121: Kai Joins the Battle

Kai Joins the Battle

"General Sanders!"

That shout somehow made his heart skip a beat. 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 was already asking a question that Kai quickly answered, "They're going toward the gap between the middle and left armies."

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

By situating themselves between the middle and left armies, they could help each army if they needed to. 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 came too far back, the flying beasts would be able to attack the middle army easily, and no one would be able to save them.

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

"Don't worry. I'll 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 was stuck in his mouth. He could only ask, "Are you sure?"

The plan was for him to test his new magic on the magical beasts, and this was the perfect time for him to do a real experiment. After all, even though the simulation world was good, it didn't provide enough data about frequencies and such. And he wouldn't have that many magical beasts to experiment on in a normal mission. It was only at a mission like this that 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. "The middle army. Rest assured, General. I'm 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 I can when the time comes. In any case, by coming to the middle army, I can ask my sister to teleport me back if I need to."

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

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

"All right, I'll 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 would try 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 of the countdown for the second phase.

Marsha didn't care about the information as her hands were 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. When the second phase begins, Jack would finally be able to start routing the enemy inside the town, giving their gunners a bit more advantage. For Sarah, it would mean that their nightmare would finally stop coming, and she would only need to deal with the rest. Although it would lead to quite a large number of injuries, they should be able to destroy them as long as nothing unexpected that could destroy the balance happened.

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

In the middle army, Jack laughed loudly, which echoed 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 they had to push the enemies back.

Michelle also heard it and let out a relieved sigh, "He's 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 at 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 migrate to South America during winter and then return once the weather gets warm.

"Still… This is still autumn, and we should be fighting all these birds in December or January... 'That' must done something about it and commanded the magical beasts to have an early migration…" Sanders muttered to himself, thinking from 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 were also confused by this. But unlike Sanders, they couldn't think of the answer as they didn't know about 'that'.

"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 others and students will provide 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 was a Gatling gun, and pointed it at the birds.

...

Ten minutes later.

The time finally came as Kai finally gave the order.

"Move to the second phase."

Hearing the command, the happiest one was Jack as he quickly shouted with a wide smile on his face. "It's time, fellas! We're 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 numerous magical beasts to the sky, creating another rain of magical beasts. 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 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 into the city, moving toward a highly-populated area and planted a few bombs on every high building in their way.

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

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

The magical beasts destroyed a lot of 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 instantly pulled the triggers.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions occurred on the battlefield, destroying all the foundations of the tall buildings. Without their foundations, the building started crumbling to the ground. Some big rubbles had enough weight and instantly killed some magical beasts while some smaller ones buried a few 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 compared to the total amount of thousands of beasts, the rubbles that got scattered around slowed them down even more.

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: A platoon usually has 20-50 soldiers while a company has 2-4 platoons.)

"Yes, Sir." The first company consisting of two hundred soldiers 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 into their formation and finish them there. And to finish the entire plan, Jack shouted for the last time, "Fifth company, make sure no friendly fire occurs."

The fifth company consisting of two hundred gunners had taken their places on top of a roof a bit farther from them. This allowed them to have an easier time targeting the magical beasts.2

The first wave of magical beasts came into their formation and was quickly intercepted by the three walls, preventing them from going anywhere. They would have been able to retreat through where they came from, but that route was already filled with magical beasts. In other words, those magical beasts were trapped as soon as they entered the formation. Not to mention, these magical beasts only acted with their instincts, 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.

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