Heaven's Greatest Professor

Warden was just about to end the sword girl's participation when an arrow pierced through the hole the lighting created. His lips twisted into a cold smile. The arrow gutted into his force field, almost making it into his body if he did not move out of the way.

Of course, they have an archer on their side. Thankfully, Warden had been prepared for it.

Lightning still burst from behind, as Warden leapt to his feet, leaving the sword girl to her take care of the mage, who was the weakest in close range. In her panic, she shot ice spears, one after another, whatever she could muster, but it was all in vain.

Warden broke through her flimsy ward and gutted the spear into her heart. She disappeared from the virtual realm with a scream, and although it was not the pain of death, it was quite agonizing.

As the arrows and lightning kept on coming, Warden had to pour more power into the force field to keep it intact against the simultaneous onslaught.

Their attack so far had taken away a third of his energy, but Warden didn't need to enable the Mystic Ward, which let him absorb power from the attacks to sustain his defence. The students were already in a weakened state for him to expect anything more from them.

Warden turned and found Albert Stain and the sword girl had already run away from his view, while the archer made it easier for them to withdraw.

The familiar energy in the arrows told it was none other than Liam, and this time, he was using more of his power, probably pulling more than necessary. It would have injured him if it was done in the outside world, but thankfully, this is the virtual realm. They could do anything in it and only have to deal with the pain. The consequences were tens of times lower.

Liam was quick on the move as well, only a little slower than Albert Stain, who was mostly drained from deploying all the lightning. But Liam's archer class came with a stealth ability that let him use obscurity to hide himself. With the darkness in the fold, it would be difficult to find him with the two other iron rankers on his trail.

So, Warden went after Albert Stain as he left quite a trail for Warden to follow. They already found it impossible to break through Warden's defences for another time. They had almost managed it with the four of them working together, but with most of their firepower gone, it was a fool's dream. The only way they could win was through enduring until the quarter of an hour.

Warden must admit it was almost impossible for them. He easily sensed Albert Stain's energy trail and ended him by shooting his spear from a few dozen meters away.

The sword girl was better at control since she had less energy. She did not leave much of a trail forward to follow, but she was already injured. Without health potions or a recovery or regeneration ability, she would die within a few minutes. This left Warden only to find Liam, who had already managed to stay alive for 10 minutes the last time.

He wasn't even shooting arrows anymore, completely satisfied with staying hidden in the area.

Warden knew it would be a bother when he gave them the time limit.

Warden searched through the thick forest, jumping from one tree to another. Liam was only a copper ranker, eighteen or nineteen years old, and had only trained for like three or four years. He couldn't be that good at hiding. Could he?

In about a couple of minutes, Warden found a figure in the shadows of a tree. Unfortunately, it was the girl. Warden sighed and eliminated her.

A few minutes were remaining, and Warden feared Liam might just succeed in hiding for the remainder of the time.

So he decided to trash talk. Of course, he couldn't just berate a student, a junior of his for others to see, so he decided to tell a story... About what happened to the village after they left. He stopped narrating when the bandits came... hoping Liam would give away some of his aura after getting distressed.

But that did not happen. Liam remained hidden as the quarter of an hour passed.

"Looks like it is your win," Warden said as he came out of the capsule. "As a joint endeavour, I'll divide 25 points for you each."

Warden was ready for them to burst into complaint, but all he found was a smile on their lips. Even June was smiling looking at him. Finally, Aurel burst into laughter, causing more of the students to laugh at him as well.

Warden tilted his head and turned to meet June's eyes, as if asking if he had missed some joke or something.

Then finally, it came to him. "You were never there, were you?" Warden said, raising an accusing finger towards Liam.

"I left after you eliminated Audrey," Liam acknowledged.

"So I was telling all that story to ghosts?" Warden grumbled.

"So, what happened to the village?" Liam couldn't help but ask. "You're here so I'm assuming everything went well?"

Warden noticed the quiver in his voice. "No, the bandits sacked the village and even imprisoned me," he said. "It was until June... I mean, Professor June came along and freed me from them."

Liam's face soured for a moment, but then he shook his head. The very idea felt absurd. "There is no way you'd lose to some random bandits after what you showed here."

"They are fine," Warden said with a sigh. "So whose bright idea is that? I can tell you're not disrespectful enough to come up with it.

"Mine," Aurel said, still with a glimmer of a laugh on her lips. "The idea was for me to enter and give the students a hand, but you went on and on like a villain monologuing. It was just funny to watch and so we decided to keep you at it."