"Am I this scary?" Nick asked after waiting for over 30 seconds in the middle of the arena.
Naturally, nobody answered him.
There was just silence.
Nick looked around the arena but couldn't find anyone.
They were definitely good at staying hidden.
Without access to most of his abilities, Nick really was out of his element here.
Fighting a Hero was already hard enough with his abilities.
"Is it so hard to believe that I would actually do something like this?" Nick asked. "Do you think this has to be some kind of trap?"
Yet, nobody did anything.
"I already killed one guy, and that was several minutes ago. Before the arena compressed like this," Nick spoke evenly. "Most likely, the arena compressed after half of the contestants were killed."
"So, there are probably four left, including me."
Naturally, nobody answered him, which was funny since there was no doubt that Nick was heard by every single combatant in the arena.
"Are you circling around me?" Nick asked. "Are you guys all trying to search for each other first?"
"The first person that attacks me opens themselves up to an attack from the others, and nobody wants to go first."
"You can kill me, but you will be next. Is that it?" Nick asked.
No answer.
"Alright, let's switch things up," Nick said. "The first person I see will be my ally, and we will kill the other two. After that, we can fight each other. How does that sound?"
Silence.
Nick couldn't tell what the combatants were thinking about.
Most likely, they were all stalking around Nick.
They all knew that everyone else had to be close to this place as well, and they were probably circling Nick, trying to find each other first.
"That includes the one that gets attacked first, by the way," Nick said evenly. "If I see a battle starting, I will jump to the aid of the attacked one."
Silence.
There was no change in Nick's surroundings, but this sentence had to have an effect.
Now, stalking and attacking somebody else was a bad idea.
The female Hero was a bit perplexed by Nick as she snuck around his general area.
This was a very strange Specter.
Nick looked around.
Ding.
At that moment, Nick saw a tiny red light appearing for just a moment.
"Found my partner," Nick said.
WHOOOM!
Then, Nick exploded with light and jumped towards the red light.
Sadly, Nick's ability didn't activate since he couldn't blind the Maw, but he was sure that he had blinded the Heroes.
Nick arrived almost instantly at the place where he had seen the red light.
On top of the fleshy column, Nick's eyes saw a short message written in blood.
MAN SPEAR ALLY!
BANG!
Nick kicked the message, destroying it.
"I got your message," Nick said.
Nick didn't see any movement, but he was sure that the other Heroes were currently scrambling.
After getting blinded, they were most likely running around, trying to get the drop on one of the others.
Yet, nothing seemingly changed.
But that couldn't be further from the truth.
From the most dangerous position, Nick had moved to the safest.
The other Heroes knew that Nick now had an ally.
Additionally, Nick secretly had another Ally, the female Hero.
If there were truly only four people left, Nick would be allied with two of them.
Then, it was time to get back to waiting.
Earlier, Nick had been in the most danger, but now, he was in the least danger.
Only one enemy was not Nick's ally, and that person knew that Nick's ally would attack them if they attacked Nick.
This meant that Nick could walk around without needing to hide.
He was safe.
For the moment.
BANG!
Someone had just attacked somebody else.
This was the signal for the final battle!
Naturally, everyone immediately went to that place.
Nick noticed a figure splitting into several Maws.
Someone had just attacked the female Hero's flesh clone.
By the looks of things, her clone had been killed by a spear.
Nick immediately found the attacker.
It was a naked man holding a spear surrounded by darkness.
In an instant, their eyes met.
Their gazes only conveyed a single word.
Ally.
Nick's hands moved.
Two of his fingers moved over his eyes while his other hand gestured for the guy to approach.
The man understood.
WHOOOM!
Nick exploded into light.
Meanwhile, the man closed his eyes and jumped towards Nick.
At that moment, Nick saw a black glint a bit behind the man.
Nick saw the female Hero from earlier.
Nick jumped towards the man with the spear.
"Follow," Nick ordered with a whisper just loud enough for the man to hear.
The man clenched his right hand around his spear nervously.
Nick was dangerously close right now, and he was jumping past him.
From such a distance, any attack could be fatal.
The man had to make a split-second decision.
In the end, he decided against attacking Nick.
And then…
Nick flew past the man.
The man's nerves calmed down.
He had gambled correctly!
The man turned around and flew after Nick, who was chasing seemingly nothing.
After several turns, the man finally saw the shadow Nick was running after.
The man overtook Nick and closed in on the shadow.
BANG!
He attacked, and the shadow expanded before evading to the side.
This was obviously some kind of ability that the female Hero could use.
At that moment, Nick arrived in front of the shadow.
Nick's right arm flickered for just an instant.
And then, he stabbed forward with his right hand.
Two daggers came out of the shadow and blocked Nick's blade, but the power still threw the owner of the daggers to the side.
Naturally, Nick had warned her about his upcoming attack.
To every onlooker, it looked like Nick had thrown the attacker into the distance.
Everyone believed that Nick was an Initial Hero, and they could also see his impressive body.
Receiving an attack from somebody like that had to be brutal.
BANG!
A gunshot!
A fourth person had appeared, and they had shot a gun at the man with the spear.
However, the man with the spear had been prepared, and before the bullet could hit him, a maw appeared between him and the bullet.
The bullet was swallowed, and some Zephyx left the man's body.
Naturally, since there were only four people left, the last person realized that if they didn't intervene, the spear man and Nick would kill the dagger woman.
Then, it would be two versus one.
So, he had to intervene right now and help the dagger woman against her two attackers.
"You deal with him! I deal with the daggers!" Nick shouted to the spear man.
"Don't drag me down!" the man with the spear shouted back.
Nick hadn't stopped charging after the female Hero.
Nick and the female Hero exchanged a short glance.
There was one more thing that the two of them knew that the others didn't.
The female Hero moved her fingers rapidly to convey a message to Nick.
'Buy time,' Nick thought.
The fact that they were allies was not the only secret.
The female Hero moved her fingers rapidly to convey a message to Nick.
'Buy time,' Nick thought.
That was what the gestures meant.
However, Nick could tell what the actual message was.
Nick quickly reached the female Hero and attacked her with his blades again, throwing her in the distance.
His attack looked brutal, but it wasn't that bad.
The female Hero could deal with this.
As the female Hero flew back, her eyes looked back at Nick.
At that moment, Nick saw an urgent glint in the female Hero's eyes, and he knew what was about to happen.
BANG!
A long sword entered the back of Nick's head and came out of the front.
His entire brain was scrambled yet again.
A fifth combatant!
CRK!
At that moment, Nick turned around, destroying a huge part of his head, and wrapped his arms and legs around the attacker behind him.
The eyes of the attacker opened wide in shock.
How?!
He should be dead!
He destroyed his head!
SHING!
The next moment, a dagger entered the man's forehead.
Their plan had worked.
The secret that the two of them knew was that there had to be a fifth person here.
After all, Nick was a Specter and didn't count as a combatant.
So, there were four humans and a Specter.
Naturally, when the last person saw four people in front of him, he realized that he was in the best position right now since nobody believed he would be there.
Originally, he planned on staying hidden.
But then, he had seen the subtle gestures that the female Hero performed to communicate with Nick.
This guy was actually a secret ally to the female Hero!
At that moment, the man realized that he would have to fight a team, no matter who won!
He saw that Nick was the key and realized that he had to get rid of him.
Only then would it become a free-for-all again.
And that was exactly what Nick and the female Hero had planned.
After all, why would the female Hero purposefully use gestures to communicate when she could just transmit commands to Nick via voice message?
It was to show that she was Nick's ally to the last person.