His thoughts cut off as the puppet twitched. The rewind had stopped. It was still once more, mid-air, its limbs slightly contorted as if its body had glitched into an unnatural position.

Then— Jalen felt electricity surging from his toes to his spine. Looking up Death was upon him once again in the form of two cruel black eyes. That cruel smilew as two deformed limbs tried to smash him in the ground.

Jalen quickly dropped and rolled to the left as the puppet smashed against the place he was just standing. The puppet just stood there, its smile gone, replaced by a frown. Its head started swiveling 360 as it looked around in confusion. The puppet continued searching rooted in the same spot. As it continued to search its eyes glanced over Jalen before continuing forward.

Can it not see me? Jalen stayed lying on the tiled floor looking at the frantic puppet.

Jalen’s breath came shallow, his heart a war drum against his ribs. The Nyx Puppet stood in the crater where he had just been, its twisted head swiveling in eerie, unnatural rotations. But something was different now.

It wasn’t smiling.

More than that, it wasn’t looking at him.

Jalen stayed perfectly still, pressing himself against the cold tiles, his fingers curled against the floor. The puppet’s gaze had passed over him—right over him—without recognition. No shift in posture. No indication that it had even registered his presence.

Can it not see me?

His mind raced through possibilities. He had just activated the Blessing of the Wind—was this Phantom Veil’s doing? But it was only supposed to distort movement, make him harder to track. Not outright erase him from sight.

He carefully moved his hand an inch forward, testing the reaction. No response.

The puppet twitched, its movements jittery, almost... frantic. The absence of that cruel smile made it seem almost disturbed. It was searching for something.

For him.

A realization struck like a bow to it’s target.

It lost me when I dodged.

The puppet’s attack had been precise—too precise. It had been certain of his location, expecting him to stay in its grasp. But the moment he slipped away—no, the moment the wind carried him—it had lost track.

His eyes moved to his sprawled form and noticed he was blending in a little with the tile but not enough to be considered invisible. Something else was in play before Jalen could continue his musings; he noticed something building up from Jorm’s mouth. A sphere similar to the one he launched earlier but much larger. The water sphere building in front of Jorm was becoming so massive that it looked like Jorm was becoming smaller.

Jalen barely dared to breathe, his muscles locked in place. The Nyx Puppet remained rooted, its head still rotating in unnatural jerks, its vacant black eyes scanning—searching.

But it didn’t see him.

Even now, lying there, he was painfully aware that he wasn’t invisible in the traditional sense. The Phantom Veil distorted movement, made him harder to track, but that wouldn’t explain why the puppet’s gaze had simply passed over him, as though he wasn’t there at all.

Was it the wind? No—more than that.

The Nyx Puppet had lost his presence.

Jalen swallowed hard, a new realization clawing at the edges of his mind. It wasn’t that it couldn’t see him. It was that it had stopped perceiving him entirely.

The wind… it wasn’t just aiding his movement—it had disconnected him from the puppet’s sense of reality, severing whatever unnatural lock it had placed on him.

The giant water infront of Jorm started crystallizing. Not in the sense of it becoming ice but a deep azure crystal. Jorm swallowed and the puppet smiled once again. Jalen couldn’t tell it’s features apart but knew that it was planning something.

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The puppet began twitching again and Jorm released a ray of water that shot straight through the puppet.

Jalen’s stomach dropped as he watched the massive beam of water shoot through the Nyx Puppet—through it, as if it were nothing but mist. The attack didn’t rip through flesh, didn’t shatter limbs or send the creature flying.

It simply passed.

Like an illusion. Like a mirage.

Jorm’s attack—a force so dense it had begun crystallizing into something far beyond normal water—had no effect. The Nyx Puppet hadn’t dodged. Hadn’t countered. It had simply refused to be affected.

Jalen’s fingers twitched against the floor, his mind scrambling for explanations.

Phasing? No, that wasn’t right—phasing would have shown some kind of distortion, some kind of shift. But the puppet hadn’t blurred, hadn’t shimmered. It was just… untouched.

The puppet twitched again, that eerie, slow grin carving itself deeper into its face. It was staring at Jorm now, black eyes gleaming with something unreadable—something that made Jalen’s skin crawl.

Jorm pulled back, coiling, his massive frame tense with confusion. The remnants of the attack had shattered against the walls behind the puppet, leaving deep gouges in the stone. The sheer force alone had left the ground quaking.

