Battle for the Portal part 3

Goblin were all around her. While she hadn't yet been hit, she wouldn't be surprised if it happened when it was least convenient. She'd moved her focus off of the hobgoblin and was doing her best to deal with the influx of goblins. She hadn't expected goblins to come out of the portal, though she suspected that she was probably in quite a bit of trouble, but couldn't think of any path out of it without somehow dealing with all the goblins that were crowding around her.

So, before she got pinned down, she started up her combat dance, doing everything she could to eliminate as many goblins as she could. As the more she took out, the fewer there were to go after Elin and the others in her group. It also would reduce the chance of her getting injured, especially from the hobgoblin. She couldn't say if this was the right move or not, just that she knew she didn't have any other real choice in the matter.

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Elin was surprised when her staff struck a goblin on its head with her latest swing. She wasn't trying to actually kill any of the goblins this time. She was doing what she could to slow them down. She figured that eventually Kim or Jonas would defeat their primary opponent and then would be able to eliminate the rest of these goblins. Or maybe Elmo would finish closing the portal and he'd be able to mow the goblins down with his magic.

Every so often, she'd use her Holy Shot spell to force a goblin back that was pushing too far forward for Elin's comfort. Occasionally she'd actually kill one, but she wanted to wear them out rather than kill them. If she killed one, then there was plenty behind it that was ready to take its place, but if they got worn out, then they'd stay put and if the ones behind It got too impatient. Which Elin didn't mind, since it wasn't costing her any stamina to do that.

She kept an eye on Elmo as he pressed his hand against the backside of the portal, his eyes closed. She had no idea what he was doing, but she knew that he'd clearly thought of something that allowed him to work at closing it. She wished she could have helped, but was fine with what she was left to do, since they had been told to work together on closing the portal. However, it was getting difficult to keep up with them.

Maybe she was getting tired herself, but she was confident that it took less energy to fight in a defensive way than an offensive way. The goblins behind the ones right in front of her were certainly not happy with the goblins in their way. Elin would have found it funny if she wasn't in the middle of fighting the goblins.

Another problem for her was that an occasional spell, from the goblin Jonas was fighting, would come her way. She didn't have to deal with the spell typically, as it would generally get one of the goblins that were trying to get at her. She wasn't sure what else might happen, but she was sure that this fight wouldn't last long. She felt like she was nearly spent, her arms ached and were starting to feel like lead and she wasn't really sure how long this fight had been going on.

Maybe it was having tried using more MP than she had or just an emotional drain that this entire trip has put on her, but she was surprised at how tired she currently felt with how much rest she'd been able to get. She wasn't sure how much stamina she had, and maybe she should have looked at that before they started fighting rather than just drinking the mana potion.

However, unless she completely ran out of stamina and dropped unconscious as a result, she didn't plan on moving until the goblins were dealt with. Although, at the moment, she really wasn't sure which was more likely. It wasn't a pleasant feeling that they might die as a result of this.

Elin swung her staff to block the swing of the sword of one of the goblins while swinging the other end to try and hit another goblin's knees. She wasn't sure if the portal really was getting smaller or if it was just wishful thinking on her part. She hoped it really was getting smaller, even if she couldn't really tell.

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Jonas was trying his best to keep the goblins as occupied as he could. Each of his strikes were made with as much precision as he could. He didn't want to waste any movement, that each time he did anything it needed to benefit him or he was sure he'd be wasting his stamina, which in this fight, would mean the difference between life and death.

He was mostly successful at keeping the attention of the goblin who seemed to have magic of its own, but occasionally, either because it was maybe bored or just cautious, it would throw a spell at one of the others in his group.

He didn't pay attention to what the spell was or if it affected those in his group or not, but he wasn't happy when the goblin did that. As it meant that he wasn't doing enough to keep its attention on him.

The goblins had been coming out of the portal for a few minutes in a constant stream of two goblins at a time, but now it was ever few minutes. Jonas hoped that meant the amount of goblins ready to come through was nearly out, but he supposed that if the goblins retreated through the portal, then it would allow them to close it without much more trouble. Though the problem then became how do they get the goblins to want to retreat sooner rather than later? Getting the goblins to retreat would certainly help them out.

However, nothing came to mind, no matter how many eyes Jonas gouged out with his daggers, how many goblin's throats he opened up, or how many small cuts he received from near misses of dodging the goblins' attacks.

As he sliced open the belly of another goblin, its intestines spilling out on the floor around him, Jonas turned and sliced a long gash on the arm of the brown-black goblin before jumping to the side to avoid another swing of a sword from the goblins.

He heard the magic goblins saying something and as he glanced, he say that the goblin's arm was fully healed. Jonas didn't like the looks of that, but he wondered if that might be a way to deplete the goblin's MP. If he did that, then it wouldn't matter how powerful its spell were. It would also need to change its battle tactics. As Jonas had a feeling if the hobgoblin or this other goblin fell in the battle, that would probably go a long way to getting the other goblins to retreat through the portal.

The question became then how should he go about doing that? Especially since he was having trouble staying ahead of the blades of the goblins. Jonas briefly wondered if Kim was right about how what they should have done in regards to preparing for this fight.

Even if they had rested, Jonas couldn't help but wonder if they'd have faced this horde of goblins coming after them during the night. He didn't like the idea, but he wouldn't reject that theory outright. Presumably the goblins had sent the doppelganger to hunt them down because they didn't like the light of the day here, so if they hunted Jonas and his group down, how well would they have been able to rest before they'd have cornered them?

Jonas swung his daggers and slide the blades across the throats of two unfortunate goblins who didn't realize that they'd dropped their guards enough for Jonas to reduce their force's number by another two, before he twisted to the side, both dodging another goblin as it attempted to hit him and as he jabbed his left dagger into the eye and further into its brain of a goblin that suddenly thought to change its focus to one of the others in the group before it was out of Jonas' range. Jonas wasn't forgiving of any mistake the goblins made just as he expected they would be of any mistake that anyone in his group made.

While it continued to get darker, Jonas hardly noticed because as the light around him diminished, he found that his Shadow Sight compensated for any issues he had with seeing. Although, if any of the goblins through to light a torch, he was sure that his Shadow Sight would be next to useless then, but up to that point, he'd be able to see better than any of the goblins.

Then just as the magic goblin turned to him and a large spell began to charge up, Jonas' instincts told him he was in trouble, but didn't have enough time to get out of it, a concussive force knocked him away. As he landed on the ground, his hearing and sight were in shambles. He couldn't help but wonder if this was the end for him.