The Old Scholar

Meanwhile, back in the main world, the combat professors of Imperia were busy fighting off wave after wave of cultists that teleported in. The campus was empty of all non-combatants thankfully as they were evacuated by the rest of the staff and mostly consisted of students and their families, ensuring that no one strong enough to fight was no longer in harm's way. Sure there were a few students and their parents who insisted on helping defend the academy, but the staff simply told them no before activating secondary barriers around the place that kept people who were not part of the staff safely outside. The local Partoban military garrison had also arrived and there was a full army of around 120,000 soldiers quickly marching their way under orders as King Veryat II and his family were on the premises. 

Currently walking around one of the hallways to ensure that no cultists had teleported elsewhere from where they were expected to show up was Martha, her halberd bloodied along with her armor, with the blood coming from several cultists she and the two elven professors had killed when they teleported into the main auditorium around the right side of the campus. While Fafnir and Pittah simply sat and waited for their next group of lambs to the slaughter, Martha was ordered to patrol the outside of the auditorium and the nearby Harlow Hall for any unaccounted-for incursions. 

As she walked through the hall, her eyes scanned her surroundings while she kept her halberd in an upright position, with the head of the halberd facing forward, ready to strike down anyone who would come and attack her. 

"Hmm, so clear so far" She muttered as she entered the center of the hall that opened up into a small nature park with a few trees and benches scattered around 

{!} 

Suddenly, a small portal appeared in the center of the park, with a few cultists making their way out of the portal and scanning their surroundings in order the place was secure, not seeing Martha who had hidden behind a pillar and was rolling her eyes at what just occurred 

"Can't just shut up can you Martha" She cursed as she showed herself 

"There! One of those damned professors! Kill her!" One of the cultists shouted before running at her with several others 

"Come and die then you bastards!" Martha roared as she lunged at them as well 

She met them head-on and unleashed a horizontal slash with her halberd, slicing the cultist in front of her into two and sending the others reeling as they dodged the damn strike, when she got into position, the cultists attacked from three frontal sides, each of them trying to get a good stab in, with each attempt foiled by Martha blocking and deflecting with the halberd shaft and the halberd head. The sounds of metal striking metal filling the nature park. When one of the cultists managed to get behind her and try to strike her down with a stab in midair, she quickly teleported behind the cultist and skewered her through the chest, and raised her high, her eyes burning with anger before she flung the corpse at a pair of cultists rushing her with a swing and following through the motion by moving her body and slashing a cultist who was charging her from the right, the halberd head cleaving through the neck of the cultist in one clean swing. 

{!} 

Her senses then fired off as she quickly shifted to her left and brought up a barrier shield powered by her mana, blocking and absorbing a stream of fire from a cultist, when the stream ended, she lunged forward, using the same 'blinking' teleportation technique to close the gap in an instant, passing two other cultists and skewering the one shooting fire at her through the chest, quickly raising him up and then swinging him down to the right going clockwise, crushing the cultist directly behind her right, making him collapse onto the floor and then flinging the cultist to the left with the corpse still on her halberd, sending both crashing into a nearby pillar and knocking him out. 

Walking up to the unconscious cultist by the pillar, she quickly ended him with a halberd thrust through the heart, and then twisting the spearhead before pulling it out. A smile on her face as these cultists were nothing more than nuisances that needed to be eradicated from her sight, they dared come to the academy to kill innocents and she was not going to stand for that, they had so-called "True Gods" that died to her lover which amused her in their misguided and unforgivable objective. 

{!} 

Then, the portal spewed out another cultist, this one much taller than the ones before and a full foot in height above her. The cultist was unarmed and through his hood he stared down the former general with disgust, raising his fists in a combat stance. An annoyed smile filled Martha's face as she threw down her halberd to the side and also did the same stance as her opponent. 

"Tch, thinking you can match me just because you defeated some of my weaker colleagues, don't be so sure of yourself. I will kill you with my bare hands and show you which one of us is more blessed in this lif-" 

"Boring! Come on and fight already!" Martha cut him off, her eyes rolling at his speech 

"Grr, I shall show you the price of your arrogance! URAAAAH!" 

