HoofPrince XVI: Eos

Let their fear collapse, bring no surprise ;;

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Within The Ridges lie Hoof Prince's bloodiest battlefields. Horses from every length of Hoof Prince congregate here for one simple and primal reason - to battle. The rush of adrenaline draws them closer, the scent of blood spurning them into action, the heat of glory pressing them onward. And here, the victorious become heroes. Fights are roleplay only and are judged based on realism, skill, creativity, and proper written form. For more information, please visit the Rules page and select "Challenging".

Wars
When announced there will be wars where you can win tokens. When a war is posted, anyone that wants to participate will post under the thread, and after 3 days (real life), Altus will pair up fighters. Fights are done in bracket fashion... therefore the first round will take place, and winners of the first round will progress to the second and so forth until there is one winner. For more information, please visit the Rules page and select "War".

Sparring
If you wish to spar a specific player, you may post a spar challenge here (they do not accept as they would with a challenge). You may also post your terms and wait for someone to accept and spar you. Those who are fighting are allowed to set their own terms though, as far as number of attacks, wager, etc as long as both players agree on them. There are no time limits for spars but you may only spar a maximum of 2 times per month!

Wagers
Both the challenger and the challenged must agree to a wager in order to fight. Only the winner of the spar collects the tokens wagered, the loser does not regain their wager.

Wagers are as follows:
Wager 1: Win 2
Wager 2: Win 4
Wager 3: Win 6, etc

Please specify whether it is an outright challenge or only a spar within your initial post!

Challenge Master: ALTUS
Spar Master: TAZEWELL

woken by the morning bird
IP: 96.51.41.245
Posted on November 12, 2010 at 03:03:11 PM by Marara


There’s a sickness in my soul,
And I don’t know, but I’ve been told it’s uncurable


Arianah.

What did the white mare know about her? Not much. Marara would recognize her on sight, but not much more than that. The wings would be a problem, and she would probably come flying in on them. She was also taller than Marara, by a little over a hand but not enough for it to be an advantage for either of them. The only true advantage the white mare had was her level in Earth, being one higher than any level Arianah could claim to. This she would use to her advantage.

Having thought in advance about her attacks, the white mare had chosen her battlefield well. It was an open stretch of sand among some dunes. The actual area in front of Marara was fairly flat, the sand would sink under hooves and hinder them both but the light mare hoped that her shorter stance and lighter weight would give her just a little more advantage in this fight. There was no real vegetation around, and no water to be seen. Hopefully this would limit her opponent’s abilities. Or if she was really lucky, Arianah would come dehydrated and this battlefield would push her even more. Perhaps it would make her slower in her movements. Nothing would be sure until the actual battle occurred. The weather was not bad for spring; a cloudless sky soared above the chosen place with only the slightest breeze playing with the peacock feathers of Marara’s mane. It was warm, but not hot, and late in the morning so neither could have the sun in their eyes unless Arianah took to the air. All in all, the battlefield offered no huge advantages.

So the white mare positioned herself near the center of this area, waiting for her opponent. Whether Arianah entered flying or walking didn’t matter, for she would eventually have to land even if she were flying was Marara’s reasoning. Arianah would know that it was Marara’s hit first, and hovering in the air with such little wind was near impossible. Even if she tried to stay in the air, Marara would simply wait her out. Arianah wouldn’t want to tire herself by soaring above Marara for hours, or even a few minutes she guessed. So, her attacks would come when Arianah was on the ground.

When her opponent entered, Marara braced herself. The second Arianah either stepped into the flat area or touched the ground as she landed, Marara turned herself to face her opponent. With no warning, she broke into a walk, then trot, and then threw herself into a quick canter, stumbling slightly on the sand as she got going. It was softer than she had thought but still runnable. She swung out to her left on a circular trajectory, this would bring her attack to Arianah’s right side. Coming out of her turn, time seemed to slow down for the mare as she began her onslaught.

She was about thirty feet from her opponent, coming quickly at an angle for her shoulder. At the same time she did this, she released her elemental attack. With an ominous rumble of a split second a spear of solid rock suddenly shot from the ground like a spear, directly under Arianah. The rock was sharpened, aiming to spear her fairly far forward on her underbelly, originally aimed towards Arianah’s deep caudal pectoral muscles. These were vital in pulling her front legs backwards in the motion of walking and if they were severely damaged it could spell disaster to Arianah’s attacks for it would cripple her motion to a very painful slow walk. The spear was formed as such that if she simply stood there, it would slice deep into her underbelly. At its tip the spear was as sharp as a needle and then it widened increasingly, at the base it would be about one foot in diameter. There was potential for such widening along the length to get caught in the ribs and halt the penetration of the rock, or it could equally break them and continue to slide in. Marara was not aiming to kill Arianah, though the attack could. It was more that she knew the mare would dodge such a lethal blow.

