n

n

nAs soon as Tom's crimson blade cut through the monster's skin, a wave of refreshing energy surged into his body.

nFor a single moment, nothing changed in the place. As if stunned by the sudden appearance of a human amidst their ranks, monsters and animals failed to react.

nThump.

nThe dried-out corpse of the random monster that Layn consumed fell to the ground. For some reason, instead of pushing its energy for the size, the monster that Layn took out was of average size.

n'Heck, I was worried this forbidden spell would work on something like that, but I guess my worries were unnecessary,' Layn thought as he stared at the monster's corpse.

nWhile alive, it looked like an oversized ant that somehow managed to walk upright. The lower part of its body served as the mobility part, while the upper part of its crust would roughly respond to a human chest and head alike.

nYet now, its chitin armor was bent inside, as if something sucked on it from the insides. It was the effect of all the blood drying out of the monster, or rather, all of its energy being stolen.

n

"ROAR!

" Only when the ant monster's carcass fell to the ground did the army of monsters and animals react. With a powerful roar, they turned towards Layn, finally recognizing him as a real danger.

nYet, it was too late.

n

"Burn to cinders,

" Layn didn't bother going for precision and expertise. Rather than taking his time to defeat the monsters one by one, he released the same energy he stole a moment earlier in a simple incineration spell.

nA simple one because its structure didn't require that much focus to create. But it didn't mean that the spell itself was weak.

nLayn clasped his hands above his head before lowering them down along his waist. Yet in the place where his palms touched, a sphere of burning light appeared. It was spinning in place, resulting in its otherwise perfect shape turning slightly ellipsoid.

nThen, as if parts of the fire accelerated to a speed sufficient for them to break apart from the core, they started to rain all around Layn.

nWhenever an enemy was hit, the smaller ball of fire wouldn't set it alight but would burn through everything that made it what it was. In some cases, the moment it took the fire to eat through, the monster would manage to set the rest of its body alight. In other cases, the fire simply burned through its opponents before falling on the ground and setting fire below the monster's feet.

nIn a mere moment, Layn turned into a mobile center of the firestorm. He was culling huge numbers of opponents with each step.

n

"Don't take the entire spotlight for yourself!

" A shout sounded in the area before Al charged out of the cavern and pushed his body against the shocked ranks of the monsters.

nMaybe it was the feeling of safety those monsters had from how far they were from Layn's disaster, or maybe something else caused them to lose focus. But when Al rushed between them, he managed to carve a bloody and messy path for as deep as several meters before the monsters started to defend themselves.

n'Who is that guy? Is that THE guy?' Layn thought, free to spare a thought and observe the situation on the battlefield.

nWhizz!

nAn arrow flew inches away from Layn's face, falling a monster that somehow managed to sneak through Layn's wall of fire. Tracing the trajectory of the arrow backward with his eyes, Layn looked towards the small cliff he previously jumped from, only to notice Sitra and her two subordinates already fully focused on looking for other targets.

n'Still, we can't linger here for long,' Layn thought while biting his lips. But as much as he wanted to just grab everyone and run for it, the sheer number of the monsters made it impossible to achieve.

n

"Well, at least I will be able to farm some stones,

" he muttered only so start working on another spell.

nIn the battlefield so richly infused with magic oozing out of every wounded monster, Layn no longer needed to care about his mana expenditure. In a sense, whenever the speed at which he was draining the mana increased, the added casualties amongst the enemy would pay back the deficit by bringing even more mana into play.

nEven without using any of the stones that richly fell on the battlefield everywhere around, Layn could maintain his battle-stance for as long as there were enemies around.

n

"LAYN!

" Suddenly, Layn managed to make out a shout amidst all the shrieking, roaring, and outcries that filled the battlefield. His head instantly turned towards its source.

n

"IREA!

" Layn shouted back when he saw the girl's face.

n'Thank God, she seems to be alright!' he thought, almost losing his focus.

n

"RAWR!