The cultist quickly closed in on Martha and fired off a downward punch with his right arm, but instead of hitting his target with blinding speed, he hit nothing but air and felt a sharp metallic pain in his gut as he let out a gasp and some spittle. Martha, who was now injecting body-strengthening magic, had dodged the punch and replied with her own right hook at his gut, with the cultist being forced to lurch forward and expose the side of his head, something Martha took advantage of immediately as she swung hard with a left hook and struck like a battering ram, her armored gauntlets breaking his jaw and sending him staggering to the side disoriented. 

Martha was not done with him yet as she stepped forward and grabbed the cultist's robes by the back and threw him onto the floor, with the force being strong enough to send him bouncing back up and into a barrage of punches that struck all over his body, breaking bones, muscles and joints before being finished by an axe kick she swiftly added that struck his chest and placed him back firmly onto the ground, with her armored boot planted firmly on the cultist's chest. 

"You damnable rats!" She growled as she stomped on his chest, causing him to spit out blood that dirtied her boots 

"I will make sure you suffer for your crimes of existence" She added as she turned her hand and the earth next to the cultist's face began to move

The cultist tried to scream but was unable to as dirt began rushing down his mouth and into his body, he could barely lift his limbs to do anything as the blows from earlier had seriously damaged them and was unable to stop his death. The cultist began choking on the dirt and then died with tears in his eyes as he unsuccessfully begged for his already forsaken life. All the while Martha watched with unmoving and uncaring eyes, with only an expression of disgust to accompany those eyes. 

"Death shall come to those with horrid intentions" Martha muttered under her breath, an old saying in the Royal Army of Addahare

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Rewinding time a bit, ever since Leilani had killed the 'Father' and disappeared, there were several waves of cultists that attacked immediately once the death of their leader had been felt. Although they were not the best soldiers the cult had, as most of them were either former bandits and reavers turned mind slaves to proper members of the cult or were just fodder fanatics who would serve as mostly meat shields for other members of the cult. 

During the initial assault, the combat professors were caught off guard by the mindless bodies that accompanied the first wave of cultists, their bodies pale and their eyes hollow, but that was about it. Despite their initial surprise, the combat professors wasted no time in eliminating the intruders, with all of them realizing that once the cultist controlling the mindless bodies were dead, they would quickly follow suit and collapse onto the ground just as dead as their masters. During the second and third wave however, it was more trouble as not only were the mind control cultists in play but also proper cultists soldiers sporting plate armor or lightweight chainmail armor whose tasks were to guard the mind-control cultists. 

For example, in the student commons courtyard garden on the leftmost side of the campus, one portal brought out a wave of over 30 cultist soldiers in plate armor and chainmail armor and they were escorting a pair of mind-control cultists who were leading a horde of over 80 mindless fodder. The courtyard garden was a large space so it was able to house the entire force, unfortunately for the cultists, the combat professors were waiting for them, and this group was led by the arachnia combat professor, Professor Isodr, a former colonel of the Partoban Royal Guard and a woman who had spent a good amount of time in the Partoban War College defense specialization department and who had been a former student of Imperia to boot. 

After wiping out the first group, Isodr and her other seven professors booby-trapped the corpses with explosion magic that she had learned in her time in the PWC. So when the entire second group arrived in the courtyard garden and filled it to the brim, the corpses were immediately detonated resulting in wiping out more than half of the enemy that had arrived and dosing them in smoke and ash. And before the intruders had even a moment to process what the fuck was going on, Isodr and her group fell upon them like lightning, emerging from the smoke like reapers as they rapidly cut down those that still lived. One cultist soldier had his limbs torn off as an orc combat professor named Otry surprised her from behind, with Otry using his large battleaxe to do the cleaving, several other cultists wearing chainmail were blasted to hell by an icicle spear fired off by a human combat professor named Haley and the surviving mind-control cultist died at the hands of Isodr herself who pinned the mind-control cultist to a pillar and then doused said cultist in the venomous spit of her arachnia tribe. 

