Okay, cool, I thought hazily as I listened to his cries of discomfort, I got him, he’s hurting. I didn’t know how much damage I had actually done, though, and it wasn’t very sportsmanlike of me to revel in his pain. I mean...anyway.

I kept blinking hard, my cheeks smarting from the burns that would probably start to blister by the end of the fight. I continued to back away—smaller steps, because I didn’t want him out of my field of senses, but I also couldn’t stand the thought of keeping still. I might’ve hit him, but that didn’t mean he was immobile. The tears kept rushing down my face as I tried to clear my vision—but, thankfully, the dark, smeared images were starting to solidify into real shapes that weren’t lined with retina stars. Didn’t really help; this guy was dark-pelted and the sun had surely gone below the horizon now, leaving only a trace of its light in the form of rapidly dwindling pink and gold smudges in the sky. Pretty soon they would be gone, too.

I saw something shift in the indistinct shadows. My suspicions were proven correct before I even had a chance to think them; a gruff, heavily masculine voice, hoarse with pain, asked me something stupid that made my stinging brows lift. “The hell—?” I muttered, wondering what in the world was gripping him to know about what sort of affinity I may or may not have concerning bears. Like, the fuck? I thought the point of a fight was to avoid small talk?

But then I caught his meaning because oh shit this guy had more tricks up his sleeve than I realized. That bastard made bears. Out of fire! Who--? What---? How….what is that?

“Oh shit,” I unintentionally said out loud. Honestly, that was all I really could do. How the hell do you fight fire bears? Who teaches that?

I didn’t have time to think about it, or plan anything. They were flying toward me, all kinds of flaming claws and teeth, and it was time to teach myself how to fight a fire bear.

With how fast they were running towards me, there was no way I could jerk left or right and try to avoid either bear; turning either side would just invite the entire side of my body for fire feasting, or whatever the bears were gonna do if they touched me (maybe explode or something?) for whichever bear I had turned closest to. And if I ran forward fast enough, I’d keep my opponent in my sight and probably avoid an all-out mauling—but I’d still get hit, probably by both bears, in passing. Nor did I think that I could run away from them fast enough; they’d just catch up for me anyway, and besides, I wasn’t ready to turn my back on Fire Man.

So booking it forward as fast as I could was the road to take. Obviously. Not like I thought about it or anything.

The bears were closing in on me in a V formation, and I broke out as fast as I could for the space in between the bears. But oh shit I didn’t feel as though I got enough traction under my hooves to launch myself as fast as I had imagined. Shit, shit, shit! I couldn’t stop running by that time, and claws were looming right in front of me, and there was no stopping and no escape from it.

SHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAGHGHG awgh JEEZ it was awful.

One set of claws swiped at my face—and, miraculously, I dodged those, ducking my head down quickly so all they could do was uselessly grasp at my mane (and set it on fire) as I flew by. But my whole right side was torture because that bear had been reaching for my shoulder and, as I ran passed it, claws made of molten flame cut into the right side of my chest and razed me all the way along my side, raking my stomach, my thigh, alighting the very tip of my tail. Fire swirled all around me and holy jeez if I was hurting before then I was surely going to die that very moment.

But I had a clear shot of him now. My eyes still hurt but the tears were drying up now and his wings illuminated him clearly, highlighting every muscle and sinew of his that I had decided to fuck around with. I was still running, and this time when I shot my bolt at him, I wasn't guessing his location.

“FUCK YOUR BEARS,” I screamed at him, gasping and grimacing, my horn bursting with a shower of electricity.









No, seriously, fire bears? Jeez.

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[ WC:[793/800]

ATTACKS: [3/3] Recap: Tries to run in between the charging bears, toward Gaucho. One bear swipes at her mane and sets the tips of it one fire. The other bear mauls her right side as she passes it, swiping her shoulder, stomach, thigh, and the tips of her tail, setting that on fire as well. She aims a bolt head-long at Gaucho after she passes the bears.]