The goblins merely hissed and snarled in response, seemingly unimpressed by Miri’s quippy comment. The first one to approach her was the goblin swordsman, who charged at her with sword in hand, ready to slash at her. Before he could close the distance, however, Miri casted a Crescent Arc with a horizontal swing of her staff, sending out an arcing wave of bright teal energy straight into the goblin.

  This magical attack simultaneously damaged the goblin swordsman as well as pushing him back while simultaneously giving the other two goblins behind him a light stagger. This gave Miri a chance to follow up with a series of Starlight Bolts—shining dots of indigo energy that flew from the tip of the staff to its target with the speed of a shooting star. The bright, trailing dots of energy were able to pierce through the body of the goblin swordsman and end up killing him, leaving two more enemy goblins to go.

  The goblin archer was the next to attack, readying an arrow onto his bow and drawing the string as he took aim at the redheaded mage. Miri saw that incoming attack and proceeded to dodge the soaring arrow with a quick sidestep, followed by a retaliating attack with another series of Starlight Bolts, piercing through the body of the second goblin and ending up killing him.

  The third one to attack was the goblin mage, who seemed to be charging a fireball with his staff before launching it towards Miri in an arcing trajectory. Miri tried dodging that incoming fireball, but wasn’t nearly quick enough, causing the projectile to graze her and slightly singe her robe. She then tried countering it with a magical attack of her own—another series of Starlight Bolts—only to find that she’s already out of mana.

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  She’s going to have to wait for her mana to recharge, but she didn’t have the time to do so. Instead, she decided to take a risk and charge towards the goblin mage in an attempt to engage him in close-quarters combat. Based on how she distributed her stats, she was not the most proficient in melee combat. However, neither was the goblin mage, which was what gave her the confidence in banking on this tussle to be in her favor.

  The goblin tried hurling a couple more fireballs at her as she approached with a rushing sprint, all of which she managed to dodge by the skin of her teeth. Then, once she’d gotten close enough, she took a huge, powerful swing and bashed the heavy end of her staff onto the skull of the goblin, the resulting impact spraying a light splatter of blood on her face. With the goblin sufficiently staggered, she followed up with several more swings of her staff onto his noggin, bludgeoning the goblin to death.

  Once the fight was over, Miri took a moment to catch her breath before pumping her fists in the air and cheering at the top of her lungs.

  “Yeah! I did it! How you like that, bitches?! Haha!” Miri bellowed with a victorious smile before collapsing onto the ground, feeling a bit exhausted from the whole ordeal. And also a bit hungry.