"My name is Narbo," the redhead introduced himself.
He bowed down slightly as a sign of respect to Yaku, and Yaku bowed down in return as well. Narbo took off his expensive-looking red fabric on top of his academic uniform, preparing for the fight.
They both stood 10 meters away from each other as the wind blew dust between them on the training grounds. Trees danced in preparation for their spar. Yaku didn't have a sword this time.
"Where is your weapon?" Narbo asked.
Yaku grinned and said, "It broke from my last spar, but I don't need it to beat you."
He was bluffing because he knew that Narbo was a medium-level mage, which means he had at most three times his own mana reserve. But Yaku had been increasing his mana levels for a week straight with the new techniques he learned, so now it was time to test his new level.
Narbo spread his arms as fire sparked from his fingers, and in a second he started shooting small but fast fireballs towards Yaku.
Yaku immediately reinforced his feet and started dodging, trying to reach Narbo as fast as he could — dodging right and left, zigzagging while closing the distance between them.
Within 5 seconds, Yaku managed to close the distance, shocking Narbo. As soon as Yaku reached punching distance, he instantly switched the reinforcement from his feet to his hands. As they glowed in a blue mana radiance, he delivered a punch right to Narbo's stomach, sending him flying 5 meters back.
The dust cleared, and Narbo was standing with his palm glowing red, protecting the place Yaku punched. It turned out he was able to protect himself at the last second.
"Tsk, if he landed that punch, he would've broken a couple of bones," Narbo thought to himself.
"You're much stronger than I've heard. I don't think you're a low-level mage," Narbo told Yaku.
His excitement was immeasurable, but he had to suppress his feelings to continue the fight. Still, another mage acknowledging his powers felt as good as eating ice cream.
Yaku smiled from ear to ear, then lunged at Narbo with incredible speed.
Narbo put his hands together and screamed, "FIREBALL!"
But it was no ordinary attack — flames were thrown out of his palms that burned 5 meters in front in a wide area.
The flames continued to burn for 3 seconds, but luckily Yaku hid behind a tree just in time, the hue of orange flames burning behind him. Yaku had to end the fight soon because he knew that Narbo would win in a battle of endurance every time.
Yaku smiled as he thought of something genius. He put 100% of his mana into his feet because he needed to reach Narbo as fast as he could. Luckily, Narbo was a fire mage that specialized in long-range combat, so he never developed speed or strength reinforcement.
In 1 second, Yaku went from behind the tree to punching distance, startling Narbo.
"TAKE THIS!" Yaku screamed as he punched him the same way as before, but this time was different.
Narbo was launched 10 meters back, and as he stood, it was apparent that the hand he defended himself with was completely broken.
Narbo was confused and started replaying what happened in his head. When Yaku punched him this time, he activated a spell that accelerated his mana the moment his fist collided with Narbo's palm. The spell he used to increase the speed of his training was used alongside his reinforcement magic to accelerate it by 30%.
The acceleration spell can't be used when the caster is moving, so Yaku cast it the moment his fist collided with Narbo, activating it for a split second — and that was enough to break Narbo's hand.
"That was impressive. I lose," Narbo told Yaku as he winced in pain.
"You put up a good fight, but I know you didn't use all your spells on me. I have a feeling that what I did today won't work on you in the future, hahahaha," Yaku said, laughing.
Narbo walked to the infirmary holding his broken hand, and Yaku sat on the ground in disbelief that he won a spar against a medium-level mage. He smiled from ear to ear and swayed his body left and right in excitement.
"One week left until I have to spar Mr. Sunder. I need to be prepared," Yaku thought to himself.