Once the spar started, Zeigel held his dagger out with his left arm and placed his right arm behind his back.

Seeing how Reizo wasn't moving, Zeigel slowly inched towards him until he was only a meter away from him.

Still won't move a muscle eh? I bet you're waiting for me to perform some sort of attack with my dagger so that you can dodge it. That assumption is gonna be your downfall and my ticket to free food for a month!

Zeigel jabbed his dagger an inch forward, but got no reaction from Reizo. He then pulled his dagger to the side and started waving it around, hoping that Reizo's attention was drawn to it.

If you really are gonna move at my speed, then there's absolutely no way you're dodging this!

Since the start of the spar, Zeigel had been charging up a spell to fire a bolt of lightning.

I can't dodge lightning fired at me from such a close distance! There's no way you're avoiding this without getting called out for speeding up too much! I've already won!

Zeigel swiftly aimed his right palm at Reizo and fired off a bolt of lightning towards Reizo, who avoided it with a sidestep.

....That was clearly a lucky dodge.

"Oh darn, I missed. Guess I should give up now."

Zeigel turned around and began charging up to fire another lightning bolt. He glanced behind to ensure that Reizo was still there before swiftly turning around to fire another lightning bolt.

You fell for it foo- SHIT!

The moment Zeigel turned around, Reizo shifted his body to the side to avoid the attack.

"Clearly spamming lightning bolts isn't working, so I'll try something new." Zeigel announced.

"Take this! Blazing dagger throw!" He cried out as he lit his dagger on fire, held it overhead, and fired another lightning bolt from his hip with his free hand.

Once again, Reizo moved out of the way and his attack missed. This time, Reizo retaliated with a wind blast that knocked him to the ground.

"Your enemies aren't going to just stand there and let you fire off as many spells as you want." said Reizo.

Damn it! How does he keep anticipating my attacks? Hey wait a second, he's only matching my speed for our spar. His SPD stat still remains the same no matter how slow he moves, so his reaction speed must still be incredibly fast. How did I not realise that!

"I thought you had this Zeigel!" Saliza shouted in disappointment.

"I messed up okay!" Zeigel shouted back.

I need to figure out a way to catch him off guard. He can react to any attacks from the front so I have to attack him from behind, but how? Oh hey! I know something that can hit him from behind.

Zeigel got up and created a boomerang in hand. He aimed it at Reizo's right and threw it.

There's no way he'll expect this.

Before the boomerang could zip past Reizo, he knocked it out of the air with a wind blast.

"I've seen similar attacks before."

"Oh come on! This isn't fair at all! How the hell am I supposed to hit you if you can react to all of my attacks!" Zeigel complained.

"You're going to have do a lot of than just throwing whatever spells you can think of in hopes that they'll hit me. Don't forget, I'm still moving as fast as you are. Try to capitalize on that." Reizo suggested.

Capitalize on his speed? Oh right! I can hit him with an attack too big and wide to dodge.

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Zeigel began charging up a spell to release a wave of electricity. Once the spell was fully charged, Zeigel dashed forth.

He aimed both palms at Reizo and unleashed the spell, but Reizo grabbed his arms and pulled them to the sky, causing the wave of electricity to be fired off into the air.

Of course he wouldn't just stand there and let me fire off my spells at him. I need a way to guarantee that my attacks will land!

Once Reizo released his grip on his arms, Zeigel swiftly swiped his dagger at him, but missed. Right after he missed, Zeigel flung small metal shards at Reizo, who avoided it as well.

Zeigel kept repeating his attacks, swiping and thrusting his dagger at Reizo while flinging metal shards around the area.

After a minute, the area around Reizo was covered in the metal shards, limiting the area where he could move.

Zeigel backed away and covered the area in front of him with more shards and began charging up a spell.

With Reizo surrounded by sharp metal shards, Zeigel no longer needed to focus on catching him off and could simply hit him with a spell big enough to cover the small area around him.

Once his spell was fully charged, Zeigel fired multiple fireballs spread out to cover as much area as possible.

I win! Free food here I come!

Zeigel's look of triumph quickly turned into one of frustration as Reizo deflected the fireballs with a wind blast.

"Not a bad idea, but don't forget that I can use spells too."

