Chapter 66: Beyond the Steel Body (01)

  "I will lead!"

  "The chief bastard killed our vice-chief! We must avenge him!"

  taurs inating from the bandit group took the lead, guiding the way, followed by taurs from various vilges who began to run after them.

  "We should go too before it's too te."

  Not all could join the march; a taur thief who had bee disabled from a leg cut off to free him from the spike, an elderly vilge chief who could barely move, and a few who o stay to protect the youaurs.

  Uedly, Angelica held a short bow and stood among the vilge's taur maidens; it seemed she was judged just grown enough not to be treated like a child.

  'It seems Angelica barely makes it to be treated as an adult givehe shortest.'

  Before joining the departiaurs, I took Eileen's reins and turo Dane.

  "Dane. What about you? Will you just stay in the vilge?"

  There were still a few taurs in the vilge.

  inally, Dane had envied me riding Eileen and tried to mount another taur maiden, but his armor was twice as heavy as mine and he was heavier, so the taur maidens couldn't bear his weight.

  Of course, he seemed to enjoy riding in a different sense, but bat mobility was out of the question.

  A giant warhorse might carry him, but taurs have a lower load-bearing capacity pared to horses.

  "There's a way."

  He haphazardly nailed some broken wooden shields together to make a sled, which he then distributed to the vilge's taur maidens.

  Like dogsledding in cions, here Dane was sledding on horseback.

  'Dane is clever for his kind, isn't he?'

  "The's get going!"

  Eileen started running at the forefront, and the taur maidens pulling Dane followed in the rear formation.

  'It seems that after resolving this spike crisis, we'll have to part ways immediately.'

  Acc to the testimony of the taur bandit group, the chief had killed all the stolen horses.

  I don't know why he would waste such valuable assets... The pn of us looting the bandit group after they had stolen the horses – getting horses for free – was pletely ruined.

  'Well then...'

  Dane, enjoying the sled ride, soon started tret it.

  "Phew! Cough cough!"

  Dane, riding low on the sled, was in a position where he had to ihe dust kicked up by the runniaurs.

  Watg Dane coughing uproariously, I took a moment to silently mourn for him, thinking about him being dragged again by the Duchess... that grandmother, after we return to get a horse.

  At least he enjoyed his time with the taur maidens pulling the sled, so one sacrifice might be okay.

  'But not the Duchess, no way'

  Riding Eileen and enjoying it, I thought it would be o ride and fight with Eileen if I could take a taur instead of a horse.

  Besides, being in perfect harmony with each other, mixing body and mind, and running together like this, I've grown attached to her, though it hasn't been many days.

  'Well... I 't bring a taur to the knights'

  Last time we enrolled e troops, pints came from nearby resideo keep the dog barking down.

  Plus, Eileen couldn't be mixed with the horses brought by other cadets, and it wouldn't be right to make a free-roaming piaur run around in a cramped training ground.

  'So how do I get my own horse?'

  I was thinking of asking tess Melson, but after the rude act with Dahere was no guarantee she would receive me kindly.

  "Bandits spotted ahead!"

  'Already?!'

  It makes sense; we didn't even spend a day following Angelica before arriving at the vilge, so naturally, if we ran with all ht as cavalry, it wouldn't take long to reach the viity of the ranch.

  Besides, the pins here allow you to see far into the distance, so although it looks like there are over a hundred spike-trolled taurs, it would take some time before we actually reached them and engaged in battle.

  I pulled Eileen forward to check the distance, and I could see a group of taurs clustered in the distance.

  "They're moving... and haven't attacked the ranch yet."

  But the problem was that they were running with all their might, regardless of broken legs or fatigue, while we were alive and had to manage our stamina while pursuing them.

  'Regrettable, but we 't attack just yet'

  "What's the matter? What's happening?"

  I answered Dane briefly, who couldn't see ahead due to the dust.

  "Dane."

  "Huh?"

  "Whetle starts ter, you block the front. If the spike flies towards us, spread out the mana shield to cover the formation."

  "Alright... got it."

  Click.

  Da on his helmet, and no longer did I hear him coughing through the dust.

  The armor of the Order of Magical Knights ily tains purification devices that protect against toxic atmospheres and hostile enviros, filtering the dust through the respirator and providing fresh air.

  Of course, from the moment it's worn, it starts to drain mana.

  "Eileehe other taurs run slowly, and we'll make a detour to the front. We'll take down the chief ourselves."

