I wanted Luke to have some hard times, it had been too easy until now.

Luke and Steve took their time while scouting the goblins base. Even though he wanted to attack before the sun set, he couldn't be careless, any information he got could save his life during the raid (the other way was also true, any information he didn't get could cost him his life). They waited patiently near a patrol route (taking the same path so many times leaves a track) and followed a group of sentries for two full laps. This groups were made of three goblins, two with short swords and one carrying a bow. Then they stopped and calculated how much time passed between a group moves on and a new one arrives.

This allowed Luke to confirm that he could assassinate the outer perimeter without being noticed for a short time. There were three dozens goblins going around. The fact that they used a single route to patrol meant the leaders were intelligent enough to plant some defenses but were nowhere near utilizing those protections to the fullest (a well-versed commander would make them go through a few different routes at random times to catch enemies by surprise). There was another ulterior motive to making the laps, he discovered that every tree in the area had already been awakened and he could connect to them (getting the full benefits) at half the Mana and cooldown cost. Thus he did, planting several defensive positions along the way.

Luke looked up to the sky guessing he still had four or five hours before lights out. He decided to kill as many goblins as possible before reaching the center of the encampment for three reasons: first, every goblin killed was a goblin he didn't have to fight if he screwed with the sneaking. Second, he needed to see how to fight with Steve, even though they could understand intuitively what the other wanted, they needed a few practice runs to coordinate better and the best way was to train against the weak mobs before the truly difficult combats. Third, he hoped to get a few more levels. It wasn't that the attribute points he obtained each time would prove significant, the importance resided in upping the cap of the awakening of the forest reward. That would mean 10 extra Intelligence for each level (and one to the rest of the attributes). Besides he wasn't completely comfortable with fighting to the death even now. He understood that he had to, but had troubles afterwards the same.

With the decision taken, they waited until the first group passed by their position and attacked. Luke took care of the archer, with his Intelligence he could one-shot normal goblins, so he could have killed the whole group, however he wanted to watch Steve's capabilities. The pup surprised Luke by his ruthlessness: he ran towards one of the goblins, made a two stages jump (he jumped once and then used the goblin body to jump again) and tore it's throat out with one vicious bite. By the time the last creature realized what happened it was too late. It took a gulp of air to shout the alarm but Luke’s skill didn't allow him to. Taking stock of the situation, he was content with the result. Steve proved to be an able fighter, at least when it came to sneak attacks. Also, he seemed to grow a little with the kill.

Luke wasn't sure if there was some magic that alerted the goblin chief when one of them died, so they moved fast through the patrol's track in the opposite direction to get to the next group as fast as possible. Interestingly, the camouflage enchantments appeared to be an out of combat type of thing. It stopped working after the first strike, renewing a few seconds after there were no more enemies on sight.

The next two groups proceeded in a similar manner, and now Luke was sure Steve was getting bigger, but on the forth there was a surprise: one of the taller goblins and a goblin carrying a gnarled staff with a skull at the top had joined the other three goblins. ‘As I thought, they know when a tribesman dies. That should be a shaman, I have to take care of him first’ Luke thought. He had been careful in hiding the bodies so no goblin could have noticed if there was no magic involved. He retreated a dozen meters to think, now worried by the possibility of an ambush coming from their backs. When no lurching enemies were revealed, he released a sigh of relief.

He wasn't sure if he could take the shaman or the enhanced goblin with one shot like with the normal ones, but he was confident that with three shot he could take care of at least one of them and with a little luck the archer too. Luke quickly adopted a usual game strategy: Magic, long range, melee was the killing order. He communicated mentally with Steve (they didn't actually talk, it was like Luke relayed images of what he wanted the young wolf to do) telling him to lay in wait until he striked. Then, Steve would sneak attack the archer if it was alive or the common soldiers if not. Luke distanced himself from his companion so that when the human showed itself the wolf would be behind the group.

When everything was ready he shot his skill with the improved pattern he discovered with the rabbits (shot, cast, shot, shot and cast) aiming the first two shots to the shaman, one to the archer, another to the shaman and the last one to the improved goblin. The small window he gave the shaman was a controlled risk to discover if two shots were enough to kill it (the skill went off to fast for Luke to be sure which shot ended a creature life, especially so with low health ones like the goblins). Then he had no time to think as the leader was at striking distance from him.

Luke had considered putting himself further away (he was confident he could target accurately even in the full range of the ability) but he didn't want to be too far away from Steve in the situation he needed to save his friend. Besides, the patrol route didn't have long, straight segments where he could maximize the damage of the Magic Bolt. It was more of a meandering path.

The small amount of time between each shot didn't allow the shaman to answer magic with magic which was a relief to Luke. He wasn't stupid enough to think that a single day as a magic slinger made him a veteran, so he didn't want to give the probably more experienced magic user a chance. The melee with the abnormal goblin proved to be hard and demanding. This particular goblin had a longer sword that it definitely knew how to weld to get the upper hand on Luke. The goblin wasn't as skillful as the human, and it even had a shorter reach, but it had more experience giving it the advantage. The fight had such an accelerated rhythm that Luke didn't have time to cast his magic even though there was no casting time. After all he wasn't yet fluent enough to cast while fighting a pitched battle that he was losing. Any instant he took to concentrate and cast could spell his death.

He didn't know if he could have turned the death match around if it wasn't for Steve. The wolf killed the first goblin without being noticed which allowed him to get to the last soldier goblin before it could ran too far away and call the reinforcements. It seemed the goblins have planned for one of them to go back to base while the rest entertained the invaders. Then he moved stealthily toward the goblin captain waiting for an opportunity. The pup was entirely focused on the fight and when the goblin moved to push its advantage, preparing for a lethal blow in the next combo, the wolf striked. He made a smart decision: he didn't go for the kill, instead he bit the goblin right calf. This gave Luke a respite long enough to stabilize his posture and launch a Magic Bolt directly into its left eye with the expected result.

“Well done Steve, I don't know what I would have done without you” Luke said when he finally calmed. He then, made a vow to give extra rabbit meat to his companion when they went back. Steve understood the thought and barked excitedly at Luke.

However, they didn't stay long, worried that the battle noise would alert the goblins of their location.