Chapter 37: Luck

The old man was attacking Mark relentlessly, and Mark was guarding perfectly against the old man's attacks! The old man knew that at this rate, he would not be able to break through Mark's defenses since Mark was perfect at blocking and defending! The old man had to admit that he was not as physically strong as Mark, and he knew that he would have to change his strategy if he wanted to win this fight!

That was perfectly fine with him, though!

He never intended to win against Mark with only brute strength! His true power was in something else!

Mark suddenly stopped defending as he noticed the old man's stance loosening, and Mark's hands blurred as five strikes landed!!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

[Critical Strike!!]

Boom!

There was a massive distortion of wind that echoed out from the man's fist as he sent a punch right back at Mark! Their two fists collided in the middle, and Mark was shocked when the man's hit canceled out his own! The old man clenched his fists at his side and went into a new fighting stance as waves began to echo out from his body! Mark thought that they were waves of wind, but he was wrong! They weren't from the wind at all. They were from sound!

The man suddenly disappeared faster than before and appeared in front of Mark with his arm drawn back, and Mark put up his hands to defend himself!

Ka-Boom!

The ground under Mark's feet couldn't even withstand the force of the hit, and Mark was sent crashing through the floor and into the room below! The old man propelled himself down to continue attacking, but he was immediately grabbed by Mark and thrown into the wall with a shout!

"Aarghh!!"

Smash!

The old man sent a wave of sound out from his back, and his momentum was slowed before he could crash into the wall! The wall behind him cracked and splintered, but there was barely any damage done to him as he landed on the floor before he could hit the wall!

Once Mark saw this, Mark immediately began to analyze what sort of power the old man could have. At first, Mark thought that it was a wind-based ability from the God of Wind, but that would not make sense since Mark hadn't felt a single gust of wind since the man started using his ability! Even when they clashed fists and the man used that strange power to cancel out Mark's critical hit, Mark didn't feel any wind! So he was sure that the man's power was not related to the wind at all!

Then what could it be related to? Was it some sort of wave? Maybe he would use pressure waves to cancel out my hits? If that's the case, then it will be a lot more troublesome! Pressure waves can't be anticipated as quickly as wind! I wouldn't know when he's using it and when he isn't!

Mark's thoughts were running wild as he wondered how he could fight against a power like that. He would have to break through the wave defense somehow, but the most important thing right now was finding out what the hell this man was doing.

"Why the fuck are you attacking me? I don't think I've ever met you before, so there's definitely no reason for us to even fight. I would remember someone like you if we ran into each other in the street or if we had a falling out big enough to warrant this sort of attack. You've definitely never met me before today, so what could you be trying to gain from attacking me, you old bastard?"

Mark never let down his guard as he said all this, and the old man only grinned and went into his fighting position to prepare himself to attack again!

"You should have more respect for your elders, boy!"

"I only respect sensible people. And from the little I know about you now, it's obvious that you're fucking crazy. You're old enough to be someone's grandfather, and you're still acting like a battle junkie? Aren't you ashamed of yourself!?"

The old man only laughed as he blasted off the floor and attacked Mark again! Mark was not far from the truth with his deductions about the man's power! The old man was one of the superhumans blessed by the God of Music, and he had the ability to release sound waves from any point in his body to make his attacks more brutal and multiply the damage done! Right now, the old man was using his blessing to amplify his punching ability as well as to nullify damage! It was a simple power, but it was extremely effective!

As long as the old man knew where the attack was going to come from, he could use sound waves to reduce the impact of the attack and receive almost no damage!

'I'm sure he can't cancel out a full attack from me. One punch with everything I have should be able to end this!'

Mark decided that he was going to put all of his power into one strike and break through the man's defense with it! As far as Mark knew, the man was using some sort of pressure wave to protect himself! But the old man could only apply so much pressure before it loses out against a much stronger force!

Mark sent mana straight to his arm, and he felt his power increase as the mana added extra strength and stamina points!

[Strength +70]

[Stamina +58]

The old man rushed towards Mark and sent a brutal fist forward, but he was shocked when he didn't see Mark move at all! Instead of dodging, Mark stepped forward and sent his punch at the old man!

Woosh!

The old man's eyes widened as he didn't even see the punch as it was moving! In only a split second, thousands of scenarios ran through the man's mind! And in all of those scenarios, there was none of them where he was able to tank that punch without serious injury! The old man immediately abandoned his own hit and raised his hand in an X as he applied massive amounts of his mana to his forearm!

TOOONNN!!!

An intense sound wave echoed out from his entire body and intercepted Mark's blow, but the man was stunned as the sound wave seemed to do nothing as the punch sped through the defense and hit him!

[Critical Strike!!]

BAM!!!

After hitting the man more than ten consecutive times, the chances of hitting a critical strike were over ten percent, amd Mark's luck was so great that he was able to tear through that limit and produce another critical strike immediately!

The Superhuman System didn't add stats like Luck or charisma to the manipulatable stats because those stats were not meant to be manipulated by the user! Those stats were too powerful, and even the system couldn't manipulate them however it wanted! They were stats that the user was born with, and only your ability and willingness to improve yourself would give you more luck or charisma! But Mark was already extremely lucky even without adding any points to his luck! Mark was able to survive against an Armageddon, beat the Armageddon, and then he managed to fight against Anima for four years without losing his life! That was not something that anyone could do without having an insane amount of luck!

So getting something like the critical strike back to back without having a hundred percent chance was possible for him!