The Magician of Sound

Boom!

The huge explosion blasted five Bison into ashes and separated a third of its herd with a wall of fire.

"We've killed eight Bison and separated twelve of them with the wall of fire, which means thirty of them are charging at us," Kai reported according to his ears.

"All right. Should we control the Bison here while killing as many as we can?" Ayaka asked while pointing her spear at the Bison.

Kai smiled as he took out his swords. As if they had the same instinct, both of them jumped forth at the same time.

There were three Bison in the first row. Kai struck the horn of the Bison on the left to stop his momentum before using it as a pivot point to spin his body in the air.

On the other hand, the Bison couldn't stop its momentum, passing Kai a little bit and giving him a precious chance to strike.

Kai obviously wouldn't let this chance go. With the spinning force from earlier, Kai swung both of his swords to their neck. Due to him spinning clockwise, he struck the Bison on the right from above while another one from below. Nonetheless, their necks didn't have the same hardness as their horns, and Kai's strength was enough to slice their necks.

At the same time, Ayaka didn't need to use such tricks like Kai did. The spear that contained more than half a ton unleashed its true might. She raised the spear high before swinging it down.

Of course, the Bison didn't intend to let her. It tilted his head a bit to block Ayaka's spear. Unfortunately, the confidence in their hard horns became the very weapon that killed them.

There was a difference in concept between Kai striking with his full power with a light sword and Ayaka using her spear's momentum and weight. In terms of the destructive power alone, Ayaka had already surpassed him.

"Ha!"

She built all the momentum she could for this. The horn that tried to block the spear was quickly shattered along with the Bison's head. But it didn't stop there. Instead, it continued and struck the ground, creating a small crater on the ground as if she pounced to the ground with a huge hammer.

The spear stuck on the ground, but this was Ayaka's target all along. Without a single wasteful movement, Ayaka pushed the spear's handle to the ground yet again even though it was already stuck. This acrobatic motion allowed Ayaka to shoot herself to the sky while pulling the spear out of the ground using the momentum.

At the same time, a pair of wings made of fire appeared on her back, allowing her to land perfectly on the ground before running toward the Bison at high speed to create another momentum. This was Ayaka's current fighting style after training with Ria Ross, reflecting her new body's capabilities.

Without taking a single breath, Ayaka slammed her spear to the next Bison. A magic circle appeared on her hand after killing two more Bison as she retreated a few steps.

"Scarlet Explosion."

Boom!

In the midst of the Bison rank, a flash of red light appeared, immediately followed by an explosion. It killed another five Bison in the process and blasted a few of them toward Ayaka.

Looking at the flying Bison, Ayaka made another magic circle before a net of fire appeared a bit farther from her. The Bison that were charging at her quickly changed their direction and went around the net, but the ones that were flying had no chance of doing the same.

The net caught five flying Bison. As expected, the weight of the Bison pushed and stretched the net toward Ayaka. Luckily, she had predicted this would happen and created the net a bit farther from her.

She looked at the fire net that started cooking the bison.

Roar!

At this moment, a Bison arrived at her right after avoiding the net. However, there was no trace of surprise on her face. In fact, there was no sign of her flinching even when this Bison was right in front of her. Because she knew…

Bam!

A loud sound produced by a kick right on the Bison's body was heard. Although Ayaka couldn't see it because of the Bison, her instinct could sense that there was another presence behind the Bison. And that presence was none other than Kai.

Kai kicked the Bison toward the fire net, hoping for it to roast another one. He glanced at Ayaka before another Bison was caught in his scope of vision. But unlike usual, Kai didn't shout at her to inform her about the Bison. Instead, he trusted her and turned around as he struck another incoming Bison from his direction.

Ayaka had no time to thank him as she noticed the presence from her left. She spun around while swinging her spear again toward the Bison, killing the Bison in one single blow.

