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

'Why are there centaurs here?!'

Although the western plains of the kingdom are known to be where centaurs 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. Centaurs engage in pastoralism.

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

Nevertheless, living harmoniously within the kingdom was difficult for them since their 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 integrate into the kingdom... But now's not the time to think about history!

'The count is 31... no, 32.'

"Kill them!!"

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

Watching them pull the strings of their mounted bows, it was clear they had no intention 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, enhancing his strength and charging the shield with mana.

Whirring—

"Get behind me!"

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

"Here they come!"

Thudding rapidly!

The arrows propelled by the cavalry's charge had tremendous kinetic energy, enough to penetrate 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 coming over the top, why are you still facing forward!"

"We need to brace for impact soon... brace!"

Boom!

When the arrows failed, the centaurs grabbed spears and charged, using their momentum to hurl them. Although a spear as thick as a human forearm could break arms or unseat 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 launched straight at us were all deflected by Dane’s shield, and the centaurs, left with no choice, approached for close combat while wielding their weapons.

Though Dane, busy blocking ranged attacks with his large shield, might not handle the approaching centaurs well...

"No chance!!"

Crash!

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Dane countered a charging centaur trying a lance charge with a shield bash, knocking the centaur's body away, and I took the opportunity to fend off other approaching centaurs with my mana saber.

'Now it's my turn!'

Tap, click!

I jumped off Dane’s back, slicing through the weapons of centaurs targeting Dane’s openings. Their weapons, not specially coated with mana, melted upon contact with my mana saber.

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

Screech!

I sliced the legs off two approaching centaurs, making them roll on the ground, and countered another centaur’s curved blade, slicing 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 comrades swiftly killed, the centaurs panicked and spread out as they passed us, but sensing an opportunity, I inflicted more casualties on the centaurs escaping to the left of where Dane and I stood.

Whoosh!

Without mana-coated equipment or a way to counter the mana saber, and their primitive weapons failing to even touch me or leave a mark when thrown or fired at Dane, it was nothing short of a unilateral slaughter.

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

A knight equipped with these two was nearly unparalleled in combat strength across the continent, excluding other knights of similar capability. Though only in our third year, Dane and I had devoted our bodies to slashing, blocking, and smashing.

Of course, I'm specifically trained for combat against individuals, making me relatively weaker against large monsters unless they exhibit extraordinary maneuvers not typical of humans, but against centaurs, who can be fought like cavalry, they were an easy match for us.

"Retreat!"

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

Of course, I wasn’t about to let them go and reached for a long-range weapon 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 distant centaur archer made Dane’s shield wobble, the distance between us and the centaurs widened, and I reluctantly 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 facing wasps, I had to keep it turned on to burn approaching insects, but normally, I only power it on briefly to make a cut and then turn it off immediately to conserve energy. Plus, if I kept the mana saber on continuously, it could lead to mana depletion and death.

"Damn."

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

"Are centaurs usually hostile to humans?"

"Usually."

From what I knew, although centaurs were intelligent, they neither allied with the kingdom nor hesitated to raid its villages whenever they had the chance.

Centaur encounters are often labeled as monsters due to their intelligence and ability to communicate, but just because they can talk doesn't mean they will listen or cooperate. They are fundamentally seen as hostile species.

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

The western plains, where centaurs roam, are typically at least a month's walking distance from the entrance. This area was too close to human settlements.

Considering the speed at which centaurs can move, they could raid a human village in just a few hours. Given their direction and speed...

Kick.

When I kicked a centaur corpse, I saw ropes and tackle that were not meant for warfare but for leading livestock, which only added to the confusion.

'Were they trying to raid a ranch?'

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

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

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

"Wait. There’s still one left."

I noticed one centaur lingering on the outskirts as I kicked Dane's back, who was busy cooling down his mana shield generator.

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

If the other centaurs 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 can’t go back until 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 coming, he reattached his mana shield generator, now covered in sand, and stood at the ready while I analyzed the scout's appearance from behind him.

'Certainly smaller than the centaurs who attacked us earlier. Its height is similar to mine...'

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

The voice of the centaur running from a distance reached us much later and was distinctly different from the gruff voices of the other centaurs—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 centaurs.

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

The centaur girl was panting 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 contacted the ranchers a while back to ask for protection from a band of thieves... isn’t that why you’re here?"

This was news to us.

"Uh...? I thought... the last 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 typical of mercenaries 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 was approved, this place would be considered 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 can’t be, we gathered all the valuables from our village and trusted them to Bob... he definitely said he was going to the capital to bring back knights..."

'100% a scam?'

"You’ve been scammed. Who else would scam a centaur village if not?"

Dane's tactless remark almost made the centaur 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 centaur village and the ranch, stealing horses?"

"Yes. They’re really vile."

"That’s just evil!"

Dane, already moved by the crying centaur girl, seemed to be signaling me to agree to help defend her village.

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

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

If we listened to this centaur girl's story.

The centaur thieves were criminals.

And they supposedly had horses.

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