Jake didn’t give the man any time to object as he charged forward. He only had a single scimitar and chose to use it here in the opening clash. Both of them had fully restored resources and ensured no potion cooldown or skills were unavailable. Besides Jake not having his second weapon, both of them were at peak condition, and him not having it frankly didn’t matter much.

His first attack was a simple swipe, and the old man easily blocked him… or, more accurately, made him miss. He hit the side of the katana wielded by the Sword Saint and saw his own scimitar be led away as Jake charged past, still making sure to not give the man time to counterattack.

Turning around, he attacked again, this time swinging from a direction where the swordsman couldn’t simply redirect it. Or so Jake thought. His own sword ended up tearing up the ground as he was once more thwarted, and he had to quickly dodge back to avoid getting himself slashed.

“Enjoyment of battle does not give one an excuse to shirk responsibilities,” the Sword Saint said as he took the offensive.

Droplets of water began condensing around Jake, and he responded by creating a blast of mana around his body to quickly dispel them while also swaying to avoid the sword trying to cut him in two. More water began condensing, and Jake finally began to realize why the vampire constantly kept his aura active… it was to deal with the old man’s water magic. However, the water magic was so weak that Jake easily made it useless just with a bit of mana here and there.

Jake jumped back as the old man cut upwards, sending forth a screen of water that tore up the space between the two of them. Sadly for the Saint, Jake had already seen the movements of mana and easily dodged to the side to avoid it.

Screens of water began appearing all around Jake as the old man sent out crescent waves with his sword, but not directly towards him. They entered the screens, and to Jake’s surprise, were reflected and redirected. He dodged the first few and saw them begin bouncing between the water screens. The old man was trying to set up a killing trap or something.

“Neat trick,” Jake recognized. Ultimately, not very effective, though. He reckoned that combination was more a relic of past skills, as it really didn’t work well against foes with his mobility. Jake simply ran forward as he dove under a sword wave before jumping over another one to get free of the trap.

Running straight for the old man, he attacked again as he swung his blade. The swordsman blocked and redirected his blows again and again. It was at this point one thing became utterly clear…

Jake was completely and utterly outmatched in skill. He was stronger and faster, yet he felt like a child swinging a stick in front of a swordmaster… because, in many ways, he was.

Yet, at the same time, he wouldn’t lose. Because while Jake was utterly unable to even get close to landing a wound, the same was true for the old man. Because while Jake sucked at using a sword compared to the Sword Saint, he sure as hell didn’t suck at not getting hit by one.

He knew when dangerous blows approached, and he reacted to those while he blocked weaker blows to not leave an opening. He could do this as he was ultimately still superior in stats and likely also overall skill rarity and methods. Superior in every way but pure skill. Not that any of them had really shown anything else yet.

“You have not wielded cold weapons for long, have you?” the Sword Saint asked.

“Not since the system came unless you count kitchen knives during cooking. And even then, I was a shitty chef,” Jake answered, snickering.

With a deadpan expression, the old man answered. “It shows.”

Ouch, Jake thought as he struck back, this time going a bit harder. Arcane energy revolved around his blade as he upped the power of his blows. This forced the Sword Saint to be even more defensive, and when Jake didn’t let up but kept pressuring him, he was finally forced to go a bit harder in turn.

Jake felt the spike of power from his opponent as his boosting skill was used. Probably at a low volume… but it was used. A faint teal mist came out of the old man’s skin, and he pressed forward as now suddenly Jake was on the backfoot.

He dodged a few blows as the Sword Saint let loose, his blade now faster and stronger. He pushed Jake away as the Sword Saint pointed the tip of his blade towards him.

“Thousand Droplets.”

His Danger Sense exploded as he felt like hundreds of needles prickled his body. For the first time, Jake was forced to use One Step Mile, as the area he had just been was suddenly cut through by what he could only guess was a thousand tiny stabs.

Okay, that is dangerous, Jake recognized. He would, at a minimum, have to use Scales of the Malefic Viper to handle that one, as while each blow was far from a normal stab… well, there was value in quantity.

