Jake felt the arcane energy wash over him from the explosion, even if he was a kilometer up in the air as it completely destroyed the Mistless Plains beneath him. It had to have done a lot of damage, and Jake was already preparing a follow-up as he heard the voice of the Sword Saint.

“Rainblade.”

A feeling of dread spread up his back as he suddenly felt the arcane energy move. It began spinning around itself as it gathered contrary to Jake’s will. His eye opened wide as he finally saw the Sword Saint stand there, his body covered in even more wounds. But, he had the same stable and confident stance as before while he spun his blade in his hand, making the arcane energy spin along with it as he saw millions of raindrops guide and control it.

He pointed the spinning blade up towards Jake, and he saw all of the arcane energy be gathered in the middle of what looked like a whirlpool of water. He stared into the eye of the storm that was his own destructive energy as his danger sense reacted.

*BOOM!*

A massive blast of arcane energy and rainwater was blasted up towards Jake as if fired from a canon. Jake reacted by teleporting away, narrowly dodging the projectile of pure energy fired after him. Then, with shock, he looked at it fly into the air as it blew up several kilometers above him, sending a wave of force down that destabilized him in the air for a moment.

Turning his head, he looked down at the confidently smiling Sword Saint as Jake became utterly aware.

He didn’t need to do that… he just wanted to see if he could.

Smiling, Jake nearly failed to hold back a laugh as he dove straight into continuing his attack. He shot down a Splitting Arrow as the Sword Saint also responded by swinging his blade. Jake believed he was doing it to block Jake’s arrows… he was wrong.

A crescent wave of water was fired up towards him, and contrary to what he would expect, it only grew in power as it flew through the air and absorbed any and all rainwater it encountered. By the time it reached Jake, it was more than fifty meters in length while still as thin as a string of hair.

Jake avoided it but felt like he was being subtly pulled towards the attack as the rainwater impacted his body and softly pushed him. That is when Jake noticed something else. His Scales of the Malefic Viper had been active from the start, but now after the Sword Saint had used Rainblade, he felt his scales slowly begin to absorb mana.

What did this mean? It meant that even the damn rain had become a passive effect that slowly began dealing damage or some other adverse effect. It was ridiculous but far less ridiculous than what the Sword Saint did next.

The old man pointed his sword upwards, aiming at him. Jake expected him to maybe extend it or something like that, but his danger sense activated from all around him. In a swift move, Jake spread out his arms as he formed an arcane barrier around himself and poured in as much power as he could before the attack arrived.

“Torrential Droplets.”

Every single raindrop with dozens of kilometers reacted as they all began glowing with mana and moved according to the swordsman’s will. Millions of drops headed towards Jake faster than the speed of sound, and he knew his current defenses would in no way be enough.

Jake screamed as he fueled his mana and will into Pride of the Malefic Viper as he poured more mana into it than ever before. A domain was established as a purple glow emanated from his body. Barrier after barrier appeared around him, creating a ball of nearly pure arcane energy more than twenty meters across as the raindrops arrived.

A battle between the rain and his arcane energy began as Jake was attacked from all sides, his arcane energy slowly being whittled away from the millions of small attacks. The sphere of arcane energy slowly shrank as it was consumed from twenty to fifteen to ten meters. It kept shrinking by a meter every second as Jake held on until it was only a mere four meters across, still obscuring Jake’s body.

Then suddenly, the attack stopped. Jake momentarily felt a moment of relief before his danger sense reacted again, making him twist his body. A blade of rainwater cut through his sphere as it swept upwards, Jake groaning in pain as his thigh was stabbed into and cut through.

It hurt, but it wasn’t serious enough to impact him. The only bad thing was his mana expenditure which was not insignificant. But at the same time, he had a feeling that the Sword Saint wouldn’t be able to keep up his current power forever.

Because when he stared down and looked at the Sword Saint below him. His body was more damaged than before, but he also noticed something else. A few faint signs of wrinkles had appeared on his face, and a couple of strands of gray hair had appeared. It was subtle, but it looked like he had aged at least a few years since their battle had begun. That meant he was on a timer, and whatever he had done was temporary. Then again, they were kind of both on a timer.

Treasure Hunt will end in: 31:01

Around them, space was slowly compressing and breaking apart more and more, and soon it would encroach upon the Mistless Plains. Their battlefield would slowly begin to shrink as time went by, but at least for now, they still had plenty of space to fight.

Jake stared down at the Sword Saint as he yelled, his curiosity failing to be held back:

“What exactly did you do?”

