Sid POV

  Sid entered the camp with a guard in tow, the one who fought alongside his team. The man was walking a few feet away from him to the side, glancing at him every few seconds.

  He would have wanted to send him out ahead to look for Aditi, but sending the first guard back achieved nothing. He had the guard tag along with him, just in case of an emergency.

  “Where is everybody?” Sid looked around the deserted campsite, noting the empty campfire area.

  “They might have gone to the pond,” said the guard. His voice was steady on the words, but there was a slight tremor in his voice, and he was avoiding meeting Sid’s gaze.

  A gunshot rang out in the distance, from the direction of the pond, validating the guard’s statement.

  Sid glanced at the guard. “Let’s check it out.”

  His left leg ached where the dagger was still lodged, so he half-limped, half-skipped to increase his speed. The guard could have run faster, but for some reason he matched Sid’s pace and stayed with him.

  Sid entered the clearing near the pond to see people scattered around in a loose semicircle. George was in the middle, shoulders down, panting, a dagger in one hand and a gun in the other.

  Sid looked toward the water and saw a creature gliding along the surface of the pond, either a Reed Serpent or an Azure Salamander. He looked around and spotted Aditi sitting against a tree at the edge of the clearing. Her eyes were closed, and she was likely recovering after healing a seriously injured person.

  Sid rushed to Aditi, skipping and shoving past people who got in his way. “Aditi, come with me. Varun is hurt.” His voice had a sharp edge to it, one that told listeners this was not a request.

  Aditi looked up at Sid, brows furrowed.

  Sunny stepped between them, blocking Aditi from view. “There are many injured here. Bring him here and we can check.” He pointed at two people. One was blue all over, and the other had his knee crushed.

  The doctor was next to the person who was blue and not moving, checking his pulse. Based on the blue paralyzing venom, Sid surmised the monster was the Azure Salamander and that the man was likely not in any immediate danger. His body would expel the poison after a few hours.

  The other injured person was screaming nonstop from pain, pausing only to gasp for breath. His friend, another teenager, knelt beside him, running a hand up and down his back to comfort him.

  Sid leaned to the right so that he could see Aditi. “They do not look like they are dying. Varun is losing blood fast; his artery was cut. Come with me.”

  Sunny put a hand on Sid’s shoulder. “Son, we know you care for your friend, just like I care for my nephew over there. Bring your friend here fast, and she can heal him.” He pointed to the teenager who was screaming constantly.

  Aditi stood up and stepped around Sunny so she could see Sid. “What happened to you, Sid? Why are you dressed like that? Bring Varun here fast.”

  Their conversation was drawing an audience. Sid could hear people whispering about his appearance: a white undershirt, navy boxers with stars speckled like the Milky Way, and a knife lodged in his thigh.

  He stepped forward and grabbed Aditi’s hand. “I couldn’t bring him here; he can’t move. He’s losing blood fast. Come with me, or we might lose him.” There was a hint of panic in his voice when he said the last words.

  Despite the initial resistance, he pulled Aditi with him for a couple of steps before she stopped moving.

  Sid turned to see Sunny holding her other hand. “Please. Those two can afford to wait, but Varun cannot. Please let her go with me.” He looked between Aditi and Sunny.

  George walked up to them. “Hey, kid, we cannot have our healer run back and forth. Bring your friend here. Was it the same one she had healed earlier?” His tone carried a hard edge; his stance was squared in quiet threat.

  Sid glanced at George and then back at Aditi.

  “Wow, that guy needs a dedicated healer with him,” George mocked.

  Sid gritted his teeth and looked to the right. He thought of ways he could kill George right now. Bark Skin was weak at the eyes and did not protect internal organs, so a well-placed knife through the eyes or the roof of the mouth should do the trick. He brushed the thought aside.

  “His artery was cut. He will die of blood loss if we move him. Please come with me; these guys will still be here when you come back.” Sid ignored George and continued pleading with Aditi, shoulders tense, leaning toward her.

  George’s jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed at being ignored.

  The injured teenager screamed louder than before, and his companion rushed toward Aditi. “He cannot take it anymore; please heal him.”

  Sunny rushed to his nephew’s side, crouching down and holding his shoulders. “Are you okay?”

  The hurt teenager did not answer. He just kept screaming.

  The doctor chose that moment to speak up. “His vitals are stable. The venom has paralyzed him, but I will keep monitoring him. You can help the other guy.” He pointed at Sid.

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  Sid turned to the doctor and gave a nod of thanks.

  Sunny raised his voice. “Aditi, please heal him, and then we can go to Varun. He might not walk again if we delay.”

  Aditi pulled her hand back, prompting Sid to look at her. “I will heal him and then come with you. I can recover on the way.”

  She walked past Sid toward the injured teenager and cast Minor Heal on his legs. The color that had returned to her face earlier faded again.

  Sid could not believe that Aditi would choose a stranger over a friend. It felt like she wanted to placate everyone and stay in everyone’s good books. His hands balled into fists, and he gritted his teeth.

  Naga limped toward Sid, taking in his appearance from top to bottom. “What happened, Sid? Why do you have a knife in your leg?”

  The guard who had come with Sid opened his mouth to answer but stopped when he saw Sid glancing at him.

  Naga tapped Sid’s shoulder. “Hey, what happened?”

