A Splash of Red in a World of Blue (Ticoga/Challenge AT)

If there was ever a way to describe how Ticoga might sound mad, Zerori would only be able to assume it was something akin to stepping on a mine. In comparison to the actual can of worms she’d opened during their conversation, Zerori equated his explanations to that of a silent knife cutting across her skin. Whatever she expected, he had no doubt made the truth of what the Triumvirate stood for much MUCH worse. Her eye widened at the notion that the empire clearly meant for him to be not just as an extension of their will… but a disconnect from his very being. In a way, Zerori couldn’t hate him for what he stood for. If he really was just the hand of the empire and that meant the control or any and all chaos… Well, Zerori was starting to get the picture.

Worse still, while she’d let him explain, the fact that he’d already killed so many in their name, their vision, had the Demon Woman wonder if Ise was truly aware of what was happening. She couldn’t be! Sure, she was a part of their ruling body but she wasn’t alone. This had to be the doing of Mint or… who was it, that Brumal bastard. God, she never even met him as she could feel herself growing angry on behalf of Ise.

However, even as her emotions nearly rushed ahead of her rationality, Zerori sighed through her nose at the realization that Ticoga, completely on brand, didn’t need the love of the people if the death of Nobles (that Zerori didn’t realize might be the real enemies of Arcose) kept their livelihood safe. He wasn’t WRONG on that account but was killing anyone that might a thread the way to go about it? Yet no amount of waxing the moral would prepare her for his next words. Words that had the blood in her veins turn to ice.

She did undermine him, unintentionally, and had almost made any case the Triumvirate had made against Celsius less severe than it was. While Zerori hadn’t meant to do that it was her ignorance of the wordplay that had her floundering for an excuse. Yet, in spite of the visceral desire to argue, the truth about what the point had been was clear. She said she was willing to do anything for Ise. Her heart was unshakable in that regard. But really, would she? Could she stand there, with the command (COMMAND) to kill someone for Ise and just do such a thing without a second thought? Silently, Zerori frowned with such distaste at the thought - knowing there was no chance in Hell Ise would ever ask that of her but that was also an issue? Ise couldn’t trust her with that?

For a few long moments, Zerori was forced to recognize that she was, without a doubt, in over her head. What she’d come to think of as simply a more organized, peaceful place (in comparison to Plant) was made that way through the iron-clan hand of a cruel leader. One that, if Zerori recalled correctly, was no different than Hibernal and… if he thought Ise everything she knew to prepare to take his place…? The thought of Ise taking away the right, lives and individuality of not just some of their own people but others was nearly enough to make her sick.

“... The way you say it, you make it sound like what I feel for Ise… won’t ever grow from this. She is my Empress and that’s that?” Zerori solemnly asked, knowing the answer but refusing it’s validity. “I don’t believe that,” She turned to him, long since realizing that he’d lead them far from the threat of Kuriza City. “You’re the Shield of Arcose and I’m going to be the Captain of the Royal Guard. I made that assertion for selfish reasons but I don’t intend to stand by and let someone else tell me what to do to protect what I care about. So right here-”

Zerori reached for the sword at her back and pulled it up and over in one fluid motion - shucking it into the ground in the declaration of a formal challenge. “-right now. I’m raising my ‘disagreement’ to challenge. If you win, I’ll drop any and all claim or desire to Captain the Guard. If you lose, however, I will take your title and make it clear to the Triumvirate that there will be CHANGE.” It was a lofty, and bold, challenge to have - especially by an outsider like Zerori. Yet, it was Ticoga’s own words from the first moment they had meant that emboldened Zerori.

She grinned, the glow of her red eye shining in manic glee as her power would suddenly soar from it's previously reduced power, “I know you won’t let that happen, right?... Shield of Arcose?”

The resolve in her eye, glowing bright red like a beacon in the outskirts of white snow and chilling quiet, appeared to sharpen as Ticoga watched with the impassive nature she was beginning to associate with only him. It reminded her, a little, of how Ward had been when she met him so long ago but even he was susceptible to the emotion of frustration and anger. The longer she looked on at Ticoga as his form changed and he became sleeker, less intimidating (if he was intimidating at all before) and carried an air of refinement that spoke volumes of the power she was feeling from him now. While she might regret this later, when Ise came back from her journey, the manner in which her challenge was accepted had her nearly delirious with excitement. Nothing in this moment could make her deny the Saiyan rise to a challenge… and the Demon drive to conquer her enemies.

Ticoga didn’t hesitate once he’d decided to begin, Zerori stepping around her sword mere moments before he disappeared and was right in front of her. Eye widening at the sudden proximity, Zerori only had a moment’s hesitation to respond before she was giving a groan of pain - buckling under the pressure of Ticoga’s elbow digging into her stomach. Yet, in spite of the sudden pain, Zerori was taking the opportunity to attempt to grasp at the smaller Arcosian’s head in a one-armed grapple at the back of his head.



