Watch your back

—East District, Dotun City; Lanima Region

"Are you both ready? Oh, wait, Alex isn't aware of the rules of Reign sparring," Stacia said, about to commence their sparring.

"I guess sparring with powers is completely different from martial arts sparring," Alex said, humoring them.

"That means you went to a martial arts training before. But! Because this is Reign sparring, this is far different,"

"It's not entirely different, all you need to know is bring your sparring enemy down with your Reign, if you bring your sparring enemy down physically, that doesn't count, knocking out your sparring enemy with it is an instant disqualification because you can't continue the fight, you just halted the sparring," Stacia explained to Alex the rules of sparring.

"So you need to take down your sparring enemy with your Reign and nothing else, okay," Alex said.

"If I can add something, Alex should mention what Reign he will use but at this point, we should surprise the others, I don't know how they will take this in but Alex must be thinking of the same thing," Stacia thought.

"I guess Stacia is going with surprising them that I have multiple Reigns, let's do this!" Alex thought after realizing.

"Okay, once again, are you two ready?" Stacia asked her colleague and Alex.

"I'm ready,"

"Me too," Alex said.

There are few Reigners watching, near and from afar.

"I have no idea about Reign Arts since I just know Martial Arts, I'm using Earth Control but if he is a close combat Reigner, I'll use Arm Blades or Body Harden," Alex thought, planning the fight.

"Commence your names," Stacia said.

"I'm Walter, I challenged you to a sparring match," Walter said, introducing himself.

"I should respond after introducing myself, right?" Alex thought, asking himself as he straightens his back.

"I'm Alex. I accept your challenge, Walter," Alex said, introducing himself and responding to his words.

"Okay, 3… 2… 1… Go!" Stacia shouted, commencing the sparring match.

Alex used Earth Control, creating 3 boulders of rock, and then sending them to Walter.

"He's an Earth Reign user and his speed at using it is fast, is that why Ms. Thiwang is personally escorting him around? But that's not a Unique Reign," Walter thought, asking himself.

He dodged Alex's boulders. He then quickly went close to Alex, activating his Reign, Heavy Hands, one of the common Reigns in Dotun City.

"He has giant arms! He's giving me no choice but to fight him in close quarters," Alex thought, surprised that he quickly closed their gaps.

Walter was surprised to see that Alex has a robot body on his right body after seeing his hands and his face close so he attacked him. Alex first dodged Walter's one-two punch. He then pushed Walter back with his left palm.

"I had to palm strike him lightly or he might get launched way too far," Alex thought.

"AH! You, you're a cyborg?" Walter asked as he was surprised.

"That's why I didn't use it to attack you, you'll definitely be knocked out," Alex said.

"Fair. Don't hold back too much for me," Walter said, he then charged him again, surprising him.

"Time to go all out," Walter thought as he launches himself at Alex with all his weight.

Alex backed off a little because of his speed, readying his Heavy Hands to punch Alex in his body as he goes for his lower body.

"Is he gonna punch me on my body? I should try this out, if he punches me on the right side, I won't get hurt. I don't know if this is true or not but I believe that if someone punches you on your liver, you'll get knocked down. But my liver is in my right body," Alex thought.

He then directed to his right body—his Scope body, also directing Walter's punch to his right body.

"Why is he presenting to me his right body? It's where I'm aiming for since our trainer told us hitting anyone to the liver is an instant knockout, what's he planning?" Walter thought as he continues to charge forward.

Alex changed from Earth Control to Wind Blow from his Scope body and Wind Control from his left body, Walter then punched Alex on his right body with his left fist. But even when he was successful, Alex was unfazed.

[Reign Energy absorbed]

[New Reign absorbed: Heavy Gauntlet]

"That's neat, so even if Reign hits my right Scope body, it can still absorb Reigns and its energy," Alex thought,

When Walter looked at him, Alex's hands is covered by swirling winds, he then used Wind Blow, and Wind Control to push back Walter, he was then pushed back.

"What!?" Walter thought, he was surprised that Alex used another type of Reign.

Walter was knocked down. "Earth and Wind type Reign? How do you have two?" He asked, astounded by it.

"Well, that's the thing…" Alex said, looking at Stacia.

He wanted to see if Stacia will explain it to him.

"Because he's a Unique Reign user, he has more than those two, I believe, right, Alex?" Stacia said, asking Alex to show them more.

The Reigners around them gathered even more after seeing and hearing about what happened, surprised by what happened.

"Right, I have this." Alex showed his Arm Blades Reign, "I can also use fire Reign but I might set things ablaze or attract giant monsters since that's what Stacia told me about them," he said.

"Though the moment we started the sparring, we're creating noise already, and everybody here is making noise too by training here, I guess there are not many giant monsters after they all settled here? Also, we're attracting a lot of people here," Alex thought, slightly panicking after seeing them.

"How then?" Walter stood up, "How do you have more than one type of Reign?" He asked him.

"Hmm? A theory I came up with is that I have this, my cyborg body but it doesn't make sense if I can also do it on my left body, where my remaining flesh is," Alex said, answering Walter's question.

He's trying to not tell too much since he can't trust the Reigners of this group as fully as Stacia.

