Sid POV

  Sid realized the assassin’s dagger was still in his belt, and the goblin warrior who was stuck in the Mana Web would not remain a stationary target for long. The webbing surrounding it turned more and more translucent as it struggled against it.

  Sid pulled his dagger from the assassin’s neck and hurled it at the immobilized goblin warrior. For a heartbeat he thought he had misjudged the throw. Then, the warrior’s head jerked as the dagger sank in. It seemed to be a favourite of misfortune, because the strike landed just as the last webbing fell apart into drifting strands of light.

  Sid breathed a sigh of relief at the flash of light next to the warrior showing the appearance of a skill crystal. The brief relief vanished quickly. His heart dropped when he saw the shaman turning away from him and moving towards Varun and Pallavi.

  The shaman had noticed him bound and half-trapped. Its beady eyes lingered on Sid for a moment, then it gathered that the warrior could kill an immobile Sid without its help. It turned its back on him and hurried toward the cluster where Varun and Pallavi fought, dagger clutched tight.

  Sid wanted to scream at it, to force it back toward him, away from his friends, but the only thing he could control was his own people.

  Sid tore his gaze away and checked the rest of the battlefield. Near the camp’s edge, Rohan and the guard fought two goblin scouts, blades flashing as they blocked the path that led into the camp. They kept the goblins circling, not allowing them to slip past.

  “Rohan, go help Varun.”

  Rohan glanced at Sid, then drifted towards Varun.

  “Go now! Let the goblins go inside the camp.” Sid raised his voice. He cared more about the safety of his team than about the camp.

  Sid turned his gaze towards the goblin shaman again and saw it staring at Varun.

  Varun was about to stab at the torso of a scout that had lost its footing on the uneven ground. His lips were curled up, eyes fixed on the target. However, his spear thrust paused midway, and the goblin was able to regain its footing and swat his spear away. He tried to turn and slash at another goblin scout, but his movements looked slow to Sid, heavy and obvious. The scout jumped back out of range.

  The goblin warrior who was fighting Pallavi looked up and saw the sluggish movement of Varun. It shrieked and glanced at the scout to its right, getting a nod in return. The scout lunged at Pallavi, forcing her to focus on him, while the warrior darted past her, just outside her reach. The warrior slashed his short sword across Varun’s torso, splitting his stomach open.

  He dropped to the ground on his back, letting go of his spear and using both hands to stop the outflow of blood.

  “No…” Sid’s heart dropped, like his chest was in a free fall while his body remained in place. He looked around for something, anything he could use to help his friend.

  Rohan soon reached Varun before he could suffer more damage. He and Pallavi protected Varun from any further attacks. The guard, who had been fighting alongside Rohan earlier, joined them, further strengthening their defence.

  An offhand comment from Varun a couple of days ago came to Sid’s mind. He looked down and saw that the webbing was stuck only to his jeans and the ends of his shirt. He unbuttoned his shirt, threw it to the side, and then got to work on getting out of his shoes and trousers. The scene was reminiscent of people trying to cross a giant glue trap.

  He took the dagger from the assassin and rushed towards the shaman.

  He could have joined Rohan and Pallavi and helped finish the goblins fast. The shaman could only target one person with its Curse: Weakness, and with him providing support, they could finish the four goblins and then target the shaman. However, the priority for him was saving Varun’s life and not ending the battle fast.

  Sid noticed the goblin shaman had not sent out any offensive attacks apart from Curse: Weakness. It likely had Minor Heal. If they could get that healing skill, they could heal Varun immediately and not wait for Aditi.

  He kept the shaman in sight and his veil active as he ran, knowing the skill would drop the moment a tree blocked his view. But since the shaman was not looking at him, and likely had nothing other than sight to track him, he could approach it without it noticing him.

  Unfortunately, the shaman glanced at the spot where he was supposed to be trapped and froze in his tracks. Instead of him lying dead while the goblin warrior fought someone else, it found two goblin corpses—one was tangled in webbing, and the other lay face down with a bulge on its back.

  The shaman scanned its surroundings. Its gaze swept past Sid’s general direction without catching on him. It peered toward the fight around Varun and Pallavi, as if checking whether some unseen help was tilting the battle. Its lips pulled back in a faint snarl.

  Sid hesitated. The shaman believed it could take him—why else would it stand its ground against an enemy it couldn’t even sense?

  If it was not afraid of an invisible enemy, then it believed it had a way to counter him. So, a direct assault would mean falling into its trap.

  Sid picked up a fist-sized rock and threw it at the goblin with all the force he could muster. A translucent dome appeared around the goblin as soon as the rock reached the shaman, deflecting it away.

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  He faced the same skill yesterday. It was the reason Aditi got Minor Heal instead of him.

  Mana Shield was one of the top uncommon skills one could get from this dungeon. It would automatically block any hostile attack, be it a physical projectile or a magical one. The shield would be active for the next three seconds. It was a skill valued by politicians and other leaders. The demand was so high that they would bid on goblin shamans before they were killed.

  What happened next made Sid thank whatever gods were out there for making him prioritise caution when approaching the shaman. There was an explosion of white and blue around the shaman.

  He recognised the skill. Iceglass Shatter, an area of effect skill. It worked like a frag grenade, where the shrapnel was made of chunks of ice. Although common on the second level of the dungeon, he had never heard of anyone finding it on the first level.

  There was at least a ten-second window when both skills would be on cooldown, and Sid intended to capitalise on that. He sprinted as soon as the white smoke thinned and a silhouette became visible.

