Heaven's Greatest Professor

It didn't take long to take care of all the wyverns, and then Gale joined to despatch all the lizards down on the ground. Most of them only took an arrow or a sword beam.

He simply had grown too strong too fast to skip a whole rank of monsters.

"Hey, you got to help those that are struck inside," shouted the healer.

Agnes was talking to her, but his question was directed at him. Gale was sure he couldn't even see his face, that was fair in the sky.

"The guild master and a few others," the healer continued to shout. "They were struck in there..."

His finger pointed towards the huge portal, dozens of metres tall, shimmering with chaotic light. No more creatures were coming out of it yet.

"The guild master of the Spirit Hunter Guild?" Agnes asked.

The healer nodded.

"Will you guys be fine if we go?" she asked. There were still other dungeons around, not to mention the lizards that fled.

"Yeah, you already took care of the bigger problems," said a gold ranker. "Our task now is to hunt down the lizards scattered into the city."

"Well, good luck with that," Gale said and flung himself towards the gate, a spray of golden light lingering behind him. "You coming?"

Agnes lunged into the air, her wings of darkness spreading on her back. They entered through the portal and found themselves in a completely different realm of existence.

Gale was hoping for a dark dungeon, but even he hadn't imagined being back here.

"This is the front lines," Agnes cried, staring at the red sky with broken layers of clouds. "How the hell is it connected to here?"

Gale ignored all the concerns and implications behind that and spread his void sense ahead of him as he flew. It didn't take long to find the source of all the chaos. Unlike the barren lands of the front lines he was so familiar with, there seemed to be a huge bog ahead, enclosed by dead, sky-piercing trees.

Shrieks and screeches were coming from there as some trees were struck down. Gale enlarged his blade and joined the fray.

His void sense found the humans as he began killing the huge fire-breathing lizards with no wings. There were many serpentine creatures, as large as a great serpent.

"Who are you people?" shouted a man, heavily pressed by a pack of lizards.

"There's only two of us," Gale said and called upon the winds once more. "Duck. Everyone."

Wind blades concentrated around him as he swung his blade in a full arc. Gale attacked with

Cry of the Baleful Wind.

A terrifying sword beam of void energy, empowered by intent and wind, cut through the air in a decimating rush.

"Gods above!" screamed the man as he dug down into the bog water.

The sword beam decimated the ranks of the lizards, severing their bodies into parts, and the dead trees alike, before finally stopping after moving about a hundred metres.

The man popped up from the muddy water a moment later. He whistled, looking at the severed corpses.

"Brother," he turned to Gale, "where do you come from?"

Gale flew away without replying, towards where he was sensing a stronger presence. A huge monster lay ahead, its power stronger than any creature he had fought before. A draconic being—well, it may as well have been a dragon. It breathed fire, setting the dry trees ablaze, as three warriors tried their best to keep it under control.

"You're very rude, brother," a voice said from behind him. Gale didn't have to turn to know it was the same man from before. Gale didn't know how a silver ranker like him covered such a distance so fast, as his attention was on the monster ahead. "Not even acknowledging my question."

Agnes was flying right behind, but she was a fair margin slower compared to the male.

"Oh, if it isn't Agnes Arnaid," the fellow piped up, far more energised than before. "Did you come to save me too?"

Agnes' expression soured instantly, as though she had sniffed something rotten. She flew to hover behind him.

"That's an awakened fiend," she said. "Almost at its peak."

"Hmm, the question is," Gale muttered, "will it last even a single move?"

The wind swirled around him, though it didn't even budge a lock of his hair. It surged in a vortex of a tornado, wind blades rushing at full capacity.

Ascent of the Baleful Wind,

Gale shouted inwardly, feeling something about why people scream their attack names out loud.

Under his whim, the vortex of baleful wind, empowered by his void light, pierced through the space, disturbing the spatial nodes as it lodged into the chest of the dragon fiend.

The three fighting it hadn't even turned towards Gale, but by the time they did, the attack had burrowed into the awakened fiend, leaving behind a huge hole, large enough for anyone to pass through.

Blood sprayed in the air like a fountain as the monster collapsed against a few huge trees. Who knew how long it had taken for it to advance to this shape and stature, and yet it died like that?

The obnoxious fellow whistled. "Now that's something," he said. "Still, the other attack looked better, though."

Gale turned to Agnes with an expression that said:

Do you know this guy?

Her expression returned:

Unfortunately, yes.

"Who are you?" barked one of the leading men, a gold ranker with a fire attribute and a fiery temper to match. "We had it all under control. Who asked you to butt in?"

"Talk about showing gratitude," chuckled the silver-rank man behind him. "And they say I'm an ungrateful bitch."

"Shut your damn trap, Selas," barked the man as he returned his glare to Gale.

"Temperance, Gibson," said the man who was likely the leader. He had been inspecting the hole in the fiend's chest while his party member blabbered. "Hello, fiend," he said to Gale. "Might you tell us who you are and where you came from?"

Gale opened his mouth to answer, just as the spatial nodes above their heads split open. Gale formed his

Void Shroud

to defend against whatever it was, but it looked like there was no need for it.

Through the crack emerged a figure, a tall figure with long dark hair and an overwhelmingly oppressive aura around her. It spoke of her rank and the power she held.

Transcendent.

"Looks like I'm a little late," said the newcomer as she smiled. "Thankfully, you took care of it brilliantly."

Something changed behind him. Gale's sense told him that the aura around Agnes was vibrating wrongly. She was never so sloppy as to let out a slight change if she didn't want to, but now her aura was like an open book, littered with fear and deep-seethed hatred. Mostly fear that anything else.

Whoever this woman was... she had rattled her completely.

"Ah, Agnes, good to see you in such a great shape... Not going to greet your master?"

Agnes bit her lips and came forward, her gait shaking a little. She bowed her head deeply.

The transcendent woman smiled.