It is said that people's innate affinities were determined based on their environments and lifestyles.

For instance, Lorelai Seraph's wind attribute was probably because of her constant training of the bow. She needed her arrows to hit fast and true, and as such she was granted the most suitable affinity. 

John's case was no different. In fact, now that Dignitas thought about it, Time was the perfect affinity for him. What else could you give to someone who had experienced the world's demise twice? 

And it was said that Time was the strongest type of attribute when fighting in an even location. If there were no Mana Homes in the vicinity, then Time would at no question be the single unbeatable affinity.

"Although I do wonder what my innate affinity is… I know Death's Vision is probably of the Dark attribute, but that doesn't explain the Log and Identity Warp."

"But that does explain why Death's Vision didn't work. John's affinity was time. Heh. Interesting. Interesting move, John." Dignitas complimented him.

"Thank you. Now, shall we continue?"

"With pleasure." Dignitas rushed forward. 

This time, he could no longer rely on his one and only combat skill. It would be no use against a person that literally went outside of the laws of reality. 

"That doesn't mean I'll be going down without a fight, though!"

"Best thing I can do is see how strong his newfound ability is." Dignitas surmised. 

In most battles, information was the key to winning. The more knowledge someone had on their opponent, the easier it would be to exploit their weaknesses and seize the victory. 

"For now, let's try to catch him off guard."

Even though Death's Vision wouldn't work as well as it normally would thanks to John's Time powers, it could still somewhat predict incoming attacks.

And even if Dignitas painted the Time affinity as this "all powerful" element, it really wasn't. 

"From what I saw earlier, the skill allows him to send his body forward in time in a direction in front of him."

"I'm not sure if he can only use it in one direction or in a radius around him, so let's test something out."

The moment Dignitas reached John, he slashed his blade in a wide arc in front of him.

Choosing not to defend against it, John leapt backwards and retaliated with a swift thrust of his own. 

*clang*

The sound of two swords clashing against each other filled the arena. Dignitas had baited John into using a thrust, and responded appropriately with a swing of his own to divert the blade. 

Its force was enough to push John's sword over to the side, making him miss his opponent's body barely. 

But John wasn't a sword master in his past lives for nothing. As far as he knew, this whole battle wasn't anything out of the ordinary in terms of skill. 

Dignitas had yet to display something that would truly make John enter the next level. 

*clang*

The two swords met once again. This time however, both of their wielders stayed, attempting to beat the other in a strength match. 

"Nice sword. Where'd you get it?" Dignitas asked, still putting his weight onto Dainsleif.

"Same to you. I happened to find my sword in a cave." John replied. 

"Then we're the same in that regard." Dignitas smiled, putting more force into his push.

"I guess we are."

But John wasn't so stubborn as to continue to engage in a bout he knew he had a high chance of losing. 

So instead of adding more strength to his hands, he simply stopped applying any force. He let Dignitas win the battle in favor of winning the war. 

John had caught Dignitas off guard by his move. Now that he had him in the palm of his hand, he was free to finish this. 

Using the strength that Dignitas had continued applying, John used it to flip him over his body. 

Then, he aimed his sword directly onto Dignitas' chest and stabbed. 

"Not yet, John! We're not done yet." 

But instead of the arena disappearing and the A.I announcing his victory, John opened his eyes to see Dignitas standing behind him, perfectly fine!

"I might not be able to predict where you'll move, but I can still see how!"

What had actually happened was this: just as John had gone in for his supposed final thrust, Dignitas had grit his teeth and moved just enough so that his sword would only pierce a place that was non-lethal. 

If he was just a bit faster and was gifted with more agility, perhaps Dignitas could've dodged the blow completely. 

There were really only two ways this would end. He could've either taken the hit and let the match end, or he could allow it to hit him, albeit somewhere that wasn't vital. 

Just as Dignitas said this, a small trickle of blood began pouring down from his side. 

He was used to this, however. In fact, he almost couldn't feel it. He had already been used to the agonizing pain he caused himself during the few times he made himself adrenaline-ized that small amounts of pain like this wasn't even registered in his body as pain!

