Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

The entire unit rode across the plain. This was one of the elements that made it hard for Layn to believe he was already outside that desert area. Given how both places were filled with nothing but an endless expanse of grass, there was hardly any way to judge which sphere of influence they were currently in. 

'Now that I think about it, weren't there supposed to be some kind of demon lands on the other side of the desert?' Layn asked himself. But there was no one to answer this question for him. 

Layn looked to the side. Roughly two to three meters away, Castor was riding his own horse, too focused on his own thoughts to notice Layn's dismay. When it came to Sitra, the only other person Layn ever talked to in this unit, she left the camp even before the rest of the soldiers managed to pack up, sent forward to pass the message. 

"But now I should know for sure that there is no such place as the land of demons," Layn muttered to himself, using the noise of the many horses running to hide those words from everyone else. 

For some reason, voicing his thoughts out was always one of the major ways for Layn to focus the resources of his brain on a specific topic. 

A whistle. 

Layn heard a sound that didn't belong to the current situation. Instantly orienting his head towards the source of the sound, he hoped to see what was going on. Sadly, the cloud of dust kicked into the air by the many horses of the unit made it virtually impossible to see anything other than what was ahead. 

"Hey!" Castor suddenly shouted, drawing Layn's attention to himself. Looking at the man, Layn couldn't help but notice from the distressed look on his face that there was something wrong. 

"Enemy!" Castor shouted before swinging his hand forward at a gentle angle away from their current direction. Following the man's arm, Layn attempted to find the alleged opponents with his eyes.

Sadly, either Slavians had way better senses than him, or they were using some kind of method to figure out the location of their enemies as Layn saw nothing but more and more of the grass. 

But the same couldn't be said about the unit. Without any moment to figure out the tactics, Castor pulled his own whistle before sending a series of short and sharp sounds into the air. 

'Two... three,' Layn counted the sounds, hoping to figure out the method behind this form of communicating. In the end, those people had to belong to the military. And as bad news, as it was for Layn in general, it also meant that he was free to try to steal the methods they were using!

'Given how arms race is the major backed of technological growth, their system might give me some insights about how they all developed,' Layn thought when his count of sounds settled on four. 

And at the same time, the entire formation started to change. 

At first, the people at the front kicked the sides of their horses, forcing them to run just a tiny bit faster. But once the distance of two horses-length appeared between the first and the second row, the next batch of riders also speed up. 

Bit by bit, the entire formation stretched so that there would be more than enough space between each of the rows for them to operate independently. 

'It's as if they wanted to perform a continuous charge,' Layn thought, recalling one of the more daring maneuvers he was taught at the obligatory tactic course back at the academy. 

'By spreading their formation, each of the rows will have enough space to perform a charge on their own. But, although effective, only units where the first and second rows consist of suicidal people could ever perform it,' Layn recalled the exact wording of his teacher. 

'Is he going to kill his men like that?' Layn thought when his eyes finally caught the sight of the small hint that alerted the unit about the presence of the enemy. 

It wasn't the silhouettes in the distance. It wasn't even some kind of overhead view at the plains of the lower elevation. All that Layn could see was a cloud of smoke hindering his vision far off in the distance. 

'I guess there is only one thing that could create an occurrence like this,' Layn thought while biting on his lips. He then turned his head to Castor before shouting. 

"Hey!" With how the formation was changing, mixing the horses' rhythm, it was barely possible to get someone to notice his efforts. Yet, under some random stroke of luck, Castor just happened to look Layn's way when he was trying his best to attract his attention. 

"A weapon!" Layn shouted. "I need one!" Then, without any hopes that Castor would understand his words, Layn attempted to picture what he had in mind with just the movements of his head. 

'Thank God I learned hot to ride without reins,' he blessed his earlier efforts in his mind. 

"HERE!" Castor shouted back before pulling his own sword and angling the path of his horse so that he could pass the weapon to Layn's hand. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this," he added with his lips tightened when the two of them momentarily got pretty close. 

'Dragging into what?' Layn asked himself. 'A fight?' He looked towards the distant cloud of smoke. But as he did it, Layn realized that he was wrong about one thing. 

The formation didn't change according to his expectations. While the first three rows of riders detached themselves and rushed forward, the rest of the unit didn't follow them up on this action. But that was for movement alone. 

'They are all... Lightly armored?' Layn continued to discover more and more peculiarities about the situation, constantly finding more proof that his initial guess was wrong. 

'So it's the lightly armored first, medium-armored second, and everyone else after that?' Layn voiced out his observation in his thoughts in an attempt to make any sense of the formation. 

His eyes wandered towards the enemy once again. This time though, the cloud of dust in the distance turned into a massive gathering of silhouettes, all chasing right towards them.

A gathering which was at least three times the size of Castor's unit. 

'Is he leading us all to death?' Layn pursed his lips, not sure if breaking the formation and turning his horse away wouldn't be a better option right now. 

'No can do,' he tightened his lips after just a moment. 'There is no way I will give up such an opportunity to learn more about those people!' Layn's passion for knowledge reignited. 

Slavian people barely made any entrance in the history books of the past. They only existed in some remote legends, written by the tribes that never made the cut into the society of modern times. 

But in those few myths they were present in, they not only wielded a strenght no one else could ever contend against but also laid the foundation for the very civilization that would later shun them out of the history books.

And between learning more about Slavians with this unknown magic and clashing with a numerically superior foe...

Layn didn't need to think long to figure out what would be for the best. 

"If you have some mana stones on you, now it's the time to pass them to me," Layn shouted loudly to Castor, although without any hopes of the man hearing him at all. 

And just as expected, Castor appeared to be more busy observing the enemy than Layn expected. 

'Is he still trying to adjust the tactic?' Layn asked himself in his thoughts, alternating his eyes between the approaching enemy and the commander of the unit he was in. 

The distance continued to shorten between the two groups. 

Two sounds of whistles followed, and two more rows of Castor's unit pushed forward. 

"Fake charge, maybe?" Layn muttered under his nose, still trying to figure out what was about to happen. Layn no longer could be bothered with stealing their tactics and maneuvres for himself in the current situation. Right now, he just wanted to know how to act to do his part in the coming battle. 

"PREPARE!" Castor shouted in the air with a voice so loud that Layn heard it even though the noise obstructing it. The entire unit now pushed into a dash, allowing Layn to assume that he wasn't the only one who heard the order. 

The enemies were now much closer. Layn could even see the faces of the people at the front. And while their numbers were absolutely massive, more than enough to just crush them with the sheer weight of their force...

Their equipment, their way of riding their horses... Everything about was cheap. 

"I guess I don't really have any choice," Layn thought grimly when the two groups came as close as fifty meters. He held Castor's sword in his hand, ready to slash at the first enemy that would appear within his range. 

Fifty meters. 

The two front rows suddenly split in half, each angling about thirty degrees away from the initial course. At the same time, the people in front kicked the sides of their horses, forcing them into their fastest step.

Twenty meters. 

Castor's unit turned unusually silent. There was no shouting, no encouraging whining, no playing on the whistle. On the other hand, the other party was full of screamers, all hoping to give themselves more courage with their voices. 

Ten meters. 

Five meters. 

One meter. 

The units mixed.. In an instant, the eerie plain turned into a bloodbath.