Knowing it's coming helps, but not that much. Nitoh's never fought a Phantom this intent on destroying him. Mostly, they're fighting him off while they try to get past him, to the Gate.

And of course, he used to have someone else to pass the baton to when things got tough.

The lightning crawls over his suit, and his ears and skin buzz underneath it. "Hhh!" comes out of his mouth, a staccato reaction to the electric shock. He throws his gun up to block the ax and manages, just barely, to turn it aside.

He begins to wonder if he shouldn't have gone straight for Hyper, but as he twists to the opposite side of the ax thrust, arms still twitching unnaturally, he fishes out the Hyper ring and slides it onto his finger. "This time, for sure..." he murmurs, shooting Dragon in the back and hoping it'll be long enough to give him an opening.