The Sword Saint simply smirked as he answered: “I do not believe the answer to that question is pertinent right now. What is more important is how long it will last. Spring is but one of four seasons, and as summer approaches, so must fall before we enter winter once more. It is a cycle that forever repeats… so please, as springtime remains, let us fight till the end of summer to our heart’s content.”

Jake shook his head at the non-answer. Good enough, I guess?

He moved as the Sword Saint also reacted, teleporting once more. Jake had finally figured out how the teleportation worked too, and it was honestly bullshit. The Sword Saint didn’t just randomly teleport somewhere. Instead, he switched places… with a fucking raindrop.

And when there was a god damn rainstorm, it made no practical difference if it was just pure teleportation or not. The only real difference was perhaps the forewarning as the Sword Saint infused the drop with mana and then changed places. It was brief but enough for Jake’s keen senses to detect it and react every time.

Jake dodged the sword as he flew backward, flapping his wings as the Sword Saint chased him as they flew through the rain. He wanted to avoid melee more than anything, as he was at a huge disadvantage in every aspect but avoidability.

It wasn’t merely a question of power either. Every exchange they had didn’t result in Jake being injured because he was significantly slower or weaker. No, it was that every single sword swing moved in near-unpredictable ways, and he felt like his scimitar was magnetically pulled to his opponent’s sword whenever he tried to counter, or that it was somehow pushed away whenever he tried to block.

The battle continued as Jake fled back and tried to kite the Sword Saint, but every once in a while, the man still found an opening and landed a blow as Jake’s body got more and more bloody. However, Jake did begin to find ways of fighting back.

Dodging back, Jake summoned four small bottles as arcane mana condensed around them, breaking and destroying the glass entirely, leaving only the liquid within. It was an expensive way to fight but necessary. Jake manipulated the four bolts manually as he also fired his bow, looking for an opening. More bolts soon joined the original four, these ones without any bottles within. His head hurt from controlling them while also fighting semi-normally, but the domain from Pride allowed him to keep up the control.

The Sword Saint cut his bolts down as Jake also fired his arrows while trying to avoid taking damage himself. The occasional explosion made some space as Jake consumed his resources at high speed. His opponent seemed to not be in a rush either as the occasional raindrop was fired from his blade and hit Jake, or the blade extended to land a cut.

Jake smiled under his mask as he found an opening. He had bought time to channel an Arcane Powershot as Gaze activated, and the bolts closed in on the Sword Saint. Naturally, the Sword Saint focused on the Powershot as he only swiftly moved his blade as an omnidirectional cut came out from his body, making all of the bolts break.

Preparing to block the Arcane Powershot, he noticed the liquid coming out of some of the bolts too late. For the first time since his transformation, Jake saw the man open his eyes display a hint of fear as his body was splashed with four bottles’ worth of uncommon Necrotic Poison.

He reacted fast as he channeled his abilities to get the liquid off as rainwater gathered and revolved around his body to wash it off while also blocking the Powershot. Jake pressed his advantage as he fired more exploding arcane arrows.

As a final thing, he activated something he had been waiting to use. Throughout their entire fight, arcane energy had been building up within his Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter. Even before his transformation, it had been building up – and the transformation hadn’t made the charge disappear either.

Jake activated it as the area flashed with arcane energy for a brief moment, further amplified by his Arcane Powershot exploding as Jake felt himself be pushed back. He felt the damage done to his opponent and prepared to keep attacking as a crescent wave made him abandon the idea.

A circular explosion of water pushed away all of the arcane energy as the Sword Saint’s form was revealed. His chest and shoulders were covered with signs of necrosis and wounds leaking blood, with faint arcane energy coved every inch of his skin. He was breathing heavily as he stood there, his blade raised. The only part nearly untouched was his face that still had the same confident look.

Signs of aging were also far more evident now as he looked almost middle-aged. The black hair had clear signs of graying, and many wrinkles covered his body and face. Jake felt like he was beginning to get an advantage, but the moment that thought appeared, it was crushed.

“As spring comes to an end, we enter the longest days. May we embrace the blessing of the sun, but never shun the gifts of the sky as we welcome the great treasure:-”

Jake felt the temperature faintly increase around him as the mana intensity did too. The rays of sunlight became brighter as the clouds changed color and became darker than before as the rainfall increased.

“Summer Rain.”

Warm droplets fell upon him as Jake felt the mana density around him only grow. He did not fully understand what the Sword Saint had just done as he looked up and saw the now middle-aged man simply stare at the sky as sunlight and rain hit him. That is when Jake noticed something… the rain was rejuvenating him.

