Intelligence: 52 -> 58

"Go get some more bodies," Mark murmured to his skeleton mage. It disappeared behind him as the orc mage and its goblin reinforcements charged.

"Three ghouls," he counted, two from him and one from his skeleton mage. "Good enough." A snarl rose on his face as he faced them down.

Fireballs came flying his way, but he ducked behind a barricade and the flames washed over his back. He sent back a swarm of Magic Missiles in return. They pummeled into the body of an overzealous goblin warrior before he needed to duck back down.

Samara's arrows pierced another pair between their helmets, forcing them to take cover. Though his barricade was beginning to break, Mark held on until the last moment.

"Charge!" he roared.

A flurry of arrows supported him while Mark's undead forces cleaved into the goblins. They threw a wailing goblin into the path of a Fireball, before continuing to kill more and more. The orc growled and shot forwards instead of staying back.

The ghouls could no longer hide. Close-range spellfire managed to take down two more ghouls, but his skeleton mage had returned with three hobgoblins. They ran in to grapple with the orc mage and held it down until he and Samara finished off the rest of the little goblins.

The orc mage's staff had a blade attached. Flames wrapped around the metal and burned whatever it cut. It fought with an insatiable ferocity, butchering whoever came too close. The hobgoblins only delayed it by a few seconds.

But that was enough for Mark to reanimate a few nearby undead, throwing their bodies at the monster to buy more time. Lifedrinker sank into its back. The orc's roar was cut short by one of Samara's arrows.

Right as the body crumpled to the floor, Mark immediately stooped down and cast Repair Corpse. Sinew sewed itself back, and he cast Raise Dead. It finished reanimating well before more reinforcements came.

Though damaged, the orc mage had maintained its ability to cast Fireball. Burning blazes fell into the places where the goblins had holed up. Their towers burned. Goblin wails filled the air as Mark walked back into the safety of Elise's tower. Samara joined them seconds later.

"What's going on?" Elise asked. "I'm pretty sure there wasn't supposed to be such a large number of undead here."

"Something's different here from what Theodore expected. His perception might've been lacking," Mark said. "There's enough goblins here to overrun our previous campsite dozens of times over."

Samara nodded. "The goblins fighting up on the other hill were not very tired. Instead, these ones here were quite exhausted. Should be the first wave."

"Good. That means we're close to victory," Mark said. "I won't be able to reanimate any more minions though."

"That's fine," Samara said, downing another one of her concoctions. "I've got plenty of energy." She reported on what she saw: a contingent of orcs decimating the battlefield. There were waves of undead washing out from a singular point in the cavern, way more than what they expected to lurk inside. Another group of goblin mages, led by a fancily-dressed orc, were the primary bulwark of the goblin horde.

"That doesn't sound right," Elise said. "Where are all these undead swarming from?"

"Couldn't see the exact location," Samara said. "But they should clear out soon."

"Okay. Whenever you're ready," Mark said. He'd wait for her signal once again. Until then, he sat down and tried to accumulate as much mana as he could to cast a few emergency Magic Missiles.

Samara began to pick off the goblins one by one. Though they sent a few more attack squads to try and root them out, they failed, even with occasional magical support. Then the goblins sent no more.

"That should be enough," Mark said. "Let's start climbing."

The hill was rough and jagged. Dust stirred with every step. It was not easy to scale by any means, making the journey slower. A barrage of spells descended.

Fortunately, he had a skeleton general placed in front with a sturdy shield. And Elise protected herself with her magic deflection staff. But when the equipment was eventually destroyed, he couldn't exactly pull out another from his pocket plane. Mark began to intercept some of the spells with his Magic Missiles. His mana dwindled further.

That took some of the weight off of Elise while they climbed upwards. As they neared the top, a few goblins were already waiting for them to attack. Mark's skeleton mage sent its goblin warriors up first, forcing them down with their hardy bodies, while Samara provided support. Then his orc mage and ghoul crashed into their ranks.

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Blood splattered all over as the goblins fell in scores. Their forces were beginning to run thin, especially when the undead tide surged once again. Some defenders were forced to rush back to the front lines to keep them from being overwhelmed. Mark's team took their position on top of the hill.

The aura of necromancy emerged amongst the enemy undead, though much of it had dissipated. Skeleton mages had been involved in this battle. He saw a few cloaks scattered about the battlefield, but there was a distinct lack of bodies. Did the orc mages pulverize them all already?

"There!" Samara shouted. A makeshift fort was built in the distance. Mark pulled his minions over to clear them a path.

She had already shot down the guards near the entrance. It was now up to his orc mage to deal with the enemies inside. Its bladestaff cut down the door with a single swing, then kicked it down to unleash a barrage of fire. The cacophonous screams of goblins inside immediately alarmed Mark.

