course at all. Come, come, he thought, why you no learn?. As she leaped towards his right, somewhere around his wing, the bay grunted, throwing his large body to the right, hoping to smack her squarely in the nose for her ignorance, with the full force of his right side. This was the very same move she had used in their last spar, and Gaucho was countering in very same way, only this time, Aryel had used teeth. Although he couldn’t tell whether or not she had broken skin, she had certainly grabbed a significant chunk of flesh; enough so, that pain radiated outward just below his wing joint making the flesh itch and flare painfully. Okay. Maybe not so stupid after all.

Only having slowed for a second, he watched as she galloped away, wings spread, obviously meaning to take this battle into the air. Flattening his ears against his skull, lest she try and nip at those too, Gaucho charged after her, his long legs covering the ground easily as his black wings unfurled. Although the day was bright and sunny, Gaucho doubted he could use the sun to his advantage to block her vision. As he took to the air following behind her, he resolved that he would have to rely on brute strength, and letting her get close enough for him to retaliate, as he surely was not as nimble as she, regardless of how much training he had done as of late.

Following her movements as she arched across the plateau, Gaucho took advantage of his larger wing span, aiding him in trying to catch up to her. He meant to rise to a slightly higher altitude than She, to avoid any flailing hooves, then to dive down to knock her right shoulder with his left, so as not to aggravate his right shoulder-bit wing joint. With any luck, his bone collar would scrape against her wither and shoulder as he descended. Throwing his muzzle to the left, he also attempted to bite at her neck. Continuing on, Gaucho took advantage of a warm thermal just before him, allowing it to swiftly pull his body up higher than the two had previously been flying at, to try and defend against Aryel countering with the same maneuver, by trying to place himself above her once again.

[WC: 750. Attack 2/3 Closing Defense 0/1. Gaucho is using buffs BULK and DANCE.]