Blitzkrieg: Go team RAM-ROD!

Sweat. Already it thickens on Aquila’s coat. Thankfully, she is already white and already filled with her water element, which fuels her motion like oil for a machine. Black and white. The two have little to nothing in common; they are warriors and they are female. That’s about all they share. The water and fire of their elements sizzle and swish around them in the magnificent backdrop of a hotter-than-the-desert Blitzkrieg.

As Artaxxas comes at her head-on, Aquila angles herself with her; she is larger and therefore if they collide, the damage to Artaxxas would be greater. However, as she springs forward, Aquila does the same movement though with less grace and a twist to the right away from the other’s hooves (an instinctual maneuver). They meet mid-air, and though Aquila’s knee is not far out of reach, the attack doesn’t hit it. Instead, the hoof comes down just above it, at the end of the radius bone. As the two are drug down to the earth by gravity, Aquila raises her left hoof in a sign of distress. Artaxxas had come down on her, but didn’t land on her as predicted. But she has injured the common digital extensor. The pain is excruciating at first, when Aquila lands. But she has little time to think of it, as Artaxxas has already taken a quick stride behind her before Aquila can accommodate her maneuvering capabilities to her injury. Because she has twisted slightly, her landing placed her at a 45 degree angle with Artaxxas, which would help her in escaping her vicious attack.

And so, as Aquila tries to scurry out of the way, knowing that she cannot move fast as her stride hasn’t had time to find a comfortable alternative to its regular locomotion, the first attack slams into her barrel’s ribs. The fires are immediately calmed, however, as Aquila’s powerful water element laughs at the fire’s futile attempts. She gasps, and sputters but she keeps on moving. As the combo attack is unleashed, Aquila has moved enough for the blow to be taken on the haunch (note she gasps as the pain from her leg and the pain of the recent attack to her barrel is felt; but there is no blood as a horse’s barrel is actually quite tough). Again, her water element laughs and cheers her on as she continues. There is swelling already on the haunches, though the blood only trickles from the outlines of where the jagged hooves had landed. And then, the devil mare turns to her opponent, Artaxxas, a menacing look to those crazed cobalt eyes. The look on her face is twisted in pain, but pain is sacred to a masochist. And that’s just what Aquila is; this is her religion, and it was her turn to share the joy, the exquisite satisfaction of pain.

Now, Aquila has sustained an injury to her common digital extensor, which is the major extensor tendon of the leg. However, unlike the flexor tendons, a horse with a damaged extensor is not lame, but rapidly learns to compensate by “flicking” the lower limb using the carpal or tarsal extensor units. So she does this, keeping her head high and chin tucked to help her with the adjusted stride. Her haunches are sore, but are managed with a grimace as they are dull in comparison to the rest of her body. Her ribs are limited in that she cannot easily bend her body; but she can with some effort and gasping.

Aquila’s “flicking” stride brings her alongside Artaxxas, and a flash of her eyes display a maelstrom within their blue depths. Her body is hurting, and her mouth is parched from the effort of the battle and heat, but she will not quit. Aquila angles herself in a parallel fashion with Artaxxas; her stride is bigger than the smaller mare. Her side rubs against the sooty mountain-lover, the sweat from their bodies combining as her water element runs across the other, hoping to suffocate her fire element; teasing, tempting... And then they are apart again. Now, Aquila is placed upon Artaxxas’s left side, and lets there be a space of about two feet between them before she attacks. Aquila calls upon her super elemental power of EMOTIONAL to create water in Artaxxas’s eyes. She is a fire element, and therefore would be limited to only seeing blurred shapes for the duration of the attack. Aquila took full advantage of this, and instantly launched herself towards the other mare. With her entire body screaming at her not to do it, Aquila angled herself (ouch, that hurts the ribs like lightning is running through her body) towards the mare at a 45 degree angle. Using her injured leg’s shoulder (oh, the sweet sensation of pain sweeps across her body with a sizzling hiss) and haunches (again, the dead-leg feeling has subsided but they’re still a little sore and stiff) she hoped her front hooves (or hoof) would land on the cervical vertebrae. It would be a winning blow if dealt properly, and even if her narrow target was missed Aquila’s hooves could still hit some valuable targets. In Artaxxas’s panic of not being able to see properly, she could have turned away, stopped, slowed down, turned into Aquila or a multiple of other things, but Aquila would accommodate for those things as she waited a few seconds to see what the other would do after the power kicked in fully. If she turned away upon sensing Aquila somehow was getting closer, Aquila’s hooves could still hit along the backbone or even the thoracic and the lumbar vertebrae. She could have hit Artaxxas directly in the head, another crowning jewel (yes, the pun was intended). Either way, Aquila lands with sick thud and skips a stride before her injury-manipulated locomotion continues.

Aquila is still beside Artaxxas when she delivers another blow (she’s getting fatigued with the hot weather, and her injuries are beginning to drain the energy from her faster than before). Upon her landing, Aquila jumps forward alongside the black before angling into her once again – though this time admittedly with less grace given her injuries – her right knee seeking to go directly into Artaxxas’s armpit. The force could knock the wind out of her, which would hinder her movement to catch her breath. But even as Aquila comes down, she utilizes her COMBO attack to hopefully come down on the precious lower leg region and do a bit of damage there as well to spread her targets all over the body. There. A cool breeze begins to settle over Blitzkrieg, and the battle is finished.