The Fanboy's Problem

It's the start of a new day and I'm pretty sure I'm starting to have a BO problem. We were brought to Feilo Forest to continue our training.

Once again, we each had to take a different path and retrieve a flag. After a bit of walking, I found the flag placed on top of a rock fifty meters away from me. The area between me and the flag was just a large empty field of grass. This seems suspiciously convenient. I slowly approached the flag while carefully inspecting my surroundings.

As soon as I made it halfway across, monsters started to surround me. What a surprise. All of the monsters were C rank monsters. There were dorusos, alpha burarks, radives, monsters that I've fought in the past. I should have no trouble dealing with C rank monsters so I summoned my own monsters to defend me while I grabbed the flag.

Before I could grab the flag, the monsters overwhelmed the ones I summoned and began to attack me. I unsheathed my swords and slashed through the monsters that were blocking me.

Thanks to my level, I was able to kill each monster in a few hits. Despite all the slashing, I felt like I wasn't getting closer to the flag. I've already killed more monsters than I can count but it felt like their numbers weren't dropping.

I used energy slash to clear a path for me, but as soon as the monsters around me got blown away, more monsters came to block me. There's no end to them. Even using a radive to fly out of here isn't a reliable option with the number of monsters covering the sky.

Why are they so focused on attacking me? All I did was walk out into the middle of this field. What did Reizo do to get the monsters to focus on attacking me?

The monsters don't seem to have any physical change. Maybe Reizo put something on me. I blew away the monsters again with energy slash and checked my body to see if Reizo put anything on me.

I found a small green card stuck in a slot in my armor. It was giving off a weird scent which was probably why the monsters are attacking me. I was wondering why I smelled so weird today.

Before I threw the card away, I reminded myself that Reizo wouldn't let training be as simple as finding a card in my armor and tossing it aside. My armor still has the scent so losing the card would only give me fewer options to get the flag.

I grabbed one of the monsters that tried to attack me and rubbed the card on its back and pushed it away. As I predicted, the scent caused the other monsters to attack the monster I rubbed the card on and rip it to pieces.

I then rubbed the card on more monsters while avoiding their attacks and eventually, the monsters started to attack each other and the scent was all over the place. The number of monsters attacking me dramatically decreased, giving me the chance to grab the flag without being overwhelmed.

I made it out of the area and handed the flag and the card back to Reizo so that I can go back to my room. Saliza came running out of the area with the flag and she was being chased by a lot of monsters.

Reizo thrust his palm at the monsters and shot out a beam of fire to incinerate them. He then blocked the path by creating an earth wall.

"There's a card in your armor slot, hand it to me." said Reizo. Saliza checked her armor and found the card. "When did you put this in our armor?" She asked. "When you were sleeping."

We were both creeped out that Reizo would go as far as breaking into our rooms just to set us up for training. I don't think I'll be able to sleep knowing that I'm constantly being watched by a drunk psychotic creep.

"Can't you respect our personal space? I know you're our captain but there should be some boundaries."

"You don't have to worry about anything unless you're plotting something."

Saliza knew that trying to convince Reizo to stop his weird behavior was harder than trying to convince me that I'm a type of vegetable so we both left Feilo Forest and went back to our room.

After several hours have passed, Serith returned to our room and found us searching the place for any possible ways Reizo could get in.

"Check the bathroom too. It's possible he might even come out of the toilet. Oh hey Serith, did you finally finish training?" Saliza asked. Serith shook his head in shame and sat on his bed to ponder why he's falling behind us.

Well, that's very surprising. I was very sure that he would've completed his training with ease using his Reizo worshipping powers.

"I just don't understand. I'm doing the best I can but I'm still not as good as you or Zeigel." Gee, I wonder why. It's quite a mystery.

"Did Reizo tell you anything about how you can improve? Anything at all?" I asked.

"He just told me to think about what happened yesterday."

"And you remember what happened yesterday right?"

"We fought each other and both of us lost to Saliza."

"And what did Reizo tell us after that."

Serith remembered clearly that Reizo wanted us to help each other improve after seeing how we fought, but he refused to take my advice on how he could improve.

He turns towards Saliza and asks, "How do you think I should improve?"

He's seriously trying to avoid using my method to better himself? Good grief, it's going to be a real pain to get him to stop copying Reizo.

