I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 535: Terror of the Deep Forest 5

The snake-head shaped tail in my grasp glared at me, then raised its spines as high as it could. But mere pointed barbs had no chance of penetrating skin that had been hardened to the extreme through mana—it wasn't even a mana-infused attack.

The problem came right after.

"This bastard's tail isn't a snake's tail, it's a lizard's?!"

This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.

When the spines failed to pierce and instead broke off, the creature's tail detached from its body without a moment's hesitation.

I'd thought it was some knockoff chimera with a lion's head and snake's tail, but turns out it had a fang tiger's head and a spiny lizard's tail. Just like how a lizard drops its tail to escape, the connection between body and tail cleanly severed.

The annoying snake-like head in my hand hissed mockingly as it sprayed poison, while the body that had been halfway pulled out of the ground quickly burrowed back into the shadows.

"I-I did excavate the ground!"

-Instant emergency escape as soon as it's caught LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

-So it wasn't a snake but a lizard? That clean break is fucking hilarious LOLOLOLOLOL

-Stop lying who the hell would create a named monster that carries lizards on its ass

-Look at the Teacher's expression LOLOLOLOLOLOL Getting mocked by a tail piece with a frozen face LOLOL

-Does the tail die when you kill it? Or are the body and tail separate mobs? Is this some parasite-type monster?

Han Se-ah probably hadn't expected it to detach its tail and flee the moment it was caught. And she certainly didn't expect that severed tail to mock us and spray poison.

I couldn't let go of the tail piece in my hand since I had no idea where it might spray its poison, so I held my breath and squeezed tighter. Since the poison was meant to be sprayed into food, getting a little on my skin probably wouldn't cause poisoning. After all, ingested poison, blood poison, and contact poison are all different things.

As if confirming my theory, the tail went crunch in my grip. The transparent poison mist it released swirled around my wrist and arm, but I still didn't get poisoned.

"This bastard has no weak points!"

"Katie! Can you freeze it?!"

All that remained was the main body, which couldn't burrow into the shadows due to the suddenly missing ground, and was now fleeing while being shot by Grace's alchemical arrows.

The creature began running through the forest with something like a glowing flare attached between its front legs and chest, apparently to prevent it from hiding in shadows. If it had been a normal beast, an arrow at that angle would have pierced its lungs or heart, but it seemed perfectly fine—suggesting "shadow" in "shadow fang tiger" had a dual meaning.

Unable to hide in shadows thanks to its brightly glowing body, it fled in panic. Katie and Grace jumped up from their positions, seeing it literally running with its rear end missing.

Stripped of their leather armor and family armor, wearing only light shirts as they charged through the dark forest, they presented a beautiful sight worthy of being called forest fairies.

"Damn it, I shot its legs but it's still running?"

"It won't freeze! We need to catch it directly!"

But the shouting and chaos that followed were anything but beautiful.

It detached its tail to escape, could hide in shadows, was partially made of shadow making it immune to various debuffs... If our party represented the pinnacle of player disgust, this creature embodied the pinnacle of monster disgust.

Stealth, ambush, poisoning, healing prevention, immediate flight when combat starts, debuff immunity, and super armor on a named monster? The game designer who created this couldn't be human—more like a demon who crawled up from hell to punish gamers.

Despite being shot in the heart and lungs, the shadow fang tiger began to flee. Grace hurriedly aimed for its legs, but even with an arrow in its joint and blue aura wrapping around its ankle, the beast continued running without concern.

And so began the forest chase.

"I can't believe this thing! It breaks through my earth walls, keeps running with arrows stuck in it, and won't even freeze!"

-Pure racing skill required to catch it LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

-You've had it too easy until now, that's why they're grinding their teeth and throwing this shit at you LOLOLOLOLOL

-It doesn't even flinch when hit? And it can't be frozen either?

-No joke, looks like they want a pure speed battle? They're suggesting a forest racing showdown

-This is teaching you that proper hunting requires setting traps and creating a cordon instead of just rushing in—truly an educational broadcast sob

[Man Vs Elf Day 1 donated 30,000 won!]

