*Roar!*
The roar shook the entire nest, and it was especially true for Kai, who could listen to the entire nest with his ears. The screeching sounds of other insects woke up the others near them, and it continued until every beast alarmed.
Sweats covered his head as his hands flinched. "This is really not good…"
The others found Kai stopping for no apparent reason and looked at him while squinting their eyes. They had finished cleaning up all the magical beasts here and prepared to go to another one. Yet, Kai, who would charge in front, didn't move from his spot.
"Kai? What's wrong?" Michelle walked closer while stretching her hand, trying to grab his hand and waking him up from his thoughts.
"I…" Kai still had no response to that question. He knew they were in trouble, but when he wanted to answer, the words stuck on his throat. He asked himself first, 'What is the problem? The roar surely wakes every single magical beast in this place, but why would there be a roar like that out of nowhere?'
Before he could find the answer, the magical beasts suddenly made a big movement.
"This…" Their movement was reflected in Kai's ears and confused him.
"What is it?" Michelle asked again with a low voice while walking closer to him, only to stop a few meters from him.
Normal humans wouldn't hear Michelle's voice that was similar to murmur, but it echoed loudly in Kai's ears. He glanced at the others before staring at Michelle. "There is a sudden roar from the Southern Area, and the magical beasts suddenly make a weird move. They are suddenly entering a tunnel that I haven't heard before because there is no magical beast before."
*Gasp—" They widened their eyes,sensing trouble would come soon. Michelle took a deep breath before asking. "Where… Where will the tunnel lead them?"
Unfortunately, there wasn't a single answer to that question yet. Kai didn't say a single word for a minute as he focused his ears on this pack. At first, he believed the tunnel would be an escape route for them, but it suddenly turned around and made a path to the Western and Northern Areas.
The paths that he never knew about were presented so suddenly. Kai had no way to decipher this action. Considering this was a big movement, he should report it to the high command. However, the problem would be whether he could go back to this place and meet these guys again later.
Suddenly, the magical beasts horde split into three groups. The first group had around five thousand magical beasts and went toward the Western part. The other two groups had three thousand magical beasts each and kept charging toward the Northern Area before they turned around and came to one of the tunnels.
*Rumble!*
The sound of rocks crumbling down filled his ears as the magical beasts entered the room. At the same time, Kai heard the remaining magical beasts move toward the Middle Region.
Kai gulped down as he looked at his teammates with widened eyes. "This… We need to get out of here! Sister, teleport all of us from here!"
He ran to Tasha and grabbed her shoulder with his shaking hands. "Teleport us to the surface right now!"
"Wait, what? What happened?" Tasha grabbed his hands and stopped him. "Kai, calm down first and tell us!"
"We have no time! All fifteen thousand magical beasts from the Northern Area are going to attack us!"
*Thud.*
The room fell into silence as none had the ability to speak at the moment. Their brain began processing the absurd information Kai just blurted out. A part of them wanted to believe it was not true as they couldn't picture how the magical beasts suddenly moved that way. The other part couldn't help but trust the words from the one who could hear everything in this Underground Nest.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes." Kai gritted his teeth. "Five thousand are coming to the Western Region. There are two groups, three thousand each, going to the Northern Area. The last four thousand are coming toward this place."
"This Place?" Yuki furrowed her eyebrows, crossed her arms, and looked down. "We have two thousand attackers and two thousand Vanguard in this place. However, the Support army is scattered around the Northern and Western areas. Are they…"
"!!!" No one was stupid enough not to realize something this simple. Yuki pointed her hand at Kai while looking at Tasha. "Teleport him to the surface alone. All of you are going to stay with me in this place."
"Wait, we need to go out first!" Kai clenched his fists.
"I can't abandon my duty as commanders. If you are going to bring your group to the surface, I won't mind as well." Yuki shook her head. "There are approximately five thousand magical beasts in this place while we are surrounded by the four directions by a total of twenty-three thousand. We still can hold on for a while by utilizing the tunnels around us since they wouldn't be able to swarm us with a thousand magical beasts at the same time."
