Analyzing your opponent

Typically, Mark wasn't the one to charge but let his opponents come at him. But he wanted to test Rubes' reflexes, as he already knew his strength was above average.

Mark wasn't afraid of giving him the upper hand as he already had an estimation of his capabilities. So those past few days, he kept analyzing the Energy Aura of others to see if he could identify other details through it.

He wasn't sure, but it seemed that the aura of someone didn't only was a sign of what Realm they may be more compatible with and could show their stats. He noticed many people had grey auras, although most of the people in the organization had over two colors on their auras.

People with intense green aura dented to have a great defense, red aura people were more fierce, while yellow showed they were agile people. But that was only if the color was their dominant color, which wasn't easy to identify on most people as most times the colors of their aura were well mixed.

As for the other colors, Mark wasn't confident what they could be appointed to, but he was almost sure that blue was for mental power or anything that his <Mind> Stat would affect too.

With Rubes, Mark detected that his aura was a mix of yellow, green, and blue. Since yellow and blue make more green when merged, since the two were well balanced to mix with each other, Mark thought that Rube's aura was only green the first time he analyzed it.

Mark found it strange that there was almost no red color in his aura, which was against his understanding of the auras.

'If only I could get that <Power Aura Appraise>, but unfortunately, it is a C-Rank Skill. '

Mark had already checked C-Rank Skills even if he was far from being able to get one, but one could dream. He was already saving his <Truck Points> for them as the cheapest cost ten, twice the price of the most expensive D-Rank Skill.

It didn't take him long to reach Rubes, and he tried an open palm attack. But the latter sidestepped quickly, and Mark could hear a *tsk* sound leaving his lips.

Mark could tell from this small encounter Rubes had more incredible speed than him, and he wasn't taking this seriously. But Mark didn't let that affect him, knowing he had to keep a calm mind in battle. After all, he had used that trick on Sam in the past.

Mark continued trying to attack Rubes, while the latter kept avoiding each attack with ease. He even yawned after a few attacks, trying to anger Mark.

But that had the opposite effect; instead, Mark was getting more focused, trying to analyze Rubes' moves and find a weakness using his <Exploit> Skill. This was the first time he had seen Rubes fighting, so he was totally unfamiliar with his style, and since the latter wasn't fighting back but just avoiding, it made it difficult for Mark's Skill to help him.

Still, Mark didn't count on his Skill only as in those past weeks, he had built up some personal combat experience. Not even at his sparing matches with Sam and the other people of the Combat Department but also his visits to the Dungeons, as there he had to fight to the death.

The <Slimes>, fortunately, weren't the most agile opponents, except for the Air kind, of which he actually defeated one but earned nothing special from doing so. But because of their low agility, it made them the perfect targets to test things out. This was why he also had increased his mastering over the combo he used against Sam, as otherwise, his success rate would be even lower during combat.

Because of that experience, Mark started noticing some details of how Rubes behaved. For example, even if his moves seemed natural and did not have much on them, he could tell that they weren't that simple.

How he moved his feet resembled some footwork of his Trucko, but at the same time, they were far from it. From that, Mark could understand that Rubes used some kind of Martial Art like footwork, which made it look like he was just sidestepping.

The difference between the two was very slight, but the two had a major one. Sidestepping was a way of avoiding an attack but had no chance of countering it, while Mark could tell what Rubes was using had this capability, but the latter wasn't taking those chances.

That reminded him of what he did with Sam at their first match, and he was on guard even more.

But because he started noticing those details of his movements not being so random, Mark pulled together more about how to counter them. Even if it was a defensive technique, that didn't mean that there wasn't anything to stop it from using it.

Mark's moves became slower, making it seem to others that he was getting tired. But in reality, he slowed down because he split his focus on making simulations about different approaches and their potential outcomes. He had found he could do this by combining his <Beginner Hacker> and his new <Exploit> Skill.

But when Rubes noticed it, he took it as a sign that it was about time to finish this battle. So he started with a punch aimed at Mark's stomach, at the same point he hit him last time. But this time, Mark avoided him, as he hadn't split his focus enough to not be ready for an attack like that.

Rubes continues trying to punch Mark, and they exchange roles, with Rubes attacking and Mark avoiding this time. Mark had a more challenging time avoiding those attacks than Rubes seemed to have to avoid his, but he hadn't let one make an impact yet, although there were some close calls.

Each attack became faster than the last one, and Mark could tell it contained more force, even if he didn't let it hit him.

'It seems he is getting serious. '

Mark continued analyzing each move of Rubes and trying to simulate the best counter he could do to end this battle. Fortunately, now that Rubes fought back, he gave more data to make this counter possible, but it wasn't easy to focus on those simulations while fighting him.

Not even two minutes had passed since they started fighting, but it felt a lot longer to Mark. His SP consumption was much higher than usual because he used the two Skills to find a way to retaliate. He was confident that he had little time left. If his SP got too low, his movement would get slower and get hit for sure, as he could barely avoid those attacks.

At that point, as Mark avoided one attack, he noticed another coming from the edge of his vision. Even if he noticed it, though, he wasn't fast enough to avoid it, as Rubes had concealed it well sufficient for Mark not to notice it until it was too late.

As Rubes' hand hit Mark on his right side, something peculiar happened—- Rubes jumped back.

As Rubes landed after his small jump, he had his hand over his side as he spat some blood. His hand was actually at the same point that he hit Mark.

"What trick is this? "Rubes said as he cleaned some of the blood still in his mouth.

Mark strengthened himself, as he also cleared some of the blood, as he also spat some blood. That was the counter he had prepared and had wanted to try for some time but never had the chance to.

Besides using his Trucki for offensive purposes, he knew it could be used for defensive too. After all, the shell created by it in his fists made them harder to be affected, as far as he didn't pass a limit, like with the special punch.

That was why he could create a blade using his Trucki, which he hadn't mastered. After all, a blade could be used for both offense and defense.

But that made him think about other ways he could use it to avoid a combination of offense and defense, and this was one of his ideas. So what he did was pretty easy, in theory, at least. He simulated the same attack he received using his Trucki and some of the force he received as he rebelled it towards where he aimed that attack.

But for this to work, there were many steps. First, he had to be able to detect that attack to rebel against it in time, meaning he had to gather his Trucki to make a 'field at the point of impact and cause it to merge with the force of the attack it moved where he wanted.

But, of course, he couldn't do it with full force unless the attack was too weak, which in this case, was far from the truth. By his calculation, he had rebelled less than a fifth of its power, but he still received 48 damage to his HP.

But Mar noticed another notification besides the damage this attack did to him.

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You dealt 8 Damage to Rubes - The Free Will

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Mark found it strange that the nickname that others used for Rubes was in his notifications, making him wonder if it wasn't that random of a nickname. That was the case, or his knowledge affected his notifications, although it would be strange if that was the case, as the people he beat before at the storehouse also had nicknames. Sam and the rest of the Combat Department didn't, though. It was just their full name and sometimes just their first name.

He was still uncertain why he got only their name in some people while in others, he got their full name, even if he had no way of knowing it, as with Sam's family name.

But Mark didn't have time to think about this anymore as he had finished his simulations. He had finished his strategy and was ready to try it.