Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

Chapter 153 - Technique Or Might

Layn snapped his fingers. He could shout, clasp his hands together. There was no specific rule as to what kind of action had to be used to release a classical spell.

'If I remember correctly, some practiced to do so with farts,' Layn smiled to his memories. In there, a specific faction of the academy took quite a lot of space. A faction that believed that classical magic was supreme and decided to give up on any other kind of magic. 

While stupid by itself, Layn discovered that their ideas for the classical magic itself weren't that idiotic, though. 

Releasing a spell with a fart surely sounds ridiculous... Unless one considers a situation where two mages are fighting with just the classic magic. In such a situation, using a fart to release a spell meant doing so without the other side noticing, as opposed to how Layn snapped his fingers to do the same. 

But Layn wasn't taking part in a friendly duel between fellow practitioners. His enemy had no ability to counter his attack or even understand what Layn's attack was, to begin with. 

As such, he didn't need to bother with those kinds of mind games.

Layn snapped his fingers. 

In an instant, the magic drawing that he left in the air before filling it with magic... Broke. Released from the confines of its structure, the spell instantly acted according to its shape. In an instant, hundreds of small fire and directional spells mixed together, turning into a raging vortex of fire. 

It raised to the skies as if the rotation of the fire was giving it some kind of up-propelling force. Yet, once it reached a height of roughly fifty meters above the ground, the small fire-tornado suddenly ceased to move around. 

It still continued to revolve around its axis. It even continued to speed this rotation up. But in terms of spatial movement, Layn's spell remained in place. 

And then, it broke apart. As if it reached the maximum speed it could turn at, the vortex broke apart. 

But rather than splitting into a thousand parts and just falling randomly on the ground, the spinning vortex split into exactly five parts, each of which started to slowly fall towards the ground. 

"What did you do?" Irea rushed forward and probed Layn's back. Even though she had her moment of weakness just a moment ago, she was still the person most capable of reading the archmage. Even with her mental state still not fully sorted, she was more than capable of noticing Layn's intense exhaustion and more than willing to help him out.

"Just watch," Layn smiled, holding back his explanation. 

'I won't get him to talk right now,' Irea thought, looking at Layn's face. But rather than trying to push him to do something, she obediently raised her head over his shoulder and looked in the direction of his spell. 

But strangely enough, it was hard to actually follow the fragments of fire vortex with one's eyes. 

'Woah,' Irea moaned in her thoughts, awed by the impossible sight. 

At one moment, one of the fragments she decided to track down appeared to be like a small leaf, freshly blown away from a random tree. But as it continued to fall and drag Irea's eyes with it, the girl suddenly noticed a certain thing between the 'leaf' and the line of the ground. 

It was the ball-like monster that continued to bring terror to the battlefield. Or rather, it would bring terror to the battlefield if Layn didn't force his group to pull out in a timely manner. 

"Isn't it too small, though?" Irea whispered her question into Layn's ear. From her perspective, not only the fragment of the spell was too small to even hinder the beast's movements, it was way too far for the beast to even notice it!

"Can you tell me just how dense magic is?" Layn suddenly asked, resting his back on Irea's hands. Even though he still continued to suck the energy out of the stones, it appeared as if he was unable to regain his energy at all. 

"Huh? What do you mean?" Irea asked before moving her eyes back at the fragment of fire she was watching. Yet, it only continued to slowly fall, as if the force of gravity didn't apply to it at all. 

"Magic has no mass, no thickness, nor any defined density. As such, how could we even begin to describe its shape or size?" Layn elaborated a bit more on his question, intentionally putting the girl into a thoughtful state. 

"What do you want to say... is that the shape of the magic isn't real?" Irea asked, trying as hard as she could to figure out what Layn wanted her to understand. As little as it could be for someone else, for her, committing a blunder of failing to meet Layn's exception was something she couldn't handle.

Not when she just discovered she might have some rivals!

"Close, but not quite there yet. Or rather, you are right, but that's not what I wanted you to understand. Listen," Layn shrugged slightly in Irea's arms before grabbing her hands and pulling her over to his front. He then lowered his head over her shoulder and pressed it tightly to the girl's cheek. Then, he pushed his arm forward and pointed it at one of the fragments of the fire. 

"Do you think it's small?" Layn suddenly asked, feeling how tense the girl was underneath his hands. "Right, this is not some sort of test. I just want you to be able to see it properly once it fires up," Layn added, suddenly worried about Irea's inner state. 

"Ah," Irea spoke up after a moment, only for her breath to lock itself in her throat. 'Could it be...' She continued to stare at the falling fragment of fire for a few moments longer before suddenly raising her head sharply and gazing straight into Layn's pupils. "Isn't small nor big unless we define at what distance it is away from us!" she exclaimed, ecstatic that she finally managed to solve the problem she was tasked with. 

"Good, but keep your eyes on the fragment," Layn said and smiled as he noticed just how giddy the girl turned in this single moment. "Once you realize that it's not necessarily small at all..." Tom stopped his words as he glued his eyes to the fragment. He even used his finger to push at Irea's cheek, forcing her to look in the same spot. 

'Dang, she is too soft for my own good,' Layn thought, unable to stop enjoying the softness of the girl's flesh. He took a whiff, only to realize that being so close to Irea made it impossible to breathe anything else but her sweet, delicate smell. 

"Hey," Irea suddenly twitched as she protested. "Didn't you want me to watch it?" she asked in a lecturing tone, "I can't really focus if you grope me like that!" she shot her accusation. 

'Woops,' Layn finally realized how wild his hands were going over Irea's soft body. Once he got the taste of this fruit he had to be absent from for quite a while, his hormones nearly made him do the rest all in one go. 

"Sorry for that, just focus on the spell," Layn shook his head as he admitted to his faults before moving his eyes back at the spectacle as well. "Remember, it's not that small," he added when the leaf almost covered the sight of the massive ball-like monster in the distance. 

"And off it goes...-" Tom whispered, right when the fire leaf and the monster crossed each other in his vision. 

The petal broke apart in an instant, showering a massive area with a deadly fire. 

It wasn't just burning things. As soon as the blaze would touch a tree, rather than setting it alight, it would just turn it into a pile of ash before eating into the ground. Even the earth itself wasn't safe from the flames, as they continued to eat into it and transform the entire swath of land into a dark graveyard of a steppe. 

"It's... beautiful," Irea trembled within Layn's embrace as she spoke in a soft tone. For all the devastation this fire was causing, it was truly a sight to die for. "But," she suddenly turned  her head, almost bumping her nose into Layn's lips, "how did you do it?" Irea asked as she pointed her hand at the scorched remains of the monster. 

As the fire fell on it, even the sphere of influence that would normally reverse any action within it didn't help. The fire simply ate through the web of magic that was creating that effect, falling into the flesh of the monster and burning through it. Yet, as that flesh turned out to be way thicker than Layn expected, even the flame only managed to consume roughly half of the monster before its energy would dissipate. 

After all, a single fire like this held only a fifth of the total might of Layn's spell. It was already a wonder that it was still capable of destroying such a weird monster!

"How did you do it? Wasn't it supposed to only be weak to support and healing spells?" Irea asked, tightening her fingers over Layn's wrist. Her intense stare could only have a single meaning. 

'She won't be satisfied, no matter what I say,' Layn thought, slightly troubled with the matter before suddenly shaking his head and looking the girl in the eyes. 

"Just like with everything, you could defeat those monsters with technique," he said before patting Irea's head, "or you can defeat them with a might greater than their own."