Cipher and the undead Marcus stood apart.

Cipher held his sword steadily, making calculations. He didn't need to use demonic qi now, but he was going to use Phantom Step to overcome the difference in speed. Though it might not be enough considering how fast a space user moved.

He decided to add Assassinate on top of Phantom Step as it also had a five-meter burst speed. Although it wasn't as fast as Phantom Step, being just E-rank, it was useful as it had its own damage boost. It was actually going to be his greatest damage dealer.

Since it scaled with E stats, he calculated from 190 raw damage, times 3 since he was using a sword - 570 base damage. Times 4 from Aura, that's 2280 damage, then times 6 from Assassinate. The extra three times was from the additional dark elemental damage, bringing the total damage with Assassinate to 13,680.

As for the remaining 510 damage, times 3 is 1530, times 4 from Aura is 6120. That plus the Assassinate damage brings his total damage to 19,800. The health of a peak A-rank should be about 32,000, so he just needed about 3 solid hits after accounting for defense and all that other stuff.

At that moment, he sensed Marcus behind him with his ESP and instantly used Phantom Step, appearing behind him and striking. The strike just managed to lightly graze him before he disappeared.

Cipher remained still.

[What are you doing?] the Heavenly Demon asked.

"You mean why I'm staying still?" Cipher asked. "I figured running after a space user is just a waste of stamina. It's best to wait for him to attack, then counterattack," he explained.

[It's a solid plan, but you won't catch him that way] she said.

At that time, Marcus attacked and Cipher managed to dodge, but his counterattack failed right away as Marcus disappeared.

"Why not?" he asked.

[How do you detect when he appears?] she asked.

"Through ESP," he explained.

[The way I see it. ESP is no different than having an extra pair of eyes at the back of your head, allowing you to see everything around you. But in battle, it's not just eyes that matter. In fact, eyes are the most useless. You need to feel your other senses more - not just what you see. You always know where he is when he appears, but you need to know where he will be before he appears.]

"Where he will be?" he asked.

[That's right. It's called battle instinct. You need to be aware of the flow of battle, not just the location of the enemy. With this, you can predict how they will attack and the best way to counterattack] she explained.

"And how do I learn this?" he asked.

[Through thousands of life and death battles] she explained as Cipher blocked an attack from Marcus, getting pushed back a few meters.

He wore a blank expression. "Thousands? How am I supposed to do that?" he asked.

[Don't worry. For you, you don't have to do that] she said.

"Really?" he asked as he sidestepped a space blade and slashed at Marcus.

[Yeah. From what I've seen, your system allows you to instantly learn something completely as long as you accomplish it once] she said. [Why don't you try predicting an attack for once or landing a perfect counter?] she said.

…

Cipher steadied himself.

He attacks, I dodge right and hit his right shoulder, causing him to go for a right…

Marcus teleported to his left and struck him in the ribs. Cipher stumbled back, gritting his teeth.

Fail, he thought.

He tried again.

He teleported. So he's going to appear close to me to attack. Maybe the left…

A space blade sliced across his back. Marcus had opted for a ranged attack instead.

[Stop guessing] the Heavenly Demon said. [You're treating this like a coin flip. Use all the variables around you to lock down his options.]

"What variables?" Cipher asked, parrying another strike.

[His mana fluctuations, the spatial distortions before he teleports, his body language, the rhythm of his attacks. Everything tells a story if you're willing to listen.]

Cipher blocked another attack. Could he even trust the body language of an undead?

He mostly attacks high, so I need to…no, wait. He sometimes feints high when his weight shifts left. So if his weight is shifting...

Marcus appeared behind him, a space blade aimed at his neck. Cipher ducked, but was unable to counterattack as Marcus was gone again.

[Better. You're thinking now. But you're still too slow.]

As he fought, Cipher also realized he had made some miscalculations. Although a peak A-rank did indeed have 32,000 HP, this didn't apply to undead as they had 0 HP. Meaning unless he completely destroyed Marcus - which he didn't want to do - then he wouldn't win.

He needed to find a way to hold him down.

The best way was to have him run out of mana so that he couldn't teleport anymore. But even after that, there was the issue with stamina. Despite being a mage, Marcus was actually quite strong, with most of his physical stats being at C-rank. Having these stats as well as infinite stamina from being undead, it wasn't going to be easy.

He's going to try low. I will block, and he will immediately vanish to my back - there, I got it.

Cipher swung his sword low, easily blocking the attack. He then quickly turned around just as Marcus teleported away, but Marcus didn't teleport behind him like he had predicted, instead teleporting to the right.

A while later, the Heavenly demon spoke up once again.

[You're relying too much on your eyes and by extension ESP.]

"How else am I supposed to sense him?" Cipher asked.

[Your ESP and eyes show you where things are. But in a real fight, by the time you see something, it's already too late. You need to feel the battle - the shift in air pressure when he moves, the distortion in mana when he prepares to teleport, the killing intent before he strikes. All of it.]

Cipher blocked another strike, his breathing growing heavier. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to sense what the Heavenly Demon was talking about, but immediately had to open them as Marcus attacked again.

[You're trying too hard. You can't learn to listen to a whisper in the middle of a scream.]

Minutes passed. Cipher's body was accumulating small cuts and bruises. Each failed prediction, each missed counter, each moment of hesitation added up. His stamina was draining faster than Marcus's mana.

I'm running out of time, Cipher thought. He wondered if he should just give up on learning and handle Marcus first. After all, the longer he waited, the worse the situation got back at HQ...

He blocked another attack, his arms trembling slightly. Marcus teleported again, and Cipher's ESP immediately tracked him appearing to the right. But as he turned to counter, Marcus was already gone, striking from the left instead.

[You're still watching him move. Stop watching. Start feeling.]

Cipher gritted his teeth. His ESP was feeding him constant information. It was from it that he could derive other variables like his movement speed and the distance between them. But since he was getting all this info from a skill, it wasn't helping him improve.

He took a deep breath.

Then he toggled off his ESP and closed his eyes.

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