Raul continued retreating from Jason’s chase for as long as he could, but it only bought him an extra second. He was grateful that channeling techniques could be used even while charging up.

Jason swung wide with full strength to force Raul to block it. With his skill only half complete there was no way Raul could match his force he reasoned. And he was right.

Without Spring Blooming, Raul would definitely be sent flying if he took Jason’s boosted strength head on. That’s why he didn’t.

Raul Swung his sword to meet Jason’s spear, but something odd happened when they touched. Raul’s sword moved with a flexibility that it’d wholly lacked before, slipping under Jason’s spear a moment after they touched.

With a flick of his wrist Raul redirected the spear slightly and ducked under it. It was a movement that took considerably more skill than he’d shown so far, and he wasn’t finished yet.

His crimson sword radiated a sharp intent as he cut into Jason’s open side two times. Alarm showed in Jason’s eyes as he felt some of the scales crack under the blows and he quickly pierced forward with his other spear to stop Raul.

‘Still?’ Raul cursed while dodging backwards from Jason’s spear. The autumn style had a stronger offensive power than the summer style, but it wasn’t enough.

Even though Autumn Leaves was only at seventy percent, he estimated he’d have to hit the same spot twice to make a small cut at full release. Raul expected this, but he still couldn’t help cursing at the results.

‘No other choice, I have to hit with the Winter Style.’ To do that, he needed to make a bigger opening.

Jason stabbed at him again while also swinging his other spear at his arm. Raul’s sword rammed into the swinging spear and held it for a moment before falling back with it. In the short time his sword stopped it Raul had moved just outside its range.

At the perfect moment Raul’s sword slide down from the swung spear and smashed into the one still piercing towards him and forced it downwards. He gracefully sidestepped the piercing spear and dragged his sword up the length of it towards Jason’s fingers.

Jason’s eyes widened as he attempted to send more lightning qi through the spear to affect Raul, but none of it could overcome the growing scarlet glow of his sword.

Raul’s sword slammed into Jason’s hand, causing it to tremble painfully from blunt force. A flash of disappointment crossed Raul’s eyes as he’d hoped the shock would make him drop it, but such a good event didn’t happen.

His disappointment didn’t stop him from continuing his onslaught. He flicked his sword upwards and stabbed Jason’s chest twice in the same location. He grinned as he felt it break something and pierce flesh on the second stab.

“F*ck!” Jason cursed as he blocked Raul’s third strike. He used more qi to quickly mend the broken scales over the bleeding wound and on his side. From then on Jason took a strictly defensive approach to the battle, tightening his stance and stopping Raul’s hits from getting through.

Jason planned to run out Raul’s qi. His Scaled Armor didn’t use much qi so long as he didn’t have to repair the scales, but Raul’s skill used a consistent amount of qi. Combined with all the skills Raul used earlier and his weak foundation, Jason reasoned that he must be close to running out of qi.

It wasn’t a pretty way to win, and his blood boiled over having to use such a method, but his reasoning and observations told him it was the steadiest path. Yet try as he might, Jason could not stop all of Raul’s hits from getting through.

Raul grinned as he spun his sword and circumvented Jason’s block to slash him across the arm. Raul’s sword moved and struck unnaturally without losing any of its speed or power in ways Jason couldn’t understand. It moved as unpredictably as a falling leaf.

Crisp! Unbelievably crips! Raul couldn’t stop laughing as he finally got to pay back his time as a sandbag twofold. He never expected the Autumn Style to be so much fun!

The Autumn Style didn’t have the sheer speed of the Summer Style, the terrifying offensive power of the Winter Style, or the solid defense of the Spring Style, but it held the silver medal in all three categories. It’s balance and lack of assigned role gave it the highest level of freedom and adaptability amongst the four.

However, it’s because of its lack of defining characteristics that Raul failed to see it’s true value before. It was a style that could only show its true worth in battle.

“Good skill!” Ellen couldn’t help commenting.

“Yes, he’s doing a lot better than I expected.” Marina watched in confusion. Raul never used Autumn Leaves against her, but she still saw him practice it and never imagined he’d be so skilled with it in combat.

Autumn Leaves increased the flexibility and flow of the sword, but just that shouldn’t have allowed him to so easily dominate a stronger opponent. That much flexibility and freedom is useless if one didn’t have the imagination and judgement to explore it effectively.

‘His baseline fighting skills were always good thanks to his years of sword training, but there’s more to it.’ Marina observed with rapt attention. This level of judgement… it was almost as if he was reading Jason.   

