bend but don't break

Walk | Talk | Think

She shouldn't have tried to push away from him. It had been sound in theory, as she supposed that pressing her weight against him with her forepaws would make it more difficult for him to keep his hold onto her scruff and ultimately keep her from doing too much damage to him since he could, in a sense, keep her at arm's length. It was only as she did it, drawing herself upward and trying to push away, that she felt the tear of teeth into her skin. His hold had merely been a prickle to begin with, four clean indents into the skin that would draw blood and sting with his grip, but her movement had only worsened it and considerably. The teeth that had only been meant to hold tight now ripped into the skin, digging cuts - deep in the case of the upper canines - into the flesh upon her scruff. Even though the entirety of it had been her own doing, she still growled around another whine, though it was too late to do anything about it. Still, it was an unpleasant feeling and caused the muscles there upon her shoulders to remain tensed as if it might somehow help.

Ears still pinned, she felt the larger red male react above her as she tried to push against him, eventually her efforts being rewarded with success. For only a split second she was able to celebrate, at least mentally, before he was moving again, this time toward her. She realized her folly too late, paws still up and poised to push off of Maverick while her tail still flagged outward in a vain attempt at keeping balance. But he had already seen an opening and was acting on it. His weight pressed into hers forcefully, shoulder colliding with her chest as her legs were forced to fold and press against herself while her adversary knocked her off balance. It was a less than graceful fall, backwards, though she tried to angle her body as best she could to deter from falling straight backward and instead to land upon her side as if to catch herself, though she couldn't possibly be fast enough to get her paws there to fully do so in time.

Thanks to her angle before him, her left side still more or less presented to him even as she had reared to claw at him with her forepaws, Ashtoreth landed upon the right side of her back - the torn bite wound upon her shoulder blades strongly protesting the fall enough to made her reaction time somewhat sluggish - and rigidly rolled onto her right side even as the Seracian Prince loomed over her. He was not finished, she knew. In her current position, she made far too easy a target, and he could very well intend to take advantage of that. Unfortunately for her, her position also made it difficult to strike back. She would need to be creative, or merely attempt to defend herself as well as she could.

She chose defense instead. As if it would make a difference, she bared her teeth, lips drawn back as a warning growl snapped from her slightly parted jaws, and vainly she tucked her chin, attempting to shield her throat from attack. True, they had made an agreement to leave no lasting damage on each other but instinct had kicked in and the movement came naturally and reflexively to her. Maverick's face was already there alongside her own, his own movements seemingly hindered very little by the damage she had done to him. As her ears tucked tightly yet again, a paw raised, her left fore, to press against his chest and attempt to keep her sparring partner away, but it was far too late. His teeth met their mark there along the side of her face, a turn of her head angling his bite perhaps a little more off center than he had intended, and a sharp sting, practically nothing in comparison to the aching one set between her shoulder blades, sparked up there as his bite connected.

Unwilling to raise her head and possibly injure the side of her face in the same manner that she had injured her scruff - and still protectively wishing to keep her chin tucked - Ashtoreth attempted to roll enough to raise her right paw along with her left and reach upward along the male's larger frame in two consecutive swipes, attempting with the left to get close to his shoulder while the other aimed merely to scrape along the broad front of his chest.

Round 3/3:

Attacks:Two swipes of her forepaws, one after the other. The left toward the joint part of his shoulder; the right just across the center of his chest.

Defenses: Ears and chin tucked, otherwise exposed because of her position on her side/back.

Injuries: Two small bleeding puncture wounds on the underside of Maverick's bite to her scruff, two larger puncture wounds on the upper side of Maverick's bite; all lengthened into shallow but bleeding tears in her skin with bruising likely to develop (due to trying to pull out of his grasp and falling on wounds). Soreness, likely concentrated toward chest and shoulders, from shove to knock her off balance. Another bite to her cheek, possibly bloody if not bleeding.