"Well, that said. Since Ayer didn't tell us to keep it a secret, to make it quicker, try to spread the word, Walter, also! You lost the sparring because you were knocked down by Alex's Reign," Stacia said.

"I will definitely tell this to others, especially to Wey-sensei too," Walter thought.

"Understood, I admit my defeat, I just wished he held back and used just one Reign against me who permanently has one Reign. Is this supposed to be a surprise to us, Ms. Thiwang?" Walter said, asking Stacia.

"That's what I planned, is it a surprise for you?" Stacia asked him.

"It is, Ms. Thiwang, though it has a different feel," Walter said, answering her question as he brushes off the dust on his clothing.

"That said, Walter, thank you for sparring with me, I don't know much about sparring with Reign," Alex said, approaching him and offering him a handshake.

"Likewise, Alex, excited to actually have you in our group in the future, when that happened, that is, I'll try not to get my hopes up," Walter said, shaking his hand after.

"Oh, for sure, don't get your hopes up because there are things I need to see first," Alex said.

"Just a word of advice for you," Walter said, breaking off their handshake.

"Yeah?" Alex asked.

"You better watch your back," Walter said, advising him.

"Hmm?" Alex thought, asking himself.

"Why is that?" Alex asked him.

"It's a piece of advise that Unique Reign users need to know," Walter said, whispering to him.

He and the others headed back to their training area, returning to what they were doing previously.

"I wonder if there's more to that, I'm not really knowledgeable about Reigners, I guess I can ask Stacia about it later," Alex thought.

He and Stacia then continued going around their headquarters, showing Alex their activities as Reigners or Reign Masters.

"We also have a sort of food court, our chefs have now evolved because they're all Reign users—oh, right, it's Reigners. Some of them have blade type Reigns, some of them have fire type Reigns, there's even a Unique Reigner with them that have a cooking type Reign," Stacia said as they head inside their food court.

"Is she intentionally forgetting the Reigner word or there's some sort of phenomena relating to that?" Alex thought, asking himself.

They went to visit the Unique Reigner which specializes in cooking type Reign.

"As usual, he has a lot of customers, this is always unreal to see, we're glad we're in an area filled with food production, fruit and vegetable farms we "got" from Scope Company," Stacia thought.

"Does he always have this many customers?" Alex asked Stacia.

"He does but because he's working for 4 hours only—which is enough for him to profit, he isn't as stressed as us who are fighting either giant monsters or other Reigners that are trying to fight against us," Stacia said, answering Alex's question.

"I'm guessing they are the other Reigner groups, right?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, anyway, are you hungry? I'll get us something and since I have a VIP card, I can order without going in line, what do you want? I'm rich right now," Stacia said, asking Alex what he wants to eat.

"Is that okay? I haven't joined the group yet," Alex asked her.

"It's a treat, for your recovery essentially, I couldn't visit you, I couldn't see you back then, celebrating your recovery was not an option because I can't even ask where you were taken, no one knows and I can't contact Mr. Scope directly, or there is no way to do so," Stacia said, smiling at Alex.

"Thanks, Stacia," Alex said.

He then told Stacia that she should pick the food, Alex trusts her to know what he likes since they've eaten together before, many times, back when everything was still normal.

They then headed to an empty table to eat there.

"You remembered I like cabbages, is this boiled correctly?" Alex asked.

"Yep, 13 minutes, 75° Celsius, and it's with a teaspoon of salt, I requested it just like what you prefer," Stacia said, answering his question.

"I don't know why I like cabbages boiled like that but it gives me some sort of relief, knowing that I like healthier food. Well, mother taught me to like vegetables and fruits more than any other, meat is optional, but others, mother would beat me up for it," Alex thought, suddenly becoming sad after.

"Your face went down, Alex, what is on your mind right now?" Stacia asked after they sat down on their chairs.

"I just remembered the times my mother would grill me to eat healthier foods like these and then didn't realize that I've grown to like them, and naturally became my own favorite," Alex said, answering Stacia's question.

"It's also been 8 years since your mother died, sorry," Stacia said.

"Don't be, I'm just sad that she's not here to protect me anymore, with what's going on right now. But then I again, I have multiple powers now, I'm now about 6 foot, and I'm this muscular now more than before," Alex said, changing his mood after.

"Haha, you did change but it doesn't mean that your inside did, your spirit I mean, you're still positive, witty, and far clever than me, even before, anyway, let's eat, let's try not to get emotional, you know?" Stacia said, chuckling at him.

"Don't overly compliment me, Stacia, it will go in my head, especially since my mind is also enhanced together with my body," Alex said, chuckling while eating.

"Hahaha, I'll try not to do so very often then," Stacia said, she then continues eating.

While they're eating, other Reigners are watching them. Confused and surprised by this occurrence because Stacia, at least for the Masters of Reigns know her as cold, emotionless, and stubborn, she talks less and hasn't treated anyone in the group during lunch before.

"Who is this man?"

"How did he get Ms. Thiwang to treat him to lunch?"

"He even dares to talk casually to her,"

"Only a few couples can make Ms. Thiwang like this, Sir Ayer, and the rest of the Unique Reigners in the group," One of the Reigners thought while watching the two of them.

"There's a lot of eyes on us, it's like their eyes are stabbing me. Does Stacia feel that as well?" Alex thought, asking himself and looking at Stacia as well.