Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

The monster didn't heed Layn's provocation. Instead, it attacked in spite of it.

Its massive hand moved at a speed that Layn didn't expect it to. Yet, it wasn't the monster's fangs that were the most dangerous in such a situation. It was the insanely powerful wind reaching the definition of a shockwave that followed the swift movement of the football-sized arm of the monster. 

"COME!" Layn shouted again. His eyes opened wider the closer the attack got. Yet, he didn't dodge. Given both the size and the range of the attack, there was only a minuscule chance that Layn's evasion would be successful. 

'I can't let it get to the dorm,' Layn thought during the moment when his mind suddenly became clear. With the monster's fangs inching ever closer, all his feelings propagated by the disastrous state of his body all faded away, replaced by the calm focus. 

It would be nigh impossible for Layn to avoid the attack. But it didn't mean he would have any trouble ignoring it. At this point, his body was held together only by Layn's intent. His flesh decomposed back to the magic that created it in the first place. Just by releasing said intent for a moment, Layn could allow the attack to just pass through him. 

"STOP!" Layn shouted when the monster's fang finally cut at him. He didn't even raise his hand to hold the attack in place. Yet, the beast stopped moving. 

"That should buy me some time," Layn thought aloud before finally raising his hand and touching the fang of the monster. 

In an instant, a powerful wave of mana traversed through Layn's body, almost kicking him off the focus necessary to maintain his form. But as powerful as this surge of mana was...

It was nowhere close to what Layn expected it to be.

'That's two tactics out of the picture,' Layn thought, grinning despite how his position suddenly deteriorated. Without the sufficient energy within the monster to forcefully cause it to collapse, only physical means of dealing with it remained. 

"This is starting to get more and more fun!" Layn slid his hand off the monster's fang. He then gathered all the energy he could control in his hand before taking a glance at the beast's jaws several tens if not hundreds of meters above. 

"You made a mistake by lowering your upper body. You wanted to hit me," Layn's smile grew even wilder as fires of excitement exploded in his eyes, "and now you will be the one to get hit!" 

*******

"STOP!" Yelna suddenly shouted, kicking away one of the more annoying monsters in her path. Her eyes moved towards an unnatural-looking hill. 

"What's wrong?" Markus asked, sucking out the mana of the frog-like monster before using it to blast an evolved species out of the face of the world. 

"There are people inside," Yelna replied, pointing her hand at the mound. Then, she threw one of the many knives she was carrying straight at the weak point of another evolved monster. 

"People? Here?!" Al shouted in surprise, splitting another monster in half with his trusty ax. "Where is that Layn guy then?" he asked, using the momentum of his strike to execute another attack.

In such a mindless horde of monsters, one didn't even need to aim. Any attack executed was bound to hit something. And in such a place, Al's fighting abilities shone the brightest. 

"He's not here," Yelna answered, suddenly turning her head to the distance. Then, for the first time since she reached the horde of the monsters, she froze. "What the hell is that?" she asked in a petrified tone.

Then, the massive shadow that drew her attention disappeared, replaced by a fireball twice the size of the former shadow!

*****

Energy coursed through Layn's veins. In fact, one could hardly speak about his veins when his entire body turned into nothing more but an insanely dense thicket of magic. 

Centered around a single point, Layn's entire consciousness was split between maintaining his physical manifestation and pumping more and more energy into the attack he was preparing. 

Then, after floating towards the monsters' jaw, Layn poured all the energy he could muster into a single, fiery attack. 

"DIE!" He shouted in his mind, releasing the onslaught of energy straight into the head of the monster. 

Several things happened at once. 

The mana Layn released entered the physical plane with nothing but the simple structure he imposed on it. But the matter and even space itself was unable to house such an overwhelming amount of energy. 

Under pressure bordering what was happening in some distant, astronomical objects, space, matter, and magic all collapsed on themselves, forming a magical-rich plasma. 

Yet, given how unstable this state was, it could only last for a split second before degrading into a purely physical phenomenon.

But that didn't mean Layn stopped pouring his energy into this attack! 

