The invincible girl's grasping fingers vainly struggled against the molten iron, but it was not proving easy to dislodge.  Although the hammer's head was gone, Vol Lok Ra still held the pole that had been the lamppost's shaft, and touched it to the flowing metal, commanding it to obey him.  Vincy's fingers broke through the red-hot liquid easily, but each time she did, her blazing mask would reform, a little cooler and tougher each time.  Before long, she'd have a mask of solid iron wrapped tightly around her face, preventing her from seeing or breathing.

The lizard king's aim had been to disable her, for it would be all but impossible to defeat the girl if he didn't stop her from attacking somehow.  However, he'd only been partially successful in slowing her down.  He'd fought many battles over his long, long lifetime, and now his experience worked against him: his instincts told him that an opponent who had just been hit so hard wouldn't immediately get up and strike back.  Unfortunately, this was precisely what Vincy did.

Caught off guard by the charge, Vol took the first mighty blow head-on, feeling something [i]snap[/i] inside him as his opponent struck out with surprising fury. A grow of pain forced its way out of his throat as he reeled back, surprised and hurt by his mistake.  She was uncoordinated, yes, but also hitting harder than before, perhaps he'd actually managed to slow her down slightly.  Worse, she didn't seem to be getting tired at all, while he most certainly was.  He needed to figure out how to to pin her down- and fast.

When she flailed again, he was ready, hopping backwards with surprising nimbleness before whacking her hard with his lamppost-pole.  He knew it wouldn't hurt her, so he aimed for the metal on her face, reinforcing it with his magic and calling once more upon the mass of the earth, channeling it through the pole into the mask he'd forged to bind her.  Vincy would feel the metal on and inside her getting heavier, slowing her down and making it harder to move around.  Vol, meanwhile, suddenly leaped to one side, prowling around her to try and get out of the way of further blind strikes and hit her from behind.