Yesterday I forgot to thanks you all as the story finally got 10000 views! And a moment ago it also got to 100 followers so thanks!

Sorry couldn't help myself with the end. Every author should do it at least once just fot the fun of it.

The weather had adapted to the tense circumstances Luke was living through. The early afternoon sun and blue sky had changed to become blackish grey and depressing. The clouds that adorned the celestial vault were heavy with rain and fluffy. Most people would describe them as menacing, but if you had to choose where to use that word between a menacing relic of death or a glorified shower, you would probably incline for the sphere. The faltering daylight brought other factors to play. First of all, the shadows were excellent for playing hide and seek, however what was true for Luke, was true for his enemies too. Visibility has dropped so much that if it wasn’t for the light of the sphere, Luke and Steve might not be able to find the platform. That meant that they could be surrounded by goblins and they wouldn’t realize until attacked.

Luke was certain that he wouldn’t be able to rush head on and hope for the best. It was at this moments that he regretted not bringing the shotgun he left on the house. His father, as any ex-military man would, liked to collect and store weapons. However, most of them were kept in the city house so that he could have them in hand when he was going to go on a trip. It was a serviceable old thing that would get the job done but not anything else. He hadn’t grabbed it for a few reason. Main one being he disliked guns. Don’t get it wrong, he was considered proficient enough to carry and not be a danger to society, but he never acquired the taste for it. Luke was an admitted pacifist. He wouldn’t avoid fighting if it was necessary though it wouldn’t be his first answer. If you add that he was a middle ages, middle earth nerd, and as a consequence he prefered more primitive weapons (primitive as of previous ages not as stone age) like his staff or a sword.

Coming back to the present, he came to the conclusion that he would need to come with some plan to win. He remembered the strategy books he had read. He also recalled the few pearls of wisdom his father, Daniel Thorn, had imparted to him in some of their heated debates about historical battles. “Son, there all kinds of strategies and maneuvers out there, more than any human could learn in a lifetime. Moreover, some people have more compatibility for some types of strategies than others, so it isn’t worthwhile to learn everything. It’s better to have a couple (maybe a dozen or so) functional plans and modify them for each situation. After years of service, I came to the conclusion that overly complicated plans tend to fail in at least one of their components and throw everything into disarray. So my advice to you is keep it simple and unimaginative. Not so much that you can be easily predicted, mind you, but consider a good battle arrangement those that have few key action and the rest is left vague on purpose to allow changes on the fly. After all, as old generals used to say, no plan resist first contact with the enemy”.

Luke decided to analyze his situation as if this was an hypothetical exercise in his father's studio.

‘Always the first need is information’ thought Luke. With that directive, he made a lap around the platform, close enough to see, but not so close that his presence may be discovered. He found out that the only access was the stair in front. He should be able to jump into the altar, but Steve certainly couldn’t. When he got closer, he got a better look at the sphere. The material it was made of seemed to be some kind of glass, a highly mana conductive kind of glass. Inside, he could peak tens of thousands of the grey strands. However it's now diminutive core was blue with green specks. This implied that the original use of the relic wasn’t what the goblins were utilizing it for. They seemed bent on corrupting the magic of the sphere. He could see that every second that passed more and more strands entered the relic, coming from the white bearded shaman. Besides, when he stared into the remaining blue, it gave Luke a feeling of calmness and closeness with nature. Probably, the reason Bob was defeated was the same as to why he came: the sphere. It felt like a nature related object to Luke.

An idea started to form in his mind. He distanced himself a dozen steps from the platform and focused on his sword. It took a few minutes to inscribe the correct enchantment and he wouldn’t be sure it worked until it was too late, it was a one-time use spell so he had to make it matter.

He told Steve to attack from the stair side after he got his part done and made sure to maintain the shield around his companion. He even made it especially thick (maybe two or three times as it was before). He did the same to his shield and got a notification that Mana Shield leveled up. It seemed that consciously improving a spell would allow it to progress faster.

Then, he took a deep breath and got ready. He hooked the sword in his belt so he could use both hands to grab the border of the platform when he jumped. He knew he would have to attack fast. He suspected the shaman would discover him the moment he stepped on the altar. After all, his camouflage was good at obstructing physical senses, but it left a telling energy signature. I was something he hadn’t noticed before and would have to improve latter, if he was still alive.

