The Magician of Sound

The next couple of hours were pretty uneventful for Kai. He listened to every single footstep and voice inside the Underground Nest, but none of them had trouble, which was relieving. 

Two hours later, the time limit for the fourth phase ended and the support team had been established. They were also replacing the vanguard that needed to look out for incoming enemies. It also gave them time to rest their body. Kai had been planning for their schedule long ago before he even asked Ria for advice. 

Not long after the support team finished their job and stood by inside the nest, the vanguard entered again and slowly marched toward the western part of the nest.

Isabelle's group also went inside along with the previous team, as there was no need for another arrangement as no one died in their team. They aimed for no death again for the second day.

Although it was such a shame they were getting into the vanguard team and couldn't kill as many magical beasts as possible, Isabelle had no complaint as long as there was no heavy injury on her teammates.

She kept protecting them from any magical beasts that might hurt or even kill them as she gradually became the queen of the group. 

The same applied to the other student groups, especially the top ten groups. They were as good if not more powerful than the soldiers. Although they might not be able to be compared to the group of the commanders personally led, they were also ranked pretty high up.

The soldiers didn't have any trouble with the students since, as long as they got more experience and applied their knowledge into the battle, they would really become the elite amongst elites.

Kai was satisfied with the result of the Vanguard team. They immediately blocked the entrance to the middle and southern regions, isolating the west region completely.

At this moment, the attacker armies led by Yuki and Henry swept the whole western area. Their number was three thousand lower than the previous day, so they managed to kill all the magical beasts within three hours, one hour faster than yesterday. Even so, they had the time limit, so Kai didn't say a single thing if they had finished their job. After all, Kai's group was the one who mostly dealt with the last few hundreds of monsters.

After the attacker armies came out, the support team slightly advanced and made bases in the western region. They took over the vanguard armies to watch out the incoming magical beasts from the northern and middle regions.

Kai gave the report to Nathan about their progress and speculated the number of deaths for today's progress. After that, he retired for the day. Once he thought when Nathan actually slept and found out that he was sleeping only around four hours each day to ensure the battle went according to the schedule.

Kai had an admiration for his action but had no intention of imitating him unless necessary. Even Ria Ross agreed with that decision because he would just unnecessarily exhaust himself. It would be better to retire early and focus on the next day.

In the end, she just said that Nathan was a workaholic back in the day. That was why he only had a single woman in his life. He just didn't have time for them. He became a bit guilty when his wife died, so he taught Michael, his son, to always spare some time for his family.

…

The third day came, and the soldiers became more energetic than yesterday. They didn't meet any resistance to their advancement and progressed very quickly. The normal raid mission would be one that lasted for a few months, and this was supposed to be a normal raid mission. Yet, they could finish the mission within a week. 

This short amount of time made all the soldiers happy. They could bury the deceased, get a holiday, and so on. At the same time, Nathan began spreading the rumor about Kai's existence.

In the attacker army, this rumor blazed even further.

"Hey, do you know that we have a student as the strategist of this mission?" A soldier asked as he just learned about it from the other group.

"I heard it from another group." Another soldier nodded. "They said the student's name is Kai Carter."

"That's right. From the information that I got recently, he was a Sound Magician." 

"He is participating in this battle as well as a part of the attacker team."

"You should also put 'unorthodox' behind it. After all, he was able to defeat Isabelle Fisher, the number one sniper in the magic school."

"I also heard about him." Another soldier joined the conversation. "He is from United Asia and the fiance of Michelle Graham, the only daughter of Graham Family's head. Still, he made the map for this war and also took command of the Cuba War, where the magical beasts outnumbered them five to one. I could tell you it was an insane fight since I took part in it. If he wasn't there, we might lose more than two-thirds of our army. I overheard this from General Nathan himself, but it would seem Kai Carter might overtake him in less than a decade."

The last soldier that joined the conversation was a person from the Graham Family. Nathan gave him a task to spread Kai's information. There were several reasons for this. First, Kai would get the recognition he deserved from the soldiers. By spreading this kind of information, Nathan hoped that by hearing Kai's name alone, he would inspire the soldiers. 

Back then, he said it was fine to stay in the base after racking up some achievement. However, he added another condition that he would need to fight when it was necessary in case humanity would be threatened again.

It would just create a mysterious and prestigious name for Kai. If Kai came back to the front line with that name, he might create a five thousand army like a ten thousand one because Kai was the one who led them. In the end, it was for Kai and his granddaughter. Even though Michelle might leave the house someday, she and Kai wouldn't abandon the Graham Family at all, especially with the new little brother.

He had succeeded in the battle of Cuba and Prince Rupert even without his interference. The soldiers in Prince Rupert had seen him commanding the left army back then. At the same time, the two armies also knew about Kai being their commander in Cuba's grand scale battle.

Without even spreading his achievement, those soldiers would certainly recognize him. And that information would spread among them naturally. 

The second reason would be to make it easier to give him the reward. After all, it would be troublesome if only the commanders knew about this. When he gave a hefty reward for Kai, they would think Kai only deserved it because he was Nathan's soon to be grandson-in-law.

As for the third reason, it was simply his selfishness. He wanted Kai to stay in this base or at least get pressure in the form of 'hopes' that he would need to stay here and lead the army. Nathan was afraid that Kai would go back to United Asia or migrate to Europe Union Base and remain there for the rest of his life.

Kai couldn't stop the rumor as it would only make it worse if he said anything about it. He came to his group while ignoring those conversations and their gazes. Even so, the moment he came to his group, all of them grinned, wanting to tease him. 

He had expected from something like this when he realized Nathan was 'advertising' him in the army. Although he was surprised when he saw Ria didn't do a single thing and instead became supportive about this, Kai could only let go of such a thing. He tried to learn the reason himself since both didn't want to explain it to him.

At the very least, he knew that both of them were doing it for him while thinking about the limit of his patience. If they did something excessive, they would consider it over and over again. 

He ended up finishing the meeting early and left the tent. 

"Let's welcome the star of this battle, Kai Carter." Michelle grinned. The other laughed before they joined the teasing.

On the other hand, Kai couldn't say a single thing if he didn't want to make it worse. He stayed quiet until the time for him to enter the nest arrived.

As soon as they entered, no more joking around. Their faces turned serious, and went ahead with their own mission. Kai led them, like the previous two days, and they became the highest kill counts group in this entire operation. As for their respective kill counts, they were pretty similar in the counts.

They were half an hour in, and their people managed to kill two thousand magical beasts out of their ten thousand. This middle area had the same amount of magical beasts like the northern area, so they expected the battle to last longer than the second day.

However, when they started getting into it, they were shocked by a thunderous roar. 

*Roar!* 

The roar resounded through the entire nest. It was followed by the screeching sound of ants across the nest. Kai was dumbfounded because he felt there shouldn't be a roar that came from a beast as insects didn't roar like this. 

Once the roar was out, the magical beasts suddenly moved in unison, trying to come toward a few spots. Everything happened one after another, confusing Kai what just happened.

However, Kai precisely knew one thing.

They were in trouble.