Well, that's awkward! [Zerori]

Azoth was amused, or rather, some more stress began to leak, causing the arcosian to laugh a bit to externalize that stress and finally relax a little more when Zerori reacted to the fact that he could make people nobles... yeah, that was part of his job wasn't it, the demon always had the best reactions over things. Then, when she compared the Galactic Frontier to the police force, his face would cringe for a moment, and he would shake his head. Even if she then said she didn't want to hear anything, he still felt like he needed to correct things.

'' No, not like a police force... I'm trying to keep Arcosian business out of this group as much as possible, although the fact that I am emperor is making it hard. Basically, it's a group of space vigilantes. So yeah, illegal is MOST planets, but also like, we're trying to help.''

Yeah, now that he thought about it, most planets would consider this outlaw, although they were not here to stop small criminals but to prevent tyranny and major conflicts. Still, there was no way around it, and it was better to be called 'vigilante' than 'Mercenary' like Taori had.

Zerori's reaction when asked who Zuqetta was to her was... precious. He did not realize that well, Zuqetta was closer to Zerori's age than he was, and well, while he did not really act on it, he did feel some unique things towards Zerori, so perhaps there was something there. Of course, her answer finished on a somber note when she mentioned Zuq's disappearance, but hey, now she was back, they would be able to catch up, right?

'' I see! We should have dinner all together sometimes, I have a pretty good chef on board, and it would be fun to see everyone at once!''

He mused before Zerori asked for a fight, visibly to change the subject. A smile formed rapidly on Azoth's face when she spoke these words. Fighting Zerori is one of his fondest memories, so of course, he couldn't pass an invitation like this!

'' I would LOVE to fight! It's been so long, right? Besides, the score is still 1-1 if I remember correctly, so we have to settle this in some way, right?''

If Azoth remembered well, she won the race, but he won the fight. He thought back to when he brought her to eat some sea monster meat after that and smiled to himself. He did not know Plant as much as he did Arcose, so if she won, he did not know where he could take her this time. But thinking about this was a relief, considering he was thinking of losing her not too long ago.

He would take a few steps back from Zerori, then get into his battle stance. He had a strong footing on the ground, his tail flipped to face Zerori, positioning itself like a stinger, and his arms were placed on both sides of him, palm facing inside.

'' Alright, show me what you got~''

He finally said, his aura emerging from him, although it was not violent as if he was powering up, but rather he was containing his own energy to match Zerori's.

---

Azoth felt a wave of comfort when Zerori seemed to approve of his dinner idea. There was just something about going back to just... a simple thing between friends. It has been too long since he had just a good time, not catching up with a troubled friend, not planning on how to save someone who wanted to kill him... not even fighting someone that was sort of friendly, but just a good time. In trying to fix many things at once, he had neglected to take care of himself.

'' Don't even worry about it. I said he was a good chef, but being emperor doesn't mean I only eat fancy, boring food! '' 

He defended mockingly.

The arcosian had a chuckle when Zerori brought up the fact that he had powered down. Yeah, he could understand why she felt like that, but he couldn't help to smile and raise one of his non-existing eyebrows. Without missing a beat, and before she went to attack him, he would throw a wink at her and playfully add.

'' Well, see if you can make me regret first, and then I'll show you the goods. Deal?''

Azoth felt pretty cocky at that moment and was showing it just to make sure Zerori knew he was on a similar wavelength.

Then, the demon's offensive began! Her first attack was too obvious, a punch to the face, really? Opening with that was almost textbook on how to get dodged easily! Azoth did not see the feint coming, especially since he saw Zerori as the kind of person to go for that kind of open, and as such, got caught off guard by the leg-sweep, which made him lose balance for a short moment, but not fall.

He smirked and gritted his teeth. Right, Zerori was unpredictable, how could he have forgotten that? This would certainly be a lot of fun~!

His balance was not yet regained when her second attack came in, right under the tail! Surprised by this sucker punch, or rather kick, Azoth would let out a spontaneous 'EEK' before turning to Zerori, finally back on his feet.

His tail would attempt at grabbing the leg that hat just landed a sneaky hit. If it worked, the arcosian would force a smirk.

'' Common mistake, don't go for the tail.''

Assuming be managed to get a decent hold of the hybrid's leg, he would then flail her around a couple of times, making sure she lost her balance, and if she failed to escape by then, he would finally throw her into the lake. It wasn't very deep, or cold for that matter, but Azoth did not want to put a big old crater in the middle of this nice forest.

