I'm Going Viral
05-10-2017, 02:40 PM
Gwenevere inclined her head politely to the yearling who answered Regulus' call to observe their spar, then nodded again in response to Regulus' words. "It would hardly be a proper test otherwise, would it?" she said dryly, though with a smile to take any sting from her words. "You can expect me to do the same."
As the alpha set his defenses, Gwenevere did the same, relaxing into a warrior's stance with the ease of long practice. Her paws stood just over shoulder- and hip-distance apart, her weight centered and evenly distributed over all four limbs. She held her weight lightly and on her toes like a sprinter ready for the starting gun, joints slightly bent and lose, all to allow for sudden and swift movement. Her tail rose while her head dipped to make a line with her spine for balance.
Her ears flicked back to protect them from his teeth and her eyes, while remaining watchfully upon him, narrowed to slits to minimize their exposure. She raised her hackles, but unlike most fighters opted not to scrunch her neck and shoulders together - she found the posture to be confining and stiff and felt it slowed her movements. She did tuck her chin slightly to protect her throat despite her opponent's height and the friendly nature of the spar - it wouldn't do to get into the habit of forgetting, only to come to grief when she did need it.
He asked if she was ready, both having fallen into their respective stances. "Ready," she affirmed, seeing no reason to wait any longer when they were both already ready. Frankly were their positions reversed she might not have waited for her opponent to be ready - a better test would be how they fought when surprised, in her opinion. A duel was all well and good, but a real enemy wouldn't wait until you were ready.
He charged, which was only logical for a wolf of his size to do. Charge and use their body weight to overwhelm their opponent. With the opponent being her size it certainly would have if she'd held still for him to hit. She didn't, of course. She sidestepped to her left and pivoted toward her right in the same smooth motion, bringing her to face ninety degrees to her previous position and a good foot to the left, seeking to face Regulus' right shoulder. The movement took her out of range of Regulus' charge and his attempt to hook her foreleg both, though his teeth did slice across her forehead above her right eye, leaving a moderate gash that - as head wounds tended to do - bled profusely. And annoyingly.
She flinched at the sudden spike of pain and shook the blood from her eye. A fight that would already need to end quickly simply because her fighting style would take more energy than his would now be complicated by being virtually blind in one eye. Still, muscle memory was a beautiful thing, and she'd had a good long time as a lone female to have reason to build her fighting skills even before she and Lanse had taken up together and honed their skills in sparring one another.
She lashed out by reflex even as she was blinking the blood away, teeth seeking to sink into his right elbow, her head tilting slightly so that her lower jaw would be to the outside point of his elbow and her upper to the inside curve. Not to hold, but with the intention to lacerate and withdraw without pause. His right elbow, favored enough that she had seen and marked as a weakness. As she did she shifted her weight to her hindquarters and brought her left forepaw up towards his right flank, attempting to jab the dull claws hard into the fleshy area there. Was he ticklish? She certainly didn't know but ticklish or not it would be an unpleasant distraction for the big red male if she reached her target.
All right so yes, her and Lanse's spars had always been... unconventional. And certainly ended much less appropriately than how this one would, to be sure. But the odd style certainly suited her size and taught her a great deal of improvisation, and she was certainly practical enough to use whatever odd idea and technique came her way if it worked well enough.
GWENEVERE vs REGULUS for LEGIONARY TEST SPAR
Round 1/3
Height: 30"
Build: Medium