"So what are their levels and stats?" Reizo asked Testra as they made they way to Sadonia's training grounds.

"If I remember correctly, Illia is level 16 with well-rounded stats, and Laren is level 15 with stats focused on ATK and SPD."

Upon reaching the training grounds, Illia and Laren began preparing for their spar while everyone else watched them from the sidelines. Illia wielded a round silver shield in her left hand and a steel short sword on her right while Laren brandished two sleek black swords.

"All right, get ready!" Testra announced, prompting the two to take up their stances. "And begin!"

As soon as the spar commenced, Laren wasted no time and charged towards Illia. He assaulted her with swift and precise slashes that were aimed at any parts of her body not guarded by her shield.

Despite being slower, Illia was capable of blocking every attack thrown at her by positioning her shield where the next strike would come. Her eyes were completely focused on Laren's arms, watching them carefully to predict his movements.

Feeling that his attacks were futile, Laren raised his blades above head for a powerful strike with Illia raising her shield in response.

The gem on Laren's bracer glowed as activated his skill to create a burst of flames to push his blades down with great force and slam down onto Illia's shield, knocking it downwards. He then lifted one of his blades to deliver a quick slash to her throat.

It's over.

Before the blade could reach her, Illia activated her skill and fired a strong blast of wind from her palm to launch her shield upwards with great speed and parry the blade, knocking it out of Laren's hand.

She intentionally dropped her arm once the blades slammed down on her shield to set up that counterattack. He's wide open now, one quick thrust from her sword and it's over.

To Reizo's surprise, Illia opted for a kick instead, pushing Laren backwards.

"Nice one Illia! You can do it!" Vesfira cheered.

"Do you think she'll be able to win this time?" Bora asked.

"I'm not too sure. She usually does well throughout the spar until a decisive strike robs her of a victory." Said Koidra.

"But I have a feeling my queen is gonna win this. I can feel it." Vitren added.

"Do your best you two!" Testra cheered.

Laren quickly got back up on his feet and scrambled to the blade that he dropped while Illia stayed in her position with her shield raised.

With both blades now in hand, Laren charged forth. He extended his arms as wide as possible and thrusted his swords at Illia's sides. Still focusing on defense, Illia positioned her sword and shield at her sides to protect herself, unaware that Laren was hoping for her to do so.

With her sword and shield away from her body, Laren closed the distance between them with an explosive dash and pulled his head back. He activated his skill to launch his head forward with a burst of flames and deliver a devastating headbutt.

She's too focused on defense. This could've been prevented had she attacked him when he extended his arms and left himself wide open.

The impact of Laren's skull crashing into hers left her in a daze. She raised her shield to cover her upper body in a desperate attempt to defend herself while she recovered. Seeing this, Laren sliced her thigh and brought her to her knees. With a sadistic smile on his face, he sliced her other thigh, wanting to hear her scream in agony. Despite the pain, Illia grit her teeth and refused to let out even a pained grunt while continuing to cover her upper body with her shield.

"It doesn't hurt." She muttered to herself. "I can handle it."

As if her words had offended him, Laren pulled his sword back with a look of rage and aimed its tip at her thigh.

"That's enough, the spar is over!" Testra shouted.

"Not yet." Reizo stuck his arm out and stopped Testra from ending the spar. "She's not done yet."

What Testra and Laren failed to notice was that underneath her shield, Illia was aiming the tip of her sword at Laren's face.

As soon as Laren activated his skill to plunge his blade into her thigh, Illia shifted her shield and blasted Laren in the face with a wind blast from her sword using her skill, blowing his head backwards and causing his attack to miss. She followed it up with a swift shield bash that knocked Laren away.

I don't get it.

"This is the best she's done so far against Laren! I think she might actually win this one and put him in his place!" Said an awestruck Koidra.

"Hell yeah! She's amazing isn't she!" Vesfira cheered.

"She really is. Out of all of us, she's the only one with the talent and skill to rival a Wreistar." Bora nodded.

"I believe in you my queeeen!"

It was clear on Laren's face that he was getting frustrated, and the cheering from the sidelines didn't help.

"Phew, that was close. I almost ended their spar prematurely. Thanks Reizo." Testra patted him on the back with a smile.

