A/N: I'm making the mist monsters and bosses in this story a lot more dangerous, to better conform to the adapted level system I am using for this story, and it's also more realistic, if level 5 - 10 characters can take the evil forest and first black waltz, then they aren't that dangerous. Also to the few people who think my stat pages take up too much space, lay off, it's a new line with every stat. However in fairness, I won't count the stats and A/N as part of my word count in future chapters.

Mark's character stats(Start of Chapter 5)

Character class: Wizard Knight

Level: 5, 40xp until next level up.

HP: 108 / 108

MP: 158 / 315

Strength: 25

Speed: 18

Spirit: 27

Magic: 44

Weapon: Bronze sabre

Armour: Traveller's cloak

Footwear: Leather shoes

Accessory: Isekai ring

Skills: None

Magic: Poison, Regen

Trance: Balmung strike

Items: 2 potion, 1 phoenix down, Antidote, Goblin Dagger, 13 Goblin Steak

Gil: 180

A nerfed Dingir in Final Fantasy 9, seriously?

CHAPTER FIVE

Fetch the General, stay alive!

In the end we convinced Emilia to be the rider. She was the strongest of us, and the only one who could escape alone. Taking her horse through a smaller side exit, she fled along the edge of the forest, heading to Alexandria castle town, which we sealed up again behind her. Goblins followed, perhaps a dozen, with several mages among them. But we could only hope she would make it.

Emilia wanted to keep fighting, but in defensive castle warfare, her full strength couldn't be used, neither was she a magic user, and neither was she the only officer there. While Mark knew a lot about strategy, he also knew that they wouldn't follow him. They did however listen to his suggestions, and that was more than enough.

His magic was down by half, normally by now he could have levelled up enough to learn new magicks, but the undead provided no EXP, only by killing the Hobgoblin Necromancer did they stand a chance of doing that, and at level 50, they didn't stand a chance of surviving such an attempt. Mark had been running about the castle perimeter, as the Goblins now attacked from all sides, but Mark retaliated by providing blanketed Poison spells.

The Necromancer would wait until they all died before reviving the hoard. It was likely due to MP consumption. A mass revival spell couldn't be cheap to use, the gradual thinning of enemies was something they needed to use so that archers and mages could rest.

In places where arrows were beginning to run low, he had the villagers throwing stones at those trying to scale the walls, or anything heavy. The children and Elderly helped carry projectiles up for the throwers, in addition to the arrows they had been bringing to the archers before this.

But the Goblins were beginning to climb the walls none the less. One tackled into Mark, sending him sprawling. It was a level 15, wielding twin long daggers. Everyone was too busy to help him, and he didn't waste time distracting them, drawing his bronze sword, he took a stance, and whispered, "Equip: Goblin Dagger," the iron dagger appeared in his right hand in a flicker of light.

"GRRRRRHH!" the undead Goblin growled, broken off arrow shafts sticking outside his body.

"Thankfully HP isn't the only way to kill things," remarked Mark as he circled the Goblin. "Let's watch as I overcome the level difference with skill, hey Monster?"

Game Alert: conditions achieved!

Martial Skills unlocked: mixed weapon dual wielding

Knowledge of his real life skills entered his mind with a sudden painful rush, it was only a tiny flicker of what he knew in the real world, but he would take anything he could get. 'Interesting, so it's not just based on level ups, but also circumstantial?' In any case, he would take any advantage he could get.

The Goblin swung at him, he redirected the goblin's knife with his own, he felt his bones creak in protest, its strength stats must be much higher than his then. But Mark only needed to stop it for a second, he sliced the monster's head off with his sword before it could pull back. Blood spewed, soaking the world traveller.

"Phew, that was close!" Mark gasped, casting Regen on himself, he grabbed the Goblin's head and threw it over one side of the gate, he then dragged the Goblin's body and threw it over the other side, knocking several Goblins that were scaling the walls. There were too few arrows left, too few capable of spells. Hopefully being beheaded would interfere with the revival process.

But every delay they could manage, was more time for Beatrix and her forces to be marshalled, and more lives, including his that could be saved. "You've got this Emilia."

"Get out of my way!" roared Emilia as she cut down yet another Goblin, the undead were fast, not worrying or feeling as they tore their muscles apart to keep pace with her steed. The magic users were further back, casting spells at her, she zigg-zagged, narrowly avoiding them, several times she was forced to take a hit for her mount, so that she could continue to escape. Downing a potion to heal her seared back and arms, courtesy of a Fire spell, she continued on towards the city. She could see it now in the distance. "Come on, we can do this!"

Beheading the undead Goblins did the trick, when the Necromancer was forced to revive its forces, only the heads came to life, their bodies unresponsive, they had killed dozens in this manner, but now the Necromancer was playing smarter, Goblin mages began using weaker, faster spells to limit the actions of the archers and rock/anything throwers, so that the heads could be retrieved and reattached.

Meanwhile more were attacking the gates, a tree was knocked down and began to batter against the gate, those not fighting at the moment, hurriedly tried to pile up a larger barricade behind the gate as it began to warp and break as the undead repeatedly charged against the gate with their impromptu ram. They would break in soon.

"Emilia?" remarked Beatrix in surprise, as she regarded the badly injured soldier approach her on horseback. She and her squad had just finished a routine patrol, when Emilia approached at high speeds, something was very wrong. "What's happened?" Beatrix demanded, as Emilia jumped down from her horse, swaying slightly, her body covered in cuts and burns, she needed a white mage.

