Tang Shaoyang was standing in front of Lu An separated by five meters.
"Are you sure, Boss?" Lu An was hesitating as he asked for confirmation. This was just the usual morning routine, but this morning his Boss asked him for sparring.
"Yes! Come to me with all you have! Don't try holding back or you will regret it!" Tang Shaoyang motioned his hand to Lu An to come at him.
Since the last fight against the Death Reaper, he found out that he was weak against a monster with a fast movement. Lu An was one who was the fastest in the base, sparring against Lu An might help him.
"Alright..." Lu An took a deep breath. He was in a state of excitement and nervousness at the same time. Tang Shaoyang was someone he looked up to, he admired the Boss but at the same time, he also wanted to know how strong His Boss was. This sparring might be his chance to know that.
Swoosh!
He did as Tang Shaoyang told him to, not holding back. He charged forward as fast as possible. Because this was a spar, they fought with their fist. Lu An sent his fist to Tang Shaoyang's chest, that was the plan before he saw his Boss's fist aimed at his face.
He stopped right before the fist could hit his face and moved to the side. The young man created a distance from his opponent, shock could be seen on his face. He did not expect Tang Shaoyang to read his movements.
The latter merely smirked at him, "You can use your skill if you want," the taunt did not work at Lu An. He was standing still on the spot, trying to analyze what just happened. But he could not think of another possibility aside from his movement being easily seen by his Boss.
'Let's find out if it was luck or Boss actually could see my movements,' with those thoughts, Lu An rushed over again. He was not holding back with his speed.
Swoosh!
His figure blurred once again as he prepared another fist. This time, he changed his target to the face of Boss. But the same scene was getting repeated as a fist was ready to greet him in the face. Lu An was prepared for this, he ducked his head and rolled down on the ground to avoid the fist. He managed to dodge the fist but a kick landed right on his belly.
Bugh!
The kick was hard and it produced a loud noise in the field. Zhang Mengyao who watched the sparring from the side had a change of expression when she heard the sound. She was sure the kick was hurt a lot.
"Who?" She knew the person talked about, but she nonetheless asked to break the awkward atmosphere between the two. "The lean young man, he's weak! With such a punny strength, it will be almost impossible to beat Master! Zero chance!" The ape expressed its opinion honestly.
Hearing that, Zhang Mengyao turned her gaze toward the battle. Just like Pride said, Lu An's punch brought no harm to Tang Shaoyang. She saw punch after punch landed on Tang Shaoyang's body, but that was it. The punch now could not even push Tang Shaoyang again. Just like a sturdy tower, her man was standing still despite the punch he received.
"But he can use his speed to run from Master, not bad ability, at least, he will not die if he meets someone like Master," Zhang Mengyao did not know the ape was being sarcastic or truly praised Lu An, but the words were not pleasant to hear.
The sparring continued for another fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes of sparring, Tang Shaoyang got used to Lu An's speed whether he used his skill or not. All of his punches were either blocked or dodged, none of them hit the target which was Tang Shaoyang.
At the end of the sparring, Tang Shaoyang caught Lu An and pinned him down on the ground. He twisted the arm to the back and sat on top of the young man, "You need to learn more, boy!"
"Alright, that is for today. We have an expedition the day after tomorrow, let's not overdo the training," Tang Shaoyang messed up Lu An's hair and got up from the body. His face was bruised red here and there.
"You are relying too much on your speed, that's not a good fighting style. If you face someone like Mengyao, you will be miserable," that was his advice after the spar.
If he was having a quick reaction because of his fighting expression, Zhang Mengyao's talent let her predict her opponent's movement. It could be said she was Lu An's nemesis.
Lu An flipped his body and looked up to the bright sky. He was not disheartened with the result of the sparring. He had predicted that he was going to lose, so he was not upset with the expected loss.
In fact, he was smiling happily for some reason. Tang Shaoyang noticed his smile and could not help but shake his head, "What a weirdo," his lips however formed a smile.
"I am going to win our next spar, Boss!" That was Lu An's declaration that received a hearty laugh from Tang Shaoyang.
*** ***
Since the morning routine was over, Tang Shaoyang went back to the base together with Zhang Mengyao and Lu An.
Both had washed up and currently having their breakfast in the room. While drinking his soymilk, Tang Shaoyang remembered something, "Oh, I have a gift for you,"
He walked to an open space in their room and took the set of Fallen out of his inventory. Mo Wei's incident caused him to forget to give the set to Mengyao. Since they were about to go for another expedition, he remembered he had the set.
"A gift for you, do you like it?" Zhang Mengyao finished the steamed bun in her mouth and walked toward him. At the sight of a cool looking set of the Fallen, Zhang Mengyao's eyes brightened.
She came over and picked up the lance with her right hand and had the shield in her left hand. She just needed her armor then she would be like a knight.
Zhang Mengyao did some poses that a knight would do with her new weapon set. She was quite happy with the gift, "I love it!" She stored the weapon into his inventory and kissed her man's lips.