Raul didn’t simply wait on Jason, a deep blue slowly dyed his sword. He didn’t look up at the oncoming attack, he focused solely on fully coating his sword.

‘Phew, barely made it.’ Raul thought with cold sweat pouring out as he swung the fully transformed sword to meet Jason’s spear. A burst of wind spread from his sword at contact, blowing the lightning back and weakening the impact of the spear.

Raul immediately frowned as his arm still sunk under the weight of the blow. Even with Spring Blooming significantly weaking the attack, he could just barely take it.

‘I knew it! Those scales double as an enhancement.’ Raul cursed.

Battle techniques were categorized by both activation method and effect. Activation method referred to how qi was circulated and were split between cast and channel typing. Cast types were finished once the circulation was completed, like Raul’s Spring Breeze and Summer Gale, while channel types required the user to keep circulating while using the technique, like Jason’s Scale Armor.

As for use, it split into three types, burst, enhancement and augmentation. Burst were quick and explosive effects, enhancements were effects that raised the abilities of something, and augmentation effects changed the abilities of something.

All battle techniques and even most profession techniques were categorized with one activation type and one or more effect types. Raul’s Summer Gale is a cast burst type, while his Spring Blossom is a cast augmentation type.

Jason’s Scaled Armor was a double effect type, a channel enhancement augmentation. It changed his skin to be hard, but it also enhanced his physical strength.   

Raul repelled the spear while stepping back to offload the burden. He quickly brought his sword up on his other side to block Jason’s other spear before it could swing into his head and took another step back.

The two began a fierce exchange of blows with Raul on the back foot. Jason’s weapon proficiency and strength both exceeded him, and even with Spring Blooming taking most of the burden, he had to constantly use skills from the summer style to fend off the blows.

He’d also taken the opportunity to get some blows in, but the strength of Gale and Burst were too weak to pierce Jason’s scales. He could tell that he’d need the third move of the summer style to pierce it, but he couldn’t use it yet.

Raul continued to get pushed back with gritted teeth. ‘No good, my sword isn’t even leaving a mark! I have to do something, but what?’ He desperately scrambled for a solution.

As he was lost, one of Jason’s spears snuck past his sword and grazed his shoulder. He flinched not from the cold steel cutting his skin, but from the lightning that invaded and shocked him on contact.  

A predatory grin spread across Jason’s face as he moved in for the finish, but Raul’s sword blocked him unimpeded, shocking him.

Raul kept his inner qi protection up and stopped the lightning from invading deep, once was more than enough for that mistake.

As for the pain, Raul experienced all sorts of attribute trauma while still having to use skills in a mad frenzy under threat of death for the last month of his smelting period, and that was before he had his own qi to blunt the damage. Let alone the basic attribute cloaking Jason was using, even if it was a real technique it’d have to hit Raul properly to get him to stop acting.

Raul’s eyes gleamed as he took advantage of Jason’s shock to unload a Summer Gale into his chest. He didn’t just blast away this time, he aimed all five strikes at one point.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!

‘Damn it!’ Raul cursed his own inability. Thoughts were sweet, but reality was bitter. The propulsion force of Summer Gale was just too strong. his sword rampaged wildly like a bull and landed five unimpressive hits in completely different locations.

The fight raged on for several more minutes, with Raul taking more and more damage as time went on.

His wounds weren’t deep, but they were building up. Every time he tried to get some room Jason would be on him almost immediately, even when he used Summer Burst to retreat it would only buy him a few breaths. He felt like he was slowly being smothered.

‘It can’t continue like this.’ Raul glanced at his sword anxiously. It’d already gone from a deep blue to a light blue, there were even a few spots where the sword had returned to its original color.

Spring Blooming was a cast augmentation type, he needed to complete the circulation again to renew the effect once it finished, and Jason wouldn’t allow that.

Once Spring Blooming ended, he wouldn’t be able to handle the strength behind Jason’s blows anymore. What would follow was surely a one-sided beating.

A look of cold decisiveness crossed Raul’s face. He used Summer Gale again, but this time the blue on his sword glowed brightly as he released all the energy left in Spring Blooming.

He’d struck at an opportune moment and hit all five on Jason’s body, a feat only possible because of Jason’s fallen caution after taking no damage from that attack too many times. That’s why he was utterly unprepared to be blown away after the five strikes landed.

There was no damage. In fact, even without the Scaled Armor there would’ve been no damage, as the power behind Raul’s strikes were reduced to practically zero by Spring Blooming’s qi. Raul was fine with that though, as his goal was the knockback effect.

Raul quickly used Summer Burst to open even more distance while Jason was airborne.

‘Slippery bastard!’ Jason cursed while manipulating his weight with qi to land faster. The moment he landed sparks flew off his feet as he activated his movement technique to chase.

Raul didn’t stop retreating even after Summer Burst ended and continued to backpedal further.

Of the four styles of the Seasonal Swords, Raul was incomparably more used to the Summer and Spring styles. The technical Autumn Style was the most inferior of the four, while the offensive Winter Style was hard to use, but he had to bet on them.

Spring Blooming took too much focus when being crafted and he couldn’t move during it. Even if he got the chance, it would just be delaying the inevitable.

He didn’t know for certain if the Winter Style could pierce Jason’s scales, but it was the only path he had towards victory. But to strike with the difficult Winter Style, he required a big opening.  

‘'I'm betting it all on this. Autumn Leaves!' With those thoughts, a vibrant red wind leisurely pooled onto Raul's sword...