The first taurus (the singular of tauri) came over the horizon at a distance of about 200 meters. The damn thing filled my whole scope, even at this range.

“Christ, that thing’s huge,” I murmured. 

It was a cow, alright. Big-ass horns, longhorn style, four legs, stupid bovine face. The only real differences between it and a normal cow were the size and the evil looking fangs protruding from its mouth. It was half again the size of a normal cow, and its whole face was covered in what looked like blood. 

“Are those things meat eaters?” I asked. 

“Yes,” Hani confirmed. “That’s their curse. They wander the plains, looking for what meat they can find. If they don’t stumble across a village or a herd of normal cows every few days, the herd will devour itself.”

“And this happens naturally?” I asked, incredulous. 

“There was a war here, several centuries ago. It left the land tainted with dark magic in places. The plains are so vast, it’s hard to find them all, so occasionally a herd of wild cattle will stumble across one of the dark places. Happens to other beasts as well.”

“That’s mildly horrific,” I said. “Can we at least eat the damn things?”

“Oh yes. The meat is delicious, and the blood, skin, bones, and organs have valuable magical properties. Since deliberately creating tauri is a capital offense, wild ones are highly prized prey when they can be found. I suspect this herd would have been hunted, even if it didn’t threaten the town.”

“Good enough for me,” I said. 

I had the free floating handguard of my rifle resting on the windowsill. I lined up my crosshairs on the cow’s chest, right where the heart and lungs would be on a normal one, and stroked the trigger. 

Hani jumped as the rifle coughed. With the Surefire suppressor installed, the report was less like a normal gunshot and more like a muted thump. It was far quieter than any unsuppressed rifle, but still loud enough to be startling to the uninitiated. 

I kept my eye on the target as the bullet traveled downrange. At 200 meters, it took barely a fraction of a second. Suddenly, a fist-sized hole sprouted in the taurus’s chest. The beast mooed once, confused, and dropped in a boneless heap. 

“Well damn,” I said. 

“Is something wrong?” Hani asked. 

“Not really. It’s just, that hit way harder than it’s supposed to,” I said. 

“Did no one tell you? The weapons of the Knights are blessed by the Goddess. They’re far more effective than any merely mundane weapon,” Hani said. 

That was cause for some concern. Depending on how the Goddess amplified my rifle’s effectiveness, I could very well be holding a grenade. The easiest way to increase a bullet’s power was to increase the pressure behind it in the chamber. Too much pressure, however, and the whole thing could explode. That was an absolute worst case scenario; the gas tube was far more likely to blow out first, but I’ve seen hot rounds cook off in AR style weapons before. 

I didn’t have time to worry about safety, though. No sooner had the words left Hani’s mouth than the whole horizon was suddenly full of evil-looking cows. I swear to god, the bastards just stood there, posing. I took just enough time to scribble three words in my notebook: rifle blessed how?

“There’s gotta be thousands of them,” I said.

“I should imagine so,” Hani said. “The largest herds of cows number in the tens of thousands. There’s a reason these plains are largely uninhabited. The deserts across the mountains are far safer, even if they’re more arid. No one in a desert has ever had their home trampled by a stampeding herd of carnivorous cattle.”

“So why the hell are we here?” I asked. 

“The dungeon,” Hani said. “It’s profitable enough that adventurers are willing to delve into it, and where there are adventurers, there’s profit enough to risk just about anything. Most dungeons have their own towns, and lots of them are in worse places than this.”

“Eh, fair enough. So, uh, are they just gonna stand there?” I asked. 

“Tauri prefer meat from scared prey. It’s a show of force.”

“Yeah, that’s gonna backfire,” I said. 

I turned back to my rifle. There were so many of the things, I barely had to aim. I just lined up on the first taurus I saw and stroked the trigger.