Like always if you see any mistake or have a suggestion leave it at the comments.

All traces of the joy his previous successes had brought, were gone by the time he arrived next to Sarah in front of a ground floor window waiting to be covered. Looking outside everything appeared calm.

“Where are they? What did you see? And where's Jack?” Luke fired rapidly.

“There were three ugly things that looked close to how you described goblins in a straight line from the front door (the front wasn't aligned with the road. It was on the right side of the house, at the same distance from both doors). They never broke from the cover of the trees but I could feel them watching the house, it sent shivers down my spine. I can't see them anymore so they should have left” Sarah said with a distracted light in her eyes. She was so lost in her thought that she didn't ask Luke about the three balls of blue light orbiting him.

“ And Jack?” Luke said trying to soothe Sarah.

“He is in the basement, finishing the spears. I hope they're enough” Sarah

Now Luke was worried. From the attitude this goblins displayed, they should be scouts and if they left, it means they went back to notify their tribe. So there could be dozens of goblins here at any moment.

‘No, they're settlement should be at least half an hour away. We should have a little over an hour to prepare.’

Luke was no genius but with the information he had he could make a few educated guesses: when he met Bob, they came from the other side of the clearing from where he had entered it. That meant that they were deeper into the woods. This theory was further confirmed by the fact that it took the goblins scouts this long to come across the house and that when Luke was returning from the clearing he hadn't discovered any track that he didn't know to what it belonged. So it was pretty safe to say they weren't that close. Luke didn't know how fast goblins travel through a forest but if he took as reference his speed, he could estimate that it would take the goblins scouts half an hour to go back, some time to prepare the troops and another half an hour to arrive in front of the house. If they spent the time to surround the residence, Luke and the couple would have a few more minutes to get ready. Anyway, they needed to act fast.

Luke was feeling depressed. The time they had was almost useless. Don't be mistaken it was enough to finish covering the windows (even the ones upstairs) and block both doors, but that wouldn't necessarily suffice to protect themselves from the goblins. And even if it did then what? If they didn't kill every creature they would be sieged. Yes, they had food to last for a while but so many hours of tension would make them prone to mistakes and that mistake could cost them their lives.

No, they needed a different plan. Luke was in deep thoughts so he didn't heard when Jack came and Sarah update her husband of the situation.

“I believe that if the two of you help we can easily finish covering the windows but I'm not sure how to block the doors. And what's the deal with the orbs?” Jack.

“They're my new skill. I can't shoot them at a target up to 30 meters away. And don't bother with the doors. Do we have any gasoline left in the basement?” Luke thought of using the typical fire trap where you lead your enemies into a place bathed in fuel and then you ignited it and watched your opponents burn.

“I see where you're going but unfortunately the last of the gasoline was used when I took the car to town for some repairs” Jack pointed out. They kept some fuel in the basement for any need that could arise. Also, they didn't need more than one car and the few times they had to leave in town they could make the way back walking without much difficulty even though it did take some time.

“Well, shit. That leave us without much choice.” Luke

“Luke, do we really need to fight? We could try to go toward the town or deeper into the forest and it wouldn't be easy for them to find us” Sarah

“No, we don't know where their base is nor if their scouts are still around. We could try to do that and get caught unprepared or somewhere they could use their numbers to overwhelm us. Let's finish covering the windows and then we will see” Luke

The next twenty minutes went by in a flash. The monotonous and repetitive labor helped Luke clear his mind and come with a possible solution that he explained when they met in the kitchen after the three where done.

“Jack, have you been to the old tree house next to the road recently?” Luke

“Ehh, yes, you know that I use it to nap some afternoons. I make sure to keep it in a good condition. It wouldn't be nice to be napping and have a board falling in your head, would it?” Jack

“Perfect then. I think we should leave the doors opened, hide or take anything that could be useful and as much food as we can carry and hide there. It isn't easily seen and we could still watch the house. We can only hope that they take a look and then leave.” Luke.

“I don't like it we would be at their mercy if they discover us” Sarah

“I know but if there are too many of them we wouldn't stand a chance anyway and if there aren't then we can still attacked once we confirmed their numbers.” Luke.

Sarah didn't agree with the idea but admitted that there was no better way and Jack thought it was the best chance they had. It took three journeys back and forth to store enough food for the next couple of days. They took some of the beddings to make their stay a little more comfortable. They also used some branches to increase the difficulty of being spotted.

Half an hour later they were ready and hiding in a tense silence. The treehouse was big enough for the three of them to lie down but that was it. Luckily the boards in which it was made didn't creak. It would have been disastrous to remain perfectly hid and be given away by the boards creaking.

“If my guess is right, they should be arriving in the next fifteen minutes. Make sure to say something if you see them coming. I would take the side that looks toward the house.” Luke

While waiting, Luke decided to spend the five unassigned points in his intelligence, after all his two most useful skills scaled with it. Now he had reached 30 points in that attribute. When using the bolt he could deal 35 points of damage and heal up to the same number. He didn't know if that was high or low but considering his combat, he felt like it would prove effective.

Luke’s assumption proved to be close to the truth when twenty five minutes later a dozen goblins with the same type of the knives that the ones Luke fought appeared to the front of the house. They were led by another goblin a hand taller and with some primitive helmet. The information that they were slower than expected gave Luke the hope that if they had to flee, they could outrun them.

The goblins separated in groups of three under the commands of the bigger specimen. One group went inside and two went around in a pincer movement. The last group with the leader stayed where they were. Giving a guarded look to the greenhouse. The military precision worried Luke. It meant that they wouldn't be as easy as he had expected, at least not with someone giving orders. That was the other thing: the goblin with the helmet looked smarter than the rest. Not much but enough to understand a basic level of strategy and tactics.

Five minutes later the troops reunited and reported to the leader. They repeated the procedure with the greenhouse with little result. Luke found it odd that they didn't take any vegetables but guessed that they weren't part of the healthy goblin diet. The leader seemed to come to the conclusion that there was nothing of value but he left one group in case the humans returned. They left shortly after that.

Luke wasn't sure why he came to this conclusion. It wasn't body language nor any type of language (even if they spoke english, they were too far away too heard them). He felt like the forest was whispering the answers.

“Now what?” said Jack in a low voice.

“I think we can take care of the three of them, but we need to wait before acting to make sure they don't double back.” Luke

They waited half an hour and then Luke with his staff and Jack with one of the spears descended from the treehouse. They used the trees to get a little closer than thirty meters so Luke could make maximum advantage of his skill.

‘Here goes nothing’

Luke indicated to Jack to start running the moment the first shot goes off. Then he took a deep breath and aimed for the head of the goblin on the left. They were in a tight group, less than 2 meters from each other. If they synchronized this well, Luke could take the first one by surprise and Jack could catch the second unprepared and then together dispose of the third.

They were lucky: Luke shot the first one right through the neck, almost severing its head and killing it instantly. The next two shot weren't as lucky but they still staggered the other two long enough for Jack to approach and use his new spear to strike the one on the right in the heart. The last one, recovered and tried to avenge his companion by stabbing Jack, but found instead Luke batting its head hard. Luke then shot the magic bolt skill again, putting a third eye in its head.

“Hey, Luke there is a blue window saying that I leveled up” Jack

“Congratulation! Let's call Sarah down and start to plan for when this three don't go back and they start to suspect something went wrong or a replacement comes.”

They couldn't hope to have a warning the next time the goblins show up. Besides how many times would they lose soldiers before they realize that they're being set up?

And it was with that sombre thought that they went back to the house. Hopefully, they would have a few hours of relative peace.