Chapter 67: Beyond the Steel Body (02)

  Whoosh!

  I blocked the sed shot with my shield, feeling the heavy impact resohrough my arm, but by then I had almost caught up. Just as I was about to swing my mana saber at the bat golem's legs, it lifted its fs.

  Click!

  It quickly retracted its fs into its body, dodging my strike, but I had anticipated this and used my wooden shield to unch myself into the air.

  g!

  As I curled up with my shield in mid-air, the third volley of gunfire came at me.

  This time, it wasn't the shield that took the hit but the armored shoulder part, and the force was so signifit that I lost ban the air and barely mao nd after a full spin.

  Swoosh!

  I nded on the ground, kig up dust, and crouched down before the bat golem that was staining itself with its own flesh.

  "Damn."

  The wooden shield, already cracked from blog two shots and the impay shield bash on the ground, was now pletely tattered. It was no longer effective as a shield but merely a cumbersome object hanging on my arm, so I twisted my wrist, broke the shield handle, and shook it off my arm.

  - Knight affiliated with the Magi Kingdom... nistered –

  "Of course."

  Being a trainee knight, it was obvious I wouldn't be registered in an enemy nation's database.

  - Upon entering a knight, the directive is... extermination... elimihe knight by any means necessary –

  "Ha, shouldn't it normally flee to preserve itself?"

  - Exterminate, exterminate, exterminate. Flesh is weaker than steel –

  Expeg that I would dodge or deflect cle guh my sword, the golem no lotempted le attacks but began transf its arm into a form resembling a great sword.

  'Even if it's a great sword, it'll still be sliced by the mana saber... It's actually better for me if it es closer.'

  Perhaps thinking it easier tet my legs in its taur form, the golem switched to its human form. Its red eyes cautiously watched me.

  - bat simution against flesh... less than 3% ce of defeat –

  That might be true for an average knight.

  About ten years ago, knights deployed during a border dispute between our kingdom and the Sytorax Republitered simir exge ratios with bat golems.

  If they said the losses were equivalent, sidering the time ied in training knights, it was a devastating loss for the kingdom.

  However, not all in our kingdom are fools. We've developed ter-golem tactid enhahe output of mana sabers to slice through metal bodies in a sirike, so the oute of a battle might be different now.

  'Of course, Sytorax would have made improvements after their senior knights were sughtered back then...!'

  This was now a rematch of the border flict from ten years ago.

  Vroom!

  I ducked the great sword aimed to cleave my head, moving in close and swinging my mana saber at the golem's legs.

  However, it had anticipated this too and easily stepped back, dodging my strike.

  Both of us had expected as much from each other, so the real test of tactics was just beginning.

  While a great sword's reach is advantageous, its weight makes it difficult to switch quickly to defense, but sihe golem's wrists bore no burden, it immediately reversed the bde aiming to strike my back, and I swiftly threw my mana saber, shifting to hand-to-hand bat.

  Boom!

  My gau's metal back collided with the golem's body, sparking on impact.

  Normally, a civilian wielding a hammer against metal would risk their wrist, but a knight could el mana circuits to crush steel, making a direct hit effective.

  Creak!

  Though I swung with all my might, causing a bone in my wrist to break, something ihe golem also shattered.

  bat golems, known for their ability to bewilder oppos with their transf abilities, have less durability than simple solid armor. If struck with suffit force, their transformation funs degrade, leading to errors and drastically reduced bat effectiveness.

  A golem that could intricately ge from human to taur form, from an arm to a gun barrel, then to a great sword, must have plex internal meisms. If I could breach its outer armor, its intricate transformation meism would surely malfun.

  Isn't there a saying in the knight orders?

  The simpler a device, the more reliable it is; the more plex, the higher the alfun.

  'Now, if I ssh through its power source with my mana saber...!'

  Swoosh-

  But as I increased my mana saber's output, the golem staggered and backed off, losing its bance.

  'Huh?'

  Like mags repelling each other, the golem was thrust backward by the fory mana saber swing, struggling tain its bance.

  'Emergency evasion? If it's like this, somehow...'

  I dashed forward, catg up to the golem and swung my mana saber again.

  Ssh!

  'Does it dodge... or is it repelled?'

  Just as I felt, the golem's body twisted forcibly, maintaining a precise distance from the trajectory of my mana saber.

  "What is this...?"

  Once might be ce, but twice is not; it's iable.

  Even as I delivered third and fourth strikes, the golem, uain bance, was not just dodging but seemingly being pushed away from each attack.

  'Has it developed a teique to avoid the mana saber?'

  Like a magtrag or repellial, regardless of its current state or bahe golem was forcibly maintaining a distance from my mana saber.

  'If it keeps running, there's a way!'

  Against an evasive oppo, the tactic is to er them. But in an open field without walls, the only way to restrient is to force them into a spot where they 't retreat.

