Varun POV

  Varun forced himself to look up. The impact still lingered in his back, dull and spreading, though the force was far less than when Pallavi had sent him flying earlier. He breathed through the pain, steadying himself, and found a grim sense of relief in the thought that the spider didn’t have a skill capable of delivering that kind of blow.

  The first thing he noticed was not the spider itself, but its absence.

  Pallavi stood frozen in her kicking pose, her body taut and balanced, holding the position for a second longer than necessary. Then she moved. She rushed to his left, spear already drawn and angled high in an attack stance. The sound of the spider landing reached them a heartbeat before she moved.

  Varun realized it had struck a tree. He did not need to turn his head to confirm it. The noise was unmistakable—wood against chitin—the same sound he had heard earlier when Sid had shattered one of the creature’s legs.

  He tilted his head just enough to catch sight of the second spider. It was stuck in place, its body held pinned to the ground by strands of its own webbing. No, that part was not the spider’s doing. That had to be Rohan. Varun had seen his hands free moments ago, and looks like he had the presence of mind to use his skill even while stuck in place.

  Sid had dismantled the creature completely. All eight legs, broken. The spider strained, its body shaking as it tried to lift itself. The webbing stretched tighter, dragging it down. Every attempt to rise only made the restraint worse.

  I should help Pallavi, thought Varun. His eyes flicked around the forest floor, searching for the spear he had lost when the spider had hit him. Dead leaves blanketed the ground, layered thick over branches and tangled roots that pushed up through the soil. Everything looked the same in the low light. He could not spot the weapon, and he did not have the time to keep searching.

  He pushed himself upright with effort, breath coming fast and shallow. His chest burned from the exertion. Instead of the spear, he reached back and pulled his short sword from its sheath. He moved toward Pallavi, who stood with her spear leveled at the spider, her stance tight and ready.

  The spider facing her bore faint grey cracks across the black chitin on its back. The damage was shallow but widespread, a sign that its defenses were weakening.

  Varun did not move to join Pallavi at the front. Instead, he angled his approach, circling wide. He intended to disable the spider’s mobility from behind. He did not want a repeat of the fight from the day before, when the creature had retreated up a tree and escaped despite being briefly pinned.

  He activated Dash.

  Varun fixed his gaze at a point roughly five feet short of the spider. His short sword was drawn and extended to his right, the blade angled forward. He gripped the hilt with both hands to keep from losing it during the maneuver.

  The posture felt awkward, unbalanced. Pain flared through his back from the earlier hit, but he held the position, tracking the spider’s blurred movements as the world stretched around him.

  Dash ended exactly where he intended. The sudden acceleration vanished, leaving his momentum to die on its own.

  Whenever he used Dash, Varun made it a habit to recover immediately. He either skidded across the ground or pivoted hard against a nearby tree, anything to bring himself back under control.

  This time, however, Varun increased his speed again, activating Quickstep. He needed that extra burst if he intended to achieve what he had set out to do. Agility was his highest stat, and he wanted to see how efficiently he could use it, the same way Pallavi leaned into her strength.

  He picked up speed once more, but this time with the ability to change directions. Compared to Dash, Quickstep provided a smaller boost in speed but increased maneuverability.

  The spider and Pallavi circled each other, their movements almost ritualistic, as if they were fighting inside a ring meant for an audience. Pallavi kept her spear steady, her steps measured. The spider tracked her with jerky movements. Then Varun burst in and out of that invisible ring in a flash.

  The only proof he had been there was the spider’s otherworldly screech. It pierced the air, sharp and shrill, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. A severed leg landed first. A heartbeat later, something metal struck the earth beside it.

  Pallavi did not hesitate or look toward him. It was as if she already knew what she had to do. Her focus remained on the spider in front of her. Taking it down came first. Helping the others would come after.

  She took two steps forward and drove her spear straight toward the spider’s eyes. She activated Power Strike at the same moment. A light blue glow flared at the tip of her spear, bright and concentrated.

  The spider had no chance to respond. Caught in the unplanned pincer attack, it took the blow head-on. The spear struck true, bursting through its eyes. Thick ichor poured out like blood, splashing across the remaining eyes and further robbing the creature of its vision.

  Varun turned to face the spider, gripping his wrist and rolling his palm to ease the pain. The leg had been tougher than it looked. When his sword had lodged itself in the chitin, he had been forced to let go, choosing his wrist over the weapon. After he released it, the spider’s movement had done the rest, cracking bone and chitin alike.

  The spider recoiled, wobbling now, stripped of the grace it had shown earlier. The complete loss of one of its limbs made escape unlikely, if not impossible.

  Varun checked himself for other weapons. His fingers brushed against the dagger tucked behind his belt. It was his last one. He felt a brief surge of gratitude for Sid’s insistence on carrying multiple weapons at all times, even if a dagger was far from ideal against an opponent like this. They needed more spares, especially spears.

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  Maybe I could get Rohan’s spear.

  He glanced to his left just in time to see Sid grab Rohan’s spear as he rushed to Pallavi’s side. A broken spear lay near the corpse of the other spider, snapped cleanly and abandoned.

  Together, Pallavi and Sid made quick work of the injured and blinded creature. They struck without hesitation, their attacks brutal and efficient. The spider’s movements slowed, then stopped entirely. A small flash of light marked the moment it died.

  Varun watched the glow fade, his thoughts drifting despite himself.

  How would people ever fake their deaths if a flash of light and a crystal always accompanied it?

  Sid dropped to his knees beside the fallen spider and reached for the skill crystal that had appeared next to its corpse. Varun watched him closely, eyes narrowing just a fraction. He was looking for a reaction—surprise, satisfaction, disappointment—anything that might lend weight to the theory forming in his head. Sid’s expression gave him nothing.

