It was his left shoulder that connected with the side of her barrel, and though he was in a world of pain that brought tears to his eyes and blurred his vision for a moment, he grinned as he felt the satisfying connection. Yes, he triumphed to himself, still pushing with all his might to use the mare's imbalance against her. He wondered at how she managed to hold her ground as well as she did, being lighter than he and in a precarious position, he thought himself far stronger than her, certainly he would have been able to knock her to the ground with this move?

Apparently not.

As he felt the shift of her body away from him, he grew gleeful for a moment, grinning broadly in triumph, before realising that she had managed to regain her footing beneath her and scramble away. In the step she took gather herself Madyrn's head dropped down before swiftly snapping up, as the tension across his back and shoulder came into sharp, shooting focus and sent pain coursing up and down his spine. With his cranium so high, the kick that Ignita then made collided with the plump pectoral muscles that made up his chest.

Pain crackled across his chest like wildfire, and for a second the stallion was stunned between the pain crippling him from two many directions - his back, his shoulder, his chest, - he would later think he was fortunate to still have his legs working, and his head still in one piece, but right now, the pain only infuriated him, igniting a haze of rage within him. Blinking back the tears that sprung to his eyes, the stallion did not hesitate beyond that second of painful shock before retaliating.

There was no thought process now. Instincts driven by pure lust for blood took over. The stallion became a beast, a machine, a predator set on its prey. A madman's laugh choked its way out of his muzzle as he powered forward now, his brother watching thoughtfully from the sidelines, thanking the lords that his brother's legs were at least still in one piece, as well as his head. Maskan knew what was coming. Ignita was not aware of the true power of Madyrn, the blood that the brothers shared, the fury that was only ever loosely contained within this steed named for shadows but burning like a flame.

Her kick left bruising across his shoulder, and made his gait uneven - which would have been noticeable if he was trotting a perfect circle. However, right now, he was simply charging forward, a scramble of legs powering on, it didn't matter to him how they did it, only that they did it, and fast. He bolted towards the area where he saw her hooves retreating, and then took a leap, striking out with his forelegs at her hocks, hoping to disable, crush, destroy the joint and render the mare a cripple.

Simultaneously, he reached out with his teeth once more, hungry, thirsty to taste her blood once again, as any predator would be. As he was poised behind her (the last time he checked), he hoped to bite down with his vice-grip jaws at her left buttock, but there was always the chance her tail would sweep in his way and he would get nothing but a mouthful of hair. He could feel his heart pounding in the ears that were slicked back along his skull, as the pain across his chest throbbed, ached, reminded him constantly of its presence.

Blood probably dripped down his shoulder, but the beast was too preoccupied, too consumed by the rage, the battle, the lust for having the opportunity to make this engagement a kill. Hooves dug into the earth below, as he braced himself for an impact he hoped would come, behaving much like an out of control bulldozer flattening an obstacle that was interrupting his otherwise perfect landscaping. It was time to do some weeding, time to put those years of training towards good, for his family, for the Qian, but most importantly, for himself.

[ 686 words.
3/4 attack posts. ]

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