The moment the woman took on her beast form, Pearl knew the battle had gotten serious. It had been serious to begin with on his end, but the woman had been more or less just thoughtlessly attacking him. She was so strong to begin with that doing anything else would be entirely unfair to her opponent.
Except, Pearl had exceeded her expectations, so now he would have to bear the full force of her might.
So yes, the battle had gotten serious.
The first thing Pearl noticed when the phoenix became her giant bird self was the rippling air around her. The air distorted with heat until it began combusting, truly burning like flames.
Then, as he watched, her bird body itself turned into flames and charged forward.
Pearl pulled his thoughts in line and attacked. Space between him and the woman shrank, giving him reach as his spear struck the bird.