Meanwhile, Jake noticed his body begin to feel worn down and he felt heavier as the rain continued to fall on him. It felt tiring to stand there in the warm rain, even if it was also soothing.

Shaking his head, Jake nearly smacked himself as he exited his stupor. No, now was not the time to relax as the Sword Saint was slowly healed. He pushed his arcane energy within his body further to make himself properly wake up as he drew his bow again.

Every moment he felt slightly slower than before, and even his mana and stamina didn’t move as fast as before. Gritting his teeth, he still fired a Splitting Arrow of exploding arrows towards the Sword Saint, finally forcing the man to no longer just bask in the sunlight and rain.

The swordsman teleported and appeared to Jake’s side just like before. Jake tried to also react like before, but his body just didn’t move as he wanted it to. He was off by a few centimeters as he took a cut in his side, and when he tried to block, he was also slightly too slow as he was cut on his arm.

This is…

Jake used One Step Mile to try and get away but found himself only traveling roughly half the distance he had wanted to. It didn’t take long for the swordsman to catch up and force Jake even further back in a desperate struggle to not have his limbs cut off.

…Like being underwater.

He got flashbacks to being submerged deep underwater in the Vault as he tried to fight off the effects of the rain. Arcane mana whirled around him as Arcane Limit Shatter was pushed as far as he could take it. He managed to shrug off a bit of the suppression from the rain but still found himself pushed back by the Sword Saint, who relentlessly attacked.

I just need to buy time, he told himself as he narrowly dodged the blade, only to see himself caught by a follow-up attack. Each wound was small and barely did any damage, but they accumulated as he lost more and more ground.

He tried to summon some more arcane magic but found it far more difficult as the rain seemed to corrode the arcane energy. One massive difference between the Vault and here was that in the Vault, the water was just there. It was a natural part of the environment and was entirely neutral. But the rainwater? The rainwater was so full of intent and will that Jake found it suffocating.

With him being slowed down, Jake failed again and again to get enough distance between them. He tried to use more magic, threw bottles, and whatever else he could quickly think of, but every move was thwarted.

Jake was slowly absolutely clear on one thing… I’m losing.

Losing to someone two levels below himself.

Losing to someone who should at most be his equal.

Losing to another human.

THUMP!

Jake was cut again as the blade managed to swipe down his arm and through his thigh, leaving a long gash.

THUMP!

He was stabbed in the shoulder, and upper arm as his eyes slowly began shining more than before. Jake failed to hold back a massive grin beneath his mask. He refused to lose.

The Sword Saint tried to follow up as he saw a huge opening purposefully made, allowing Jake to lean in as he headbutted the Sword Saint in the chest.

More power.

Jake closed in as he forfeited his blade and instead punched the Sword Saint with his arcane-infused gloves, making the man block with his own hand. Not letting up, Jake kicked him as he bent his body in an impossible shape to avoid a counter as he moved with bestial intent.

More.

Arcane energy began whirling around Jake as he pushed all of his energy even further beyond as slowly pink-purple fissures formed on his skin and scales, and the remnant arcane energy flowed out of him. He had pushed Arcane Limit Break to above what it should be capable of as he was overflowing with power at the cost of his own health.

More!

Jake felt his own body inside and out as he superimposed Pride of the Malefic Viper to contain the energy within his body as he controlled it. He refused to see his own arcane energy run rampant when it was his damn energy. If it was going to destroy him, it would damn well be with his own consent.

MORE!

The effect of the rain was pushed away as a faint layer of pure arcane energy covered the dark green scales and whatever skin was visible. Jake’s entire body exploded with energy and sent the Sword Saint flying back, blocking with his blade as the now middle-aged man looked up with surprise. The Sword Saint had barely stabilized himself in the air when an arrow hit him in the shoulder, sending him spinning through the air.

Jake stood there, looking down as his entire body burned. The bow and arrow he was nocking glowing with arcane energy as remnants of it left his body and fused with his weapon. The fissures of arcane energy emanated arcane-infused stamina as it was contained close to his skin instead of simply flowing away. The rain hit the shield and slid down it without having the slightest effect.

Because while the Sword Saint could transform and reveal far more power and tricks than expected… Jake also had a bloodline with a pertinacity to refuse to lose and push him further beyond what should be possible.

Both men stared down at each other as the third round began, Jake barely taking notice of the notification.

*Skill Upgraded*: [Arcane Limit Shatter (Ancient)] --> [Arcane Awakening (Legendary)]