The Magician of Sound

After killing the group of cats, they went deeper and pierced through the enemy ranks. Because of the stabilization due to magic that had been implemented to the gun, Evan managed to shoot pretty well, especially without a recoil every time he shot.

Although he could say that when they fought against many opponents Evan's accuracy decreased by at least thirty percent, he still managed to aim at their heads with half the amount of his bullet.

Both of them managed to synchronize their movements during this time, allowing better cooperation between the two.

Kai could see a good future in Evan's marksmanship and gave his confirmation after killing around five hundred beasts. As they expected, it took them a few hours to kill this much, and the sky had turned orange, signaling their retreat.

"Kai," Evan called him while looking at the numerous magical beasts charging at them. "We need to retreat. I am sure the beasts won't follow us after around two kilometers."

Kai thought for a moment but couldn't answer him. He listened to the area and noticed there was something big coming their way.

"This is going to be a problem…" Kai furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the dust kicked up by that dangerous beast. "I think we can't really retreat."

Evan also noticed that, but he thought it was only because a group of magical beasts came together, but it seemed it was something different. "What kind of beast will we face?"

"I am not sure." Kai shook his head. "I only know that it is big… Very big."

"Should we retreat? If this is something hard, I think it's best to not be near many of their beasts."

Kai nodded in agreement. "Yes. I think we should retreat for five hundred meters. But it's best to let the magical beasts see us first before running away."

"Alright." Evan agreed while shooting any magical beasts that tried to charge at them until they could see a huge animal coming from the front.

The animal had a long, slender body, short legs, and a bushy tail. They also had a long neck and a small head with a flattened forehead and rounded ears.

The top of the head, the back and flanks, and the tail had coarse black guard hairs with buff-colored tips over a softer undercoat, giving them a grizzled greyish color. The feet were webbed, with five toes ending in sharp, curved, claws.

"This is Grison!" Evan recognized it. "But considering it's around this area, it should be a Lesser Grison."

"If I am not wrong, they have a smaller size compared to Greater Grison, right? How big that thing is?" Kai frowned. "I am afraid this one is different from the rest."

"You bet." He nodded. "For now, let's retreat. I will provide cover fire for us too while you maintain our course."

Kai nodded back as they turned around and ran.

To their surprise, a roar echoed from behind them as they instantly recognized whose roar it was without even looking. The sound came diagonally from above, so it was easy to recognize it.

It was thirty meters long with a height of around ten meters tall, so it was normal that Kai and Evan decided to retreat upon seeing this.

But the moment they heard the roar, Kai immediately understood what kind of beast this grison was.

"He is one of the leaders." He warned Evan beside him.

"!!!" Evan turned around, shot a couple of bullets, and reloaded while running again. In that instant, he could see the difference in the movement of magical beasts.

"I don't feel safe in five hundred meters. We shall go back for one kilometer before killing these guys." Kai contemplated.

Evan only looked at him when he was like this and kept shooting the beasts that tried to chase them.

"There are around two hundred beasts in our surroundings that move alongside that grison. I will handle the big one while hindering the rest. I want you to focus on the weaker ones first." Kai commanded.

"Are you sure? If we kill the boss first, their movement will be in disorder, you know."

"Nope. I don't think it will. Do you remember that they are supposed to have multiple boss class monsters?" Kai asked.

"Ah!" Evan fell silent as he realized what was going on. "The beasts will simply go according to their original plan, huh."

"Yeah. That's why we are going to eliminate them here and now." Kai nodded.

"One more thing. Do we need to hold the fort?"

This was a good question. Kai alone knew that he couldn't stop the advance of this boss monster and hundreds of magical beasts. Hence, he would be reckless the moment he decided to hold the fort. Meanwhile, they could keep making an assurance that no beasts would come their way from either the Chile Army or New Army.

He ended up shaking his head. "No, but the limit is two kilometers. During that period, we need to annihilate the entire group."

Evan thought for a moment and nodded. "This is killing me. I only have one hundred more bullets, you know."

"Yeah." He nodded. "I never expected that our combination became that good during this period, so I was a bit too excited to see the continuation."

"Reflecting time is for later. What should we do right now?"

"Use all your bullets." Kai grabbed Evan's wrist and carried him on his shoulder.

"!!!" Evan was startled, but he soon realized that this position allowed him to focus on getting rid of the beasts pursuing them. He aimed toward the magical beasts and bombarded them with bullets.

"Change of plan. You have five minutes. Use all your one hundred bullets right now."

"Easy thing to do." He smiled while shooting them. "We should be thankful for the fact that we are a bit deeper because it means we can retreat safer."

"But you can't deny the fact that we won't be chased by this many if we stay in the safe zone."

"I agree." He nodded.

The duo started reducing the enemy's number during these few minutes, and the grison finally realized their aim. Never once Evan shot him, so it was pretty obvious with his intelligence to understand the real goal.

Because of that, the grison used his power. They had been known for their speed when they were small. It didn't change when he became big.

He sped up, closing the distance between him and Evan.

"Oi, Kai. It is approaching us!" Evan screamed but kept shooting the other magical beasts.

Kai could also hear the footsteps. No, in fact, the grison produced a tremendous shake to the ground when it started running at full speed. It truly gave one a heart attack at this point.

"Kai…" Evan glanced at him as he realized that the distance between them remained only twenty meters left. This way, the beast only needed ten seconds to approach them."

"Just shut up." Kai kept running without looking back.

Since he looked very confident, Evan didn't bother him anymore. He had been killing around seventy magical beasts with his ninety bullets, so he could feel the number was decreasing.

He still glanced back and forth to see this guy but said nothing.

'Five meters!' Evan exclaimed inwardly as his heart skipped a beat. The grison seemed to be ready to ram its paw as soon as it reached them, so he wondered whether Kai had any trump card to fix this.

"You are not calm." Kai let out a long sigh. "Do you think it can handle my speed?"

"Ah!" Evan finally realized that Kai still hadn't used his Sound Blast to boost his speed this whole time or the grison would have been left in the dust.

"Yeah. If it is coming closer, we should just speed up." He smiled and activated his Sound Blast to create a distance between them.

And just like that, their distance became fifty meters again.

"Sorry. I haven't gotten accustomed to the front line, so I panicked earlier."

"It's fine. It comes from experiences after all," said Kai nonchalantly.

Evan shot for another minute before he was out of ammo. "I am out."

"Alright. I shall share your mission." Kai nodded. "I am going to handle them at this distance until the promised distance. Before I reach there, I want you to replenish your bullets and wait for me there."

"Oi. I am not a combatant like you." He felt like he was being abused by a cruel boss. Running at that speed would be his limit, even with his exoskeleton.

"If it's a normal you, it won't be possible. But you have your new magic now." Kai smiled. "Go."

He tossed him to the air before using his Sound Blast to launch him as far as possible.

"Don't freaking throw me so suddenly! Warn me first, you goddamn captain!" Evan screamed as he should have flown a few hundred meters with that magic.

Kai then took a deep breath and smiled as he leaped a bit higher than usual to turn around while observing the situation.

As he expected, he had run far enough to the point the grison would be alone for a minute or so. He should be able to injure this beast during that period.

He raised both swords and smiled before creating a Sound Blast magic circle on the ground where he was supposed to land.

Noticing this, the beast immediately decreased its pace and slightly raised its body as if it wanted to use its claw to hit Kai.

Meanwhile, the magic circle launched Kai at a speed that the beast couldn't react to, especially with his body still moving.

"It is not so easy to change pace from max speed to zero, you beast." Kai smiled and slashed downwards.