The Magician of Sound

Kai and Ria moved toward the Underground Nest's entrance, followed by Nathan and Sherwin. Ria halted her footsteps and turned around before shouting. "Remember, inside isn't spacious, so all of you can get a group of ten to go together. Make sure you have a few meters distance with each group so you will have a good space if magical beasts attack you." 

Nathan and Sherwin also warned their soldiers about this. They were waiting for Kai and Ria Ross to enter first before they entered. The route might be different, but the entrance was the same. As long as they passed this, nothing would hold them back anymore.

Listening to Ria's words, Kai kept looking at the dim entrance. Although the soldiers had placed some lighting, it was still hard to see without a night vision. However, he didn't worry about this. Instead, he focused his ears to locate Michelle and the others. 

The sound of magical beasts overwhelmed his ears; the sound of soldiers' agony filled his heart. Yet, Kai had a hard time pinpointing their location because there was too much noise.

"Don't worry. They are strong. If the push comes to shove, Tasha will certainly teleport everyone to the surface." Ria came to him and tapped his shoulder. "Are you good to go?"

"Of course. We are going to be at the front, right?"

"Yeah. We need speed more than anything." Ria nodded before raising both of her hands. A spark of white light appeared inside her hands before it gradually turned into spears.

Kai looked at her and recalled her title. The woman who was loved by swords. To be honest, the title was slightly misleading. People normally considered a sword as a weapon with a long metal blade and a hilt with a hand guard. However, there was also a part of the world that recognized the metal blade itself as a sword.

Ria Ross actually could use a spear, a glaive, a hammer and so on. Her nickname derived from her usual habit of using swords. And this time, she wanted to increase her speed by using spears that had a longer reach. She might even throw it to kill a magical beast. 

Kai never experienced her spear as well, so he couldn't claim such a thing. But he would do that if he had a spear.

The spear didn't have other colors except white like her swords. On top of the spear was a triangle blade that was quite wide and long. Knowing the monsters inside this nest, she must understand that she needed a bigger blade for her spear to kill them in a single strike.

"You should know why I'm using this, right? Just beware of my movement." Ria smirked. 

"Don't worry. I'm sure you won't hit me despite saying something like this." Kai shrugged. "Can you give me a few spears? I may need it later."

"Sure." Ria nodded and synthesized a few more spears and a holster for him. "You should be fine in carrying these many."

Kai nodded and took the five spears from her. He didn't forget to wear the holster and attached the spears behind him. These spears were for throwing purposes since he might need to use it later. His strength allowed him to penetrate the insect skull and brought down the insect behind it.

After finishing his preparation, he nodded to Ria before glancing at Via on the side.

Via noticed his signal and projected the word 'Go' in the sky, symbolizing the start of this rescue operation. The soldiers clenched their weapons and looked at Ria and Kai.

Both of them raised their weapons and entered the nest as the rest of the soldiers followed them, running with their full speed just to keep up with them. They didn't forget to plant a few lights according to the plan.

The first part of this tunnel had no magical beasts as they encountered some soldiers that had yet to be attacked by magical beasts. Kai and Ria ignored them as these soldiers would be absorbed into Nathan's or Sherwin's group. The soldiers under them also had no time to inform if they wanted to catch up with their bosses.

As they were running through this dark tunnel, Kai said, "With our pace, we will meet a portion of magical beasts, which is Sir Nathan's job. After that, we need another three minutes before striking our target."

"Tch, we shall do a favor for that old man." Ria clicked her tongue.

They continued passing through the tunnels until they suddenly found a big room containing ten ants. It would seem the ants just came through the tunnel on the other side, so the room wasn't filled yet. 

"Three ants are enough." Ria Ross said as she already marked the necessary enemies that they needed to kill to break through them. With their speed, they only needed to deal with the one in front of her that was blocking their path.

Kai, as her student, obviously knew which three ants. However, he found out that one of them was a bigger ant like the one he encountered previously. But it would seem Ria already targeted this ant as she said, "I will take the bigger one. You clear the other two." 

"Understood." Kai nodded. He was also curious how Ria wanted to kill this ant, so he proceeded with the ant that didn't take too long to end while glancing at Ria a couple of times. 

Kai and Ria arrived at their respective opponent. Kai met the first little one and slashed its head with his Vibration Sword before leaping toward the second ant. The distance between them allowed Kai to glance at Ria before he suddenly widened his eyes.

The giant ant plunged Ria by crushing her with its mandible, but the latter had no problem in dodging this. She simply made the same move as Kai by piercing her spear on its stomach, continued running through the back and created a long cut wound.

'She doesn't lower her speed? What is she going-!' Before Kai could finish his thought, Ria Ross had gone past the ant as she jumped with her right foot and landed with the left foot. It was at this time she showed remarkable athleticism by spinning her body in the air and threw her spear toward the ant's head.

The spear pierced through the ant's head. Meanwhile, Ria jumped again with her left foot and spun her body back to face the front as she continued running forward. 

Kai was utterly speechless on how she could actually kill that giant ant without decreasing her speed even once. He suddenly heard a provocation coming from her. "Are two little ants too troublesome for you?"

"Tch!" Kai already arrived in front of the last opponent and didn't strike the ant from the front since he would decrease his speed. To match with Ria, he needed to jump right beside the ant and spun his body while swinging his swords right on the head and its body, splitting the ant into three. Even so, he still somehow decreased his speed, making a distance between him and Ria.

Ria kept teasing him by matching her pace with him and smirking. "You still have a long way to go. How about getting a long-range attack? That one that makes my eyes vibrate isn't strong enough."

"I will try after this Sound Levitation thing."

"Oh. You are still clinging onto that topic?" Ria lifted her eyebrows. "Do you have a clue or something to fix the problem?"

"My only clue is to create a powerful sound wave that can boost me to the air. I might need to modify my Sound Insulation Room magic for this, so only the energy would launch me to the sky while the Sound Insulation magic dampened the sound. As for the levitation thing, I will have more chances to make this happen after the first stage." Kai nodded.

"I don't know much about your Sound Magic, so I can only say… Good Luck." Ria smiled. "If you need any specific tools or whatever, just inform me about it. I will make one for you or arrange a few scientists to make one."

"Thank you, Teacher." Kai nodded.

On the other hand, the first ten people that followed right behind these two were stunned. They had been watching how they killed the magical beasts without wasting a single movement this whole time. After they got accustomed to their speed, they began chatting while killing the magical beasts at that speed. 

The captain of this group couldn't help but say. "Are they monsters?"

"No, no. General Ria has been considered as one since a decade ago. If he is really her student, then he must be one as well. You hear the idiom, right? Geniuses are attracting each other," said the soldier beside him while shaking his head.

These ten people only needed to follow them as this student-teacher duo blasted their way. After a while, they didn't find a single magical beast as they went past the Northern Area. Yet the group continued as nothing happened, and as Kai predicted earlier, they finally arrived at the Western Area and met the magical beasts there.

Kai and Ria were forced to stop their movement as they narrowed their eyes, glaring at the big magical beast in front.

A two-meter gray mouse glared at them with its red eyes. The claws on its feet or hands were sharp and long as if it had the power to cut everything. If Kai and Ria weren't careful, that claws might kill them.

"I will kill the mice with one shoot. You distract it for ten seconds." Ria said with a severe tone.

"Are you sure? I might kill the mice before that." Kai smiled as he walked to the front.

"Do it if you can." Ria smiled.