"Didn't Zeigel already tell you how to improve?"

"Yeah but I don't think his way is very effective."

Not very effective? I'm not the one who got my ass handed to me for the past few days!

"Well, I also agree with Zeigel's method. I'll even admit that I would've lost to you if you packed a bigger punch. You're not doing much with the way you're fighting."

"Forget it, I'm gonna go get some lunch." Serith stormed out of the room. He couldn't accept what we told him and got frustrated over it. What he didn't know was that Reizo was eavesdropping from outside our room and disappeared when Serith stormed out.

"What now? We need to convince him to change or else he'll never improve." said Saliza. We started brainstorming in our room to figure out how we could get Serith to change his mindset.

At the cafeteria, Serith was eating his lunch alone. He was gobbling up his food when Reizo arrived and took a seat at his table. Serith stopped eating and quickly swallowed his food to greet Reizo and apologize for failing today's training.

"Why are you copying me?" Serith was taken aback and denied trying to imitate Reizo. "Then tell me, is it merely a coincidence that your weapon is a one-handed sword like mine and your skills are similar to two of mine?"

Serith didn't have any excuse and admitted that he was indeed copying Reizo.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, why are you copying me?"

"Ever since the day you saved me, I admired you as saw you as my idol. You even told me that one day I'll become a brilliant ventgard after you saved me."

"I saved you because that's part of my job. It makes sense that you would want to become a ventgard after that but why would you want to be like me? Especially with all the rumors going on about me."

"The rumors are fake right? Like the one about you slaughtering a bunch of people in Mezio, it's fake right?"

Reizo shook his head. "That one is true." He cared little about what happened during the incident and simply viewed it as 'doing what's right'.

"What! Why would you do that?" Serith was horrified and he was hoping that Reizo had a proper reason for it.

"I studied the behavior of those people I killed. They were all scum and I hate seeing them be able to live their lives freely. They didn't deserve to live so I did the right thing and gave them what they deserved."

Serith was speechless. He tried to deny all of this by thinking that maybe Reizo killed bandits in disguise, but he's seen how Reizo acts nowadays. He finally realized that the man who saved him is completely different from his captain.

"So are you still a fan?" Reizo asked. He could tell from Serith's face that he was disheartened and decided that he shouldn't continue telling Serith all the things he had done or else Serith might get so disheartened to the point that he'll quit being a ventgard.

"Not all of the rumors are true you know, like the one about me secretly being from earth." Serith didn't say a word and stared at his half-eaten meal. His life as a ventgard wasn't what he hoped for it to be and now someone he looks up to admit that he is the monster that everyone sees him as.

Reizo scratched the back of his head trying to figure out a way to relate to Serith. 'What would my captain do in this situation?" Reizo asked himself. He knows that he's awful at making people feel better, so he decides to reveal one more thing to Serith.

"I'm actually quite clueless about being a captain. I've never taught anyone before, so the training I put you three in are similar to the ones I did a few years ago. I don't know how to relate to any of you and I'm not sure what I should be doing as a captain. There have been many times where I wished that my captain was here so that I could ask him what to do."

Serith lifted his head. He always thought that Reizo was perfect but he didn't know that Reizo didn't know how to be a captain.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked. "I just wanted to apologize for not being a perfect captain or ventgard. I want to help you grow and become a ventgard who can protect innocent people, but at the same time I'm not entirely sure how to do it, so I need your help to achieve that goal."

Serith regained some of his spirit. He felt determined to achieve that goal and he was ready to change. "What should I do now?"

"As of now, you're falling behind your teammates. They have some suggestions on how you can improve and I want you to take their advice." Said Reizo.

Serith nodded and ran back to our room. "What a waste." said Reizo as he looked down at the half-eaten meal that had traces of saliva on it.

When Serith got back to the room, me and Saliza scrambled to our positions for a presentation. I held up a script and before I could say anything, Serith stopped me. "I'm ready to change." he said with a confident look on his face.

I tore up the script and threw it in the air. "That's great! We'll meet you at the armory after we settle some stuff."

Once Serith left, Saliza dragged a board that I had written on out of the toilet. "So what are you going to do with this? The shop doesn't do refunds." said Saliza.

"Imakeapresentationandhecomesbackjusttotellmethatiwastedmoneyandeffortfornobloodyreason." I grumbled under my breath.