Chapter 22: Difference In Strength
"What are you talking about, I visited last five months?" Jason said in confusion.
No more talents meant nothing to stock up more on, that was a serious killer to the motivation to visit Zane. With the clan's trial coming soon he wanted to leave a good impression, the sort of impression that only someone overpowered could leave.
Zane was pissed off.
Because he had his monthly spars with Jason his swordsmanship always got better, but because he hadn't visited his growth had stagnated.
Now five months of hard work only attributed to a single month's growth.
The clan head had been gone for 3 months for business and he had been left with his mother to take care of him.
That was also a reason for his anger.
"You were supposed to come once every month."
"I was busy."
Zane knew that not many people would interact with him due to his skin-color, he doubted that even the branch families wouldn't look at him in disdain. If he had met Jason now he probably wouldn't even make eye contact.
"I had to take care of someone."
Zane's eyes scanned Jason from head to toe and saw nothing unusual, he couldn't imagine where Jason would see someone to take care off, they would avoid him.
"Never mind." Zane sighed. "We need to spar."
'This kid only thinks about sparring.' Jason thought.
He was surprised to see that the mental disease hadn't caught up to Zane, in the novel it was like he had ADHD that interfered with his emotions and thoughts all the same.
"Sure. But this time I'll use a dagger." Jason said.
Zane eyed him with an amused look before going to his weapons slot, he came back with an 8-inch dagger.
He tossed it to Jason who caught it easily. "This is a special dagger, it has a 20% chance of poisoning an opponent and at the same time causing paralysis to the enemies of the wielder, but the chances lower if the user is not on equal level."
'Isn't this very expensive.'
Zane acted like a rich friend to Jason sometimes.
"I already had the one you threw at me."
"Keep it, I'll still get a new batch of throwing weapons next week. The old ones are not important anyway."
"What about if I poison you?"
"A 20 percent chance is like 20 in a hundred, the odd chances of the first few poisoning and paralyzing me are in a hundred."
Zane explained before getting into a stance, unlike the Hachiman's clan stance that was perfect for Zane he started to improvise, he didn't see it as very effective when he was fighting Jason.
Since Zane always lost against him he decided to try perfecting his own stance; a mix of the numerous stances he made combined with the Hachiman's clan fighting stance.
The sense of inferiority didn't sit well with him.
Zane also had other sparring occasional sparring partners but they couldn't hold a candle to him, after all he was known as the strongest in the world.
Jason's weapon of choice was a katana sword while Zane's was a broadsword, both were good but they still had advantages and disadvantages.
However, Jason was currently using a dagger to practice offhand.
…
Zane swung the sword done in an instant barely giving Jason time to react.
Jason dodged it fluently, like it wasn't even a problem.
Zane was supposed to be used to this, but he hadn't fought this opponent in months and while the memory remained the feeling didn't.
His attacks slowly became more aggressive, attacking from all sides and from the most unorthodox positions. In the beginning he had been on guard, but after awhile of being the sole attacker he gradually found out the goal.
Jason on the other hand would stand straight while waiting for Zane's attack, since good reaction time was needed he wanted to make sure he could always use it.
Zane swung the sword in a frenzy, making it look like a small wooden ruler rather than a broadsword. But each time his attacks were either dodged or deflected.
After attacking relentlessly for 10 minutes and not being able to land a single hit he moved backwards.
He outstretched his hands, they began to glow in a faint yellow light..
From his hands several bolts crackling with electricity flew forward.
Since magic could be manipulated into any form and only depended on the imagination of the user it took sometime to send spells.
Zane had formed several small bolts of lightning compacted with lightning magic in some seconds, if it was an ordinary hunter doing this it would take him at least ten seconds to prepare these small bolts.
The bolts compacted with lightning rushed towards Jason.
Jason moved his arm fluently, using the blunt side of the blade deflected all the bolts that were thrown at him.
Normally it would be impossible to deflect such lightning bolts without receiving a bit of a shock. However, Jason's talent in magic was at the lowest that it could probably descend to, because it was so low it also affected mana in a certain area in his surrounding and affected magic used by others.
Zane's lightning bolts were weakened severely, it allowed Jason to easily deflect them.
They bounced onto the ground forming black spots on the grass.
'Damn, I forgot about that.' Zane thought.
Although he didn't know the reason for what was happening he was used to this happening but he had forgotten due to the fact that he had not spared with Jason in five months.
Jason was like a being packed with many abilities that made him overpowered, the abilities were so powerful that the creator had to down-tune him by forbidding him from using mana.
'I feel like anytime he uses magic he tries to make me jealous.' Jason thought.
In frustration Zane charged at him with a skill.
The skill was Z-charge; it allowed the user to gather energy and release it in a burst of speed, during it's usage it raises his/her attack power
Zane swung it sideways in a blur, it looked like he was planning to end Jason in a flash.
Jason's expression turned serious as he blocked with his left hand, he was right-handed so he couldn't block with it.
Crimson liquid sprayed in the air as the broadsword cut Jason's pinky off, it should have been able to cut off the whole hand but for some reason it stopped.
His phalanges seemed to be immovable walls of reinforced steel reinforced with mana, even though he had increased his speed and attack power using Z charge it still wasn't strong enough to cut through this person's hand.
Jason frowned, the pain did not sit well with him.
It felt like he had a deep wound on his arm and anytime he moved his arm it would cause pain, it was rather painful.
Zane had been unresponsive since the blade ended up there so Jason decided to take the initiative.
His blood has already started forming a pool on the ground.
In one swift motion he raised his right hand and destroyed the broadsword with his dagger, the material shattered into pieces.
"What?!" Zane managed to mutter.
Never in his life had he seen this display of strength from Jason, since Jason always held back and never fought him seriously so he assumed that he was actually on equal footing with him.
But now, he realized that maybe Jason was out of his reach.
A/N: Add this to your collections!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone