Lion(ness) Breaker [Rafaela, Sola]

Before she recovered he needed to take some momentum, as funny as it was to stare at her prone frame like this he knew she'd be back up and persistent. At the same time he could not try for a punch since they were both on the ground.

Fortunately for times like this he had the trusty old spiritual energy and a very reliable hollow tool called the cero. His land let go of her ankle before charging the red beam and launching it at her...

He wasn't really thinking about where he was facing or that the way he'd tripped her meant that she was facing away from him but this was a battle that could be to the death! He wasn't going to take a loss that might kill him without giving it his best to come out on top.

Even if it killed him.

The impact of the cero was, to put it lightly, not pleasant. Even given how sturdy she was, there were some places a person just wasn’t prepared to defend. Rafaela didn’t so much ‘yell’ as she did ‘squeak’ in response to the injury, followed by a strained tirade of colorful language in her native Italian. It was only as she struggled to get up that she grew a little bit more coherent, a much more obvious anger now bleeding into her voice.

“And I thought we were just having a good, fun fight!”

Her sword whipped around all at once, the searing purple light of her Fullbring shooting out nearly a full 360 degrees and scorching whatever it came in contact with. She definitely wasn’t having fun anymore.

"Huh- We are!"

He could only be described as having ended up a metre in the air from the ground. A loud shout of his own as he landed on his feet from the surge of her attack hitting him.

"Hot hot hot! Do you mind? Jeez, what crawled up your panties to get them in a twist."

Sola complained and nursed the burns with his arm. Why'd she get all upset, it was just a cero. She'd been throwing lightning around this whole time but the moment he did it, oh nooooo.

Damn girls.

"You did, you monkey!"

The natural indignation of an unsullied maiden was mixed with the mindless fury of a hollowfied warrior, and rather than waiting for him to recover, Rafaela continued on the warpath, moving to slam the side of her blade into Sola as a blunt attack. She could have just cut him, but she was far too angry for such a straightforward kill.

"You can't just touch me there!"

"Jeez-"

He groaned as the blunt edge of the blade slammed into his side and threw him more than a few metres away from her. The pain from the blow made him forget all about the burning sensation of her lightning as the most prominent pain clawed to the forefront.

"Not fair. C... ero is hardly a feel. If you wanna beat me up over it then at least let me get an actual feel."

No wait don't. He didn't like to just be handed things, it was way more fun to have the challenge of getting there himself.

"I'd never let you, you creep! Don't start feeling so full of yourself!"

Stepping toward Sola and pointing her sword at him, Rafaela's gaze was burning with indignation rather than fury, and some of the more fundamentally 'Rafaela' aspects of who she was were bubbling to the surface. Of course, they were still being twisted into something far more hostile. Violence, even over something like this, wouldn't have been in her nature normally.

"Now, are you done? Or should I cut off the other one, too? Maybe something else for good measure?"

"It'll grow back."

He shot back to the looming shortstack, his remaining hand reaching out to grab hold of her ankle as she approached. He could try and trip her again but there was no real point now that she had her eyesight back. Sola just refused to give her all the satisfaction and was dedicated to the single goal of holding onto her ankle.

Even if she cut off his other arm he was willing to grip her ankle so tight that she'd have to pry it off for her troubles.

"I ain't no quitter."

He mumured through the pain and blood loss.

Admittedly, Rafaela's eyesight wasn't quite as restored as she'd have liked it to be. She was seeing movement, colors, sure, but not too much else. That was fine, though, because this guy didn't want to quit. As his hand gripped her ankle, the hollowed knight grinned once more, stabbing her sword into the ground instead and smirking in a way that seemed both cocky and a faint bit cruel.

"Me neither. So, should I just kill you now? Get you out of the way?"

She was all too willing to do so, if he felt like agreeing. But hey, she thought it was impressive how much he was hanging on after that beatdown. She had a job to do, sure, but she also liked fighting.

"People... that kill...."

"Buncha wusses. Scareda gettin' beat later."

He puffed out at her. He hated the idea of killing an opponent, especially one with real guts that'd get tougher and come back to beat him later. Grunts were whatever but he was happy to sneer through his battered expression at her. If she killed him then he won right? Because she was scared of him getting stronger, and then beating her later.

"Crud."

Sola glanced around a little bit. This lightheadedness was not cool.

"...Heh."

Rafaela picked up her sword after Sola had finished talking, she looked down at him with a wider smirk than before, and while she felt some urge inside her to reach out and offer a hand, she wasn't going to follow up on that urge. However, she was obviously done with her beatings for now, especially as she turned to start walking away.

"Come on, then. I've got stuff to do, there'll probably be some small fry I don't feel like handling. They might give you a real run for your money, though."