The ground exploded into a shower of debris and dust.
BANG!
BANG!
More and more explosions occurred, and more and more debris and dust scattered.
At this moment, a humanoid figure stood in front of a collection of craters, each one about ten meters deep.
The humanoid figure was red, and many different growths were coming out of it.
However, these growths were not blood or flesh.
These growths were hard as bone and spiky.
The humanoid had half of a human face, with the other half being covered by the growths.
The single eye on the left half of its face had no glimmer of independence inside of it.
The red growths looked almost identical to corals.
It was like somebody had been infested by corals!
Scattered around the area were three more humanoids, who also were infested with corals.
All of them were looking at the craters without moving.
They waited.
There was nothing there.
BANG!
Then, the person that had destroyed the ground jumped into the distance, covering two kilometers of distance in an instant!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The other three jumped after the first person, but they were several times slower.
All of them were jumping towards the southwest.
Meanwhile, around the different craters that the humanoid had just created, the dusty clouds slowly calmed down.
Yet, a moment later, one of the dusty clouds stealthily moved into one of the craters.
BANG!
Nick appeared inside the crater, his entire body covered in sweat.
Next, Nick rapidly dug into the ground, and a second later, he was completely gone.
Buried beneath the crater, Nick was trying his best not to lose consciousness.
The attack just now had nearly consumed all of Nick's Zephyx since he had transformed into mist shortly before it hit.
When the humanoid had kicked the ground, a ton of debris and dust was scattered across the surroundings, and Nick had transformed into mist in hopes of staying hidden among the clouds of dust.
A human body would have been noticed immediately, but a bit of mist amidst clouds of dust was not nearly as noticeable.
Just like the debris, Nick had been pushed outward, and just like the clouds of dust, his misty body lingered around.
As the humanoids kept destroying the ground, more dust appeared, allowing Nick to stay hidden.
Fortunately, they had left after just a couple of seconds.
'Most likely, they thought that Mark was protecting me. They probably thought that he told them that I was here when, in reality, I ran towards the city.'
Nick gritted his teeth.
'Their opinion of him surely was high!' he thought with hatred.
Now that Nick was no longer in immediate danger, all his rage and hatred of being betrayed exploded to the surface.
'This fucker wanted to pull me down with him!'
Over a minute passed, and during that time, no sound occurred.
Everything was completely silent.
"It's gone."
Nick heard Irwin's voice.
Silence.
"Nick? Where are you?" Carl shouted next. "Whatever it was, it's gone. You can come out."
Nick narrowed his eyes as he did his best to bury the rage and hatred deep inside.
Then, he came out of the ground and looked around.
Carl quickly appeared at the side of the crater when he heard the sound of moving earth and looked at Nick.
Right now, Carl had a serious expression on his face.
"No time to waste," he said. "I don't want to stay in this location anymore. We need to leave immediately!"
Nick glared at Carl but complied.
He jumped out of the crater and saw Irwin, who was glaring at Nick.
The next moment, Carl ran towards the north.
Nick was surprised since the Forbidden Zone was to the north.
However, he quickly understood when he saw Carl stopping after just 500 meters.
Carl approached a spot between two rocks, put his hands into the ground, and lifted.
A huge part of the ground was lifted, and Nick could see that the bottom of this piece was made of metal!
It was a big lid!
Below the lid was a dark hole.
Carl quickly touched a switch on the wall, and the hole started to light up.
There were artificial lights scattered across the hole, and most likely, they also helped against the Nightmare.
After all, Carl and Irwin were from Solace, and Solace specialized in making lights that worked against the Nightmare.
Irwin jumped into the hole, and Nick jumped after him.
When the two of them were inside, Carl put the lid back over the hole from inside and followed them.
The hole turned into a tunnel a couple of meters down, and Irwin ran through the tunnel.
The tunnel could almost be described as a slide since it curved down a lot!
Nick and Carl ran after Irwin, and after some time, the tunnel became horizontal again.
After running for around two minutes or so, the tunnel curved upward, and the three of them had to run up a slope.
Eventually, Irwin pushed away another lid and jumped out.
Nick came out as well.
Behind him, Carl pressed a switch, and the tunnel turned dark again.
Lastly, he put the lid back on the hole.
"We can talk over there," Carl said, gesturing to the east.
The three of them ran towards the east, and after around three kilometers, they went to a couple of big boulders in the middle of the wasteland.
Then, they finally stopped.
Nick could approximately tell where he was.
The tunnel had led towards the east, which was the place where all the water had been.
The fact that the tunnel had curved down that far meant that it had been below the body of water, and they had come up again at the other side.
Then, they ran another three kilometers toward the east.
Right now, Nick should be about three kilometers east of the big body of water.
This meant that he was around 50 kilometers away from the city.
Quite far away from home.
The three of them took some breaths.
Then, Carl turned to Nick.
"Can you explain to me what just happened?"