Zeigel charged up another spell and fired a lightning bolt at Reizo who created a wall of earth to block it.

I'm so close to winning! I just need to hit him once while he's stuck in that spot!

"Let's go Zeigel! You can do it!" Saliza cheered.

Hell yeah I can! Just watch me Saliza! I'll get us free meals for a month!

Zeigel began charging up a spell. His plan was to launch fireballs again, but this time he would reduce the size of each fireball to increase the amount.

With the earth wall in the way, Zeigel fired his spell into the sky. As the rain of embers descended onto him, Reizo charged up a spell with as much mana as he could in the moment and deflected all the fireballs with a stronger blast of wind.

Just as he did, a boomerang zipped past him and threatened to hit him if he didn't deal with it. Along with the boomerang came metal shards above head that Zeigel scooped up from the ground and lobbed into the sky.

Reizo deflected the shards with a wind blast using one hand, and with the other he caught the boomerang.

Before Zeigel could charge up another spell, Reizo chucked the boomerang at him, hitting him on the forehead and knocking him over.

"Noooo! Our free food!" Saliza cried out in defeat.

"I think that's enough for today. My offer still stands for future spars, so don't feel too disheartened." Reizo said as he created a wind vortex to pull all the metal shards into one area before melting them down into a metallic puddle with a heat spell.

"You two are making progress, but there's still a lot to work on."

"You're right. Anyways, that was a good spar." Zeigel extended his arm for handshake with a friendly smile on his face while healing his head.

"The spar is over. If you hit me now you won't get anything."

Zeigel cursed as he retracted his hand and dropped a small blade in the other. His friendly smile quickly turned into a frustrated frown.

"Why are you using spells anyways? Monsters can't use spell!" Zeigel complained.

"I'm not training you to fight just monsters. As vanguards you'll also have to fight other vanguards who have gone rogue." Reizo explained.

"You mean those Earth people?" Saliza asked.

"Not just them. If a vanguard is caught abusing their powers to commit crimes, you'll be the ones dealing with them."

"So how much exp do we get from killing a vanguard?" Saliza asked. "Do we get all the exp they have? That'll be a great way to level up fast!"

"No matter what level a vanguard is, they'll still give the same amount of exp as a normal human would, which is also the same amount as a two star monster." Reizo explained.

"Aww, that sucks."

"By the way, you talk about killing people quite casually. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but doesn't it bother you knowing that one day you might have to kill someone?" Reizo asked. "Even I felt uncomfortable about taking another person's life when I was just starting out."

"Eh, They're evil so they deserve it." Saliza replied nonchalantly.

"I agree, there's nothing wrong with giving some assholes what they deserve." Zeigel added.

"I see. That's a good mindset to have as a vanguard." Reizo nodded. "Honestly I was worried that one of you would struggle with taking a life. It's good to know you both won't hesitate to end someone's life when necessary."

"Heck yeah! We're both amazing vanguards!" Saliza boasted as she placed her arm around Zeigel who shoved her away.

"That's not really something to be proud of. Anyways, let's move on to the missions for the day. We'll be doing more missions than yesterday so prepare yourselves."

"Yay! More missions!" Saliza cheered.

"Whoopee..." Zeigel said unenthusiastically.

"We'll be doing twenty missions today."

"WHAT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN TWENTY?" Zeigel exclaimed in shock. "THAT'S WAY TOO MUCH! WHAT THE HELL!"

"I think it's great that we get to do so many missions today!" Saliza cheered.

"NO IT'S NOT! WHY THE HELL DID WE JUMP FROM FIVE MISSIONS TO TWENTY!"

"It sounds like you're not willing to work hard as a vanguard, which is very concerning to me."

OH SHUT THE HELL UP! I DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO BE A VANGUARD IN THE FIRST PLACE!

"If you're really not interested in being a vanguard, I can always just kick you out." Reizo threatened.

"I-I'll do it! I was just a little surprised by the number that's all!"

"Good. Since there's a lot of missions for today, you'll be completing half of it in the morning and half of it in the afternoon."

Ugh...more missions and fewer breaks...

"For your first mission, you'll need to collect a hundred ciraken wings."

I wanna cry, I actually wanna cry.