And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder
One of the four beasts saying,
'Come and see.' and I saw.
***
One of the four beasts saying,
'Come and see.' and I saw.
***
Toro wore his feelings on his proverbial sleeves. Irritation made him bristle, anticipation wound him up like spooked cat. If for no reason but that, Raymond did not allow himself the luxury of relaxing around the pale stallion, though his display of readiness looked more like the sharpening of an image than the disruption of one.
He knew what it meant to wait for the other shoe to drop; serenity was a mental state earned through years lived dangerously. Thus, when Toro burst into action like a sprung trap the moment Raymond gave the signal, the red stallion was not caught completely off-guard.
Because he was watching Toro when the white stallion chose to make his play, Raymond had the opportunity to see the split-second wind-up - the bunching of cords of sinew just beneath the skin, the wrenching of that horned head to bear down upon him - and react purely on instinct to avoid being gored. He dropped his front end, topline wrenching sharply left as he pushed off with his forelegs into a sharp leftward pivot around his hind end. So soon in the battle, he was no more likely to let his front end get skewered than he was to let himself be trampled.
The spin carried his shoulder out of reach of the white stallion's horns, but the momentum of the thrust carried him nonetheless alongside Raymond, shoulders colliding harmlessly as Toro's horns hooked at empty air. Raymond, for his part, continued to pivot left, leaving Toro's attempted impalement behind and lamenting the intimacy of their predicament as his tail loosely completed the circle his body made in a useless arc.
His woes were short-lived.
As ever, the red stallion was a combat pragmatist. He could not properly swing the blade in such close quarters to do anything but rend skin, but he had in his defensive maneuver opened up a new, more conventional opportunity. Harnessing the energy built up from reeling left away from Toro's attack and bringing his muscular hindquarters to bear, Raymond torqued his spine and delivered a swift hind kick aimed for toro's left elbow and forwardmost ribs. Accuracy could not be guaranteed, but if Toro had put sufficient force into his opening move then he might still have been unbalanced by his failure to connect, Raymond's circular momentum would suffice to drive the point home if it managed to connect anywhere along the white stallion's left side.
With a resolute snort and a toss of his angular head, Raymond pulled out of his circular path and trotted in an arc around to his opponent's right, tail held menacingly high and at the ready like a cobra waiting to strike.
He knew what it meant to wait for the other shoe to drop; serenity was a mental state earned through years lived dangerously. Thus, when Toro burst into action like a sprung trap the moment Raymond gave the signal, the red stallion was not caught completely off-guard.
Because he was watching Toro when the white stallion chose to make his play, Raymond had the opportunity to see the split-second wind-up - the bunching of cords of sinew just beneath the skin, the wrenching of that horned head to bear down upon him - and react purely on instinct to avoid being gored. He dropped his front end, topline wrenching sharply left as he pushed off with his forelegs into a sharp leftward pivot around his hind end. So soon in the battle, he was no more likely to let his front end get skewered than he was to let himself be trampled.
The spin carried his shoulder out of reach of the white stallion's horns, but the momentum of the thrust carried him nonetheless alongside Raymond, shoulders colliding harmlessly as Toro's horns hooked at empty air. Raymond, for his part, continued to pivot left, leaving Toro's attempted impalement behind and lamenting the intimacy of their predicament as his tail loosely completed the circle his body made in a useless arc.
His woes were short-lived.
As ever, the red stallion was a combat pragmatist. He could not properly swing the blade in such close quarters to do anything but rend skin, but he had in his defensive maneuver opened up a new, more conventional opportunity. Harnessing the energy built up from reeling left away from Toro's attack and bringing his muscular hindquarters to bear, Raymond torqued his spine and delivered a swift hind kick aimed for toro's left elbow and forwardmost ribs. Accuracy could not be guaranteed, but if Toro had put sufficient force into his opening move then he might still have been unbalanced by his failure to connect, Raymond's circular momentum would suffice to drive the point home if it managed to connect anywhere along the white stallion's left side.
With a resolute snort and a toss of his angular head, Raymond pulled out of his circular path and trotted in an arc around to his opponent's right, tail held menacingly high and at the ready like a cobra waiting to strike.
***
Raymond
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around.
Raymond
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around.
Summary: When El Toro lunges to try to gore Raymond's right shoulder, he pivots sharply left around his hindquarters to avoid the horns completely, Toro's left shoulder coming into harmless contact with his own right shoulder, and uses that momentum to throw out his hind hooves in a backward kicked aimed for Toro's left shoulder/ribs or whatever is in reach. Once his back legs land, he exits his pivot maneuver and trots in an arc around Toro's hindquarters toward Toro's right side, tail at the ready.
Attack Used: 1
Attack(s) Left: 1
Block Used: 1
Block(s) Left: 0
Item(s) Used: None
Response Deadline: 07/20/18
Tags: @El Toro, @
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