Posted by bronze .AHRIMAN. on November 18, 2008, 9:10 pm
124.178.183.121
Current weather: The snow has cleared and the ground is hard and solid. Temperature has plummeted to a mere 10 F (-12 C) and it will be easy to tear a muscle in the first set of attacks/defenses. The day is bright and cloudless but a chilly 5 F (-15 C) wind is blowing in from the North at about 20 mph (32 kph); it is extremely cold and impossible to look into the wind (as it will begin to immediately freeze the eye). Visibility out of the wind and footing are clear/stable.
He could feel it - like a small shudder against the depths of his body as the fire had ignited within his soul, it was only small, just a lit flame which had come with the acknowledgement of his Bronze title and his first elemental ability. It was enough to create diminutive warmth within the creature; not a heat which would battle the bitter cold which still battered upon them in maelstroms, but enough to feel the beginning of its effects and to yearn the power for more. It was a driving force which brought Ahriman to Blizkrieg once again, for a third time of bitter torment that was the ambrosial cure for his ever restless soul. Alas, he had come from the heated structure of the desert, wondering through sand and dune with an ever changing length and depth of stride to prepare, to warm and stretch the muscles as he had previously done in battles gone past - he knew his opponent would surely do the same, it was a natural occurrence which seemed to occur without thought in any warrior's preparation for war. This, however, was to be the toughest challenge the apricot dun was yet to see and contend against; Ilumina, she was a Silver, a single element above himself and of course, the title itself meant she was proven and on her way to becoming the pinnacle that every warrior here yearned to behold. Alas, the objective was simple; injure, maim, and debilitate as many points of the body as physically possible, the earlier the better.
Thus, heading into Blitzkreig with the wind at his back, he moved with a quick, lithe pace across the hardening surface - thank whatever God laid above them that this time around, aside from the bitterly cold wind, he had stable footing beneath his scabrous hooves. There was one other small advantage, because Ahriman had come to face Ilumina with the maelstroms of wind at his back, surely she would find it hard to visualise him with such a force driving into her face; the small joy of being the first to make a move, and he needed it when fighting a level above his own, both elementally and when it involved titles. Wasting little time, his three-beat movement soon fell into the deliberate two-beat jog a few short steps before he collided head on with Ilumina - and now, now is where two possibilities could unfold. For you see, Ahriman charged at the Silver warrior with ears laced back against the flailing locks of his heavily dun mane, with his jaws so grotesquely agape and teeth aimed at the ready - and surely, surely with the natural driven instinct to shy away from such a bold and endearing move, she would open up the line of her shoulder and allow him to make his next move. For if Ilumina moved to either the left or right, Ahriman would merely slip along her neck as his teeth sought the flesh of her neck just before the withers (or the withers, whichever he could possibly grasp upon), and should the stygian beast feel flesh beneath his teeth, he would pinch down as he twisted his head and neck, almost in an attempt to drag the slightly smaller mare down with him. To pinch against such an area, either the neck or withers, would pinch down on the nerves which lingered beneath the skin, causing bruising and a serious injury of which would leave the Silver's ability to lower her neck in balance for any hindquarter movement (i.e.: buck, kick etc) hindered greatly. Even over the wither where the skin and muscle would need to stretch would cause the same discomfort - and in a vicious combo attack, as his teeth sought to grasp some part of Ilumina's neck, his foreleg would be airborne in that surging motion forward, and it would snap out, unsheathing his scabrous hoof to aim for the carpus joint, with malicious intent to hit and damage the ligaments and the bursa which lay within the knee - the bursa of course, the joint capsule containing synovial fluid, the joint fluid to "oil" and lubricate the joint itself.
Alas, this is where the other option would have occurred - for should Ilumina have of stood foolishly still, his teeth would have aimed for the nostrils and nostril cavity, to pinch down on the skin there and cause more discomfort than physical injury; but still his foreleg had the same intent, and still they would aim directly for the knee, although at a slightly different angle. The possibility of either outcome was there, and whatever happened would happen. Although Ahriman knew, that with wind driving so relentlessly into her eyes, perhaps she would have not seen him until the last possible moment and the first occurrence would have occurred out of sheer instinct - but as his teeth sought flesh and his foreleg sought the carpus joint, he would land and the battle would be in full motion and flight. And this advantage, he did take with a heavy stronghold. For as his hooves found the firming ground beneath them, he pivoted and turned away in a short, chopping stride to bring his hindquarters around along the side of the mare - for no doubt her own movement would continue as well and the stride used to turn the stallion would adjust accordingly to either close or distance the gap needed between them for his second assault. Woe and alas, depending on the mare's motion and her ability to turn with whatever injuries she would surely have suffered, he unleashed a fury of scabrous hooves in a powerful double barrel kick - perhaps the blow would land heavily against the mare's ribcage, more towards the false ribs that had no secondary point of the sternum to attach themselves to. Such a blow would surely, surely cause massive bruising and possibly breakage of her rib/s and inhibit the motion of the Silver warrior and her breathing capabilities. If, as his legs would swing out, the mare had moved or turned, then the direction of his hit would land against the flank and delicate patella joint (the stifle), and severely render the hind limb of the mare lame - for the joint was delicate and a weak structural point of the equine anatomy.
To move the hit forward on the body would mean the mare would need to halt and reverse, and such an outcome seemed highly unlikely - however it worked and unfolded, the claybank dun expelled a heavy cloud of mist from his nostrils and he landed with a grunt and a skip - his back and loins stretched to their utter limit against the bitter cold and twinged against him heavily in argument to the daring and full forced move. Even though he was warm from the first few movements and the opening of the battle, it seemed he had pushed himself just a little too far, but as he landed, his head was cocked slightly to the side to keep a single eye on the mare against the wind, a blurred vision of her was all that could be seen against the driving wind. But wasting time, the stallion did not, for should he need to, he would bring his body back around to face the mare, what he would do, would all depend on what happened now...
A H R I M A N
Fire I. | Ni'Srilan | Bronze Warrior
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