---

'' Tsssk.''

Azoth playfully made that noise while noticing that Zerori had managed to stop herself from falling into the water. He would get her to plunge one way or another before that fight was over. Although she displayed impressive skills with her flying, something that he could not exactly equal, no matter how hard he would try.

Still, the arcosian would be amused at what the demon said.

'' Oh, but doesn't that mean you don't have much tricks left already? I'll be honest, I'm kind of disappointed.''

He would say, obviously teasing his friend before she sprung into action. Two big shadow hands, clenched into fists, were coming for him at high speed. Not to be bested, the warrior would get into a more pro-active battle-stance and would evade the first attack by sliding beneath it. The second one was trickier since he was already on the ground, and the thing could basically just swing overhead.

Thinking fast, Azoth would push himself upward, moving before the hand could crush him and slapping it away with his tail, the one appendage that would hit the hardest, which allowed him to slide right past it, and towards Zerori herself, quickly descending from the sky, as he had not really used any flying capacity.

Turning back to look at his opponent, he would smirk and rotate himself, pushing his palm towards Zerori as his energy soared through him. Quickly enough, a shockwave would come out of his hand and towards her. Of course, since Azoth was not flying at the moment, he was sent flying in the other direction, and back towards the two shadowy hands. He would certainly be at their mercy if nothing changed in the meantime.

Deep within, Azoth was having a blast, no pun intended. Fighting Zerori meant a lot of things, most of which was that he could try some new techniques and goof around a bit with his fighting style. While he would not underestimate her, the beginning of the fight was the moment to get creative before the intense fighting began. It was more about showing off than determining a winner, at least for now... he knew Zerori to be very competitive, after all.

---

As Azoth managed to close the distance between him and Zerori, he fully believed that his hit would be the first landed in this fight. He was, however, proven wrong when his demonic opponent reacted quickly to his assault with her own attack. He saw in the distance that his shockwave was defeated, and her own projectile was coming for him! Not shaken in the slightest, Azoth prepared to react, and his power flared once more, ready to unleash yet another blow... when suddenly...

As he was about to react to the remaining of Zerori's attack, he felt his whole body being squeezed. The demoness's shadow claws! He had gotten back into their range, and he was grabbed. In a panic, he tried to break free, but their grasp was strong! He managed to break free, only to be hit by the remaining force of the Pheonix Blaster. The ball of energy connected with his belly and sent him towards the ground, the arcosian catching his fall at the last moment.

'' Alright, admittedly, not much disappointed anymore.''

He said jokingly, as he flew a little higher, to keep visual contact with her. He had a slight burn mark, nothing too bad for now, but he needed to keep the playing field even.

Azoth would quickly push against the air behind him and launch himself directly back towards Zerori. He would attempt to avoid the reach of the shadow claws, and go head first towards her. His plan was that, eventually, she would get ready to block, believing him to go for a ramming maneuver. Regardless of if she did, he would stop a few centimeters short of ramming her. Then, if she reacted as expected, he would wait for her to be confused and wonder why he had not made impact yet, before spinning on himself and hitting her square in the belly with his tail, then send her towards the sky.

If all went according to plan, and Zerori was now going upward, he would then shoot an energy beam at her, just to make sure she would go extra high if she did not react in time.

---

Azoth tanks the bleedthrough from Pheonix Blaster for 9,000(~26%)

Current PL: 35,000
KP: 6/6
MP: 5/6
DP: 26/250%

The tactic worked! He even got to see Zerori's arrogant comeback come right before she was hit and sent flying into the sky! That moment Azoth would cherish for a while, seeing the surprise on her face that followed her typical arrogance. Thankfully, she had dodged the energy blast, but she seemed pretty pissed about the whole situation. That should teach her to learn when to talk during a fight. The arcosian would be laughing while the demon approached back, and would only stop when she started talking, turning back to her, grin still firmly placed on his lips. He was having a fun time, that much was certain!

An eyebrow rose when she called his attack 'Cheap'. Wasn't she the one who aimed below the tail on her very first attack? Now that was just the hospital mocking charity.

'' Excuse me, miss aim-for-the-butt, I did not realize we were fighting the honorific way.''

He would reply, in his best impression of his mother, which was the most noble-ish person he knew how to imitate. Then, his face shifted from the 'noble, posh' imitation back to Azoth as he began to power up.

'' Alright, if you want to go all out, be my guest!''

