Heaven's Greatest Professor

"Don't kill them, especially not the female... It had been some time since I personally tormented a human female."

Warden furrowed his brows and turned to Agnes. "Hey, Captain, do we somehow give off the vibe of weaklings?" he asked. "Even goblins are looking down on us."

Agnes narrowed her eyes. After a brief inspection of their assailants, much of the tension disappeared from her shoulders.

"I forgot how you can understand what they say," she said, watching the goblins surrounding them in her peripheral vision. "What were they saying? I assume it's nothing good from their ugly expressions."

Warden chuckled. "Apparently, they have the hots for you."

Agnes's eyes glowed with malevolence. "Do they now," she said, as wisps of darkness condensed around her. "Let's see if they can handle me."

With that, she shot forward, the darkness forming a protective barrier around her form. Her sword pierced the head of the brave goblin warrior who couldn't stop itself from attacking her first. She killed it instantly, exuding an aura of darkness and doom.

The instant death of their companion stopped the other goblins in their tracks as they turned to look at their leader. The hobgoblin began spouting curses, screaming at them.

Agnes was unfazed by all this. Taking advantage of their stunned surprise, she began to cut through them as if they were mere vegetables. It was noteworthy that all the goblin minions presented exuded the aura of an Iron ranker, the hobgoblin being closer to Silver. Perhaps it was Silver, but the suppression of the subspace had limited him to the peak of Iron grade.

Regardless, Agnes didn't give even the slightest respect their Iron ranks demanded of her. She killed them all, barely taking a couple of moves for each one.

Warden watched idly as she hadn't left anything for him to work with. He set his eyes on the hobgoblin, whose ugly scowl had shifted to even uglier as though he had eaten a rotten lemon. Finding all of its minions' demise, it cast its sight in the direction it came from and took the first step.

Warden used the Anti-gravity scripts he had already recovered to fly up. The goblin hadn't even moved a few paces when he came down to deliver a flying kick to its face. Deep green blood oozed from its face, as the kick sent it flying for several metres. Yet, before it could even land, Warden flew back to send it up with another kick.

"Hey, captain, do you want to try this?" Warden shouted, turning to the woman who had already calmed down from her killing spree. Surprisingly, there wasn't even a speck of blood on her person. Her darkness power had soaked up all of it that fell on her.

"Not gonna lie," she said. "That looks surprisingly fun."

Large wings of darkness unfurled behind her back as she flew up to where Warden had sent the hobgoblin. Agnes, too, obliged the goblin chief with an unceremonious kick, sending it soaring upwards.

"How about we play a game?" Agnes said.

"I'm listening," Warden replied, sending the makeshift punching bag back to her.

"Whoever can send this green pest higher in the sky wins," she explained the rules.

"Fine by me," Warden grinned, confident it would be an easy win for him. "But what will be the reward? There should be something to motivate us to work harder."

Agnes hadn't thought that far ahead. After propelling the goblin into the sky with a merciless kick into its chest, she cast her gaze on him. "How about the winner gets to ask something from the loser," she continued, finding him agreeable. "It can't be something unreasonable. For example, if you win, you could ask for a larger share of our loot from our next hunts and such."

"That seems pretty unreasonable, to speak honestly," Warden commented, especially since both of them would have put all their effort into the hunt.

"I don't really care," she said. She used her darkness essence in her next kick, making the goblin feel as if it were a bird. Her kick easily sent it atop the towering trees, which were over two hundred metres high. "As long as you don't ask to get into my pants, I'm alright."

"Pity," Warden snorted. "I was hoping to make the cool and authoritative Captain Agnes embarrassed, at least a little, with my request."

"Don't act as if you've already won." She narrowed her eyes at the bloody figure of the goblin returning.

Honestly, they shouldn't have acted in such an abusive manner. Their justification was that their goblin chief would have been treated far worse if it had captured them. Besides, it was merely a beating. What's wrong with having a little fun with it? After all, the killing business was never fun to begin with.

"Oh, you're so wrong, Captain," Warden chuckled. "You forgot my occupation. It was my win the moment you suggested this competition."

