nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands.</style> image by jason-samfield @ flickr.com</style> The brush of skin upon her own as Onni's shoulder slams into the dark figure of the night, still standing dangerously on two hooves. Instead of toppling over, though, this beast lands upon four hooves, and the tobiano curses to herself inside. Jaws still lunge toward her opponent, yet suddenly her target is not still. As her necks curve into the attack of the bite, eyes flicker toward growing flames upon the back of the dark figure. Curious, that this one should also have the flames of its companion. Her mind blinks, as if trying to tell her something, but there is nothing that arises to the surface. It is only the sound of her heart beating in her ears and the tiring breath being drawn into her lungs. Teeth trying to grasp flesh, only to have the leg fling backwards. Onni can hear Voltaic's voice chide her in her mind, his frustration born out of the proctectiveness he held. Don't expose yourself to attacks, he screeches, a father's voice. It is too late to heed his advice, but the painted girl tries to avoid such serious damage that a kick can cause. Mouth shuts, clamping down, neck and head pulling away from the back end in retreat. Cloven hooves crack against her chest, leaving two gashes upon the surface and a fresh swell of blood. Onni squeals slightly in the dark, more out of surprise than hurt. The cuts sting, but the close quarters of the pair does not allow for the dangerous potential of a kick at its full extension. Teeth come toward the pale face, yet it has moved to avoid the joint of the knee. They clamp onto air, horn grazes dangerously next to the pale eye of the tobiano as the pegasus snakes her own neck around to snip at the neck, clasping the flesh momentarily in a sharp pinch. There is no time to slow, however. The paint continues to run forward, past the turning body of her silent attacker, only to slam down on her front hooves for another kick behind her, striking out at her opponent. Hooves aim for the chest, which had made itself an available target in the movement of the pair. Knowing her position suspended in the air to be frail, Onni's kick is short, a quick crack of hooves out only to be retracted to the earth, pushing her up wings unfolding as the mare launches slightly off the ground. Flight takes place, her wings gripping the air desperately, legs curling beneath her. Hooves stick out, her body turning vertical, as she touches down on the trunk of a great tree about fifteen paces from the exchange. Her knees buckle to allow her a slow stop, and then straighten to launch to tobiano off like a spring, angled slightly upward to give room to twirl in the air. Straightening out, and heading back toward the dimly lit figure in the dark, Onni extends her front legs outward like spears, flapping her wings to drive her forward, down the corridor, feathers brushing the trunks of the trees as she sails by a few feet off the ground. It isn't until the moment before her body is within striking range that Onni sees the familiar flash of yellow eyes in the gleam of dim fire, and gasps. [ 3/3, 557 words ] onni♥ </style>

[ OOC COMMENTARY:

I got quite confused during this post, so I think it's time to discuss time constraints on movement.

When in a fight, you always have to consider real time. I know in RP world, time can be a very liquid thing that you can manipulate to your will most of the time, but in fights, it's very important to try and stick to plausible frames of time. One thing I count off for heavily when judging is a player's unrealistic use of time. Let's illustrate what I'm talking about with this fight.

Onni is ramming into Tares's rear end, and then immediately biting at her back cannon. This is maybe a 2-3 second time frame, but in this small window of time, you had Tares knocked onto all fours, kick out at her face, and manage to turn her entire body around to bite at Onni's face and stab at her with her horn.

It takes a considerable amount of time for a horse to turn in a fight, maybe 3 seconds, which is the entire time she would have spent ramming and biting out at Tares. A kick would probably take right around 3 seconds as well, and already you've used double your allotted amount of time, and we haven't even mentioned your bite/horn swipe attack.

Also, while Tares is thinner and smaller than Onni, more likely to have quicker movement, Onni also has a battle buff of swift, making their speed evenly matched, probably, so you can't really use her breed difference to explain it.

This was confusing for me to reply to, as well, since my time in the fight got messed up too. I kind of had to allow unrealistic spans of time to pass, when she's supposedly still running forward, to have her take the kick and respond to the bite she landed on Tare's neck.

Try and keep the time frame in mind. If you are ever in doubt, try to read through the posts again and envision it as a continuous movie. If you think that your time has stretched to much, go with a more conservative strategy for defense.

To be honest, the kick to Onni's face was more than a sufficient defense of Tare's cannon. That was what I had anticipated you to do, as putting your face next to the back legs of a horse is sort of asking for them to kick you in the mouth. xP It was a really good choice, but then I think you just got bogged down thinking of where to go in your next attack.

In such a case, just give your character some room and attack again. Onni was still moving forward, so Tares's could have just pivoted, turned, and ran after her for the same attack you wrote, but in a different time frame than Onni's ram/bite attack.

Aside from the obvious flaws in time management, I thought this post was not as clearly written as your others. Ease of read is also counted in the rubric, so make sure you don't make it difficult. Details of emotion and with Arbutus are good, but they can be fluffy and irrelevant if not used to your advantage. You want your character to be present, but not distracting from the actual fight or action.

Like I said earlier, I was a little confused on how to write my response. I just sort of blurred the time around your attacks, and moved onward to my attack.

I decided the kick would fit nicely as she's running away, sort of to deter her attack from following her. They were also sort of positioned right in my head for the strike, so that she wouldn't have to turn around, to kick at her. I then used her momentum from the landing of the kick to push off into the air, toward a tree, which I then used to turn around like a springboard. c; Not the most realistic attack ever, but she's flying already, so I might as well milk it. Plus, I didn't think the tight quarters of the trees would allow her to circle around.

She's kind of trying to "air ram" Tares now, probably around her shoulders/back. Tares will have ample time to re-position herself, so I didn't want to confine her to a position that she was previously in. ]