Over the next day they were able to remove six more goblins before the tribe seemed to catch on that something was wrong. The four team members hoped the goblins would pick up and leave in fear, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. The goblins started posting sentries and the males began building walled fortifications around the camp.

Coming from the lookout, Brooke sat down with a huff, "We have to do something before those fortifications go up. Otherwise they will be holed up real tight."

Danny suggested, "They are down in that ravine. Maybe if we start shooting at them from up high, maybe a tree, we can hit enough before they reach us to make the difference we need."

Ivy shook her head, "I don't like the idea of trapping ourselves up in a tree."

Danny suddenly had a thought, "What if we got close enough to the cave for me to make a path down into it. We could find the chief or shaman who is in charge and kill them. Cut the head of and the rest will not know what to do."

Ivy thought about this, "How would you know where to open the hole, wouldn't that take a while with trial and error? We could easily get spotted by then, and that has to be noisy."

"I found a way to use magic to see gaps in the earth. It is similar to my air scan. I can do the same with water too."

Brooke looked annoyed and confused, "Why haven't you told us about this till now?"

Danny shook his head, "Because it uses a lot of concentration and a bit of mana and that cost increases with the size of the area I am searching. Also, I can only stretch my mana out so far. Right now it's between ten to fifteen meters. At the furthest distances I can't really add any more mana. So my spells are weaker."

Ivy frowned, "We are going to sit down and have you list everything you can do, everything. I figured we would have covered everything by now. Back to the problem at hand, how close do you need to get?"

"Once I know where I need to go I should be able to start digging a tunnel there from any distance. I can work my way over searching the earth for possible tunnels or natural openings to exit into. Of course, it will just take more time the further away I start the tunnel."

Ivy nodded, "Alright, we will start searching for a good location today. Tomorrow we will begin the tunnel."

Danny was laying on his stomach in the grass. A ways behind him in the tree line of the forest, Ivy, Jade, and Brooke, waited nervously for him to finish. When they had reached the area behind the entrance of the cave, Danny hadn't felt anything in the safety of the tree line. Ivy almost called it off, not wanting him go out into the open.

Danny was sure something just crawled up into his shirt. He did his best to ignore it and kept crawling. Every few feet Danny would stop for a few minutes before moving again. He wasn't just resting, he was scanning the earth below him for access to the cave below. Up ahead of him was the edge of the small ravine and the goblin camp below. He could see some of the goblins on the outskirts of the other side of the ravine, moving around.

He found it! Danny scanned again to confirm. Then he stopped doing a general sweep of the area below him and targeted specific directions. The cave was comprised of a single large cavern leading to what he suspected was the entrance. He would have to move closer to the edge to confirm, but he had gotten what he needed. He considered just closing the opening and slowly filling the cavern, but was worried they might have more prisoners inside the cave. He tried casting air scan through the earth but could only confirmed there were humanoids shapes moving around inside. He didn't have the skill or experience to differentiate more specific features. He really needed to practice that more. He slowly began crawling backwards. That's when a goblin walked out of the tree line to his left and approached the edge of the ravine. The goblin was a male and began shouting at something below. Danny began slowly inching back, as the goblin might turn at any moment and spot him. His knee came down on a small twig with a loud snap. The male goblin stopped shouting and paused. Just as the goblin was about to turn around there was a crash below, followed by more shouting. Danny didn't take any further chances and slowly raised himself up and crouched/duck walked back to the others.

Brooke and Jade barely grabbed and flung him behind them before a pair of female goblins came up to the male and started yelling at the long eared creature. They soon left to go back down to the camp.

The teammates quietly made their way back to the tree house. Casting a light spell on the ceiling, Danny collapsed onto his pallet.

Jade complained, "That was too close!"

"Agreed," Ivy said as she sat on her pallet.

Brooke chuckled, "I thought he was caught for sure when he snapped that twig in half!"

Jade sat on the end of Danny's pallet and told him, "We are going to practice your sneaking skill as soon as we have a chance!"

Ivy interrupted, asking, "So, what did you find?"

"I could only find one large cavern. They might have expanded on it a little themselves. I also was able to tell there were at least a dozen humanoid creatures in the cave."

"You can sense people through the earth?"

"No, I can sense people through the air. My mana can pass through objects and I used it on the air inside the cavern."

"I see," Ivy said, though Danny doubted that.

"I thought about collapsing the entrance and just slowly filling the cavern. For one, they would probably notice the entrance slowly closing and some might have time to escape before I am finished. I unfortunately can't distinguish human from goblin. I don't want to inadvertently kill a human prisoner."

Ivey thought for a minute, "How long will it take you to make us a tunnel from that tree line we were watching from?"

"A day, maybe less, maybe more. Moving earth isn't easy and I need to make sure to shore up the sides, so it is less likely to collapse on us."

"Alright we will start first thing tomorrow morning. Danny get some sleep, the rest of us will take watch duty tonight."

