Kiran POV

  “What’s going on here?” The Garrison Leader’s voice was unmistakable. A deep, baritone growl that commanded instant attention.

  Kiran turned to face him, a faint smile playing on his lips. He appreciated that Sid had remembered him from their brief encounter and had stepped in to establish a better rapport.

  Sid was one of the few people in camp whom Kiran liked and feared in equal measure. Their connection, though born from a single fight, had proven incredibly lucrative; it had earned Kiran two skills—far more than he had gained from over ten days of mindless toil.

  He wanted Sid to crush the guard the way Tony had. Instead, Sid backed down, wanting to avoid a fight. Then the Garrison Leader arrived, and Kiran realized he was in for a different kind of show.

  “This guy wants an audience with the Camp Leader,” the bald guard said, pointing an accusing finger at Sid.

  “That doesn’t explain why I heard you demanding half his skill crystals.” The Garrison Leader couldn’t hide the irritation in his tone. “What was that about?”

  The Garrison Leader didn’t play around with words. His blunt honesty had earned him the camp’s adoration, with many preferring him over Naga to lead them. Kiran, however, didn’t share the sentiment. To rule a camp full of snakes and vultures, one needed guile, not honor. The same virtues that made the Garrison Leader so well-liked were precisely why he would fail as a ruler.

  “He says he’s a scout.” The tall guard tried to salvage his defence, but his voice lacked conviction. “Scouts are required to hand over half their earnings.”

  Kiran sensed the perfect moment to drive the final nail into the coffin. “He’s one of the camp’s founding members. He left this camp long before Tony did.”

  These garrison fools never learned. Shaking down dangerous men for a quick profit was pure suicide. When a man walked out of the wild alone after five days, common sense dictated fear, not a shakedown.

  They made the same mistake with Tony just days ago. He responded by unleashing a terrifying subjugation skill, striding through the camp and forcing grown men to their knees with a simple flare of his aura. The camp leader himself had to intervene to stop the humiliation.

  Where did Baldy and the Tall One find the nerve to try again? Kiran pitied the Garrison Leader for having to command such cowards. These men were ‘one-hit wonders’. Fighters who had killed a monster once to gain a skill, then lost the stomach for it. Desperate for power but too terrified to earn it, they resorted to stealing it by hook or by crook.

  “Is that true?” The Garrison Leader turned to Sid, locking eyes with him.

  Sid held the stare and nodded. He offered the Garrison Leader the same treatment he gave the guards: politeness without a hint of submission. The Garrison Leader was a force to be reckoned with; a fighter with three uncommon skills who acted like a human frag grenade in battle. But to Kiran, Sid was the veritable monster.

  Sid’s danger lay in his simplicity. He didn’t rely on brute force like George, crushing auras like Tony, or the explosive area-of-effect attacks that defined the Garrison Leader. In the one fight Kiran had witnessed, Sid had slaughtered five goblins as if he were taking a walk in the park. He was a reaper in disguise.

  The irony was that both George and Naga had grilled Kiran extensively about Sid’s capabilities—his skills, his style, his weaknesses. But Kiran couldn’t have told them even if he wanted to. When he finally described Sid as the ‘Thomas Muller’ of combat—always in the right place at the right time—he received only confused stares in return.

  “In that case, the fee is one common crystal.” The Garrison Leader didn’t raise his voice, yet his glare guaranteed the guards would pay later for their greed.

  “Sir, he lied!” The bald guard tried to shift the target on his back. “He says he has no crystals at all.”

  The Garrison Leader looked at Sid. “Is that so?”

  “Yeah,” Sid kept his tone even, his face a mask of calm. “I don’t have any crystals on me.”

  “What about your squad?” The Garrison Leader asked, his posture stiffening. “Where are they?”

  “They’re nearby. They’ll come in once I confirm the camp is safe.” Sid glanced up for a moment, as if he were searching for something, before meeting the Leader’s gaze. “But they don’t have any skill crystals either.”

  Kiran couldn’t make sense of it. Four common crystals were pocket change to Sid. Why avoid a fight with the guards earlier only to start one now?

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  The tall guard stepped forward, his nostrils flaring with suppressed rage. “You might’ve founded this camp, but it’s under new management now. Follow the rules if you know what’s good for you.”

  “The camp might’ve changed, but I’m still the same.” Sid refused to break eye contact with the Garrison Leader. “I don’t lie, and I didn’t even know there was a fee. Just take me to Naga.”

  Kiran braced himself to run, sensing the air was about to crackle with violence. Then, the Garrison Leader pointed a finger at Sid but pivoted his gaze to Kiran, freezing him in place. “What’s his relation with Naga?”

  “They’re friends.” Kiran struggled to keep his breathing under control.

  “Fine. Come with me, both of you.” The Garrison Leader headed toward the camp entrance, throwing a look over his shoulder at Sid. “I’m covering your debt of one crystal. Pay me back the moment you can.”

  Kiran joined them as they walked inside. He didn’t know the specifics of the dynamic between Sid and Naga, but it was clear they looked out for one another. Sid’s enemies found no sanctuary here; Naga saw to that. The Kurishingal family was proof enough; trapped in endless water collection duties, they were effectively barred from leveling up or gaining influence.

