Nine goblins were lying in wait between the cave and the scouting camp, in an area that the interlopers were most likely to approach them from since the goblins from forward camp would lead them straight through it. Lurk had placed them here to intercept any adventurers once any of the forward bases would see incoming. Just as they saw someone breaching through the brush, a group of goblins number six came sprinting across the clearing, but once they hit the middle point two of the goblins collapsed as each of them had an arrow in the back of their head.

The hiding goblins stayed hidden, they had been told by Lurk to not reveal themselves until the interlopers were in the clearing, so they could bombard them with their spears and send out their main melee group.

The goblins shrieked and kept on sprinting, just as the sound of an ax spinning through the air took out one more goblin. The last goblins ran across the clearing and jumped past some medium sized rocks and back into the forest once more.

"Hurry! three left! We can stop them!" Alex commanded out, he leaped into the clearing his shield raised and a new ax at the ready. Just as he reached the middle point goblins appeared around in the clearings edges and threw their spears at him. Alex opened his eyes wide and quickly shouted out.

"[Shielded Aura!]"

His shield began to emit a slight glow and the glow expanded out to cover a much large area in front of him. Then most of the spears struck the glow being deflected off, the other spears not hitting his shield he dodged as he flung his ax out and split the skull of a goblin.

Then six of the goblins sprinted out with their makeshift weapons hollering and shrieking in anger all converging on the Warrior as he was flipping out his last ax from his back. Moving in close to his location.

"[Steady Shot!]"

Two more arrows flew right past Alex into two of the goblins, they were extremely close but also hit right into the goblins skulls as they collapsed in front of him. Alex slamming his shield out towards the most concentrated group of goblins, the wide glow slamming against them sending three of them flying back, the glow dissipating as the effect wore off. The last goblin jumped into the opening and struck its club down onto his hip, but Alex seemed to barely notice it.

The goblin swung out again, but Alex had already readied his shield towards it, and it was futile to try and penetrate the shield. The goblin barely managed to shriek before a heavy ax blow slammed into its shoulder and split its left side almost in two, Alex shook the ax free from the goblin corpse and faced the goblins that had stayed behind at the edge just as they threw more spears that he blocked easily.

The goblins were simply not equipped well enough to handle these adventurers. Their skill was on another level entirely compared to the easy pickings of peasants, and they lacked the proper swarm numbers to take on such a beast of a human easily. Plus the light of the sun was now lighting up the forest, making it even worse for the goblins.

The spear throwing goblins managed to ready more spears but then one of them collapsed just as he was about to throw as Bellie came out launching an arrow into its chest. She was unable to shoot the other one as they were not close together and had to come out to get a proper shot. She was still turning when the goblin threw its spear at its new target, shrieking out in hate. It might not be able to hit that man but it would be able to hit the woman since she was now out from behind the trees.

"[Rapid Fire!]"

Suddenly Bellie moved a lot faster and quickly managed to turn and launch several arrows, in a blur she fired three arrows that were not as precise as the usual shots, but it managed to hit two of the arrows into the goblin that fell back shrieking in pain.

Alex slammed his ax down onto the goblins he had pushed down with his shield, they were sprawling to get back up but only one managed to get up the other two getting crushed beneath the solid ax blade.

The last goblin made a run for it, panic filled its eyes but it heard the sound of a heavy object being flung at it, barely managing to turn its head before seeing Alex's ax fly into its body sending it flying from the heavy impact.

Alex grabbed one of the axes he had thrown, ripping it out of a nearby goblin. Looking around the edge of the clearing. turning to look to Bellie's direction.

"Come out here and heal me!" He looked angry, he managed to get hit, it had hurt him but barely. He was more annoyed he was not fast enough. If the goblin had been better equipped it could have been dangerous.

The girl in the robes came running out, seemingly trying her best to keep up, but she had ragged breath, clearly not being in proper physical condition and having to keep up with the two adventurers.

"Hurry up will you!" Alex growled keeping an eye on the edge but he turned around annoyed to look at the girl.

Meanwhile, a goblin had been hiding in the rocks, it had simply not dared to go out, it was staring at the adventurer's eyes wide. when it saw its chance to cause pain and death, Bellie was retrieving arrows from bodies and Alex had turned his head away, its instincts were overridden and it came out from behind the rock, and threw a spear, this spear was a javelin with a new metal tip.

Bellie managed to just spot the goblin about to throw the javelin, so did the girl in the robes. But Alex was oblivious and to slow to react from the shock in the girl's eyes to turn.

"Block the arrow Sylvie!" Bellie shouted out, the girl suddenly jumped in front of Alex and the javelin pierced into her shoulder. She cried out in pain and collapsed. Aled turned around and flung his ax into the skull of the goblin.

"Phew!... That was a close one! Thanks, Bellie! id never had thought of that!" Alex sighed as he gave thanks towards Bellie instead of the robed girl strangely enough.

"You are too kind it's all." Bellie pulled out an arrow.

"Well! are you alive! Heal yourself Sylvie!" He pulled the javelin out of the girl's shoulder giving her a rough command, a pained cry came from her as her hood fell off. A pretty but dirty face of a human, with shortcut curly blue hair, and a pair of fluffy cat ears from her head. She was in terrible pain but her body almost moved on her own as her hand was put on her shoulder, and she began to heal herself, tears streaming down her cheeks as a collar around her neck was glowing faintly, compelling her to move regardless of what her body might or might not want to do, upon hearing her name and a command.

"Good, we caught all the runners, they might know the direction, but not our numbers. If Gavrin handled his group as well we should be a lot safer now to approach the nest." Alex said as he kept watch til Bellie had retrieved her arrows, then she began to watch as he picked out his ax's and also to dig into the goblins skull, looking for something.

"Hmm these goblins all seem to have some good magic stones!, they must have been in a mana-rich area for a while!" Alex popped out a small round transparent rock, these magic stones were the bread and butter of the adventurers as they could be sold for a good price depending on their quality.

The girl in the robe cried as she healed her self, the wound had stopped bleeding but was not entirely healed.

"Pff... Pathetic, she is almost out of mana... Here... Too soon to already be using these... I told you she was not worth it... That slave dealer did say she did not have a lot of mana and her healing was sub-par." Bellie said as she took out a small blue vial forcing the drink into Sylvies mouth making her drink it.

"Bah he also said she could recover her mana fast though!, she just does not have a big pool of it is all!" Alex shrugged, he 'helped' Sylvie up on her feet, and they began moving, "That's enough healing, for now, the wound is closed enough, save the rest for us, Sylvie", Alex said to her, ignoring her tears that were silently flowing, as she pulled up her hood once more and followed in behind the two as they left the slaughtered goblins behind in the clearing, her mouth in a pained angry grimace.