Jake decided that if the old man got serious… well, then he would also kick it up a notch. Arcane mana began condensing around him as several bolts appeared, and in his hand, concentrated arcane energy gathered as he dodged another sword blow with One Step Mile.

Yet just before he could release his arcane bolts, the old man summoned a plane of water in front of himself, reflecting Jake and his bolts. For a moment, Jake felt like his bolts existed two places at once, and just as he felt that, the old man cut across the water plane. Jake’s arcane bolts completely collapsed as the mana structures fell apart at that same moment, leaving only the arcane energy he had gathered in his hand.

“That is a cool skill,” Jake said as he dodged yet another blow as his One Step Mile took him closer.

“Quite the durable mana constructs,” the old man recognized in an impressed voice as he blocked Jake’s scimitar.

“Yep,” Jake answered as he spun his body and pointed his palm at the old man, releasing a massive blast of arcane energy that sent both of them flying back. In a swift reaction, the Sword Saint had managed to summon a protective layer of water, but Jake still felt like he came out on top.

They charged each other again as they exchanged blow after blow, sending rock and soil flying everywhere as they tore up the area even more. None of them landed any blows worth mentioning on the other as the minutes passed by, yet one thing was clear… this stalemate wouldn’t continue.

Because while the old man pulled out more and more cards, Jake only had to use half as many. A new tipping point came when Jake decided to give his new Limit Shatter a test drive.

Energy revolved inside his body as it condensed and sped up. He felt full of power as it spiked to 15%, and instantly the situation changed. Jake summoned more mana bolts as he bombarded the old man who couldn’t cut them down fast enough, not even with the water plane. Instead of summoning five simultaneously, Jake quickly made them appear one by one with his hand and more or less threw them in between his sword blows.

In response, the old man began also using more of his own magic. Large orbs of water that fired out pressurized blasts tried to block Jake’s blows, and several planes of water appeared to somewhat successfully block Jake’s magic. He even used reflecting planes to make his pressurized water beams come from different directions. That was just one of his many types of water magic, with large water explosions, more needle-like droplet attacks, and whatnot also mixed in.

However, none of it worked much. Sure, the water beam could cut well, but compared to the sword, it was nothing. Jake ended up still summoning his Scales to take a few blasts of water, allowing him to close in and push the old man back, finally landing a good blow for the first time in the fight.

Seeing the writing on the wall, the Sword Saint got some distance between them as he spoke. “I must admit… seeing you fight and facing you is very different. It is like being hounded by a beast that turns into a specter just when you think it has overextended.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” Jake answered. “Meanwhile, you feel like facing a master swordsman who also decided to try and become a water mage at some point. Honestly, you got way more tricks than I expected.”

The old man frowned a bit. “Swordsmanship can only take one so far, and it would be foolish to abandon other types of magic when other means can be used to enhance oneself.”

“I wasn’t insulting you,” Jake said, shaking his head. “But between facing your sword and your water magic… they aren’t the same. The latter feels hollow.”

“It is no lie I am not truly a mage and have not invested as much in my mental stats as I perhaps should,” the Sword Saint acknowledged. “We all have places to improve, like your swordsmanship and my magic.”

“No… no, that ain’t it,” Jake shook his head again. “It just feels forced and boring. There is nothing in it. As I said… it’s just hollow. Completely without passion.”

The old man frowned. “As said, I am not a mage. Magic is merely secondary and a requirement to-“

“Those shitty water balloons are doing nothing for you,” Jake sighed. “It feels like someone with a gun deciding to toss bullets for some goddamn reason. If you don’t actually care for using water magic like this… just stop and don’t insult me by using it pretending to be serious. Stick to what you actually care about.”

Jake didn’t give him time to respond as he moved to attack again. The old man seemed to have taken his word to heart, though, as he didn’t use any of his water magic but instead only blocked with his sword. Sure, there were still some water-affinity things… but he wasn’t acting like a low-tier mage. Jake was fine with using things you were still practicing on… but that wasn’t what the old man did.

He had just made some simple magic spells and gone with those. It was all low-tier stuff, not tied to what the Sword Saint was all about: his swordsmanship. Jake didn’t feel the slightest tinge of danger from those water orbs, but he didn’t care to take a single blow from the sword.

