Perhaps it was her naivety that caused her to display such a show before charging at Volterra; however, with the springtime air beating through her mane as her head lowered and she aimed her antlers at his chest, she realized she couldn’t keep her eyes open and see what might, or might not happen. As she swiftly cantered across the field, her cloven hooves gripped the damp earth and her eyes shut tight as she tried to control her breath. It didn’t take long for her antlers to collide with his left shoulder. A small gasp escaped her lips as she felt the sharp points gore deep into his muscle. The feeling had been so soft and so wrong for her, it caused her stomach to roll with the idea of what she’d done to him. Her head began to feel heavy from her collision, but she tried to shake it off as she pulled away from him. Blood began to run down his leg, and in turn, it began to drip down her dark antlers as well. Aelfwine’s eyes grew wide and her chest grew tight, suddenly worried that perhaps this wasn’t what Volterra had meant when he had taken her up on her offer of lessons. You couldn’t kill your teacher, right?

Swiftly, her head lifted high as her wide, doe-like eyes tried to find his gaze, but she couldn’t stop returning to look at the wound she had inflicted. Her vision was starting to grow slightly blurred as she blinked to avoid getting blood in her eyes as it dripped down onto her forehead. Yet, despite her slightly distorted gaze, she noticed him shake his head and begin to favor his foreleg as they faced each other again, ears tilting forward to listen to his words as they crossed the field. “Now when I move to attack you…” His words grew distant as her urge to apologize repeatedly tried to take control. “A flex of muscle… Which way I’m going to go.” His voice pulsated in her ear much like her heartbeat, coming and going with bursts of her wanting to apologize growing louder and more overwhelming in her blood stained head.

Then he lunged.

She hadn’t been paying much attention to what he said of watching his muscles flex, nor was she even looking for that. Instead she was too caught up in the blood that continued to drip onto her forehead and the loud sound of her heartbeat echoing in her ears. As Volterra grew closer, and the possibility of danger, she noticed his large body had become offset by his injury. She began to back up slightly, hesitating as he charged her. Finally, she began to let her adrenaline rush over her to try and clear her mind. He was coming closer now, faster, aimed directly at doing a similar maneuver she had done – except his was brute force, chest to chest, and she knew it would hurt horribly. His size was one thing in comparison to her, his composition was something else entirely. Immediately, her heart began to sink with worry.

Then, she lunged too, putting more weight on her left side to spring herself away from him by bouncing forward and to the right, to try and avoid the collision all together. Immediately, her ears flicked back as a small amount of pain began to swell from her neck. While she had managed to avoid his initial collision, she hadn’t missed his teeth as they contacted her dappled neck. A small amount of blood began to coat the surface, but didn’t fall. It wasn’t deep enough of a wound to bleed freely like Volterra’s shoulder was, but it was deep enough to cause a small amount of fur to go missing and a small scrape to appear dark, red, and angry against her grey pelt. It pulsed with a small amount of pain, but it wasn’t too distracting from what she thought of next.

A quick second after his teeth had grazed her neck, she pushed all her weight onto her forelegs, bending her head and neck down toward the ground as she lifted her rear and aimed her hooves straight out at the Gladiator’s left hind hip if he continued the trajectory that he had been when he tried to collide with her, hoping her sharp cloven hooves would collide. She hoped her benefit in agility would prove useful here against Volterra’s strength. Then, when her hooves reached the ground again, she aimed to spin left toward his rear, her head remained lowered to try and use her antlers again to gain another advantage, hoping to connect again with his left hind quarter.


"Talk."
--
Attack: 2/3 – Words: 783
Damage tracker: A small scrape from Volterra's bite on her neck.
Summary: Aelfwine avoids the collision with Volterra's chest, but suffers a minor bite from him on her neck. She then tries to buck back at him, hoping to collide her hooves with his left hind hip before spinning left herself and aims her antlers at the same left hind hip.
OOC: thanks Snow! <3 :D I'm loving this fight already <3