But the puppet… was fine.

Jalen’s breath hitched.

This thing wasn’t just ignoring physics—it was playing with reality itself.

The puppet took a step forward.

Jorm bared his razor sharp teeth, water surging around him once more, but Jalen could see the hesitation in the serpent’s stance. The calculation. Jorm was intelligent—he had felt that attack connect, had seen it fail. He wasn’t about to waste another meaningless strike.

Jalen’s mind spun. If direct attacks weren’t going to work, what would?

The system prompt flickered at the edge of his vision.

[ Draw 1 card]

[Gain extra energy]

[Do nothing.]

[+2 Energy]

As the system prompt appeared Jalen felt an even larger energy flowing in his bones. The feeling felt almost

[ System Prompt]

[ Error is able to be exploited by lying in fetal position or a similar non-defensive position. The puppets scanners were specifically made to not be able to see targets in those non-defensive positions.]

[ ERROR: System intervention delayed. Calculating… ]

Jalen clenched his jaw. No help was coming. Not yet. So do I need to stay here but If I do it won't he just end up attacking Jorm and Ember. Deciding to draw and base my actions on the new card was my next plan.

His mind flicked back to the system’s latest error message:

[Error is able to be exploited by lying in fetal position or a similar non-defensive position. The puppet’s scanners were specifically made to not be able to see targets in those non-defensive positions.]

That was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. And yet—it fit.

The puppet’s behavior, the way it had lost track of him when he dodged… It wasn’t just ignoring him. It was designed to ignore him under certain conditions.

Jalen gritted his teeth. That meant this wasn’t some cosmic, physics-breaking anomaly. It was a flaw.

One he could abuse.

But he couldn’t just curl into a ball and let Jorm and Ember fend for themselves. He needed more information. More power.

His finger tapped Draw 1 card.

With a flash of light, a card was drawn. Reading the card a smile flashed on Jalen’s lips.

[Name: Earth Turtle Spirit ]

[Type: Summon]

[Subtype: Aqua, Creature, Earth Spirit]

[Summoning Cost: 1 Mana]

[Activation Cost: 2 Energy]

[Effect: Summon the Earth Turtle Spirit. Has a Resilience of 25, a magic power of 5, and lifeforce of 20. Can Taunt enemies]

Jalen’s eyes flicked over the card’s text, absorbing the details in an instant. Earth Turtle Spirit. A summon. Not particularly strong, but that last part—Can Taunt enemies—stood out like a beacon in the darkness.

Jorm’s voice echoed in his head, sharp and urgent.

“I have a plan. But I need time.”

Time. That was something Jalen could give him.

Without hesitation, he activated the card.

A deep rumble pulsed through the air as the Earth Turtle Spirit materialized beside him. The creature wasn’t massive—only about double the size of not even reaching Jalen’s chest but it was solid. Running his hands around the slide spirits shell he could feel its firmness, but it was unbelievably smooth.

It’s shell shimmered with earthen runes, each glowing faintly as it took form. Its eyes, two orbs of liquid amber, locked onto the Nyx Puppet, and then—

“GRRRROOOHHH.”

The Earth Turtle let out a bellowing challenge, its very presence shifting the battlefield.

The Nyx Puppet froze.

Jalen watched in muted astonishment as the puppet’s jerky, chaotic movements stilled. Its head twitched, its empty black eyes snapping toward the summon. That eerie smile widened once more, a grotesque mimicry of amusement.

It was acknowledging the turtle. Not ignoring it. Like it was currently doing with Ember currently but Jalen’s mind raced. The taunt ability… it wasn’t just drawing aggression. It was overriding whatever broken logic dictated the puppet’s perception.

The Earth Turtle took a step forward, its heavy limbs cracking the tile beneath it. The runes along its shell pulsed, a subtle hum reverberating through the air.

The puppet twitched.

Then—it attacked.

Its arms shot forward, limbs twisting unnaturally as it lunged at the turtle with lethal intent. The force of the strike sent shockwaves through the floor, shattering the tiles upon impact.

But the Earth Turtle Spirit held firm. Its shell absorbed the brunt of the attack, only sliding back a few inches. The runes glowed brighter, absorbing the kinetic energy like a fortress standing against a storm.

Jalen’s breath came fast.

It worked.