"An attack on the keep, a hundred Goblins," Emilia quickly relayed.

'Emilia has enough forces for a mere hundred Goblins,' thought Beatrix as she helped steady the larger warrior. "What else?"

"A-A level 50 Necromancer that continues to revive them, our mages are spent and we were running low on arrows when I was bullied into leaving for help, your help, you're there only fighter in the city who could take a level 50."

'Interesting, one of her officers is quite the realist,' thought Beatrix as she ordered several soldiers to take Emilia to be treated and to call for any spare soldiers to hurry to the keep, her squad would go ahead, none of her immediate subordinates were below level 20, and she could handle a level 50 easily in most cases, she was level 99 after all, the strongest a humanoid could be.

"My soldiers, we ride for battle!"

And so, they hurried for the keep, on their fastest horses, it would not take long to reach the walled village, they could only hope that their soldiers and the citizens that lived there, weren't already dead.

The gate and barricade had fallen. The dying started, I thankfully was not among them. They flooded in, well tried, around twenty broke in, but soldiers were quick to react, some villagers and soldiers died, but more Goblins. They began throwing up another barricade, but many died to swift footed goblins, stabbing through the meagre pile up of rubble they attempted to erect. They needed more time.

Swallowing the bile threatening to rise in his throat, Mark ran alongside the wall and leapt down onto a secondary group of Goblins trying to get through the gate. Several blades bit into his flesh, he grit his death, and with a flurry of blade work, removed the heads of nearly half of the group. He faced worse injuries in the past, in real life, but he'd forgotten how truly much it hurt.

"R-Regen..." he gasped, it wouldn't do much to these serious injuries, but it would hopefully stop him bleeding out.

A dagger pierced his thigh.

Another dagger sliced deep into his back.

"G-Gah!"

Mark stumbled forward, his leg giving out, narrowly avoiding several more attacks by luck. He twisted his body as he fell, now facing his attackers as they tried to pin him with their daggers, he jammed his dagger into the rotting eye socket of one of them, and ripping it to the side, destroyed it's brain. It died on top of him as his back hit the ground hard.

"Shit!"

Then a dagger stabbed into his shoulder.

"Ahhh!"

The second goblin hadn't wasted the opening. Instead of pulling it out for another stab, it slammed its fist down, likely destroying its hand, the dagger passed through his shoulder completely and stabbed into the ground beneath Mark, he screamed.

He was stuck!

The Goblin stood, it grabbed a sword from a nearby dead Alexandrian soldier, raising it up for a two handed swing. But another Alexandrian soldier speared the creature in its side, the Goblin released its grip on the sword, she immediately caught it, and removed the monster's head with a swift swing.

He was saved!

Well kind of...

Everything hurt, except for his shoulder, which was dangerously numb. The occasional glow indicating his Regen spell was still going, wasn't doing much, but it was keeping him alive.

HP: 18 / 108

MP: 40 / 315

Trance unlocked: Balmung Strike (MP cost: 30)

The soldier pulled the goblin off him, now he could see other soldiers making swift work of the second wave of goblins.

"Still Alive?" she asked. Her status bar said, 'Vivian, level 16.'

"Just about," Mark replied, "and thanks."

"This is going to hurt a lot," she warned, grabbing the dagger, keeping him on the ground. "Brace yourself."

"Just do it," he replied, gritting his teeth.

She pulled it out in one swift, violent movement. Blood spurted. Mark bit back down a scream, she pulled a potion to his lips, which he happily drank. All his wounds closed up, but still his body hurt like hell, it wouldn't take much to reopen them.

Vivian yanked him to his feet, "come on!" the barricade was almost covered again, the other soldiers who had come to his and the barricades aid, hurried through with them, and it was closed up behind them.

They hurried out of the way, while the tree trunk the goblins had used as a ram, was pushed up against the barricade from the inside. Apparently they had fetched it while he was being reckless. The goblins wouldn't get back in this way.

"Nice one, they ain't getting through that," Mark stated with a weak grin, his legs were still shaking. How long had it been since he'd faced pain like that? Damn it, he needed to get stronger, "and thanks for saving me."

The soldier Vivian looked vaguely surprised, most men hated being rescued by women, but with most of the military being female, they just had to suck it up, but this self proclaimed Pluto Knight was far less pretentious and arrogant than what she was used to. "You're welcome, but try not to throw your life away like that, you're way too low level to do stuff like that."

"Heh, no promises," Mark grinned, using his sword to balance himself, he looked up to the wall, Goblins were still trying to get over, but so far they had managed to keep them from doing so. "With the entrances blocked, as long as we keep them from getting over the walls in mass, we can last until Beatrix gets here."

The Hobgoblin growled in frustration, he's immortal army should have easily handled this keep, a mere walled village, with a small number of soldiers, and even fewer mages, it should have been easy. But they kept killing his army, no matter how many times he revived them. He had actually used half of his MP on reviving them again and again.

How could they take Alexandria like this? If a mere keep kept them so evenly match. He needed more forces first. He would slaughter all of them, and make them part of his forces, he would enslave the Fangs, the Plant Spiders, and every human they encountered. But first, he needed to knock down the walls.

"Cast: Demi!" and a massive orb of darkness swirled above the keep. It was time to attack personally!

CHAPTER END

Next Chapter: Level 5 Trance vs. Level 50 Hobgoblin

Hi everyone, so sorry for the long delay, but as always, I have other fanfiction as well as my professional published novels. But as always, I'll get these out as soon as the circumstances allow. :)