Luke climbed the platform to see the damage his trap had done. He could have gone around to find the cause of the roar, but he suspected it would be better to have the high ground in the imminent battle.

The destruction was extensive: the pedestal had resisted some of the explosion due to its magic, but he could feel that any enchantment it had, had been thoroughly consumed. That could be a scratch compared to the rest of the altar. A circular mark of scorched ground could be seen, beginning in the place where Luke last saw the shaman. Its corpse had mostly evaporated (he could see part of its staff still held by an arthritic hand in the third step going down) together with his apprentice. The unfortunate shaman wannabe was now burnt beyond recognition with its body thrown below the platform. The force must have pushed it that way.

A little more looking around revealed the origin of the furious cry: the giant goblin was still alive and kicking. He (yes, the little cloth he had, was burned showing to the world his pride as a male) had a wound that hadn't stopped burning in the majority of his upper body. However, the thing that gave Luke pause was his eyes. They were crazed with a noticeable red tint. It wasn't figurative speech, the goblin’s eyes had turned a deep crimson that chilled the soul. Luke was sure that short of beheading, nothing would stop his revenge. Luckily, the forest loving human could confirm that the huge creature was the only one that was alive. Three smoking bodies could be seen a few meters beyond the platform.

Slowly at first, but stronger each passing second, rain started to fall. The gods seemed to be up there looking at the battle and saying ‘fight to your heart's content, because when it ends nothing will remain’. The already dim light transformed into an ocean of darkness. There was only a small island of light around the goblin warrior and Luke. It was weird as there shouldn't be enough light to see further that your arms could reach, but he could easily stare at the raging monster.

And raging it was. He was swinging his club as if he was in a deathmatch against the rain. Luke analysed his opponent movements and came to the conclusion that if the goblin was a rpg character, it would have all his points in Strength and Vitality. Fortunately, it had been hurt by the fire of the explosion (it was a pure Mana explosion, but Luke thought that the enchantment must have transformed the Mana into fire to better accomplish its purpose).

He guessed that the issues were going to be two, how much damage could the goblin resist and how long could Luke and Steve avoid the club's strikes. He had no doubt that a single hit could kill him and the same applied to his companion. He realized that the only real chance they had was to use hit and run tactics combined with the superiority in numbers (2 to 1 counts as superiority) to confuse the giant, impeding the goblin to lock on his target.

Luke ascertained Steve’s location. The wolf had acted on his friend message and distanced from the platform moments before the sword blew up, so he wasn't hurt. At the moment, he was on the other side of the giant from Luke’s position. It was the perfect formation to execute his plan. One in front and one from the back.

He decided to start the battle himself. After all, Steve specialized in sneak attacks (Luke to some degree to but not that much. Luke idea of a perfect battle was keeping the distance and firing Mana Bolts until the enemy died. Steve waited until he could perform a critical hit with high chances of killing the opponent).

There exist a well known fact in combat that anyone could point out no matter how inexperienced they are: to win you have to actually hurt your enemy. The damage can be done by you or by external factors, but it has to be dealt. Why the obvious explanation? Simple, when Luke fired his five shots of Mana Bolt he understood he miscalculated. Although the shots were concentrated in an area the size of a palm near the goblin’s heart (or at least where human have their chest, no idea if goblin anatomy go by similar rules), they left little more than a mark in the seriously scorched skin. If that was disappointing, imagine when his staff striked the goblin’s head without being able to even tilt it (Luke went running forward after using his skill to do maximum damage before it could react). Luke face fell. He tried to retreat quickly, but before he could the giant eyes focused on him. The warrior swung his weapon with the intention of separating the head from the body.

Luke high attributes (and the fast reflexes they provided) saved him. He ducked the home run wannabe while backstepping. All of this happened a few steps away from the first step of the stairs. Luke tried to climb them, but a second smash forced him to change direction to not be killed.

Suddenly, Steve made his move. He actually struck twice. First he used his claws to hamstring the creature. Then, he jumped trying to clamp his teeth around the neck. The results? Nothing. Well, he did hurt the leg to some level, but it would at most make it limp for a few minutes. The neck was the same, the teeth drew blood, but just barely. Steve was fast on the uptake and didn't prolong the bite when he realized he couldn't hurt the warrior. He released his hold scurrying rapidly away and onto the embrace of the darkness.

Enough time had passed that Luke had been able to retreat safely. Circumstances put him next to the bodyguards dead bodies. He saw their swords sheathed and considered if he could wound the creature with them, but discarded the idea immediately. His bolt did more damage and couldn’t do more than scratch it so this swords would be useless. However, that got him thinking. Steve bite left more profound injuries than his bolt even though his skill should be considerably stronger. The only explanation he could create was that his bolt didn't have enough penetrating power. So he decided to try to modify it to solve this shortcoming. He didn't have a choice: the giant goblin had too good a defense for the present Luke. Also, he had the protection of the low visibility and his camouflage enchantment.

It must be said that there was another option that was to continuously attack the monster with grazing strikes until it exhausted itself. However, the explosion had made a lot of noise, so the normal goblins might be coming back at any moment. Even if the loud noise didn't grab their attention, the rain would compel them to return to their houses. There it would be evident that the principal figures of the community are missing and one possible location was the altar. In conclusion, there was time, but not that much.

Luke decided to cast Mana Bolt the same way he did when he created it: step by step. He gathered the Mana and gave it form. It seemed to naturally prefer a spherical shape. He tried to forcefully change it form to something similar to a crossbow bolt. He failed. The Mana resisted any change of its current situation. Luke pondered for a bit and altered his approach. Instead of commanding the energy to change, he asked and the world stood still. Suddenly, he understood the meaning of Mana Control. It wasn't a skill designed to make the source of magic obey the user orders. It was a communication skill. It allowed a magician to get in contact with the building element of the universe and arrive to a consensus. Armed with this knowledge, he pleaded for the Mana help in improving his skill and it complied. The ball elongated while spinning. It formed an inch wide line with a pointy end. It felt as of the skill has been enhanced to its core.

While this was going on, Luke felt like some vast conscience beyond his understanding had opened its eyes and was looking at him, soul deep. The sensation lasted what seemed like years but was less than a second.

Two notifications popped up that restored Luke confidence in himself.

DING

Mana Control has leveled up to Intermediate lvl 2. The number of orbs you can maintain has been upped to five Mana Bolt has leveled up to Intermediate lvl 1 Damage: 10 + 1.2 x Intelligence Range: 40 meters. Cooldown: 4 seconds

Due to the modification you made to the original skill, you get:

+10% penetration

Luke was overjoyed. He didn't, however, rush to the fight. He stored the maximum amount of orbs he could before putting himself in position. He told Steve to come stand next to him. He decided that if this seven shots didn't kill the giant goblin, they would run away to fight another time. Killing the creature wasn't worth their lives. He was sure that they could outrun the wounded monster.

He put himself the furthest away he could and still see the goblin through the rain (10 meters or so). This time he didn't breathe deeply to prepare himself for the fight, he released a long sigh. He didn't enjoy battling and killing. Even though it gave him an adrenaline rush that made him feel powerful, he longed for the peace of his home.

Luke focused his eyes on the creature and launched his skill seven times aiming for the same spot he had previously. If anything it was anticlimactic: the first bolt wounded the creature deeply, and every shot that followed went through without stopping or losing strength. The creature was dead by the third, but Luke was too absorbed in the execution to notice until he fired everything he had.

Thus, the fight ended.