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The woman's hook would be an utter dud. Her opponent having managed to lean off to the side and pull in even closer than before to allow for her flying palm to narrowly miss his skull. Instead, she was left with an arm over his shoulder, one leg planted on the ground, and a final leg somewhat around his waist.

Talk about intimate.

So when he went to armbar the living powerhouse, Micheal would find some difficulty. That isn't to say he couldn't try, but with the woman's triceps/middle head. resting on his shoulders, it would be nigh impossible. But by the same token, Hoshiko most certainly didn't have many ways to retaliate, but that sure as hell wasn't gunna stop her!

There was to be no backing up. No moment of reprieve. And there were no such thing as cheapshots in her mind. Victory at any cost! Seeing as her arm was already put up where it was, Hoshiko would go ahead and wrap it around the back of the man's head, using her strength to keep herself locked to him. Following this, her leg leg would be replanted on the ground, right outside his right.

And her right leg? Well, it's knee would be pulled up as had as she could manage...Right into the man's groin area.

As for his knife hand chop? Yes, she was unable to block it. However, in this ninja's training she had learned that it was always used to strike at critical points. Soft spots in the neck, joints. And unless her scrawny opponent was hiding a vast pool of supernatural strength or a similar kekkai genkai to her own, Hoshiko wasn't going to get more than a bruise.

Perhaps a bruise had been a light description, but then again, his blow wasn't about to be at full strength, either. Micheal wasn't striking at blocks, he was fighting a human opponent. As such, there were variables that affected his capability to do such unmitigated damage that his technique and skill could produce.

Such things like the fact that the martial artist he was swinging at was all but giving the man a bear hug. Correction, she was hugging him in a fashion. Such a close target would make the swing awkward. More so, the fact that she was holding his shoulder and head to some extent, with her legs mixed with his, his balance would be off. His motions would be off.

So while the man might have spend thousands of hours striking an immobile and well placed target, the effect would not be the same. To his credit, Micheal managed to do more than bruise her. His strike landing solidly upon the side of the woman's rib cage, a rib cracking under the force. The damage obviously not only from the feel of it, but the roar of pain from his opponent.

Pain shot through Hoshiko's side, piercing. Sharp. The woman even managed to feel her own bone crack with a resounding pop. And through it all, she told herself to just keep going. To ignore the pain, push through it. Fight until she couldn't fight anymore. She'd handled a bear ripping her arm off midway up the bicep.

She. Could. Handle. This.

Attention must be directed to the attack that the one-armed ninja through, regardless of the man's chop attack. The knee that she'd brought up into his groin region in full force, his body held in place by her entangled grasp. Arm over his shoulder, hand on the back of Micheal's head. (Assuming he looks like the avatar) Her fingers gripping tightly into his hair. He had no defense for it.

And in her pain, Hoshiko would lash out further. Any thought of strategy gone in the heat of the moment as a temporary bloodlust took hold in the woman's heart. Smirking menacingly, The short haired woman would c**k her head back, before slamming it forward. Letting her forehead connect with whatever part of the man's skull it could find. Ideally, it would be the man's nose. But lord knows her luck isn't that good.

Never mind Hoshiko's knee strike that seems to have been lost to the sands of time. Never mind the fact that while he didn't have the proper angles to gain control over the vastly stronger Hoshiko's arm. Nevermind that he was trying to dodge a headbutt from a woman pretty much hugging him, by somehow leaning in further, and to the right enough that she'd be unable to connect with him.

The problem with the lithe martial artist attempting to twist her arm about, was that he was doing it all wrong. Besides the fact that her hand was firmly gripped into a fist woven with Micheal's fine hair, he was grabbing on the wrong side. To grab her hand, planting his thumb on the sweet spot and with his hand covering her palm, he would be twisting her wrist in the wrong direction. Hoshiko would have enough force to, at the very least, keep herself from being strung out like a marionette.

