"Weak." Kyra's mind did a 180. Who said that? She thought.
"Wake up." Someone slapped Kyra. "I said wake up! You weakling! How are you still sleeping?!" Her cheeks stung. Kyra tried to shun from the attack and surprisingly, her body shifted as she wished. Shocked, Kyra blinked and her eyes never felt lighter.
The glare of the crystals almost seemed as bright as the sun. Kyra groaned.
"I thought I told you to survive."
----------
Tiny's figure never looked so bright. The little child had never looked so... dashing? Cute? Anyway, Kyra had never felt so relieved. She even managed a smile. And then he slapped her again. Kyra scowled as she sat up, her body still protesting in fatigue.
"What...?" Kyra croaked. Tiny was sitting, crisscross apple sauce and all, one of his little hands under Kyra's head and the other still grasping an empty bottle, identical to the HP and MP bottles. Another one rolled around behind him, obviously thrown away without care. Tiny's eyes trailed Kyra's and saw her staring in confusion at the glass. Kyra couldn't see the tag above the item, but she assumed it was an HP bottle.
"Be grateful. Those were really expensive." Tiny gruffed. She watched as Tiny tossed the bottle into the goblin horde - whom Kyra noted that didn't move an inch all the while Tiny sat, staring at her. They stood around, teeth sheathed and weapons raised defensively, their eyes narrowed and darting around, stealing glances at each other. The goblins looked like children in front of a crime scene - a broken window with a soccer ball or something. Their faces were full of caution and there was a hint of guilt. They seemed more worried of a foreseen punishment than actually feeling bad about what they did.
"Yeah sure, whatever. Thanks." Kyra mumbled as she heaved herself off the ground, her body swinging awkwardly. Some parts still hung off limply. Kyra clutched her right shoulder as she stood. It was spasming. Kyra must have reached the limit of her endurance stat because despite not bleeding to death, she wanted to drop down and sleep for a day or two. But she wasn't going to stay down seeing Tiny's judgemental smirk.
He looked her up and down and Kyra gave him an annoyed look. Looking behind him, the goblins cowered in fear as Tiny stretched and stood up.
"Look at you. It's been almost half a day in here and you've only earned this many skills. " He scoffed. Tiny's gaze scanned her up and down again before he disinterestedly surveyed the surrounding goblin hordes.
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"Hmph. Should still be able to handle it, I think." Kyra's heart dropped when she heard what he said. Her muscles protested even as she readjusted her weight - how was she supposed to fight off all these seemingly agility-boosted goblins all at once? Tiny glanced at her, and Kyra swore he was laughing on the inside.
A rush of anger overrode the haunting near-death experience in a moment and Kyra bit her tongue against protesting. If she nearly dies again, Tiny will just come save her, right? Inwardly, she wasn't so certain that she'd let herself get saved another time: perhaps she'd die of embarrassment first.
Tiny nodded once, seeming to make up his mind, and then simply vanished into thin air. The room was silent as if someone shattered glass on the floor. Like how Kyra's heart dropped. Counting her remaining seconds of life, Kyra wondered what she could do to survive.
Her eyes darted to the status bar by her feet and she was pleasantly surprised.
HP: 37/37
MP: 76/241
SP: 2/27
Apart from a full bar of health, her MP had also increased. Kyra wondered if that was also Tiny's doing, but she then realized there was a notification waiting for her.
[Due to your actions, you have learned the skill Mana Absorb! When player MP drops below 5 and ambient mana is detected, absorb as own mana.]
Kyra finally realized the odd sauna sensations she felt was her attracting and absorbing all the ambient mana around her, and why she could no longer see the blue swirls dancing around her - because they were wandering around her body.
Feeling slightly more confident and less likely to die, Kyra planned out her next few moves while the goblins reacted to Tiny's disappearance.
First, she quickly swiped up the description for [Mana Bolt], which took only 5 mana per shot, a lot cheaper than she expected.
Kyra had learned her lesson though, and was much more stingy in lobbing out the [Mana Bolt] at the enclosing goblins. Just enough for her to break out of the entrapment. Since her stamina was still very low, she'd have to use magic to defeat the boss. If she didn't end it here, all that would happen was she'd run out to the maze, waste her stamina, and get murdered unless Tiny saves her... maybe.
So she jumped, shoved, pushed her way through the goblin horde, most of whom were too shocked to react, and to the few that did, Kyra did need some practice getting the remaining, pebble-sized crystals to hit. But they did cost less mana. Soon enough, Kyra broke through the sea of goblins and reached the goblin boss.
He sat upon his throne of bones and stone, decorated with twigs and decaying leaves. He snarled, barely wanting to move; he already deemed Kyra unworthy as an opponent. But Kyra wasn't here to play the staring game, she was too tired for that stuff. Going straight for the head, Kyra launched two [Mana Bolts] straight between his eyes. The hobgoblin barely dodged in time, losing an eye in the process.
Enraged, he stood up and grabbed that giant club of his, ready to go on a rampage. But Kyra didn't let him have a seconds rest. Grabbing a handful of tiny crystals, Kyra flung all of it at the hobgoblin, aiming towards his right side. Using his giant club, the boss deflected most of it.
Kyra was smirking as she ducked to her right, slamming a [Mana Bolt] right into the hobgoblin's blinded side. It screeched and stumbled forward, tripping on his own arrogant pile of bones and into his fellow goblins. Kyra stabled her footing by the hobgoblin's throne, aiming her hand at the hobgoblin's exposed back and fired. Her mana dropped back into the red, but the fight was almost over.
Mustering some more crystals, Kyra stopped the rising wave of angry goblins and zapped the hobgoblin with yet another [Mana Bolt]. It wavered a little but still burst when it hit the boss.
"How'd you like that, you jerk." Kyra smirked, knowing that the goblins understood nothing she said. She wanted to get it off her chest, you know, in return for almost killing her.
I'm still too weak, Kyra thought, preparing her final blast.