Danny was almost to the cavern wall. After spending half the morning pushing through the earth, he had an epiphany. One of those epiphany's that says, "Hey idiot, yeah you!" Danny started using earth scan to feel the weakest parts of ground between him and the cavern. After that it felt as if he had to work half as hard. Danny went back to the surface where he had surrounded the entrance with roots from the neighboring trees that morning. The roots helped keep the entrance intact and stopped it from caving in. The girls waited there and he sat down next to them, tired from focusing for so long.

"I have less than a meter to the cavern wall."

Ivy smiled at him, "Good job. Do you think you can create a small hole for us to look through without alerting whoever is in there?"

Danny nodded, too tired to speak. Brooke handed him her water skin.

Ivy stood up, "Alright, I will go with you, Brooke and Jade, watch our backs."

They returned to the end of Danny's tunnel and he started to remove the last bit of wall. It was slow going as he didn't want to alert anyone on the other side with the shifting and falling rock. Just before he broke through, he realized he still had a magic light going. The last thing he needed was the hole he created to shine out into the cavern like a flashlight. Extinguishing it he used earth sense to finish the last finger length of rock left. Light shown through the hole when it was done and Danny leaned in to look.

Danny was expecting a large goblin seated on a throne made from the skulls of humans and other animals. Instead, the largest goblin laid back in a pile of furs. She had a long eared male on either side of her and was eating some meat off a bone. Another dozen females and a few males, sat around a large fire.

Danny leaned back and let Ivy take a look. Going back to the entrance they discussed their findings with the other two. Ivy asked Danny, "If we wait till after nightfall, would you be rested enough to attack?"

"Yes, I should be good to go by then."

"Jade, Brooke, do you have any suggestions?"

Jade spoke up first, "I should stay and guard the rear."

Brooke said, "I will go in first."

Ivy nodded, "Agreed, we will begin the att..."

Danny interrupted, "Now that we are sure there are no prisoners in the cavern, I could just kill them all. I can... create a spinning blade of air and kill the ones around the fire. That way if there is a prisoner I can't see, they will only get hit with a strong wind and... debris."

Ivy stopped, "How soon can you do that?"

Danny said, "Give me an hour, and ask again. I would rather be close to topped off, in case something goes wrong."

Ivy pondered that, "Go ahead." Turning to Jade and Brooke she said, "You two guard here. Danny, you can do this by just looking through the hole in the wall, right?"

"Yes."

"...Alright, then let's go."

Danny and Ivy reached the small hole again and Danny looked through it to get his bearings. He reached out towards the large fire and began making a dense magic, right in its center. He charged the spell for a while before he began to make the magic spin and stretch out into an almost flat circle. The goblins laughed and ate from the meat cooking over the fire. Seeing how happy they were, Danny hesitated for a second before looking away and casting the air rune. There was an audible high pitched whine, followed by the sounds of objects hitting the walls and ceiling, and then complete silence. Danny reached up and felt something wet touch his face. Wiping off whatever it was with his sleeve, he peered back through the hole. The fire had gone out, due to the sudden large gust of wind. Light filtered in from the cave's opening. Body parts were strewn in a circle around the fire pit. Two goblins, probably alerted by the sound, walked in and stopped at the sight. One ran over to the fallen chief. Danny reached out and used the last of his mana to create another smaller air blade and decapitated it. The remaining goblin didn't even scream. Danny heard what sounded like water pouring on the ground before the goblin ran outside the cave.

Danny was pulled away from the hole and Ivy look inside. He couldn't see her face with it pressed to the hole but her voice was quiet, "... Let's... let's get back to the others."

When they got to the entrance, Jade took one look at Danny and rushed to him, "Where are you hurt!"

Danny felt lost, and numbly replied, "What?"

Ivy turned to him with a concerned look, but replied to Jade, "It's just goblin blood."

Jade looked relieved, "Oh, thank goodness."

Brooke had looked alarmed as well but on hearing Ivy's explanation she relaxed, "Did you get it done?"

Ivy nodded and turned to him, "Danny, please seal up this entrance. When you are done we will head back."

Danny turned and silently sealed the hole. He made sure to grow the grass back over the new earth. Then they silently headed back to the tree house.

Once they got back to the tree house, Danny sat down against the living room, just staring into the distance. He vaguely heard Brooke telling Jade to watch him and whispered something else. Then Brooke took Ivy to the lookout. Jade sat down next to Danny so that their arms were touching. "You ok Danny?"

Danny looked out unfocused at the forest around them, "I don't know."

They were silent for a bit. Then Danny said, "When they are screaming and running at me, I don't hesitate for a second to kill them. When I bury their bodies, I don't really focus on the details. When they are just sitting there, happily eating, joking and..."

Jade wrapped her long arms around him and pulled him into a hug. "I know... They usually don't see me before I kill them. Though, it makes me wonder at those times when I realize I have not been paying attention. Who is going to be there, waiting in the shadows for me..."

Danny shuddered and reached around her and held on as tight as he could. Danny suddenly missed the flickering fluorescent lights and the finicky lab equipment of his old world. They didn't have anything else that night as Danny fell asleep there next to her.