The Magician of Sound

Kai appeared in front of a hundred people, including a few drivers that were going to bring them to the front line. 

"Everything is ready, Sir." Baran quickly approached him and saluted.

Kai nodded before taking a look at the soldiers. They quickly straightened their back and saluted as well. 

"In just a few minutes, we will go toward the front line and head toward the mutated magical beasts. I'm sure you have been informed of what you need to do, and I hope you can follow my order despite my young age." Kai humbly said to the soldiers. "I wish for all of us to finish this mission without casualty. This might sound like boasting, but this is actually my promise to you."

"Yes, Sir!" The soldiers answered in unison.

"Good. All of you can stand by inside the trucks." Kai nodded and glanced at Baran. "Follow me a little bit."

"Move out!" Baran nodded and ordered before coming to Kai. "What do you need me, Sir?"

Kai stared at him, hesitating to ask for a few seconds. "Actually… I want to ask you what the strategy for the front line is? I mean, there are too many magical beasts in front of us, and when they are informing their comrades, it will be an endless stream of magical beasts. Of course, it will stop when there is a big gap between the battlefield and the monster, but they still need to fight for days."

Baran looked at him, dumbfounded. Seeing how powerful his strategy was, he thought he had known this type of strategy, but it turned out otherwise. 

"Cough… I will just use an example of our strategy. Firstly, we have three spots a few kilometers ahead of us. They are a city, a grassland, and a hill. These three locations are a few kilometers apart from each other.

"We will occupy the city and the hill as our temporary strongholds with around two thousand soldiers each. With the terrain and other things, these two thousand soldiers can withstand ten thousand magical beasts for many days. After the situation calms down a little bit, we move our soldiers to occupy the grassland and push back the magical beasts." 

Kai thought for a moment and finally realized the plan. "I see. The soldiers need to penetrate deep inside their territory and set up two anchor points on the left and right. They should be able to hold on for a few days, and it will be the time the middle army makes its appearance, killing the magical beasts in between.

"However, there must be some magical beasts that escape or breakthrough this encirclement. Hence, the missions are issued to the students. The military can kill the magical beasts while training the students… It's two birds in one stone."

Baran nodded. "Yes. There might be some air support for them if the number is too high, but we usually don't do it because the loud sound might attract more magical beasts than it's supposed to. After the mission, we also need to consider the troops' placement, the next plan, how we move, new anchor points, and replacement for fallen soldiers… That's why we take too much time for this."

Kai agreed with him and added. "That's why we can only reach this far after several centuries, especially when our population is this low…"

"Though I don't want to say it, it's true." Baran sighed in disappointment.

"How about magicians in the Army? I am not originally from this place and somehow forget to learn about it." Kai scratched his head, embarrassed. 

"Alright. Military Academy usually has more students than the Magic Academy, and most of their students become privates in this place as soon as they graduate. On the other hand, a part of students hailing from Magic Academy goes to the Government… and are usually trained to be an elite that can be dispatched at any moment. However, there are certainly some that come directly to the army. 

"We usually have them training with others and equip him like the others. However, they are usually more popular and shoot through the ranking due to their Magic. I bet there are many of them in our group." 

"Asking them to fight like normal soldiers? Isn't that a waste of their talent?"

"You can say so, but we also need to consider the stability of our armies. We can proceed this fast because everything has a procedure, standardizing the entire process. They can reach higher rank easier because of their magic, and there are more options above, so I do think it's a waste of potential, but it's not that much." Baran shook his head. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you anything since I'm a former Military Academy student." 

Kai nodded with a smile, patting his shoulders. "Everyone is important in the war, so hold your head high. Let's go!"

They were going with five trucks, with each bringing twenty of them, and the boring journey finally began.

…

A few hours later,

Kai and the others at a small city that was used to watching out for the magical beasts, and they were heading toward their designated area on foot. After settling everything with the person in charge, the drivers drove the trucks back while Kai ordered.

"Move out!" 

The order was out, and the soldiers began running. It was around fifty kilometers up ahead, so they only needed around three hours while preserving their stamina.

However, Kai abruptly signaled them to stop after ten minutes, confusing every single soldier. 

"Call all captains of ten men here. I am going to give my first instruction," said Kai to Baran. 

He nodded and called them to meet Kai in the front. 

Kai looked at his map even after the leaders arrived and had them wait for a minute. He then presented the map along while using his Echo Location magic. 

The captains had no knowledge about this, but they could see many red dots on the magic and somehow spotted a few gaps between the dots. 

"This is my magic, Echo Location Magic. Its purpose is to locate every magical beast in the area using my ears, so they are pretty accurate. Now, there are around thirty magical beasts standing in our way. I want all of you and your respective groups to kill these thirty beasts without alarming their surroundings. In other words, I want a swift sweep before regrouping.

"The first and second team will go toward here… The third and fourth…" Kai began his explanation and pointed to the area they needed to cover. These captains were dumbfounded by his ability and remembered the Government's statement when they revealed Kai's ability. If all these spots were right, they should be able to arrive at their destination without alarming their surroundings.

The captains gulped down and swore in their hearts not to be a dead weight. After a few minutes, Kai looked at them again. "Do you have any questions?"

"No, Sir!" They said silently since they were outside. Baran could only smile at this because he was idolizing Kai deep inside his heart. 

"We will repeat this process over and over again until we reach our target, so we will immediately make a small meeting like this after regrouping. If you don't have any questions, then move out," Kai instructed as he rose from his position, leading the Lion and Eagle groups.

The captains also informed their soldiers about their battle plans and quickly moved according to the plan. 

Kai went toward the northeast and found six horses before asking them to stop. 

"Isabelle and Sis- Tasha will kill two of them. The rest will follow me and kill the other four." Kai instructed as he created a big Sound Insulation Room. It covered around one hundred meters in the area. "Let's go!" 

Kai didn't wait for them to answer and leaped to the front. Michelle and Ayaka had gotten used to his style and followed him right after while Tasha already drew her arrow. The Eagle Group was startled for a second before Isabelle opened her mouth. "All except Nicholas go! Else, the Lion Group will dominate this mission." 

They woke up and quickly chased them while Isabelle brought two snipers with her, aiming at one horse each. 

As soon as Kai and the others were already closed enough, Tasha and Isabelle shot at the same time. 

Kai leaped and went toward the furthest horse. The magical beasts somehow reacted to this but stopped once again when their three comrades died with a headshot. Kai and Michelle slashed their respective target while Ayaka threw her spear. All six magical beasts died just like that. 

Only a few seconds later, the Eagle Group finally arrived. 

"You three surely take your time." Michelle smirked while walking toward Tasha and the others. 

The trio was absolutely stunned by her remark. If not because of Kai's Sound Insulation Room, Isabelle might need to be careful with her sniper rifles since they produced a loud sound, and they couldn't fight like this.

"Don't mind her. We are just testing the water right now since we will repeat this over and over until arriving at our destination." Kai only waved his hand to the trio before going to Isabelle. "That's the gist of our plan, but I will make the Sound Insulation Room smaller to avoid the magical beasts from noticing us."

"As your order, Captain." Isabelle shrugged and smiled before teasing Evan. "Maybe I should ask Uncle James to teach you how to be a man like him."

"You don't need to. He already did and failed." Evan snorted in annoyance. "Besides, you were weaker than me in the past before I lost the ability to fight."

Isabelle's body shook, recalling her dark past. She gnashed her teeth and looked away. "Hmph!"

Kai ignored both of them, retracted his Sound Insulation Room, and ordered. "Let's go!"