But his orc mage handled them all with ease. Its staff arced through a tide of hobgoblins and left them broken on the floor. Smaller goblins couldn't even last for a second before turning into a puddle of blood. After winning the fight, it stomped up the stairs to continue its slaughter.

An explosion spilled pieces of wood and stone downwards. Through the newly made cracks in the floor, Mark glimpsed a few goblin warriors standing strong against his orc mage's heavy strikes.

"I'm going up," he said to Elise. "Keep the skeleton general around."

Mark trembled a little at having to fight in melee again. He remembered using punches and kicks to defeat the undead at the beginning, but had always used Magic Missiles afterwards as the main damage source. Now he had no mana remaining. Just like old times, he thought, taking out the bone mace. The necromantic aura surrounding the weapon had grown quite high during the battle.

His orc mage hammered its burning blade against shielded goblin warriors. Though the magical flame helped it tear through flesh, it lacked the same power against metal. Still, the orc's durability was far above the goblins, and it would eventually win given enough time.

Mark could speed it up though. His mace struck a shield and produced a deep reverberation. The sound made him slightly nauseous, but the goblins fared far worse. The ones closest to his attack immediately began to vomit, becoming dizzy and falling over, allowing his undead orc to cut them down in moments.

"What was that?" he asked. Once he recovered from his own bout of dizziness, he attacked again. The same thing happened and the rest of the goblins sank under the orc's blade. While Mark stood there, gagging, his orc mage surveyed the room and grunted. It then stopped and started to clean its weapon.

The feeling disappeared as quickly as it came, but he was pretty sure the effect came from his skeleton mace. Though he wanted to study it in more detail, he had a job to do. So he went back downstairs after making sure all the goblins were dead. Elise was standing over a few corpses of her own, though she remained unharmed.

"Good job," he said. Her hands were still shaking, but for a rookie, she did quite well. "Have you reached Level 25 yet?"

"Not yet," she said. "Level 23. Maybe at the end."

"We'll get there. You can rest, for now." While his orc mage stood atop the building and suppressed the goblins with spellfire, Mark continued to meditate, waiting for Samara to act next.

The sound of blades clashing drew closer. A group of goblins were being pushed back in melee with the undead. They tried to force their way inside the tower, but his skeleton general stood guard over the door, letting no goblin pass.

Eventually, they turned to flee, while the undead continued to move forwards. Mark swung his mace and cracked a skull open. The bone then exploded a few seconds later, sending splinters all over the area. They dug into his clothes and into his skin, drawing blood. He stumbled backwards in surprise.

"Are you okay?" Elise asked. The explosion had grazed her as well, but not as much as him.

"I'm fine." Mark bit back a curse. He had not expected that to happen. What was this artifact, even?

He swung his mace again and backpedaled immediately afterwards. But the attack failed to kill the skeleton in one hit. Instead of the explosion he was expecting, the undead merely stumbled, and continued to try and push past his skeleton general's spear.

His next attack successfully broke open its skull. An explosion of bone came once again, but Mark had managed to dodge it. Then he finished off the rest of the undead with well-placed blows to other parts of the body. Though it took him a few attempts to probe, Mark had figured out how the mace worked. It only exploded the areas where it struck as long as the skeleton was dead.

With the brief attack finished, Mark rushed towards the next goblin tower followed by the rest of his party. A sense of satisfaction rose within him at how effective the mace was. Against living targets with shields, it was a perfect counter. No goblin could continue fighting back as long as he withstood the negative effects.

The mace also had the powers of corrosion. Whenever it struck living flesh, its attacks induced withered skin. The goblins who tried to run away dropped dead after a few moments.

"This is a necromantic artifact, that's for sure." Mark gave the mace an inquisitive look. After several bouts of combat, he confirmed three different properties of the bone mace depending on what type of material he struck. Hitting the bones of corpses in particular caused them to shatter violently. Against flesh, it induced rot and decay. Finally, attacking metal caused a horrible, dizzying noise to ring.

There might've been other effects, but these three were the most obvious. Mark killed his way through another few fortifications before the goblins had enough. They broke away from the undead and began to sound the retreat.

But it was too late. Most of the goblin warriors were stuck in melee. And much of the goblin mages had already run out of mana themselves. Though they were close to finishing off all the undead, Mark's party had interrupted them at the right moment. Only the Level 25 Orc Mage and a few of its bodyguards had the power to break through the mass of undead and emerge in front of Mark's team.

"Two orcs, three goblins, and a hobgoblin," Mark said to Elise. "Easy. Feel ready?"

She shook her head. "Please be careful," she said. "That orc looks a lot more dangerous than the one we fought."

Mark had to agree. The mean-looking monster had scars across its entire body. Its bladestaff looked twice as heavy as his own undead orc, and its spell repertoire included many he had seen on Theodore. There was only one saving grace: its comparative lack of intelligence.