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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue
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Even the weeds sprouting finely across the ground, the bushes growing sparsely here and there, and the massive trees stretching out thickly—all were twisted into a land of death.
Racing across the dead, ashen soil were beasts forged from metal.
Four legs tipped with razor-sharp claws, thick and sturdy necks lined with serrated teeth like saw blades, bizarre lifeforms made entirely of metal from head to tail.
They were called Jin.
Riding atop them were other beasts.
A race that shielded their fragile flesh with cloth, leather, and metal.
Lacking natural sharp claws on their hands and feet, they wielded metal instead—melted down, twisted, and honed to a lethal edge.
Unlike the mounts carrying them, these were beings with warm blood coursing through their veins.
They were humans, and among them, known as knights.
"Veer left!"
"I'll draw its attention—hit it from that side!"
What the knights had surrounded was a creature called a magic beast.
One of the greatest threats to humanity in this fallen world.
Beings said to have been crafted by wicked mages.
The magic beast they sought to fell, Knife Tail, resembled a cat.
Had it not been for its four eyes, three tails ending in blades, spines bristling across its entire body, and a shoulder height reaching three meters, someone might have called it catlike.
A deafening roar erupted—one that would rupture the eardrums of any ordinary human—as Knife Tail lashed out with its tails.
The Jin carrying a knight leaped sideways in an instant, dodging the strike.
Linked mentally to the knight it bore, the creature could draw directly on the rider's razor-sharp reflexes.
"Thrust!"
Long spears jabbed by several knights sank into Knife Tail's flank.
But they snagged on the protruding spines, failing to land a solid blow.
With rigid spines covering its body, Knife Tail demanded strikes at vital spots like the eyes, mouth, or anus for a killing wound.
The front guarded by heavy catlike punches and the rear by bladed tails made such targets daunting even for the stouthearted.
In the end, ordinary knights stuck to the safe method: repeated stabs to the sides to force fatal blood loss.
But some dared to gamble.
"Here I go!"
"Arsen, you mad bastard!"
One knight broke formation, charging straight for Knife Tail's rear.
The three tails—until then warily covering the flanks and rear—now thrust toward the knight targeting its hindquarters.
Unlike carnivores with eyes clustered forward for frontal vision, Knife Tail had an extra pair set near what would be a human's temples, granting it a far wider field of view.
The other knights circling nearby envisioned the charging knight being shredded in seconds.
"GRRAAAAAH!"
Roaring ferociously as it lunged, the knight thrust out the shield in his left hand against the incoming blades.
He batted away the first with a swipe like a backhand slap, deflected the second by twisting aside, and for the third, dropped his Jin to its knees while arching his spine backward to evade.
No sane knight, no matter how sharp their reflexes, would attempt such a feat.
The instant the blades passed, the knight—still on one knee—propelled his Jin forward with a springing leap from all four legs.
He had reached Knife Tail's rump.
Without hesitation, he drove his four-meter lance straight into the creature's plump rear.
An unearthly scream of agony—far surpassing its earlier roar—burst from Knife Tail's maw.
The knight who had thrust the spear crouched low, scrambling clear of the wildly flailing tails.
Then his shout made every knight flinch and swiftly dismount their Jin, ducking behind them.
"It's gonna blow!"
A thunderous rumble echoed from within, and chunks of the magic beast's flesh and blood rained down everywhere.
The other knights had all sheltered behind their Jin, so only the one who had stabbed got drenched in the beast's oily, black, sticky gore.
The gore-soaked knight removed his helmet and shook out his hair. The others approached, speaking up as they went, each likewise doffing their helmets to cool off after the hunt's adrenaline rush.
"You're insane, Arsen."
"Got a problem with that?"
"Of course not—the highest praise! Never seen anyone take down a Knife Tail like that in my life."
Another knight cut in beside the speaker.
"No kidding you'd never seen it. Takes hours for most folks to bag one. Who the hell shoves an explosive lance up its ass and blows it?"
"Watch your language, make it classy. What's this 'ass' business?"
The knights bantered loudly and cheerfully as they turned their steps toward the castle.