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]