Sid POV

  “He’s knocked out.” Sid dropped Rohan’s hand and lifted his face to check on the rest of his team.

  Varun crouched opposite, jaw tight as he leaned closer to Rohan. His fingers traced the edge of the swelling on Rohan’s scalp, rubbing it and checking his fingers to see if there was bleeding.

  Pallavi crouched to Sid’s right, close enough that he could hear her breathing. Her eyes kept flicking between him and Varun, then drifting to the boar carcass behind them. The coppery stink of blood hung thick around the carcass, souring the damp forest air.

  “What do we do now?” Her words came out fast. She swallowed immediately after, chest rising and falling hard, and her fingers kept flexing as if she had not realized she was doing it.

  Sid felt the weight settle on him, blaming himself for how the fight had unfolded. He had survived a hundred battles. He had crossed blades with orc warlords and lived. That history had fed a quiet arrogance, one that told him he could handle goblins without thinking too hard. His last two victories had only stroked that ego.

  Without Pallavi surging forward and scaring the shaman away, they would’ve had to fight tooth and nail just to survive. If there were reinforcements, it would spell their end. Sid pressed those thoughts into a box and shoved it into the corner of his mind. His team needed him now. Self-reflection could wait.

  “That second horn means a larger force is nearby,” Sid said, turning to meet Pallavi’s gaze. There was an unspoken urgency in his tone, which he made explicit. “We need to hide before they get here.”

  Pallavi’s lips parted. She glanced once more toward the carcass, then at Rohan’s unmoving form, before looking away and giving a small, restrained nod.

  Varun cleared his throat. “Let’s run.” He met Sid’s eyes, searching them, then looked down at Rohan again. “We can carry him together.”

  “No, hiding is better. We have a spot there.” Sid pointed to the shelter Varun and Pallavi had prepared beneath the rock outcropping that jutted from the slope like a cantilever.

  Pallavi followed his finger. Her lips pressed into a thin line. She tilted her head slightly, eyes narrowing at the shadowed hollow, then looked back at Sid without speaking.

  The silence stung more than Varun’s protest. Sid could feel it, the doubt seeded by his earlier misread. He had missed the goblins’ delay, the shift in their formation. He had pulled Pallavi’s focus at the wrong moment and left her trapped in Mana Web.

  “If a larger group is after us, we need to get the hell out of here, Sid.” Varun’s voice cracked higher than before. “Not sit in a hole and wait.” He glanced toward the outcropping, then back. “That place won’t hold if they search properly.”

  Sid rose to his feet, forcing Varun to look up. “You’re not thinking it through.” His voice came out sharper than he intended, breath quick in his chest. “Carrying Rohan will slow us down. The boar riders will catch us.”

  Varun swallowed whatever he had been about to say, but the frown remained. He pushed himself up, taking a deep breath. “I know it’s not ideal. But I’d rather take my chances running than sit here and wait. If they catch us, at least we won’t be facing all of them at once.”

  “Let’s move to the hideout. We’re wasting time arguing here.” Pallavi sounded tired, her lips drawn into a thin line.

  Sid blinked at her. He had not expected her to step in. He knew she disliked the idea of hiding, had seen it in the way her eyes lingered on the open slope earlier. Something shifted her judgment. Whatever it was, he was grateful.

  He and Varun lifted Rohan together. Rohan sagged between them, arms slung over their shoulders, Sid’s hand bracing his back while Varun adjusted his grip twice to keep Rohan from slipping.

  Sid could have asked Pallavi to carry Rohan. The thought crossed his mind and stayed there. It would have been easier for her. But Varun needed convincing, and Sid was not about to dismantle his own argument. Varun still had not factored her increased strength into his decision making. Sid let the blind spot remain.

  Sid watched Varun from the corner of his eye, half-expecting a joke, maybe a movie reference. Rohan had once been their boss, after all. Varun said nothing. His eyes kept sweeping the terrain, jaw clenched tight.

  “I think I can use Mist Blend to hide us better,” Sid said. The climb pulled the air from his lungs faster than he liked. His thighs burned. He grimaced inwardly. He had skipped too many workouts.

  “That skill only hides you, not the rest of us,” Varun said. His tone was tight, as if each word took effort.

  Sid did not stop walking. “It hides whatever I’m holding. A knife. A weapon.” He turned his head just enough to glance at Varun’s face. “What if I’m holding a net?”

  Varun’s steps slowed for half a second as understanding set in, replacing some of the tension in his face. Ahead of them, Pallavi glanced back, the corner of her mouth lifting for a heartbeat before she faced forward again.

  Mist Blend alone would not be enough. Sid was already layering the plan in his mind. Mist Blend would hide the net from everyone, while Veil of the Mind’s Eye would disrupt anyone who came close to confirm what they were seeing.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Fine,” Varun said. The word carried an edge. “But it’s still just a theory.” He paused, breath hitching. “We don’t know if it’ll work.”

  “It’s our best shot.” Sid adjusted his hold on Rohan. “I think it will.” He had seen similar skills behave that way. If they had more time, he could even confirm it.