"Let's continue, John. I'm still not ready to give up." Dignitas urged. 

"Are you… sure? You're bleeding from your side, if you didn't know." John confirmed. 

"Oh, this? This is nothing. Now come on, I'm already raring to go."

Even if he was a bit reluctant, John still abided by Dignitas' wishes and drew his sword. 

"I've really only used this once, but I've been eager to try this on you ever since we started. Recognize this, John?" 

Instead of holding Dainsleif out in preparation for an attack, Dignitas sheathed it. 

"The form should still be pretty similar to it, so you'll remember it soon enough." 

Then, he placed his feet in a certain position, so as to gather as much strength as possible and release it without trading his own. 

"I still don't see what he's talking about, but it's probably dangerous. I need to stop it." John thought. 

To him, it looked as if Dignitas was preparing for an attack that would cover the entire arena. 

If it hit, John would have no way of dodging it. A sense of urgency came upon him as he immediately made his way towards Dignitas. 

Unfortunately for him, his guess couldn't have been more distant from the truth. The moment John was in Dignitas' range, the latter chanted in a hushed voice. 

"Distortion Slash." 

Instantly, he swung Dainsleif in front of him. The whole area shook as his mana burst, and the air seemed to disappear, turning into a void. 

It was too fast for even John to see. 

"...that was incredible, Dignitas."

However, it would seem that his attack was in vain. John stood up in front of him, looking slightly injured. 

"You bastard, that didn't hurt you that much?" 

"A perfect recreation of Spatial Slash, and even with your own twist added to it! How did you do it?" John asked. 

"...is this a way of making me feel better for that fruitless endeavor? Cause it's definitely not working, hah."

"I'll tell you if you tell me how you managed to get out of that with no injuries or wounds." Dignitas replied. 

"Deal!" John agreed. 

"Fine. Anyway, it's not like I can do much at this point. My information gathering failed as well. I'm not exactly bright in that aspect, so I wasn't even able to get you to use that skill again."

Despite how much Dignitas tried, he couldn't get John to activate his new time skill. 

He figured that he wouldn't be able to do it anymore if even Distortion Slash wasn't enough. 

***

"Mhm, mhm. So you activated Mana Maxima just before you charged at me, which gave you enough time to react to my Distortion Slash." 

"Well, isn't that just great thinking. Guess I'm not on your level just yet, John."

Even if he was strong himself, Dignitas knew his growth potential could never rival that of John's. He was naturally quick to learn, and adaptable to almost anything. In fact, his aptitude for learning new things would put even Dignitas' seemingly bizarre speed to shame. 

"Oh, but enough about that. Tell me about your new move!"

"Distortion Slash? Well, let's see…How am I going to explain this…"

Dignitas knew he couldn't reveal the existence of the Log to him. And even more so about the fact that he had used it to gain information about John's techniques.

Even now, it was recording the events that just happened, writing it in perfect detail so that he could read through it later. 

And plus, who'd believe that they were the protagonist of a novel?

John surely wouldn't. He was too humble for that.

"Ah, right. I happen to have a friend on campus. He loves to snoop around, and he happened to catch the battle between you and Varnier. He told me about everything when I woke up."

"I see, I see! If you are able to mimic, and even improve upon my own techniques, I have a feeling that we'll be able to use each other to get stronger." John said. 

"I think so too." Dignitas agreed. 

"Which is why I think we should do this regularly!"

"Pardon me?" 

"Oh, I don't mean regularly-regularly. Just when you have free time. I heard you were undergoing training with the Crimson Maiden."

"I just figured we could continue doing this so that we could point out our own weaknesses and improve upon those. Which in turn, would make us stronger." 

Dignitas contemplated this. After a few seconds of thinking, he replied, 

"Sure. But I don't think I'll be able to do this regularly-regularly, like you said. I'm going to get busy once school fully starts."

"That's fine by me. Ah, but would you look at the time? I should head home now. We've got class tomorrow."

"Yeah. I probably will, too. See you, John."