Raul didn’t let up the attack as the flow of the battle completely reversed. Even though Raul was still unable to draw any blood, the look on Jason’s face slowly began to get more and more ugly as his qi constantly dwindled from fixing his armor. Worst of all, Raul’s qi showed no signs of running out.

Jason made two critical mistakes in his calculations. One was that the Four Seasonal Winds cost to effect ratio was quite good. Marina naturally took into account the difficulty of refilling Raul’s qi when choosing his technique and picked one with good milage.

The second was his assumption of Raul’s weak foundation based on Raul’s short cultivation time. Even though Raul started the battle with his dantian half full, he still had several times more qi than Jason’s most generous estimates.

These two miscalculations caused him to choose the worst battle tactic as the best battle tactic, sending him down the path of defeat.

Jason grimaced in regret as he realized he should’ve gone on a full offensive earlier, now it was too late. The momentum had completely shifted, if Jason went on the offensive he would be quickly defeated, and it wasn’t just because of the Autumn Style.

Jason felt as if his every move was transparent. Raul reacted to his strikes before he could even finish making them, and the feeling was growing as the fight went on.

Though Raul still made mistakes, the level of improvement was uncanny. He was already fighting manifolds better than he did at the start, Jason couldn’t help finding it absurd.

Fear, anger, envy, and hatred melded inside Jason as he refused to believe this. He wouldn’t lose, he couldn’t lose, not to him! A small spark of electricity cracked in his palm before he began swinging with a renewed vigor.

Marina watched closely as Raul easily dealt with all of Jason’s attempts over the next few minutes and nodded as her suspicions were confirmed. Raul was improving at an alarming rate, but it wasn’t as simple as him getting better at fighting, he was improving at fighting Jason specifically.

‘Chance!’ Raul’s sword wedged into Jason’s hand and disarmed him, sending his spear flying upwards.

“Shit!” Jason tried to catch it, but Raul rained attacks down on him and forced him to scramble with his defense until the spear landed. He glanced at it, but Raul immediately stepped between it and him and continued his attack.

The trickiness of Raul’s Autumn Leaves couldn’t be defended against by Jason’s one spear, and soon many small cuts were on Jason’s body. With gritted teeth, he desperately swung his spear with his full strength to ward him off.

Raul’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as he stepped back and effortlessly diverted Jason’s panicked swing and created a huge opening. This was the chance he was waiting for… but something felt off.    

Even as he felt an anomaly, his body sprang into action without hesitation! He’d worked too hard to build this chance, even as his instincts warned him to be patient, he couldn’t let it go.

The beautiful red hue of his sword disappeared as he raised it high. A small gust of white wind circled the sword before pasting itself on it, but not evenly. Just the edge, the edge alone shone with an ominous pale white that sent instinctive tremors down the spine.

Winter’s Chill! Raul roared internally as he struck his sword down.

Jason’s body was still in an awkward position, he had no way to block or dodge, and his eyes couldn’t help shrinking as he felt the baleful air coming from that white sheen. Yet even in his defenseless position, a mocking smile spread across his face.

“Got you!” He yelled while opening his unarmed hand to reveal a small sealing rune. A crack spread across the rune and sparks immediately started flying off the spear behind Raul as a lance of lightning shot out of it towards the rune.

Jason didn’t simply take a beating this whole time. Once he realized he couldn’t turn the tide with his normal skills he turned to sealing.

He sealed most of his remaining qi in his spear before it was launched away. It wasn’t a technique and was merely the most ordinary attribute release, but a quantitative change eventually led to a qualitative one.

Raul realized he’d messed up before he heard the crackling lightning behind him, before the rune cracked, and even before that shitty grin spread across Jason’s face. He’d realized he was f’d the moment he swung his sword.

He didn’t dwell on it, he couldn’t when all his instincts were screaming at him to move immediately. He cut Winter’s Chill circulation without hesitation, consequences be damned. But even then, there wasn’t enough time.

He’d barely started the circulation for Summer Burst when Jason raised his hand and revealed the rune. He knew with certainty that if this hits him head on, he won’t get back up. Even knowing that, he couldn’t speed up the circulation any further.

The lightning cracked behind him, and his refusal to lose caused his instincts to move. There was no time to think, no time to feel, he just did.

Air quickly rushed out of him and squeezed. Raul gasped as tiny cuts spread across his body while the winds roughly propelled him sideways. But it wasn’t quite enough.

“!” Raul yelled wordlessly as the bolt grazed his stomach and unleashed lightning qi into him. His side was seared black as the lightning spread across his whole body.

The lightning still danced over his ravaged body as it was thrown carelessly to the side by his own wind. In no condition to control his flight, he smashed into the ground, bounced, and rolled until he came to a halt.