"Sahagins...! The Sahagins are landing!!"
"Sahagins? Why? Why are they here...?"
The members of Blue Ever, who had been rampaging only moments before, were so stunned by the sudden appearance of the Sahagins that they forgot their violence and stood frozen.
As Marcos and Elena felt the oppressive atmosphere and tightened their guard, one man broke into a run, heading toward the Sahagins with a wide smile on his face.
"Ohh...! You’ve come for us, haven’t you, Sahagins?!"
"You fool! What are you doing?!"
Marcos’s warning barked out at the man who was approaching the Sahagins—notoriously dangerous monsters—without the slightest hint of defense or caution.
However, the man paid no heed to his voice. He took step after step toward the Sahagins, muttering words that could only be described as a delusion.
"You’ve come to help us, right? We’ve been protecting you all this time. You must have understood our intent through our actions!"
"Stop...! Get away from them right now!!"
"What are you saying?! These Sahagins aren't like those domesticated monsters you people keep! They recognized the justice in our cause and came to lend a hand! This is the fruit of Blue Ever’s labors! We were right after all—eh?"
The man shouted that the Sahagins were their allies... that their commitment to protecting the creatures had finally reached them.
He was intoxicated by his own sense of self-righteousness as he yelled at Elena. But then, his body swayed, and a bewildered sound escaped his lips.
"Eh? Huh? W-Why...?"
"Gyo, Gugyo...!"
The man reached around to rub his back where a heavy impact had struck. When he pulled his hand away, it was stained with thick, dark blood. He turned his head toward the Sahagin behind him.
He gasped, seeing the blood dripping steadily from the monster’s claws. In the next instant, before he could even voice his realization that he had been attacked, the other Sahagins swarmed him.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
A scream... a cry so raw it could only be described as a death rattle echoed through the air.
Until that voice was completely drowned out by the low growls of the ferocious Sahagins, no one in the clearing could move so much as a muscle.
Eventually, the Sahagins finished with the man and turned their blood-smeared faces toward the others, their eyes fixed on them like hunters eyeing new prey. The spell of paralysis finally broke, and Marcos shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Run...! Everyone, run!!"
"U-Uwaaah! Uwaaaaaah!?"
"How could this happen?! We’ve been protecting you all this time!!"
With that shout as a signal, the terror of the Sahagins who had just brutally slaughtered their comrade exploded. The Blue Ever radicals scattered in every direction, screaming in panic.
They wailed about how they were the ones who had protected the Sahagins from extermination by the people of Wind Island, crying out against the perceived betrayal. But their outrage was born of a fundamental misunderstanding.
Sahagins were incapable of such emotions as gratitude.
These were creatures that would kill members of their own kind without hesitation. There was no world in which they would feel camaraderie with humans; at best, they viewed them as nothing more than tasty bait.
Having lost a territorial struggle elsewhere and being driven by starvation, they had smelled the blood and the smoke of the fires.
Unable to endure their hunger, they had sensed the massive presence of food on the island and landed, drooling in anticipation.
Then, a defenseless human had walked right up to them, so they ripped his back open. It was as simple as that.
That was the nature of the Sahagin. They were ferocious, dangerous monsters that brought nothing but harm to humanity—precisely why the people of Wind Island had never ceased their efforts to cull them.
The members of Blue Ever were only now understanding this simple truth.
But it was already far too late.
"Leader! We’ve lost contact with the separate unit! They’re likely being swarmed by Sahagins!!"
"S-Sahagins are pouring out of the sea! Where did this many even come from!?"
"They’re gathering... They caught the scent of blood and conflict. The Sahagins who lost their territories elsewhere are converging here!"
Just as Horon shouted, the Sahagins that had survived extermination until now were swarming Shandia in search of a meal.
They hadn't just landed in this sector; they were beginning to rampage across the entire island. As the reports of silence from their comrades came in, the Blue Ever members and their leader turned pale. Marcos turned to Elena and shouted.
"Elena! Take the people and the monsters and evacuate to the settlement!! I’ll hold off the Sahagins!"
"No! That's reckless, Marcos! You can't face that many alone...!"
"This is my mission as one who aspires to be a Magic Knight! Once the evacuation is secure, I’ll follow immediately! Now go! Get moving!!"
"But, but...! Ah!?"
Marcos’s voice rang out as he stood his ground, preparing to fight the encroaching monsters to buy time for the civilians.
Elena tried to protest that she couldn’t leave him behind in such a desperate situation, but Torin—having just cut down several of the rioters—forcibly grabbed her hand to drag her away.
"Elena, it’s too dangerous here!! Come with me! I’ll keep you safe!!"
"Let go! I can’t leave Marcos and everyone else and run away alone!!"
"Eh?! No, let’s just go! I’m telling you, it’s a death trap!!"
Torin, who had been trying to force a "heroic escape" scenario for the two of them, was visibly confused by her fierce resistance.
As the scene descended into a mess of those fighting, those fleeing, and those lost in confusion, the Blue Ever radicals also scrambled to deal with the crisis.
"W-We need to retreat for now! Get off the island! To the boats! Everyone to the boats!!"
Judging that they would be wiped out if they stayed, the unit leader barked orders to his subordinates.
He then turned to his aide, Geras, who was standing nearby, and spoke with frantic urgency.
"Geras-kun! You know where the boats are docked, right?! Lead the way for the escape—"
"Ah, no... that’s not going to work. Mostly because I already smashed every single boat."
"Heh...? W-What... Guegh!?"
The leader’s eyes widened at the young man’s nonchalant response in the middle of a massacre.
Geras slammed his fist into the leader’s stomach. Shedding his disguise as a polite, loyal subordinate, he looked down at the man and spoke.
"I’m not letting anyone escape. You, the people on this island... I’m gonna kill every last one of you so you can all become my Experience Points!"