"I am going to stay here," Michelle stated with a stern tone.
"Michelle!" Kai called her name out loud. Just like the war in Cuba, he always prioritized his family over the soldiers, and this hadn't changed because he felt this was the right thing to do. If it would mean they were safe, Kai didn't mind sacrificing himself and other soldiers. Yet, Michelle rejected him.
"Kai… Go to the surface and bring the reinforcement. If it's you, I'm sure you can resolve this situation. I will be waiting for you in this place." Michelle said while walking toward Tasha.
That smile jolted Tasha's mind as her expression turned serious. "Teleportation!"
A pink magic circle appeared beneath Kai's feet.
"Wait!" His mind was full at the moment with this situation, making him unable to react to this magic circle. He quickly leaped, but still caught in the Teleportation Magic Circle and disappeared.
"Are you sure about this?" Tasha looked at Michelle.
"Yes. Kai will shine brighter when he is facing problems. I am sure you know about it as well…" Michelle smiled lightly before looking at Ayaka, Evan, and Sanae with a guilty face. "I'm sorry about this selfishness."
"I believe in him." Ayaka shook her head and replied.
"You guys are hopeless without me. We should create a small anchor point in this place and bring all those injured men to me. That way, we can hold on for a little longer." Evan nodded.
"I have gotten used to this. Still, we shouldn't separate our way with the group just to inform the others. It will be too risky at the moment." Sanae shrugged her shoulder as if she didn't care about this problem.
"As Evan said, we will make a small base in one of the planned locations. After that, Sanae and I will move around while you guys are protecting this base. We will then set up more defense to the surroundings and create a natural Underground Stronghold." Yuki nodded. "We will probably need Alicia for this, but she is in the Support Group… Well, four commanders should be enough to create one even if it will be sloppy."
They nodded solemnly while clenching their hands. Yuki shouted, "Let's go!"
The group began to move again.
On the other hand,
Kai fell to the layer of snow because of the sudden change of scenery. Before he could slam his hand, his rationality took over his mind as he stood up and leaped toward the base. There was no point lamenting about their action, he could only deal with it in his way.
It took him a minute to travel a hundred meters. Tasha had teleported him slightly toward the base, but she couldn't pinpoint their location, so he didn't need too much time to reach the base.
Kai paid no heed of other soldiers and headed toward the headquarters.
"Emergency!"
"We need to mobilize every single soldier right now!" Kai shouted.
"What happened?" The sudden shout startled everyone in the room as they narrowed their eyes.
Maybe the snow had cooled his head down, so he managed to explain in a quick and simple way. "We have been attacked by all magical beasts inside the nest. There are six thousand attacking the Support Army in the Northern Area and will definitely go to the Middle Region. At the same time, there are seventeen thousand coming from the other three directions while we still need to handle the five thousand in the Middle Area. I need the authority to mobilize the reserve army."
"Granted!" Ria Ross answered instead of Nathan. "We have eight hundred people in the reserve army after replacing the dead soldiers. I, Nathan, Sherwing can move immediately to lead the army. The original commander can have some soldiers to protect this base."
Nathan glanced at Ria Ross for a second before nodding his head, giving him the confirmation as the highest command. He turned to Via and ordered. "Code Red."
Via stunned for a second before leaving the tent as quickly as possible. Code red was the signal when the mission was in the emergency and on the verge of failure.
There was no need to ask anything about his explanation. It was easy to see that they were trying to kill the Support army first before encircling the Vanguard and Attacker armies.If they couldn't break through this problem, their loss would be nothing but assured. Only one person would know how to break this process, and they were staring at that person.
"Kai. You have the highest command now. You can order everyone, including me." Nathan said with a serious face. "Now, what is your order?"
"I—"