  Sid rose from his crouch and looked around, his gaze moving from one person to the next, deliberate and practiced, as if running through a checklist. “Everyone okay?”

  Pallavi leaned on her spear, the butt planted on the ground. Her shoulders dipped as some of the tension drained from her stance. “Yeah,” she said, then tilted her head toward Varun. “But Varun got hit.”

  Varun felt the attention before he fully registered the words. Three pairs of eyes turned toward him at once. He straightened and walked over, forcing an easy pace despite the ache still lingering in his back.

  “I’m fine.” Varun’s words came out rougher than he intended. His throat felt dry, scraped raw by exertion and dust.

  Sid nodded once. He pushed himself upright and reached into his pocket, pulling out another crystal.

  “What did we get?” Pallavi asked. She leaned in, curiosity sparking in her eyes. It was the same look she got every time something new dropped, sharp and expectant.

  “It’s Mana Web again, and something called Wall Walk.” Sid turned toward Rohan, who had freed himself from the webbing and stepped closer. Sid opened his palm and held out one of the crystals to him. Varun did not need to think too hard to know which one it was. Mana Web.

  “You should take it,” Rohan said, his gaze fixed on the ground. His shoulders sagged, and his voice carried a dull edge. “Or give it to Pallavi. I didn’t really do much in that fight. Again.”

  “You helped me, Rohan.” Sid placed a hand on Rohan’s shoulder. “You held that spider in place while I finished it.” As he spoke, the left side of Sid’s face twitched. His lips pulled into a brief, dismissive half-smile before smoothing out again.

  Varun caught it. The expression was casual, almost careless. It looked like even he knew the words coming out of his mouth were untrue.

  Rohan seemed to feel it too. He looked up and met Sid’s eyes with a flat stare, saying nothing. Varun thought back to the fight. Sid had not needed help in the last exchange. He would have finished the spider on his own, even if it took longer.

  “I don’t think we should have multiple people with the same skill on the team,” Sid said. He turned his head and met Pallavi’s gaze. “Do you want this?”

  “No,” Pallavi said immediately. She stepped closer to Rohan, angled her spear forward, and tapped his shoulder with it. Not hard. Just enough to pull his attention back. “It wasn’t as bad as you think. I got hit by the web too. What matters is that we both recovered and helped kill the spiders.”

  Rohan hesitated. His fingers curled and uncurled at his side. He swallowed before nodding. He reached out and took the crystal from Sid’s palm.

  Varun stepped closer, sliding the dagger back into his belt as he spoke. “Those spiders were targeting the ground where you stood. Even if you dodged, the splash would still get you.”

  Rohan’s eyes widened as he straightened abruptly, then lifted a hand to rub the side of his temple. “I should have figured it out.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” Sid said. A gentle smile rested on his face; his voice was even and steady. “You’ve had the skill for what, a week? The spiders probably had it for much longer. Of course they’d be better at using it.”

  Rohan let out a short laugh. To Varun, it sounded forced. The sound came a moment too late, and it cut off too quickly. The skill crystal in Rohan’s hands broke apart into motes of light, dissolving into his palm and vanishing.

  Sid lifted the last crystal. “This one’s called Wall Walk. It’s a common skill. Lets you climb trees, I think.”

  He held it out toward Varun. “You can take it if you want another movement skill before you evolve.”

  Varun kept his face neutral, even as something like satisfaction stirred beneath the surface. He made sure that none of it showed. “Do you know how it works?”

  He knew Sid was not the type to hand out a detrimental skill casually. The question was not about hesitation. It was fishing for details.

  “I think Bunty has the same skill,” Sid said. “I saw it mentioned in George’s diary.” His eyes flicked briefly toward Pallavi before coming back to Varun. “He can walk straight up a tree. Feet on the trunk, moving like it’s flat ground. Almost like a spider.”

  Varun noticed Pallavi’s expression shift at the mention of Bunty. Her jaw tightened, the corners of her mouth curling down.

  Varun remembered the day they had returned to camp, the way Pallavi and Bunty had stood apart from the others. Too far. Too deliberate. There had been tension there, unspoken but obvious. Whatever had happened there had not resolved itself.

  Sid pressed the crystal into Varun’s hand, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  “Take it,” Sid said. He stepped back, the corner of his lips lifting. “That went better than yesterday. Good job, guys.”

  Rohan opened his mouth as if to respond, then stopped. His lips pressed together, and he looked away.

  Varun had a pretty good idea of what Rohan wanted to say. The fight had followed a familiar pattern—Sid leading the fight from the front, while the rest of the team struggled to keep up.

  Varun searched for the positives instead. If Sid truly was a regressor, then they had done well. Pallavi and Varun himself had both shown improvement over the last two fights. They had coordinated better, reacted faster. They could have taken the spider down on their own.

  Rohan, though, was likely feeling the gap more sharply.

  “Are we staying here?” Pallavi asked. Her eyes swept the clearing, her posture tight again.

  “No, it’s not safe with two dead bodies lying around. Other monsters might show up.” Sid looked at Varun and gave a sharp nod. “We move as soon as Varun is ready.”

  Varun wanted to test Wall Walk immediately. The urge itched at him, sharp and insistent. But one look at Sid and Pallavi told him they were already set on leaving.

  Doesn’t matter. I can test it during the next break.

  With all three skill slots occupied by movement skills, only one thing remained. Evolving Dash.

  He remembered trying to scale a tree using Dash alone and failing badly. Maybe it would work if he combined it with Wall Walk.

  He would need more details first.

  And that meant asking Sid, however stingy he was with information.