Nick quickly realized that he was being attacked, and his instincts kicked in.
When he felt his ability deactivate, he had already entered battle mode.
Without the warning of his ability, he might not have been fast enough to react.
While Agents were powerful enough to travel across the world, not even Protectors were perfectly safe.
There were plenty of powerful Specters residing within the ocean.
These powerful Specters had existed for thousands of years and only struck once in decades to keep their cover.
And Nick became a victim of one of these attacks.
He had traveled countless times across the ocean, and if one rolled a die long enough, eventually, one would get a horrible roll.
As soon as he saw the tentacles, Nick activated two of his abilities at the same time.
An explosion of light appeared around him.
His ability did not reactivate, which told him that the Specter did not perceive him with vision.
The second ability Nick activated was summoning a cloud of black mist around him.
This ability did not only affect vision but also Zephyx since it was filled with chaotic Specter Zephyx.
When Nick summoned the cloud, his ability activated halfway, which told him that the enemy was most likely perceiving him via his Zephyx.
This was troublesome.
These kinds of senses were the most difficult to escape from.
When Nick was suddenly covered with Specter Zephyx, the tentacles hesitated for a moment.
BANG!
Nick used this opportunity to cut through one of the tentacles with his blades.
'Initial or Early Fallen. Most likely Initial,' Nick thought with narrowed eyes.
'I'm in huge trouble now.'
Of course, Nick was strong enough to kill an Initial Fallen, but its power was not the issue.
The issue was the moment when the Specter struck.
There were so many issues with the timing that Nick had no idea how to get out of this situation.
First of all, he needed to protect the Specter Cage.
Since there was a Specter inside, he couldn't put it into his Space Bag.
If the Specter Cage was lost, the city would need an explanation as to why their Specter was gone.
This would start an investigation, and Aegis would look into the identity of the Agent responsible for the mission.
There was a big chance that the Champion would take note of this.
Why was Julian Winter transporting a random Fanatic across the ocean?
Nick wouldn't be able to answer that question to the Champion's satisfaction.
Then, why not just call the stronghold and ask for assistance?
Well, a battle with a Fallen was a major occurrence, and the same thing would happen.
Nick's Barrier ID would come up, and the Champion would take notice of him.
This meant that Nick couldn't call for help.
In that case, couldn't Nick just run away?
That was also problematic since the Specter had seen him and part of his abilities.
Nick already used two of his abilities and demonstrated a lot of power.
If this information reached the Corruptors or Trio of Destruction, he wouldn't be able to use these abilities anymore unless he was certain that there was no one around. ŖаŊ𝙤₿Ё𝐬
The most troublesome part was that Nick had just used Specter Zephyx.
If the Corruptors found out, that could also become problematic.
So, Nick couldn't escape, couldn't call for help, and needed to kill the Specter while protecting the Specter Cage.
That was where the last troublesome aspect of the situation came in.
The Specter's primary body was inside the ocean.
The entire ocean was covered in the sense of the Salt Trident.
Nick was currently in the guise of a human, and any human that touched the ocean water would fall under the control of the Salt Trident.
While Nick was immune to that effect as a Specter, that didn't matter.
He was supposed to be a human, and he was supposed to be under its effect.
Additionally, Nick's ability wouldn't even work inside the ocean.
He doubted that his mist was powerful enough to hide him from the senses of a powerful Adversary.
He couldn't even use his portal ability since there was no place to hide.
The illusion ability from the Nightmare also didn't work since he needed to escape the Specter's perception first, which wasn't possible.
The best he could do was to halfway escape the Specter's senses, but that wasn't enough.
Well, if he turned into mist and split his body apart while flying in different directions, he could do that.
But how would he protect the Specter Cage?
Additionally, this was his most sensitive ability, and if anyone noticed that, Nick would essentially already be dead.
Talking to the Specter via Specter sense also didn't work since that would uncover the fact that Aegis worked with a Specter.
All of these thoughts shot through Nick's mind in an instant.
'I have to kill it, but the Specter Cage is the most problematic part.'
'I could dump it in the ocean, but I would need to get the actual Fiend of Darkness to the city then. If I do that, all of this would be for nothing!'
'I can't lose the Specter Cage!'
'But how do I kill the Fallen?!'
Nick gritted his teeth, and while the Fallen was preparing for another attack, Nick put his feet on the underside of the Specter Cage.
BANG!
The tentacles missed as Nick kicked the Specter Cage into the sky, throwing his own body downward.
Nick kicked the Specter Cage hard enough that it would fly upward for a couple of kilometers, which gave him enough time for the battle.
More and more tentacles came out, and Nick cut them to pieces every time.
'I can't keep destroying the tentacles. Eventually, it will realize that I am too powerful and will retreat!'
Nick looked down.
He could sense the gigantic body of Specter.
It was over 200 meters wide and was over two kilometers beneath the surface.
'How am I supposed to get to that without entering the Salt Trident's senses?!'
'It's not going to come to the surface of its own volition, and I don't have the power to pull it out.'
Nick could only grit his teeth.
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