267 Chapter 267 – West to East
BANG!
Nick landed on the hardened Zephyx of the Specter Cage with his legs first.
With one glance, Nick overlooked the battlefield.
Half of his backyard was covered in smoke.
There was a Specter Cage surrounding his house and backyard.
There was a person with a spear below him who had just alerted everyone to Nick's position.
The next moment, Nick readied one of his spears and threw it at the person below him with all of his power, his body pushing into the barrier due to the force of the throw.
Nick had never stopped practicing with his spears, and even though the angle and his position were awkward, Nick still managed to throw with a lot of power and accuracy.
BANG!
However, the person below Nick simply jumped to the side, avoiding the attack, and Nick's spear shot through the floor into the sewers.
Nick narrowed his eyes.
BANG!
Then, Nick jumped toward the direction of his house, which was behind the guy on the ground.
BANG!
The guy on the ground immediately jumped upward with his spear pointed at Nick, ready to intercept him.
Nick's eyes shone, and his right arm pulled upward with a lot of force.
BANG!
Nick's spear shot out of the ground with a lot of force as he pulled it back with his Ghost Wire.
The next moment, the guy thrust his spear at Nick's torso.
But then, his eyes widened in shock.
Nick's trajectory had changed!
He was much lower than he was supposed to be!
Of course, that was due to Nick pulling his spear back with all of his power while flying.
For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.
Nick barely managed to fly below the spear, and he pointed his blade at the guy's torso.
BANG!
A yellow Barrier appeared in Nick's path.
The man's face turned white, but the Barrier managed to hold.
After all, Nick's ability hadn't been active.
However, the Barrier apparently wasn't the kind that also absorbed kinetic energy.
Nick's forward momentum completely halted, turning him stationary in the air for just an instant while the guy's body was shot into the distance, right towards Nick's house.
BANG!
The guy's Barrier activated again as he hit Nick's house, putting a sizable dent into the wall.
At that moment, Nick could see the Barrier flickering, which was a sign that it was nearly out of Zephyx.
Even though Nick hadn't managed to kill him, the guy was most likely out of the fight since moving without Zephyx was nearly impossible.
The stronger an Extractor became, the more their body relied on Zephyx, and without Zephyx, moving became very difficult.
As Nick looked at the man, who was now tumbling down the side of Nick's house, he noticed a small gleam of light coming from one of his windows.
BOOOM!
Nick's green Barrier appeared in front of him, blocking an extremely long and dense bullet.
The next moment, Nick felt like someone had just punched him in the chest, and the deafening sound of a huge sniper rifle being fired rang out from Nick's house.
This was the feeling of losing a huge amount of Zephyx in an instant.
'That's a different person!' Nick realized with gritted teeth. 'That's not the gunner from earlier!'
The difference in power between the earlier gunner and this one was huge!
However, judging by the sound and the look of the bullet, it wasn't that this gunner was stronger but that this gunner simply unleashed much more power in one shot.
The gunner probably unloaded something like 50% of their Zephyx with this shot.
And that wasn't even everything.
Nick's Barrier canceled kinetic energy.
This meant that Nick was still in the middle of the air, just starting to fall to the ground.
He was a sitting duck!
Nick quickly grabbed one of his spears and performed a Hip Throw.
The spear shot through the window where the sniper was supposed to be.
Nick didn't expect his throw to hit.
The sniper had probably immediately retreated after firing their shot, but Nick wanted to make sure.
If they decided to stay there and shoot another one, Nick might die.
After throwing his spear, Nick cut the Ghost Wire.
He didn't want to show anyone where he was going by pulling it back.
Due to the Hip Throw, Nick was thrown towards the barrier again.
After landing, he angled himself downward and diagonally jumped towards the ground.
Just before Nick managed to dive past the roofs of the neighboring houses, he saw two people jumping onto the wall of his backyard.
One of them came from the north, and one came from the east.
Those were probably the two people responsible for guarding the north and east.
For just an instant, Nick's ability deactivated, but it quickly reactivated.
BANG!
Surprisingly, Nick didn't weaken the impact of his fall this time, and he shot through the metallic grates on the ground, landing on the barrier of the Specter Cage.
The Specter Cage projected a barrier in a sphere, which meant that it was also extending below the ground.
Nick quickly pulled something out from his toolbelt and crushed it in his hand.
An instant later, the thing started to shine brightly like the sun, and Nick put it in a pocket on the chest area of his uniform.
The light was so bright that it shone through the pocket, but the light was quite subdued now.
Nick had met the Nightmare more than once during important battles, and he had decided to invest in this trinket.
It was essentially an Arclight but in a round form.
Nick immediately jumped forward with all of his power.
Since his ability was active, Nick could cross the entire distance of the Specter Cage in one jump.
Three seconds later, Nick landed below the ground on the eastern side of the Specter Cage.
The next moment, Nick rammed his blade into the floor above him and cut a hole in it.
Then, he grabbed the Arclight in his pocket and threw it into the sewer water.
Naturally, the Specter Cage encompassed quite a lot of sewer water as well below it.
Nick had thrown his Arclight into the sewer waters since it was very noticeable on him.
The light of the Arclight was immediately consumed by the black sewer waters, and Nick jumped out of the sewers.
Now, Nick was outside the eastern wall of his backyard while everyone was rushing towards the west.