Going easy, was not something that Gaucho was particularly used to doing. While of course even his primitive mind could understand the importance of not causing irreparable, or undue injury to a fellow herd-mate, especially a sar-gent during a spar - even a friendly one - it was hard not to let his primal nature take over. In his most primal mode, he was a killing machine; as he had been during the invasion. But this was a different arena, and he neede to be mindful of that.

Turning to face him, rather than keeping her slender blue ass pointed his way, his antlers gorged against Aryel’s right shoulder, and he wondered for a brief moment if his bone collar had also nicked her? The brute hadn’t quite figured out the sensation of the collar in relation to his opponents yet, as this was only the second time he had worn it into battle. Perhaps given the angle of his antlers, his shoulders had not touched her at all. But things were moving far too fast, for him to scrutinize the situation now. As his hind-legs flew out behind him, he couldn’t tell what part of her body they had struck - was it her rump? And yet, even though Aryel was rather slender, it felt far too small to have been that. Had she turned? He recalled from their last spar, her incredible speed and agility - perhaps she had spun around as he passed, and it was her nose he had caught? Silly Aryel He thought; she was making it harder for herself for him not to injure her, but it also told him that she was following behind him.

Training his large ears back hoping to place her based on the sound of her hooves hitting the dusty ground, he could both hear and see her charging up on his right. The brute assumed she would aim for somewhere behind his shoulder, lest her face pull away from him, bloodied by his collar of spikes. A small smile played on his maw as he made zero effort to change his course at all. Come, come, he thought, why you no learn?. As she leaped towards his right, somewhere around his wing, the bay grunted, throwing his large body to the right, hoping to smack her squarely in the nose for her ignorance, with the full force of his right side. This was the very same move she had used in their last spar, and Gaucho was countering in very same way, only this time, Aryel had used teeth. Although he couldn’t tell whether or not she had broken skin, she had certainly grabbed a significant chunk of flesh; enough so, that pain radiated outward just below his wing joint making the flesh itch and flare painfully. Okay. Maybe not so stupid after all.

Only having slowed for a second, he watched as she galloped away, wings spread, obviously meaning to take this battle into the air. Flattening his ears against his skull, lest she try and nip at those too, Gaucho charged after her, his long legs covering the ground easily as his black wings unfurled. Although the day was bright and sunny, Gaucho doubted he could use the sun to his advantage to block her vision. As he took to the air following behind her, he resolved that he would have to rely on brute strength, and letting her get close enough for him to retaliate, as he surely was not as nimble as she, regardless of how much training he had done as of late.

Following her movements as she arched across the plateau, Gaucho took advantage of his larger wing span, aiding him in trying to catch up to her. He meant to rise to a slightly higher altitude than She, to avoid any flailing hooves, then to dive down to knock her right shoulder with his left, so as not to aggravate his right shoulder-bit wing joint. With any luck, his bone collar would scrape against her wither and shoulder as he descended. Throwing his muzzle to the left, he also attempted to bite at her neck. Continuing on, Gaucho took advantage of a warm thermal just before him, allowing it to swiftly pull his body up higher than the two had previously been flying at, to try and defend against Aryel countering with the same maneuver, by trying to place himself above her once again.

[WC: 750. Attack 2/3 Closing Defense 0/1. Gaucho is using buffs BULK and DANCE.]

Was she surprised by the force of his attacks, and his evasiveness? Good. Gaucho had been practising nearly constantly. He had been sparring with unicorns to understand how to avoid their horns, as well as creatures of all shapes and sizes (including wolves), and had dominated the skies in his small portion of the Invasion. He had learned many new tricks and saved some old ones (like throwing his body into Aryel's nose, once again), and had found ways to train his body to become faster, regardless of its size and bulk.

As he flew away from her, he tasted her scent upon his tongue, from where his bite landed. Rising higher on the warm thermal, Gaucho found that his defence had indeed worked, as her slender blue body failed to appear above him. From his peripheral vision, he could see her flying on his left. He assumed she meant to knock into him from below, as he had just done to her from above. Bracing himself, he wondered if this time she would be able to avoid the 2inch spikes of sharpened bone that jutted from the collar around his shoulders. He winced slightly as their bodies were just about to collide, but did not throw himself to the left as he had before; if she was going to injure herself on his spikes, he didn't need to add any force. What he was intending to do, was save Aryel from injuring herself further. What he actually did, was make her attack easier: Gaucho in no way expected the lithe rotation of her body, nor did he expect to see her flying under him.

As her body dropped from his left, he felt a sharp pain on the right side of his belly as her hooves struck his underside. With a grunt of pain, Gaucho's steely gaze dropped to see her newly-patterned wings unfurl to catch herself from simply falling. Pinning his ears back, Gaucho struggled with the urge to simply drop on top of her, injuring her spine. The damage it would cause would be nearly unfixable, and if he had had this chance in the invasion, he surely would have taken it. But regardless of how much his instincts wanted to take revenge for being outsmarted, Gaucho would not hurt the pretty blue mare. That didn't mean he couldn't scare her a little though.

