Saliza slowly crawled out of the bathroom looking as pale as a ghost.

"Good god, are you okay?" Zeigel asked. "You were stuck in there for nearly an hour."

"I'm never eating that stew of pain ever again..." She moaned with a voice that was soft and weak.

"How are you not affected by the stew?" She asked.

"I threw up earlier, remember?"

"Oh, so that's why you drank detergent. Maybe I should drink detergent too..."

"Do not drink detergent."

Saliza crawled onto her bed and laid down with her arm still clutching her stomach.

"Can we skip lunch? I really don't feel like eating now." She groaned.

"Sure, I'll treat you to a big dinner once you're feeling better."

"Really?" Her voice became a little brighter. "Thanks Zeigel."

"No problem my dear friend." A cunning grin crept onto his face.

I'm so good at building bonds.

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"Ah! There you two are!" Barill greeted the two with a warm smile as they entered the restaurant. "For a second there I thought you guys weren't coming. Give me a sec and I'll prepare your food."

Just as Saliza was about say that she didn't order any food, Zeigel quickly whispered in her ear, "I already paid for the food. Trust me, you'll love it."

Barill disappeared into the kitchen for a few minutes and came back out with two plates of a modified item on the menu. It was a set of grilled beef and eggs, along with the addition of some fries, red leafy vegetables, and two large chicken wings.

"This looks so gooood!" Saliza wiped away drool that was leaking underneath her mask. "But can we have this to go? I don't wanna risk someone seeing my face while I'm eating."

"Uh, sure." Barill gave her a look of confusion while packing their food into containers. "But may I ask, why do you want to hide your face?"

"Personal reasons that I can't explain. I just can't let anyone see my face for now."

"O-Oh, I see..." Barill nervously replied, knowing that he had peeked under her mask this morning while she was drinking stew.

"Well uh, enjoy your meals."

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Zeigel observed Saliza as she took a bite of every piece of food she had just as he instructed.

"So how do they all taste?" He asked.

She took a moment to swallow her food before answering.

"Real yummy!"

Good, the food's safe to eat then.

Zeigel created a fork and dug into his meal.

"So, why is it that you don't want anyone to see your face?" Zeigel asked while chewing his food.

"Perfectly good reasons that I can't explain."

"But you don't mind me seeing your face now because...?"

Saliza wasn't wearing her mask and left it on the table next to her food.

"First off, it's hard to eat with a mask on. Second, I trust you enough that you won't go around showing people pictures of my face or telling them how I look. It must've taken a lot of will power not to do those considering how gorgeous I am so, good job."

"..."

"But don't worry, when the time is right, I'll reveal this face of unparalleled beauty to the world."

"And when is that?"

"When the time is right."

What the hell does that even mean? This isn't going to cause me any problems is it?

"Since I'm such a trustworthy guy, you won't mind telling me where you're from right?" Zeigel asked.

To his surprise, Saliza agreed pretty easily. She cleared her throat and began her story.

"Descending from the very heavens itself..."

"Forget it."

The two finished up their dinner and went to bed early, expecting Reizo to send them on some missions early in the morning again.

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The next day, Zeigel woke up at 4am to the sound of Reizo knocking on the window. He held up a piece of paper that said 'BE DOWN IN FIFTEEN MINUTES' and left once Zeigel gave him a thumbs up.

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I'm never gonna get used to waking up this early.

Zeigel shook Saliza awake and forced her to wash up and brush her teeth before making their way down.

Reizo brought them back to the training grounds to brief them on what they'll be doing for the day.

"We'll do some sparring here first. After that, you'll be completing all the missions I picked out for you two."

"We're gonna spar again?" Zeigel clutched his ribs as he recalled the pain of them being shattered.

"Hey make sure you don't go overboard this time!" He sternly warned Saliza.

"Not as long as you don't try to do what you did yesterday!" She shot back.

"You two won't be sparring against each other." Reizo explained. "You'll be up against me this time."

That's worse! That is so much more worse!

"Huuuh? But your level is way higher!" Saliza protested.

"Yeah! How the hell is that fair!" Zeigel added.

"Calm down. I obviously won't go all out against you two."

But still, it's not like we can even touch him considering how fast he moves! Even if we managed to land a hit, I doubt it'll even do any damage!

"You're up first Saliza. Remember, it doesn't matter if you can beat me or not, just do your best."

"But it's no fun if I can't win at all..."

"Then how about this, if you land even a single hit on me, I'll pay for all your meals for an entire month."

Zeigel and Saliza's eyes both lit up at his proposal and their moods instantly changed.

"You got this Saliza! Kick his ass!" Zeigel cheered.

"Just watch me Zeigel! After this, we'll be having a feast every single day for a month!"

"Hell yeah!"

Saliza widened her stance and swung her axe to her back. She set her axe ablaze with a spell and dashed forward with explosive seped, swinging her axe as hard as she could, only for Reizo to avoid it by stepping back right and out if her range right as she swung her axe.

The momentum from the swing threw her off balance and caused her to fall to the side.

She quickly got back up and prepared to launch another big swing at Reizo who had his eyes locked onto the axe. The moment she swung her axe, Reizo took another step back and avoided it as the axe flew by in front of him.

Saliza pulled her axe back and lifted it over her head and brought it down with all her might. Reizo stepped to the side right as the axe came down and watched it slam into the ground right next to his foot.