Similar scenes like this played out in several other locations, with the combat professors wiping out each wave sent through the portal, and with each unsuccessful assault, the cultists on the other continent were starting to get desperate. This was not going to plan at all, hell, even their supposed 'True Gods' had yet to reveal themselves to the world at large. Questions began igniting within the cultist hideout, such as "Is this a test?" or "Are we not worthy enough?" They could not get a hold of the other dimension either as there was nothing but static on that end. The commander of the cultists, a deformed and insane woman named the 'Mother' was the one they all turned to in this crisis of faith. 

"Fear not children, for this is all a test from the true gods" Her raspy voice spoke as she struggled out of her stone chair 

"You see? The weak within our ranks are being purged by those we worship, the reason why we have no contact is because they are testing us. They wish to see how strong their children truly are" She added as she clasped her hand onto the shoulder of one of her most loyal knights 

"Now go! Show our gods your true strength! Show them that their children are fit to be called so! For the new world order!" 

"For the new world order!" The cultists roared in response, with everyone readying for one last large assault to prove themselves. 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

After finishing her patrol of the area outside, Martha re-entered the auditorium and saw Pittah and Fafnir sitting side by side in a row in the middle of the place, both of them relaxing with their weapons in chairs at their sides. 

"So? Anything new happening outside?" Pittah asked as she glanced at her younger colleague 

"Clear so far, there was a rogue portal I dealt with in Harlow Hall, killed some before the portal vanished" Martha replied as she sat down on one of the chairs closest to the stage 

"Good, means they are getting desperate. With the army incoming and with the rest of our staff on standby, whatever these bastards throw at us will be met with fire and fury regardless" Fafnir added as he took out a bag of nuts from a bag of holding in his coat pocket 

"So, Martha. How long have you been with our beloved Dean?" Pittah asked as she brought out a pipe hidden in her armor and lit it up, taking some good long puffs of the stuff before exhaling the smoke in the form of a circle

"Ummm, two months at least, could be more" Martha replied 

{!} 

Both elven professors stopped midway with what they were doing as they turned to her, both of them with differing expressions, Pittah had an expression that resembled a proud mother as she wore a smirk and a raised eyebrow while Fafnir had an expression of utter disbelief on his. 

"Excuse me what the fuck?" Fafnir asked as he dropped his bag of peanuts 

"You're being serious?" Pittah asked, a devilishly delighted tone creeping out of her voice 

"Yes, yes I am" Martha answered them as she stared them down with a truthful gaze 

Pittah then burst into a laughing fit as she turned to her elven comrade who was visibly shaking with disbelief at the answer he was hearing, with the reaction confusing the former general. 

"Ummm? Did I say something funny?" Martha asked with a tilted head 

"Oh nonono deary, it's all fine. This old sack of bones here is just fuming at the fact that you were able to win over the strongest person on the planet in two months while Faffy here failed for three whole decades while he was a student and a working professor!" The female elf let out with a chuckle 

"She was gay??! wHaT the fuck!" Fafnir cursed as he slumped into his chair while gripping his head 

{!} 

Just then, the portal reappeared and the trio of combat professors quickly reoriented themselves, with both elves grabbing their weapons and getting into fighting stances while Martha did the same while also putting up a magical tower shield in her left hand. 

Stepping out of the portal was a wave of heavily armored cultist soldiers who were wearing heavier sets of plate armor than the ones sent before. Their weaponry was also much more uniform across all of them, wielding a bastard sword with both hands and there was no mind-control cultist or fodder present this time around. 

