-bleep-

Well, this one was certainly a piece of work. She watched him through the swirl of snowflakes that blew between them even at a closer range, head cocked as the male threw insults and pup-talk her way. A snort of laughter escaped her on a cloud of breath—swiftly whisked away on the driving wind. “Funny. The way you were staring at that rock—and bellowing… one might have thought you’d seen it before. Several times. Old acquaintance?”

His cocky, overcompensating attitude she ignored, instead studying him as she would any opponent. He was larger, but she was already used to a larger opponent. And for all that he threw insults like a fool, she didn’t discount the possibility that he’d be just as innovative with his fighting as he was with his tongue. Or rather… more than he was with his tongue.

She finished her swift study of him as he began to give his ‘come at me bro’ spiel, and commented, throwing her guess out there, moving before she was finished speaking, “I’ve met better Xanilovs than you, I’m afraid…”

That mask and the whiffs of scent she kept catching when the wind whipped her way had been niggling at her, and she’d made a cautious connection. Domari’s relative? Definitely wasn’t how her father had described his brother Alarik, who had joined, and then inexplicably vanished. That bot had been honorable and eager to please and do good. This one was the opposite.

Demyan’d already begun to settle into a stance, but she did away with setting her defenses before she launched herself—her father had already hammered the merits of letting the defenses click into place as you went into the fight as the initiator, and even as the defender.

She drove off from her haunches, hind paws pushing off from the ground and sending small clumps of snow flinging into the air and her tail behind her as she sought to close the six feet of distance between herself and Demyan – though she didn’t yet know his name, and likely wouldn’t learn it – before she'd let the words 'I'm afraid' leave her jaws, her ears flicking back to pin against her head as her expression shifted into a silent snarl—eyes narrowed to protected slits, jowls wrinkling to fully bare those long upper canines of hers and face following that wrinkled expression to give a little padding to her face as her jaws parted slightly, misted breath puffing loose in an easy breath.

Her toes spread wide to better her balance and traction, and her claws dug into the frozen, hardened snow and earth beneath the layers of fresher powder that lay on the ground for added traction. Her tail flowed level with her spine as her shoulder-blades rolled forward to guard her lower neck, hackles rising along her spine from shoulders to tail-head for a bit of fluffy protection against his teeth and claws.

She sought to come at the male head-on, face-to-face, though with an easy nine inches separating their heights, her head was much lower than his own. So, as she sought to draw near, she lowered herself further, aiming to gain momentum and to veer slightly to her right and barrel into his left foreleg, seeking to drive the sharp point of her left shoulder into the upper portion of his left front leg and knock it backward from beneath him in hopes of straining a muscle in Demyan’s left shoulder, as her weight shifted fluidly to her other three legs to compensate for the slight lifting of her left front paw as she sought to drive the hard edge of her left shoulder-blade upward into Demyan’s throat at the lower side of his neck, aiming to jar his windpipe with the movement and leave mild bruising – maybe even moderate, if her momentum had been enough...

Her head tipped to her own right, her left eye rolling back to keep a peripheral watch on the larger male from between slitted lids as her jaws parted further and she sought to lunge her skull to her left, aiming to slash the sharp points of her canines into the soft point behind the elbow of Demyan’s left front leg, aiming to leave moderate wounds in her wake. Her intent was also to keep him from aiming for her own vulnerable topside, and to serve as a distraction from his surroundings. If he was intent on her, Aelloshir might have an opening for an attack at some point during the spar.

As it was, she had no intention of staying in one spot too long for the larger wolf to use his size to his advantage, nor of letting any more than one paw leave the ground for any amount of time, and she kept her joints loose, hocks and right foreleg slightly bent to lower her center of balance.

Extra Notes: Sorry this took so horrifically long, Tealah. Thanks for not canning the spar in frustration xD Gods this internet issue is so frustrating >.< You know where to catch me if you need any clarifications <3

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think