There's a song in your lung and a dream in your eye.

She is out of practice. Her skills had grown rusty with disuse, but she is determined to flake that rust away, to oil them until they shine with renewed vigor. So she makes her way to the practice field.

There she finds a mare, Raxa, and she takes her up on her challenge. She makes no big display, only nodding her head briefly in acknowledgement. Her body - red and white and covered by cracks that flicker with slow pulses of white light - is relaxed, movements light and fluid in the way of one who is familiar with her body. Golden eyes focused and intense, she studies her opponent. They are of a similar height, though the other mare is slightly taller. In terms of strength and agility, they would seem to be fairly evenly matched.

This then would be a battle determined by skill.

Facing her opponent, Joscelin does not hesitate in her attack. Leaping forward from her position only several feet in front of Raxa, Joscelin strikes swiftly. Using her powerful hindquarters, she launches forward and slightly to her right. Her pale forelegs come off the ground, blunt hooves aiming a sharp strike for her opponent's left shoulder. Ideally she would clip the exposed bony protrusion of her shoulder point. A bone bruise could significantly impact the other’s ability to move. Of course, Raxa would no doubt move in an attempt to avoid the blow, potentially shifting her strike to either the meatier portion of her shoulder or her chest. Alternately, she could retreat, lessening the blow. Still, injury to any part of the shoulder could be detrimental, especially when considering the fact that the majority of a horse's weight is carried on their forehand.

She would take what she can get.

Attack completed, she drops quickly back to the earth, using her momentum and backwards shifted weight to perform a pivot on her hindquarters to her right and away from Raxa.

Joscelin

Tiphon x Elysteria

There's a song in your lung and a dream in your eye.

She had missed this, the heat of battle. It fires her blood in a way little else ever could. With her first attack successfully landed, she turns to retreat. But it is a mistake to believe such a retreat a sign of weakness. She is accustomed to fighting opponents larger than herself, and when one is on the smaller side, one must fight smarter, not harder. In a contest of strength, there are few she could truly hope to compete with. While it is true that physically, the other mare is quite similar to her, she would not change a tried and true method for so paltry a reason.

Let her opponent wear herself out with unnecessary brute force. She could wait, could play the defensive, and strike when opportunity presents itself.

Raxa does not seem terribly inclined to let her simply move away. Instead she follows her. Though her shoulder appears to be somewhat painful, her retaliatory strike is swift and sure. Joscelin can feel the mare brush past her left side, the angry squeal ringing in her ears. She catches the blur of her opponent lunging, the gnashing of blunt teeth. Ducking her head down and slightly to the right, she throws her weight onto her forehand.

The roan mare had inadvertently offered Joscelin the perfect counter-attack in her haste to keep Joscelin from escaping. Even as she feels the scrape of teeth against flesh, the sharp sting of hair being ripped from skin, she is throwing back her hind legs in a powerful buck. With her shift in weight, she had managed to aim her rear legs at the other mare’s right haunch, albeit at a rather sharp angle. Her target is the exposed stifle, an area that, if hit, could hinder foreword movement quite significantly. Still, even should her aim not be precise, she has a good chance of hitting either Raxa’s flank or sensitive underbelly. A hit to either one of these locations could have quite a significant impact on her ability to execute future attacks. Should her kick land well enough, she might even cause internal damage, something sure to win her this fight.

As her hooves fall back to earth, Joscelin leaps forward, using her ability to fly in order to make a clean getaway. Landing with a thump nearly twenty feet away, she turns to face her opponent, golden gaze glittering. The muscling of her neck throbs, the scrape (and no doubt bruising soon enough) near the base making its presence known. But, while painful, it is only a flesh wound, the thin layer of blood it had released already drying against her skin.

She is done playing offense though. This time, she would make her opponent come to her.

Joscelin

Tiphon x Elysteria

There's a song in your lung and a dream in your eye.

Her escape had been successful, forcing her opponent to take up the offensive. As she eyes the brindled mare with eyes of burnished gold, she assesses the damage her opponent had taken. A sore shoulder and an injured flank, both of which would no doubt hamper any future attacks the mare is likely to make. It is a weakness she could use to her advantage.

She is injured herself, but not so much so as to prevent her from successfully performing a counter attack against whatever Raxa should choose to come at her with. Her neck throbs, but it is easy enough to ignore. With the adrenaline coursing through her veins, focus comes easy, her sight fixed unerringly on her opponent, watching for the subtle cues that would foreshadow the attack to come. As the mare picks up the trot, followed swiftly by a canter, arcing around to come at her, Joscelin’s gleaming gaze follows her.

Certainly she could have moved, could have cantered or flown away, forcing the other mare to follow, but she does not. Instead she lets the attack come. With her injured flank, Raxa makes the wise (and obvious) choice for avoiding placing more weight on her hindquarters than necessary. Which means her attack comes in the form of a buck. There is no surprise in the maneuver, no need for guessing, giving Joscelin plenty of time to formulate a counter.

Raxa mimics Joscelin’s previous attack, but while the other mare’s weight had been shifted and compromised, Joscelin’s is squared, prepared for any eventuality. As the other mare’s hind limbs fly backwards, Joscelin digs in her hind legs, pushing forwards and sideways into the mare. The movement would serve to not only lessen the force of the blow, but to push Joscelin’s weight into her opponents shifted and compromised stance. With her weight thrown onto her forehand, Raxa is off balance, making much easier for Joscelin in her attempt to push her of balance, and, with luck, knock her over. Using the full bulk of weight with the added momentum of her hind legs pushing forcefully, she plows into her opponent. Raxa’s hooves slam into her barrel, she feels the thud, the creak and sudden sharp pain of a rib fracturing, the whoosh of breath as it leaves her lungs, but she is already committed to her attack.

She allows her momentum to carry her forward, allows her from feet to catch her with a painful thud and a sharp intake of sorely needed breath. But her gaze never leaves her opponent, following her in whatever trajectory her attack had propelled her.

Joscelin

Tiphon x Elysteria