Laren hopped back onto his feet and extended his arms to his right. Using his skill, he created a burst of flames behind his back to propel him towards Illia who raised her shield to cover her upper body.

Once he was close enough, Laren planted his feet into the ground to slow down and lowered his body to slash at Illia's unprotected legs, but a burst of wind underneath Illia pushed her off the ground before his blades could reach her and launched her behind Laren.

A second burst of wind from a spell Illia had been charging up launched her forward to deliver a swift bash with her shield, once again knocking Laren to the ground. Cheers erupted from the sidelines as she delivered the blow.

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Is she not interested in winning?

The moment Laren got up, a shield came flying towards him. It struck him in the forehead and knocked his body back onto the ground and landed right next to his leg.

More cheering and laughter from the sidelines enraged Laren even further. He forced his body back up to see Illia running towards him with her sword raised. Maybe it's because of the wounds on her thighs, but she ran at a surprisingly slow speed.

Laren quickly activated his skill and pushed his body upwards with explosive speed. He swung both swords at Illia's neck while she slashed at him with her sword.

Before either attack could reach, Reizo and Testra appeared before them and gripped the blades of their weapons as if they were dull and harmless.

"That was an excellent match! You two did well, but it seems that it ended in a draw." Testra beamed proudly.

"What? It wasn't a draw! I was about to win!" Laren complained.

"He's right." Reizo added before Testra could reprimand him. "Take a closer look."

Upon closer inspection, Testra realized that Reizo was indeed right. While Laren had gone for her neck, Illia went for his arm. Had the attacks landed, one of them would have died while the other would only lose an arm.

"Oh, my bad. But it doesn't matter who wins or loses. What's important is that you two gave it your all." Testra said, giving her trainees a thumbs up.

"I lost? Damn it!" Illia dropped to her knees and punched the ground. It was a pleasing sight for Laren. He turned to the other disappointed trainees with an arrogant smile.

"Did you all see that? This is the power of a Wreistar! You fools should have been cheering for me!"

Once Laren's back was facing her, Illia lifted her head and rolled her eyes at him. She dusted herself off and healed herself as she got up.

"What was your goal?" Reizo asked her.

"What do you mean?"

"What was your goal throughout the spar? What were you aiming for?"

It's my first time seeing someone throw away so many opportunities to win a spar. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I want to know her intentions behind it.

Almost immediately, Illia answered, "To improve."

"I see." Reizo gave her a nod of approval. "An excellent answer."

There's no doubt. With the qualities she possesses, this girl will someday become an incredible vanguard. Her skills may even rival mine one day. I wonder if I can...no. She's Testra's trainee, she wouldn't allow me to push such a thing onto her own trainee.

"Alright everyone, that wraps up the match between trainees!" Coronis announced. "Now it's time for the match between trainers!"

The trainees looked pleasantly surprised while the other trainers gave Coronis a look of confusion.

"That's right! Today you'll get to witness a battle between your beloved trainer Coronis and Reizo!"

"What's with the sudden challenge?" Reizo asked.

"I just thought that we should show the trainees what a battle between two max level vanguards would look like."

"I'm not complaining but couldn't you have sparred with Layda or Testra before I came here?"

"Layda's never interested in a spar and I can't possibly bring myself to hurt my beloved. So how about it? You up for a challenge?"

"I don't mind, but just as usual we won't use any skills other than passive ones. Your soul link is too unpredictable and we can't risk it causing any accidents again, especially with the trainees around."

Coronis held out his hand and summoned a bow with black and gold limbs into his hand.

"You got it. Just so you know, I've been doing a lot of training since our last match. Things aren't gonna turn out like last time."

That's good to hear.

Reizo held out his hand and summoned his katana. It was light green this time.

"Let's get the spar started then."

The two took their places and readied themselves.

"I bet Coronis is gonna get his ass handed to him again." Layda chuckled.

"Don't say that. He's been working pretty hard lately. I'm sure he'll do quite well." said Testra.

"Yeah, but it's gonna be pretty damn hard to beat Reizo. It's honestly hard to believe that they used to be rivals at one point."

An arrow of light manifested in Coronis's hand. He pulled the arrow back and aimed it at Reizo.

