The Magician of Sound

"General Sanders!"

The shout somehow made his heart skip a beat before he frowned. Seeing the seriousness in Kai's expression, General Sanders quickly shouted, "It's time for us to join the war!"

"Yes, Sir!" No one had yet to realize that the enemy this time had more than their usual swarm, so they replied with salutes and energy.

Sanders nodded his head before turning back to Kai.

That gaze alone already asked a question that Kai quickly answered, "They are going toward the gap between the middle and left armies."

"What?!" Sanders's body shook, never expecting the enemy to play this dirty. 

By situating themselves between the middle and left armies, they could help each army if needed. Together with their numerical advantage, it would make the transfer between units easier.

Things would be different for the human army. The reserve army that consisted of elites and military school students would have no leeway to reinforce both armies. Besides, if they fought too close to the sea creatures horde, they would be noticed and pincered. The same applied if they were coming too far back, the flying beasts could easily attack the middle army, and no one could save them.

The position would be the most important part of this battle, and Sanders knew it.

"Don't worry. I will make sure to get the perfect place for you." Sanders assured Kai by patting his shoulder.

"General, as soon as we move to the second phase, I would like to enter the battle also," Kai said with a serious expression.

Sanders wanted to say 'no', but the word stuck on his mouth. "Are you sure? You-"

The plan was for him to test his new magic on the magical beasts, and this was the exact time where he could do a real experiment. After all, even though the simulation world was good, it didn't provide enough data about frequency and such. And he wouldn't have many magical beasts to experiment in a normal mission. Only at a mission like this, he could efficiently study his magic.

Sanders pondered for a moment before asking, "Which army?"

Without organizing his words, Kai answered with the part he had prepared last night."Middle Army. Rest assured, General. I am not planning to join the battle in the front from the start. Of course, I will wield my swords and take down as many enemies as possible if the moment comes. In any case, by coming to the middle army, I can ask my sister to teleport me back if needed."

Sanders didn't immediately answer. He knew about Kai's prowess as one of the Zodiacs, but it was in the form of paper. After pondering for a few seconds, he finally gave Kai a nod. "But be careful and use the radio if needed."

"Yes, Sir." Kai nodded before adding, "We are going to the second phase in around ten minutes."

"Alright, I will take note of it." Sanders turned around and walked toward the reserve army. "All of you follow me."

"Yes!" They started moving northwest.

Kai gave another look at the reserve army. Although it had a thousand people, the elites would probably do the most work while the students tried to shoot the flying beasts, albeit missing them most of the time.

"Ten minutes." Kai also sent a message to the radio, informing the three armies for the second phase.

Marsha didn't care about the information as her hand was already full of three thousand magical beasts. Although she might be able to win if this was all, it would still take a few hours. 

On the other hand, this was good news for Jack and Sarah. With the second phase began, Jack could finally start routing the enemy inside the town, making their gunners have a bit more advantage. For Sarah, it would mean the nightmare finally stopped coming, and she only needed to deal with the rest. Although it would lead to many injuries, they should be able to destroy them unless something unexpected destroys the balance. 

"Good." Sarah took a deep breath, continuing her killing spree.

In the middle army, Jack laughed loudly, echoing in everyone's ears.

"We will destroy them in ten minutes fellas, so tighten your pants and guard this position for ten minutes!"

The soldiers became fired up as they used everything to push the enemy back.

Michelle also heard it and let out a relieved sigh, "He is coming here then."

Tasha couldn't hear it since she was with the other gunners, but they could somehow predict what just happened. 

…

Not long after, General Sanders finally arrived in their position with the reserve army. He furrowed his eyebrows the moment flying beasts entered his scope of vision.

Most of the birds were a type of Barn Swallow as he easily recognized them by their deeply forked tails. Barn swallows usually migrated to South America during winter and then returned once the weather was warm.

"Still… This is still Autumn, and we should fight all these birds in December or January usually… 'That' must do something about it and command the magical beasts to have an early migration…" Sanders muttered to himself with his personal experience. Many soldiers in the base also knew about this type of bird as they had fought them a few times when they were migrating, so they also had the same confusion but one without answer unlike Sanders.

"Let's do it, soldiers. This is the type that we usually encounter in winter. Only the timing is different! Elites who can fly will kill the closest magical beasts while the other and students will provide the support." 

"Yes, Sir." Knowing their enemy made them pretty confident about it as they quickly organized their position.

Sanders also took out his weapon, which surprisingly was a Gatling gun, pointing it at the birds.

...

Ten minutes later,

The time finally came as Kai finally gave an order.

"Move to the second phase."

Hearing the command, the happiest one would be Jack as he quickly shouted with a smile. "It's time fellas. We are going to retreat. All companies will move according to the plan on my signal."

"Yes."

All eight hundred fighters moved in sync, retreating bit by bit to the town. For the gunners, this was the signal they had agreed upon for the second phase.

Tasha quickly appeared on the battlefield and teleported many magical beasts to the sky, creating another magical beasts rain. Her real aim was to create a gap, so the magical beasts would focus on them instead of moving to the left army by following their other comrades. 

Just like how Tasha moved, the gunners also raised their guns to the sky and pulled back to the town. All of them entered a building to gain higher ground so that they would have a better field of vision. Meanwhile, with the sync in their movement, they managed to retreat inside the city, moving toward a high populated area and planted a few bombs on all high buildings in their way.

Not stopping in that place, they moved to a different area, which was supposed to be a park formerly.

After regrouping in an open area, Jack observed the magical beasts' movements.

The magical beasts destroyed many buildings on the way, but most of them still needed to climb the rubble to reach the army. This rubble was enough to slow them down, preventing the army from being surrounded by magical beasts.

They began to get closer and closer as Jack narrowed his eyes, waiting for the right time. After waiting for another few seconds, he finally counted down.

"Three…"

"Two…"

"One…"

"Light them up!" Jack shouted. All the fighters that were in charge of planting the bombs pulled the triggers. 

"Boom Boom Boom!"

A series of explosions occurred on the battlefield, destroying all the foundations of tall buildings. Without foundation, the building started crumbling to the ground. Some big rubbles had enough weight and killed magical beasts instantly while some smaller ones buried many magical beasts together.

There were around twenty explosions altogether to shatter around three tall buildings, but it was worth it. First, they had buried around three hundred magical beasts with those twenty explosions and rubbles. Although the number was insignificant of their thousands of beasts, the rubbles that scattered around made them even slower than earlier.

Jack quickly gave another order. "First company will follow me to block them from the left side while the second company will replace our position. The third company will hold the right wall while the fourth company will spread around the three walls and replace those who fell in battle."

(A/N: Platoon usually has 20-50 soldiers while a company has 2-4 platoons.) 

"Yes, Sir." The first company consisted of two hundred soldiers who followed Jack to flank the magical beasts from the left.

With the fourth company becoming the reserve, they finally made a receiving formation in a bell shape. They were planning to let the magical beasts inside their formation and finish them inside. And to finish the entire plan, Jack shouted for the last time, "Fifth Company, make sure you don't hit friendlies." 

The fifth company consisted of two hundred gunners, who had taken their places a bit farther from them but on top of the roof. This allowed them to have an easier time targeting the magical beasts.

The first wave of magical beasts came inside their formation and was quickly intercepted by the three walls, preventing them from going anywhere. They might be able to go back, but it was already filled with magical beasts, so they were trapped as soon as they entered the formation. Besides, the magical beasts only acted with instinct, so unless they were commanded to do something, they would continue forward.

This was the best plan that Jack could come up with for receiving the magical beasts.

After another minute, Kai finally entered the battlefield and came to the building where Tasha was stationed.