Now, magic that supported his swordsmanship was another thing. The reflection of spells to dispel them with a sword cut, or him making his sword waves jump between planes of water? That shit was cool and inventive and overall supplemented the swordsmanship.

The Sword Saint wasn’t like Jake, that much he was sure about. It felt like he only used that water magic out of obligation, not desire. Was it wrong to learn how to use spells like that? No… not really, but if you didn’t really care about magic spells, why waste your time on it? Okay, maybe if it was to practice some concept and was a middle-step, but then you shouldn’t use it in combat. Same as how Jake didn’t try to summon weapons out of arcane mana. Maybe he would do it one day… but not yet. Also… ultimately… If it wasn’t fun to use magic while fighting for the old man, why bother? If there is no passion, why have it be part of your path and style?

Jake pressed his attack, showing that contrary to the Sword Saint, he actually cared about his magic. Arcane bolts supported him as he battled, arcane explosions made space where possible, and the arcane energy revolved around his blade as they clashed.

The old man got a bit faster as he pushed his boosting skill higher, allowing him to keep up and go even. However… Jake felt that his opponent couldn’t go much higher. That didn’t mean it was easy for Jake, but it did mean that it would be very difficult for the Saint to get anywhere.

Because while Jake forced the other party to show his cards one by one… Jake had yet to.

“You may be right,” the old man said, as he appeared far calmer than Jake expected. His blade sped up and pushed Jake away as the Sword Saint changed his stance. He placed both of his hands on the handle of this sword as he pointed it straight at Jake as the atmosphere shifted.

“But do not think for a moment my blade and the power of the rain are not connected. This skill was the first legendary one I got… please share your insights,” the Saint said as he breathed out and spoke in a low voice.

“Rainblade.”

Jake moved just before it arrived as the tip of a blade appeared where his chest had just been, the old man having moved even faster than ever before, making Jake remember his movement skill. He was still holding back.

Somehow, the Sword Saint’s feet slid across the ground like he was a water strider on a lake. It was not teleportation but swift movement in mostly straight lines. Contrary to Jake’s One Step Mile, the old man could use it to build up momentum as he struck, at the cost of a bit of speed and still the risk of taking damage as he still physically moved compared to straight-up teleportation.

But that wasn’t what Jake had to truly look out for… for if the sword was dangerous before, now it was on an entirely new level.

Visually not much had changed besides a faint layer of water now covering the blade of the katana. It looked to be in constant movement as it streamed up and down the edge, but Jake knew there were some serious concepts at work… for with his Sense of the Malefic Viper, he felt a massive amount of mana from the weapon. Way more than he could pack into an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter by a large margin. More surprisingly… it didn’t look like it required much upkeep, as it was a stable flow.

As for what this Rainblade did…

Jake dodged as he summoned a bolt of arcane mana but instantly found it cut in two. He teleported back, and the Sword Saint swung in his direction as a few tiny droplets were sent after him. Without hesitating, he teleported again as the droplets hit a small hill in the distance and penetrated into it – each as powerful as the stab of a sword.

To make it worse, when the old man stabbed for real, Jake found himself forced to roll on the ground as the blade extended over ten meters, the extended part made of only a faint outline of water. Yet, he knew it wasn’t something he should try to tank.

I knew he had something more. Now, this is some proper fucking water magic.

The water level had been shit. Maybe rainwater was just superior to ocean water?

A moment of inattentiveness made Jake not teleport away fast enough, as the old man managed to get within striking distance. Jake dodged the first four swipes but was forced to block the last one. He raised his scimitar and clashed with the Sword Saint, feeling like he had just blocked another normal sword blow… yet when he did, it was like a part of the blade just kept cutting, ignoring that the physical part of it had stopped.

Using One step mile, Jake appeared off to the side, a wet cut across his chest with the scales torn open and blood seeping out, mixing with the rainwater.

It was his first time taking an injury… and it wasn’t a light one. Jake made a toothy grin as he yelled at the old man.

“I guess it’s only fair I also do what I’m best at.”

With that, he waved his hand as his bow appeared, dodging again as he nocked an arrow.

With that, the second part of the duel between the swordmaster and the hunter began.