That speck had to be a person!

More specifically, one of the coral people!

Nick just continued charging towards the south with all of his speed, which wasn't very fast since his ability had been deactivated.

Time seemed to slow down as Nick saw the distant speck becoming bigger at an alarming rate.

Nick felt like he had barely taken a step before he could actually make sense of the speck.

Just as expected, it was a person.

It was a tall man with black hair.

A huge growth of corals came out of the back of his head and seemingly created long, slithery, and spiky wings.

All over his body, corals were bursting out of his skin, but surprisingly, they only came out from the back parts of his body.

Back of his arms, back of his legs, back of his head, and, of course, the back itself.

The front of the man looked relatively normal.

This had to be him!

This had to be the Hero who had vanished in the Forbidden Zone several decades ago.

This had to be the Chief Zephyx Extractor of the previously biggest Manufacturer of Crimson City, Ambrosia.

He had been extremely powerful back then, and his power probably hadn't diminished.

This was an Early Hero, someone who had already worked with Demons for years before dying.

Anatomy did not have that opportunity.

Time seemingly moved in slow motion.

Nick felt like he was moving extremely slowly while the man moved at incredible speeds.

He was coming closer rapidly!

Three kilometers.

One kilometer.

300 meters.

Nick turned around and faced the approaching person.

'He can't kill me!' Nick thought. 'I'm certain that the Specter is Envy's servant! That means he can't possibly kill me! Envy wants the power of the Null!'

The man closed in on Nick, and Nick looked back.

100 meters.

50 meters.

BANG!

Suddenly, the ground between Nick and the man exploded, and dust was thrown everywhere.

Nick was covered by the dust immediately, but his ability didn't reactivate.

It wasn't possible to hide from someone who was this much stronger than him.

SHING!

Nick heard the sound of something being cut.

WHOOOM!

At the same time, a powerful shockwave appeared, which blasted away the dusty clouds around Nick.

That was when Nick saw it.

The man's right forearm had been cut off, and it was currently flying towards Nick.

Luckily, Nick could easily sidestep the arm since it was no longer attached to the man.

At the same time, Nick could see an icy silhouette hovering in front of the man.

The entire silhouette was cerulean blue, and it had a somewhat humanoid shape.

Only somewhat because the silhouette's limbs, while at the right place, were essentially just long swords.

Even more, several more swords were coming out from different parts of the silhouette.

The only thing that looked somewhat normal was the silhouette's face.

It looked like the face of a cheap marionette.

An exaggerated grin was carved into its face, and its eyes were just two lines with an upward curve, making it seem like someone was smiling.

WHOOOM!

Before Nick could fully take in the appearance of the cerulean sword puppet, he felt an extremely powerful burst of Zephyx coming from the south.

Nick saw four distant silhouettes rapidly approaching.

They were Mundus, Zarren, Liera, and Kevara.

Ariel was nowhere to be seen.

The battle was about to begin!

The cerulean puppet readied its swords and shot at the coral man.

Naturally, the coral man retreated.

He had already lost an arm, putting him at a disadvantage.

Luckily, the coral people didn't seem to have the ability to properly make use of the Barriers, significantly weakening them.

As the man retreated, he pulled a gun out of his uniform.

The gun pointed at the puppet in front of him.

At the same time, the puppet suddenly stopped and shot to the side.

The change in trajectory was so rapid and sudden that it seemed like several laws of physics had just been broken.

It was like momentum and inertia didn't exist.

When Nick saw that, he was shocked.

It wasn't because of the movement itself.

No, it was about the fact that the puppet could move like that in the first place.

Moving like this required the ability to fly, which meant that it required someone to be a Hero.

Yes, there were plenty of Heroes here, but Nick was sure that the puppet didn't belong to the two from Metal Works City.

Anatomy had the symbol of a puppet, and Zarren had also summoned a small steel puppet before.

This meant that this puppet belonged to Anatomy, and it wasn't Zarren's puppet since Nick had already seen that one.

It most likely also wasn't Mundus' puppet since he was charging out with everyone else.

That only left Ariel.

Ariel was not here right now.

Additionally, the puppet's color was extremely similar to Ariel's hair color.

'Is Ariel a Hero?!' Nick thought.

But wasn't Mundus Anatomy's Hero?

Yes, he was.

This could only mean one thing.

Anatomy had two Heroes!

But then, Nick noticed that Zarren was flying through the sky alongside the other three Heroes.

No, Anatomy didn't have two Heroes!

Anatomy had three Heroes!

All three of their leaders had already become Heroes!

This put them on the same level as Kugelblitz when it came to the number of Heroes if one ignored the governor.

The only place where they were lacking was level.

Since Anatomy didn't have access to a Demon, none of their Heroes could advance within the Hero Stage.

This meant that all three of them were Initial Heroes.

Meanwhile, Kugelblitz probably already had more than one Early Hero.

Maybe they even had a Mid Hero.

While Nick was coming to this realization, the coral man fired his gun at the blue puppet.

BOOOM!

A brutal explosion occurred, and the puppet was shot right in the chest.

All this fancy maneuvering had not helped at all.

When the bullet hit the puppet's chest, it got buried deep inside.

Yet, surprisingly, the puppet didn't really seem very damaged, and it continued to charge at the man.

WHOOOM!

But then, huge green tentacles shot out of the puppet's chest and wound around the puppet in an instant.

Before anyone could react, the entire puppet was surrounded by green tentacles, and very soon, it became clear that these tentacles were actually green roots.

The puppet stopped in the air.

Apparently, the roots immobilized him.

The man retreated.

The four Heroes rapidly approached.

And then

BOOOOOOOM!

A bolt of white lightning hit the bound puppet and brutally exploded.

The four Heroes in the air stopped for a moment as they saw countless cerulean pieces scattering across the surroundings.

While the bullet had only buried itself into the puppet's chest, this bolt of lightning had completely obliterated it.

Then, the gathered people noticed another person hovering in the distance.

They had been the one that shot the lightning bolt.

And by the power that lightning bolt exhibited, they could be sure of one thing.

This other person was definitely stronger than the coral man!