Heaven's Greatest Professor

Warden stared at her absently as he heard her. He didn't know what to think of it. Calling it utter nonsense would be an understatement... to think there would be such a stupid individual in the rank of leader...

"Not only that, his actions drove others to abandon the fight and aim for the gate. It was chaos within our ranks... half of them died just because they abandoned their position... can you believe it?"

Warden actually could. Motherfucker!

"Lady Cassandra tried her best, but they were relentless once they outnumbered us. Still, because of her, we still managed to gain victory with nine losses of lives."

"I should have dealt with my fight quicker," he admonished silently. He shook his head and let May lead him into the group. He was too exhausted to beat himself up for issues that weren't his fault.

He bent his back slowly and rested on the cold ground. His exhaustion could compare to what he felt like when he woke up face down near the stream. It was as if all the tiredness and stress he had built up after coming to the front lines welled up after getting a chance.

Warden had been wondering for how long he could go on. It turned out the answer was not even a second more.

On second thought, he laid flat on the ground and didn't know when his eyes closed as he fell asleep.

***

"Are you done yet?" May asked, sounding more irritated than she should.

"Just give me a minute," Cole said, without looking back at her. He had been crouched down on the array flag for over half an hour, trying to disable the formation so they could collect it back and leave for the second layer.

"You have said the same thing twice," May said. "Say you cannot finish up, I can just go call the Janitor."

Cole clenched his teeth, her words only proving his incompetency. But Cole didn't deserve that. Really. He had fought as hard as anyone, the number of forsaken he killed was within the top 5. The fight had exhausted him greatly, or else, should it have taken him this long to disable a formation he helped build?

"Look, the control panel of this formation is a Tier-5 one," Cole said, gritting his teeth. His fingers kept on tinkering with the runes with a scriber stylus. "Even when I'm full of myself, it would take me at least an hour or two to disable it. But now, I'm trying to disable it without damaging the runes. Do you know how difficult that is?"

"So, you're saying, I should wake up the Janitor?" May asked, grinning.

Cole snorted. "Do whatever you want, just leave me, you're only making it harder for me."

"Is there any problem?" asked a new voice. Lady Cassandra's translator, if May wasn't wrong, her name should be Koyel, an Imanian woman by features, though her behaviour didn't give away any hints. Lady Cassandra stood beside her, looking pale as ever, her clothes dirtied with blood and grime.

"No, no, just give me a little more time," Cole said quickly, before May could open her lips.

"Well, take your time," Lady Cassandra was back with sign language again as Koyel explained it to them. "I don't feel like any of the forsaken would come down from the sky or come back from the gate for that matter to attack us. Besides, most of us are exhausted."

Cole nodded and went back to his work.

"I plan on sending a couple of us to scout the second layer just in case," Cassandra continued with her hand signs. "There were only half of the numbers of the forsaken when Tayl Alebson attacked. We cannot discount them hiding in the second layer to sneak attack us."

"But if that was true, then Tayl Alebson..." May let the words end there. She didn't know if she should be happy or sad at the revelation, but with the rage still fresh in her mind, she couldn't care less about whether the ass of a noble lives or dies.

She knew it wasn't a productive thought, not for a healer, but she couldn't help it recalling how he abandoned them, acting all arrogant.

"Lady Cassandra," May turned to her. "Do you think—"

"I got it," Cole shouted. "Haha, why didn't I see it before, it's so stupid of me..."

May turned to him. "So I don't have to wake up the Janitor?"

Cole clicked his tongue. "Just give me a—" he stopped himself from repeating himself for the fourth time. He went back to his work, and within a few seconds, the darkness began to unfold.

It didn't disappear into the array flags but dispersed into thin air slowly, after the formation was disabled.

Then finally, the scene of what lay inside unfolded before their eyes. Cole whistled. "Well, I'll be damned!"

"It's like we're squabbling children when..." Koyel said, in her own words. She went into a heap of corpses to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

May had her palm pressed against her mouth and nostrils, disbelief in her eyes. The ground was the colour of discoloured blood of the forsaken, as severed limbs and beheaded heads lay like vegetables. Then there were a few heaps of corpses. May didn't think he had time to put them in a heap, but the sheer number of them he dealt with on his own.

Over a couple of dozen orcs, while the number of trolls was more than that—the sheer number of enemies was more than enough to wipe them off if he hadn't restricted their path. Hell, he didn't just restrict their path...

May turned to look where the Janitor slept soundly, hardly any signs of the violence remained on him.

Lady Cassandra began talking with hand signs again.

"I remember asking him..." Koyel translated. "That if he would act as a janitor when people's lives were in danger... I guess we have an answer now."

_____________

The battle is not over...