It would seem that her power is slowly becoming frightening, Kai thought. Even with his strength, he wouldn't be able to shatter the horn like she did unless he used the heavy two-handed sword that he used in Cuba's battle. He could only aim at their weak points if he wanted to kill them in a single blow using his speed and strength.

Happy with her improvement, Kai nodded and looked for another opponent.

Meanwhile, Ayaka took note of the state of this battle. She had killed seventeen Bison since the beginning while Kai had killed eight. It would seem that Kai was still superior in terms of close combat since she used her fire magic to kill thirteen out of those seventeen Bison while Kai killed those eight with only his strength.

Even so, Ayaka shook that thought off in an instant. Michelle and Tasha should have finished killing the Bison on their side. Meanwhile, there were still thirteen Bison on their side. She wanted to see how many more Bison she and Kai could kill without their help.

Unfortunately, when another two Bison charged at her, she realized that her spear didn't have enough length to reach both Bison in a single swing. Her quick thinking made her create a magic circle on her hand to shoot a few Firebirds while she killed the other one with her spear. Unexpectedly, a female voice resounded in her ears.

"Lightning Piercer."

An arrow pierced the wall of fire she made earlier and pierced the Bison's head. This was Tasha's cover fire to let her focus on the Bison in front of her. This didn't make her sad. Instead, she smiled and clenched her spear tightly before killing another Bison with her spear's weight.

The magic circle that was supposed to lose its purpose still shot out ten Firebirds. However, their aim wasn't the dying Bison. Instead, the Firebirds flew past the Bison and hit the two Bison behind it.

Boom! Boom!

The fate of these two Bison was the same as those who were hit by the Firebirds early on. Ayaka paid no heed to them and killed the rest of the Bison with Tasha's assistance. It only took them a minute to kill another four Bison. When they saw Kai and Michelle, they had already finished their task and were waiting for them.

Kai smiled at Ayaka while Michelle looked at her mysteriously.

Ayaka looked at her hands instead of them. She thought, 'This is my current power. Finally… finally… I can see his back."

She closed her eyes, imagining the scene that she saw previously. It was like a dark world where she constantly chased after Kai. Sadly, Kai left her in the dust no matter how hard she trained. Only after receiving this power could she finally see his back. She hoped to grab his back when she succeeded in mastering this new power.

"Oi, what are you doing?" Kai's voice echoed in her ears as she abruptly opened her eyes.

"Ah yes," Ayaka replied and began walking toward him and the others.

"How is your condition? I felt a great leap on your power and fighting style." Kai asked with a smile.

"Yes. I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with my body or instinct when I killed them or used my power. As for my fighting style, I should thank Professor Ria for this… probably." Ayaka was grateful to Ria Ross, but deep inside, she doubted whether she was really thankful after that training.

Kai only smiled as he knew how she felt. He decided to change the topic, "All right, we should clear this up and go home."

"Yes." All of them agreed in unison.

This scene astonished Rick, who had been watching from the helicopter. He could clearly see from the sky how fifty C-rank Bison died in their hands within a few minutes. In fact, it barely took them fifteen minutes to clear them up.

"Amazing," Rick exclaimed. "This is my first time seeing a group like this. They only have four people, but their firepower might already be greater than all the other groups I had served before."

"Yeah. They are really different from the norm," Evan commented with a smile. He thought that with the addition of the new Ayaka, their group was really full of freaks. Two S-rank magicians and three Zodiacs. This alone would shift the balance of power among the top 100 groups.

He leaned back on his seat while muttering, "I hope there's no group that'll challenge us in a group battle. You can hear me, right?"

Of course, the 'you' on his mouth was none other than Kai. In response to this, Kai only smiled. He never planned on accepting any group battle challenges as long as they didn't push their limit.

"Old man Rick, why don't you land around their area? We should be able to go home after this," Evan said nonchalantly.

"Haha… Sure, sure. It seems that I'll have a good story to tell my daughter." Rick laughed before landing the helicopter.