The Magician of Sound

The next day, Kai and the others returned to the school as if they never took any mission in the first place. The atmosphere was bright and warm. Although Evan ended up not being useful in this mission, no one actually said something to him. His main job was to heal everyone, albeit not a single one of them suffered an injury.

Hence, Evan poured his frustration of not being able to fight into his training.

As for anyone else, they simply returned to their own schedule without care. No one realized the real reason why Kai asked Ayaka to use her Scarlet Explosion. In fact, they simply did not care.

The days went by without any problem. After a week, Kai informed them he needed to take a break to visit Ria Ross. No one said anything because they knew Kai needed to discuss the Raid Mission with her.

The next day. He arrived in front of Ria's house.

'No matter how many times I see this… This house still looks like a run-down house.' Kai shook his head and rang the bell before the latter asked him to enter. He then pushed the open door and walked inside the house.

In her laboratory, he found Ria Ross looking at the female zodiac that he killed a week ago. "Teacher…"

"Don't worry. No one knows about her, so I will take good care of her. After that, I will properly bury her." Ria Ross waved her hand and shook her head. "I haven't gotten inside the research center for a long time, so I need to research this alone to avoid their attention. I don't want them to force me to give my research again."

Kai glanced at her face, noticing the big black bag under her eyes. 'How long since her last sleep?'

"What are we going to do today?" Ria Ross looked up and sighed. "Oh right. I almost forgot. We are supposed to discuss the idea about the incoming raid mission. Let's go to my study room."

Kai nodded and followed her. It seemed she had prepared everything needed for today's meeting, from the digital map on her table to a few documents containing the information.

Ria took her usual seat while Kai took the other one facing her. "I have three topics for today."

"Is sleep included?" Kai lowered his eyebrows and looked at his teacher worriedly.

Ria slightly widened her sleepy eyes and smiled. "Fine. Since my student finally shows some care, I will have some sleep after we finish this topic."

Kai nodded. "Then let's cut to the chase. What are the three topics?"

"Before that, I want to say something."

"Sure."

"I have said I am going to pick your missions this year, right?"

"Yes. Did Teacher have a problem?"

"No. I am just warning you first because I won't pick any mission about war. I don't want you to lead the army in your second year other than this raid mission."

"If not war… Then what is my mission? Am I going to assassinate some monsters or something?"

"I want you to learn more about the truth that might be connected to the riddle that protector gave you. No, in fact, I am wondering whether these so-called protectors are the only ones out there or not. You might not know, but our planet is far more mysterious than you can imagine."

"Mysterious? Still, our ability is limited. Even if I want to explore such a thing, I might not be able to travel due to the magical beasts."

"Even before the appearances of magical beasts, our Earth has many mysterious places that can't be explained. Of course, I am going to send you to a few areas like that, so you might find that riddle. Those places are hard to explore for many reasons, so I am going to use that for your achievement to elevate you into a general. After all, I want you to know more than a simple war general because there might be a time where you need that knowledge." Ria shrugged.

Kai nodded. "I understand. I will follow Teacher's arrangement."

"Anyway, your hearing will help you in this mission, so I will explain more about this after discussing the topic." Ria paused for a moment. "For now, I am going to explain about the three topics. First will be the two possible threats: That mad scientist and the protector. I believe both of them will make a move at this point."

"Yes. Where is that guy now?"

"I don't know where he is, but I believe he is hiding deep inside the uncharted territory. The last time the S rank magical beast spotted was in Argentina, specifically Rosario. Hence, we are going to move with forty thousand soldiers to that place. None of them have been explored by us, so there should be many magical beasts there.

"And that guy must have hidden himself in the bottom of Argentina… Around Santa Rosa or Bahia Blanca." Ria explained the general position.

"Hmm?" Kai suddenly felt something odd when looking at the map. It was at the position where one should have expected something to happen, Buenos Aires. "Teacher. This one…"

"Yeah. In this area, the sea relatively goes deep inside, and there is a river to boot. From what I can see, the protector will use this place to travel."

"I see. We are getting pincered from the south and east." Kai nodded. "So, we should have the spider to be on our west side or north side."

"Yes. Though I believe the protector brings more trouble than that guy, so I suggest having the spider on the west side. This way, they will need to pass our entire army to help the spider."

"Sure enough. We can position the spider in the northwest, but it will be too hard to make it specific like that. As for the threat from the south, we can simply create another small army to separate the south and west."

"Yes. Since this place is mostly natural terrain, I think we will employ traditional warfare. It's to clash depending on the strength of the general. In other words, you should make the plan and have the generals execute it accordingly."

Kai thought for a moment and nodded. "In that case, I don't need a specific strategy, no?"

"More or less. I will tell you about the four generals first. The first two are obviously Nathan and Ethan. Nathan might need to handle the protector. As for the south area… I believe the third general, an old man called Paolo to have this. He is a man filled with strength. His strength is useful to brutally destroy the enemies.

"Ethan's strength is in his defense. He has taught his son, Sanders, in that way. It is the reason why Sanders is taking command of Cuba Military Base. It's an important place to protect the bridge connecting North America and South America.

"He will coordinate with the fourth general, Jose, to block the magical beasts that will help the spider. You might not know, but this person has been working with Ethan since long ago, so you can trust him to coordinate fluidly with Ethan."

Kai pondered for a moment, processing all the information in his head. "What is Sir Nathan's strength then? Why Teacher seems to be confident in placing him against the protector?"

"I have no confidence in him. However, he is the most balanced than the other three. If it's only to buy time, he should be fine. That's why even Michael is stationed inside the center base or his own house. He has the same style as Nathan, while the second and third son have gotten used to being Nathan's assistants. Their task is to stand by inside the base where they need to deploy immediately in an emergency situation."

"I see." Kai nodded. "In that case, we will have the lineup as such. The problem is how long they can hold the magical beasts. Even though we bring forty thousand, the enemies might have three to four times our number. It's too hard for us in the open area, so… I think three hours to four hours is the maximum before we need to retreat."

"If you are going to minimize the casualty, then yes. However, our target is the S rank magical beast. We are required to kill it before we can retreat. However, I will tell you the true terror of this magical beast known as an S rank magical beast…"

Kai gulped down as Ria created the suspense.

"Well, it's not that bad. The last time I fought such a beast, it could overwhelm us because we didn't have a strong attack power capable of piercing through their defense. However, it will be different now with you and me.

"Your Vibration Sword will be our strongest weapon. I might be able to take one of its legs while you can kill that guy with your vibration sword. Unfortunately, your sword is too small to split the spider. The only thing we can do is to cut the legs one by one before finishing him off."

"Yes. That's the only way." Kai agreed with her. "The problem is the poison. Can we safely assume that once we get inflicted by the poison, we will die?"

"It's better to assume that way. In other words, you can't touch its body as it might also produce the toxin. There is also a chance to shoot its web containing the poison. It will be hard to fight because of this disadvantage, so you can understand my point of why it will take a long time to kill it."

"Yes." Kai nodded before feeling another problem might appear. He didn't know why the memory of the centipede appeared in his mind even though it was only a matter from United Asia. Suddenly, he realized what might happen. "We might have another problem."

"Oh wait, my student. I haven't finished listing the problem yet."

"…"