The satisfaction from before returns with a vengeance once again, though this time it's much, much angrier than before. Because the more that Zelos clashes his sword with Malos', the longer that Anna swings her blade's sword like it's nothing, the ambient ether around her ripples and stutters. Like it's sick. Like it's in pain. Unsurprising, given they're fighting the Aegis, but it still manages to piss Zelos off immensely. She calls back to her blade once, at least, but all it takes is a very obvious lie for her to turn back around and slash at Zelos again.

For her to ignore it. For her blade to simply take it like he's supposed to, or something.

For her to act like any other human.

But Zelos isn't a fucking idiot.

Attentive of Malos just as he is of his driver, Zelos feels a boiling anger slowly rising up his gut, burning, escaping his mouth in a tight, cruel laugh. Honestly, after a while, he's already stopped trying to clash swords and is now simply focused on dodging, words like knives sharpened in his throat that he releases in a shout. "Yeah, this is fun, right?" he sneers, twirling again, dodging, dodging, dodging. He growls low, hastily switches his sword into a passive state once again, devoid of ether as he parries the next blow and forces Anna into a lock.

The impact hurts like hell. Still, Zelos risks a glance at Malos, sees him wincing, and

something

snaps.

Before he can help himself, Zelos is screaming. "It's so fucking fun when you're not the one getting hurt, right?!" he shouts, pressing his passive blade right against Anna, trying hard to ignore the way Malos' ether burns him without the protection of his own. "You just gotta use your fucking blade to fight the Aegis, right? No problem with that! Easy to turn a blind eye when it doesn't hurt for you, right?!"