The plan in itself didn’t carry much risk to Luke if it worked properly, but there were several things that could go wrong, or that Luke couldn’t predict the consequences. With no more excuses to delay the execution, he began.

The first part was the easy one, he jumped (a lot higher that he expected, he would have to test his athletic prowess at some later date) high enough that his head peeked over the rim of the structure. He rapidly used his hand to push his body the rest of the way. It looked like an added bonus of his high attributes was an improved body control (he really needed to test what each stat enhanced). After the push, he didn’t allow his body to stand up, he instead rolled forward.

The platform had less than ten meter of radius, with the old goblin almost at the exact center, the other shaman and the big one a few steps back. The bodyguards were with their back to the sphere, vigilant against hidden enemies. So after his roll, eight meters or so separated Luke from the sphere and the primary shaman. He took of at maximum speed, cutting the distance in an instant. Not fast enough, however, to avoid the attention of the shaman that immediately stopped the energy injection. It gathered grey mana in its hand to sling a spell at Luke. The hateful light in this goblin eyes seemed to express coherently his emotion toward the invading human that was ruining its moment of glory. It had taken almost two full days and a dozen shaman working nonstop to get to this point and it wouldn’t allow anything to interrupt. Hell, he would already had finished if he hadn't felt something killing his kind and sent his apprentices to solve the issue. Only his son remained, but he wanted all the glory. So the last step of the corruption would be made only by him.

The shaman was faster than Luke casting spell. A lot faster that he had anticipated, but Luke was also lighter on his feet that the old creature expected. This mutual quickness meant that the goblin fired his spell just before Luke could finish closing the distance and stab him with the sword. Despite this, Luke speed made the goblin be unable to hit where it had aimed. So instead of blowing his head with an enhanced version of his bolt that had more in common with a cannonball, the skill made a glancing blow against his shoulder. Luke might still had lost his arm (or at least use of it) if his shield hadn’t taken the brunt of the damage. After the impact, he wasn’t able to maintain it any longer.

Nonetheless, Luke wasn’t thrown off track and arrived next to the sphere at the next moment. He did two things, actually three, in quick succession. First he stabbed the goblin with the sword. The shaman had a shield, but the sword got through it like it was paper. Then he kicked the sphere as hard as he could. The objective was to send it as far away as possible. He didn’t care if it exploded and hurt him. He was resolute in his decision that the goblins shouldn’t be in possession of such an object and if being seriously hurt was what it would take to delay the total corruption it was worthy. His decision was also based on the fact that the pedestal had several runes on it. With Luke knowledge, he could understand that this particular enchantment had the double use of keeping the sphere from healing itself and helping the shaman to corrupt it faster. It also drained some of its energy to make the area debuff spell. This information meant that every moment the relic wasn’t on the pedestal signify time lost for the goblins.

Fortunately, the sphere didn’t shatter or blow up from his kick. He had kicked it because he didn’t want to be in direct contact with an almost entirely corrupted relic of unknown powers.Seeing as he completed his objective, he did the smartest thing: he ran away. He communicated mentally with Steve to tell him to distance himself from the platform fast.

Luke rushed out of the altar without even thinking about the damage he could do to himself by falling from such height. He ran for a dozen more meters until the low visibility blocked everything from view. Then, he turned around to see and dropped to the ground. I was just in time to see the fireworks. A powerful light came from the top of the platform (He couldn’t see what was actually happening due to the angle, the altar was more than three meters high) that augured the future. After the light came the noise and the force wave produced from such an explosion. Luke thought that if that didn’t take care of the goblins, nothing would. You see, he had carved the sword with a vicious combination: ‘absorb’, ‘mana’ and ‘explode’. The enchantment should gather every mana near it when activated and utilized it to fuel the explosion. The more mana the bigger the boom. And he had stabbed the sword into the strongest magic creature in the region, exceptuating Bob. The shield of the shaman wouldn’t work simply because the mana destined to keep it up, was depleted by the sword faster than it could replenish.

Luke stood up to go see the results of his mischief when a roar made the ground shake, erasing the smirk on his face.