Flandre Scarlet thought Scout's reasoning made complete sense.
If someone does something wrong, they ought to be prepared to bear the consequences.
Just like her—if she dared to sneakily gobble down her sister's cake, she had to accept that once caught, her bottom would be smacked painfully in punishment. Even children had to pay the price for their misdeeds, let alone adults.
While the two were chatting on the lookout tower, the transport convoy stopped moving in the distance.
"Report: the incoming convoy has transmitted an urgent request for assistance," an Operator at a nearby monitoring station called out. "Their path is currently blocked by several Rift Beasts."
"Huh? Aren't those just wild animals?" Flandre hovered near the railing, peering off into the distance. "Why would they be afraid while driving inside armored trucks?"
At this range, an ordinary person would require high-powered military binoculars to make out the scene, but Flandre's vision easily picked out five massive Rift Beasts standing square in the middle of the dirt highway, roughly fifty meters ahead of the lead transport.
Technically, the physical gaps between the creatures were wide enough for a vehicle to squeeze through. However, for massive apex predators measuring five to six meters in length and weighing several tons, a single swipe of a heavy claw could easily halt a transport truck and flip it onto its side. Crucially, the terrain forced the convoy to stick to this specific road segment; there wasn't even a viable detour to bypass them.
Naturally, the drivers in the convoy refused to take such a reckless gamble and had brought their vehicles to a dead stop.
"Wild beasts have their own strict territorial hierarchies," Scout explained, picking up his tactical radio. "A pack of Rift Beasts like that represents the most dangerous threat you can encounter in the wilderness under normal circumstances. Of course... that doesn't apply to us."
He clicked the radio transmitter. "Who's on gate duty today?"
"It's me," came a man's voice over the speaker—slightly lazy in tone, yet carrying an undeniable air of calm, veteran reliability.
"Sharp?" Scout asked.
"The one and only," the voice replied.
Scout concisely briefed him on the convoy's situation. "Those five Rift Beasts weigh several tons each. If your team tags them, the central galley won't have to worry about fresh meat supplies for at least a week."
"Understood. Rolling out now."
Sharp, who had sounded somewhat sluggish just moments before, answered instantly.
Less than a minute later, Flandre watched an off-road tactical vehicle burst out from Rhodes Island's lower bay, speeding straight across the open plain toward the stationary convoy.
Meanwhile, the convoy remained completely still, cautiously monitoring the movements of the nearby beast pack.
Back on the landship deck, seeing the tactical vehicle depart, Flandre turned to Scout with glowing eyes, excitedly declaring that she wanted to go along. Before Scout could even formulate a refusal, she shot off into the sky with a sharp whoosh!
Left with no choice, Scout clicked his radio to alert Sharp, letting him know that Flandre was flying out from above to join his intercept team.
Sharp leaned his head slightly out of the driver's side window. Looking up toward the sky, he caught sight of a golden-haired girl bearing a delightful, radiant smile. Her arms and legs were spread wide in a star shape like a flying kite as she traced a graceful, descending arc toward the roof of his vehicle.
She didn't actually land on the metal roof. Instead, she hovered smoothly parallel to it, maintaining a steady half-meter clearance right beside the moving car.
Noticing Sharp looking up at her, the young girl cheerfully reached out and waved. It was blatantly obvious she didn't need to spread her limbs to maintain flight; she only did so because it was probably a fun, comfortable way to glide through the air.
"Hello! My name is Flandre Scarlet, but you can just call me Flandre!" she called out loudly over the rushing wind, waving enthusiastically as Sharp leaned out his window.
"Sharp." True to his name, the man spoke with crisp, minimal brevity.
After introducing himself, Sharp looked at Flandre and asked, "Are you interested in these Rift Beasts?"
Flandre shook her head, then promptly nodded. "Not really! Mr. Scout mentioned you were going hunting. Flandre got curious and thought it looked like fun, so I came over to watch!"
Hearing her answer and looking at that pure, brilliant smile capable of melting a harsh winter into spring, Sharp couldn't help but let a warm, paternal smile slip onto his stern face.