Warden took his position, calculating the trajectory of the goblin's fall. It was already bloody from the dozen kicks both of them had inflicted. Under her watchful gaze, Warden conjured the Anti-gravity scripts.

He layered them on his feet and readied for a devastating kick, relying just on physical power, lest he kill the creature. His void energy took a heavy toll on physical matter.

"I'm going to kill your mother!" the goblin screamed as it descended. It never possessed the bearing of a respectable Silver ranker, but now, in its full enraged state, it resembled more a berserk monster devoid of intelligence.

Warden paid no mind to its words and flipped over to deliver the kick. The anti-gravity scripts exerted force on the goblin, amplifying the power of the kick.

It was propelled upwards at a tremendous speed, breaking through the canopy of the trees while still accelerating. There was no need for either of them to verify how high it went to determine the winner. The outcome was clear.

It was Warden, winning by more than double the margin.

"This is cheating," Agnes complained.

"Is it, though?" Warden grinned. "I mean, you were the one who set the rules... You should have considered my anti-gravity skills. I've been using them regularly these days, even in our spars."

Agnes scowled, disliking the loss. "Fine, you win," she conceded. "What do you want?"

Warden chuckled and shook his head. "For starters, I would like you to dance," he said. "But I don't think you'll agree."

She narrowed her eyes. "What do you take me for?" she glared.

"Like I said, you wouldn't have to—"

"No," she interjected. "You take me for some uncultured, savage woman who only fights and kills, isn't that right?"

Warden froze. "I mean, of course, you're more than that," he said. "I thought..."

"You thought the act of dancing would make me embarrassed," she snorted, her tension easing. "Don't try to deny it."

Warden did not. He was nothing if not brave. "It wouldn't embarrass you then?"

She met his gaze with a challenge.

"Fine then, I request you to dance," Warden said, a hint of anticipation in his heart. He was about to specify the type of dance he had in mind, considering something like a money dance might embarrass the cool Captain. But before he could elaborate, the hobgoblin plummeted to the ground in a burst of blood and gore.

Both of their expressions shifted at the sight of the hobgoblin chief's hardly recognisable figure. Regrettably, some of its gore splattered on them.

Agnes's darkness power consumed the gore, leaving her in pristine condition. She made no effort to assist Warden, although she had done so in the past couple of days. Clearly, he could make the request, but that would be letting her off too easily.

"It was a better death than it deserved," the captain declared.

Warden used his newly awakened light energy to clean himself up, but it was clear that his control and power over the energy had not yet reached a level where he could rival the captain. Eventually, he resorted to pulling out a napkin to clean himself.

"So, about the dance?" Warden began.

"What kind of man asks for a woman to dance in such an environment?" she retorted. "Invite me to a ball or something... I'll surely show you what I'm capable of."

"Have you ever taken a dance lesson?" Warden snorted.

"I can't say I've had the opportunity, but how hard can it be? Certainly not harder than ingraining sword stances into my muscle memory."

She had a point. And just like that, the opportunity to see the ever-confident and poised woman embarrassed slipped away.

"Why do you want me to be embarrassed, anyway?" she queried. "Are you upset with me for some reason?"

"No, no, no!" Warden shook his head vigorously. "I don't want to embarrass you... I'm just curious to see you embarrassed... I can't help but wonder how you look when you're embarrassed."

She frowned, evidently not understanding his rationale. "But you have already seen me embarrassed," she said. "The first time you saw me on the steam, I was—"

Her expression shifted, and Warden, too, became speechless. She shot him a curt glare, remembering the embarrassing event, her cheeks turning a shade of pale pink. She turned away.

"There might be another goblin or forsaken creature nearby," she said, hurrying on her feet. "I'm going to take a look."

Warden blinked. "So this is how you look when you're embarrassed, Captain. Can't say I'm disappointed—"

"I'm going to kill you if you continue to speak nonsense about this matter."

Ah, how could I have forgotten? Captain Agnes becomes quite murderous when she's embarrassed.

***