  Eileen nodded without answering, increasing her speed and soon outpag the other taurs to run at the forefront alone.

  'Eileen is definitely fast'

  As she had fidently shown when we first met, her speed was incredibly fast pared to other taurs.

  Even fully armored, I'm riding her and she isn't caught by other taurs; wouldn't she be even faster without me?

  'Was it said that this chief has a metallic body? Then... is he a knight in armor? Or something else...'

  As we were catg up with the formation of the taur bandit group...

  Swoosh!

  taurs running with spikes embedded in their heads suddenly spread out their formation, and something bck surged from the ter.

  "Armor... A knight?"

  "It's the chief!"

  It appears that person is the chief, and as I suspected, he was a knight.

  With a stature rivaling Dane's in size, he was chasing us at a speed that belied his massive form.

  Holding Eileen's reins in my left hand and toug the right thigh of my armor with my right hand, the mana saber stored there sprang into my hand.

  The knight in bck armor, the chief, was indeed fast, but he could not catch up to Eileen's speed. I was about to draw him in alone by teasing and dodging him while Dane defended against the spikes and the spike-ied taurs were left to the taur coalition.

  Thunk-Click!

  The chief's legs began to split apart.

  The armor around his waist disassembled, parts springing out and elongating, and suddenly the greaves shifted backward, transf his bipedal stao a quadrupedal one in an instant.

  "......!!"

  Sometimes he's a human, sometimes a taur.

  The bandits' testimony fit perfectly.

  "He wasn't a knight after all."

  Watg his disassembling parts and legs, I could uand his true nature.

  As a knight, it was essential tnize all equipment from enemy nations.

  "Damn it! Was he a bat golem from the Sytorax Republic?"

  The Sytorax Republic.

  A small try located southwest of the kingdom, it was only a quarter the size of the kingdom but was one of the most dangerous enemies.

  This republic despised living flesh and, except for a few nobles with chosen bodies, verted most of its people into golems soon after birth to suit their purposes.

  Ordinary tasks were performed by the general popuce, who were verted into golems, and farmers, half-transformed into golems, worked the fields 24 hours a day using their golem bodies.

  Though their popution was barely 10,000, their highly developed artificial intelligeeology ehem to possess military power and formidable forces with golems far beyond their popution numbers. If the kingdom's artificial intelligence was nothing in parison, using magic to create intelligence simir to humans...

  They forcibly encapsuted their citizens' sciousness into golems.

  Embedding humairely into golems, there was no ce of failure typical of artificial intelligence, and if they went mad, they were simply used as bat ons—a disgustingly effit use of people.

  'Just when things seemed quiet, are they causing trouble again?'

  These people often ihe kingdom because they believed flesh rimitive and polluted the world, insisting it must be repced with steel.

  The one called the chief had no living flesh inside his armor; it was entirely repced with maery, not a suit operated by a person.

  Even if it could aodate a person, these steel-encased beings would avoid it as much as possible.

  Tatatatatata-!

  Fortunately, the bat golem was following us, Eileen and me, acc to pn, while the other taurs started pulling out their prepared ons to overpower the band of about a hundred bandits by numbers.

  "Watch your head!!"

  Boom! ch!!

  Cavalry against cavalry in a head-on collision.

  The bandits, who spared no expense in preserving their bodies, did not dodge or block attacks aimed at their legs and were swallowed up by the taur group without any evasive maneuvers.

  With all the biocorrosive spikes exhausted, if the spikes erupting from the ied taurs' heads were blocked with shields ed iher, they could be defeated without signifit damage.

  'Except for this bat golem!'

  Creeeak...!

  The forearm mutated, and a long rod sprang from within, which Eileen mistook for a mere staff, but I realized it was a barrel.

  Whoosh!

  The moment I covered Eileen's head with a wooden shield, a heavy impact traveled up my arm.

  Whizzing-!

  The sound was the air being split by the projectile, and I quickly turned Eileen's reins to ge dire urgently.

  If we stayed put, we'd be hit.

  Even if I survived, Eileen was retively vulnerable, so I removed my feet from the stirrups while turning the reins.

  "......!!"

  As the weight on her back disappeared, Eileen was startled and tried to grab me, but since I had iionally fallen off, not by act, I didn't take her hand.

  Instead, I was already ung my body towards the golem by kig off from her back.

  Ultimate-Harem-fan