She missed.

That one realization shudders through her like the recoil from a gun spinning up your arm and vibrating your shoulder. It's a cold dread that settles in her stomach, heavy and discomforting. Of course this is why she was following through, but she didn't actually think she'd need to, it was just a half-hearted attempt at fulfilling the training routine ground into her mind. For that very reason, she missed again.

Her kicked swiped the air, the hard impact of landing with unhindered momentum sending a brief burn through her skeleton, like electricity running down a wire. What's worse it seemed like she was missing only because of dumb luck. Oxy's ungodly howling was enough to tell her that the bullet had driven into his flesh, but clearly it hadn't struck his heart, unless he was some herculean descendant. Shit, she thought, annoyed more than anything. She could almost hear Ricochet laughing at her, his scarred face all jacked up with his toothy, slack-jawed grin, making him all the more grotesque for his cruel humor.
If she couldn't even kill this ugly moron with a clear line of sight at his vital region, how could she ever hope to kill him.

Patience, some other part of her soothed, and practice.

She'd need it too, because while she was busy floundering around behind him, her attention divided onto herself as well as him and her effort lacking, he bit down on his pain and twisted it against her. Like the crack from a shotgun his hooves whipped out at her and slammed square in her right shoulder, his left foot dealing most of the blow and glancing off towards her chest. Luckily she was hugging it a bit close so he didn't get full extension, and his body was still coping with his gunshot wound, decreasing the power as he seemed to struggle for balance and control with his buck. All the same, it hurt like hell.
"Shi-" she squealed between clenched teeth as they collided, her strength no match for his. It upset her stride, shoving her towards her left and forcing her to catch herself with an awkward skip on her front end. Bruising began instantly, worked in so deep the surrounding tissues stiffened and her stride shortened somewhat, due to become more apparent as they continued, but otherwise not fatal as it might have been had he'd hit her rib cage.
She played a dangerous game, war, but it promised such sweet results it was easy to ignore the risk.

Grinding her teeth with aggravation Colt utilized her jarring, left-ward stride from the remainder of Oxy's assault to suck herself back on her haunches and roll back to her left, swiftly changing direction while her body was still recovering from the collision and unable to protest much. She cut in close to him as soon as she shifted direction, nearly touching his rump as she whipped around to arrive on his right side, while he was busy spearing the air on his left. She caught the malevolent shine on his knives and has no interest in seeing them any closer.

With a vicious thrust of her teeth Colt aimed to grip the fleshy fold of skin connecting his right flank, nearer the stifle, with his gut and groin. She hoped to jerk back as soon as she got it, ideally rolling the few nerves there between her teeth and perhaps even taking a sizable piece of it with her, if not at least yanking him somewhat off balance which might deter a kick. She swung her hips around as her forehand remained stationary, so that her right hip should be near his right side, where her tail set to a furious thrashing to deter his head should he snake it around. Her true intent however, was to keep it out of range from his hind feet. Her left foreleg reached out in a strong pawing movement, aiming to devastate and cripple his right hock or cannon. It had to be a short and fast maneuver however, her right foreleg quivering with the added weight to steady her balance.

Colt's gaze sharpened as she worked, the joyful gleam leaving the edge of her metal irises as this easy kill shifted into a struggle. She would never have chosen to engage this stallion if she had thought he'd be alive still, but now she had no choice and despite everything, she knew this was good for her. Since her arrival at Helovia she hadn't had proper training and she could practically hear her muscles drifting into fat.

Oxy wasn't dead yet, but by the end of this Colt would make him wish he was.

---

A: 2/3
D: 0/1
W: 800/800