His energy soared, and his aura roared all across the once peaceful forest, as Azoth transformed. He grew slightly taller, his head took the shape of a star, with a bio-gem right in the middle. His talk grew pointier, and his power became that of his true form, albeit still suppressed.

'' Allow me to set the stakes, of course.''

He said as he brought his hands together in front of him as if he was holding a ball of some sort. The first mistake she made was to stay above him, where his attack would reasonably hit her without destroying the land.

Shortly after he began charging his attack, energy began to gather in a sphere between his hands. It was the same color as his bio-gem, and growing rapidly in size! Before Zerori would have time to react, he brought the sphere above his head, palms upward, and the once small sphere was now a little taller than Azoth himself and still growing.

'' So what are you going to do? Is that too much? Jee, I hope it's not too much, because it's only starting!''

The emperor said in a clear taunt. He was hoping she would have something to counter this, although she did ask him to go all-out, and well... he was still holding back. He would not say as such though... not now.

---

Yeah sure, Zerori saying she was taking advantage of her height would have been an alright excuse if Azoth did not know better. Not that he minded the under-handed tactics, but it was funny to see the demon trying to rationalize it all as a mere coincidence. It got the arcosian to grin a little, he never quite had problems with his height before, even if he was slightly above average in suppressed form, but the few arcosians he met all seem to be slightly taller than him, something he had not experienced before his coming as emperor... perhaps he had missed an evolutionary train?

While he totally believed Zerori would be in awe of his power, it seemed like she was not intimidated in the slightest! In fact, facing his full 'Albeit suppressed power, she was still as confident as ever! She must have been hiding one hell of an ace behind her back for that kind of confidence to still be that bombastic. Nevertheless, Azoth's Imperial Nova was almost done, and he looked up at Zerori's shadow hands, which were on the move, and smirked.

'' Alright, let's see who's gonna need to hold back next then! IMPERIAL NOVA!''

Azoth shouted, sending his massive ball of pure energy towards the shadow hand... which just... went through effortlessly? For a moment, the Emperor was confused, and as his attack soared towards Zerori, two projectiles came from the side and hit him square, one in the stomach, cutting his breath short, and the other hitting his bio-gem on his head, a small crack showing.

Zerori was clever, but his attack was still heading towards her, and it seemed like one projectile had gotten caught by it. Oh well, time to see who had lost that little trade! Azoth was confident, but if his demon friend displayed anything, it was an impressive capacity to surprise him, even with terrible odds. He watched his miniature star, which would make contact with the demon any second now, and looked forward to see Zerori emerge from it.

What's a Pheonix to a Nova star uh, Zerori? Yeah, I should totally say that after, let's keep it in mind!

The emperor though to himself, nodding his head in approval of his own line. To keep up with the demon's bad mouthing, he had to think ahead, that much was for certain. With his right hand, Azoth would touch the scratch on his bio-gem and his face shifted in pain... oh... that would need some care, for sure. There was some blood coming out of it too, the demon really striked hard with her attack.

---

As Azoth's attack connected, his heart pinched when he heard the blood-curling scream of pain that followed... yeah, he might have gone overboard with it, and felt kind of bad... although she did ask for him to go all out, did she not? Perhaps she would learn not to do that anymore... or knowing Zerori, she would improve, then ask again just to see if she could do better against it later. She really was a force of chaos, although one that Azoth did not mind having around... she made for a great friend and a chance for him to let out the steam of business and emperorship, someone he should make an extra effort not to lose.

Instantly when he saw the body of his friend fall from the sky, Azoth activated himself, releasing all restrain from his body to catch her and ease her fall. She was burning, so lowering her in the water was Azoth's first reaction, although he would block her nose briefly, just in case she decided a good breath of freshwater was something she needed in these few seconds.

After doing his best to prevent his friend's body from burning up, he would emerge from the water and gently lay her beside the little lake, in the shadow of a tree, and made extra certain she was comfy in place.

'' You're always one to overdo it, aren't you? ''

He said in a slightly sad voice. He remembered how this all started, and the grim places that it sent him, then smiled a bit and nodded. Zerori would help in calming Ise, and fingers were crossed that it did not have to come to fighting.

'' I'll leave you be then, sorry, the ship is kind of far away, and flying there... well... space is not too good for your lungs...''

Azoth would say, but would still stay there for a while until Zerori woke back up at least. He did not want to leave a friend passed out on a random patch of the road... there were people like Yangcong in the world after all. Whenever the demon would start to wake up, the arcosian would sneakily leave, making sure to leave a trace, so that she knew he watched over her for a while.

---

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