When the goblins start coming through the portal, Elmo clenched his teeth. Jonas was doing his best to occupy the goblin mage while Kim was dealing with the hobgoblin. Which left him and Elin to figure out how to close the portal. Not that either of them had any clue as to where to start. Elmo had already used his View Stats spell to identify what the brownish-black goblin was, just to make sure what it was as well as to have the information in case he was asked for it.
They first tried to cast attack spells on the portal with no effect. Or at least not enough of an effect to have a noticeable effect. It stayed going strong.
When Kim had been hit by a spell from the goblin mage, Elin nearly went to heal Kim, but Elmo stopped her. He was confident that Kim would be able to hold up against the hobgoblin, regardless of what else occurred.
Yet, when more goblins started entering the portal, Elmo knew they were in trouble. Especially since now it was too late to let Elin go heal Kim. He wanted to stop the flow, but there wasn't anything that he could even think of to close the gate, which was the only realistic way to stop it. Which meant they needed to figure out what they needed to do fast. Especially since Elmo could see that some of the goblins were focusing on him and Elin.
Elmo closed his eyes for a moment and decided to at least try something else. Something that he didn't expect would work. Something that he was confident was really a waste of his MP and time.
"View Stats," Elmo said, focusing on the portal.
At first nothing happened and he was sure he'd just wasted his time, but a minute after, when Elmo was starting to focus on the goblins that were heading towards his and Elin, a window popped up in front of him.
It didn't contain much information, but it did tell him more than he was aware of about the portal. Including how to close the portal. As Elmo read it, he couldn't help but feel despair threatening to overwhelm him. He rubbed his eyes to make sure they weren't deceiving him.
Yet, the words remained the same. In order to close the portal, he needed to focus his MP and Stamina on the portal and let it soak in. Yet, it didn't explain exactly how he was supposed to do that.
"Tutorial," Elmo whispers, getting ready to swing his staff at goblins, not sure if he'd be able to do very well, but comforted with the fact that it would save him his MP if nothing else.
"What does this mean about focusing my MP and Stamina on the portal in order to close it?" Elmo asked.
"Yeah?" Elmo asked, not sure, as he hadn't really thought to focus on that.
"How much will it take?" Elmo had doubts that he'd have enough stamina or MP for this. Though, he knew that he'd better start on it sooner rather than later.
Elmo sighed as he shook his head. This felt like it was going to be more of a pain than he'd really like. Especially with having to deal with the goblins in front of them.
"Frozen Missile!" Elmo called out, focusing on eliminating as many of the new goblins as he could right then with a single spell. Then as the spell formed in front of him, he could feel the mana charge inside him and then move to form the spell. He had to admit, as he noticed it, it kind of tingled.
When the spell shot out, he was able to hit five goblins before it ran out of targets. While left only two goblins remained of those that had been heading towards him and Elin. Not that goblins stopped appearing from the portal.
Elmo looked at the portal then at the hobgoblin and goblin mage. While he knew that he should have enough MP at the moment, he had a suspicion that he'd need to use absorb to maintain his MP and Stamina during this process.
He sighed as he watched Elin begin to fight the goblins, occasionally using her magic to hit them, but mostly using her staff. She was clearly not that great at it, but she was at least good enough to keep most of the goblins from approaching. Although, Elmo suspected that they might be waiting for Elin to wear herself out more than anythng else.
Elmo looked again at the portal and walked towards what appeared to be the backside of it. He looked again at the hobgoblin, which had Kim cornered with several regular goblins pressing to take Kim down. She was mostly holding her own, but it was clear she was in a losing position.
Elmo then looked at the goblin mage. Jonas seemed to be good at dodging the spells that were hurled at him, while he would stab every goblin that got within close enough reach. Elmo could tell that he was probably going to not need help at the moment.
So, Elmo turned his focus back to the hobgoblin and called out, "Absorb!" As he felt the energy fill his Stamina, HP, and maybe MP, almost like he was getting sleep without sleeping. He briefly considered doing that again, but pushed it out of his mind. Instead, he pushed against the portal from the opposite side that the goblins were appearing from.
On reason was that if the goblins wanted to stop him, they'd have to go around the portal, since they'd likely enter the portal if they tried a more direct approach to him. Although, the concern Elmo had about it was the fact that he suspected the portal would start to shrink once he started to close it. Which then also meant that there wouldn't be as much distance for the goblins to go before they reached him.
Elmo took a deep breath before doing what the tutorial had instructed for him to follow what his View Stats spell in order to close the portal. While it had sounded simple and he knew what to do in order to start the process, he was having trouble accessing his mana. After all, he'd only ever felt it that one time and the sensation only started after he'd spoken the spell. Yet, he still pressed his right hand against the portal, feeling like he somehow had already done this and was merely reenacting events that had already been successfully completed.
Elmo shook his thoughts to try and dispel his doubts and that weird sensation. He wasn't sure what exactly he had to do, but he suddenly had an idea to try. He didn't expect it to work, but it was the best he had.
Elmo closed his eyes, partly so he wouldn't have the goblins looking at him to distract him, and called out as he tried pushing his way into the portal, "Frozen Missile!"
Elmo then felt the mana build up inside him and travel through his hand to where it was in contact with the portal. At first it didn't seem like it was going to do anything, though he had to admit that the mana did seem to stop in his hand. When suddenly it almost felt like his mana was being sucked out of him. So fast that he was sure he didn't have enough MP at the moment.
Elmo moved his other had in the direction of the goblin mage and called out, Absorb!"
Then as the spell took form, he could feel the resources of HP, MP, and Stamina enter him, refueling what was still being sucked out of him like a vacuum. Part of Elmo felt like he was going to deflate and become like a used balloon, even though he knew that if he did drain all of his magic and stamina, he'd still be just as if he'd used it all up anyway. Though, he did wonder how long this might take. His hand that was pressed against the portal was heating up and he wasn't sure how hot it might get.
At the very least, he was confident that he could do this and merely use his absorb spell to recover MP and Stamina if they started to get low. Although, he wasn't sure about the goblins that were coming in through the portal and the only way to do anything about them would be to drop closing the portal and deal with them head on. However, since he couldn't say how long it was going to take, especially if he had to start all over again, he did his best to keep his focus on the portal and, at the very least, try to ignore all goblins, aside from the hobgoblin and goblin mage. Mostly as targets for his absorb spell if he felt his MP and Stamina were getting low.