The Magician of Sound

Nathan said with a serious face. "Kai. You have the highest command now. You can order everyone, including me. What is your order?"

With Nathan stepping down from his position, Kai needed to face the burden of the entire six thousand people in this base. Even so, no anxiety or fear in his eyes. Instead, decisiveness and seriousness were planted on his face. He had a reason for this as Michelle, Tasha, and Ayaka were still inside.

Kai fell into deep thought for a minute. "I have a plan."

"Let's hear it." Nathan smirked as he raised his hand as if he challenged him.

"We have eight hundred soldiers in the Reserve Army at the moment because of the resupply of soldiers for Attacker Armies. I'm going to split the soldiers into four groups." Kai paused for a moment as he walked toward the map while signaling Via to come closer. 

Via noticed that Kai wanted to use her ability and ran toward the map. She nodded and raised both of her hands to manipulate the map with her magic. "I'm ready."

Kai looked at the high ranking people in this tent and said. "Commander Kate will have one hundred soldiers to maintain the stability on the surface and protect the administration team if there will be an ambush."

"Yes, Sir." Kate straightened her back and saluted to him before leaving the tent. She needed to pick the weakest soldiers from the Reserve Army, to lessen the burden of those who would enter the Underground Nest, and this would take time.

"General Nathan and Vice General Sherwin will lead two hundred soldiers each, and your targets are…" Kai pointed at two spots before asking Via to make a red dot and expand them. The magical beasts that were going for the Support Team in the Northern Area were split with three thousand each, so Kai choosing this position was normal. "You guys take one each. Remember, you will fight three thousand with only two hundred. The risk is very high."

"If this is an open field, it will be hard. Sadly, this is an underground nest where we won't be surrounded as long as we have enough speed. We should be able to hold them back for one hour or so." Nathan snorted before glaring at Sherwin. "Are you up to it?"

"I'm someone who is more fit to be an Attacker Commander because of my attack power, so you can't underestimate my power." Sherwin nodded and pointed at one of the red dots. "I will go with the right one."

"Then I will go to the left one. I might as well go to the left one since Alicia should still be alive. She is suited in this defensive battle, so I might rescue her and have her take command." Nathan then looked at Kai. "What about you?"

Kai didn't answer him for a while as he stared at his teacher, Ria Ross.

'He wants something from me.' Ria quickly understood his intention. "Do you want me to go with you?"

"No." Kai shook his head, confusing her. Yet, he startled her with his next words. "You might want me to bring you there."

"…" Ria narrowed her eyes and released her killing intent. "So, are they…"

"Although I have no concrete evidence because there is no clue or whatsoever. I have indeed heard a roar of a beast that shouldn't exist inside this place, causing every magical beast to suddenly move in unison and make this predicament." Kai also released his killing intent, hating whoever released that roar to the bone. 

"I don't need concrete proof. As long as they might exist, I will go." Ria nodded.

"What do you mean about this?" Nathan looked at them, confused. It looked like these two knew something he didn't but hid it from the leader of this mission.

"The lost children. I'm sure you already know that term," said Ria in a cold tone.

*Gasp—!" Nathan opened his mouth in surprise as he looked at her stare that seemed to pierce his bones with chilling needles. Lost children were the term of SS rank magical beasts, the children that had turned into magical beasts and escaped. That was why they were called lost children. To conceal the term of higher rank magical beasts, they used 'Lost Children' for the SS rank magical beasts and 'The Protector' for the SSS rank. If there were indeed lost children here, it would be dangerous. 

Paying no intention to Nathan's exaggerated expression, Ria turned to Kai. "I will go with you. Seeing their movement, it should be in the Western Area, right?"

"Yeah." Kai nodded before turning to Nathan. "So, I'm going to take care of rescuing Commander Alicia and have her set up a natural stronghold underground by using our soldiers."