  He applied the veil to the shaman’s mind, and it was dead before it could check the outcome of the surprise attack.

  Sid frowned when he picked up the skill crystal. It was not Minor Heal as he had hoped.

  He rushed back to his teammates to help finish the battle as soon as possible.

  With an additional human in the mix, the flow of battle changed, and the goblins were on the back foot. Pallavi sent a goblin warrior flying with a back kick in Sid’s direction. He scrambled to catch the goblin, pushing it down on the ground face down, with a dagger to its heart, ending its struggles. He did not bother to wait and collect the skill crystal, as he rushed towards his next target.

  Sid did not even apply his veil before he backstabbed the goblin scout that was facing Pallavi. Her eyebrows rose when she saw him, either due to his speed in killing the goblins or due to his fashion choice. He didn’t care.

  “Go help Rohan. Now!”

  Sid crouched down next to Varun, placing one hand on his shoulder, looking down at the wound, which was still leaking blood. The air smelled of iron and death from all the blood Varun was losing, and the clearing was littered with goblin corpses.

  Varun tilted his head back to meet Sid’s eyes. “Guess you were right. I really was the weakest on the team.” He let out a strained chuckle that broke off into a cough.

  Sid swallowed what he was about to say, then cleared his throat. “Put pressure on the wound. I’ll get help.” His eyes were welling up as he moved towards Rohan.

  “What do you think I’m doing now, genius?” He heard Varun’s voice from behind. The usual sharpness was there, but the bite was not. He was afraid, thought Sid.

  Sid targeted the goblin Rohan was fighting with the Veil of the Mind’s Eye, then nonchalantly walked up to it.

  A gunshot sound echoed in the clearing, prompting everyone to look at the entrance. Even Sid turned his head, a spark of hope rising in his heart that Aditi would be there. However, it blew out like a match that did not catch fire after the initial pomp. There was nobody there; the sound came from further back inside the camp.

  Sid realised his mistake too late as the scout stabbed towards the enemy, which had suddenly shown up in front of it. Pain shot up from his thigh, the same place where the assassin had dug its nails earlier. Before the goblin could pull out its dagger, he put a knife through its eyes.

  He did not pull the dagger out of his thigh, thinking it was better to leave it in than deal with the bleeding.

  Rohan had his eyebrows raised and mouth hanging open. “Sid, are you okay?”

  He did not respond with words, but walked up to Rohan, grabbing his hand and leading him back to Varun.

  Sid crouched down in front of Varun, then turned to Rohan. “Can you cast Mana Web now?”

  Rohan closed his eyes for a second, then nodded, crouching down himself.

  “Cast it onto his wound. I want to use it to stop the bleeding. Let us know when you are ready.” Sid knew that, theoretically, you could dress a wound using Mana Web, but he had never had the chance to field test it. The adhesive silk had viscous, semi-organic properties and worked like surgical glue. It should seal the blood vessels and the wound.

  Sid tore open Varun’s shirt so that the web would get on the body rather than the clothes.

  “What are you doing?” asked Pallavi, standing a couple of feet to the side and observing the glowing ball of light in Rohan’s hands. She had double-teamed the goblin with the help of the guard and finished it.

  Sid stood up and walked back a few steps. “Everyone move back, so you don’t get caught in the web. Varun, move your hands away. Rohan, send it when you see the wound.”

  The guard, who was collecting the crystal from a goblin scout, dropped it and skipped away a few steps.

  Rohan sent out a Mana Web from point-blank range, and both he and Varun were stuck in place by the webbing. The webbing also covered the wound in its entirety, preventing the leakage of blood.

  Sid walked closer to check the effects, crouching down to get a better view, a quiet sigh escaping from him. “Put pressure on the wound.”

  Rohan moved his hand forward and pressed his palm against the webbing covering Varun’s stomach. “I can’t do it for long—the web is pulling my hand back.”

  “Do it for as long as you can.” Sid turned to Pallavi. “Collect all the skill crystals and then help Rohan put pressure on the wound.”

  Pallavi responded with a nod, but Sid stopped her before she moved to collect the crystals. “Ensure that he stays awake. Do not let him go to sleep.”

  Varun’s head was drooping, eyelids hanging heavy. Sid slapped him on his cheeks, making him look up at him. “I need you to stay awake, you bastard. I have big plans for this place, and I need you there watching my back. We will get Jacky too. It will be like old times.”

  Varun half-smiled and nodded. He seemed lightheaded.

  Sid tapped Rohan’s shoulder. “Apply pressure without fail, even if the web slackens. Try to see if you can keep the web taut indefinitely using your skill.”

  One of the evolutions of Mana Web created strands that stayed solid for days. He knew a student who could keep the web taut indefinitely while the skill was still at Tier 1, as long as he stayed in contact with it. Rohan did not remind him of that student, not in talent or confidence, but Sid would take even a fraction of that ability right now. There was no harm in pushing him to try.

  He turned to the guard, who was observing the exchange with wide eyes. “Come with me. Let us go find that healer.”

  There must be something happening at the camp. Otherwise, help would’ve come by now. There was also a gunshot earlier. He looked down at the dagger stuck in his thigh, a result of that.

  He needed to get Aditi here as soon as possible. If she were no more, then whoever picked up the healing skill after, even if it was George. He promised himself that he would not let his best friend die, and he intended to honour that.

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  It would really help me write better.

  Next chapter will be on Friday. I'll make up for the delay next week.