  The hideout came into view. Pallavi reached it first and raised the net layered with dried leaves and clotted mud. She held it steady, letting Sid and Varun duck inside without disturbing the rocks holding the net in place. Shrubs and soil had disguised the unnatural rock placement above the outcropping—though shrubbery on bare stone might still catch a tracker’s attention.

  They lowered Rohan into the hideout. The place reeked of rotting leaves and dried mud—the very items used for camouflaging the net.

  Then the horn sounded again, louder and deeper than before.

  The army was close.

  Sid turned to Varun. “I don’t think we can test whether the skill works. They’re already here.” He knew Mist Blend could hide the net. What he actually wanted to test was how the Veil of the Mind’s Eye worked.

  Mist Blend would behave predictably. It blurred whatever he held, wrapping it in the mist already clinging to the slope. Evening had thickened the air, moisture pooling in the low ground. The conditions favored him.

  Veil of the Mind’s Eye did not offer that certainty. Sid didn’t know whether it would shroud the entire hideout or only him and the net. Those were significantly different options. Life and death, different.

  “No, Sid. I need to know if the skill works.” The exhaustion was clear in Varun’s voice. “Otherwise, we’re sitting ducks. I don’t need to go out. I can check it from inside.”

  Sid did not answer. He leaned forward and peered through the gaps in the netting. The slope beyond was still, yet not truly empty. Shrubs shivered, leaves shifted without a sound. Goblins were close.

  He straightened and faced Varun. “Keep in contact with the net. I want to test something.” He turned his head toward Pallavi. “That goes for you and Rohan.”

  Varun exhaled and nodded. He likely understood they would not outrun the goblins. He extended his palm to the net, careful not to hook his fingers into it and bring it down.

  Pallavi adjusted Rohan’s limp hand until it rested against the folded net lining the back wall. She placed her own hand against another fold beside her.

  “I’ll blend us with the mist. No more talking.” Sid’s words came out sharper than intended. His chest felt tight as the thoughts he had suppressed clawed for attention.

  He activated Mist Blend.

  Mist gathered around him, softening his outline. The net, however, stayed clear.

  Sid swallowed and forced his breathing steady. He had expected this. He was not a prodigy.

  The air tasted wet and metallic as he drew it in through clenched teeth. He rebuilt the image carefully. The net was not an object—it was part of him. It was a cloak resting on his shoulders, spreading as he moved.

  Varun’s brows drew together as he freed his knife with his other hand. Pallavi tightened her grip on her spear, breathing slowly and steadily.

  Sid activated and released the skill again and again, refining the image, adding detail. Then something clicked. He felt it before he saw it. The system’s level-up chime confirmed it.

  Only then did he look up and see both himself and the net obscured beneath a thin layer of mist. In the fading evening light, it did not look out of place at all.

  Varun broke into a wide grin and slid the knife back into his belt, loosening his grip on the net. Pallavi let out a slow breath and leaned her back against the rock, adjusting her footing as if preparing to wait.

  Sid caught Varun’s eye and motioned for him to put his hand back on the net, mouthing the word “Mist” and pointing at him.

  Varun nodded and returned to his earlier posture, though his movements were smoother now, less frantic.

  Mist Blend didn’t summon mist, unlike the goblin shaman’s Mist Veil. His skill did exactly what its name suggested. It adapted to what already existed, merging its target into the haze hanging in the air. It was subtle, its effectiveness being conditional.

  Sid reached outward with the skill, trying to draw Varun and Pallavi into the effect. If he could bridge that gap with Mist Blend, then Veil of the Mind’s Eye might follow the same principle. They might walk away from this unharmed.

  Instead, he met resistance.

  It felt solid. Like pushing against stone.

  The brick wall. Everyone walking the path of power encountered it sooner or later. The unspoken certainty that something could not be done. It appeared whenever someone tried to go against the core tenets of a skill, such as using a self-targeting skill on a group of people.

  Sid remembered Professor Ozler pacing at the front of the room, repeating the same lesson. You can bend the rules, but not break them.

  Sid abandoned the attempt and shifted his attention outside.

  A group of goblins emerged near the trail. None wore armor. Scouts and trappers. Two of them peeled away, heading toward the site of the earlier fight, heads lowered as they examined the ground, likely using a tracking skill.

  The timer on Mist Blend expired. The skill slipped into cooldown.

  Mist Blend had one advantage over other stealth skills like Invisibility. When Invisibility dropped, you became visible. When Mist Blend dropped, the mist remained. It no longer obeyed Sid’s control, but as long as the air stayed still, it continued to obscure them.

  The tracker goblins reached the spot where Rohan had collapsed and began gesturing sharply at one another. A boar rider in leather armor burst into the clearing, hooves tearing up dirt, four more riders flanking him in pairs. He shouted down at the trackers.

  One goblin pointed toward Sid’s hiding place.

  The rider turned, barked commands to the others closing in behind him, then faced the slope and charged.

  Sid’s blood ran cold. His mouth went dry, bitterness coating his tongue as he held perfectly still. More goblins were spilling into the clearing than he had expected. Too many.

  There would be no fighting their way out.

  If they were found, they were dead.