"Alright. I will leave it in your hand." Nathan had no objection about this decision since if he left his squad for too long, they might be engulfed by the magical beasts. "She is a good commander, so you can trust her ability. Even with this pace, we might still be able to save more than three thousand soldiers. If we have her set up a stronghold, we should be able to kill all of those magical beasts in a day or two."

"Yes." Kai nodded. "We are moving out right now."

Nathan and the others nodded as they left the tent. The soldiers who performed administrative jobs quickly stood up and saluted them.

When they arrived at the Reserve Army, they had been grouped with each containing one hundred soldiers. Kate didn't know how the arrangement would be, so she separated them into eight groups while taking the eighth one. She believed even if they moved out, the group wouldn't have like thirty-three people or something. Rather they would have fifty or a hundred. And separating in one hundred was easier than fifty, so she chose this arrangement.

"Good work." Nathan nodded. "I will take the first and second."

Kate nodded and saluted to him while Sherwin came and picked his group as well. "I will take the third and fourth then."

"Yes. They have similar firepower anyway," Kate reported. 

"We take the fifth, sixth, and seventh group." Ria walked toward the three groups with Kai.

Her face was obviously well known as one of the S rank magical beast slayers. The moment they looked at her face, they were stunned for a few seconds before those who immediately recognized her began shouting.

"General Ria Ross!"

"General Ria Ross!"

"General Ria Ross!" 

From the ranking alone, she had the same level as Nathan, but if the government needed to choose who would lead the army, they would absolutely choose her. So, her charm was far higher than Nathan's.

Ria released her aura as her expression turned serious. She raised her hand and clenched her palm, signaling them to be quiet.

Her energy alone stunned them while her expression scared them. The soldiers suddenly put their hands on the back and slightly widened the gap before their feet. 

Looking at the soldiers in the rest position, Ria finally opened her mouth. "I want to say one thing. Those who can't keep up with my pace will be abandoned. This won't be like your usual mission, where you can take it easy and advance at your own pace. Instead, we need speed like none other as we only have three hundred soldiers to handle five thousand insects. I'm not going to sacrifice many soldiers for a few. If you want to suddenly turn around, fine by me… but let us see whether you receive the notification from Martial Court or be killed by me first. Are we clear on this matter?"

*Thud—!* 

All soldiers were stunned as their eyes widened. They didn't expect to hear this the first time Ria led them. Yet, a shout woke them up and forced them to answer.

"Where is my answer?!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" The soldiers suddenly went to the straight position and saluted out of reflex.

"Good. Now we are going to have my student to explain the general plan. We don't have time for this, so you need to improvise it later." Ria paused for a second only to see the weird expression in every soldier's face. "My student is the current General for this mission after receiving the mandate from the acting General, Nathan Graham. If you have any problem, why don't you come to the front and say it to my face?"

The soldiers already knew about Kai's identity as a strategist because of the rumor, but it was the first time they heard about him being the General of this mission. Luckily, there were many Graham Family members here, and one of them shouted. 

"We greet General Kai Carter!" A shout followed by a salute shook the army for a second before they suddenly did the same in unison. "We greet General Kai Carter!" 

Noticing the situation had been under control, Ria glanced at Kai and nodded. "Your turn."

Kai stepped up and looked at the soldiers. "I won't talk too much here. If you don't believe me or whatever, you can hate me later. But I have the command right now, so all of you are going to follow my order.

"On to the plan, I don't have any complex plan at the moment. Your mission is to follow me. We are going through several wider areas, and I will break through from each area without killing everything. I want twenty people on the back to stay behind and kill the rest of the magical beasts in that area before following us again. Of course, we will place a marker for you, so you won't be lost. That's all, any questions?"

"We hear and obey." The moment they heard Kai would follow the group itself from the front shook their mind. That was the most dangerous position, and yet a student said something like that. They wouldn't be called a soldier if they didn't obey this. Ria Ross was also there to ensure the plan, dispelling the last doubt in their heart.

"Good. Now, let's go!" Kai nodded.