Ch.209Putri’s Stage (13)

# 209. Putri’s Stage (13)

“Whoa, this is really creepy.”

“Is it because the forest is too dense?”

“Clearing this place alone seems pretty intense. I guess it was good we came to meet up like Subin said?”

The six dwarves, tools in hand, were moving through the forest in a tight group. At first, they thought they wouldn’t be able to leave the vicinity of the house at all, but that wasn’t the case. Second, they thought some kind of penalty would be applied when entering the forest, like how the fake couldn’t be revived, but that wasn’t true either.

So after crossing the forest boundary, they moved forward confidently, but the atmosphere was more eerie than expected, so they abandoned the idea of moving separately.

How eerie was it? Enough to instinctively feel that if they prioritized efficiency and split up, they might get picked off one by one or lose their way.

“If we were elves instead of dwarves, we’d probably be zipping around finding everything by now, right?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, I’ve adapted, but still. This body is something else.”

The grass growing up to eye level was extremely annoying. In their original bodies, it would have reached their waist or at most just below their chest, but now it completely blocked their vision, which was frustrating. To make matters worse, they were carrying shovels, pickaxes, and hammers, so they couldn’t even cut it down.

“This kind of environment seems good for hiding, at least.”

“Unnie. Animal sense of smell is incredibly sharp.”

“I know that. But it’s still much better than being out in the open.”

They weren’t in the best physical condition either. Apart from brief rests after trapping the fake under a pile of furniture and after burying the fake’s corpse, they hadn’t properly rested.

But no one was complaining about being weak. Occasional groans could be heard, but since everyone knew these were just reflexive sounds from exhaustion, no one bothered to point them out.

And honestly, while it was tough, this level of difficulty didn’t even rank in their top three hardest experiences.

Physical labor in a male dwarf’s body?

Compared to fighting demons, this was nothing.

“We need to track, we need to track.”

“Animals? Or Snow White?”

“Animals.”

“Huh? Weren’t we going to meet up with Sunghyun?”

In response to Yehyun’s question, Subin gritted her teeth, flexed her arms to climb onto a boulder as tall as herself, and answered.

“If it’s Sunghyun, he’ll be moving in a way that leaves minimal traces. Hiding, moving, that sort of thing. So we either track animal herds to follow them or deal with any predators we encounter.”

“Huh? Predators? Can we handle those?”

“Who knows. This area was originally meant for Snow White. Snow White could never defeat predators even if she died and came back to life. But we’re not Snow White, are we?”

Subin, scanning the surroundings from atop the boulder, clicked her tongue and jumped down.

“Unnie, did you see something?”

“No. Unless we climb to the treetops, we shouldn’t expect much in terms of visibility. Let’s go.”

“Trees… can’t we climb them?”

“You’re not serious, are you?”

“Haha…”

Seyeon scratched her head. The trees looked at least 15 meters tall, and the dwarves’ bodies weren’t equipped with tree-climbing skills, not to mention there were no safety measures. Of course, there were smaller trees too, but the forest was so dense that climbing those would be meaningless.

“I should have watched more animal documentaries or survival programs.”

“Even if we don’t know about predators, animal herds of various species moving in groups can’t help but leave traces. Let’s look carefully.”

The dwarves pushed through plants that kept poking and cutting their faces and annoying insects as they ventured deeper into the forest.

Then, as always, Yuri, who was leading the way, heard a chilling howl and signaled everyone to stop.

“Yuri? What is it?”

“Everyone, shh. Listen. Can’t you hear it?”

At Yuri’s words, the dwarves stopped in their tracks. They couldn’t hear anything, even cupping their hands to their ears, but still heard nothing.

So Subin asked which direction the sound was coming from, and they moved in the direction Yuri pointed, continuing to focus on listening.

Eventually, the others could hear it too, and as they got closer, they could guess what it was.

“Predator. It’s a predator.”

“What should we do? According to plan?”

“According to plan. We have to catch it. Then we can completely remove Snow White’s risk.”

Having identified the source of the sound, they quickly moved toward it, and the predator, seemingly having noticed their approach long ago, was also moving toward them.

“Holy shit, it’s huge.”

“Everyone, get ready.”

Grrrr-

As the dwarves advanced toward the predator, they spotted a group of animals fleeing in all directions. Whether the predator had unfortunately encountered the animal group while approaching the dwarves, or had been chasing the animals before turning toward the dwarves was unclear… but the predator was enormous.

