He does land a hit, but it only connects with her shoulder - the shoulder that the claws in his guts are connected to, so he at least effectively removes the pointy things near his guts and sets her minorly off balance - not much, because she catches herself quickly on the other arm and swings back, aiming for the same spot once more since the hide is already pierced there.

"What are you?"

Wasting breath on questions mid-fight would be more of a problem if breathing was an actual issue, though the slightly lessened concentration still persists.