From my perspective i feel like it lacks flair compared to other arcs
Well, to be fair, before now he was still kinda unchallenged in the sense of being a hunter (in-game) going after, low-level players before Sofia showed up and threw the glove down. Now, the playing field's leveled, he must now grow, which is what this arc is about. He also needs to understand his flaws and over come them in order to do so, thus the reason why earlier he was forced to go in bare-fisted. Contrary to popular belief - and curtesy to Mythbusters for solving this - you CAN teach an old dog new tricks, it's just much harder to do and takes more time than it would with someone younger.
Also, Sofia's going though an arc of her own, so there's several things going on that caused the pace to slow down, but I'm remaining hopeful that when it's grand final time, it'll all pay off (at least it better).