Chapter 57: The Upper Body is Human, the Lower Body is Horse (02)

  'Why are there taurs here?!'

  Although the western pins of the kingdom are known to be where taurs appear, they generally lead a nomadic lifestyle and stay far from human cities, making them difficult to find even if one deliberately seeks them out. taurs engage in pastoralism.

  In the past, taurs did raid the kingdom or plunder goods and steal food, but they couldn't stand up to the well-traie knights in direbat due to their barbaric level of military power, so they didn't recklessly target the kingdom.

  heless, living harmoniously within the kingdom was difficult for them siheir lower halves are quadrupedal horses, which made it hard for them to use facilities designed for humans, and their culture was also entirely different, so they couldn't ie into the kingdom... But now's not the time to think about history!

  'The t is 31... no, 32.'

  "Kill them!!"

  'Trying to solve this through dialogue... seems entirely out of the question!'

  Watg them pull the strings of their mounted bows, it was clear they had no iion of letting us live.

  "Dane!"

  Now in our third year, we had been issued basic equipment, so instead of just carrying a shield like before, Dane's exoskeleton activated, enhang his strength and charging the shield with mana.

  Whirring—

  "Get behind me!"

  Stepping behind Da like standing behind a fortress wall. I too pulled out my mana saber and activated my exoskeleton to boost my physical abilities.

  "Here they e!"

  Thudding rapidly!

  The arrows propelled by the cavalry's charge had tremendous kiiergy, enough to pee ordinary shields, but they couldn’t pierce through our mana shields reinforced by the exoskeleton, which stood firm like the walls of a fortress.

  Moreover, even if the mana dispersed momentarily causing the shield to falter, Dane’s body had an additional protective barrier that could shield him from shrapnel or ricocheted arrows, making him virtually invincible to arrows.

  "Ugh!"

  Except for me, of course.

  "Stay close behind me."

  "Lift the shield higher! The arrows are ing over the top, why are you still fag forward!"

  "We o brapact soon... brace!"

  Boom!

  When the arrows failed, the taurs grabbed spears and charged, using their momentum to hurl them. Although a spear as thick as a human forearm could break arms or u a rider even if blocked with a metal shield, at that moment, stakes shot out from the leg part of Dane’s exoskeleton and anchored into the ground, preventing his body from being pushed back.

  Thud! Thump! Thoom!

  Five spears uraight at us were all deflected by Dane’s shield, and the taurs, left with no choice, approached for close bat while wielding their ons.

  Though Dane, busy blog ratacks with his rge shield, might not hahe approag taurs well...

  "No ce!!"

  Crash!

  Dane tered a chargiaur trying a nce charge with a shield bash, knog the taur's body away, and I took the opportunity to fend off other approag taurs with my mana saber.

  'Now it's my turn!'

  Tap, click!

  I jumped off Dane’s back, slig through the ons of taurs targeting Dane’s openings. Their ons, not specially coated with mana, melted upon tact with my mana saber.

  Normally, if Levin were here for rapid maneuvers and Jake for support fire, we wouldn’t just defend but could terattad break their formation. Sadly, as just the two of us, this was our limit.

  Screech!

  I sliced the legs off troag taurs, making them roll on the ground, and tered another taur’s curved bde, slig its torso sideways to separate the horse's lower body from the human upper body, and plunged my mana saber into the face of another, burning its head.

  "Kraah!"

  Seeing their rades swiftly killed, the taurs panicked and spread out as they passed us, but sensing an opportunity, I inflicted more casualties on the taurs esg to the left of where Dane and I stood.

  Whoosh!

  Without mana-coated equipment or a way to ter the mana saber, and their primitive ons failing to even touch me or leave a mark when thrown or fired at Da was nothing short of a uniteral sughter.

  Mana saber and the enhanced armor of the magi-knights.

  A knight equipped with these two was nearly unparalleled in bat strength across the ti, excluding other knights of simir capability. Though only in our third year, Dane and I had devoted our bodies to sshing, blog, and smashing.

  Of course, I'm specifically trained for bat against individuals, makiively weaker against rge monsters uhey exhibit extraordinary maneuvers not typical of humans, but against taurs, who be fought like cavalry, they were an easy match for us.

  "Retreat!"

  As the eighth taur fell dead, its lower body burned by my mana saber, the bearded taur leading them called for a retreat.

  Of course, I wasn’t about to let them go and reached for a le on to nail a dagger into the back of one’s head, but just then, Dane yanked me back by the exoskeleton on my back.

  "What the..."

  Ting, ting, ting!

  As arrows from a distaaur archer made Dane’s shield wobble, the distaween us and the taurs widened, and I relutly sheathed my mana saber.

  "Isn’t it hot?"

