[The blow is jarring, even more so after the lightning-bolt; Kratos's vision turns on an axis and his responding sword-thrust is too slow, off-balance -- but Yuan isn't there to block it anyway. Kratos spares barely a blazing second of hope for that action, the choice not to take Kratos' life now he's vulnerable; but he also hears Lloyd's yell as he attacks Yuan's other side.

[Yuan turns to face that attack, as if Kratos isn't a threat any longer -- and Lloyd probably is the greater threat, now. But Kratos can't abide leaving him to this fight alone -- relatively alone, even with Colette's chakram singing and Genis's spells.

[It takes a moment for Kratos to regain his equilibrium enough to rise, and Raine is already at his shoulder, pushing a gel into his mouth. Not the first time, won't be the last; and it almost immediately makes it easier to push aside his aches and exhaustion to get to his feet.

[Lloyd's on the defensive now, still quick but less fluid; jabbing more than slicing as he does when faintly panicky.

[The sudden, unleashing rage that Yuan thinks this is an appropriate way to greet him -- trying to kill his son -- helps even more than the apple gel. Rage is not always good in battle, but right now, Kratos will take it. The battle cry he snarls as he rushes at Yuan's back is old, unheard for millennium except from him.]