Her fangs gleamed in wild delight, “Not bad!” Before she pulled her head back and suddenly threw it forward against his forehead - yet that was only to attempt to partially disorient him so she could knock him back and attempt a swift (and painfully explosive) follow up sucker punch right into his face.

Heaving a breath at the successful connection of her fist to his face, Zerori was satisfied to see the usually perfect and passive face of Ticoga finally show a little breaking. Sure it was a little hard to tell with how naturally red he was but she’d take the victory where she could. With an arrogant show of cracking her neck, Zerori chuckled, “I’m glad because I’ve got a LOT more where that came from!” And, just like before, Ticoga was on the attack. Unfortunately, even if she was aware of it, Zerori had used up quite a bit of power with that last attack. She had to be more careful from here on if she was actually going to stand even a ghost of a chance against him. Lowering herself into a stance, Zerori did her best to anticipate the next attack.

Unfortunately, telekinetically raising the ground from around them wasn’t what she was ready for. Her head snapped from side to side, half of her vision naturally blinded by the patch over her face, before she cursed under her breath. Like before, she had little time to respond and that meant she had to let her instincts take over.

A good thing, too, because once her gaze snapped back to him - she’d only have enough time to sacrifice her power to protect herself from him appearing in front of her with only his two fingers presented. Her eye narrowed, “You cocky son of a-” Before the incredible force of the flick actually snapped her head back. However, while the impact was great enough to give her whiplash and force her to glide along the ground backwards with her boots carving a trench through the ground… her head would come back down to glare intensely at Ticoga - a break of the skin on her forehead the only proof of the impact.

And the fact that she was disoriented as fuck. “That was fuckin’ cheap,” She brought a hand up to her nose, blood dribbling down past her lips before she pressed into one nostril and forced a glob of blood out of the other. Vaguely, the vision of shadows that had protected her forehead had dissipated; having done their job. "If I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to end this quickly. Good thing I'm so tough, yeah?"

Well, she really was in a bind now. With the intimidating boundaries of floating rocks making it clear that she wasn’t going anywhere, Zerori was forced to think of ways she could turn this fight around. Honestly. She really wasn’t very good at coming up with amazing tactics; her fights usually went a certain way and while she TRIED to learn some new tricks, it was clear this was a fight that wasn’t going to be treated to some one-hit wonders. Her only chance was to either carefully moderate the damage she was going to receive or risk hoping she could actually catch him off guard with some well-timed punches.

I’m thinking the punches aren’t gonna do me much good here. Well, that’s all there is to it, then, Zerori resolved, tired and aching but with a plan in mind. A shitty, dumb plan but it was better than letting him think he was going to win. She cocked an eyebrow up at his snarky attitude, deciding she liked THIS Ticoga a lot more than the one just minutes ago. Her voice cooed mockingly, “Awwww, you like me~ How embarrassing for you! You’re gonna like me a lot more soon!” If she made it that far. She could see his body glow with that light again, narrowing her eyes intently to see what else he was going to do. She didn’t have to wait long, fortunately and was gratified to see him do the same thing… only this time she felt a surge of power that had her tail lash wildly about. Here goes NOTHING!

Duped again.

The sudden crash of a boulder into her blindside had Zerori cry out in surprise before the hit she was expecting to take had her slammed in the opposite direction. Her neck snapped to the side, body following suit as she was forced into a spin before throwing her fist into the ground to stop the world from twisting. Blood splattered freely along the ground, her cheek swelling quickly from the attack as she swayed from the result of getting her brain jostled around. Oh… oh, that’s not good…

Staggeringly, she raised her head and grinned at Ticoga, “Wow. You hit like a little bitch… My mom could beat my ass better than you and she- heh… she’s old as fuck.” Piss him off. Regain her magic. Stay awake for just a little longer.

For a long moment as Ticoga seemed to have been left insulted and just more confused, Damn, I must have really gotten hit pretty hard if I can’t even insult someone right, Zerori would just do her best to make her legs less mushy and the world less spinny. His comebacks, even if they weren’t… technically so, actually had her giving a laugh in spite of how serious the situation was, “Y’know, you… Heh, you got a point there. She used to actually be a LOT stronger,” Zerori added, recalling the stories of her mother’s adventures and just how much stronger she used to be when she fought for the earthlings so long ago. It was the next line of Ticoga’s literal translation of her words had the Demon woman almost wheeze in laughter, giving a wince at the pain in her ribs, “Stop-Stop, that was too funny and I’m trying not to lose face with you while we do this,” She held up a hand, waving off his words.

