This is getting old (M)
The dance had only barely began and the first injuries were already visible. Kirabo had ended up on top only suffering minor injuries to his face, a couple of bruises to his chest, and some hairline fractures on his forearm bones. The worst was that he was out of weapons, for now.
Zecora, on the other hand, had a lot more scrapes and bruises, a broken nose, and a fairly deep cut in her foreleg. Her magical arsenal was severely depleted when Kirabo’s sword punctured her saddlebag. She had yet to take inventory of what she had left in that pocket so she would use only what she knew she had in the other.
Both the combatants were taking their time, waiting for the other to initiate. Kirabo always felt more comfortable when he was acting then when he was reacting but with no other weapon nearby he had to wait for Zecora to make her move and let things play out from there. This was perfect for Zecora, she always found it better if she could keep her distance from him during combat. Maybe if she had her old body she could have taken him head on much easier, using her weight and size to her advantage.
She looked around, and after a little guesswork on how much time had passed since they started she reached the conclusion that she needed more time, and, at the same time, had very little left until she would go into withdrawal.
Tapping her hoof on the cut bag she felt the familiar shape of her knife and three vials, much smaller than the rest, whose shape easily stood out among the others.
Opening her bag she pulled out those vials and threw them towards her foe. They were small pill shaped objects, sealed with wax and filled to the brink with a yellowish liquid with dark spots floating inside it, and they were heading towards Kirabo.
He may have known what they were and how he had to react to them, but there was no time for him to identify them and think of a proper reaction, he just jumped out of the way letting them smash harmlessly onto the ground next to him.
Or so he thought. As he readied to launch his counterattack, his vision became blurry and his eyes teary. Feeling a sharp burning pain all over his face he tried to rub it away. As he was coughing violently and with his vision impeached Zecora made her move.
Normally the thought of engaging in hand to hoof combat against Kirabo, especially with her young, untrained and inexperienced body, would have been seen as a desperates pony action, but she needed time and this was just that, a play for time.
She galloped towards him, raising her hooves so she could hit him square in the chest. The cuirass took the brunt of the hit, but it still bent a little, and Kirabo was knocked onto his back. Zecora jumped onto him, placing herself on his chest using her hind legs to keep his arms pinned against his body and proceeding to hammer down with her front hooves.
The sight of a little filly pounding her hooves onto the simians face was almost comical, like a schoolyard fight between two kids, the colt having the snot beaten out of him by the smaller filly.
Kirabo stood there and braced himself, doing his best to ignore the pain caused by the bony extremities of his assailant. But they hurt, they hurt much more than they should. He expected this kind of pain from a full grown stallion, most likely an earth pony, a soldier or one who did a lot of hard labor in his life, but not from a filly whose body was only a few days old.
“Sneaky pony.” He thought realising why he was having so much trouble fighting Zecora and why her hits hurt so much.
His arms were pinned against his body, held tightly by Zecora’s hind legs, and no matter how much he struggled he could not get them free. Luckily he had two more hands.
He lifted his legs into the air, then bent his knees so the soles of his feet was as close to his body as possible. Bending his back, with the help of his tail he lifted his rear into the air, then pushed his legs forward. They touched Zecora’s back, but before the filly could realised what happened he had already grabbed the leather strap that connected the two bags together and she found herself spinning through the air being thrown off Kirabo.
Her bags ripped open and scattered their contents. Her knife was the first to go along with some jars that, upon landing on the ground cracked and caused minor explosions and let out bright lights along with ear shattering bangs.
The explosions would have blinded Kirabo if he would have been looking at them, but thankfully he was still lying on his back trying to recover from the repeated blows to the head. The sound of the explosions caused his ears to ring and affected his sense of balance ever so slightly, but he still managed to get on his legs, and rushed towards Zecora, who was now herself laying on the ground hooves up, dazed by the sudden movement and subsequent flashes of light.
On his way towards her, Kirabo picked up the knife she had dropped and jumped onto her trying to stab her, ending the dance before any of them actually started fighting seriously.
Despite all his training and self control he could not help himself let out a scream as he jumped. This was all the notice Zecora needed. Still standing on her back she made sure Kirabo would land on her legs and she would push him away before the blade and her body would meet. Her timing was perfect, but she underestimated the weight of his armor, resulting in a cut upon her chest.
The damage was minimal as the blade only managed to pierce the layers of skin and only graze the muscles underneath nicking a few minor veins or arteries. She had no time to make sure. A few droplets of blood fell, but nothing more. Her old body had worse, much worse injuries while she tried to teach Apple Bloom the proper way to chop a mushroom.
Kirabo flew through the air and landed face first. It did not take him long to get up and take a quick look around. A couple of feet to his right was his sword, while Zecora was standing some distance in front of him and slightly to his left, her knife had fallen somewhere between them.
Just like Zecora did he quickly thought about how much time had passed since they started fighting and a smile appeared on his face.
“She only has a few more minutes left. I should wait, but Luna knows what she may do.”