"Get ready!" Coronis shouted as he fired the arrow. In quick succession, he created and fired more arrows one after another.

With his katana still sheathed, Reizo deflected the oncoming volley as he slowly marched forth.

He really has been training. His firing speed and accuracy has improved.

As he gradually made his way towards Coronis, Reizo noticed that for a brief second, the number of arrows fired at him greatly decreased. He looked up to see a rain of arrows descending down upon him.

Reizo finally unsheathed his katana and began deflecting arrows from above and in front with both his sheath and a katana with a blade made of wind. He deflected every arrow that came his way, but it took every bit of concentration to do so, preventing him from advancing.

"Oh come on! It took me so long to perfect that move and it's still not enough to beat him!" Coronis grumbled as he launched another volley of arrows into the sky.

While continuing to deflect the arrows, Reizo dug his foot into the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust.

"Nice try, but I know you're still stuck in that spot!"

Before Coronis could fire another volley of arrows, the sheath of Reizo's katana came flying through the dust cloud and struck him in the face, causing him to stumble backwards.

He quickly recovered and took aim, but before he could fire another arrow, he noticed Reizo's katana flying towards him from his right. He stepped to the left to dodge, but failed to notice that he had just taken a step closer to Reizo who was now less than a meter away from him.

He sweeped Coronis off his feet and summoned his sheath back to his hand and thrusted it at Coronis, stopping it an inch away from him.

"It's my win." Reizo said as be held out his hand to help Coronis up.

"Man, I missed when you weren't so hard to beat." Coronis sighed.

Me too.

Coronis turned to the trainees and spoke with pride. "Well, what do you guys think? That was a pretty amazing fight wasn't it."

Unfortunately for him, most of them didn't know what was going on due to it being too fast for them to see. The entire fight was a blur to them.

"At least we got to see how max level vanguards fight." Said Illia.

"Yeah, but it's kinda embarrassing how fast he lost." Vesfira added.

"They think I'm an embarrassment..." Coronis slumped down with a depressed look and let out a dejected sigh.

"Don't be so hard on yourself dear. You did well." Testra pulled him into her arms and caressed his head.

"If there's nothing else for me then I'll head back to Mezio." Reizo said as he picked up the box of masks he placed aside.

"Oh, leaving already?" Layda asked.

"My trainees are waiting for me."

"We shouldn't keep them waiting for too long then. Take care, and good luck with your trainees." Testra said as she waved him goodbye.

"When we meet again, let's have another spar! I'll be training my ass off till then!" Coronis gave him a determined smile.

"Right. I'll see you guys in a few weeks."

"Unless of course you suddenly decide to run back and forth between countries to buy masks again." Layda joked.

Before he left, Reizo turned to the trainees. "Keep up the good work." He encouraged, looking directly at Illia who nodded back.

----------------------------------------

After finally making it back to Mezio, Reizo went straight to the headquarters to look for his trainees, finding them lounging on the sofa in the lobby as they waited for him.

"Saliza, he's back." Zeigel nudged Saliza who had a bucket on her head.

"Take that off." Reizo ordered.

"Naw, this bucket is my head now."

"If you need a new mask, I've got plenty right here."

Saliza lifted her bucket with her damaged mask still underneath. Her exposed eye widened in joy as she saw the box of masks Reizo had bought for her.

"OH MY GOD! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" She squealed with joy and gave Reizo a hug.

"I'm gonna go try them on now!" She yelled in excitement as she ran back to her room. "Best trainer ever!"

With Saliza gone, Zeigel was left sitting in the lobby with Reizo.

'Zeigel, do you want to continue being a vanguard?' was what Reizo wanted to ask, but he knew that Zeigel would never answer such a question truthfully.

"I think twenty missions might've been too much for one day. If you want, I can cancel the remaining half and you can take the rest of the day off."

The only way I can figure out your answer to that question is if you show me how motivated you are.

Zeigel hesitated, unsure of what answer he should give. Finally, he spoke up with a reluctant voice.

"Don't cancel them, Saliza still wants to go on these mission."

His answer was a little unexpected, but nonetheless, it was one that put a faint smile on his face.

"That's good to hear. When Saliza comes back, we'll resume with the remaining ten missions."

Do your best you two. I'm counting on both of you.