She never expected that he was actually pretty funny, even if he likely had no clue at all the effect he had on her. Thankfully, their lull in the battle didn’t last long and Zerori would follow Ticoga’s movements as he took to the air. Around her, as expected, the rocks seemed to move just that much more animatedly before she was being pelted from all angles by the boulders and rocks. Some of them hardly hurt, breaking apart on contact against her hardened body while others actually managed to break the skin. These were just the prelude to something much MUCH bigger as she watched Ticoga bring an actual fucking MOUNTAIN into the fray.

“... Well shit,” Zerori muttered, impressed and a little scared. Just before the chunk was thrown her way, Zerori nearly took up her sword she’d stabbed into the ground but stopped herself. It wasn’t time for that, yet. If she did that now… No, it just wasn’t time yet. The time she’d taken to hesitate, however, allowed the hill to slam into her and break apart on contact with an explosion of rocks, debris, ice and snow. For a long moment, all was silent as it appeared that had been what it took to possibly knock her out.

The dark red glow of her power, combined with the appearance of some ephemeral gauntlets on her hands spoke a different story. She stood, shaking her head free of bits of rocks, before cracking her neck, “You hit better with your elbows,” She noted/mocked before slamming the fists of her gauntlets together. “I’m gonna count to three and hit you really REALLY hard!” It was all the warning Ticoga was about to receive as the thrum of power and mechanized parts began to rev up with feeling.

Zerori chuckled lightly, the sound a bit rough from the way her throat hurt as he lowered himself down. Even the rocks had ceased their orbit around them as Ticoga descended. Zerori had an inkling on what he’d meant by saying that he was the shield of Arcose and while she thought that might have more or less been just a cool thing to have, maybe he really was tougher than she gave him credit for. He’d complimented her enough for Zerori to doubt him, at least! “Well then I’ll just have to TEST the validity of that claim!” And she was. That was the entire point to this.

His will versus her own. His power, his drive and dedication. While it wasn’t clear what exactly was riding on this, given Zerori didn’t have any deep intentions to help police the crime or deep corruption that she’d learned penetrated the culture, Zerori wanted to drive home a message. If the law was so cruel, so incontrovertible that only the will of a few could dictate the lives of their entire planet - of entire families, even - then she would fight to become that hand. A hand that, eventually, could make the ruling few understand a new perspective.

And if not, well… the simple answer was that she’d been in over her head to begin with. And she could accept that. Some day. The longer she went without Ise to help her understand, the longer it meant Zerori would have to find her own path.

“Three!” She called out, taking a stabilizing step back as she gleefully took in Ticoga’s approach. He’d slowed down for her, likely curious as to what she had planned but was weary of her using the sword. Well, the joke was on him because she didn’t need to be anywhere NEAR the sword to use it. With every swing, jab and uppercut that made up their exchange of attacks, Zerori would use her gauntlets to redirect, block or meet with a clash of power so great that every hit had the snow, dirt and area vibrate from the disperse of energy.

Her gauntlets continued to hum, the gauge at the back of her hand rising higher and higher-

"TWO!"

If she didn’t know better, Zerori would have assumed she made him nervous. Wouldn’t that have been great in all the moments of confidence he showed her. She wouldn’t forget the lessons, not when they were like the clues to a puzzle Zerori didn’t know she needed to solve when it came to Arcose. The satisfaction, however, that she was making him think - possibly even try to guess at her game - was reward enough for however this fight ended. As he rushed away, blast after blast dispersed from his hands, the gauntlets just continued to rev higher and higher. At one point, they almost made Zerori worry that they were going to explode while attached to her and wouldn’t THAT have been a bitch to deal with during a challenge?

But this was it - a glance at the gauge that flickered wildly back and forth upon the glowing ‘red zone’ of her meter was the last condition needed to be set before she grinned at him. Face bloody and swelling beneath her patch that somehow held on for dear life, Ticoga had made the next few moments even easier for her in his bid to gain some ground for reaction time!



Zerori dug deep within her power, reaching for everything she had in this moment as her aura deepened in pitch from the bright red to a dark, almost effervescent crimson - a blackness bleeding from around her person before she finished, “ONE!”

The ground beneath her cracked once, subtly, twice - widening the cracks to deep, gaping depths and a final third time as the ground was blown into pieces. With a massive expulsion of black, magical ‘steam’ that was actually a accumulation of her magic being released rapidly, Zerori rushed at Ticoga with speed that would have made lightning jealous with a massive swing coming in from his left. “I call this the -” The first of one of two hits, Zerori would quickly call her sword to her other gauntlet to finish the combo off, “-Negative REACTOR!” And in spite of her coming up with it on the spot, Zerori didn’t hesitate. The great sword, pulled by her telekinesis, was back in the palm of her hand with the powerful shadow magic leeching off of it’s power before she swung it toward Ticoga. The blade’s metal would never reach him, purposefully. Instead, her dark magic would be propelled outward in the form of a nasty crescent slash that would end her combo.

Power drained completely, Zerori watched with a strained grin for Ticoga’s next plan.