Already having his steely gaze fixated upon her, he dropped just after she did. Would she be able to see his shadow, ominously looming above her as she saved herself from falling to the earth? He hoped so. He tried to mirror her movements to remain above her as she descended, but as she began to rise, he held his position. He spread his massive black wings against the blue sky, far wider than they needed to be for flight, but aiming to appear intimidating. As she arched back towards him, Gaucho screamed a blood-curtailing screech and threw his entire body towards her. As he flew, eating up the distance between them with each beat of his wings. Lowering his antlered brow, he meant for it to appear that he was going to fly at full speed directly into her chest. At what he believed was two body-lengths away, he leaned back, spreading his wings out vertically to dramatically slow his massive body. With a grin and a twitch of the bone piercing his nose, to show he was only teasing, he passed on what would be her left had she not moved, and leaned his muzzle in to the left, aiming to bite at her shoulder or wither. As momentum carried him past her, for there was no way he could have completely stopped, he kicked out with his left hind-leg, aiming for her left side, as if to 'get her back' for her recent kick. He couldn't mirror her attack, of course, but if he landed the kick, it would suffice. As his kicking-leg retracted into his body, he veered sharply to the right, to avoid her flailing hind-legs, should she try to kick out at him.

With a grunt as he swerved away, he tried to watch her out of his peripheral vision, and keep his considerable brown-ass pointed her way, in case she tried to follow him immediately. Defensively he tucked his chin to his chest, protecting himself from a forward attack with his antlers, and tucked his legs neatly underneath him to protect his belly from any more of her aerial aerobics. As he waited for her to make her final pass at him, he wondered why he had not seen this side of her, during the invasion? Why had she remained on the ground then, when she was so agile and creative in the air?

[WC: 798 Attack 3/3 Closing Defence 0/1. Using buffs BULK and DANCE]

If nothing else, Aryel was nimble. As she threw her body to the left - seemingly into his bite - Gaucho wondered if she wasn't trying to use his previous tactic against him, and was trying to hit him the nose. Although her slender body wouldn't be able to do as much damage as his, it would definitely hurt, due to the pain the bone through his nose would cause. As his teeth closed upon nothing, the brute was puzzled, but chalked his missed-aim up to a miscalculation of their sizes. As his hoof connected however, the brute squealed an almost child-like taunt of Got you!, as he veered away with a proud grin.

As with any body type, there are pro's and con's. The pro's of being such a big fella like Gaucho, was that he could literally throw his weight around, as Aryel had seen. His kicks rarely left light bruising, and a ram from his antlers could leave one bleeding, as Aryel had also seen. One of the many con's, was that it was almost impossible to aim an attack at Gaucho, and not hit at least some part of him. He was simply too big to miss. So as Aryel nimbly darted behind him, like a smear of blue that had dislodged itself from the sky, hellbent on following him, Gaucho knew he would soon feel her hooves on his ass.

Gaucho is a simple creature - we all know that - however simple does not imply that he doesn't learn. In his last 10 or so spars, Gaucho had learned a thing or two about how to make his large-self more evasive, and while Aryel was certainly one of the fastest of his opponents, he believed his experience would still best her. She was fast, and the slender proportions of her frame cut through the air far more aerodynamically than his large body did. If they were angled straight towards the ground, he might have a chance, given that his weight would pull him down faster than hers would, but they were not. Seeing her wings pin to her sides, Gaucho assumed she meant to bridge the distance between them and make her move. A kick from this position, would have little force given he would have nothing to steady himself against, and yet the speed with which she would be flying towards his dinner-plate sized hooves could be deadly. He had already reminded himself to be wary of injuring her once, and did not need to be reminded again. With a grunt, Gaucho beat his wings hard against the air, using his strength to overcome the air-resistance and propel him forward. He also snapped his luxuriously long tail up and behind him, hoping that should she catch some of that hair in her mouth, or around her eyes/face, her attack might be put-off, slightly. Even with these two defensive measures, the pain in his wing joint from her previous bite stifled the muscle enough, that he was unable to pull away completely. With a primitive grunt, Gaucho felt her hooves graze down the back of his thighs, painfully stinging his large muscles.

Spying her arching away from him, the bay snorted, assuming that was her way of ending the spar. Making bicycle-riding motions in the air, Gaucho tried to stretch out his stinging leg muscles as he flew down to meet her. Landing on the dusty plateau, Gaucho tossed his head towards her. "Same fight" he observed, thinking about how similar their last spar had been - only that time, it had been Aryel who had swung her ass in his face. With a frown, he moved towards her, extending his bone-pierced nose towards her, as if he meant to nuzzle her. Inhaling a few times deeply, he narrowed his steely gaze, revealing that he was actually inspecting her nose for wounds, as he recalled striking it twice during their spar. Satisfied, he took a step back, frowning, but nodding at the same time; not bad.

[WC: 697 Closing Defense 1/1 Using buffs BULK and DANCE

Yep! That was your last one - the spar is done now, if you'd like to change the prefix :3 ]