An uncontrollable grin spread across Raul’s face as he brought his sword up. A gentle blue wind left his hands and wrapped his sword.

Lightning crackling and the smell of burned ozone filled the field as the two weapons clashed. The snake bite down on the sword, but the seemingly gentle winds only let its fang sink close to the edge before blowing it apart!

“What!?” Jason exclaimed as the head of his snake burst open and the rest of it dispersed.

Raul pushed forward and used the remaining power of the skill to force Jason’s arm into the air. The powerful blowback effect was impossible for Jason to resist. And his arm shot into the sky.

Raul wasted no time following through with a savage slash at Jason’s chest.

“Guh!” Jason blocked the strike with his other spear but was pushed back by the surprising weight behind it.

“Bastard!” Sparks broke out of Jason’s body and traveled to his arm, enhancing his strength as it traveled.

Raul launched a ruthless kick at Jason’s stomach before the sparks could finish. He pumped as much qi into his leg as he could to send Jason flying backwards.

Raul Then dug his feet into the ground and held his sword sideways, ignoring the pain in his leg from using too much qi. A yellow wind enveloped him for a split second before squeezing down hard and shooting him forward.

Summer Burst! Raul’s attack flew at the still airborne Jason.

“Don’t get carried away!” Jason yelled furiously while crossing his spears. A ball of lightning began to form at the intersection, but before it could fully form Raul’s sword slammed into the two spears, adding momentum to Jason’s flight.

Raul grimaced as some of the electric qi traveled through his sword and entered his body. He couldn’t follow up as he had to circulate his qi to get rid of the bit that entered him.

“Sloppy.” Marina couldn’t help muttering. If he’d defended his body the way she’d taught him, he wouldn’t have been stunned. With that error he’d lost the momentum he was building.

Ellen also shook her head softly when she saw the mistake, but she felt it couldn’t be helped since Raul wasn’t used to dealing with qi attacks yet.

Raul was similarly cursing himself for his shoddy protection. He’d slacked on his internal defense training to train other things because Marina didn’t use any internal attacks. The Lightning Attribute was naturally invasive, and he was paying for his decision now.

“Damn it, I’m not going easy on you any longer!” Jason roared in shame before sprinting forward.

“Good! That way you won’t have an excuse when you lose!” Raul smirked at him condescendingly while removing the last of the lightning qi.

Jason’s eyes turned red in anger as he brought his two spears together. Arcs of lightning danced between them and grew bigger and bigger.

King Serpent Bolt! The lightning turned into a human sized serpent and roared forward.

Raul’s eyes constricted as he moved his sword up to block. He thought about dodging it, but something about the irregular movements of the serpent erased that thought from his mind.

He held his sword with both hands and pumped as much qi as he could into Spring Breeze. The blue cocoon of wind was even bigger and slower than before. His arms burned with the effort of moving it into place as Jason’s spears finally struck.

Raul’s entire body shivered as the overwhelming force bore down on him. The tips of the spears sank deep into the blue cocoon while the giant serpent bit down.

The cocoon squished and distorted, and the spear pierced through and made contact with the sword, then, BOOM! The cocoon of wind completely shattered and released a huge gust that pushed them both back, causing the giant serpent to collapse.

Raul’s hand trembled, and his body ached from the force of the attack, but there wasn’t a scratch on him. ‘I’ve thought it before, but Spring Breeze is really powerful.’ He couldn’t resist patting himself on the back while showing a taunting smile.

It was truly a praiseworthy move. Not only was its defensive power strong, it had a failsafe that would pretty much guarantee safety so long as their wasn’t a huge power difference.

Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Once activated it became hard to move, and piercing attacks could get through it without triggering the final burst.

Jason trembled as shock and anger consumed him. That was one of his strongest attacks and this waste really blocked it head on! Bad enough he had to fight someone like him, but when he thought about how bad he was performing in front of a superior officer his rage increased threefold. Yet that anger only made his thoughts calmer.

The Vault Family Guards didn’t require a certain level of strength to enter, instead they required sealing skills. Seals were very situational by nature and required high levels of perception and adaptability even in the best of times, much less in battle.

Though there was very little room for a Refinement Realm cultivator to use seals in a one-on-one battle, the traits and habits learned through the countless hours of practice with the techniques made even a natural hothead like Jason keep a level mind once he perceived a threat.

He recognized that Raul’s techniques were a higher quality than his. He should’ve expected that from the start. His bubbling hatred and envy couldn’t help rising more as he imagined the number of resources that went into bringing Raul here.

‘However, no matter how many resources they dump into you, you can’t hide the fact that you’re trash!’ A cruel satisfaction spread through Jason after he noticed the fatal flaw.

The technique might be strong, but the qi fueling it was incomparably weak.

“Laugh while you can, I’ll show you that someone like you who wastes their foundation for quick results has no future.” Jason laughed cruelly as lightning sparked off his entire body.

Four months ago Raul didn’t have a spec of qi in him. His smelting period could only be shorter than that. Combined with his weak qi, Jason was under a beautiful misunderstanding about Raul’s foundation.

The lightning sparking off him condensed and sank beneath his skin. Slowly, scales made of Lightning Qi spread across his skin.

‘Yeah, like I’m gonna wait for that.’ Raul snorted and rushed him while yellow wind surrounded him.

As soon as he was in range the yellow wind surrounding him suddenly compressed around his arm and sword.

‘Summer Gale!’ Raul roared while cutting out five times with insane speed.

Jason moved his spears to block the strikes, but only caught one before the rest landed on his body.

Clang, swish, clang, clang, clang! Raul's hand moved like a blur as it struck wildly.

Raul didn't follow up the attack however, and instead backed off while shaking his numb hand with a slight frown on his face. Though four of his attacks hit, he only felt his sword slicing through skin on one, the rest felt more like he'd hit a wall.

Jason grinned despite the blood leaking from the cut on his shoulder. Defense techniques had a lower requirement for qi intensity and usage, but attack skills required more oomph to really show their worth.

Alarm bells rang through Raul's head. Jason's aura grew more and more dangerous as the scales grew, he didn't think this was just a defensive technique.

He backed away further and grabbed his sword with both hands. A serious expression came over his face as blue wind began to surround his sword and press down on it. 

"My turn bastard." Jason growled as the last of the scales finally came into place and covered the area Raul had wounded. Lightning attributed qi coated his weapons as he approached Raul.

It wasn't attribute manipulation, just the most basic attribute release and qi coating.

He used this to up the damage instead of a skill because the Scaled Armor already required a lot of focus, and he didn't want to create openings by overburdening himself.

Covered in shining golden scales and lightning dancing on his weapons, Jason descended upon Raul.