Nick quickly jumped away from the corpse while several maws appeared all over the walls to consume the Zephyx.
Nick's head was rapidly healing, and after it recovered, he turned into mist.
At the same time, the female Hero vanished into thin air.
Nick could still feel and hear the explosions of the other battle, and he knew that they were relatively far away.
They did not have vision of Nick's battle, which was perfect.
Since the fifth person had been killed just now, Zephyx had been released, and if any of the other two felt the Zephyx, they knew that somebody had died just now.
After the woman vanished, Nick slithered over towards the other battle.
A couple of seconds later, Nick arrived.
Both of them were already quite injured, but that didn't say a lot.
Heroes could recover very quickly.
Only Zephyx mattered.
The two kept fighting while Nick watched.
"Don't go back on your word!" the man with the spear shouted at Nick.
Nick turned into his solid form again and just looked at their battle.
At that moment, the battle paused, and the two of them looked at each other with urgency.
They knew that Nick had killed the Hero with the daggers, and they could also tell that Nick wasn't very exhausted.
If they continued fighting, the winner would need to fight a fully recovered Nick.
That was bad for both of them.
Maybe it was for the better to ally for now and attack Nick.
"Fine," Nick said at that point.
BANG!
Nick exploded with light, but this time, the two of them were ready for that.
They closed their eyes for just an instant before opening them again.
The man with the spear saw Nick charging at the man with the gun, who was readying his gun to shoot Nick down.
BANG!
The man shot, but Nick turned into smoke, dodged the projectile, and closed in on the man.
The man with the gun seemed worried.
Nick arrived in front of him.
At that point, the eyes of the man with the spear shone.
Darkness gathered around his spear, and he struck forward.
He would kill Nick just when he would kill the man with the gun!
CRK!
Nick struck and buried his blade in the man's head.
BOOOOM!
The powerful spear broke through Nick's torso, making his entire body explode.
Then, it continued and also turned the other man's body into powder.
At that moment, his eyes widened.
He did it!
He won!
He-
BANG!
A gunshot ended the man's thoughts forever.
The man with the gun was about 30 meters away and looked at the man with the spear with a mix of betrayal, shock, and hatred.
This idiot!
They were supposed to ally against Nick, but this guy just randomly attacked him with his spear after the light blast!
Luckily, the attack had seemed rather sloppy, and the man with the gun managed to dodge.
So, what happened?
Nick made it seem like he was charging towards the man with the gun when, in reality, Nick hid behind the pillar he had just stood on.
01:52
After Nick used his light explosion and the two of them closed their eyes, he manipulated the perception of the man with the spear.
Nick made it seem like he was charging towards the man with the gun when, in reality, Nick hid behind the pillar he had just stood on.
The man thought he was attacking Nick, but in truth, he was attacking the man with the gun.
Naturally, the man with the gun could see the attack and dodged.
In his anger at being betrayed, he shot at the man with the spear, who died instantly.
After the man killed the other man, his mind was slowly noticing that something was wrong.
That attack was too stupid and too sudden.
Additionally, the attack had been rather sloppy, and the spear man did not manage to avoid the man's shot when he had managed to do so several times already.
However, his train of thought was quickly interrupted as Nick charged at him.
Nick had used a ton of Zephyx by manipulating the other man's perception for just these short moments, and he was basically close to empty.
The man with the gun didn't have it any easier.
His prolonged duel with the spear man had taken a huge toll on him.
WHOOOM!
Nick turned into mist as he moved towards the man with the gun.
The man with the gun aimed at Nick.
SHING!
And then, a dagger went through his head as the woman reappeared behind him.
Nick turned back into his physical form and stood on top of a column as he looked at the woman.
That should be it.
Every other human had died.
The maws appeared all over the walls again, but the woman kept focusing on Nick.
At this moment, she realized that she had severely underestimated this Fanatic.
This Fanatic had essentially killed a Hero!
The Fanatic might not have dealt the killing blow, but it managed to indirectly kill one.
Nick looked at her and saw her expression.
"I will explain everything to you when we are outside," Nick said. "As long as you don't attack me, we are not enemies."
The woman looked at Nick with narrowed eyes without saying anything.
Eventually, the maws vanished.
Then, the two of them waited.
This was it.
This was the moment of truth!
Nick looked at the ceiling.
Crrrr!
Suddenly, the surroundings started to compress again.
The walls were closing in, and the columns and pillars were vanishing into the walls.
The two of them moved towards the middle of the arena.
A couple seconds later, the walls stopped compressing, and the two of them were left in a space that was about four meters wide.
Naturally, neither of them was happy about this.
From this distance, killing the other one was extremely easy.
They just looked at each other with wariness.
The woman was at a definite advantage.
Their alliance was already shaky.
'The only reason why she didn't attack yet is that she's afraid of my power,' Nick thought.
The woman was at a definite advantage.
If Nick killed her, the Maw would most likely kill him, but if she killed Nick, nothing would happen to her.
If it were easy to kill Nick, she would have probably already done so.
Tense seconds passed.
Whooom!
And then, the ceiling opened.
"Let me go first," Nick said before jumping from wall to wall to move upward.
The woman looked at Nick with narrowed eyes and flew after him.
The opening of the tunnel represented relative safety to Nick.
Earlier, they couldn't have been certain if the Maw wanted them to fight or not.
But with the opened tunnel, things became clear that the Maw was letting the human go.
And the last thing a human would want to do in this scenario was to aggravate or anger the Maw any further.
If she launched an attack and missed Nick, the Maw might view that as an attack.
The two of them continued to fly upward for several kilometers.
Eventually, the covert light of the fleshy walls gave way to the actual light of the Sun.
Nick jumped out of the Maw.
The woman jumped after Nick.
The two of them found themselves in a mountainous area, with the Sun shining brightly above them.
Just like everywhere else on the planet, everything looked like a wasteland.
The mountains were grey, brown, and beige.
Nick quickly landed on the ground.
For the entire time, he had been looking at the female Hero.
Naturally, the woman had come out behind him, and she was also looking at Nick.
A moment later, the Maw on one of the mountains vanished.
Finally, Nick was no longer under constant supervision.
As long as he blinded her, he could unleash his true power.
However…
"I'm ready to talk now," Nick said.
She was not his enemy.
The woman kept her eyes narrowed.
"What's there to talk about with a Specter?" she asked.
"I'm not really a Specter. At least, not in the way you think," Nick said. "I'm not your enemy, and I'm willing to explain everything."
The Hero looked at Nick with furrowed brows.
She didn't answer.
"My name is Nick Dusk," Nick said, "and I am, or used to be, human."
The woman raised an eyebrow.
Nick told her about his Consumption and what had happened with his Zephyx Synchronizer.
Then, he told her about his experiments with the Technician and about what had happened to him when he advanced a level.
"That's why I was in there," Nick said. "The Maw thought that I was the weakest Peak Specialist when, in fact, I was the strongest Peak Expert."
The woman just looked at Nick for a while.
This sounded insanely convoluted.
Additionally, Nick was saying things that she couldn't even verify since she didn't have a Barrier to check things.
"Prove it," she demanded after a while.
"How?" Nick asked.
"If your so-called mutation only occurred after you received the Maw's ability, show me the ability you received from the Maw. All the abilities the Maw has granted have its distinct appearance."
"Show me an ability that includes the Maw's appearance, and I will believe you."
Silence.
"I have one," Nick said.
"But I can't show you."
Sadly, Nick could only use his new active ability if nobody was perceiving him.
The woman just looked at him coldly.
"Pity."