"Kh." The more he tried to comprehend the language or the tone, the more his veins on his head bulged.

"Kai Carter!" General Sanders shook his body, calling back to reality. He could not find the reason why Kai suddenly looked like he was possessed, but it made his heart skip a beat. His father and Nathan Graham had entrusted his safety to him, so him acting like that made him sweat.

"Ah... General, sorry I was too focused." Kai shook his head, regaining his composure.

Seeing how he came back brought him peace of mind.

He went around him, observed him from top to bottom, and asked, "What just happened to you?"

Kai didn't answer straight away. He thought for nearly a minute before saying, "I'll ask you something strange first."

"Sure, ask me," General Sanders said with a serious expression.

"Do we have any people in our north? I mean above the ocean."

"Above the ocean?" He expected some strange questions, but this one truly toppled them. He recalled every mission and transport around this area before shaking his head. "As far as I know, no."

Kai fell into silence once more before saying, "General knows about my hearing, right?"

"Yeah. I have been informed."

"Actually, I have heard two... people (?) or whatever, talking in a strange language. Most importantly, according to my ears, one of them talked in the same frequency as a human voice, but another one talked in a dolphin's frequency, around 30,000 to 40,000 Hz. Unless you have my ears, you won't even understand."

"Wha-" He stared at him with empty eyes for nearly a minute. After coming back to reality, the general didn't say a word. Instead, he nodded as a gesture for Kai to recount his story.

Kai hesitated for a moment, then honestly said, "The dolphin voice felt like a male voice while the other had a female voice. They are located in our north around four-kilometer ahead."

General Sanders crossed his arms, recalled something in his mind and asked him another question. "What is the limit of your hearing? I mean, the frequency?"

"Normal humans can hear 20 to 20,000 Hz, but I can hear 0.5 to 100,000 Hz." Kai fell into silence after answering him. In fact, because of this hearing frequency, he could use the Echo Location magic. He tried to reproduce their tone in human language, hoping Sanders would understand. "They talk like this, 'Lkkndit,' and 'Sclaa kita moar' or something along the line."

He tried his best to reproduce it but fell short.

"This might be bad..." General Sanders scratched his head, thinking about how to deal with this. He looked at Kai, one of the most important lives in this base and grabbed his shoulder.

"Prepare your luggage as you will go home tomorrow."

Kai was stunned by that order, furrowed his eyebrows, and asked to confirm if he heard it right. "I need to go back tomorrow? What do you mean, General Sanders?"

Sanders realized the importance of Kai's hearing ability and thought about how to secure his safety first. He took his communication device out of his pocket and checked the schedule before saying, "You and your team will go back tomorrow as soon as the reinforcements arrive."

Without waiting for Kai to respond, he walked away from him and started typing something.

...

In Graham Family's Manor,

The two old men, who were relaxing by playing chess, got interrupted by the sudden high-pitched sound from their communication device.

"Sorry, it's mine." Nathan grabbed the communication device beside him before another squeaking sound startled him.

"It's mine this time." It was the same old man from yesterday, General Sanders's father, Ethan. He also opened his communication device, halting the game for a moment. "My son is calling me."

"My son too." Nathan was surprised as he exchanged looks with Ethan, feeling something wrong.

"Son, why do you call me?" Both of them picked up the call and asked at the same time.

Like father like son, Sanders and Michael answered at the same time. "Father, we have an emergency!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Calm down and tell me what happens?" They really besties as they answered with the same line.

"That has appeared, and they will attack my (Sanders's) base."

"!!!" Their eyes met and realized how important this information was. According to the way they called him, Sanders would surely know more, so Nathan decided to hang up his call. "Ethan is in front of me, and his son is calling him. I will listen to their conversation rather than having a confusing discussion with you."

Ethan placed his device on the table and activated the speaker so Nathan could hear their conversation. "I am in Old Nathan's house, tell me what you mean by 'that' has appeared!"

"This..." Ethan looked at Nathan and nodded.

