She had never seen Hotaru as a coward, just a fool.
Takes one to know one though, supposedly.

The sensation of the horn lurching out of the hole it left inside her was not a soothing one. Ampere instinctively jerked away from it, her neck like a whip that hauled the front of her body to the right, another outraged bellow rumbling from her throat as the fire of agony consumed her, inflamed by the absence of the foreign pressure and the abrupt use of damaged muscles. Hooves knocked against the shield at her feet with a metallic clang as she moved into it. She fought for her balance as she stumbled over it, unaided by the sleek snow underfoot and the fog of her assaulted senses within. Anger was the only clarity for her, but it was more like mud than glass, eliciting a furious cow-kick from her left hind in response to Hotaru's nip. In turning away from the horn Ampere stood perpendicular to Hotaru, her left side exposed for those teeth which twisted at the skin near her left flank, but did little more than piss her off.

Ampere had always been her own worst enemy. By rebuking Hotaru's touch with such an immediate retaliation, she lost her struggle for footing with the shield and the frost, too competitive and enraged to bother saving herself above crushing her opponent.
The shield knocked around between her front legs, bruises kissed everywhere it touched, until finally she floundered into it when her body shifted for the kick. Her right foreleg hit into it's concave lip and the smooth curve of its exterior skid like a sled across the tundra. Ampere's limbs spread in all directions as her haunches tried to ground her while her front feet jerked forward swiftly until finally tipping off the shield (which continued on several feet). Her wings flared for control and saved him from a complete fall, while her neck slung up to try and halt the unwanted forward movement. The entire ordeal left her aching, every nerve screaming in pain as her legs were stretched beyond their limits and her damaged neck pushed into further disrepair. Her body trembled like disturbed water as spasms wracked the length of her; her eyes rolled in white, and her nostrils flared for breaths like a dry fish.

It was Ampere's endurance that would save her in this travesty of a fight. She had the determination to keep going; not just the physical means, but a mental fortitude as well. It was there in the way she grit her teeth against the torment quivering through her, in the way she ignored the sticky residue of the blood still dribbling from the gouge in her crest. It was there, in the unrelenting grip on her blade, its course set even as she staggered.

In the wake of the chaos that was Ampere's stubbornness, she finally heard a howling that was neither wolf nor herself. Armor always had a weakness. It was not born of flesh, but laid upon it, and thus existed gaps into which she could thrust her hungry dagger. So she had, and now she reveled in the power unicorns felt as a birthright.

In the sledding debacle Ampere had ended up with her rump towards where Hotaru had been last. Still quivering with twinged muscles, she nonetheless had the hauteur to turn and look back, smiling. She looked mad then, with her unsymmetrical markings and her blood mussied mane. She looked injured too, having had to rotate her body when otherwise she'd have the neck to simply toss it over her shoulder. Despite her obvious wounds, there was a stalwart pride that gave her a dangerous fringe - something Hotaru echoed.

The moment of calm was short; a few blinks before the fight resumed its awful splendor.

The wolf came and her shield was too far gone, as was her body. Grunting, Ampere willed her legs to move, to get out of the standing routine so she'd be harder to target, even if she limped heavily on her right foreleg. She needed something now though, so she reached for the electricity in Alice, simultaneously trying to snuff out the bond that linked the two, and redirect the impulses that governed her body so that she would stop attacking, or veer to the side. With that and her initiated motion Ampere evaded the bite. Lighting cracked around them, but Ampere didn't even flinch. One of her spark amulets broke, splinters of it glittering down with each stride. The lightning arc should be flung back onto Hotaru instead. Did she think she could fight Ampere with such an element?

Simpering, if only to keep from wincing, Ampere drew her dagger and shield back towards her.

---

A: 2/4
W: 799/800