illynx,

Delightful, the slap of hooves upon a gun-metal coat; it wasn't as direct of a collision as the warrior might have hoped, but the tang of blood had begun to work its way through the air from the reopened sores on her right leg and the new scrape on Smoke's ironically colored pelt. It was satisfying, to smell her own life blending with that of another, more fulfilling than practice spars and friendly fights, the danger that curved with the dancing figures of women in combat as beautiful and alluring to Illynx as the mist that permeated the forest. Even more delicious was the fact that her opponent was a true challenge, the more muscular but smaller mare compensating for a couple inches of height in sinew, a lesson remembered as her anger at having been slammed into began to ebb, revealing that the impact had left her ribs much more sore than she had initially thought.

The gilded warrior reveled in the sight of the grulla skittering away from her horn, even more so as the weapon sliced a clean line through the mare's shoulder, the cry of displeasure from the healer sending a rush of hot blood straight to Illynx's brain and the aches in her ribs scattered once again. Hurts, does it? mused the malicious mynx, her lips curved into a cruel smile as the healer's drive to the right evolved into a buck. Illynx had to admit to herself that the hornless had a grace and style all to her own as her brindled body continued upwards with the motion of her previous attack in a quarter rear to avoid the blunt force of Smoke's hooves. The blow landed upon the crest of flesh where her shoulder joined her chest, ripping the chocolate coat straight from the skin, pricks of blood rising where the roots had been torn from their hold and the dark flesh bruised.

There was no time to fall back to the earth to avoid the mouth of the Wild Rose as it drove towards her shoulder, forcing Illynx to become creative; her ears lay back savagely as she steeled herself for the pain sure to shoot through her injured ankle upon impact, front limbs tucking under her and knees pointed forward as her nose angled down against her chest. Amusement knitted itself across her face as she watched the feint come into action mid-counter, how perfectly the upward motion of Smoke's face rising perfectly towards her knees, which she brought down with as much force as she could muster, hoping to knock them into the approaching healer's face or at least divert most of the force of the bite away from her own resplendent features.

Smoke's teeth found their place upon her knees, stripping the hair from the flesh and a bruise gently growing along the joint. Ignoring the jolt within her ankle and now bruised knee as best as she could, the former corporal hit the ground moving, attempting to dodge the oncoming tank that was Smoke. Once more, the thicker mare's body slammed into the delicate and lithe Illynx, who had attempted to avoid the onslaught all together by driving hard to the left and forward; Smoke's chest impacted her right hip like a battering ram, the force driving the GildedBlade's rump around her rather gracelessly as pain spread across the area, her fore-limbs spreading and head dropping downwards to afford her some purchase though her ass still swung about forty-five degrees and sent a cloud of leaves and an upheaval of lose earth around her rapidly scrambling hooves.

When she found her grip on the hard earth beneath her, the gilded mistress drove forward several paces savagely, an ear still held to the cause of the dragon that was now behind her, the lovely cover of her tree now belonging to Smoke's left flank much to Illynx's chagrin. The smell of herbs filled her nose as her head rose from it's lowered place, the tip of her horn hungrily reaching out for the flesh of her right shoulder and side that weren't protected by satchels, the proud unicorn hoping to slice open more of the healer's gravel-toned flesh in a bloody and vertical line. She followed the horn strike through with a downward assault of teeth, a growl of sorts escaping her lips as she attempted to clutch any of the damnable woman's flesh between her teeth, be it shoulder or hip depending on whether Smoke had carried forward after the charge or remained stationary.

[ 2/4 :: 770 words; don't have time for a summary on this one. :P I'm sneaking on to post it for youuuu. Lol. ]

intending to burn - pretending to fight it
everyone learns faster on fire