The Magician of Sound

South Carolina, Graham House,

The moonlight shone brightly, illuminating two old men in the backyard. They were sitting on a comfy couch, staring at each other with a weird smug smile.

"Are you sure they can manage this?" The first old man asked with a worried expression.

"They are fine. This grandson-in-law of mine is very slick in escaping, so even if he fails, nothing will happen." Nathan shrugged.

"Oi, we are still talking about a few thousand of our soldiers." He glared at him, telling him to get serious.

"I know. I want him to accumulate experiences in the front line as much as possible since he will marry my lovely granddaughter. If we are talking about his brain, as far as I know, every time he gives an order, it's only after he has fully calculated in advance how many of them he expects to die. Being smart alone is not enough…" Nathan sighed.

"So, you are training him by using my son?" He was a bit annoyed.

"Of course." He admitted it with a poker face, not feeling any guilt in it. "Though I also have another objective in mind."

"That little lass?"

"Yeah."

The old man narrowed his eyes. "It's all good, but I feel the movement of Magical Beasts this time is very weird. Unlike a normal horde, they give a stench."

"Someone is controlling them?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah. Usually, Magical Beasts are moving with their instinct, but this time, it gives a weird stench to my nose. This is why I allow that brat to take control of the base. I remember that he managed to locate a base that those useless elites could not. Maybe, he could discover something from this incident."

"I see…" Nathan looked down, pondering for a while. "Well, Tasha can use teleportation magic to escape, so I guess it's fine."

"I won't underestimate them if I were you." 

He tilted his head in confusion, noticing that they were not on the same page. Out of curiosity, he asked, "Who are they?"

"This is because you have retired from the military too long, and you make this plan without discussing it with your son…" He sighed. "They are…"

They continued discussing the matter, making Nathan's expression darken. At first, he thought about canceling the mission, but he stopped. Ultimately, he chose to believe Kai's power except still sending 500 elite soldiers from their Graham House.

…

On the other hand, Kai and the others just arrived at the military base, meeting a brown-haired middle-aged man. His muscular body gave a sense of ferocity, telling them he was a fighter like them, not an office general. 

"Ah, you are…" Michelle instantly recognized this person. As the son of her grandfather's best friend, she had seen him on a few occasions. 

"You must be Sir Nathan's granddaughter, Michelle. A pleasure to meet you here." He nodded before finding two men beside her. He checked which one had the headphones and said, "You are Kai Carter, right?"

"Yes."

"I have seen your report about the battle in Prince Rupert and the record of your battle against the Eagle Group. Although part of it is because my old man says so, I welcome you as my deputy.

"I will treat you as my intern advisor in this base and let you take command of the army. However, when I feel I need to step in, you won't give any orders anymore, are we clear?" 

"I understand." He certainly understood how absurd it was for a student to command the army, more so a young man less than 18 years old. If not because of the good record where he managed to save the soldiers in Prince Rupert, he would decline even if the request came from his old man.

"Good. A pleasure to work with you, my name is Sanders. Just call me, Sir Sanders or general Sanders," He stretched his hand for a handshake. 

Kai knew they could not get too familiar. Even Michelle should call him the same despite their relationship, so Kai smiled and shook his hand. "Yes, Sir."

"We have an empty room in a barrack, so assuming you have no issue in sleeping with your entire group, then I will lead you there. We can talk tomorrow morning."

Kai glanced at his teammates, including Sanae, and saw no qualm for them. "Thank you, Sir."

Sanders then led him to their room and left.

The room had one table for reading and five bunk beds, which was supposed to be a small ten-person room. 

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, since there were only five of them, they agreed to take each bunk bed for themselves, using the top bed to place their luggage.

"What are we going to do tomorrow?" Michelle asked Kai.

Kai did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked over the map, finding the terrain around the area.

Seeing this, Sanae also took out her communication device and searched for the map before furrowing her eyebrows.

"Fifteen thousand sea creatures and five thousand flying beasts…" Sanae muttered to herself, weighing something in her mind.

The room fell into silence as Evan was just staring at them, not doing anything. Michelle walked to Kai, sitting beside him as she looked at the map without saying anything. On the other hand, Tasha simply had no interest in this as she was never good with this kind of stuff.

*Sigh*

Kai let out a long sigh, followed by Sanae's sigh. Michelle tilted her head in confusion, "What is it? Is there any problem with this battle?"

"I will just let him explain it." Sanae shrugged, pointing her finger at Kai.

Kai let her see the map and asked, "According to our position, where do you think we will fight?"

"Hmm… This base is close to the sea, so around this base." She answered with an unsure tone.

"Well… The magical beasts would surely spread out if we fight around the base, so we need to move our fronts elsewhere. According to the information provided by Sir Nathan, they are coming from The Bahamas. If I am the general, I will move my soldiers to three fronts.

"I will station a thousand soldiers in the hill on our left, giving them a terrain advantage. In the middle, there is a small town that we can use to slow them down. On the other hand, in the right field, we only have a large wheat field, without any advantage at all." He explained.

"So, they are going to have the most brutal fight?"

"You can say so, but there is another problem with this… and I assume this is the reason why Teacher sighed." Kai glanced at Sanae, who nodded her head.

"You are right. The problem is the number. They have twenty thousand while we only have four thousand. It's already far too disadvantageous considering we are not fighting sea creatures alone. I will also split the same way as Kai, with a thousand reserve soldiers to fight the flying beasts. As for the problem, you can explain it." Sanae shrugged, not wanting to say more.

Kai nodded and continued. "Their number is too big. With how the magical beasts usually move, they will certainly split evenly. For example, if the right army is hit by five thousand sea creatures alone, they would need at least two days before they could fight them… In other words, the soldiers would fight tirelessly like magical beasts, leaving them at a disadvantage."

"That is the purpose of the terrain?"

"Yeah. The middle and left armies should be able to finish them by splitting their groups into two and having a rotation. This way, we can conserve the soldiers' strength.

"Unfortunately, the right army has none of that. Even if we send our reserve, we need to be wary of the flying beasts." He sighed.

"I somehow understand it." Michelle nodded. "Should we go to the right army and kill those magical beasts? I mean, Tasha could teach them how to fly again."

"My limit is two thousand," Tasha added, afraid they would put too much expectation on her.

"Three thousand left… still not enough with that open field and no pincer attack…" Kai closed his eyes, picturing how the battle would progress.

Evan suggested to him, "I can stay in the right army, healing most of them. Although I can't recover their energy, with a few hours of recovery, they should be able to enter the fight again."

"Yeah. That's what I am planning, but I still need to see if I have any other ways." He looked at Sanae and asked, "Teacher, do you want to add something? Maybe I am missing something. Please share your wisdom."

"My wisdom? Why do you say it like I am old? I am only 7 or 8 years older than you." She snorted.

"Well, I have a few suggestions, but won't affect your plan that much except this one advice. Take a look at the town's position." Sanae shrugged.

Kai could not understand her advice and took a look at the map again. He stared at the town, the hill, and the wheat field for a few hours, formulating a plan. He smiled, "Interesting."

Sanae just shrugged, making a little smile.

…

At the same time,

Ayaka arrived at her destination, finding a run-down house in front of her.

She left the group for a while just to seek a person, according to Nathan's instruction. Gathering her resolve for the last time, she finally took a step forward and rang the bell.

"I have been waiting for you, come in."

A woman's voice was heard from inside, prompting her to open the door. She gulped down before opening the door slowly and coming inside. "Excuse me."