Don't go letting him hear that... I swear, half his drive's tied up in the notion that he's got to catch up to you.

[ The amusement colored his tone, though Yuri managed not to chuckle. He understood competitive spirit in principle, but really, if a fight was good and interesting, he tended to be satisfied with that. As much was true for most where he hailed from, so far as he'd ever seen.

Both Shez and Byleth seemed to enjoy their rivalry, now that it was on friendlier terms... Minus a certain incident that set them all scrambling to rescue Byleth, who refused to fight Shez in earnest when the man couldn't stop himself. They'd damn near lost the guy to that bit of business. ]

There's value in losing, now and then. Just so long as you survive, you can learn something from the experience. I still wouldn't want to go toe-to-toe with you if we were on opposing sides, for that reason.

[ Yuri knew well enough that he'd throw dirt in Byleth's eyes and run like hell. He wasn't of use to anyone if he died, and he had things that remained to be done still yet. ]

But that's the professional side of things, isn't it?

[ He knew only scraps of information about Byleth, rather than the Ashen Demon. ]