Heaven's Greatest Professor

An impenetrable cover of darkness formed within the pit, severing the forsaken from their reliable senses. Their eyes could not see, ears failed to hear, noses were of no use, and even some skin sensations eluded them.

"They actually fell for it," shouted a soldier, armed with his bow and arrow, along with a couple of dozen others.

"Less talking, get to the business," Lady Cassandra ordered. There was something in her voice that compelled the soldiers to obey. "Take positions and shoot."

She didn't need to tell them twice. They showered the pit with arrows, one after another. Just as the isolation of the barrier impeded the forsaken, it also obscured their view as well. A blanket of thick darkness covered the face of the pit. Thankfully, they did not need sight to aim. The pit was filled with goblins and orcs cramped in a small space, their senses and supernatural abilities disabled.

A blind man could shoot and score a kill.

It appeared not all the forsaken had fallen into the pit. About a dozen more, who were at the back, were safe from the same fate their comrades had encountered. Well, not for long.

Lady Cassandra shot in their direction and shouted. It was barely audible, but instantly, all of the forsaken's eardrums burst open with greenish blood oozing out. The few standing at the very front of her sonic bombardment fell unconscious, their green skin tearing apart, muscles spasmed.

Lady Cassandra directed her sonic attack to thrust the remaining forsaken into the pit for the others to deal with.

Warden stood with his broom near the opening of the pit, not just holding it but ready for action. If a forsaken managed to crawl its way up, he'd leapt upon it to either slitting its throat, busting open its skull, or sending it back into the pit. Tayl Alebson and a few others joined in this endeavour.

While a single arrow was insufficient to kill the orcs or goblins clad in thick metallic armours, they would not be fortunate for long as an arrow or two would eventually find purchase in their skull or an exposed part of their body.

The couple dozen archers, assisted by another dozen in loading their quivers, relentlessly shot arrows for more than 5 minutes. Due to the isolation barrier blocking their view and sound, they could not see the results of their attack nor hear the screams of the goblins. But most of them were soldiers, accustomed to following orders.

In about 5 minutes, they had discharged more than 1,200 arrows. They were prepared to shoot more, but Lady Cassandra finally commanded them to halt their attack.

The shooting ceased as each of the archers blindly wiped the sweat from their arms and faces, their eyes fixed on the pit.

Finally, a small figure, covered in slimy blood, clambered out of the pit, an arrow protruding from its back. None attacked it as it moved in wobbly steps, its eyes, finally free from the confinement of darkness, found the humans around it.

It screeched horrifyingly, then collapsed to the ground, dead.

[Essence harvested.]

[+1.5 Strength.]

[...]

The rewards in essence harvest came with the fall of the goblin. Cheers erupted among the soldiers with the notification of their rewards. They had done it. They had indeed accomplished it.

Given there were 41 of them, the rewards had not been as staggering as expected, with everyone gaining one or two points in strength and dexterity. Yet, they could not help but wonder about the attribute points they might have amassed had it been only one of them who achieved such a feat.

"You will get more chances to celebrate," Lady Cassandra said, turning to the adept Runesmith. "Cole, disable the formation."

The dark cover was lifted from the pit as Cole deactivated the isolating formation with the array mark given to him. The foulness of the array dispersed, clarifying their view.

In the pit lay the dozens of forsaken that had threatened their lives, arrows protruding from their bodies; some bore a couple of them, others a dozen, but the outcome was the same. The sight was revolting, so many dead, their eyes wide open in shock and dread.

Warden did not linger at the scene. He mounted his broom and ascended.

"More of the forsaken will be coming soon," he announced. "Onwards to the next location."

After all, this pit was no longer usable without clearing the bodies, which would take at least a couple of hours and risk revealing their tactics to the forsaken. Fortunately, there was no need to wait, as Warden had already prepared another pit to strike another significant blow to the forsaken ranks, located a couple of kilometres north from here.

The archers gathered their bows and arrows, marching quickly. Having already used more than 1,200 arrows, they had approximately 800 more. They knew these would not suffice against the stronger prey, the orcs. But it would certainly be enough to weaken them and cull their numbers.

Flying at top speed, Warden was the first to arrive at the second pit. One could not see the pit until falling into it, and even then, their senses would be nullified. He retrieved a couple of the goblins' emergency signals.

Warden fired at both of them, one after another, and waited.

He rested his broom and stood atop the camouflaged pit. The weight of a person alone was not enough to break it open. The first to arrive was a group of Orcs, accompanied by four huge trolls standing over three metres tall.

Warden frowned, certainly a smaller crowd than he had hoped for. Were there more of them in the back, still coming?

Only a dozen or so Orcs fell into the trap, which could not be used to its fullest advantage. Thus, Warden flew before they could enter the vicinity of the pit and tried to obstruct their path. Considering they were after his life and unaware of their fate, it wasn't particularly difficult.

Unfortunately, even after spending a couple of minutes, even when most of the soldiers and archers joined and took positions, only another dozen or so Orcs joined the ranks of the forsaken.

Warden shot another emergency signal, but to no avail; no more forsaken joined in their quest to kill him.

The realisation struck him after a while. The forsaken's main job was not to hunt the humans but to obstruct their entry into the second layer. They could achieve their goal just by guarding the gate. There was no need to chase after some mysterious, suspicious, purple-eyed man who had already successfully killed many of them using his traps and tyrannical powers.

Finding no other way, he decided to run along with his few enemies. Still, they would likely be more difficult to deal with than the Goblins.

"Be prepared; it won't be easy!" he exclaimed.

Warden fought the forsaken, barely holding on without deploying most of his abilities, as he began to withdraw. They probably thought he could not keep them at bay much longer, but in truth, Warden was leading them into the pit.

He kept a Tier 2 anti-gravity script in his hand as he reached the proximity of the pit. There were marks on the ground, but Warden could detect the formation just with his awareness. He had done most of the work in laying them out, after all.

Using the anti-gravity runes, he stood just a centimetre above the ground, undetected to the eyes of the forsaken. He hovered in the centre above the pit. The forsaken followed.

The mouth of the pit opened like the maw of a great cosmic beast as the dozens of forsaken fell into it. Their numbers in the back managed to halt their movement in time, but they had not noticed a solitary figure approaching from behind. Hell, even Warden himself had not noticed her until now.

Lady Cassandra stood in her blue and white dress and screamed. An ungodly amount of ultrasonic waves thrust into the remnants of the forsaken, plunging them into the pit. The trolls screamed in agony; the force of the ultrasonic wave was not enough to fling them into the pit, but it had done much damage to their dull brains and ears. Their skin swelled red and tore.

Sadly, their Regeneration power worked up and healed all the injuries. Their ears were renewed, though they looked as pissed as hell.

There are seven trolls in the company, and only four of them fell into the pit, which was now covered in the impending doom of dark essence. The archers had already begun shooting arrows at them when a troll burst out of the pit, arrows sticking all over its body. Freed from the confinement of the darkness, it narrowed down at the enemies and charged towards the ranks of the archers.

"Crap!" Warden cursed as he shot to obstruct its advancement. "Do not break the formation," he told the archers as six of the rankers, along with Lady Cassandra and Tayl Alebson, came to take care of the trolls.

Troll would be the most difficult for them, Warden knew that. Even if he managed to blind their senses, the power they held was unbearable. Killing them with arrows was nigh impossible unless your arrow struck through their skull without giving them a chance to recover.

Unfortunately, none of the archers had that kind of expertise in their archery. Half of them did not have much skill in archery at all.

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Well, the mass went underwhelming. It came at a horrible timing. The release rate actually got worse than a regular release. Sigh... I'll see what I can do... Thanks...