Chapter 66: Beyond the Steel Body (01)

Chapter 66: Beyond the Steel Body (01)

"I will lead!"

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

Centaurs originating from the bandit group took the lead, guiding the way, followed by centaurs from various villages who began to run after them.

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

Not all could join the march; a centaur thief who had become disabled from a leg cut off to free him from the spike, an elderly village chief who could barely move, and a few who needed to stay to protect the young centaurs.

Unexpectedly, Angelica held a short bow and stood among the village's centaur 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 given she's the shortest.'

Before joining the departing centaurs, I took Eileen's reins and turned to Dane.

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

There were still a few centaurs in the village.

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

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

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

"There's a way."

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

Like dogsledding in cold regions, here Dane was sledding on horseback.

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

"Then let's get going!"

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

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

According to the testimony of the centaur bandit group, the chief had killed all the stolen horses.

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

'Well then...'

Dane, enjoying the sled ride, soon started to regret it.

"Phew! Cough cough!"

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

Watching 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 centaur 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 nice to ride and fight with Eileen if I could take a centaur 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 can't bring a centaur to the knights'

Last time we enrolled canine troops, complaints came from nearby residences to 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 plains centaur run around in a cramped training ground.

'So how do I get my own horse?'

I was thinking of asking Countess Melson, but after the rude accident with Dane, there 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 village, so naturally, if we ran with all our might as cavalry, it wouldn't take long to reach the vicinity of the ranch.

Besides, the plains here allow you to see far into the distance, so although it looks like there are over a hundred spike-controlled centaurs, 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 centaurs 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 can'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?"

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

"Alright... got it."

Click.

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

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

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

"Eileen, let the other centaurs 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 outpacing the other centaurs to run at the forefront alone.

'Eileen is definitely fast'

As she had confidently shown when we first met, her speed was incredibly fast compared to other centaurs.

Even fully armored, I'm riding her and she isn't caught by other centaurs; 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 catching up with the formation of the centaur bandit group...

Swoosh!

Centaurs running with spikes embedded in their heads suddenly spread out their formation, and something black surged from the center.

"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 touching the right thigh of my armor with my right hand, the mana saber stored there sprang into my hand.

The knight in black 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-infested centaurs were left to the centaur 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, transforming his bipedal stance into a quadrupedal one in an instant.

"...!!"

Sometimes he's a human, sometimes a centaur.

The bandits' testimony fit perfectly.

"He wasn't a knight after all."

Watching his disassembling parts and legs, I could understand his true nature.

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

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

The Sytorax Republic.

A small country 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, converted most of its people into golems soon after birth to suit their purposes.

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

Though their population was barely 10,000, their highly developed artificial intelligence technology enabled them to possess military power and formidable forces with golems far beyond their population numbers. If the kingdom's artificial intelligence was nothing in comparison, using magic to create intelligence similar to humans...

They forcibly encapsulated their citizens' consciousness into golems.

Embedding humans entirely into golems, there was no chance of failure typical of artificial intelligence, and if they went mad, they were simply used as combat weapons—a disgustingly efficient use of people.

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

These people often invaded the kingdom because they believed flesh was primitive and polluted the world, insisting it must be replaced with clean steel.

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

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

Tatatatatata-!

Fortunately, the combat golem was following us, Eileen and me, according to plan, while the other centaurs started pulling out their prepared weapons to overpower the band of about a hundred bandits by numbers.

"Watch your head!!"

Boom! Crunch!!

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 centaur group without any evasive maneuvers.

With all the biocorrosive spikes exhausted, if the spikes erupting from the infected centaurs' heads were blocked with shields wrapped in leather, they could be defeated without significant damage.

'Except for this combat 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 next sound was the air being split by the projectile, and I quickly turned Eileen's reins to change direction urgently.

If we stayed put, we'd be hit.

Even if I survived, Eileen was relatively 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 intentionally fallen off, not by accident, I didn't take her hand.

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