The resolve he showed was admirable, she could see him hurting through the grimace that contorted his façade for an instant, and she could see the unquestionable decision to simply ignore it. A satisfaction was still felt in the mare, though now, it was not a satisfaction that she would break him; it was that she would make him fit the ideal configuration of a Captain, a leader of the troops, fearless and undefeatable.

Though, she still planned on beating him here, today.

The mare would have laughed if not for the circumstances she found herself in, as the growl of pent up frustration emanated from the stallion. She was determined now, more than ever, to be that pesky little flea.

From her lofty view she could see the motions he made clearly, but the precarious position she had placed herself in meant there was little she could do about the rapidly approaching impact that would see her pushed away from him, legs scattered away to her left. It takes her a moment to find all four feet again, though she does not fall down completely, merely shuffles unsteadily before feeling the full affects of the counterattack the beastly stallion had given her. An involuntary grunt exited her muzzle, as the entire ordeal had left her lungs with little air, the effort of inhaling took up more focus and time she didn't have.

In her breathlessness, he had managed to get in close to her again, his teeth meeting flesh with a searing pinch on the right side of her crest. Naturally, her first reaction was to pull away, to swerve to her left by doing a sort of standing leap, a single large stride that lifted her forelegs off the ground. As she pulled away from the vicegrips of his teeth, she felt the skin tear, the strange warm, dribbling sensation of blood pooling in the wound in the wake of the attack.

The motion incidentally enabled her right foreleg to be out of reach of Thor's strike, and so the revenge he sought would not be planted, not yet anyway. An ear flicked to listen to the heavy steps of the steed, she had to toss her elegant tiara over her right shoulder to see him retreat from his attack, and face her.

The little shadow smiled.

Just as Thor settled himself down to look at her, she tugged upon the illusionary cloak that would blur, distort, and make her appearance virtually impossible to focus upon. A soft, sultry song hummed from her throat then, a temptation, a lure for the stallion to continue staring at her, to lose himself amongst her illusion and suffer the dizziness, the confusion, the headache that could very easily result from such a mistake.

The little mirage moved then, cloak still in tact, her steps as light as she could make them. The sun had dropped beneath the horizon now, twilight meant her magic was heightened, as the shadows around them grew longer so too did her chances of going undetected by the steed. She turned herself again, grimacing from the strain in her right foreleg, as well as a reminding twinge upon her flank, and the numerous other bumps and bruises scattered across her hide. She pushed onwards anyway, grinding her teeth together and moving with her irregular pace to position herself neatly at Thor's right side.

The little shadow lined her hindquarters up with the stallion's barrel, hoping to imitate his act of squeezing all the air from her lungs, to try and make him lose his breath, stagger, and perhaps take that chance to land another final blow upon him. As soon as he was within the ideal range of her hind feet, she leaned all her weight upon her aching fore limbs and engaged the full potential of power in her haunches.

Not waiting to see the result, she landed, dropped the cloak of magic, and skittered forward, before putting a jarring stop on the forward motion, the scrape of her hooves clear in the ground, causing more strain on aching muscles to complete the movement. But she forced herself to, though it was perhaps a bit sloppier, and slower than her usual graceful dancer's steps. The dark maiden turned upon a single hind leg, and faced the giant. She pushed herself on, towards him now with teeth bared again.

She aimed now for his neck, and while she could not reach as high upon his nape as he could, her assault was vicious and unrelenting, her tactics shifting as she felt it was only fair to mar both sides of the stallion with some battle scars to remember her by, as she now aimed for his right side, instead of her favoured left side from before.

[ 799 words.
4/4 attack posts, 0/1 closing defence.
2/2 magic/companion uses.
Linds, you have improved so much in just a couple of posts. There really isn’t much for me to critique, you have done so well.
Don't be afraid to mention how is size an advantage to him (he is a natural tank after all), or a disadvantage. Great mention of the environment here, I love the visualisation of -where- they actually are, how they are moving over the environment. Like I said before, your posts have a very smooth, natural flow to them, which will get you points from the Judge. I can feel the emotion throughout your posts, I feel like I am very much 'with' Thor the entire time. This is definitely your best post yet, it is clear what is happening, you laid some very distinct attacks, you dodged really well. Kudos to you! Now, remember that your next post is Thor’s last one for this spar, and Mirage has one more last closing defence to see how she handles all of his final attacks – so make them count!
In this post, Mirage has been knocked aside during her rear by Thor’s shove, getting winded in the meantime. While catching her breath, Thor manages to lay the nasty bite on her neck, which she instinctively pulls away from, dodging the foreleg strike in the meantime. As Thor settles himself to look at her, she pulls on her cloak, her first ‘attack’ per se is her singing to get his attention, to get him to look at her with her magic on, to induce a headache. Her second attack with her magic is to dart about him and line herself up so that her hindquarters are in line with his barrel, and she then attempts to double-barrel him. Upon landing she is back to normal, and quick to turn and charge at him to bite like a vicious little banshee at his neck. ]

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