" This momentary lapse of concentration almost cost the Archmage his arm.

nA monster which, unlike others around, wasn't humanoid but beast shaped, lunged itself at Layn. Its razor-sharp claws only managed to cut through the air, though.

n

"You little,

" Layn turned around in order to get rid of this more agile enemy, only to watch a wall of fire move away from the cave and consume everything in its path along with the monster that almost managed to injure him.

n'Huh?' Layn suddenly felt a strange coldness on his arm. He lowered his head only to see two glaring cuts in his arms. In all honesty, it was hard to even describe his wound as cuts, given how the beast-like monster actually ripped chunks of meat from his arm. 'FUCK!' he screamed in his mind before tightening his lips.

n'I can't scream,' he told himself, falling on one knee. With a swift move of his hand, he tore apart a piece of his robe before wrapping it tightly around the wound on his arm. 'It won't hold for long, but will do for now,' he encouraged himself and raised his eyes...

nOnly for Irea to clash into him, instantly wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

nFor a moment, the battlefield around Layn disappeared. His entire world shrank just to the warm embrace that Irea offered. For a moment, there was only her smell, only her softness, only her presence.

n

"I m****d you,

" Irea said, not aware of Layn's recent loss of his translation spell. But the Archmage didn't need to understand the specific words to figure out what Irea told him. Not in this situation. Not at this moment.

nAnd what's more, given how long he continued to use the translation spell, parts of the language already etched itself into his mind, making it slightly easier for Layn to understand the ancient.

nSadly, as he only used the Slavain language for a measly few days, the same thing didn't apply to the other language he should know how to speak in.

n

"Let's kill all those beasts,

" Layn ordered, not bothering with the fact that no one could understand his words.

nWith Al swinging his handy hammer around and eradicating the enemies one by one, with Layn's incineration spell constantly claiming scores of monsters, with the arrows of Sitra's group and hacking of the mercenaries that followed Irea's example and went into battle...

nThe entire thing was only a matter of time.

nA time Layn surely used to construct a translation spell of higher grade, one that wouldn't lose all its data once dispelled.

n

"Ah, that was tiring,

" Layn spoke up roughly five minutes later. Out of that time, he took two minutes to create the advanced translation spell, two more minutes to finetune it to the number of people present, and the last minute to wipe out all the monsters that still stood on their legs.

nWith their numbers already dwindling from the onslaught Layn's group served them, the Archmage simply changed the direction of his balls of fire from the biggest groups into individual targets that still posed a threat.

nOnce Layn's damage concentrated, a single minute was more than necessary for his spell to wipe everything that remained alive.

n

"Layn!

" Sitra shouted, jumping and then sliding down the ridge before jogging to the Archmage's side.

"This is only a beginning. I can feel stronger enemies approaching!

" she reported, acting as if Layn already turned into her field commander.

n

"How long?

" Layn did his best to articulate his question in the simplest manner possible. While his translation spell was already in full swing without the ample amount of data to analyze, even a high-grade spell like that would be powerless.

n

"Roughly twenty minutes,

" Sitra announced only to suddenly receive a nudge in her side.

"Huh?

" she turned her eyes from Layn's face to the clearly hostile expression of Irea, who still hugged her entire self closely to him.

n

"Dear, let's put the reunion for a later date,

" Layn spoke to Irea with a sour smile.

"We need to ditch this place as soon as possible, but it would be too much of a waste to just leave all those resources to spoil,

" he added as his smile flared back up.

n

"Everyone! Gather the magic stones! Find an animal that could be carried easily and appears to be tasty!

" Layn shouted his orders without waiting for the approval of his girl. In moments like that, there was simply no time to be sentimental.. And with the enemies approaching fast, it was only a matter of time before a simple fight would turn into a truly dangerous situation.

"We are moving out in exactly five minutes! Now, move your lazy asses!

"

n