The morning after staying at Marina's house — whether to call it fortunate or unfortunate — nothing special had happened during the night for Rei, and he had slept soundly in his assigned room.
That room happened to face the courtyard, largely because Zozo was out there.
It wouldn't have mattered if Zozo had stayed in the hallway, but Zozo had insisted — through gestures, naturally — and so things ended up that way.
In any case, Rei was roused from sleep by the sound of a commotion out in the courtyard.
Normally, he was a notoriously heavy sleeper. In fact, his inability to function in the early morning was one of the reasons he never showed up at the Guild during its busiest hour — though, admittedly, a simple reluctance to deal with crowds probably played a part as well.
"What's that noise? ...Zozo?"
Had Zozo caused some kind of trouble?
His mind was still half-fogged, but the moment that thought struck him, his awareness sharpened rapidly. He pushed himself up from the bed and looked out the window — and there, in the courtyard, it wasn't Zozo at all. It was Vihera, sparring with Byune.
That said, the gap in skill between Vihera and Byune was stark enough that calling it a mock battle was generous; it was closer to a training session.
Not far from Rei's window, Zozo stood watching the exchange. He made no sound, but astonishment was written in his eyes — and alongside it, a clear desire to fight. Rei could see it at once.
"You want to fight?"
"!"
Hearing Rei's voice, Zozo seemed to realize for the first time that he was awake. He murmured something in words Rei couldn't understand and bowed politely.
Rei couldn't make sense of the language, but he could guess well enough what Zozo had said — probably a morning greeting.
Or maybe he was apologizing for not noticing I was awake? Well, either way.
He waved a hand dismissively to signal not to worry about it. Then a thought struck him. He told Zozo to wait right there, quickly got ready, and stepped out into the courtyard.
It was still early. Elena, Ara, and Marina were nowhere to be seen. Still, the comfortable temperature maintained by Marina's Spirit Magic must have been a blessing for Zozo, who had spent the entire night outdoors.
Hopefully I can reach Grimm today.
The warm air brushing against his skin carried that thought to mind. Concerning Zozo and Lunora's group, Rei had suspected that Grimm might be conducting experiments using materials from the Eyeball, and the night before he had tried reaching him through the Paired Orb — but Grimm had never appeared.
That only deepened his suspicion. If Grimm was too absorbed in his experiments to answer, then perhaps this whole situation really was connected to whatever he was researching.
He would try again tonight.
By the time that thought passed, Rei was already standing in front of Zozo.
"●●●?"
Zozo uttered what sounded like a question, studying Rei's demeanor.
In response, Rei reached into his Misty Ring and pulled out a longsword.
—Incidentally, the Misty Ring contained a considerable arsenal of weapons, longswords included. None of them were purchased; they were trophies taken from bandits during hunts. Rei had sold off some, but since the rest had their uses, most still sat in the ring's storage.
The one he drew now was one such weapon. He held it out to Zozo.
Zozo took it, but gave Rei a bewildered look, unable to fathom why he was doing this.
Rei ignored the unspoken question and withdrew a spear from the ring as well. Not the Twilight Spear, not one of the disposable throwing spears — just another piece taken from bandits.
Spear in hand, he put some distance between himself and Zozo.
That was enough for Zozo to grasp what Rei had in mind. Without a word, he readied the longsword.
That said, Zozo stood well over two meters tall. The blade Rei had handed him was made for a bandit — for an ordinary human — and it looked almost comically small in his grip. Even so, Zozo showed no sign of finding it unwieldy and settled into his stance.
When they had clashed in the Treant Forest — if that could even be called a clash — Zozo had been utterly underestimating Rei, and his single strike had been nowhere close to full power.
Now, though, things were different. He knew exactly how far above him Rei stood. He understood that, at his current level, there was no way he could truly match him. And that was precisely why he needed to give everything he had in this bout and show Rei what he was capable of.
"!"
A sharp hiss — like a snake's cry — tore from Zozo's throat as he surged forward all at once. With Rei wielding a spear, closing the distance was essential if he wanted to press any kind of advantage with a longsword. And the fact that polearms became vulnerable once that distance was closed was, of course, already factored into his calculations.
Not that he expected much from it. Rei's skill was such that he undoubtedly knew exactly how to handle someone getting inside his range. Zozo hoped only that, if he was lucky, it might cause a slight hitch in Rei's tempo.
Rei, holding back just enough to keep the exchange meaningful as training, swung the spear in a horizontal sweep. Thrusts were a spear's lifeblood, but sweeping was a valid option — and this was the very same kind of strike that had hammered Zozo with the shaft of the Death Scythe the day before.
Even so, determined to overcome that memory and prove himself, Zozo forced his body forward instead of giving ground.
It worked. Using his tail, he drove his massive frame downward, collapsing his over-two-meter height in an instant.
