The howl hadn't stopped.
It had echoed for almost twenty minutes now. Faint, long, and wrong. It didn't belong to any goblin. Caleb was sure of that. It was deeper. Angrier. Something that shouldn't be here, but was.
They had moved camp uphill, between two stone ridges. No fire. No lights. Just tension and darkness and the low murmur of breathing.
"They're calling for help," Marek finally said. "Or calling it."
"No," Dina whispered. "That wasn't a call. That was a warning."
Ellen flinched at every sound. Her arms were wrapped tight around her knees. Soren stood watch, blade raised. Even without training, his stance was sharper now. Like instinct was filling in the gaps discipline hadn't reached yet.
Caleb crouched over the rough map he'd carved into the dirt. Stick-scratched lines. Goblin patrol paths. Estimated numbers. Entry routes. Escape routes. Timing.
"Tonight we do nothing," he said. "We watch. If that howl brought something new, we observe it first."
"But the plan was to hit them again," Soren said.
Caleb looked up. "We need to adapt. We're still missing pieces."
He pointed at the crude 'X' near the middle of the map.
"That's their fire pit. That's where we'll learn the most."
So they waited. Watched.
And then it came.
Not a beast.
A goblin. Taller than the others. Almost as tall as Ellen. Clad in mismatched armor—pieces of wood, leather, and what looked like scrap metal hammered into a breastplate. It carried a staff topped with a red skull.
Behind it: two others, smaller, leaner, moving like shadows. Their eyes were different—yellow, glowing. They didn't move with the sloppy half-stumble of the regular ones.
An elite perhaps ?
They approached the fire pit, speaking in low, clacking syllables. One guttural. One hissed. One sounded like glass scraping rock.
"What the hell are those?" Marek muttered.
"Their leaders," Caleb said. "Or close enough."
Then the interface flashed again. Only Caleb saw it.
Hidden Achievement Unlocked: Enemy Class Detected
You are the first among your cohort to witness a Subspecies Tier Unit
Reward: +2 INT, Skill Unlocked: Tactical Recognition (Passive) – Gain insight into enemy roles and coordination with continued observation
Bonus: Partial Map Reveal (Local Only)
A flash of light burned into his mind. The goblin camp sharpened in his perception. Patrol routes glowed faintly. Entrances blinked. The map he'd scratched in the dirt suddenly felt like a child's drawing.
He didn't say a word.
"Dina. Marek. Get ready to tail those two flankers. We hit them tomorrow night—only if they split again. Ellen, you're our eyes. You're spotting from the ridge."
"What about me?" Soren asked.
"You're with me. We hit the camp wall. Distraction. Draw out half the guards. Make it look like a mistake. Then we vanish. Give the others an opening."
"And if it goes wrong?"
Caleb's voice didn't waver. "Then we improvise."
He lay back, staring up at the sky through the trees. For a second, it looked like the stars were moving. Shifting. Watching.
Billions had been chosen. He remembered that now.
And most of them were dead already.
They weren't special. They were just lucky.
And luck ran out fast.