As soon as the single point of condensed plasma appeared, it started to spread outwards. Easily defeating the pressure of space itself, it continued to grow in all directions, consuming the flesh of the massive monster without fail. 

The ball of superheated and magic-rich plasma grew to the size of a mountain in a mere flash. But it was also the moment when such unnatural phenomena finally reached its limit, fading into non-existence. 

Once the plasma was gone, it released all the energy it contained. As a result, the shockwave flattened the entire area in a mere instant. Against such an overwhelming force, no defenses could work. Only by standing sufficiently far away could one hope for the planet's atmosphere to kill enough energy from the shockwave to turn it just slightly less lethal. 

Sadly, Layn couldn't escape those effects either.

'FUCK," Layn thought when the wild magic contained in the explosion started to gnaw away at the energy that made his very self up. With no other choice, he started condensing the magical energy back into flesh and bones. 

But as soon as his body turned physical, he was subjected to the same onslaught as everything and everyone else. Even if the worst part of the disaster was over by the time his body formed back, it was instantly flung along the shockwave.

And no matter how powerful and resourceful Layn was, his human body wasn't made to sustain such trauma. In spite of all his desperate attempts to keep himself awake, Layn's consciousness simply faded away, replacing the bright light of the explosion with the calm and peaceful darkness of the void. 

******

"Get down!" Before even Yelna could sense that something was happening, a stranger suddenly threw herself at the girl, forcing her against the ground. 

Shocked by the appearance of another human on this battlefield, Yelna failed to react when the strange girl brought her head up, sweeping both Markus and Al to the ground. 

'A mage?!' Yelna's eyes widened when she saw the girl's feat, only to squint back into her usual expression when she understood the possible meaning of what she just experienced. 

No one answered Yelna's question. Right when everyone fell to the ground, the shockwave from the distant explosion they saw a moment ago arrived. 

In a single instant, the raging shockwave penetrated through the plain. Even though Yelna was lying, even though the weight of this strange girl held her down, she could feel her body lifting up under the immense force of the condensed air. 

Thankfully, the heart of the disaster was far away. Far enough to turn the lethal shockwave into just a dangerous one. And as the hero she was, Yelna was more than suited to survive it. 

Sadly, the same couldn't be said about the girl that attempted to save her. 

"Are you alright?" Yelna asked as soon as the worst part of the disaster washed over them. 

"*** ***" the girl said something in response, something that Yelna was less than qualified to understand. 

"HEY, YOU OKAY, GUYS?!" Al's voice sounded through the plain. 

"I'm okay!" Markus shouted back, slowly lifting himself from the plain. 

"****, ** ********* ****?" a new voice came from what looked like a small hill, the same hill where Yelna could detect some humans before. 

But no one responded to this call. 

Yelna raised her eyes at the motionless body of the girl that rushed to save her, only to notice several ugly wounds all over her body. Her limbs were all broken, her back tattered by all the rumble that hit her while she was trying to shield Yelna from the disaster. 

"MARKUS!" Yelna called out, unwilling to let this kind girl suffer when someone could heal her. Not after she offered her own health for Yelna's safety. 

"What?!" Still on edge from the past events, Markus instantly jumped up to Yelna only to freeze when he saw the tattered body of the girl. 

"** **** ****?" Despite all her wounds, this strange girl still managed to utter some words, clearly formed into a question. Even though Yelna couldn't tell the meaning of her words, the intent behind them was pretty clear.

"I'm sorry, but we have no idea," Markus suddenly fell to his knees before placing his hands on the girl's back and replying. 

"What did she ask about?" Yelna inquired, perfectly aware that Markus was the only one who could use the translation spell in their group of three. 

"She is worried about Layn," Markus replied, pouring all the mana he still had in himself after warding off against the shockwave into closing the girl's wounds. "She lost consciousness," he duly noted after a moment.

Markus continued to heal the girl. While he wasn't an archmage like Layn, healing was one of the things that he, as a saint, had to learn to perfection. And right now, he didn't even need to look at the girl to help her. 

He raised his head and looked in the direction of the fireball they all saw earlier. 

"Just what the hell did you do, brother?"