A tiger.

The predator was a tiger.

It already had a large build, but it looked even bigger to the short dwarves. The tiger stopped walking and eyed the dwarves warily as they held their tools out in front, but the dwarves were even more cautious.

“Think of it as a raid. Got it?”

“Damn… my body keeps trembling involuntarily every time that thing growls. What do I do?”

“No healing, no magic. One mistake could be fatal.”

At Subin’s whisper, everyone’s throats tightened. Their hands gripped their tools firmly.

“Formation similar to usual. But never show your back. Since Sunghyun isn’t here, call out loudly when the raid starts.”

“Hoo, hoo, hoo.”

The dwarves carefully formed their formation without taking their eyes off the tiger. As they continued to watch and assess each other, Subin, thinking that the tension was becoming too intense and prolonged, threw a stone.

Of course, the tiger wasn’t a pushover.

The tiger easily dodged and roared. The deafening sound dominated the surroundings. It was a declaration of war, signaling the end of the standoff and the beginning of combat. As soon as the roar ended, the tiger pounced on a dwarf with surprising agility for its size.

The target was Seyeon, who held a wooden shield hastily made from furniture.

“Seyeon!”

“I’m okay!”

Instinctively realizing that trying to block head-on would be suicidal given the tiger’s size and speed, Seyeon didn’t block but rolled away half a beat faster. And she realized her judgment was correct. The tiger had barely missed her by a hair’s breadth.

Dodging after seeing it was impossible.

Blocking it head-on was even more impossible, and if forced to block, one would have to be prepared to sacrifice an arm and use technique to deflect it as much as possible.

The tiger didn’t give any time to regroup. Having ended up pouncing on empty air, the tiger, seemingly angered, lunged at Seyeon again, and Seyeon once more rolled away toward an area clear of her companions.

At a glance, it might have seemed like she was just desperately dodging without doing anything, but the dwarves weren’t ordinary dwarves—they were veteran raiders.

The remaining five, recognizing that the “aggro” had been perfectly drawn, firmly gripped their tools, admiring Seyeon’s skill in drawing aggro and securing both safe distance and damage positioning.

“We won’t get many chances.”

“Okay. We need to time it right.”

“Yuri, you call the timing.”

“Me?”

“You have the best sense here.”

The coordination was instantaneous. No matter how divine Seyeon’s dodging was, it couldn’t last forever.

Yuri’s shoulders tensed as she temporarily became the raid leader. Seeing this, Subin told her to stay calm, which briefly relaxed her before her shoulders tensed up again.

But no one touched her shoulders. That tension meant Yuri had entered a state of extreme focus.

And so, as Seyeon’s clothes were reduced to rags and the wooden shield, slightly grazed by the tiger’s front paw, was half-destroyed with fragments flying everywhere…

“NOW!!!”

Grrrrrraaaarrrrgh!!!

Right after the tiger’s attack.

Though it had merely grazed the shield, it was the tiger’s first effective hit, and because of it, wood fragments and dust flew near the tiger’s eyes.

Despite the half-destroyed shield, Seyeon continued banging it to draw aggro within the tiger’s field of vision, and the location was perfect for the other dwarves to launch their attack after circling around.

The coordinated operation of six veteran high-rankers couldn’t be stopped even by forced TS and deteriorated physical conditions.

Just once.

The tiger had just grazed Seyeon’s shield once, but the single attack it allowed in return didn’t end with just one strike.

Starting with Yuri’s pickaxe striking hard at the tiger’s side, Arang drove a chisel deep into the wound, and immediately after, Subin hammered the chisel.

As the tiger howled from the flawless combo attack that instantly pierced its side, Soyu’s shovel struck again where the chisel had penetrated, and almost simultaneously, Yehyun’s shovel hit the tiger’s head.

As the tiger staggered, Seyeon took advantage of the opening to completely throw off the tiger’s posture with a body slam, and Yuri jumped on the tiger, using her whole body to strangle its neck. Soon the other dwarves joined in…

Thud-

It took only a few minutes for the tiger to collapse with its eyes rolled back.

“We won!!!”

“Is everyone okay?!”

“YEEEESSS!!!!”

It was not the tiger’s roar but the dwarves’ cheers that echoed through the forest.