Nathan's expression turned dark as he asked, "How are my Kai and the others?"

"They are still in the base. Considering they are coming from the north of our location, I am requesting a reinforcement. I have told Michael to bring more reinforcements as a rescue squad. On the other hand, I hope you can come from South Carolina to our base before noon."

"Good decision. If 'that' really appears, then it's a bad choice to send the kids back right now with their current location. They might even die on the way." Ethan nodded, pinching the bridge between his eyebrows before asking, "Are there any student groups around you? Check it and order them to gather in your base. We can't rescue them in a separate place if they are too far. This battle would surely escalate to something bad."

"Understood. I will immediately check it."

"How long will the magical beasts arrive at your base?"

"Dawn, around 5 AM."

"Sh*t." Nathan gritted his teeth and slammed the table with a furious expression. "If we attack them carelessly, we would be the one who gets destroyed. We can only arrive there right before noon, around 11 AM. I can bring two thousand elites with me, and I will ask the military here to spare some soldiers and transportations."

Sanders exhaled and answered, "I plan to abandon the base if they have killed half of us."

"We can build another base if it's destroyed, but it's hard to train soldiers. I will talk it out with the government after this incident, so you don't need to worry." Ethan assured him.

"Understood."

"I want to ask one thing, is Kai over there? How is his strategic ability?"

Sanders recalled Kai's plan and realized why his father asked that. "He is good. Because of our distance between four armies, I will ask him to take command of HQ using his hearing."

"Good. He can buy time as long as he plays the card right."

"Yes." Sanders nodded before falling into deep thought. "Kai's plan is using all of his teammates, should I recall them and have them wait inside the base?"

"No. It's better if they are somewhere around you since 'That' is like us and hard to predict. Instead, ask Kai to observe their every move, " Ethan answered.

"Alright."

"You just need to hold out for a few hours. Remember, your opponent is as smart as humans and can employ techniques. Because your rank is not high enough, I give you special permission to tell Kai about this, but you need to tell it as vague as possible. After they are rescued, Nathan or I will explain it to him personally."

"Understood. I will fulfill my duty as the general of this place." Sanders nodded.

On the other side,

"You are going?" Nathan asked with a serious expression.

He nodded. "With how you have entrusted your little Michelle and grandson-in-law to my son and me, It's obvious I am also responsible for it. It's been a while since I last fought."

"You are not rusty, right?" Nathan asked him seriously without having a single intention to tease. He wanted to make sure not to bring someone useless in this mission, considering how dangerous it would be later.

"Of course not. Still, it seems we have another opportunity to fight together again."

"Good." Nathan nodded and said to Sanders. "Do your own task well, I will surely bring you reinforcement before noon."

"Thank you, Sir Nathan." He hung up the call.

As soon as the call ended, Nathan shouted, "Bryan, Albert, get your asses right here!"

The shout echoed through the entire manor, startling many people, especially those two, whose names were called. They were relaxing inside the mansion before they immediately opened the window near them and jumped out, running toward Nathan as fast as possible.

"Father!" It only took them a few seconds to appear in front of him.

"You two are going to assemble all our men, leaving a few enough to protect the shore. I will fill you the details later."

"What happens, father? Where are you going?" Bryan asked.

"I am going to our South Carolina Military Base to ask for a few helicopters and others. Anyway, your time limit is dawn." Nathan did not waste another minute and quickly leaped to the outside.

"Understood." Bryan and Albert still answered despite knowing their father would not hear it.

"Do you need my help?" Ethan, who was left behind, asked Bryan and Albert. This South Carolina was not his jurisdiction, so Nathan was more effective in talking with the army. In that case, helping these two men would be better than doing nothing.

"No, no. We are completely fine with the task. Thank you for your concern, Sir Ethan." Bryan politely declined his suggestion and left. "Then, please excuse us."

"Still... Why did they appear at a time like this?" Ethan looked at the sky, pondered for a moment and sighed because he did not know the answer.