Combat Precognition, Half of It

"Clang--"

The long sword, subjected to force, rose high into the air.

Shen Heng lowered his eyes slightly.

Sure enough, even if one could roughly understand the opponent's attack plan and respond accordingly.

However, as long as the speed and power reach a certain difference.

The opponent could neutralize your anticipated advantage simply by reacting on the spot, but...

Shen Heng took several steps back, holding his knife and staring at Wang Hai.

When the strengths are roughly equal, being able to know what the other is thinking and respond accordingly is already a significant advantage.

Shen Heng and Wang Hai exchanged blows several more times before retreating.

The fighting has ceased.

The crowd gathered around again.

"How was it, Captain? Was it tough for you?" Wei Leyang asked with a smile.

Wang Hai nodded slightly, his gaze turning to Shen Heng, "Your new ability is that you can know other people's attack routes?"

Shen Heng pondered for a moment, then said, "Strictly speaking, it should be understood as hearing what the other person is thinking."

"Hear what the other person is thinking?" The group was somewhat puzzled.

"Well, to put it simply, I can hear your thoughts during battle, and then I can respond accordingly," Shen Heng replied.

As expected... Wang Hai and Wei Leyang nodded slightly.

Han Ling and Le Gu Nan's eyes widened slightly involuntarily.

"Huh? No, isn't this the same as battle prediction?"

"No, it's still not as good as battle prediction, at most it's half a thing," Shen Heng replied.

"Half? Why?" Han Ling asked.

"Because all I know is your general idea," Shen Heng explained.

"If you want to avoid it, that's fine, but if you want to engage in a direct confrontation, we'll only know your specific attack route after you make your move."

"Furthermore, for people like us who are frequently in combat, many attacks or defenses don't actually require much conscious thought, so in battle, we mostly rely on our own combat reflexes."

"Even so, it's still enough to give you a huge advantage when the strengths are roughly equal." Wang Hai crossed his arms, recalling the battle just now.

If he hadn't used a speed exceeding Shen Heng's, he too would have been rendered powerless to attack because his battle intentions had been figured out.

Of course, because of his abilities, he wasn't too worried about being at a disadvantage after his attack intentions were figured out.

However, if Shen Heng manages to break through his defenses in the future, he will be in a very dangerous situation.

If Shen Heng wanted to break through his defenses...

Further development of the Vibrating Blade?

As if he had thought of something, Wang Hai stared intently at Shen Heng.

Shen Heng possesses 'Flow Overclock' in speed and strength, and 'Vibrating Blade ' in attack; the only thing he seems to lack now is defense...

Shen Heng, who was suppressing his thoughts and listening to his captain's inner monologue, had no idea what his captain was thinking. He nodded slightly.

"Yes, it does have advantages, but it's not as good as direct combat prediction."

"This is already good enough. If it were true battle prediction, then unless you completely overwhelm the opponent, a normal person would almost never be able to beat that kind of person," Le Gu Nan said softly.

Shen Heng looked at Le Gu Nan and smiled, "Well, I was just analyzing the pros and cons of my abilities. Besides what I just mentioned, there are actually two other issues with my abilities."

"Which two questions?" Han Ling asked.

Shen Heng said, "One is what I just mentioned: it's not very useful when facing enemies whose strength is far inferior to ours."

"Another reason is that it's not very useful against opponents who lack intelligence or don't know how to fight."

Wei Leyang nodded as if he understood.

"The first type, even if they know his intentions, they can't fight back; the second type, when they start fighting, they'll probably only have two thoughts on their mind: 'Should I take him down?!'"

Everyone smiled faintly.

"Do you have any way to stop either of your two attacks?" Wang Hai asked Shen Heng.

Shen Heng pondered for a moment before replying:

"Both of these are rather special cases, and cannot be completely blocked."

"However, when it comes to emotional manipulation, it's possible to use Origin Power to protect the brain, much like blocking Sound Wave Attack, to minimize the impact on oneself."

"But listening to one's innermost thoughts is more difficult, unless you can control your mind from wandering."

"Huh? Control your thoughts and don't let them wander?" Han Ling asked, her eyes wide with confusion.

What is this all about? She's never heard of it before.

Not only her, but Wang Hai and Wei Leyang also didn't know much about it.

Looking at everyone, Le Gu Nan explained softly, "When the brain is thinking, it transmits electrical signals, but the signals are extremely weak. Under normal circumstances, let alone analyzing them, it's very difficult to even detect them."

"Huh? There's such a thing?" Han Ling exclaimed in surprise. "Wouldn't that mean I definitely wouldn't be able to control myself?"

Leaving aside what the electrical signals generated by the brain's thinking are, how do you control those intangible electrical signals to prevent them from spreading outwards?

Han Ling felt it was simpler to control the flow of a single drop of blood in her body to flow upwards.

"We don't know how many kinds of Calamity Beast there are in the Ruins Realm. It wouldn't be surprising if Calamity Beast that can hide their thoughts appeared in the future," Shen Heng said calmly.

"That's true!" Han Ling nodded slightly.

"Let's test your ability level this time." Wang Hai took out the ability level test board made from the shell of the Lizard-Shelled Turtle that Shen Heng had seen twice.

Shen Heng took the test board.

He then channeled the Origin Power within his body into the test panel.

Soon, a faint blue light appeared on the test panel.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

These correspond to the seven levels of abilities in FS.

Blue is the third to last, S, A, B, which corresponds to B-Class ability.

"B-Class, Emotion Manipulation, listening to inner voices...?" Wang Hai looked at the color displayed on the test board, "It's neither strong nor weak."

Everyone nodded.

Neither of these abilities actually seems to be very strong.

The ability to Emotion Manipulation is very strong, but its effectiveness is greatly reduced in battles of the same level where the opponent is on the defensive.

Furthermore, since Emotion Manipulation doesn't have direct destructive power, this ability can only be considered neither strong nor weak.

Listening to one's true feelings doesn't inherently have any direct harmful effect.

If we take this ability out of the box, getting C-Class would be considered pretty good.

However, when Shen Heng applied it in battle, it became half of a battle prediction, and its strength increased dramatically.

All things considered, Shen Heng's new ability is indeed neither weak nor strong among B-Class abilities.

Suddenly, Han Ling seemed to remember something and looked at Shen Heng.

"By the way, Shen Heng, you just said your ability is to hear what the other person is thinking. Does this only work in battle?"

Upon hearing this, everyone seemed to realize something and turned their gazes to Shen Heng.