Kill the Sun

The Blood Hawk fell to the ground, but it didn't immediately stand up.

Obviously, the hit had dealt quite some damage to it.

That was when Nick noticed that the surface of the Blood Hawk seemed to vibrate and move like it was wavy water.

Nick just watched.

About ten seconds later, the hawk stood up and charged at Nick again.

During this entire time, it hadn't made a single sound.

The Blood Hawk was completely quiet all the time unless it hit one of the walls by accident.

Nick easily grabbed both its talons and forced them into his left hand.

He was essentially holding the Blood Hawk like a chicken.

The hawk tried to attack him, but Nick just waved it around so that it couldn't.

A moment later, Nick grabbed one of the wings.

RIIIIIIP!

Nick tore the wing off and threw it to the side.

The Specter didn't even react.

It was almost like nothing had happened, even though it had lost a wing.

RIIIIIP!

Nick also tore the other wing off.

BANG!

And then threw the hawk against the wall again.

The Blood Hawk slumped to the ground, and the surface of its body started to move again.

Nick watched as tendrils slowly came out of the spots where the hawk's wings used to be.

Within 20 seconds, the hawk jumped up again and attacked Nick, fully recovered, including its wings.

This was the unique ability of Blood Specters.

Hyper Regeneration.

Blood Specters could transform Prephyx into Zephyx at insane rates.

BANG!

Nick kicked the hawk against the wall again while watching the two wings he had torn off earlier.

The wings were already turning black and vanishing.

According to research, the appendages of Blood Specters were similar to blood vessels.

They were not storing much Zephyx inside of them, but they had a lot of Zephyx traveling through them.

So, when they were cut off, most of the Zephyx entered the Blood Specter's body again, leaving barely any Zephyx inside the appendage.

Because of that, the appendage decayed rapidly.

After all, Specters were not really made of flesh and bone.

They just looked like they were.

Within a minute, the two wings had vanished.

Nick kept injuring the Blood Hawk for about five minutes.

At that point, Nick noticed that the regeneration speed of the Blood Hawk had taken a massive hit.

The last time, it needed almost 40 seconds to recover after being thrown against the wall again.

But that was to be expected.

The Hyper Regeneration also had its limits.

Every Blood Specter had a Blood Core somewhere inside their body.

In essence, the Blood Core was the actual Specter, and all the Zephyx was stored there.

After getting injured a lot in a short timeframe, the Blood Core experienced some kind of Zephyx saturation, which made it difficult to produce Zephyx.

Essentially, the Blood Core was overheating and needed about a day of rest to recover.

The good thing, or bad thing, depending on the viewpoint, was that Blood Specters were probably the hardest Specters to kill since one needed to either destroy the Blood Core or incinerate around 90% of their body.

This meant that it was very difficult to accidentally kill a Blood Specter unless one was vastly more powerful.

After throwing the Blood Hawk against the wall one last time, Nick walked out of the Containment Unit.

He had been inside the Containment Unit for a collective ten minutes and had thoroughly exhausted the Blood Hawk.

After exiting the Containment Unit, Nick checked how much Zephyx had been produced.

"Eight grams," Nick said with furrowed brows. "I guess that's to be expected from an Early Hatchling."

The Blood Hawk was delivering less than a tenth of the Zephyx that the Money Sink produced.

Back when Dark Dream was still just a warehouse with two Specters, Nick would have looked at eight grams with elation.

Now, it was barely anything.

'But that's a good thing, actually,' Nick thought. 'After all, we're not increasing their power.'

This was another special thing about Blood Specters.

They also produced a lot of Zephyx when they were recovering.

Obviously, getting injured and recovering from said injury was not how a Blood Specter became more powerful.

The actual way they became more powerful was via straight-up just killing people.

If Nick wanted to increase the power of the Blood Hawk, he would need to send people in to get slaughtered.

Obviously, producing Zephyx in such a way was not only horrible but would also cost more money than it made.

Luckily, Blood Specters also made Zephyx by recovering from injuries, and they also didn't become more powerful that way.

This meant that Dark Dream could produce Zephyx with the Blood Hawk without turning it into an Adolescent.

Usually, Manufacturers wanted their Specters to become more powerful since they produced more Zephyx that way.

However, Nick didn't get these two new Specters for their Zephyx.

He got them for his Newbies.

First of all, the Newbies would absorb some of the Zephyx that the Blood Hawk used to recover, which increased their power.

Second, they got some great training.

Fighting a Specter was always terrifying, and the first time was the most dangerous time.

By letting the Newbies fight a Specter inside a Containment Unit without wasting any Zephyx, the strength of the Newbies would increase.

While Nick was thinking about these things, he could only sigh.

'The new guys have it so good,' he thought. 'Back then, I had to swim through a literal sea of shit and fight a Mid Hatchling while also running from the Nightmare.'

'Meanwhile, they get to fight a dumb hawk inside an enclosed space with people watching.'

'But that's a good thing, I suppose. Just because I went through shit doesn't mean that others also have to go through it.'

'Humans are supposed to make the lives of the next generation better than the lives of their generation, right?'

'There's no reason to force them to go through the same shit I had to go through.'

Nick shook his head.

'Anyway, I should check on the other one.'