  “Goblins attacked us.” Sid did not look at Naga. His gaze went back to Aditi, who stood up after exhausting her skill and walked in an unsteady, almost drunken manner to a nearby tree to sit down and rest.

  “You guys got taken out by a couple of goblins?” Sid heard the teenager say, the one who had accompanied the injured boy, not bothering to hide the mockery in his tone.

  Sid rushed to catch Aditi before she could sit. He put his left arm over her shoulder and guided her toward the camp entrance, where Varun lay.

  “Let me sit for a second, Sid. I will come right away,” Aditi said. Her words came out thick with exhaustion, her eyelids hanging heavy.

  Sid bent down a little and looked up at her face so that she could see his own. “You either walk with me or you die here,” he whispered. The words came out even, delivered not as a threat but as a fact.

  Aditi’s eyes went wide. She opened her mouth to speak, but Sid beat her to it. “They cannot save you. I got a new skill; you have seen it before. Remember the goblin from yesterday, the one that made Rohan curl up like a baby. Just come with me and heal Varun. Otherwise, I will take the skill from your cold dead hands and heal him. Nod if you understand.”

  Sid delivered the threat in a low voice so that only Aditi could hear. The doctor might have heard part of it, but Sid did not care. His priority was saving Varun.

  Aditi swallowed and nodded at him. Sid and Aditi had not paused their walk during the conversation and continued on their way.

  Guard POV

  What was up with these people? Didn’t they have any survival instincts? he thought. You see, a guy walking around with a knife in his leg and your first instinct is to mock him.

  Even George, with all his bravado, had not picked a fight with him. The guard had seen the policeman’s face turn red when Sid ignored him, but instead of escalating, George chose silence. This was the same man who had beaten up another policeman yesterday for not calling him “sir.”

  He saw Sid move toward the healer. Aditi, he thought her name was. It looked like they knew each other from the way he supported her. His gaze followed Sid’s movement and soon fell on the two injured guys.

  Oh, so that was what happened to him, the guard thought, looking at the man under the doctor’s care. Blue skin, slack limbs, the doctor’s fingers against his neck, checking for a pulse. Looks like his fellow guard never got the message across to the rest of camp—he was attacked before he could.

  He saw Sid and Aditi walking toward the camp entrance and was about to join them when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

  “You came with Sid, right? What happened to you guys?” asked Naga.

  “Goblins attacked, but it is taken care of.” He tried to be as vague as possible, he did not know how Sid wanted to deal with the fact that they had let goblins into the camp.

  If the man who took out seven of the eight goblins did not want him speaking on that matter, then he was going to honor that wish. He was not foolish like those kids and their uncle.

  Naga gazed at Sid, who was moving away, and followed him, gesturing to the guard to join.

  Nodding, the guard fell into step beside Naga. “What happened here?” he asked, hoping to change the subject.

  “A giant blue reptile attacked. It could walk on water and shoot jets of water,” Naga said, rubbing at his leg for a moment. The guard noticed that Naga was limping and looked down at his legs, brows raised.

  “We heard two gunshots. Did you guys kill it?” He frowned, trying to remember whether he had seen a giant monster corpse next to the pond.

  “No, bullets slid off its skin.” Another voice came from the guard’s left, and he turned to see a man in a police uniform. He was part of George’s inner circle, the one who had assigned him guard duty today.

  “We would have been dead if it weren’t for George. He wrestled the creature and chased it away by shooting into its mouth.” The policeman’s voice was louder than usual, as if he wanted more people to hear him.

  The guard wondered if George was nearby, and he was right. He saw George and Sunny pacing forward and overtaking them, intending to catch up to Sid.

  He had seen George fight before. The man was like a juggernaut; attacks bounced off his shield, and he hit like a truck. The guard had thought the man was a monster. That was until a few minutes ago, when he witnessed Sid in action. Sid had killed more monsters in a single afternoon than George had in the entire two days the guard had been with him.

  “How did Varun get injured?” Naga asked, eyes narrowing with curiosity.

  “He was fighting an elite goblin with a sword. It sliced open his stomach.” The guard winced as he remembered the scene, more at the anger in Sid’s voice when Rohan had been slow to get to Varun. He dreaded thinking what would happen if Varun did not make it out alive.

  “What is an elite goblin?” Naga asked, tilting his head.

  It was the policeman on his left who answered. “That is what we call goblins who wear leather armor. You have not seen those?”

  Naga shook his head. “All we have seen are goblins in rags. Those run away when more people gather.”

  “The ones wearing armor are much harder to kill. We have killed three of them so far, not without cost, mind you.” The policeman added the next part in a lower voice, almost a whisper. “George got all of his skills from those kills.”

  Sid alone killed five elite goblins this afternoon, the guard thought. He could still picture Sid walking out of the dust cloud from that explosion, skill crystal in hand, and then catching another elite goblin mid-flight and killing it.

  “Anyone else injured apart from Varun?” Naga asked, concern clear on his face.

  “No, only Varun got injured,” the guard said. He looked ahead and noticed Sid limping forward along the path, dragging Aditi with him.

  “Why is he in his underwear?” the policeman asked, disbelief in his tone.

  A scream rang out in the distance. It came from their left, where the foragers had been working.

  The two goblins, the guard realised, thinking of the ones they had let inside the camp.

  He looked toward the front, where everyone had paused and turned to their left. He knew Sid cared more for Varun and his team than anyone else in this camp. How would he deal with this delay?