CRACK!
The left side of Ardum's head sparkled silver as Nick's spear hit him.
Nick's spear had activated Ardum's Barrier.
However, Ardum's Barrier was very different from normal Barriers.
After all, Ardum was a potential heir to the Melfion family.
The silver sparkle had been Ardum's Barrier, which had created a thin film of energy over Ardum's clothing and skin, and when the spear was close to hitting Ardum, the Barrier's shape changed.
The Barrier stretched out and angled 30° to the side.
The spear hit the angled Barrier, and its trajectory changed so that it passed by Ardum instead of hitting him.
Naturally, quite a bit of the spear's force still hit the Barrier, but it was almost negligible.
Together with the five-to-one ratio of attacking Zephyx to defensive Zephyx of the Barrier, Ardum didn't even lose 10% of his Zephyx.
Inside the alley, Nick gritted his teeth.
He hadn't expected Ardum to be first.
If any of the other two had arrived, they would have been killed, most likely.
Sadly, Ardum's Barrier was just way too advanced and powerful.
However, even though Ardum didn't take any serious damage, his fear and anger still exploded.
Just now, he had felt like he was about to die, which made him absolutely furious!
How could such a nobody cause such panic in him?!
This was one of the greatest acts of disrespect that Ardum had ever experienced!
"You're going to pay for this!" Ardum spoke through gritted teeth with pure venom.
Nick didn't answer and just pulled out a black ball from one of his pockets.
BANG!
Nick threw the ball onto the ground in front of him, and a huge cloud of smoke filled the alleyway.
Ardum snorted.
The next moment, a silver flicker appeared in front of Ardum's eyes, and some kind of display appeared.
In Ardum's vision, the colors changed, but the smoke also seemingly vanished.
Naturally, such an expensive Barrier had more than a few utility effects.
Right now, Ardum could see how Nick ran into one of the buildings at the side.
Ardum aggressively shot forward.
BANG!
Ardum punched through the door of the building that Nick had just entered, and he quickly charged down one of the hallways.
Sadly, this one led into an empty room.
SHING!
The display in front of Ardum's eyes changed.
The colors became subdued, but there were several bright specks floating in the air.
These bright specks were particles that created human scent.
This meant that Ardum could essentially see Nick's smell with his eyes.
The particles were dispersing, but they were still far more concentrated in some spots than in others.
Naturally, this meant that Nick had been there.
Ardum rapidly charged forward again, following the trail of scent that Nick had left behind.
Eventually, Ardum reached another room.
The trail ended in front of a hole in the floor.
Ardum narrowed his eyes.
Did Nick jump into the sewers?
CRK!
Suddenly, an arm shot out of the hole and grabbed Ardum's ankle!
ZZZZZT!
But the next moment, a spark of lightning appeared around Ardum's ankle after it sparkled with a silver color.
The arm started to smoke and rapidly retreated back into the hole.
Obviously, such an obvious weakness as getting grabbed was something that the Barrier could deal with as well.
BOOOOM!
Suddenly, the floor below Ardum exploded as a foot kicked through it.
Ardum was flung forward, and his Barrier sparkled again.
'You want to throw me into the sewers?!' Ardum thought with absolute fury.
In the air, Ardum turned to Nick's foot and threw a scalpel at it.
DING!
Luckily, he missed.
The next moment, Ardum landed on the other side of the hole.
CRACK!
A blade shot through the floor and cut to the side.
CRK!
The plate Ardum was standing on collapsed, but he managed to jump to the side.
DING!
One of Ardum's knives hit the blade and bounced off.
The blade vanished.
BANG!
And reappeared at the edge of the room.
Then, it rapidly moved along the outside of the room.
Ardum gritted his teeth and threw his remaining tools at the flooring beside the blade.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The three tools punched through the floor.
SPLASH! SPLASH!
Two distant sounds of splashing appeared.
'Did I hit?' Ardum thought with furrowed brows.
Yet, the blade kept going around the room at incredible speeds.
Ardum focused on conjuring more tools.
Sadly, conjuring tools took some time.
Over the next couple of seconds, Ardum launched several tools at the spot where Nick should be, but he had no idea if he actually hit him or not.
When the room became too unstable, Ardum jumped to one of the walls and punched through it, keeping himself above the floor.
The floor began to shake, and the blade vanished.
While Ardum held himself up on the wall with his left hand, his right hand was ready to throw another three scalpels.
As soon as the floor fell down, Ardum would throw them at Nick!
BOOOM!
Yet, instead of falling, the floor suddenly shot upwards!
Ardum's eyes widened.
His entire vision was occupied by the floor of the room that was coming closer and closer.
Ardum's Barrier activated when the metal floor touched him, and a silver light appeared.
Behind the floor, Nick's eyes sparkled as the silver light of Ardum's Barrier shone through some of the holes in the floor.
Since the floor had already risen by a lot, Nick grabbed one of the walls of the room with his hands and kicked the floor in the direction of the silver light.
BANG!
The entire floor bent, and Ardum's eyes widened as it shot towards him.
CRACK!
The floor buried into the walls and ceiling in several places, getting stuck in them.
At that moment, Ardum gritted his teeth and also kicked the floor.
BANG!
The floor bent in more places, and Nick could see the spot that Ardum had just kicked from the other side.
BANG!
An extremely powerful impact bent the floor again, and Ardum's Barrier shone again.
This kick had just consumed nearly 3% of Ardum's Zephyx!
With the ceiling above it and the wall behind it, Ardum's Barrier couldn't redirect the force of the strike, which meant that it was forced to block it directly.
BANG!
Ardum kicked forward again, bending more of the floor.
BANG! BANG!
Yet, more powerful attacks came from the other side of the floor, using up more of Ardum's Zephyx.
Worst of all, Ardum couldn't tell where Nick was!
He knew that Nick was somewhere behind the floor, but he didn't know where!