Rei was genuinely surprised — but with a flick of his wrist alone, he wrenched the spear's trajectory sideways. It was a purely technical adjustment, the kind of thing any adventurer could attempt. But when Rei did it, the result was on an entirely different level.
Though it was only the shaft that swept through, the blow carried enough force to split the air. Zozo slammed his tail into the ground once more, launching himself into a leap that defied his bulk.
By any normal reasoning, it should have been impossible. In fact, no other Lizardman could have pulled off such a movement.
Having evaded the descending spear, Zozo swung his longsword midair — only for the strike to stop dead.
Not for any mysterious reason. Rei had simply caught the blade with his spear.
"!?"
Zozo drew a sharp breath, pure disbelief on his face. And no wonder — the spear he had just dodged a moment ago was somehow in front of him again, intercepting his strike.
For an instant, he wondered if Rei had produced a new spear using that strange technique — the Misty Ring. But then Rei deflected the force of his blade, and Zozo refocused on the fight — only to find the spearhead already thrust toward him, redirected by nothing more than a turn of Rei's wrist. Both actions had happened almost simultaneously.
"●●..."
Zozo stared, staggered. But he seemed to recognize that there was no path to victory from this position. He let the longsword fall to the ground, took several steps back, and bowed to Rei — conceding defeat.
Even without words, the meaning was clear. Rei lowered his spear, and the mock battle came to an end.
"You use that tail well."
Rei nodded in genuine admiration, pointing at the appendage.
Zozo couldn't understand the words, but he clearly grasped that he was being praised. His body trembled with visible joy, and he bowed his head once more.
"Looks like you're doing something interesting. Mind letting me have a turn?"
The voice came from Vihera, who had appeared beside them without warning. She had finished her training with Byune moments ago, but watching Rei and Zozo spar had apparently stoked her desire to test herself against him.
Given her personality, it was hardly surprising. Rei could tell she wouldn't be satisfied with just watching. He glanced at Zozo, then at Vihera, and gave a small nod of readiness.
At first, Zozo didn't seem to understand what was happening. But after Rei repeated the gesture a few times, the meaning seemed to land — Zozo nodded.
Under normal circumstances, he likely would have refused, judging Vihera as someone who didn't look particularly strong. But fortunately, he had watched her spar with Byune earlier that morning. That alone made it easy enough to deduce that she was formidable — perhaps even stronger than himself.
"Alright. Seems he's fine with it."
"I could tell from yesterday, but not sharing a language is a real pain."
Vihera murmured the observation with feeling as she watched the exchange between Rei and Zozo. Rei couldn't disagree. Still, after communicating through gestures so many times, he had to admit he was growing somewhat used to it.
Even so, the effort involved was real, and there was no guarantee his full intent was getting through. If he was being honest, he wanted Zozo to learn the language as quickly as possible.
In any case, with the match set, Zozo retrieved the longsword from the ground and readied it. Vihera took her usual stance, facing him head-on.
No signal was given. Both moved at almost the same instant.
Unlike the previous bout with Rei, this time Zozo held the advantage in reach with his longsword. It would have been a different story had Vihera summoned magic claws from her Hand Gauntlets, but she showed no intention of doing so and simply stepped forward without a trace of tension.
That directness caught Zozo off guard. For a split second, he froze at the sight of Vihera barreling straight toward him — then swung his longsword in the next.
The blade, driven by Zozo's raw strength, would have been nearly impossible to evade under normal circumstances.
But Vihera was not normal — not by any stretch. Using precise footwork, she sidestepped the strike as though she had read it completely. And in truth, she probably had. She had watched Zozo's bout with Rei with her own eyes, and his swordsmanship held no mysteries for her.
If Zozo's skill had been on par with hers — or even close — reading him so easily would have been another matter entirely. But Vihera's prowess dwarfed his, and the fact that he was wielding an unfamiliar bandit's blade rather than his own weapon only compounded the disadvantage.
Vihera slipped past the strike effortlessly — and in the next instant, her fist buried itself in Zozo's body.
His skin was covered in scales, of course. Even without armor, they offered protection on par with it. Zozo had been confident enough in that defense to deliberately take the hit, planning to absorb it and counter — but what came out of his mouth the next moment was a muffled scream.
The blow had dealt damage as though his scales simply didn't exist.
It wasn't Magic Impact Palm — her signature technique that channeled a magical shockwave directly into the opponent's body. It was just a punch. An ordinary, bare-knuckled fist.
A fist driven by a hand that, at a glance, looked anything but trained — slender and pale, the kind one might call delicate. The sheer force behind it was almost impossible to believe.
That single blow sent Zozo flying several meters, tumbling across the ground — and with that, the mock battle ended far more quickly than anyone could have anticipated.