Nick's head hit the pillar they were standing on and tumbled down.
While it was falling down, it turned into black ash.
When the Hero saw that, her eyes widened.
BANG!
Yet, just like Nick, she couldn't react in time, and Nick's blade rammed into her chest.
BANG!
The next instant, both of them jumped away from each other.
The woman was still shocked at what she had seen and tried to gain some distance, while Nick didn't have access to his sight or hearing, putting him at a severe disadvantage.
Within a second, Nick's head regrew, and he focused on his enemy.
But he didn't attack yet.
In fact, Nick was still reeling with shock about all of the revelations.
'I lost my head!' Nick thought in shock.
'She cut my head off!'
When Nick's brain had been penetrated, he had felt it.
However, his ability to think had not been compromised despite his brain essentially getting scrambled.
That was because he was a Specter.
His entire existence was concentrated on his Specter Core.
Losing his head used up a lot of his Zephyx and temporarily took away his senses, but it wasn't deadly.
When he had lost his head, Nick had felt like he had lost contact with his eyes and ears.
It had been an extremely weird and alien feeling.
Luckily, his Specter Core was at the base of his neck, and the Hero had cut off Nick's head near the middle to the top of his neck.
Yet, this wasn't the only thing Nick was shocked about.
'She's a Hero! Why is there a Hero here?!' Nick thought.
Nick's mind was going wild with theories.
It should have been impossible for Heroes to be in this contest.
Sadly, the fact that the other contestants were Heroes explained some of Nick's doubts.
For example, the fact that he hadn't seen any other contestant until now.
Heroes were much better at hiding themselves, and even with Nick's advanced senses, it wouldn't be easy to find them.
It would also explain why his current opponent had managed to hit him with such a quick and devastating hit.
She was several times stronger than Nick.
Nevertheless, this changed everything.
Nick was confident in being able to kill seven Initial Specialists, even without access to his abilities.
However, the same thing wasn't true for Heroes.
But why were Heroes here in the first place?!
Unfortunately, Nick didn't have the time to think about these things right now.
The two of them were almost 50 meters away from each other, but for a Hero, these 50 meters might as well be within arm's reach.
For a moment, the two of them looked at each other with narrowed eyes.
Naturally, the Hero was just as confused and shocked as Nick.
What was a Fanatic doing here?!
They only looked at each other for a single second, but it felt like a full minute to them.
Both of them were planning.
There were very unusual circumstances.
That was when Nick noticed something, and he had to make a split-second decision.
Nick looked deeply into the Hero's eyes.
Then, he quickly glanced to a place behind her before looking back into her eyes with intensity.
Now, the Hero had to make a split-second decision.
BOOOOOM!
The Hero dodged to the side as a bullet shot past her old location.
BANG!
The bullet hit one of the eyes on the columns and was turned into a flat sheet of metal.
Naturally, Nick noticed the Sniper and warned her about them.
A person with a red cloak materialized.
Compared to Nick and the woman, he wasn't naked, but it was also clear that the red cloak wasn't any kind of normal clothing.
This was probably part of their ability.
"Chase!"
A whisper filled with Zephyx reached Nick's ears.
The voice was female, and it was clear that the whisper had come from the black-haired woman.
Nick narrowed his eyes and charged towards the Sniper.
The Sniper jumped backward and pulled out a handgun.
Nick could see the hate-filled eyes of the attacker.
It wasn't surprising that the attacker was angry.
This was a free-for-all, and one less opponent represented a higher chance of survival.
Nobody would have warned the woman of the attack under normal circumstances since nobody else could survive anyway.
By letting the Sniper kill her, Nick would have a higher likelihood of winning.
Warning her would make no sense.
That was why the Sniper was so angry.
He was angry at Nick's idiocy.
Of course, he didn't know why Nick had done so.
The woman was the only one who knew that Nick was a Specter, and she was also the only one he could talk with because of that.
In this contest, being human is more dangerous than being a Specter.
Humans had an incentive to kill each other in here, but what about a Specter?
Additionally, the woman and Nick had already clashed with each other, and both of them had survived.
This made both of them extremely dangerous to the other since the other one had managed to survive one of their ambushes already, unveiling a big part of their powers.
Clashing with each other was a very bad idea since there was no way that a clash would end with one side easily overwhelming the other.
No, a battle between them would cost both sides dearly, which was why postponing the battle to the end made more sense.
Nick charged forward while zigzagging to avoid getting hit.
At that moment, the Sniper's eyes turned into teeth-filled maws.
CRK!
A maw extended from the column below Nick and bit his ankle.
Nick's charge was halted immediately.
BANG!
The Sniper shot.
BANG!
Nick's head exploded.
Almost immediately, the Sniper jumped backward and aimed their gun to his left.
The black-haired woman materialized in front of the Sniper and slashed forward with her dagger.
BANG!
The Sniper shot with his small gun, hitting one of the woman's daggers and shooting it out of her damaged hand.
SHING!
The other dagger moved forward and sliced the Sniper's hand off, together with their smaller gun.
WHOOOM!
At that moment, the red cloak moved forward on its own and covered the black-haired woman.
The Sniper was revealed to be a skinny man with red hair.
With his free hand, the Sniper pulled up his rifle.
He didn't need two hands to fire it.
"Don't kill him!" the woman inside the red cloak transmitted to everyone around her.
The man fired.
CRK!
But he missed his shot as his other arm was suddenly cut off by a blade.
The man's eyes widened in terror as he saw the half-headed figure beside him.
Nick's head was still regrowing.
SHING!
The red cloak was torn apart by the remaining dagger.
At the same time, Nick jumped away from the man.
The man was too shocked by the loss of both of his hands and seeing Nick alive with half of a head to react in time.
SHING!
The woman's dagger entered the man's forehead and killed him.
WHOOOM!
At the same time, a ton of Zephyx exploded out of the man's body.
The eyes on the columns turned into maws, which then proceeded to suck the Zephyx out of the battleground.
Yet, the Maws also extended toward the woman.
Nick started to feel something coming off her.
This was Zephyx!
But it was a weird kind of Zephyx.
This was a kind he had never felt before.
And this was exactly the kind of Zephyx that the Maw was absorbing from the woman.
Nick immediately realized several things.
'Just as I have saved her life earlier, she has saved my life.'
'I nearly killed myself just now.'
"Too conspicuous," the woman transmitted before jumping away. "Follow."
Nick did just that.
He turned into mist and floated after her.
She had already seen that Nick could turn into mist.
There was no point in trying to keep it secret.
The two of them rapidly but silently moved away from the battleground before stopping between two pillars.
There was no line of sight between the two of them since they were separated by a pillar, but that was exactly what they wanted.
Being the first one to poke around a pillar was a disadvantage, and none of them would want to risk that against such a powerful opponent.
"Do you realize that you nearly died just now?" the woman asked with a serious voice.
"I do now," Nick answered.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
Nick couldn't immediately answer.
She would never believe him if he said that he used to be human just a couple of minutes ago.
Even more, this would take minutes, if not hours, to explain properly.
While they could have a quick conversation, they didn't have the time for such a long one.
"There was a mistake. I'm not supposed to be here," Nick said. "I just want to get out of here."
"We can both get out of here," she said.
"I realized."
"Cooperation?" she asked.
"Cooperation!" Nick agreed.
The reason why Nick had nearly died earlier was because he was not human.
Therefore, killing another human in this place would not fulfill the Maw's criteria for growing stronger.
Nick would not release the special kind of Zephyx that the Maw had absorbed earlier.
This meant ruining the Maw's meal.
And that would have meant Nick's death.
In short, Nick was not allowed to kill anyone in this contest.