While certainly not her style, the ninja had some grasp of Aikido. The move he was using was all too similar to a defense technique of said martial art, where a practitioner is being struck at, thrust at, or grabbed for. He/she, in turn, manages to snag his or her aggressor's hand, twisting it violently. But in the other direction, because the palm is placed over the back of the hand.

Hoshiko wasn't going anywhere, at least not just yet. She had to hurt this guy. She had to hurt him soon. Her breathing was labored and painful. Coming off as raspy, despite her lack of extended exertion. Her knee throbbed from the man's slap attack.

Well, here it goes.

Hoshiko had learned her lesson about using her signature ability...to some degree. In that, when he did his slappy attack, she'd better not be metal anywhere. That isn't to say she can't still use it. Seeing as Micheal's head was forward and to the right, the kunoichi would mimic. Resting her forehead just off of his shoulder. Looking down now, she held the man's upper body firmly in place while she took a step back with her left leg.

Her right? Her still good leg? Would come up solidly towards the man's gut. Naturally, she pistoned it upwards as hard as she could manage, shifting her knee to metal for a moment to strike, before disengaging it once more.

((Since all of the judges have been contacted to make a ruling on the last post exchange in this fight, I'm going to post this right here to let both of you know I'm looking at it. I'll edit this with my ruling so that you can both keep fighting.))

Edit: Judgement: It seems that the attack called to my attention had already passed, so you guys keep on fighting.

The few strands of hair she had came free as she jerked, and simultaneously, he jumped far back, twisting his head down and around her grasp like a bad dance move. He needed distance from her, or he was going to kill her, and that meant instant disqualification. He also needed time to recover, the intensity he was keeping up far beyond the duration of his else-wise fragile frame's capacity to sustain. By will alone he continued moving, and where that was the case, attacking AND defending simultaneously was unlikely at best. He hadn't underestimated his opponent, rather he had latched onto her personality, rather than her proficiency for his guidebook to reading her movements. He now realized the two were neither in sync and ultimately mutually exclusive aspects, almost like a possession, and this was no time for an exorcism.

He kept his distance in his first leap backward, three paces in all, a greater distance than his fully extended strike with a bokken.

The figure circled her steadily, getting his blood flowing more evenly through his groin, rubbing the back of his head. He looked at her arm and her opposite side, about 2/3rds demolished. If he was into battle tech like Cheech Marin, he would feel pretty good about destroying a large portion of the enemy, but this wasn't a video game and Hoshiko wasn't a machine. She was a human being, with hopes, dreams, and aspirations, just like he used to have. He thought about curing her missing limb, but concluded it must have been a vice she took some kind of pride or motivation in, else-wise, why no prosthesis? No hook, no wooden arm, no mechanism of any sort to indicate she wanted it replaced. It somehow defined her, and he accepted that.

"If two people go into battle with one another, and both come out better than when they entered, then there are no losers. I am grateful for this opportunity to reflect. You have helped define me..."

With that, he stepped down, and knelt in seiza, placing both hands on his thighs, his eyes focused on her center of gravity.

He stood up for a moment, then leaned forward, and began darting toward her. It was a strange Gatling gun sound of what might have been his foot steps, his acceleration quite sudden and moving swiftly toward her center, it looked as if he were about to clothesline her, but the hand position was off slightly. The real question was whether she would interfere before he made impact.

edited:
As she pumped her right leg upward from the ground Noire could perceive the motion with crystal clarity, and the angles driving not only the attempted attack, as she leaned backward to main her center of gravity - which he had been staring at for an extended period of time.
As the Kick began it's initial acceleration, Noire bounded on one foot after the next, pressing off the marble floor springing high into the air (1:17-1:23), the incoming thrust of the kick providing him a subtle spring board - a moving gymnastics beam, upon which to turn his forward rush and leap into a handstand somersault, both hands pushing off her shin as he accelerated by tucking his legs inward, his left leg extending outward as he came down into an ax kick centered on her right shoulder, his hands now free and guiding his balance, poised to intercept.