"Something's coming!" Nick shouted and immediately jumped away from the cliff.
The hearts of all three of Nick's teammates nearly jumped into their throats as Nick's loud shout broke through the silence.
"They already know we're here, but they don't know that we know!" Nick shouted urgently as he landed on the ground.
"Shut the fuck up!" Irwin shouted aggressively. "You're blowing our-"
"We can't run!" Nick shouted back. "Most likely, they are too fast! Follow me!"
Carl looked at Nick with narrowed eyes.
Did Nick go insane?
Did the Forbidden Zone have some kind of effect on someone's mentality?
BANG!
Nick punched the ground with all of his power, and a huge crater appeared.
The eyes of the team widened in shock.
That must have echoed throughout the surrounding kilometer!
BANG!
Nick punched the bottom of the crater just half a second later, creating a hole that was over five meters deep.
"Follow my lead or die!" Nick shouted.
And then, all the debris Nick had thrown into the air by punching the ground fell back down on top of him.
A lot of the debris was scattered around the outside, but there was still plenty of debris left to bury the bottom two meters of the hole.
Naturally, Nick immediately went to the ground and lay there, completely flat.
A normal human would have been bludgeoned to death by the falling rocks and sand, but something like this couldn't hurt a Veteran.
At that moment, Carl's mind was going wild.
He believed that Nick went insane.
However, he also remembered the trust Hera had put in Nick.
Additionally, Carl remembered that Nick had allegedly survived an ambush of ten Extractors.
Carl wasn't sure if he believed something like that.
How could one survive when ten similarly powerful Extractors combined their powers to kill one?
Sure, one might be able to kill two enemies, but then, eight attacks would hit them at the same time, and one couldn't possibly survive that.
Carl was conflicted.
However, as an experienced leader, he quickly and decisively came to a decision.
"Do what he says!" he ordered.
The next instant, an earthen shield appeared in front of Carl, and he jumped into a dune of dust and stone.
Surprisingly, it didn't get destroyed, and it looked like Carl slipped into it like he was part of the dune.
Irwin was furious at Nick, but his leader had given him an order, and he complied.
A light appeared around Irwin, and he became blurry as he bent down to lay on the ground.
Mark had already vanished.
The three of them were extremely experienced, and all of them had ways to stay hidden.
Silence.
The area seemed completely empty.
There was just debris scattered around, which wasn't unusual since this was how the entire world looked.
Deep underground, Nick didn't dare to move.
His ability had activated again, which meant that nobody was currently perceiving him.
At this moment, Nick hoped that his ability wouldn't deactivate.
If it did, he would die.
Several seconds passed.
Tap.
Nick felt a very light vibration coming from above him.
Something or someone must have stepped on the ground on top of him.
Silence.
Tap. Tap.
Nick felt two more vibrations.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
More vibrations.
It was like several feet were walking over the ground.
Nick didn't dare to move.
Silence.
A couple more taps.
"No, please! Spare me! I'll tell you everything!"
Nick's heart rate increased as he heard Mark screaming and talking.
Whatever was up there found Mark.
Silence.
"I don't know what you want! Can't you just tell me, please?!" Mark nervously shouted.
Silence.
"I don't know what you're trying to say!"
Nick didn't dare to move.
"Fine! Fine! I'll tell you!" Mark shouted. "But please, let me live, okay?"
Nick didn't move.
"Okay! Yes, I'm here with a friend! Please, take him instead of me, okay?"
Nick felt a rush of fear and hatred going through him.
One friend?
This fucker was selling him out to save his two friends!
"He's there! He's the one that you saw earlier! He burrowed into the ground there!"
At that moment, Nick's ability began to fluctuate.
It was switching between active and inactive rapidly!
Nick knew what this meant!
Over the years, Nick had experienced this sensation before.
This happened whenever someone believed that they knew where Nick was and were right.
For example, if Julian told Jenny that Nick was working with the Talker, Nick's ability would fluctuate.
That was because Jenny knew where Nick was but wasn't technically sensing him.
The important part was that she believed she knew where Nick was and was actually right.
If Julian told Jenny that Nick was not in the building while he actually was, Nick's ability wouldn't fluctuate.
In both cases, Jenny believed that she knew where Nick was, but only in the first case would it fluctuate.
Of course, to properly deactivate it, one needed to sense Nick.
Additionally, to make it fluctuate like that, one had to get Nick's approximate location down to a couple of meters.
Just telling someone that Nick was somewhere in Dark Dream's building wouldn't make his ability fluctuate since this was way too big of an area to properly pin his location down.
The fact that Nick's ability was fluctuating right now meant that Mark had pointed towards Nick.
At this moment, whatever was up there believed that Nick was buried below this part of the ground, and they were right.
"Please, I told you where he is. Can't you just, please, no, please!"
Mark had been pleading for his life just now before his voice suddenly became quieter and more distant.
Nick could tell that Mark was being pulled away.
Apparently, whatever was up there didn't kill Mark but kidnapped him.
Nick felt his ability fluctuating constantly.
Tap. Tap.
Two taps came from on top of Nick's location.
Nick's mind was going crazy as he desperately tried to think of a way out of this situation!
BOOOOM!
Everything around Nick exploded!