  "It only heats up briefly when I'm cutting through something, so usually it doesn't get too hot."

  Previously, when fag s, I had to keep it turned on to burn approag is, but normally, I only power it on briefly to make a cut and then turn it off immediately to serve energy. Plus, if I kept the mana saber on tinuously, it could lead to maion ah.

  "Damn."

  Meanwhile, Dane’s mana shield geor, kept on tinuously, was overheating, steam billowing out. He scooped up sand with his hands and spri over the geor as an emergency measure, as the manual suggested. After all, the sand would just be dispced by the erupting mana shield, so cooling it with sand was fine, wasn't it?

  "Are taurs usually hostile to humans?"

  "Usually."

  From what I knew, although taurs were intelligent, they her allied with the kingdom nor hesitated to raid its vilges whehey had the ce.

  taur enters are often beled as monsters due to their intelligend ability to unicate, but just because they talk doesn't mean they will listen or cooperate. They are fually seen as hostile species.

  "But there hasn’t been any advao this area before?"

  The western pins, where taurs roam, are typically at least a month's walking distance from the entrahis area was too close to humalements.

  sidering the speed at which taurs move, they could raid a human vilge in just a few hiven their dire and speed...

  Kick.

  When I kicked a taur corpse, I saw ropes and tackle that were not meant for warfare but for leading livestock, whily added to the fusion.

  'Were they trying to raid a ranch?'

  Just as there are bandits and thieves among humans, there could be taur brigands. But what would a taur do with stolen horses?

  It's akin to humans taking monkeys; why capture monkeys when you could ensve humans instead?

  'Or maybe sihey are also horses, they could be using the whips to and their soldiers...'

  "Wait. There’s still o."

  I noticed oaur lingering oskirts as I kicked Dane's back, who was busy cooling down his mana shield geor.

  'Is it unarmed? Or is it just not visible because it's carried on the back?'

  If the other taurs were the size of cavalry-mounted knights, the one in sight seemed proportionally smaller...

  'Is it a scout given its smaller size?'

  "Should we retreat?"

  "No, we ’t go batil we find the horses."

  While Dane and I were arguing, the scout that had been hiding beyond the horizon began to run towards us.

  "Hey, lift your shield."

  Signaling Dane as there might be more ing, he reattached his mana shield geor, now covered in sand, and stood at the ready while I analyzed the scout's appearance from behind him.

  'Certainly smaller than the taurs who attacked us earlier. Its height is simir to mine...'

  "Just a moment...! Please don’t leave...!"

  The voice of the taur running from a distance reached us much ter and was distinctly different from the gruff voices of the other taurs—it was a delicate girl's voice, which made Dane and I pause.

  Even though she was small, being a horse from the waist down, she approached us quickly, desperately running as if afraid we would leave. Dane and I looked around cautiously for traps but saw no other taurs.

  "There... humans... you’re knights, aren’t you?"

  The taur girl anting heavily from her run as Dane and I nodded, and she finally sighed in relief.

  "Ah... good... it seems the message got through..."

  "Message?"

  "Yes. I tacted the ranchers a while back to ask for prote from a band of thieves... isn’t that why you’re here?"

  This was o us.

  "Uh...? I thought... the st time our tribe gathered money, we gave it to Bob to hire knights with that money..."

  That didn’t sound right. Knights usually operate on orders from the state or their loyal noble houses, not for direct pay.

  It was more typieraries to work for direct payment.

  "Definitely, Uncle Bob at the ranch..."

  Seeing her nearly in tears as she spoke made the situation clearer to us.

  "A scam."

  "They scammed you."

  If they had requested knight support and it roved, this pce would be sidered an emergency worthy of deploying knight-level forces.

  If so, when we arrived in the area, there would have been soldiers gathered, or the city would have asked us what our business was as soon as we entered.

  "A scam? That ’t be, we gathered all the valuables from our vilge and trusted them to Bob... he definitely said he was going to the capital t baights..."

  '100% a scam?'

  "You’ve been scammed. Who else would scam a taur vilge if not?"

  Daactless remark almost made the taur girl cry, but something she said caught my attention.

  "If we stay like this, the thieves will... They even steal horses from the ranch, they promised to stop them..."

  "Hmm?"

  Her words sparked an idea in me.

  "So these thieves raid the taur vilge and the ranch, stealing horses?"

  "Yes. They’re really vile."

  "That’s just evil!"

  Dane, already moved by the g taur girl, seemed to be signalio agree to help defend her vilge.

  'This guy has read too many knight novels...'

  But for me, it was clear we couldn't simply refuse...

  If we listeo this taur girl's story.

  The taur thieves were criminals.

  And they supposedly had horses.

  'So, it’s legal for us to raid these taur thieves, right?'

  Ultimate-Harem-fan