There were a number of defensive actions Arianah could take. In the time that it would take for her to pump her wings and achieve flight, it was likely that she would already be impaled upon the rock spear. So this was not perhaps the best option. It was similar for moving forward, she would not be able to move far enough forward to avoid the blow and then the spear could piece something more vital such as the intestine or at the very least create a much deeper flesh wound. At least towards the front, ribs would help to block the blow somewhat. Arianah could also step to the right or the left. Either way would work, depending on how swiftly she could move. There was a chance here that the weapon could then sink into her ‘armpit’ which would also severely cripple movement. If she moved quickly enough, which was not likely, the spear could bury itself on the outer side of her barrel and create a superficial flesh would there. However, if she sidestepped to the left, this would bring her away somewhat from Marara’s oncoming attack. Perhaps the best defence that Marara could think of would be to rear back. This would lift her front end away from the blow, perhaps sending the spear to simply scratch her chest or pierce the latissimus dorsi, which again is largely involved in leg movement. The danger with this route is that although she could probably do this fast enough to avoid major damage, in coming down from the rear, she could be in danger of re-impaling herself upon the spear or at least bruising her chest and maybe neck as she came back into contact with it.

Whatever Arianah executed, she couldn’t move very far before Marara would be upon her for the white mare was still travelling at a canter. Angling herself so that she was still aiming for Arianah’s right shoulder, Marara prepared for her second attack. Only a mere second or two after the rock spear had shot from the ground, Mara suddenly dug her hooves in to the soft sand. A plume of sand erupted before her as she had so little distance to stop in, the sand making it harder but still achievable. Using her momentum, Marara angled her neck out towards Arianah, teeth aiming for a lower portion of her neck, the lower part of her scalene muscle. The direct area she aimed for was approximately six inches up from the base of the neck and her goal was to close her teeth around this point, causing bruising or skin lacerations to the area. This would not be a debilitating attack such as her last one, but certainly a painful one if she hit her mark. She could have tried for the radial bone in Arianah’s leg, but the instinct of a horse in such a situation is to go for the neck and for the moment she let her instincts take over. Her teeth closed and she quickly pulled back, hoping to rip and tear whatever she had closed her teeth on, even if it was air she wouldn’t have noticed. She was in full fight mode now.

Arianah had a few options for dodging here, certainly more than she had for the first attack. Pulling her head up would decrease the amount of neck that Marara would be able to grab in her teeth, potentially lessening the damage but also placing the attack more towards the soft tissue of the front of her neck, where from where Marara was she would mostly get the side and some of the front. The paint mare could also rear up, but Marara had aimed high enough that she would most likely still get some neck. Lowering her neck would be suicidal, it would place Marara’s strike closest to the tender parts of the throat. Sidestepping may also work, bringing different parts of the neck into Marara’s range depending on the direction. Moving backwards or forwards accomplished the same basic thing, just deflecting the blow to another area.

This attack had brought Marara quite close to Arianah’s body and so she had to execute her third attack without a moment’s thought. She lifted her front end off the ground as she tugged with her teeth at whatever she had grabbed, pivoting on her hind legs to face away from Arianah. With vicious quickness, her front hooves landed back on the ground and immediately her hind legs kicked out. This time, her attack was aiming for the radial bone, a fairly small target but larger than if she had tried for the metacarpal. She was fairly close to Arianah, but not enough to soften the blow as the white mare felt her hooves connect with something. If her aim were true and her kick strong, there was a chance the bone could fracture, but this was unlikely. The best she hoped for damage here was bruising of the bone, hopefully making it doubly hard for Arianah to launch her own attacks.

Again, there were many options for a defence: Arianah could once again rear, but this would aim the kick at the more fragile lower bones in the body. Stepping forward or backward might work best as this would deflect the blow so it was more of a glancing hit to the front or back, this would still bruise well however. Sidestepping would not do much as the same area would still be in the radius of Marara’s aim. It was unlikely, but Arianah could drop her front end down, thereby taking the hit on the shoulder where it would do less damage, but this was awkward to get herself back up and launched into her own attacks.

With only the slightest fumble in the sand, Marara pushed off with her back legs once more as she hoped Arianah recovered, trying to bring herself away from any incoming attacks. Assuming Arianah didn’t attack while she retreated, Marara’s goal was to stop and turn to face her opponent once more with ten feet between them.



There’s a darkness in my heart
Slowly tearing me apart.



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History of Wars
Winner
War One
Luke
War Two
Sirenne/Gobardon
War Three
Capone
War Four
Zacharias
War Five
Meese/Priest
War Six
Dresden
War Seven
Marara



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