Two days after he had met the governor, Nick went into the Containment Unit of their new Specter on the third floor.
By now, it should have recovered.
Nick opened the door and saw the Specter standing in the middle of the room, its eyes turned to look at Nick.
Seeing a 2.5-meter-tall guy with spider legs and pure black eyes looking at one from the middle of a room was quite scary.
Even Nick was slightly creeped out.
But that was about it.
Nick wasn't afraid of the Specter since he knew that he could just punch its head off if need be.
The fact that the Specter didn't immediately attack Nick showed that it was intelligent to some degree.
Specters that had human shapes were often quite intelligent, which meant that it was often possible to reason with them.
Sadly, that wasn't always the case.
The Bleeding Lady was a good example of that.
"Can you understand what I'm saying?" Nick asked.
Silence.
The Specter just looked at Nick.
Then, its mouth opened wide, revealing a deep and dark void.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
A terrifying scream came out of the mouth, and Nick's face scrunched up in discomfort.
A bit later, the mouth of the Specter closed again, and it just looked at Nick.
"I'm taking that as a yes," Nick said casually, rubbing his right ear. "To make things easier, I would prefer if you could just communicate with your spider legs or whatever those are."
"Scratch on the floor with one of your left legs if you want to give a positive answer like yes, a sign of agreement, or something similar. Scratch with-"
Scratch!
One of the Specter's right legs scratched on the ground, and Nick raised an eyebrow.
"That was your right leg. I assume you do-"
Scratch!
It scratched again with its right leg, and Nick furrowed his brows.
"Okay, seems like-"
Scratch!
This time, it was a left leg.
"Could you stop for-"
Scratch!
Right leg.
"Stop it, or I-"
Scratch! Scratch! Scratch!
Nick glared at the Specter as it kept scratching the ground with its spider legs in an alternating pattern while it kept looking into Nick's eyes.
Nick just watched the Specter for a while.
About ten seconds later, it stopped.
"Alright, the hard-"
Scratch! Scratch!
Nick narrowed his eyes.
A moment later, Nick turned around and left the Containment Unit.
The Specter stopped scratching the ground and just aimlessly looked forward.
About a minute later, the door opened again, and Nick entered once more.
This time, he brought something with him.
It was a bucket and quite a big one at that.
This bucket was completely black, almost a meter tall, and nearly half a meter wide.
As soon as Nick entered, the Specter started to scratch the ground again.
After putting the bucket down, Nick started to walk towards the Specter.
SHING!
In an instant, Nick exploded forward, and the four spider legs on the left side of the Specter were cut off.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"
The Specter opened its mouth again, and the terrifying screech returned.
At the same time, several strands of black silk shot out of its mouth, right towards Nick.
BANG!
Nick just kicked the Specter and sidestepped the silk.
BANG!
The Specter's back hit the wall with a lot of force.
SHING!
The next instant, all the spider legs on the Specter's other side were cut off.
"AAAAHH-"
BANG!
Nick rammed the Specter against the wall again as he grabbed its neck and squeezed, shutting off its scream.
"Listen here," Nick said in a deep voice.
"We can do this the easy or the hard way."
"Today, you're going to see what happens if we do this the hard way."
CRRRKSH!
Nick grabbed one of the Specter's arms and tore it out of the body.
Surprisingly, the Specter had stopped attacking Nick.
However, that actually made sense.
The Specter had realized that it couldn't win against Nick, and continuing to attack him might provoke Nick into actually killing him.
The most optimal way to stay alive was to not resist.
Nick tore the other arm and both legs off the Specter before throwing the torso and head into the corner.
Then, the two of them just looked at each other for a while.
"I don't know if you know what Manufacturers or Extractors are since you were outside the city," Nick said, "but we are not necessarily enemies."
"We want Zephyx, and you produce Zephyx if you become more powerful. Every Specter has its own way to become stronger, and we are interested in that."
"You becoming more powerful is also what we want," Nick added.
The next moment, Nick gathered the cut-off limbs like they were loose pieces of metal and held them in his arms.
"But if you are not cooperative, we can get our Zephyx also in this way," Nick said.
And then, he dumped all the limbs into the bucket.
SSSSSSSSSS!
A sound similar to tens of saws activating came out of the bucket, and the limbs that were halfway sticking out of the bucket started to shake before seemingly shrinking and falling into the bucket.
Nick looked into the Specter's eyes.
After about a minute, the limbs completely vanished, and the bucket became quiet again.
Nick took hold of the bucket and walked towards the door.
"Next time, I would like to have a normal conversation with you. If you're uncooperative, I will do the same thing again."
Nick slowly opened the door and turned to look at the Specter.
"You should be good to go in another two days. See you then."
Nick stepped out of the Containment Unit and closed the door.
The Specter just kept looking at the employee entrance.
Silence.
Then, it slowly opened its mouth again.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!"
And its mouth closed again.
Silence.
No Specter liked it when its limbs were removed.
Specters wanted to grow more powerful and survive.
Losing all one's limbs weakened one's defense, making it harder to survive.
Sadly, there wasn't much the Specter could do.