With each stroke of his wings, fanning the flames, he felt the tightness on the right side of his neck increase. As the muscles in his shoulder and back pulled and pushed, he could feel his neck tensing - causing more blood to rush to the surface of his thick muscular neck; blood drooling out of the wounds Ayaka's teeth had created. Gaucho had to ignore the primal urge in the back of his mind to run from the flames - to ignore the heat on his knees and nose as the backdraft of the fire began to slowly envelope him. But the day was already swelteringly hot - and being in the Heavenly Fields, that much closer to the sun, was not helping.


Due to the height of the flames, Gaucho could not see whether or not Ayaka had been effected by his strategy, or by the spirit-bear. As her cry of pain wafted over the sound of burning grass and his own laboured breaths, he grunted with relief, immediately dropping to all-fours once again, and spinning hard to the right to distance himself from the fire. Trotting a few steps and panting heavily, Gaucho turned again to the right, having moved in a large oval, to face the flames once more from a safer distance. Lowering his head, his flanks heaving out and in, his wings drooped wearily down, his longest flight feathers brushing the lush grass. He was exhausted - The combination of his initial charge towards Ayaka, combined with the energy he expelled by beating his wings in such a fury to fan the flames, was draining to say the least. However, combining that with the pain of her bites and scratches on his neck and belly, and the sweltering heat from the sun and fire, made his efforts all the more gruelling

Perking his ears forward, his steely grey eyes monitored the flames, expecting to see her form leaping through at any moment for another attack. When none came, the brute grunted, relieved that the spar was over.He feared he had perhaps been too strong with the she-wolf, and may have hurt her unnecessarily. If she was of the Throat, he didn't want to cause her any undo harm. While he had taken into consideration how difficult it would be to land an attack on her swift, lithe form, he had not considered the potential damage that he could cause when he did land an attack.

His body was now slick with sweat, and yet oddly the war-paint markings were completely unaffected. The blood on his neck, having clotted somewhat, was now a mess of pinkish foam, and the cut on his nose was simply bright pink skin. "Ayaka?" He called out, eyeing the flames warily still, and moving no closer. Flicking his tail, he felt beads of sweat fly off, and sizzle onto the burning grass. He would be careful the next time he sparred with a wolf - he had been bitten by fellow equines before, but their herbivore teeth typically only caused bruises, or blood-blisters. Ayaka's teeth and claws on the other hand, had flayed the skin from his nose, bruised his belly, and wounded his neck. The red she-wolf was a true predator, and the brute found that he had a deeper respect for her now, than when they first began.


[Summary: Spins away from the flames once he hears Ayaka call out in pain. Moves back a few feet and calls out to her, still eyeing the flames.

Defence: Moves away from the flames.

Yay! I needed the practise too! Continue back in the fields? It would be your post I believe :3 ]