[Would've been 100,000 if you'd done a somersault but too bad]

It doesn't flinch when hit by arrows

It doesn't slow down when hit with freezing aura

It passes through shadow when obstacles are created

Han Se-ah, who nearly tripped over tree roots while running in panic, ground her teeth as she shouted, but the viewers showed no sympathy. Amidst their mockery, ridicule, and "financial therapy," I overtook Han Se-ah and joined the chase.

※

The seemingly endless pursuit, with no clear solution in sight, ended surprisingly easily and anticlimactically.

"...What the hell is with this thing?"

"Um, huff, ha, I think it's surrendering?"

"Hoo, hoo— If it was going to do this, should've done it sooner..."

The shadow fang tiger, which had earned the title of "That Long One" beyond just "stealth whatever," was sprawled on the ground with its tongue hanging out.

From the forest fairies' descriptions, it had seemed like an utterly vicious beast, but now it was lying on its back like a pet dog caught stealing food, trying to wag its... tail, but since it was missing, just wiggling its rear end. Our companions' expressions twisted as they caught their breath from the desperate chase.

Grace, with her nimble movements, was relatively fine, but Han Se-ah and Irene had gotten quite dirty from frantically following us, scratched and tumbled around.

While Han Se-ah removed leaves tangled in her hair, using the broadcast screen as a mirror after viewers pointed them out, Katie supported the wheezing, panting Irene and poked the shadow fang tiger with her toe. Despite being able to bite her in her unarmored state, it just cowered obediently.

Instead, it made cute whimpering noises as if exaggerating its condition, prompting our party members to gather around and consider what to do.

"So what now?"

"What do you mean? Weren't we going to kill it?"

"I'm not saying we should spare it because it's cute. If it knows the difference in our strength and is being this docile... shouldn't we just capture it alive and hand it over to the Magic Tower?"

Being an assassin with stealth, healing prevention, and all those long characteristics apparently meant its stamina was rock-bottom. It was ridiculous that a wild beast couldn't maintain a full sprint for even three minutes and collapsed before the priest did, but there it was, lying belly-up in front of us.

When Grace vindictively poked its side with her toe, it went beyond exaggeration to downright cuteness, shattering all my expectations.

...Wasn't the goal to hunt the named monster and collect all the badges? Or maybe we were supposed to capture the named monster and use it to find the "fragrance" mentioned in the quest log. With such complicated thoughts, I looked down at it, and its bright round eyes looked back up at me.

Whine, keeeeng—

Though larger than a person with intimidating fangs as thick as a human's forearm, it couldn't exactly be called cute. As I stared at it, a thought suddenly struck me.

Doesn't a fang tiger have two fangs?

"Grace?"

"What is it, Roland?"

"This creature's fangs—they don't look like they just grew back, do they?"

And what we received from the dead adventurer was also a fang. No matter how many buffs this "Long One" had, it couldn't possibly have regenerative abilities powerful enough to regrow a human forearm-sized fang in just two days.

At my words, my companions examined the fang tiger's mouth from various angles as it lay sprawled on the ground. Despite their small, delicate fingers rummaging through its muzzle, the creature maintained its innocent expression desperately.

It remained obedient even as they poked around its muzzle like they were pinching cheeks. Thanks to this, we could confirm that both fangs had grown long ago—they were a dirty pair.

...This bastard isn't the one that killed people by biting them.

"Well, um, should we take this one to the Magic Tower?"

"Let's do that. But do they have any capture frames big enough for this thing? Otherwise we could just kill it."

"Should we tie a rope around its neck? Since its tail has fallen off, it seems like it would be safe if we just tie its muzzle."

Realizing we'd been chasing the wrong creature, my dispirited companions leaned against dirt mounds and tree trunks they'd used as obstacles and began discussing what to do.

Han Se-ah seemed to be thinking about capturing it alive for the quest reward, while Grace was considering disposing of it as a monster and beast. Irene's heart had softened after learning that the creature we'd caught wasn't the one that had killed people.

...This is too annoying to think about. Should I just pull out its fangs and carry it at my side?

Somehow we caught it but there was no log update, damn it.

Enjoy the chappy!