[Gnoll Lv 27 defeated. 1.4% xp gained. 35% skill point xp gained]

[Gnoll Lv 34 defeated. 4.7% xp gained. 44% skill point xp gained] 

[Gnoll Lv 29 defeated. 1.7% xp gained. 39% skill point xp gained]

[+1 skill point]

[Gnoll Lv 26 defeated. 1.2% xp gained. 32% skill point xp gained]

Aurora felt slightly disappointed that her attacks had not completely finished off the group of 8 gnolls, however, she was aware that she was very far away from being able to fight like she was used to, especially with the annoying feeling of her flow of mana being forced by the system. 

Even if she did not have her previous strength, having the freedom to utilise her mana in any way she liked would have allowed her to deal with her current situation with a lot more flexibility and success. However, with her current restrictions, she was stuck in the middle of the gnoll's camp, with enemies now rushing towards her from every direction, and only a small selection of skills at her disposal. 

Aurora knew that she had only a few short moments left before she was once again swarmed and torn to shreds, so she mentally braced herself while preparing to deal as much damage in her last stand. 

With her teeth gritted and her knuckles turning white from how tightly she was holding her sword, Aurora focused on her surroundings. She could see the gnoll who had just run past her turning to face her with a look of surprise in its eyes, while she could hear the heavy thudding of more coming from behind her. 

Making a snap risk assessment, she decided that the gnolls behind her were going to be more of a danger to her than those in front, all of them seemingly focusing on the pillar of fire that was starting to recede. 

With her decision made, Aurora spun around, slamming her staff into the ground and casting an [Earth Spike] to try and impale the gnolls rushing her from behind. To her disappointment, she saw that all the spikes were crushed by the gnoll's momentum, none inflicting any significant damage other than the physical impact due to the creature's innate level and resistance.

Thankfully, her attack had caused the three gnolls now directly in front of her a brief moment of hesitation, allowing her the time to dive out of the way of the majority of their attacks, only receiving a slash to her thigh that was protected by her barrier. The impact from the attack caused her to stumble slightly as she rose, using the momentum from her dive to roll back onto her feet. However, it didn't stop her from taking a chance with a pilot shot with her [Lightning] and [Residual Burst] at the four remaining charred gnolls from her previous attack.

The two bursts of lightning struck down out of the black of the night, directly landing among the four who were still reeling from being roasted alive, managing to directly strike one and completely kill it. The attack had however left Aurora open as she was struck in the side and sent flying many meters away into a tent that collapsed around her. 

[Gnoll Lv 42 defeated. 38% xp gained. 55% skill point xp gained]

[Lv 31 -> 32]

[All Attributes +3]

[+5 stat points]

Aurora took a brief glance at the amount of her mana remaining, grimacing at the low number of 321. The last two attacks she had received had taken out a large amount of her mana pool through maintaining her barrier, so she decided that from here on out she would just rely on her sword and save her mana to allow her to take a few more hits. After all, she was in a confined area while surrounded, she would be able to deal more damage with accurate strikes than with her restricted magic with slow cast times.

Aurora dismissed her staff as she quickly rose from the collapsed tent, immediately having to duck under the wild slash of a gnoll who was already bearing down on her. With a retaliatory slash at the exposed arm, she dashed out to her left, aiming to keep moving in an attempt to give herself more time. 

Her luck had seemingly run out as behind the gnoll who had attacked her were a large number of its tribe all nearly upon her. With a last push, Aurora lunged at the closest one, its slash at her chest shattering the barrier around her, but not preventing her from driving her sword straight through its eye and into its skull. 

[Gnoll Lv 52 defeated. 60% xp gained. 77% skill point xp gained] 

[+1 skill point]

Aurora’s rampage was suddenly cut short as she pulled her sword out of the gnoll's head due to a sword sprouting from the centre of her chest, its jagged and rusted edge glistening with her blood illuminated by the firelight. 

Aurora started to feel numb as the gnoll behind her started to lift her up using the sword, presenting her to the rest of the gnolls throughout the now trashed campsite. The crushed and burned tents mixed with the bodies of their dead brethren meant nothing to them as they all howled in triumph over her death. 

She grits her teeth, using the same technique of channelling her anger to retain the strength that was starting to seep from her body to go for one last strike in an attempt to avenge herself. She clumsily changed her sword into a reverse grip despite how much her body was giving up on her, and with a scream in agony as her chest tore further apart, she swung her right arm behind her.

Her blind strike struck true as she felt her sword meet resistance alongside a squelch, followed by a pained howl as her body fell limply face first to the floor while the camp quickly became silent. With a pained and now bloody smile, Aurora finally closed her eyes, internally overjoyed at the seven levels she had managed to gain from her surprise attack. 

****

When Aurora reopened her eyes, she was met by a black void and the feeling of weightlessness around her body. The only thing that broke the pure black all around her was the system notification sitting right in the centre of her vision.

[You were killed by Lv 79 Gnoll Chieftan Ragran]

Aurora let out a deep sigh now that the pain had vanished, the suffering being very much worth it with the xp gains in such a short amount of time. The sound of her sigh was replaced by a jovial laugh as she saw that it was the Gnoll Chieftan Ragran who had killed her. She presumed that it was also his casual strike that had sent her into the tent as most gnolls did not have that level of strength. 

Aurora then sank into thought as she broke down and analysed the fight she had just gone through. It was a habit she had picked up from her time fighting in Caelus, always self-analysing her fights and how she could improve the next time, and where she could have made better decisions. 

After around five minutes, she had gone through the fight multiple times in her head and noted a couple of things to work on. The first was that she had fallen back into her old habit of taking risks for xp. If she had focused on her immediate surroundings instead of going into tunnel vision on finishing the enemies off, she might have been able to reposition herself to get a better aim and deal more damage. That was, however, dependent on if the rest of the gnoll horde allowed for such an opportunity

While it could be argued that going for the kills may have been the best option for her, when she finally regained unrestricted access to her mana, she would have more leeway and thus letting her bad habits like this free now would only hinder her.

The next thing she noted was her general awareness and reaction speed. This was not something she could currently do anything about since most of the issue was caused by her lack of attribute points. An increase in her AGI and DEX would help close the gap and allow her to fight like when she was facing the goblins instead of fighting in a reactive way like against the gnolls.

On a positive note, she was quite pleased with her counter slashes throughout the fight, as well as her perfectly timed teleport. The counters she had managed to hit helped her deal some additional wounds to enemies that slowed them down, while her teleport allowed her to dodge a couple of high damage attacks and gave her the chance to freely cast multiple high damage magic abilities and kill four gnolls.

Aurora was brought out her musings as the ding of a system notification popped up, the contents utterly surprising her.