"Wilderness hunting isn't exactly a fun game, little lady."
"Hmm?" Flandre tilted her head, fluttering her wings.
"Just stay close to the vehicle and keep yourself safe."
By now, the tactical off-road car was rapidly approaching the target zone. Sharp squinted his eyes at the massive Rift Beasts resting up ahead, delivering his final instruction to Flandre before pulling the handbrake.
"Okay!" Flandre didn't insist on joining the fight. Instead, she obediently hovered near the roof of the parked car, watching Sharp lead a four-man squad as they carefully crept toward the beasts' position.
Sharp was clearly a veteran of wilderness skirmishes.
He didn't attempt to encircle the pack; instead, he led his Operators around to the downwind side. Rift Beasts possessed extraordinarily sharp senses of smell and hearing; attempting a surround maneuver would inevitably trigger an early alarm.
One had to keep in mind that there were five massive Rift Beasts, while Sharp's intercept team numbered only five Operators in total. Most individual Operators were physically incapable of going one-on-one against a full-grown Rift Beast in close quarters. Therefore, a structured, tactical methodology was mandatory.
The doctrine Sharp adopted was focused force concentration: isolating and eliminating the beasts one by one.
He led his squad to approach the outermost beast from its blind spot. The moment they drew close enough, all five Operators struck simultaneously!
Although the Rift Beast sensed the threat at the very last second, it was already far too late. In a fraction of a breath, its eyes and nostrils were struck almost simultaneously, the blinding pain forcing the creature to throw its heavy head backward in agony.
In that brief, fatal opening, the heavy longsword in Sharp's grip thrust clean through the beast's neck, severing its windpipe before driving deep into the chest cavity to crush its heart.
The execution was brutal, swift, and remarkably elegant.
The moment the killing blow landed, Sharp disengaged without a single moment of hesitation. The massive beast staggered forward a few clumsy steps before crashing heavily to the dirt with a faint, gurgling wail.
Only then did the remaining four Rift Beasts react to the threat.
With deafening roars, the pack surged toward the squad in a furious counter-charge.
Facing the incoming rush, Sharp's squad executed a well-drilled division of labor. One Operator, wielding a heavy longbow, drew and loosed three arrows in rapid succession, striking three separate beasts.
Instantly enraged by the sting, the three targeted Rift Beasts redirected their fury, lunging wildly toward the archer. Seeing the beasts commit to the chase, the archer immediately turned on his heel and sprinted in a wide loop across the plain, leading them away.
Meanwhile, the remaining four Operators pounced as one upon the single beast that hadn't been lured away by the archer.
It had to be admitted that Rift Beasts truly earned their reputation as apex overlords of the wilderness. Even with Sharp and three experienced, heavily equipped Elite Operators working in perfect sync, taking down a fully alerted, thrashing beast required nearly four to five minutes of intense combat. One Operator even sustained a light injury during the chaotic struggle.
Seeing the second beast finally drop, the archer who had been kiting the other three cycled back toward the main team.
Among the four line combatants, the injured Operator stepped back from the engagement, unwrapping medical gauze to dress his wound on the spot. Sharp led the remaining three to intercept another beast pulled from the archer's kite loop, initiating their third ambush.
This time, with fewer active swords on the line, the team fought with even greater caution and measured pacing. The third beast took a full ten minutes of methodical skirmishing to finally bring down.
At this point, Flandre noticed that the archer kiting the final two Rift Beasts was rapidly reaching his physical limit.
After all, he had been sprinting continuously across rough terrain with two massive predators hot on his heels for over fifteen minutes. Crucially, he couldn't simply run in a straight line at top speed; he had to maintain a precise distance—giving the beasts just enough hope of catching him so they wouldn't lose interest, while constantly firing trailing shots to keep their attention locked on him rather than turning back toward the main battle.
Though he appeared to be in the least physical danger from a distance, he was actually carrying the heaviest tactical pressure of the entire squad. The continuous high-speed running, precise distance management, and spatial awareness had left him severely exhausted.