"Looking like a proper fight this time around!" Fafnir shouted as he smacked his iron gauntlets together with a smile on his face

"Just try not to die Faffy, your work will be passed on to me if you do" Pittah joked as she readied her rapier 

"I wouldn't give it to you anyway. Your handwriting is sloppy" Fafnir joked back, causing Pittah to click her tongue and roll her eyes 

"Kill them! It's only three of them!" The leading cultist knight shouted 

"Here we go again" Martha muttered as she saw them charge, her stance steadying as the sounds of cultists filled the air

There were about a total of 20 to 30 cultist knights that exited the portal and charged en masse with most of them charging at the two elves in the higher rows in front of them while only 8 or so charged Martha who had backed herself near one of the exit doors on the side. The first knight who charged her immediately missed his swing and overshot his trajectory by striking a chair next to her and leaving himself exposed, something Martha took advantage of and quickly raised the head of her halberd into the neck of the knight before letting it continue on through and then bring it down on the neck of the second knight charging forward.  With the halberd stuck in the neck of the second guy, she pushed forward and used the body stuck to her weapon as an impromptu ram that pushed aside the other six before she kicked the body away, ripping off a chunk of flesh stuck to the halberd in the process as the corpse tumbled to the ground. 

She then followed it up by swinging it in a clockwise motion that struck an unlucky knight in the head and sent it flying into a wall, leaving only five cultist knights for her to deal with. 

{!} 

She then promptly raised her magical tower shield and blocked lighting bolts fired from those five knights who were now panicking after seeing three of them get handled so easily. But they soon quickly moved on their supposedly distracted foe as two of the five charged forward under covering lightning fire and tried to strike the distracted combat professor, Martha was almost caught by surprise were it not for a small pause in the lightning that allowed her to see them charge and the fact that both knights were screaming at the top of their lungs while doing it. She pulled back the shield and rolled out of the lighting strike before getting up and barely blocking an incoming downward sword slash that nicked the left pouldron of her armor, She replied to the cultist that did that with an elbow to the helmet, a kick to the shin and then used the sharpened pommel of her halberd and swung up, ripping a large gash in the armor of the knight that had blood spurt out of it and the gurgling voice of the knight dying before kicking the body to the side as she then dodged the second knight incoming, shifting her body to the left to dodge a sword thrust and replying with a halberd strike to the helmet, punching through the armor and cleaving the head in two.  

Looking at the two remaining knights, she saw them trembling with fear as they were glued to where they stood. They raised their swords in defense but the former general could see them shaking, a smile on her face as she casually walked forward and then teleported behind the two knights in an instant before cleaving both of them in two with an equally fast halberd slash in the midpoint of their bodies. 

Martha then turned her eyes to the two elven professors and the sounds of fighting further up, seeing bloodied bodies of knights slumped over and scattered across the chairs, some with missing limbs, while others were missing heads. Her eyes slowly trickled upwards as she saw knight after knight get skewered or cleaved into two or threes and then their bodies unceremoniously thrown in a direction or onto other knights. The two elves were stoic all the while as they did so, their expressions clearly showing the disparity in the feelings of the fight as while the knights screamed and roared as they attacked, the experienced combat professors were silent as they went about killing. She saw Pittah run her rapier through one knight before quickly delivering a powerful upward slash to another that dropped both in quick succession while Fafnir basically dug his iron gauntlet claws into the bodies of the knights who got too close, with their swords breaking upon the gauntlets when he blocked and leaving them defenseless. 

She also saw several knights in the rows below them fire off several lightning, fire and ice spells that landed on barriers surrounding the elves, being nothing more than a nuisance to the two who were busy killing their comrades, quickly sprinting into action, she used one of the techniques she was taught in her military college days, running the tip of her halberd through the necks of all seven of the cultist knights and dropping them all in quick succession as she used a one-step technique to clear the entire row. 

"Martha! We have this area cleared now! Go and check on the others in Victory Hall, Professor Draco and his group are requesting help, it seems that this is their biggest push!" Pittah ordered as she dropped another cultist knight. 

"Understood! Stay safe!" Martha nodded as she booked it out of the auditorium, leaving behind the screaming knights dying at the hands of the elves. 

'This is going to be a long day' She muttered under her breath as she continued to run

A/N: And here we go! I am back and it is a light on what was happening outside while Leilani was going a killing, I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I had fun writing it. Also, I am on break now! So I will try my best to pump out chapters for not only the main series but this series as well and if you got comments or reactions, let me see in the comments below and as always Stay Safe and Enjoy Your Day!