Saliza quickly pulled her axe out of the ground and leapt back. She took on a more defensive stance and waited for Reizo to make a move.

Reizo could tell that she had given up on attacking and instead decided to create an opening by dodging one of his attacks.

He cocked back his left fist and held it there for a few seconds, making sure that Saliza is fully focused on it. He launched his fist towards her but stopped it halfway through.

Just as he predicted, Saliza tried to dodge the punch by dashing to his side, thinking that he wouldn't be able to hit her from there after throwing his punch.

With his arm only halfway extended, Reizo was able to change the trajectory of his punch and launched his fist towards Saliza, stopping it an inch away from her face.

"Arrrgh! No fair!" Saliza threw her axe onto the ground in frustration. "You're too fast! There's no way I can even hit you!"

"Are you certain that I'm being too fast?" Reizo asked.

If Reizo was moving even half as fast as he normally could, his movements would still be a blur to us. He didn't just slow himself down too, he's matching Saliza's speed and moving just as fast as she is, maybe even a little slower. This must be what he meant when he said he won't go all out against us.

"Yeah, you're moving way too fast! Kinda unfair don't you think?" Zeigel shouted while suppressing a mischievous grin.

If he's gonna match my speed too then I might have a way to hit him!

"See, even Zeigel thinks you're too fast."

"I have been moving as fast as you have Saliza."

"Lies!"

The accusations caused Reizo to look a little sad and annoyed. He cleared his throat and started commenting on the way Saliza fought him.

"A-Anyways, you're way too reckless Saliza. You're constantly throwing big swings at me, leaving yourself wide open at the beginning and end of your attacks. Not only that, but you keep telegraphing your attacks, making it easy for anyone to dodge. For example,"

Reizo pulled back his fist. "Try dodging this."

He threw a big swing with the same speed as Saliza's attacks. Saliza ducked under his punch with relative ease.

"That's how you've been attacking me throughout the spar. Do you see the problem now?"

"I didn't attack you like that! I didn't even use my fists throughout the spar!"

"It's not about what I used to attack..." Reizo said as he did a facepalm. "What I'm trying to say is, don't constantly throw out big attacks. It's predictable and leaves you wide open for counter attacks."

Reizo began walking away from Saliza. "We'll go another round. Keep what I said in mind."

Once he was far enough, he signalled for the spar to start.

Saliza reignited her axe and rushed towards Reizo, swinging her axe with full strength.

Reizo sighed in disappointment as he stepped back to avoid the axe. Just as he was about to scold her for not listening to him, he noticed her leg flying towards him in the same direction the axe did. He was able to narrowly dodge her kick by swaying his body back.

While both of her attacks missed, Saliza managed to maintain balance this time and used the momentum to spin around and swing her axe again.

As Reizo ducked under her slash, Saliza pulled back her right fist to throw a punch. Mimicking what Reizo did earlier, she stopped her punch halfway through, expecting him to hastily dodge to the side like she did.

Unfortunately for her, he didn't move as he was expecting the feint, allowing him to dodge as she threw the actual punch.

"Come on Saliza! Just one hit and we'll be eating like kings!" Zeigel encouraged from the sidelines.

Saliza raised her axe in the air and used even more mana to make the flames that enveloped her axe even bigger.

Reizo focused on the axe, preparing to dodge it as soon as she brought it down. When she didn't immediately bring her axe down despite being wide open to attacks with both arms up, Reizo glanced down and saw her raising her leg to kick him.

He leapt back just in time to avoid the kick, and just as he did, Saliza brought her axe down. Once again, he narrowly dodged her attack by leaping back.

Once her axe hit the ground, Saliza flipped over her axe and threw it at Reizo.

"Good." Reizo muttered before catching the axe by the handle. "I think that's enough for today."

"What? But I can still keep going! You're just trying to keep me away from my free food aren't you!" Saliza complained with Zeigel booing him as well. Reizo let out a sigh and tossed the axe back to Saliza.

"Fine, we'll do one more round, but if I land one hit on you, we'll stop for today."

"Alright! Let's go!"

Saliza immediately dashed towards Reizo at full speed. She engulfed her axe in flames and threw it at Reizo. The flames around the axe obstructed Reizo's view, allowing Saliza to leap into the air without Reizo noticing.

She let out a battlecry as she descended, alerting Reizo who proceeded to blast her out of the air with a wind blast while dodging the flying axe.

"My free food....gone...." She moaned in defeat.

"Don't feel too dejected," Reizo consoled her. "You did quite well. I'm amazed you were able to improve that much from a single advice."

"Advice?" Saliza asked in confusion.

"I told you to stop relying on big attacks earlier. You kept that in mind during the spar right?"

"You did? Sorry, I kinda zoned out when you were talking earlier."

Reizo was taken aback after hearing how she didn't even pay attention to what he said.

"So how exactly did you improve so much after one spar?" He asked.

"I dunno, I just felt like my attacks weren't working earlier so I just started using different attacks that felt kinda right to use at the moment."

"I...don't fully understand."

"But it doesn't matter cuz I'm not getting any free food!" She cried.

"No worries Saliza." Zeigel placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I've got this." He said with a confident smirk.

If It's just one hit against a guy moving as fast as I am, then I've got a plan.