  Thump!

  I tripped it, preventing further retreat, then ied my mana saber aed the bde.

  Unless it could burrow into the ground, it had no escape, and just when I thought I had it ered...

  Crack!

  Incredibly, the golem transformed its body, opening a gap where my mana saber was aimed, splitting into small metal fragments to avoid the bde.

  "What is this!"

  I couldn't defeat it like this.

  I could cut it faster than the bat golem's artificial intelligence could react with my sword skills, but if the flesh reacts on its own even without the AI's reition, and even dodges by disassembling itself like this, then it was impossible to cut with a sword.

  As I retreated before the bat golem could terattack, all my previous offensives seemed pointless as the golem reformed its parts and regeed its body, drawing its great swain.

  - Probability of defeat... less than 1%... Our teology ot be blocked by such weak flesh. Even a high-temperature cutter that slices through metal is useless if it ake tact –

  "So, you've made it sensitive enough to automatically dodge instead of blog my mana saber?"

  Even if a mana coating could block the mana saber, the heat would remain, so tinuous strikes would eventually melt the armor and disable it, but pletely dodging leaves almost no way to ter.

  "Probability of defeat less than 1%, huh... But from what I've seen, your ces of winning seem even lower than that?"

  - Flesh tires. But steel does not tire. Eventually, steel will prevail –

  "Right... that could happen."

  I turned off my mana saber and moved my hand behind to form a seal.

  "If I were alohat might be true."

  - Flesh like yours ot defeat our steel. Stop wasting effort and die embrag the superior steel. If you're lucky, you might be resurrected by our republic's artificial intelligence... –

  "That would mean I couldn't enjoy pleasures anymore."

  - ging to susignifit flesh is meaningless. Pleasures are pointless; they only create waste. Obsessing over increasing the numbers of flesh only hastens its iable destru –

  "Well, I think it's good to increase in number, quite the opposite of you."

  - Reaffirmed that unication with flesh-bound beings is futile, proceeding with disposal –

  "Like this."

  While I was distrag it, Dane was running towards me from behind.

  Having already dealt with the spike-ied taur bandits, he reized my signal for support.

  - Additional knight-grade hostile life form detected. Recalg odds... Probability of defeat less than 6%... –

  "I told you, the more, the better!"

  Tatatatatata-!

  The sound of galloping hooves thundered as Eileen charged in.

  While the bat golem was fog all its calcutions on Dane and me, Eileen circled behind and charged, turning in front of the golem.

  "Eileen, kick it!"

  Boom!

  Using the force of her artistically twisted equine lower half, Eileen delivered a powerful kick that sent the golem flying towards me.

  - It does not cut –

  "I know."

  I let the bat golem pass over my head without slig it with my mana saber, and it flew directly towards the mana shield Dane had formed.

  Whoosh!

  An invisible force pushed the golem's body to the other side of Dahick mana shield, slowing it down so it wouldn't hit the shield, using the recoil t the golem towards me.

  Now was my ce.

  Swoosh!

  I briefly formed my mana saber and sliced from the golem's head down to its crotch.

  The gash was made more profound by the stronger rebound from Dane's mana shield, and si happened in a fsh, the golem couldn't dodge properly, and I swiped horizontally across it.

  Then I sshed diagonally up and then down again, watg the golem's body twist to avoid my mana saber as I exposed a glowing green core through a gap in the armor.

  - Probability of defeat... 11%... 14%... –

  Ssh!

  I decapitated it in one swift motion, whether it was the mana saber's doing or if it detached its head to dodge, it didn't matter.

  My target was to remove the 'helmet.'

  Thump, thud!

  Stepping over the downed golem's body, I leapt into the air, twisting and allowing gravity to take over as I directed my mana saber downwards.

  - Probability of defeat... 18%... –

  As I increased the output of my mana saber, the golem's body melted away, and within about ten seds, like the spikes dissolved by my mana saber earlier, its metallic body pletely melted away, leaving only its heated core.

  'Could my seniors have fought these monsters without any information on bat golems?'

  Of course, back then, there wasn't the fun to dodge a mana saber, but in exge, our predecessors didn't have high-output mana sabers that could melt steel ptes.

  "Ha... it withstand the mana saber?"

  Thump!

  Just in case it could still move in this state, I kicked the rolling core away from the molteal body.

  Then I stomped on it and rolled it vigorously on the ground to cool it down.

  'The core taining the bat golem's artificial intelligend power... must be valuable?'

  "Okay, we win..."

  As I turo Dane and the taurs to decre our victory, they were looking behind me.

  "What's going... oh...?"

  Nearly ten bat golems, which Dane and Eileen had only just mao defeat with a bined effort, were rushing towards us.

  AnnouA Special Thank You!:

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