266 Chapter 266 – Specter Cage
Nick silently slithered to the side and looked towards the direction of the steps.
The smoke was dense, but it was still possible to see rough shapes about one or two meters away.
The steps were loud and powerful, which meant that the person was charging forward with all their power.
If the gunner was a strong Extractor, this was probably someone of equal power, which meant that this person was moving at probably over 60 kph.
Nick had to make a quick decision.
Observe or attack?
Nick narrowed his eyes, and his fog-like body compressed.
An outline of Nick's body could be seen, and it was in a crouching position, ready to explode forward.
However, since Nick's was made out of fog, he still wasn't perceivable.
Smoke and fog looked very similar.
By now, the sounds of shots had vanished.
Nick put his right foot onto the steel wall of his backyard while looking forward with focused, intense, and narrowed eyes.
Then…
A faint outline of a running person!
BOOOOM!
Nick turned corporeal and used all of his power to explode forward.
Naturally, since no one could currently see him, his ability was active.
With his athletic body and his ability, Nick had the physical power of a Late Veteran right now.
Yet, even though Nick used an unreal amount of strength to shoot forward, the only noticeable effect of this power on the wall was a light gust of wind that extended outward from the spot that Nick had touched with his right foot.
Meanwhile, Nick exploded forward with unreal speed, his right arm pulled back.
It was almost like Nick's target was standing still.
Nick punched forward with his right arm, the blade on it already extended forward.
BANG!
An orange glow appeared in front of Nick's blade, which quickly broke into shards and splinters.
Nick felt his ability deactivate at that point, but it didn't matter.
The kinetic force had already been created.
SHING!
Nick's blade easily went through the side of the figure's head.
If they were human, they were definitely dead!
And sure enough, Nick's ability immediately reactivated.
Since the force of his jump wasn't yet used up, Nick essentially flew into his opponent's upper body.
The two of them were falling over, but Nick used his left hand to catch himself and the body silently.
In a fluid motion, Nick rolled forward while pulling the corpse over himself until it was in front of Nick.
BANG!
And Nick kicked it towards the east, at the northeastern corner of his backyard.
BOOOM!
A second later, the sound of a loud crash came from the northeastern corner of Nick's backyard.
Naturally, Nick did this to make the enemy think that he was currently fighting someone in the northeastern corner, which was close to the place he had been in when the battle started.
Meanwhile, Nick jumped towards the west again while turning into fog, which slithered across the ground.
A second later, Nick reached the edge of the smoke, which was around five meters away from the western wall.
In his fog-state, Nick glanced around the western side of his backyard.
He couldn't see anyone.
The next moment, Nick materialized again in a crouching position.
BANG!
And jumped diagonally forward as hard as he could.
With Nick's power, jumping a distance of over 50 meters wasn't difficult.
Like a cannonball, Nick diagonally shot past the wall of his backyard.
He was doing the smartest thing.
Running away.
He didn't know who was attacking him, and the top priority was to survive, not to kill his enemy.
Even more, this was an ambush, and fighting in the middle of an ambush was stupid.
He had to reset the battlefield to a neutral one.
While Nick was flying through the air, he felt his ability deactivate again.
In the air, he quickly looked around.
That was when he saw someone looking at him outside his backyard.
This person was probably insurance, and their job most likely was to catch Nick if he managed to escape from his backyard.
'If there's one guy in the west, there's probably another one in the north and another one in the south. There might be even more,' Nick thought. 'Together with the gunner and the dead one, that makes at least five people.'
The person Nick saw was cloaked in a mantle with a grey color that almost perfectly imitated the grey of Nick's walls.
The only identifying feature of the person was the long spear in their hands.
Nick could barely see a bit of their face as their eyes met, but he could tell that the person was a man and that they didn't seem scared.
But then, Nick's attention was pulled forward.
Some white gas gathered in front of Nick's jumping path.
When Nick saw that, he gnashed his teeth.
'A Specter Cage!' Nick thought with frustration.
Naturally, when big Manufacturers intended to capture a powerful Specter, they often readied Specter Cages.
These kinds of devices looked like big boxes of steel.
If one placed one of these boxes of steel somewhere, gave it a lot of Zephyx, and activated it, it would project a powerful barrier in a circle at a certain distance.
If anything approached the barrier, it would gather Zephyx at that spot and harden it.
There were only three ways to break through such a barrier.
First, destroy the steel box in the middle of the cage projecting the barrier.
Second, attack the barrier until all the Zephyx is used up. The more the barrier had to block, the more Zephyx it used.
Third, unleash an attack so powerful that the barrier can't possibly block it. Sadly, that was generally viewed as impossible since Specter Cages were made to withstand a lot of power.
In the end, one thing was certain.
Nick was stuck here until he got rid of the Specter Cage.
'Whoever wants to kill me is willing to spend kilos upon kilos of Zephyx,' Nick realized.
While Nick was about to reach the barrier, the person on the ground shouted something.
"He's over here!"
Nick gritted his teeth.