  Still, they had it easy compared to George’s remnants. Latrine duty was the price they paid for their leader’s cowardice. The bastard had revealed his true nature, fleeing in the night to serve as Tony’s underling, abandoning his team to the muck he left behind.

  Kiran used to think George was driven by pride, given how he beat down his former superiors for old slights. The incident with Tony, however, exposed him as a simple bully. He preyed on the weak and groveled before the strong, doing whatever it took to survive; a trait that, unfortunately, held immense value in this hellhole.

  Kiran’s time under George was a living hell. George treated his squad as disposable meat shields, feeding them to monsters for a tactical edge or sacrificing them to cover his own retreat. Greed drove him more than pride. Kiran once watched him beat a subordinate to death just to reclaim an uncommon skill crystal the man had dared to absorb.

  The irony was that George’s cruelty eventually backfired. When he tried to frame Sid for the Kurishingal murders, his own team lied to contradict him out of sheer spite. They claimed the victims had wandered off while intoxicated. The cover story was convincing. Kiran might have believed it himself if Naga hadn’t explicitly ordered him to feed that lie to the Garrison Leader’s men who joined the camp around that time.

  Sid halted near the workshop, his eyes tracking the craftsmen shaping monster bones into weapons and molding chitin into plates. “You guys are making armour already?” He didn’t bother hiding his surprise.

  “The goal is to outfit every scout team with armour. We have to minimize fatalities, especially since healers are a luxury most teams don’t have.” The Garrison Leader gestured for them to walk on. “That’s why we take half their crystals. It funds the equipment and training, and settles the debt for any skill crystals they were given to start with.”

  The Scout Leader revamped the camp’s approach to scouting. He established the workshop with Naga’s support, then spent a couple of days training people on fighting monsters, fixing team composition, and even distributing some skills to round out the weaker teams.

  Kiran wanted to join the scouts, but Naga told him to wait for a week as he needed a spy to watch for George’s return. Naga promised him skills for the intel, but Kiran didn’t care about the reward. He took the deal for the chance to ruin George, not for the crystals.

  However, the opportunity vanished overnight. George fled the camp the next day, abandoning his subordinates. Because Naga intended to break George’s loyalists with the worst assignments, Kiran was condemned to latrine duty, only occasionally bargaining his way onto a construction crew to escape the filth.

  That allowed him to see the fight he had missed while helping Sid: the return of the blue salamander. The Scout Leader’s team engaged the beast but found themselves outmatched, forced back toward the camp perimeter.

  When Tony’s group appeared, Kiran expected them to reinforce the scouts. Instead, Tony stepped forward alone. He pulverized the same creature that had overwhelmed an entire team, ending the fight with a brutal sword thrust through its eye.

  Kiran prayed the scouts had worn the beast down first. If they hadn’t, it meant Tony’s power eclipsed everyone else’s. That was a terrifying prospect, considering George had just joined his inner circle. Kiran knew enough to realize that anyone who accepted George as an ally was likely not a good person.

  In the distance, mounds of fresh earth rose near the camp center. The rumors were true: they were building a bunker. Kiran hoped it was intended for the children and the elderly, rather than a sanctuary for the leadership.

  Naga appeared soon after. His suit was frayed at the hem, worn down by days of rough living in the wild. Unlike the Scout or Garrison Leaders, he wore no silk accessories to mark his status.

  “How’s the project coming along?” The Garrison Leader quickened his pace as he approached Naga.

  “It’s slow going. Even with the Burrow skill, the ground is fighting us.” Naga’s gaze flickered to Sid, lighting up with recognition. “We hit bedrock and had to move twice already.”

  The Garrison Leader thumbed in Sid’s direction. “This guy claims he knows you. Says he has intel.”

  “Hey,” Sid raised a hand in a casual greeting. “Can we talk in private?”

  “Thanks for bringing him straight to me. We don’t need another misunderstanding like we had with Tony.” Naga offered a brief smile, shifting his attention from the Garrison Leader to Sid. “Let’s talk by the main campfire.”

  Naga turned and led the way, with Sid falling into step behind him.

  “Who is he, really?” the Garrison Leader asked, turning to Kiran.

  “He was the strongest,” Kiran said. “Tony and George left the camp just to find a way to surpass him.” Seeing the Garrison Leader connect the dots, Kiran lowered his voice. “It’s also why Naga buried the Kurishingal family.”

  The Garrison Leader swallowed hard. The tension melted from his shoulders. “So, he is Naga’s answer to Tony.”

  “I just hope he’s strong enough,” Kiran sighed. “Tony is a monster now. I don’t think even the Scout Leader could take him.”

  The Garrison Leader patted Kiran’s shoulder. “Oh, he’s strong, alright. When he stared me down earlier, my instincts screamed at me to run. Not the supernatural pressure Tony uses, but the logical reaction of a prey spotting a hunter. A fear that lingered. Let’s just hope their war doesn’t kill the rest of us.”

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